Calypso looking bare

When I rode this earlier in the year I noticed it was looking different and missing missing something then I realized to ceterpience is gone.

I was there 2 weeks ago and now that you mention it, and I look at a picture of it from 2003, the center piece is missing. It was the first time I had ever seen it, other than in a picture.

I dont Remember it being there Last Year

Yes, it was removed prior to the 2004 season.

If you think it looks bad now without the center, try taking a look way back....

http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?a=372

Could the lack of "themeing" be a sign that the ride is on the end of its lifespan?

<insert lack of DT theming joke and how its still about>

Maybe being moved? But it seems to early for CP to be doing that.

I wish they still kept the old themeing for rides. A lot of rides lost their old glory.

It would be so fun to ride Calypso with all that themeing. I think it would make it much more fun.

When I saw that bare-assed Calypso last year I knew it was on it's last season, and mentioned so to the ride-op. He said no, and indicated the new ride would be over in front of the Troika. I thought "yeah, right". And then reminded him again that the sign and his control booth were all that was left to remove from his ride. Well, didn't CalypsoGuy turn out to be right, and his ride is still sitting over there running rather well in all it's naked glory.

When the new Calypso, Super Himalaja, and Scwabinchen came to C.P. they really were quite spectacular in their Euro-style decor. Most of it's fallen away.

And Rathofdoom, maybe we shouldn't refer to that style as themeing. Maybe, like me and many others, you're the type of enthusiast who has a real interest in traditional parks and the traveling fair circuit, locations where rides tend to be left in their original manufactured style of decoration, or flash. It's when stripped down park models are sold to a Busch or a Flags that they undergo an extreme makeover to fit the mood and decor of a certain area. This to me is what's known as themeing.

Why I Love Cedar Point: Maybe by plan or maybe by accident Cedar Point has always been a place that realizes the value of themeing and excecutes it well, but embraces it's status as a traditional park, where it's not unusual to see a garishly decorated Calypso twirling along side a well appointed log flume. It all fits together so nicely.

The old spectaculars have a LOT of lights on them. The Giant Wheel was originally set up with 32,608 lamps. The late Jumbo Jet had just over 30,000 on it. The Matterhorn, Schwabinchin, Bayern Kurve, and Super Himalaya all had lamp counts in the 15-20 thousand range. These are specialty lamps. You cant' run down to Lowes and by them. Then there is the cost to light them. It would very often take more electricty to light a ride than actually run it. Not to mention the time it take to make sure that all of those circuits work. During my era at CP there was a dedicated crew that all they ever did was make sure that all of the lights on the rides burned. They had their own cherry picker, and a warehouse full of lamps. It would appear that those days are long gone.

Such a shame, too.

Thing is, now it's possible to build rides with lighting packages like that using LEDs which last much longer and require significantly less current to operate than the traditional lamps. The last major update in ride lighting technology was the use of Turbolites, which replace colored or painted lamps with smaller clear lamps operating in tinted plastic enclosures...so only one type of replacement lamp is needed. Now we have LEDs which have no filaments and could potentially last for the life of the ride...!

I'd like to see a return to the days of rides with 32k lights on them.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I whole heartedly agree Dave,the experience of walking down the midway in the evening during the 1970's was really something. As far as LEDs go they burn brighter on less current than a traditional incandescent lamp.

I doubt we will see 32k lights until we see the old tower lights that you could see reflecting on the sky return to TDD :(

In my opinion, I want CP to improve the atmosphere of the park by bringing back all cool lighting effects of rides. It'd make walking down the midways a lot more exciting. *** Edited 6/8/2005 3:20:51 PM UTC by Kyle Dersch***

Cedar Point clearly does believe lighting matters, considering the games midway (and, if you hadn't noticed, the NW Skyride station).

I couldn't help but notice that Power Tower was not lit at all last night. Recent ride additions have shown that CP is into buying cool lighting packages (MF, Dragster, maXair, games). I'm not so sure they're into maintaining them as much as they should be though. Look at PT, Magnum's tunnels, etc. I have to think the lighting they put by the games next to maXair isn't cheap though, so hopefully they will at least keep that working beynd the first year or two.

You missed a ride, Mean Streak, that ride has good lighting at night. I believe that they should make Magnum with the strobe lights like they do for Millennium Force, I think that would be neat.

Magnum used to feature strobe lighting, including a display up the lift hill when it first opened.

I need to be alittle more observant next time I'm at the point. I didn't notice anything different.

Jeff---

I think I may have missed the lighting changes at the NW Skyride Station. . .what exactly changed?

They put those bright LED strips on the station over the food stands.

Power Tower has the older Vari-Lite units, and from talking to people (including a biased guy from High End Systems, the people that do virtually all of the dynamic lighting instruments around the rest of the park), the Vari-Lites are notoriously prone to breakdown and therefore expensive to maintain. How many photos have you seen of Power Tower where one tower is always purple, or otherwise different from the rest?

I wonder how expensive it would be to just replace them. Especially with the High End stuff, you could do a lot more interesting stuff, a la Millennium Force.