2005 - Season Thoughts

Each year, I always ask myself one question that seems to both sum-up the season and give me something to look forward to for the next season. I always like to see if Cedar Point (hypothetically) answers my question by doing something different for the next season. After only visiting the park three times this year and experiencing near identical results both times, I am left with only one question that I believe sums the entire season up...

For something that has been a major accomplishment for Cedar Point in the past AND something that has time and time again won the vote of guests and enthusiasts around the world, why did 2005 seem like a horrible year for the Cedar Point maintenance division?

Perhaps that might be a little harsh or bias since I only saw the park three times this year. But, in those three times, Top Thrill Dragster, Wicked Twister, and maXair were all down for mechanical reasons. 3 visits in one year and I failed to ride any one of those three rides. Now, that could just be plain bad luck or it could be the very root of my complaint. Even so, it would appear as if TTD's (and Wicked Twister's for that matter) reliablity issues (my season-ending question after 2003) continue to be a thorn in Cedar Point's side. Magnum and Mantis also shared alot of downtime between the two on two of the days that I visited. I could probably go on but many of you are probably getting the feeling that I'm just complaining too much...

But let me interject one more point as a comparison of 2005 season's...I visited Hershey Park twice, Dorney Park 4 times, and SF Great Adventure 2 times. I can honestly say that my favorite park (Cedar Point) had the worst score with regards to ride up-time. I think that's sad in some ways..but perhaps it's good in other ways - Maybe other parks have improved their maintenance divisions. Either way, I'm curious to see if Cedar Point makes improvements in 2006 in what I think was their biggest downfall of the season. Interested to hear some of your comments now...

Magnum really doesn't see much in the way of significant downtime this season. In the time I worked on the ride, we went down once for a grand total of 40 min. As a guest, Magnum is the workhorse of the park...not much down time, great ride, and she never lets me down as far as quality of ride. :)

TTD actually had a great year...until September hit. And October. But those two months were less than stellar from an operating standpoint. Could some of the downtime have been prevented by keeping up more on maintenance, I don't know. I'm willing to bet that there could have been, but I am not a mechanic.

CP doesn't like the downtime any more than we do. It hurts their image, and certainly doesn't contribute to higher attendance. So, I'm sure that they work diligently on solving these problems, but they are learning as they go. WT & TTD are complex rides, and will continue to have problems (albeit at a lower rate, hopefully) in the future. That is the nature of complex machinery.

TTD had a great season as compared to the last 2 years, so I give CP kudos for that. Who knows? Maybe next year will see even less downtime.

You got unlucky with the days you went. 2005 wasn't a great season for CP, but from a maintenance standpoint, I never noticed anything different. Park operations is the only department I see that was hurting. That's sad since it the department that everyone sees.

Being a CP ethusiast, I have a lot of faith in the park. They'll get their act together. I think Walt said in another topic, "I seen the park through the good, the bad, and the ugly". maXair was the good, the entire 2005 season was the bad, and TTD's status in Sept. and Oct. was the ugly. What a season!

Cedar Point mechanics and maintenance department have to be given a truck load of credit. It's not like when a ride goes down they sit there and say "meh" they get to work right away and does what needs to be done to get it up again.

It sure is great to be able to bitch about the job some people do from the high horse.

I am sure we all have made mistakes at our jobs. The only difference is that we don't have hoards of geeks waiting for us to screw up so they can post to some forum about how incompetent we've become.

-Tambo

tambo said:
It sure is great to be able to bitch about the job some people do from the high horse.

I am sure we all have made mistakes at our jobs. The only difference is that we don't have hoards of geeks waiting for us to screw up so they can post to some forum about how incompetent we've become.

-Tambo

Hoards of geeks? Apparently I'm in that crowd as well? Nice going Tambo - You did a good job of showing your maturity...IN A FORUM

And by no means was this thread an attack on Cedar Point's maintenance. I felt that this season was the worst season in 5, maybe 10, years with regards to ride up-time. Just trying to probe into what might have caused that...

And yeah, being an attorney, my mistakes are pointed out quite frequently...Thanks

You joined a Cedar Point dork forum, then posted your thoughts about Cedar Point. You are a member of the horde of geeks. This is further proved by your analysis of the past 10 seasons, which you referenced in your previous post.

Sorry to tell you, but you're one of us.

TTD had a very good season until Sept. and Oct. like the others have mentioned. Wicked Twister was just bad luck. And maXair, well, I think it is more an iherent design flaw in HUSS Giant Frisbees, because Delirium has had an amazing amount of down-time (it is the TTD of flat rides in terms of down-time), and luckily maXair hasn't had the problems that Delirium has. The floor has functioned very well for the most part, and the electrical fire two weeks ago was just bad luck.

Whoa whoa whoa, floor functioning good this season? Every time I've ever been in line for maXair when it breaks down it is because the floor fails to come up.

How many times was that? I've been in line 48 times , and I've only had the floor malfunction twice while I was in line. I think the floor has caused a problem on like 2 days that I've been there this season, out of 10. So compared to Delirium, I'd say maXair had an amazing year. *** Edited 11/5/2005 3:19:30 AM UTC by BlueStreak64***

I'm still waiting for the $25 million doller lawn ornament to be ripped up.

geewhzz said:
Whoa whoa whoa, floor functioning good this season? Every time I've ever been in line for maXair when it breaks down it is because the floor fails to come up.

when the ride goes down mechanical, the floor stays down for safety reasons...therefore the floor may not have been the reason for the downtime at all, it just may have appeared to be so.

Damn Fastball you really don't like TTD.

Well, a $25 million investment that could have been better spent elsewhere than on a piece of crap ride with horrible downtime.... Yeah I don't like it much either.

Yeah, its cool and all that it got us the record, but I would enjoy it more if I didn't have to wait an hour every time I go, with FreeWay, because it breaks down. Plus, I think the hour you would wait without FreeWay on your average summer day would be better spent waiting for another ride, like maXair. There's just something about spending 1 hour for a 17 second ride that doesn't click.

But anyway, maXair had a wonderful season compared to what it could have possibly been like. If you think the problems you experienced with maXair were bad, you obviously don't know anything about Delirium at PKI.