2021: 3 rides with over 1,000,000 riders...... wow have things changed!

Yea - these numbers are nothing to write home about compared to "back in the day." Did Raptor not get even 1 million? Steel Vengeance? Valravn? Certainly not due to lack of demand on those rides this summer. I know Gatekeeper had extended downtime this summer, but it has been close to 2 million in past years. Didn't even get 1 million this year?

In the early 2000's, Magnum, Raptor, Gemini, CP&LE RR, and Sky Ride were all over 2 million and Millennium Force was like 1.7-1.9 million.

I don't remember the park wide number of yesteryear, but I'm thinking it's down substantially. I want to say I remember it being closer to 30 million and that averaged out to like 9 rides per person if divided out based on attendance. This year, it's probably closer to 6 rides per person.

What concerns me is upper management takes a stat like that and says "people aren't interested in riding as much anymore so instead of building a coaster, we'll add a restaurant." Not that there's anything wrong with a restaurant, but data like this caused by bad procedures and a de-emphasis on throughput can lead to more bad decisions being made.

[IMG]From 2009

MDOmnis said:
...What concerns me is upper management takes a stat like that and says "people aren't interested in riding as much anymore so instead of building a coaster, we'll add a restaurant." Not that there's anything wrong with a restaurant, but data like this caused by bad procedures and a de-emphasis on throughput can lead to more bad decisions being made.

Yes. What needs to be offered is something more like the ratio of rides given to rides offered in addition to the number of total rides given. In other words, were your numbers down because people were not choosing to ride your ride, or were your numbers down because you couldn't accommodate them all?

It's like operating a ride for half a season with one or two trains, and then deciding that because the numbers are down, that ride clearly does not need its third train anymore. Never mind that the numbers are down because the ride *couldn't* offer as many rides as it used to.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

One thing that has to hurt pretty much all of the totals each year is the modern rain ops policy at CP. The entire coaster lineup essentially shuts down or goes to 1 train ops in even light rain. Contrast that with my home park of Canada's Wonderland that I've personally witnessed run Leviathan on two trains in a monsoon back in 2019.

Totally agree with the capacity comments. And while I absolutely think that CP is a destination for everyone, at its core, it's a thrill ride-oriented amusement park. So if only a few rides hit the 1 million riders milestone, that should throw some red flags. Whether it be due to IROC, cell phone policies, or whatever... the park has made comments in the past that rider throughput was one of their biggest areas of focus. Let's hope it becomes a priority again, because it's well-documented that there were some gaping holes last season.

James Parker jr said:

One thing that has to hurt pretty much all of the totals each year is the modern rain ops policy at CP. The entire coaster lineup essentially shuts down or goes to 1 train ops in even light rain. Contrast that with my home park of Canada's Wonderland that I've personally witnessed run Leviathan on two trains in a monsoon back in 2019.

Yeah, the CP rain policy still frustrates me every time I'm there. In the last few seasons alone I have ridden Kings Island and Carowinds coasters in moderate to heavy rain with multiple trains running. Meanwhile CP will close rides for a literal drop of mist. Add all that up across a season and it absolutely has to add up.

^We rode Mystic Timbers last year in a straight up downpour. It was pouring before we even got to the station. It was legit painful, but quite an experience to have on the books for sure.

The large variance in rain ops within the chain is very frustrating. I feel like the bumping incident on Magnum led to an extreme overreaction by the park. In a light sprinkle last July we were at the top of the stairs and watched them remove two trains from SV and then reopen under 1 train ops.

It drives me nuts when the time it takes to transfer trains off is longer than the actual passing rain shower. Or when a 30 second shower results in a 30 minute downtime

Dennis,

Thank you for that graph, that’s probably the most eye-opening visual I’ve seen regarding the park and its rides. The overall downward trend for almost all of their major attractions is certainly concerning, and we can’t just blame it on the last two or three seasons. Without any other data to compare to, when I see overall ridership decline and then look at what the park has been putting money into, it seems like the folks at CF are not on the same page as reality. Given that, it’s certainly not the end of the world nor should anyone panic. I’m sure if we analyzed all attractions at all parks we’d likely see similar drop offs. The “newness” of rides drops far faster than it used to.

There is a ride missing from the graph I put up, Maverick in 2007, so there should have been figures for 2007 and 2008.

I've got figures for 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

^It's on the graph, just above Corkscrew. **TRIGGER ALERT** Which, coincidentally, is right about where it stands in terms of ride experience as well. Let's be honest; we all know Corkscrew is the better ride.

I was at Magic Mountain yesterday for the first time in 3 years. After 4 more rides on Twisted Colossus I just want to say... I REALLY miss the pouches on Steel Vengeance. They still have them on TC (a little larger, too) and it is just so damn easy to use. The TSA approach that Vengeance has is so complicated, oh well.

I rode Iron Gwazi last week at the VIP passholder event and they have pouches on the ride, however, you can barely fit anything in them. Maybe a wallet and keys and that's about it. At first I hated this loose article policy, but those pouches just killed ride capacity. Iron Gwazi is probably going to be a very slow moving line when it opens to the public. It would be better if all parks just adopted Universal's free lockers while you ride policy. That's the best one out there.

I personally found the pouches to be an absolute nuisance for the sake of capacity. It really held things up, and I’m glad they did away with them.

The SV lockers COULD work if they paid attention to rides like Velocicoaster.

^Yeah, it's amazing how fast Velocicoaster crews get people through the lockers and metal detectors and still manage to dispatch FULL trains every 50 seconds. The TSA procedure for SV is pathetic.