Anyone there today?

Just wondering what the atmosphere was like today around TTD? Monstrous line I presume?...also...Anyone know why we cant park in the front anymore? When I was there on Thursday there was a big gate across the enitire parking lot...

I got in line around 8 this morning at the back entrance near Magnum. When I walked up to the already existing line the Dragster status sign still said it was currently open but may suffer delays. Not a minute had past when an employee came by and switched the sign with one that said Dragster was currently closed but may open later today.

Around 8:45 she came back and replaced the sign again. This time it said Dragster was currently closed but WILL open later today.

That sign was more promising so I headed over to the Dragster queue after the gates opened to see if anybody was working on it. I got in line when I saw them moving the cars off the transfer track. Within an hour they started launching trains.

The atmosphere reminded me of a sporting event. As the train would rush by the grandstands everyone would start cheering but would be quickly silenced as we all watched the train climb towards the top. If it made it over, the cheering continued. If not, lots of disappointed "oh no!s" followed. It was exciting. They stopped testing around 11 due to the rain. We decided to leave because we've been on 5 times already and had been at the Point for a couple days now in camper village.

The atmosphere was much more enthralling the night before. We were waiting for some family to get off the Corvettes near Calypso when we overheard someone telling a ride op about Dragster finally opening with a huge line and an outbreak of fights.

There was a huge crowd around Dragster when we got there a few minutes later. You could hear everyone gasp in surprise as each train was launched out completely taken back by its sheer speed. Some of the kids were so excited to see it running. By this time the entire queue was full and out towards the grandstands. They were launching them quite frequently with only a few short pauses every 4 launches or so.

I hope she can stay up for a while longer now.

yeah, but a roller coaster shouldnt be like this, it needs to be dependable, and right now TTD isnt, i've said this in other forums as well, i think they should close it for a week or so, completely do a makeover, and have the ride completely set for the rest of the summer, its just overall better- i mean, the best things in life are worth waiting for.

You expect them to do a whole makeover of the whole ride in one week? They're fast but not that fast.

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2003 Statistics
Top Thrill Dragster: 6
Millennium Force: 18
Trips to the point: 17

what are you talking about man? TTD was down since the 20th of last month... thats more than a week. and it's not like closing it when it can run will do any good.
if they don't know what the little bugs they will run into are going to be, how can they fix them before they cause a problem?

What is a makeover for a rollercoaster anyway? They are working on what needs to be worked on, and as of now it seems they have taken care of the problems... So just relax for a few days and see how it runs, it's been down for so long they prolly have to warm it up to running non-stop again. At least they got it open, so stop complaining.

You all are the ones that seem need to relax. First of all, i said a week or so..not long enough? fine then, make it a month, whatever. THE POINT I am trying to make is, the ride is not dependable. Close it, THEN make it dependable.

And see, thats the problem with how people like you think "atleast they got it open", yes, for perhaps the day. But what about people that PLAN trips, thousands of dollars around this RIDE. They need to close it so it can be open EVERY day.

And I have a right to complain...this ride sucks right now...thats the bottom line.

if you plan a trip, or spend thousands of dollars to ride one ride, don't get on it, and then complain about it to people online, then perhaps YOU need to sit down for a week, or a month, and rethink your life. Top Thrill Dragster has been down for quite some time now, we all know that. Cedar Point had warnings on their website, had little peices of paper that stated their sorrow for the situation (yet at the same time reminded you that your 40 some dollars was well paid because of their 67 other rides) and had signs outside the main gate. if it is up and running now, that's wonderful news. its a manmade machine, it is going to have problems. jeez...

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"I'm sorry, Timmy, but you need 15 tickets to live..."
"you have exceeded your post quota set by the administrators..."Trips to CP: 4 TTD: 4

Geez oh man! The ride just opened up again, give it some time!

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Wanna Get High? Ride Top Thrill Dragster!
RIP Top Thrill Dragster Themeing, who lies here in pieces on June 26, 2003.

Can you say this topic is closed?

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

Any topic, or a post within it, that is negative about CP or any ride at CP, will eventually be closed.

It's important to remember that. GTTP does not care for critical thought.

You know why they get closed?

I'll let you in on a secret, you guys sound like retards. Top Thrill Dragster was down for a long time. They said if they can't get it running by the middle of July they'd just close it so those ppl who don't call and find out that the ride has been down for 2 weeks don't waste their money for 67 rides.

There is no point in closing a ride that is running. It's been open for 3 days now.. I don't know about you, but I can't see any reason in closing the ride for a month when their are people riding it right now.

True. But I refer again to Mr. Kinzel's words again: we just can't keep telling the public it's going to open, if we are honest, then they will be understanding...

So, yes, some people here do have a right to complain if they've planned a trip to the park. Reason being, they've been to the park before, they planned their trip on these words: it will be open. It's like crying wolf and when there finally is one, no one believes you....

On the other side: TTD just underwent a major makeover, parts were replaced, added, tweaked, welded, cycled, oiled, trains modified, station modified, how can you not call that a makeover? The only thing not really working at this point are the kicker wheels, everything else is just normal downtime..

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"What time does the 10 pm laser show start?"

I'm not there today but I will give everyone a report about my experiences later this week, I should go Monday and at least once more before the end of the week. (urg! thinking about the car ride there).

It's so stupid for people to fight, especially over a que line. But I can believe it, on the 18th, there was the "hopefuls" line that extended around the grandstands/Cedar Point Dragway and as soon as they took the water dummies off and shot off the train that went over, people started cutting by lining up against the fence and all of the sudden, hundreds of people all of the sudden rushed towards the fence so that they wouldn't lose their spot. The cop was freaking out cause there was about 200 people moving at the same speed as Dragster.

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Life has it's ups and downs, might as well make it on a coaster!

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TopThrillCrapster said:
yeah, but a roller coaster shouldnt be like this, it needs to be dependable, and right now TTD isnt, i've said this in other forums as well, i think they should close it for a week or so, completely do a makeover, and have the ride completely set for the rest of the summer, its just overall better- i mean, the best things in life are worth waiting for.

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The only way they can get this thing working like it should is to run it. All the little bugs will then get worked out. Actual use is the only way they will be able to guage how to maintain and care for the ride. A cable snapping and a valve bursting can't be prevented. But all the other nagging problems will eventually go away. They can't fix all the problems with their computer simulations.

went there today... it wasn't running more than half the day, that's being generous too. we got in line @ 9:30, waited an hour and a half, broke down, went back up, rode it, broke down for a while. it was running on and off today, mostly off. not sure if they ever got it fixed too (left @ 6:30, went on everything 3 times and was too hot to stay any longer).

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Voodoo said:
TTD was down since the 20th of last month...

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Since the 21st of last month. I rode TTD on the 20th and I have an ORP and my receipt for the ORP to prove it.

Yup it was fixed around 6:30 - 7ish, that's when I rode it. The hydraulics seem to be improved, as the interval for launches is better then before the long downtime. The launch sled does return alot quicker and is ready when the second train moves to the hot launch position.

Ok I'll try to make sense of this. Trains one and two leave the station, train one is in HOT launch position and lauches in about 5 seconds after stopping. That is a drastic improvement. Train two moves to cold launch as train one launches. Train 2 moves up and the cable is back and ready when it is in HOT launch. Train two then takes about 30 seconds to launch.

I think the delay in launch is block brakes as train 1 launched ahead of it is still in the block brake. One big problem the ride still has is the blocking system. The trains still move in one's and not pairs. (But anything is good compared to the last few weeks). A proxy switch was bad as I was just about to ride and breakdown...HA. The switch was in the unload area, as a mechanic changed it out from under the track.

They had to move all the trains back one block, due to riders being out in the HOT launch position (that would be at the tree). That took a good 10 or so minutes. There was another problem also. I don't know what, but the total downtime was around 1.5 hours.

Edit: typos

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"This second hill is my favorite part of the ride. It is so Cool!"
TTD Status: "Contaminates in the system" S.K.
*** This post was edited by Hooper 7/6/2003 10:41:40 PM ***

I was there today and it and a major bit of the downtime must have been due to the cable drum under the lunch track. They had four mechanics working on it. The cable or the drum or something under there was making a very loud clicking sound after every lauch. The mechanics would launch two trains then spray the cable in the drum with some white substance. Launch two more trains and repeat. They did this about three times. Taking up probably an hour of the downtime. Each lauch was a little more quiet. Soon after all that happened it opened.

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TTD Launches: 5
MF Laps (2003): 10
Rapter Laps (2003): 6

How do you know what they were doing with the drum when you can't see it?

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Jeff - Webmaster - GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

shwilson24, your talking about the wheel the cable wraps around under the train when it launches. Everyone sees that spin when there standing outside the fence and watching trains launch at the tree. And yeah that wasn't much better of an explanation. That was making some strange noises when it spun, but it cleared itself up by the time I left which was around 8 or 9.

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"This second hill is my favorite part of the ride. It is so Cool!"
TTD Status: "Contaminates in the system" S.K.