Cedar Point's Media Day 2015 Featuring Rougarou

Early in the morning on Friday, May 8th, 2015, Cedar Point held it's annual "Media Day" for its first "floorless" roller coaster "Rougarou". Now this coaster is not entirely "new". The coaster track opened in 1996 as part of the stand-up roller coaster "Mantis", designed by Bolliger & Mabillard of Switzerland. After 18 seasons, the "bug" would close in September 2014 as the track from it was used to create "Rougarou" which is named after a type of creature in French Folklore that is comparable to the mythical werewolf.
This ride features a top height of 145 feet followed by a 137ft drop with a total of four inversions and reaches a top speed of 60mph over its 3,900 feet of track. B&M designed the new coaster trains for this converted coaster and after riding it a total of four times on Media Day in different parts of the ride, I can honestly say, for as good as Mantis was, this coaster was truly designed to be a floorless!!! If you do ride it, I recommend you do so both in the front row and the back row, it's two completely different ride experiences!!! Included here are photos taken during this "Media-Only" event that I had the good fortune of being able to attend. Enjoy...

OK, let's take advantage of the 5:00am start-time of Media Day by doing some Manual HDR Night Photography, my favorite!!!
This is the "Rougarou" sign that greets you near the ride's entrance.

A wide-angle view of the first of four inversions on Rougarou. The lighted Rougarou sign as shown in the first photo was used frequently by TV crews
from stations from all over the midwest. Although tough to see, TV production trucks were set up towards the left of this photo.

Did I mention I love this type of photography? Here we have one of Rougarou's four inversions and there is a faint blur image of the train in this photo
along with some "flash" photography of the train as this is where the on-ride photo camera and flash is located, you can faintly see the "ghost image"
of the coaster train in the lower center of the photo. The 310ft tall Millennium Force coaster can be seen in the left background of this photo also!

Rougarou showing two inversions and some serious motion blur from the train along with a "ghost image" by the on-ride photo section!

Rougarou's impressive first loop! It was getting close to sunrise by now! The track in the bottom right corner of the photo is part
of the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad which celebrated 50 years at the park in 2013.

LEFT: The track coming down from the first loop through the lagoon. RIGHT: That impressive first loop just before sunrise!

The top of Rougarou's 145ft tall lift hill and first drop. The coaster directly behind it is the 1987-built "Iron Dragon" whose track layout is intertwined with
this coaster. The tower behind both coasters is the 1998-built "Power Tower" where you can be shot up the tower or lifted to the top and dropped! The
choice is yours, both awesome rides!

Now shortly after sunrise, we see Rougarou come alive!!! That is one impressive ride!

I've rode this coaster as both a stand-up (as-built) and floorless (today), and floorless is better!

A good chunk of this coaster is built over water!

I like to get an "artistic" shot in every so often trying to frame tree leaves into the photo! That's one mean inversion!

Rougarou with a train coming down its first hill into a steamy lagoon! TV crews were here the entire four hours of Media Day!

Another of Rougarou's four inversions, this one starts over water!

Another loop! That looks tight! I've rode it, it's awesome!!!

That's one impressive lift hill, as seen from the loading platform! It's just one of the unique views only Media Day can get you!

And one final view similar to one of the first views of the day, this time with daylight! Media Day was awesome, can't wait to come back for Opening Day!

Media Day ended at 9:00am and so with that, I would head out of the park, then later have lunch with a friend of mine who works at the park, then come back to the park to pick up my Platinum Pass which gets me unlimited visits to Cedar Point along with all the Cedar Fair-owned parks nationwide and includes free parking. I decided that for the cost of this pass, it was cheaper to get it verses paying the cost to park the car on each visit along with the regular admission ticket prices. On Friday evening, a special Season & Platinum Passholder Appreciation Event occurred that I now was able to attend as a Platinum Passholder. And with all that, so would end today, and tomorrow would be Opening Day, check out the link below...