Any word or thought on a ride for 2006???

call me crazy but form that video Oblivion looks like a terribly short coaster.....I mean drop, upwards turn brakes. That's the whole ride. And seeing that the whole idea of vertical drops is old technology now, what makes Dive Machines so special? The holding brake also negates any ejector airtime that you would get on the drop, no? I don't know to me Dive Machines look a little pointless.

tophat said:
At least were not as bad as SF, (throwing coasters in the middle of parking lots.):)
*** Edited 7/14/2005 11:12:32 PM UTC by tophat***

Well, if you exclude Avalanche Run and Magnum.

I'd hardly call Magnum a "parking lot" coaster. When it was built, the lift hill went over a parking lot, but the scenic trip along the lakefront is one of the defining signatures of the ride.

How on earth is Magnum a parking lot coaster? The station is *near* a parking lot and the lift went *over* a lot. The majority of the ride is nowhere near a parking lot.

Avalanche Run wasn't a parking lot coaster, either. Well, that area was once parking lot, but there was a coaster there before Avalanche Run was, so I'd consider that being built on the site of a former coaster, not a parking lot.

I work at Busch Gardens Tampa and Sheikra really hasn't been accepted well by the guests. Granted it has gathered alot of attenion from curious people but 9 out of 10 guests I ask prefer Montu or Kumba. Sheikra really should have been alot taller, MF, or even Nitro's first drop feel much faster. The 8-wide train feels incredibly slow for some reason.

And as to the debate on this forum about Busch's exclusive contract. The St. Pete Times and Tampa Tribune both reported the contract, but said details about the length weren't provided. Not sure where yall were getting 5 years from.

I've been to CP 3 or 4 times and I love the park. But its certainly not my home and having not ridden TTD I don't really feel qualified to comment on what your ride should be. But I think of a really tall floorless would be a great choice. Every ride doesn't have to be completely new, Montu is an improved Raptor and I think its Busch Garden's best decision. If all floorless coasters seem to be 150 feet or so why not improve it to 250? I personally don't like Mantis and I feel Raptor is a little small. An updated, tall B&M coaster seems to be a solid choice.

This is my first post so don't flame too much :)

I'll agree with you John, but a small portion was built on what looks like a parking lot: http://www.rcdb.com/ig19.htm?picture=5

But anyway, I don't think it would qualify it as a PL coaster.

Oh and welcome to PointBuzz Disra. Great information and hope you get a chance to ride Dragster in the future. It's a great coaster. I hope to come to BG one day as well.
*** Edited 7/15/2005 2:14:07 AM UTC by TTD 120mph***

this is what a real parking lot coaster looks like; there is not one at CP. SF was too lazy to even remove the paint lines on the pavement....

http://www.rcdb.com/ig2169.htm?picture=27

With SF being that lazy, I wonder why they even painted it.

Thank you Disra, and since the newspapers down there reported on it do you think you could tell us how long that contract is for? I assumed 5 years because that was the contract between Alton Towers and B&M. Not sure if this is related, but it was also 5 years between G5 and Seikra. Its a shame it isn't being accepted by the public, I've heard great things about it and I really want to ride it.

Disra said:
The St. Pete Times and Tampa Tribune both reported the contract, but said details about the length weren't provided. Not sure where yall were getting 5 years from.

I do remember the article, and I also seem to recall that it was specific to Florida. No way is B&M going to not sell rides like that for the sake of installing one.

I agree with you guys, CP does needs something from B&M, but Cedar Point could be the one designing the ride. They could make it taller than Mean Streak at 200 feet(first Floorless ever to reach that), and maybe the first of it's kind inversions. Maybe more inversions than both Mantis and Raptor. I'd like to see a layout where the train actually has a steeper drop because it goes underground like how the Beast does at Kings Island. Maybe add theming to make it blend in with Cedar Creek Mine ride.

And I have a pretty good idea what the ceiling rule means. There is a airport near by where planes fly over the park. The City of Sandusky probably wants to establish a height barrier of 500ft. You guys can call me crazy but that's what I think that means.

For the life of me now I can't remember if this was true or if it was debunked, but didn't Alton Towers work up one of those "don't sell one of these to another park for x years" things after Oblivion? Wasn't that cited by somebody somewhere as one reason the dive machine never took off?

And you won't see any underground rides at Cedar Point. The water table's too high. You ever see how easily the tunnel at the Resort Entrance floods? Not pretty, and that's just barely underground.

TTD 120- So, because a "small portion" of a ride hits a parking lot, it's a parking lot coaster? I don't think so. Try looking at rides like SFoG's Delayja Vu, SFMM's Scream, SFGAdv's Superman, GL's X Flight. Those were parking lots, now they're home to a coaster. Big difference.

I said: But anyway, I don't think it would qualify it as a PL coaster.

Meaning: I don't classify it as a parking lot coaster.

I'm aware of the difference between a true parking lot coaster and ones built on former parking lot ground. Six Flags makes it all too obvious. I mean how lazy can you get to not remove the parking lines.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they just attached the supports to the pavement to eliminate the hassle of putting up footers. :)

*** Edited 7/15/2005 6:25:48 AM UTC by TTD 120mph***

Ok, I didn't read the entire thread, so I'm not sure if anyone mentioned that the entire area of Sandusky is (even the lake region) sitting on bed rock. This is why there are so many stone quarries are in the area. Doesn't this sort of rule out an underground machine? Especially, of any significant depth. I know I wouldn't want to run that jackhammer long enough to do any serious damage. But, I'm sure there's someone here that would gladly do it. Or, at least, try. I speak from experience when I state that it doesn't pay enough in this area. This is some of the hardest bedrock in the world. Great to build on top of, though.

If the pinnensula is also atop bedrock, it must be a bit deeper than over by the quarries. I'd imagine a high rock base would have made creating the lagoons a little more difficult.

Did you know? Magnum's footers go all the way down to the bedrock. That's why it's not sinking.

TTD 120, after being all over the country riding several different types of mine rides, I can safely say that cedar point's mine ride (while a fun ride that i enjoy) is one of the least themed mine rides that I have been on.

And while I love Top Thrill, when it was installed, it knocked out a lot of trees that made Iron Dragon really fun to ride. I still enjoy it, but it was more fun with the trees there. Now you do a fly by of dragster. Which is kinda neat too.

Emohnke... That PL picture is priceless. :)

Shawn, that makes sense for the ceiling rule, but does anyone have any sources showing this in city code or anything? Is 500' the actual height? Granted there is an airport near by, but there are airports everywhere. What about skyscrapers? They are much taller than roller coasters probably ever will be.
*** Edited 7/15/2005 12:06:11 PM UTC by Jason Hammond***

Disra...I'm heading up your way at the end of August to check out the new coaster. (Actually I haven't been since Montu or Gwazi so I'm looking forward to the return....though I will miss the brewery tour.)

I suspect the contract for the dive coaster was written in such a way that the Orlando parks (and maybe even Cypress Gardens) can't build one for X number of years...but I highly doubt it would prohibit a buyer from other parts of the country.

I really think that CP should build something totally innovative, find a new type of rollercoaster that isn't too big or fast, but provides a lot of entertainment. Something that gives a lot of airtime and doesn't have a slogan with "the tallest and fastest"

I think the age of building the biggest and fastest rides s over, it gets to a point where if new record breaking coasters come out then they start to lose what they actually are, and just become a advertising campaign. I still think Cedar Point should build a record breaker, but wait until the tallest and fastest thing dies down a little.

Personally, I don't really care what they build, as long as it surpasses normal standards for rides and provides great thrill like every ride in the park. I only go once a year so I'm not a major fan of the park, whatever they build, be happy with it. Cedar Point is the world's best amusement park, i don't think they can disappoint us!

speaking on parking lot coasters; SF GReat America built the defunct shockwave in the park lot, left the curbs there and the parking islands for the whole duration of its life. Now Superman sits on the same spot havent been there since it has open so i dont know if that is still the case. It looked very tacky and gave it a carnival ride feel. The other thing i hate about sf they tend to take out coaster to place new coasters. Examples at Sf Great america Tidal Wave taken out for Batman, Zforce taken out for Iron Wolf, There verion of avalanche run for Ragin Bull, Shockwave for superman which orignal was suppose to go where the whizzer is. Plus lets not forget the Viper there is also Parking lot coaster as well as the Hurricane harbor sits on an old parking lot. As for a new ride at cedar point, werent they going to place and X-scream swing there?

tophat said:
At least were not as bad as SF, (throwing coasters in the middle of parking lots.):)

Oh yeah?

Wanna think again? :-)

http://www.rcdb.com/ig19.htm?picture=7