9:00 a.m. today on midway

On the live cam I saw people just stopped in one place on the midway. Some were still walking but most were just stopped. Then at 9:04, all started to walk again at the same time. This was multiple groups of people doing the same thing. Doe the park people play the National Anthem or something because what else could it be?

Yes, and there’s a “rope drop” for early entry/park open. People have to stay behind the rope/line/barricade until it is moved so they can go into the park.

Maybe they all just got the creepy feeling that they were being watched...

No, these folks were back where you can actually see them on the cam this morning. They were by the north sky ride station and Wallravin area. There were different groups standing still while others were still walking. Then at the same time they started moving again.

Ok.

They were probably trying to determine if sky ride was running

Does the park play the National Anthem at 9:00 a.m.? That would make sense then. They could have been facing the giant flag. Can you see it from back there?

I dunno. 🤷‍♂️

Yes, the park plays the national anthem at 9:00.

The anthem is played before the park opens for early entry, so for 10AM opening, the anthem would be at 9AM. I would guess that what you saw was people stopping for the anthem.

And I think the associates all stop what they’re doing when the anthem is playing, so the guests don’t have much of a choice but to follow suit (or ignore the anthem altogether and get a bunch of rude stares haha)

I was just watching the webcam and saw a weird blinking light on top of each coaster. It was on, then it was off, then on again. Not sure why.

CoasterHawk said:

Does the park play the National Anthem at 9:00 a.m.? That would make sense then. They could have been facing the giant flag. Can you see it from back there?

Yes; at 9am, the morning loop of entrance music pauses briefly, and there is an announcement right before the Anthem: "Good morning, and welcome to Cedar Point! Before we open our gates, we invite you to turn towards the flag at our main entrance as we honor America during the playing of our National Anthem." Even if you cannot see the flag, the announcement instructs you to face towards the Main Gate. E.g., before the back half of the park was removed from Early Entry, the rope drop fences going to Frontier Town at the Resort Gate were usually right before Monster, so everyone waiting there would turn to their left and face Top Thrill Dragster to be facing the Main Gate.

So, I think those blinking lights on top of the coasters are to alert the ride operators not to send up a train when there is a plane approaching.

what

OK, I'll bite. I'm assuming you meant 'plane' and not 'plan'. You definitely have some random questions so there's a decent probability my assumption isn't correct. If that is your question, the link below will hopefully help to answer it.

Obstruction Lighting for Tall Structures

This thread is giving me brain fog.

Does the sky ride close for brain fog?

Mine was sarcastic

The blinking lights on top of the coasters is for air planes, helicopters, etc. My cousin works at Disney World in Florida. When we were there one time, I noticed a blinking light on top of the big giant golf ball at Epcot, and I asked him about it. His response was that anything over 200 feet of higher has to have a blinking light to warn air planes & helicopters so they won’t crash into the structure.

So the rides with blinking lights at the top of them, that’s why they have it.

And for the 9:00 question, yes they do play the National Anthem at 9:00, and yes there is a huge flag outside of the Main Gate by the Midway Carousel.

There is no blinking light on the "golf ball". The structure is under 200 feet, on purpose - just like all Disney structures, so as not to require one.

The exception would have been if you were there between 1999 - 2007, when there was a giant Mickey hand with a wand on the side of Spaceship Earth, making it 257 feet tall. That required a beacon, but due to the red sparkles at the end of the wand, it blended in and wasn't a huge concern.