Boneville SKELETONS!!!

Not a real complaint but something I have noticed.. Does it seem that Boneville's skeletons "work" less and less every year? Is there any chance that Cedar Point will figure out what is wrong with them and fix them?

I always enjoyed the animatronics at the parks. I remember the days of Earthquake and the Pirate dark rides, it was a ride we did every year as kids. At Disney World, they are everywhere. It would be nice to see more of this at Cedar Point. Maybe as part of a dark ride coaster (I know, done before with Transport but that was a long time ago).

Any insight on how much effort it takes to keep animatronics going? With all the robotics students at the high school and college level, maybe someone with experience can comment. :)

I think it's more of a hit-or-miss situation. As someone who grew up going to Cedar Point in the early 1980's, the Boneville Skeletons are certainly part of Cedar Point nostalgia for me.

But to answer your first question, there are days when everything is working as it should, and others when certain scenes are not "alive". I've never gotten the impression that they work less every year.

I think they just need to clean them up a bit, and clean up the area they're situated at. Maybe add a few more along the way.

When the park still had dark rides, they actually had animation techs on staff. When those disappeared, so did the job position. As I understand (and CP&LE Engineer will correct me) they get worked on when somebody in ride maintainance can get to it.

The park does still have an animation department. It's a small department that reports direct to John Taylor (of Halloweekends fame.) The skeletons are all brought in every off season and stored in the shop where they are repaired and painted as needed. The mechanics are refreshed every year also. The train itself is a weird collaboration between Ride Operations (the train) the Animation Shop (the skeletons and I am pretty sure the lights) and Technical Services (the audio.)

The animation department also maintains and installs all the Halloweekends animations and also works on the parade floats. They also work on a few other things throughout the park year round also (the jukebox at coasters is one of theirs actually, as well as the Dino's on Adventure Island.)

As I said it's a very small department (last I heard just 2 full time employees, no seasonals) so having the opportunity to actually get out and repair items throughout the season, while also getting ready for Halloweekends pretty much as soon as the season starts, is very difficult. But they do a really good job of getting to it as quickly as possible.

I've actually noticed they have been working better the past year. Maybe its just me. The only thing I'd be happy to see never work again is the darn boney with the shotgun.

Robotics? They are as about as basic as you can get. They are dead! How much work do you want them to do?

Whenever I ride past them on the train, they're always working to put out that fire...

And have been for over forty plus years!

Dutchman said:
And have been for over forty plus years!

Boneville peeps know job security!

The park eliminated the animation dept when they last dark ride was retired. I know because I had friends that worked in that dept that weren't transferred into the general maintenance pool. If they have tech's now it's a relatively new thing, probably brought on by the popularity of Halloweekends.

It's nothing new, they have always had that department even after Pirate Ride was closed. They were downsized as Matt said above to just a few Technicians. After Pirate Ride closed they were responsible for the Boneville Skeletons, Disaster Transport, the tunnel fog on Magnum, and Halloweekends effects among other things. I spent 11 years working at Cedar Point, ending in 2011, and would occasionally work with the two guys who were still in the Animation Department.

Yeah, during Chill Out, in the P&D building, there is a "Animation" sign over a door leading to another room which has a window looking into the main room. It is pretty obvious by the view through the window that someone is working with animations.

99er said:
...After Pirate Ride closed they were responsible for [...] the tunnel fog on Magnum [...] among other things. I [...] would occasionally work with the two guys who were still in the Animation Department.

Hmmm. Apparently the two guys in the Animation department are an insufficient staff to manage all the things they are responsible for... 8-)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Yep, especially as Halloweekends grows and gets more animations.

Cedar Point has what is called the Animation Shop which takes care of all the skeletons on the Rail Road. Every year so many are repaired and repainted, and as for them not working the only one that was acting up was the the guy at the well in Boneville.

As a side note the Animation shop has only 2 employees.

Animation is alive and well it has only 2 employees.

Glad you cleared that up.

I'm still interested in hearing the larger reason for Boneville. In a Boneville thread in the CP history section a former employee (Thabto, I believe) explained that Boneville is very valuable to the park and has a real purpose. (Other than providing a way to disguise the remains of employees who leak info to the Lemon Chill guy) I assume it is to provide a distraction of some sort. Does anyone know for sure?

I never said any such thing.