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 | Cinderella Castle at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Orlando, FL January 5, 2006 |
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« "The Office" | Main | No More Pencils, No More Books » May 31, 2005Cedar Point? Maybe In '06As most of my friends know, I'm a roller-coaster maniac. Last year, following the conclusion of my Microsoft internship, I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles and screamed my lungs out. It was wonderful. It's not exactly coaster country up here in Seattle. I mean, we have Silverwood (with two excellent coasters) and Enchanted Village (with one OK coaster), but that's about it. (No, the little coaster we have at the Seattle Center doesn't count.) And pretty much all year, I've been thinking how much fun it would be to do it again. If you're a coaster person, the two places you want to go are Magic Mountain (obviously) and Cedar Point, which is in Ohio. These two parks have been in a long-running contest to see who can offer the biggest, the fastest or the most coasters. To give you a sense of what I'm talking about, check out this list of what Cedar Point is offering (and these are just the coasters):
I had planned to visit Cedar Point this summer as a graduation present to myself. Sadly, that's not gonna happen. Ultimately, everything boiled down to economics and cost/benfit trade-offs (hey, I'm an MBA, right?). I found out that I couldn't use my air miles to get to Cleveland, which meant tickets, at $630 per person, suddenly entered the picture. Hotel for three nights ($500), admission to the parks for two days ($130), rental car, food, commemorative T-shirt ... well, suddenly I'm looking at $1500 to go to Ohio for two days in mid-July and wait in lines. By myself. It's just not worth it. (I mean, crap, you can go to Europe for a week on that kind of money!) I'm sad, of course, but I learned my lesson at Magic Mountain last year. I got there right after Labor Day, and the place was deserted. School had just started, so I had run of the park. I was able to get on every coaster they had in a single day. Compare-and-contrast that with the (non)appeal of two-hour-plus lines in July heat, and, well, I'd wager I'll be at Cedar Point on or around September 6, 2006. In the meantime, I still need to get a coaster fix this summer (and I'm already hitting Silverwood in late July, when I'm out in Idaho for Chris' wedding). Suggestions? Posted by Gavin Shearer at May 31, 2005 9:31 AM. Posted to Travel. |