Back to 2000, or worse?

Yellow train is not in operation yet. Don't know whats up with that. Tomorrow looks like a nice day so hopefully they will get it out at running. Dispatch times are in the 2:15-2:30 range which means the capacity is around 900 PPH right now. Nothing against the crew though, they are getting them out fine.

As everyone is saying, the ride continues to lag. I don't remember it running this slow in 2001 early in the year. Albeit the weather hasn't been great, but it's still turning in disappointing times in the mid to upper 60's. They still have the metal based wheels on and no nylon wheels. Just like early in 2000.

The ride is probably worse of then it was this time in 2000 and it's not just the lack of station music ;) ;). As noted before, the trains have some serious shifting action going on. It's not rough but just kind of odd. I don't know how to describe it, it just seems so off.

Mechanical problems continue to plague the Force. One train operation Monday with the train being stopped at the top for some time and a few times today it was having problems. Add the rollback and that is some serious downtime

It's still a good ride, but it is missing a lot right now. Hopefully when the warm weather kicks in Millie will be back into gigadrive! Station music would help me get by these depressing times too. :) :)
*** This post was edited by Joe E. 5/14/2002 11:28:12 PM ***

Joe, it's just "Blue Streak's" way of saying you should be riding Magnum instead! ;) I rode MF twice on opening day and the first ride was extremely slow. The second one felt pretty good, but it wasn't quite as good as last year. It was a bit sloppy and slow I guess would be the way to describe it. The wheels bother me even more than the station music/spiel because the ride is too quiet! :) Not like I know what wheels are best, but whatever they have on there now isn't really working all that great. As time goes on and it doesn't get better, I wonder if it ever will. I look forward to checking things out again next Tuesday/Wednesday.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

It was down this morning for about 30 minutes. Yellow train still is not used. When they do put it on that train is going to be so slow compared to red and blue.

The ride is running a bit faster but takes forever to warm up. I remember with the old setup on Joe Cool mornings how surprisingly fast it was. It felt like it was running all day.

I was looking at the webcam today after reading your first post and the yellow train was sitting on the lift hill. This was at about 9ish in the morning. I checked back after 10 and it was gone...they're obviously messing with it, but who knows what they're doing...those poor dummies are being abused. :)

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*- CP Fan -*
Magnum will always be #1

Thank goodness they at least tried to run it today. That's probably the reason why it was down this morning, the computer does not know what to do with 3 trains anymore. :)

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2002 Magnum--48
2002 Twister--21

You know, I was just thinking. With these steel wheels, everyone says it's going slower. With slower speeds = longer dispatches. Longer dispatches = less capacity. Less capacity = longer waits in line for the most "popular" (I know other rides get more people on, soley because of capacity, though) ride in the park.

You'd think they'd want to get as many people on as they could? Or maybe I'm just reading too far into it. I don't know, I just want the Millennium Force of August 2001 back!

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#1 Steel -- Nitro
#1 Wood -- Legend
Track Record -- 353

Wasn't last year an off year for Magnum? Maybe its time for MF this year...

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Back from lurking
New account, same name
KW 2002

I think everyone agrees with you on that one DaBull! I'm selfishly hoping that the good old MF returns within a week because I'll be there next week... Who knows - there must be some logical reason as to why they've changed the wheel configuration (and taken away the lady and the music :().

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
*** This post was edited by MDOmnis 5/15/2002 5:01:33 PM ***

August 2001-aah the fond memories. It was running faster today, but I'm sure the trains would still shuffle a bit unless they did something drastic overnight.

Today the wait was at the Pepsi machines. Normally that is a 45 minute wait. The sign said 1 hour but there is no way with two trains and freeway, I would guess the line was 1:15 -1:30

With 3 trains I doubt the wait wouldn't have been any longer than 30 minutes the whole day. How can the line more than double with just the one train missing? Easy, that wait from the Pepsi machines would be 300 people shorter during that hour (what the 3rd train adds). Less people in line to begin with and added capacity.

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2002 Magnum--48
2002 Twister--21

*** This post was edited by Joe E. 5/15/2002 5:16:23 PM ***

I will be arriving at CP tomorrow afternoon and staying through the weekend. What is up with Millie? What is all this about the wheels? Has it been running. One of the major reasons I am going is that I have not been in 6 years and I want to experience the FORCE! Hopefully the weather will cooperate! Please let me know!

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-hyperlink :-)

It will be running baring any mechanical problems. They have been having giga problems though so some delays could be expected. It's supposed to be warm tomorrow and it was running a little faster today, so it should ride faster than it has all year. If the yellow train is on just try and avoid it because it will be slow.

Great! Thank you for the information. Do they tell you where to sit, or can you queue for any seat? Do they really give you ERT if you stay at the park (I am staying at Hotel Breakers for the first time, this is my 6th trip to CP, havent been in 6 years!) I am soooo excited!

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-hyperlink
See you in line!

Yes, I think they give you a special ticket thing to get in early, I saw it today. I think you have to get them from the hotel though so you might have to stay there first and go the next day.

Right now you can wait for the front or back seat. There is no bad seat on Millennium Force (only better ones :) ) but for a first time rider, go for the front! The air time can be felt up there the best it seems when it a tad slow and the view is amazing.

*** This post was edited by Joe E. 5/15/2002 7:36:25 PM ***

Terrific, thank you for the information. I am hoping that it will be running on Friday morning so I can get it done first thing (they let you in 1/2 hour early!) Since I am traveling from North Carolina, I only get 3.5 days to get it all in. Hopefully the lines will be short for "pre-season" although I am nervous about the weather and all this talk about the rollback on MF. WT looks awesome though! I am planning on using the ERT on WT on Saturday morning.

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-hyperlink
See you in line!

Today Millennium Force was not up for the first 2 or 3 hours. Once it was back up, It broke down soon as I was heading in line :(. Still don't know if it ever re-opened

Yellow train is STILL not going. When we walked by the station it looked like it was under a tarp. Looking at the weather forecast this was probably the best day to put it on for while, if the POS can even run three trains anymore seeing it has trouble with 2.

On interesting note, they cycled MF for abut 2 hours it seemed. Red train was sent out empty but blue always seemed to need people. Looks like red train will be the good train this year.

So I've been hearing these bad reports every day and this whole MF situation is starting to seem very un-CP-like and its starting to worry me a bit. This is the same ride that two years ago they overnighted a part from overseas to fix for the next day. The same ride that they worked like hell on to get a new cable installed and repair the damage done when the old one snapped. The same ride that when they suffered a power outage one night, they had Raptor and Magnum open an extra hour one night to make up for it. I have no clue - perhaps they are pouring man hours into this ride to get it fixed and we just don't know about it, but it seems like its taking a rather long time for them to figure this one out. That ride cost them $25 million and is arguably the biggest draw the park has these days. You'd think it'd receive as much care as possible until the issues are resolved. $25 million is an awful lot to spend on a big faded blue statue! :)

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

I guess yellow was out testing which is a great sign :). Somone said it was out testing yesterday too which makes sense because of the nice weather. Now if only they can get it to run 3 trains again.

So, is the problem with 3 trains or with the yellow train specifically....

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That's a good question. Since they were running 1 train Monday, this leads me to believe that they are having blocking, computer, electrical, whatever problems and it's can't run 3 just yet until they get it worked out. The 3 train op you have to have several thing go right, most of that is advancing the train one behind each other. Also they have been running it in Manual a few times which is something you really don't want to be doing with three trains. You know they are running in manual when the train goes really slow out the station.

On the other hand if yellow is OK then they could have cycled it in and rotated the trains. Go with blue/yellow, red/yellow, blue/red.