FIRST Cedar Point Gathering?
 

Well, the idea was brought up in the "Six Flags" thread, so I thought I'd make an official thread... who would be interested in some sort of FIRST get-together at Cedar Point in beautiul Sandusky, Ohio? No idea on timing, but it would be sometime over the summer, and any Midwest FIRSTers would be invited (I suppose you could come from farther away if you really wanted too, though). Just think, a chance to meet some of your favorite CD personalities in a quality amusement park! If we can get enough people on board, we might be able to get some sort of group rate. Let's hear it if you're interested.

Aha, I remember living in Cleveland, Ohio... great place.

I don't particularly like roller coasters. Just a few at Cedar Point even though there's so many.

I remember a grasshopper ride or something which was standup and also had bumps/cracks in the rail which scared the crap out of you. That was good.

Depending on when it is I would be interested in doing it.

I'm in. Heights are fun

Well, do you have a suggestion for a day? If anyone has any suggestions for when to do this, say something.

Mid to Late July

That's Mantis, and there are no cracks. :P

...as for the get together. It's 8 hours away, and I don't even like Cedar Point that much, but who knows...maybe I'll be there.

Ya i would like to go. and yes i do live in ft. Lauderdale but I will be going in and out of pittsburgh all summer, so if we get a date i will set a date when i am going to pitt to come.

Well, just let us know what your plans are, and maybe we can accomodate you. No guarantees, but it's something to consider.

depending on when it is, chances are that you will see me there...I planned on a Cedar Point trip this summer anyway

oOo. great idea! i never been to cedar point. but, im willing to give up a two-day trip there. =)

my son and I goto cedar point every summer for a couple days. Bring the coleman camper and stay right in the park - its super!

I dont think there would be much point in having a FIRST day at cedar point, there would not be much to do with other FIRST people except say, what team where you on? how did you do? thats cool.

howabout, instead, wherever you go this summer, wear your FIRST shirt, or your team shirt - maybe we can make a contest out of it - How many FIRST people can you link up with over the summer (by random chance)

its also a great way to spread the 'mission' of FIRST - someone asks you what your shirt is from, you get to tell them about one of the coolests things in the world. you might be the seed that sparks a new team next fall!

Depends if I'm at Disney or in Cleveland durring my annual Summer trip up. If it's durring late July, then I could very possably be there!

Can't wait for ---\/

Well, just from current responses, I'm thinking some time in late July sounds like a decent idea. What does eveyone think about that? I would say probably after IRI (Jul. 18-19), so some time in the last two weeks of July.

sounds like a road trip then

CEDAR POINT!!!
 

OMGosh!!! My family went out to Ohio last year and we went to Cedar Point, it is possibly one of the best times of my life!!
I would give ANYTHING to go back and let's see if i can convince some people on my team to go.........

If I can road trip, I'll road trip. :-)

I've been needing to go to Cedar Point for about the last eight years. I've ridden the coasters at SFOG too many times now. (Though I haven't ridden Deja Vu-- I'm sure PKI's Invertigo is way beetter-- and I haven't ridden Superman: Ultimate Flight-- but I will this Friday.) I know almost all of them by heart. And I'm going to miss the viper...

I was considering road tripping up to OH to go back and visit PKI and stop in at Cedar Point anyways, so if I can be there, I'll be there. (The Beast is my favorite coaster of all time!)

You're going, I need a ride :D

Seriously give us a date and I'll try to bully him in to going.

Okay... very VERY preliminary plans here... as it's only the first day after I made the announcement. As of right now, we're looking at a weekday in the last two weeks of July. I'm open to suggestions on exact days, but it will be some time either July 21-25 or July 28-August 1.

Now, some other things: do we want to try and set this up as an actual group event, or just have everybody show up and meet somewhere at a specific time? If we book it as a group, the tickets are $31 apiece, as opposed to $43.95 for a standard one-day admission. In order to do this, though, I would need firm numbers at least a month in advance. Payment would also be an issue. The question is, how many people would be going, and is it worth the time and aggravation to try and book a group?

One caveat, though: I'll organize this if it just involves setting a date and meeting place. I won't handle money, though. First off, I'm only 17. Second, I've been left holding the bag too many times when people haven't paid me for trivial things like t-shirts. I'm not going to try to collect $31 from people I've never met that live 500+ miles away. It's too much.

An interesting side note, though... walk up groups of 15 or more can get a slightly discounted $36 rate. This may be the way to go. What do you think?

Set a meeting place and time. This would be the best IMHO. I can't guarantee I can come, so just a meeting place and a 'try to find as many FIRST people as possable' contest might be cool!

The meet could be at the end of the day. People will get other teams to sign off on a sheet and the person with the most will get a prize!

Sweet man, you know what you're talking about! I love living 20 minutes from King's Island, and man I don't wanna know how many times I've ridden the Beast! Has to be over 100... can't go a year without getting season passes to that place. I might be able to check out Cedar Point if you guys go, I have never been there before :)

I'm game to go, if I can. Thoes dates seem perfect for me!

The discounted ticket at the gate seems like the best deal!!

If there is a CP get-together, mabey there should be a get together for FIRST teams at Paramount Kings Dominion in Roswell, VA! Hypersonic, Volcano, Anaconda, and Flight of Fear!

If you goto Cedar Point stop at Tops (local area supermarket) and get discounted tickets there

you save something like 20% off the gate price

Joe, I like the sound of a Kings Dominion FIRST get-together. That would be fun, and I know some people at the park, I'm not sure if they still work there, but they are the high management people. If I can get into contact with them, I might be able to arrange a FIRST Day kind of thing, just like the BET Day that happened last week. BET Day was a day when only people from BET Productions could get into the park, and it was a day for just them, and in the evening they had a huge concert, don't know how much money it would be, but it would be fun. But the catch is that we would have to get a ton of people to go, so we would have to have a registry, and you would have to pay in advance, and you would have to kick back some cash if you wanted to have a concert. But if we didn't have a concert, we could do some sort of off-season competition with robots from previous years and such.

To the comment about the Six-Flags coaster Deja Vu, it was still in the expirimental stages when I rode it as Six-Flags over Georgia. They had the speed really turned down from what it is now, mainly because they didn't know how fast they could run it without it flying of of the return incline. The rumor is that when first built, Six-Flags over Georgia lost 2 trains by shooting them off of the return incline. But it was an insane coaster to say the least.

Mr. Ivey

Team 1037 is in
 

Hey Jeff,

Why not a weekday, say 28, 29 or 30th of July (Mon, tues, or Wed). That is the week after IRI. Weekdays are not as crowded.

Why not just proclaim one or two of these days (unofficially) FIRST day at Cedar Point.
.
If people have to work during the week, perhaps they can make arrangements far in advance to have one of these days off.

We could arrange to meet a couple times during the day at certain places and times, just to say hi or join up with each other. We could even plan to have lunch together.

How about this.....everyone MUST wear their team shirts!:cool:


And HEY!!! don't forget to bring your coaches and engineers, too! Old people still love to ride the coasters!

That would be the plan. I think I'll put up a poll for the date in a few days, after everyone has had a chance to read this thread. Essentially, I think it's just going to be a "meet there" kind of thing, and any FIRST students or mentors are welcome to show up. Team shirts defnitely sound like a good idea, though... it'll help us know who's who.

I'm in!
 

Just look at my avatar!!!!

I'll need to see what I can do about getting out there, but I'm definitely going to try since I missed the last one. If I can convince some Wildstangers to go, they could pick me up on the way (wink wink, nudge nudge). My suggestion....if you go for two days (which with the lines for Dragster and Millennium Force..), you save a whole ton of money (one day is $45 i think, two days is $56...or something rediculously low like that!), but then you have to get a hotel...but most people will probably get one anyway, since a good deal of people are more than a couple hours away. The date sounds good to me. Maybe if I go with my friends as we have been talking about, I'll just pick up a season pass instead.

Also, I'm working on organizing a trip to Six Flags Great America north of Chicago. Don't know when...maybe earlier since July is getting busy. I'll talk to some people and put up a thread by the end of the week hopefully.

Kev

Why don't you set up a time to meet in the morning (like between 9 and 10) and a place somewhere outside the gate to meet, then once you get 15 people from random teams they can go get the $36 rate

Re: Team 1037 is in
 

:mad:Old people!?!?!?!?!?!? For your information, not all of the engineers/mentors are old! And yes, many of us still do enjoy the thrills of the roller-coasters at Cedar Point, America's Roller Coast.

Sounds like fun! I'm thinking that almost all of 1037 will be there...woohoo!:D

why not make it the day after IRI so all people who are traveling there could just stay an extra day and then all go to the park

Well, we could, but Cedar Point is several hours from Indianapolis. Sandusky is all the way up in the northeast part of Ohio, up towards Michigan. Plus, weekends at Cedar Point in the summer can be absolutely a mess.

Its roughly 6-ish hours from Indianapolis to Sandusky. That also includes the hour lost from central to eastern time. Actually midweek sometime would actually be better than a weekend.

That's my thoughts, too. You don't want to go to Cedar Point on a July weekend. It's bad enough during the week. You don't even want to see it on a peak weekend...

So, I'm going to open the floor for discussion on dates. What do you guys prefer? If we can narrow it down to a few choices, I'll throw up a poll. Right now, we're looking at a weekday either July 21-25, or July 28-Aug 1. Suggestions or comments?

A weekend would be nuts at that place at the end of July.

Sadly, weekends are the only time I could make it down (I work Mon-Fri). I suspect lots of people might encounter this problem.

Well, after IRI would be good, especially for people travelling far anyway. Why not go farther?

If any native Hoosiers want to carpool, FIRST road trips are the best. I'm game. :)

Saturdays/Sundays bad...weekends good... right after IRI bad...later in week good....
 

I would prefer that IRI and Cedar Point NOT take place during the same field trip. It would be hard to get our picnic stuff ready.

If you haven't, yet, go here to vote on the week you want the Cedar Point trip to be.

yay! I think it's a good idea =)

Having the IRI and Cedar Point in the same week would be kind of exhausting and since Cedar Point is so busy in the summer too!:ahh:

I think Tuesday is the least busiest day at cedar point...im in for the trip...me and erin (norhteastern) were just talking about cedar point this past weekend...she has never been and i told her how awesome it is....im down for the trip!:D
i cant wait to ride that new ride!

July 25th and after I'm going to be in Cleveland durring the summer. Before, I'm not going to be at Disney. But I went July 3rd last year and found that the head was unbarable and I nearly passed out. I would IMHO say that late July is the best, but whatever works for the majority of the group...

Hmmm... yea I'm up for the trip!

I LOVE ROLLERCOASTERS!

If I could get out of work for the day (or two?) I would be able to fly in if it's a weekday

but of course... weekends are easier for me


ByE

erin

Well... right now, the week of July 28-Aug 1 is winning the poll, albeit narrowly. If you haven't voted yet, go to this thread and make your vote known. Please vote only if you're interested in the event.

I'm up for it.....
 

You'd have to fly to Cleveland and then drive the hour or so to Sandusky.

Hotel rooms in Sandusky are pretty cheap, usually. I spent two nights there in 2001.

You don't want to go to Cedar Point on a weekend.

lodging
 

I went a few years ago and stayed at a place the rented cabins about 10-15min form the park and I think they were reasonably priced and fit 6 to 8 people.

I agree, weekdays would be better (it wouldn't be worth going at all if we had to wait in lines all day, I want ROLLERCOASTERS!)

what I'd do is fly into Clevelend the day before, right after work (Bradley airport is right across the street... literally), then hopefully be able to crash on one of my friend's couches for the night :

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=20511

then I'd probably overnight a flight back or something like that... I'm very accostomed to bootleg traveling, I do it nearly every weekend, haha


ByE

erin

I have to figure out why you can afford to fly from Bradley Int'l to Cleveland, but I have to drive 8.5 hours to get to Sandusky. Maybe it'd be cheaper to drive to Hartford :)

That is a good question... how can I afford to fly to Cleveland?

Well now that I have looked on expedia for flight times and rates... here's what I suggest, I think I should only be making one trip to the midwest this year (I'm not that rich... tho I wish I was)

my thought is:

Lets make the Cedar point trip the wednesday before IRI!!

OK, lets see how this idea flies...


ByE

erin

I like your thinking Jeff. Cedar Point is a great idea and we would get to see all of our buddys that we miss so dearly.

Well I live only an hour south of Sandusky, in beautiful Columbus. Here are a few tips should we actually pull this off:
Traveler's tips:

-Keep shoes at all times: All of cedar point is on pavement or wood, both of which heat exceptionally well. There are some sweet water rides, so its good to have your shoes when you get off before you kill half the nerves in your feet.

-Get a bunch of songs stuck in your head, or go with a friend to fathom the suicidally long ride waits (worth it).

-We should all go as a group and have this an actual FIRST event, so we can have the park cleared out for our express use. If we can't, we break in. There aren't enough cops in the area to get us all.

-Bring own food: The food there is rediculously overpriced, especially ice cream and drinks. They expect you to be swealtering, so plan ahead.

-On the stand-up coasters, don't be surprised if your head keeps hitting the shoulder harness.

-Crisco makes an awesome sunscreen. When you hear the sizzle, seek shade.

-Don't look for the local color, many of us are very pale.

Thanks for reading the preceding rantings, please continue to plan.

So I'm serious... would Wednesday July 16th be a good day to do Cedar Point?

It would be 2 days before IRI, so local teams wouldn't have a problem with travelling too much cuz they have that day between them, but people from far away could roll over the two trips (Cedar Point and IRI) into one and almost make it a reincarnation of Nationals!

And, it would be wednesday instead of tuesday so people like me could miss less work... lol (should be about same park population, line waits)


ByE

erin

Well, if I go to IRI, it'll be rolled into a midwest coaster-a-thon that stops at Kings Island, Holidayworld, Indiana Beach and, possibly, Great America. If that's the day everyone goes to Cedar Point, I can definitely add it to my rotation.

Well... looks like if its a big FIRSTer thing or not, I'll be going to Cedar Point with jmort03 on that wedneday anyway (july 16)

Flying into cleveland is WAYYYYYYY cheaper (and less time) than flying into columbus or indiannapolis from hartford, so i have to figure that out

let the booking begin!

ByE

erin

OH YEAH!
 

I have a few people from my team going! and erin!! woo hoo

Woo July 16th- 19th would be bad! :D Why don't you just skip Cedar Point and come to Indianapolis and help set up IRI the 17th ;)

Are you guys already starting setup the 16th? If so, it's probably a date we should avoid. I'd rather not exclude the IRI crew, if you guys are interested in coming.

The way things are working out we will go on the 16th,(erin and alot of people on my team) Getting time off work and that sort of thing is better do to all at once i guess....this doesnt have to be the offical time we all go...but its the way it is working out with us......or what about the monday after the IRI?

This is nothing offical, but if we do what we did last year we would set up on Thursday the 17th...we could do it, but yeah with all the driving to Sandusky and back same day, plus the IRI on Friday and Saturday...its kinda hard on the body

MOnday after?

omg i am so down. ill talk to my team about it..i dont know if lots of people will wanna go but i do know of about 7 right now who will go no matter what. that sounds sooo fun..better than six flags @ houston whee!!!1 :D

i think...monday after would be better....party at my house sunday!!

Hell yea!

MONDAY AFTER IRI!!!


I can do that pretty easily... it'll still work out logistically for far away ppl

vote here for what day!

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=20550

WHEEEEEEE!!!!!!



http://www.woio.com/global/video/pop...rentPosition=0

ARE YOU READY FOR DRAGSTER!!?!?!?!??! :ahh:

Yeah, I have to miss IRI b/c I will be in Germany, returning on the 20th, so I would be a big fan of having it like the 21st or 22nd that way I can just request a few extra days off of work. I know I'd be tired, but hey, it would be one super fun trip. So there you go, that's my two cents.

Amen brotha...

Add another hour of driving time to whatever you would have to drive from kokomo...and thats about how far it would be for us.


Its like 5 hours or something like that to sandusky. I would love to go but i dont know if i'll be awake enough.

Well, currently, this poll shows Monday, July 21 winning. It appears that everyone's fine with that day. Do we want to set this as the day, or wait for more responses? Let's hear it: is the Monday after IRI good for everyone?

Seeing no responses since my last post, can I take that as silent approval for July 21? I want everyone to have a chance to make plans, so if you agree or disagree, please speak up.

I can't make it that date since I'm at Tampa, FL durring a coaster run at BGT, but in a week I should be able to go.

first of all, when a room is silent... do not assume a 'yes or no' answer

second of all... MONDAY IT IS!!!!



ByE

erin

Oh yeah....Monday it is...:D

monday monday monday!!!!! wheeeee

Well, its time to follow my quote, sleep is for the lazy...


IRI and then CP...sounds good to me