Cedar Point's Opening Day 2015

Today would be CP's actual Opening Day for 2015. The park was super busy as usual as this is the first time for many coaster buffs to get their first rides of the season! Included here is a collection of photos taken during this excellent day! Aside from Rougarou, CP completed a 2-year renovation of their famous 1905-built Hotel Breakers! You'll see some photos of the finished product here as well. Enjoy...

Rougarou on Opening Day! Also another one of my sort-of "artistic" photos framing that cottonwood tree in the picture!!!

LEFT: Rougarou plunging down its first hill! RIGHT: Now plunging down after the first inversion, in both photos going over a lagoon!

A view of Rougarou's impressive first drop!

Rougarou makes its way up its 145ft tall lift hill while in the foreground, passengers await the next train on the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad.

And here we have the next train on the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad now arriving at the Main Midway Station with CP&LE Engine #44 "Judy K."
which is a product of the Vulcan Iron Works, built in 1923.

"Judy K." on the CP&LE is seen just departing the Main Midway Station passing by the railroad's "newest" locomotive, Engine #1 - The "G.A. Boeckling".

One more view of the CP&LE, this time passing by Rougarou!

OK let's take a walk out to the beach. Here we see the finished product of a two-year renovation of the park's famous Hotel Breakers! The classic
Rotunda in the middle of the hotel features rooms that weren't available before the renovation which involved rebuilding nearly all of this part of the
hotel which dates back to 1905. When built, the rooms had no air conditioning and you arrived here exclusively by boat!

Now with a little help from a polarizer filter on the lens, here's a wider-angle view of the main portion of the hotel with the 10-story Breakers Tower
as seen in the right of this photo which opened in 1999. The ground floor of that part of the hotel features a T.G.I. Friday's Restaurant!

This section of the hotel is known as the Breakers East section and opened in 1995.

The deck outside the Rotunda used to feature a huge pool. Originally, this area was the "front" of the hotel as your main access to it was by boat and
not by car, that was added to the "back" later. Today, the pool has been replaced with these fire pits! Don't worry, there's still an outdoor pool by the
Breakers East section and a full indoor pool in the Breakers Tower so you'll still be able to get your morning swim in before conquering the greatest
collection of roller coasters on the planet!

Looking outside from the Rotunda entrance. Lake Erie is so beautiful!!!

Ever wonder what the inside of a Rotunda looks like? Wonder no more! There are rooms in this part of the hotel that are available thanks
to renovations done that made this part of the hotel ADA-compliant.

The "back" of the hotel which is otherwise the front today as guests arrive now by car instead of boat.

This big sign was erected outside the entrance to the Hotel Breakers and depicts CP back when it truly was a beach resort before the days of
world record-breaking roller coasters and thrill rides!

Well once again, Cedar Point keeps giving me reasons to keep coming back for more! The plan this year is to visit this park two more times, once by car in July and again in October on my big Amtrak trip for this year. This park will always have a special place in my heart forever! I hope you enjoyed these photos and will consider making a trip here someday whether by rail or car, or boat (yes, CP does have a full-service marina so technically, you can still arrive here by boat if you want to!). The "GrandCentral" font used in this travelogue came from www.railfonts.com. Until next time when we'll be taking a trip to experience the "Night At The Railroad Museum" in North East, PA, Happy Railfanning...