I am considering the idea of missing HWN's this year and going to coaster mania instead. I realize HWN's is probably a much better event all around, but we haven't been to Cedar Point in 3 years and CM sounds like a decent time to return. Also my family is much more steel coaster friendly than wood. Not to mention it's half the drive that it is to HW. Can anyone who's been give me some pro's and con's of CM. Keep in mind I've been to cedar point, been on all the rides(except STR), and have a good idea of what the itinerary of the event usually includes. What are the crowds like... Are the meals real meals, or just snacks... How many ppl attend. Also is the water park worth a bit of xtra money to visit? I've heard it pretty much sucks. But want some oppinions.  Thanks

You're better of posting this on CoasterBuzz. You'll get all sorts or "expert advice" there.

I've been to a few Coaster Mania's. The crowds were pretty large the three or so times I've gone (before and after Millennium Force and Dragster were built). The night rides on Magnum are awesome usually with the trims turned off and not too long of waits, but the other coasters always had pretty lengthy waits. I don't think it't this bad anymore, but I used to have to wait 20-30 minutes for Raptor during early morning ERT!

The meals were just generic hotdog/hamburger lunches in a picnic shelter.

BEWARE of the Muffleheads! CoasterMania almost always falls right at the peak of the local insect infestation of Muffleheads. They don't bite like mosquitos, but they cover you like you wouldn't believe, especially on coasters at night.

Any cedar fair park on a friday sucks, I learned that the hard way with both dorney and KD when I visited them previously (KD in 2001 and Dorney back in 09). I can't image what CP looks like on a friday let alone a saturday.

The water park there makes Hurricane Harbor look like Typhoon Lagoon and Wow is right when he says the food is lousy.

I got lucky when I went there in the summer, they knew a thunderstorm was coming and some of the ride ops were kind enough to give you a countdown to when the storm would come (ie the storm is about 15 mins away, try to get to cover now or get your last rides in the park). when it rains ALL the coasters get shut down and some of the roofed attractions stay open (depending on how hard the rain is), if they say something about severe weather expect the whole park to shut down the second the sky turns black or there's thunder.

Shoot The Rapids hopefully will be 100% by the time CM comes around, I think it was only open for a full day once or twice this year and the rest it was just sitting there. I didn't even get the opportunity to even see it test when I went and they only had three boats sitting in the platform.

I remember with summer camp we would always spend the day there on either a tuesday or a thursday, one day there was only 500 people in the park minus employees.

Wrong Topic, Kingdakafan...

My last CM was the year Maverick opened.

I seem to recall Dragster being down for ERT, Magnum being down half the night, Millennium Force having near walk-on conditions in the morning (so I heard. I didn't wait for it since the seat belt is such a challenge) and Maverick having about a 30 minute wait. 

CoasterMania normally begins VERY early, as in about 6 or even 5, depending on the year.  And it can go VERY late...I know there have been years when it has been well after 2 a.m. when I left the park.  Cedar Point is a destination park...and, as such, doesn't have the same packed hours as other parks...once it gets busy, it normally stays that way, right up til closing.  Not always, but usually.

Probably by the time Eastcoaster and NoCoaster happen in February. They tend to have flyers at those events.

It's ACE's other non-riding event. It's just like Eastcoaster, but held in the Chicago area every winter around the same time as Eastcoaster.

Again, I've yet to go to Mania, but from a few people that I know that go every year, they've said that the event has actually gotten more crowded in the last few years.  Not sure how HWN being held the same weekend affected it last year, but I know there was a chunk of the community that were at either/or event, so...

And the few of those friends (lori, Craig, lisa) that prefer Mania still do Mania. It's not a lightly attended event. They moved it to two days for a reason .

^Exactly Clint. I couldn't think of an easy way to word it and include the smaller subset of friends that are Mania loyalists. For those that still don't get it...

Even if Coaster Mania and HoliWood Nights were always on different weekends, many (perhaps most) of the enthusiasts that regularly go to one or the other would still only go to one of the two and many of those peeps would pick the same one every year or almost every year. And there are the silly peeps that did half of both in the same weekend.

For those that always picks one over the other, it seems to come down to two things: 1) You're either a wood coaster junkie or a steel coaster junkie. 2) You're one of those people that think Holiday World can do no wrong and that Cedar Point is evil so you go to Holiday World to be with that group of friends over the group that chose Cedar Point. Oh and here's another one... 3) it's much more affordable to take your family to Coaster Mania because it's basically free if you have a season pass (This is why Lori and family go every year).

FYI, the HolIWood Nights flyer is up and for the first time ever, I SO WANT THE T-SHIRT!