Sabrina's Brochure Spotlight: Cedar Point 1998

I happen to like this week's brochure. My scanner? Not so much. As I commenced the scanning process, it just sat there and gave me a sideways glance as if to say, "Is it blue? Fuggedaboutit." Thus, I now present to you this lovely rainbow-infused view of Cedar Point. [And as for you, Mr. Scanner--This ain't over, pal. You had better clean up your act before next week's SBS rolls around or we're going to have words of the four-letter variety.]

Well, well, well: Look who dropped in for dinner in 1998! Actually, in the interest of fair and accurate reporting, there's more of a chance that this ride will make your dinner rise to the occasion. [If Mike is allowed to have his "2-fers", I'm allowed to continue using horrible puns that amuse nobody other than myself. That's blogging team etiquette, people.]

In official S&S lingo, Cedar Point's Power Tower consists of two "Space Shot" towers which shoot you up and two "Turbo Drop" towers which shoot you down. To my knowledge, it remains the only S&S multi-tower complex featuring four towers. (Anybody know of any others? I'm really curious.)

Now that America's Roller Coast had procured a "big boy" tower ride, certainly there would be no more use for the likes of a first generation freefall... Yeah, y'all know where this is going. There she is, smack dab in the middle of this spread: Demon Drop. It's really quite amazing that this ride hung around for over a decade after the arrival of Power Tower. Perhaps it will provide another decade of thrills to Knott's patrons, since that park doesn't already have a tower ride or anything. Oh wait... Well, I suppose some mysteries were never meant to be figured out. It's always nice to see an old ride be saved, though!

In 1998, Cedar Point featured three children's areas: Berenstain Bear Country (proud recipient of the Sabrina seal of approval), Kiddy Kingdom, and Kid Arthur's Court. Kiddy Kingdom is the only one which has retained its name (and presumably its theming) through the years.

Hooray! More Halloween!! Cedar Point has been celebrating the season with HalloWeekends for quite some time, although it's evident from this brochure that the event has been greatly expanded through the years. It only ran from September 25 - October 11 in 1998.

Challenge Park and Soak City ("The Cedar Point of Water Parks") were well established by 1998, and Magnum provided a nice backdrop for them. It's hard to remember a time when that was the largest coaster at the Point!

A complicated park requires a complicated pricing structure. Heck, they even had a "Tweener" category back then! Needless to say, prices have gone up since 1998. But even the age ranges have changed. In 1998, regular admission was applicable to ages 4-59. These days, it's 3-61. Apparently, as the years progress, our children are growing faster and our seniors are aging slower. By the time I reach my golden years, I'll probably need to be at least 75 before I can retire or be eligible for senior admission at a theme park. Wow, now I'm depressed.

"How do we get there?" Why, via GPS--of course! Oh wait, it was 1998. Guess we better bust out that paper map after all. Mercifully, this already colorful page had no subtle blue gradients for my scanner to destroy. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it plays nice next week.