Cedar Fair CEO Dick Kinzel on NPR

I just happened to catch some of this interview on The Motley Fool radio program earlier today, and I thought that you folks might enjoy listening to it. Some highlights include talk about TTD, and a classic moment where he refers to Disaster Transport as a "dog" of a ride. Great Stuff.

Link about 1/4 way down.

Enjoy.

RPM.

Thanks for posting that. I thought was interesting to find out what Dick Kinzel thought about TTD being down and DT was a bad idea. Does anybody know how to download the clip?

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CP Coaster Guide Ride Count
TTD: 1, WT: 9, MF: 4, Mantis: 3, Raptor: 6, Mean Streak: 5, Magnum: 5
*** This post was edited by TopThrillDragster03 6/28/2003 11:59:45 PM ***

Good interview. It's nice to know he's optimistic about riding Dragster before the 4th!
*** This post was edited by Italics 6/29/2003 12:12:51 AM ***

Thanks for the great link! I laughed SO much.

HAHA, I didn't know there was that much of a negativity towards turning AR into DT! It makes sense though, it is still a dog!

I was glad to hear the optimism in Kinzel's voice in regards to riding TTD before the 4th.
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America's Rockin' Roller Coast

That was pretty good. When they asked him about any rides that were a miss, I was expecting to hear VertiGo mentioned. Never knew he felt that way about DT. I thought it was funny when they brought up RCT.

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-Chris Woodard
"We got pop and Gatorade over here for $100 a bottle, so have your credit card ready. Seriously, the food here is so expensive, I just eat the condiments because I can't afford a meal." - MF que DJ 6/16/03

The best busisness decision ever? Magnum XL-200.

Real Lemon? Disaster Transport. "The dumbest thing..."

My feelings exactly.

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- John
I Snap Flyers

Thanks for the link.

And the best quote from the interview - "I'll be riding Top Thrill Dragster before the 4th of July".

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mr Kinzel!

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Without upstops, airtime would have a whole new meaning!

Just a thought, Mr. Kinzel did ride Dragster before the Fourth of July. He was one of the first people to get a ride on it back when it was announced safe for the public. Do you think Mr. Kinzel was trying to be funny?

Great Interview. Mr. Kinzel gave a great laugh.

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Ed Markey is my anti-drug.
Rollercoasters have proven to cause brain damage in stupid politicians. DAR-HOOT

trips to CP:6 Dragster:2 MFer:6 Magnum: 13 Running with the bulls for a 15 minutes dragster wait, Must be June!

Funny interview, but why would he sell Whack-a-Mole?? I love that game!!

Whack-a-Mole will never die!!
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TTD: 2
MF:3
WT:2
Magnum:3

wignut: Just a thought, Mr. Kinzel did ride Dragster before the Fourth of July. He was one of the first people to get a ride on it back when it was announced safe for the public. Do you think Mr. Kinzel was trying to be funny?

he said he will ride it and will is in the future tense.

magnum definately the best decision ever. built in 89 and still one of the best in the world, #2 in the park imo.

i would have to include the iron dragon as a lemon as well. that ride has never really been fun, even in its first year it was a mediocre ride.

thanks for the link.

Hey now, don't be dissin' the Iron Dragon, it is the Top Thrill Dragster of 1987!

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Come on people, this poetry's not going to appreciate itself!

After the interviewer asked what rides ended up as "lemons" or the "dumbest" decision ever made, Mr. Kinzel responded by saying "there are a lot of those" and there was another pause before he finally mentioned Disaster Transport. I wonder what other rides he was thinking about?

iron dragon! and maybe mean streak, it probably had a good roi in its first year with its 4 hour lines, but that ride hasnt ever been good either. but at least back then the first 45 seconds were good, now the entire ride is bad.
*** This post was edited by eightdotthree 7/2/2003 12:53:29 PM ***

Iron Dragon Rocks!!! and I'll stick by that statement until the day I die. Maybe it doesn't seem so hot now, but when I was ten years old it was a monster. How can we expect the next generation of CP attendants to all ride the Magnum and Millenium right off the bat unless they had not been introduced to coasters of a smaller size. I know that if it hadn't been for DT and Iron Dragon that I'd never even thought about conquering a giga coaster. CP needs a variety of coasters, good and bad, big and small, so that younger riders can more progressivly move from Junior Gemini to Top Thrill Dragster.

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I'm a CP geek with an appreciation of all things gaming: Game Boy, Pac-Man, and the Breakers' Hotel Arcade.

Sir Dubs, I understand where you are coming from but you have to look at this in the full context. Back when Iron Dragon (and Disaster Transport) was introduced, they marketed both attractions with as much flair and pizzazz as they did Raptor, Mantis, Mean Streak.

I am sure that if Dick had ridden Big Bad Wolf, he bought Iron Dragon with the idea that it would be similar. We all know that ID is a distant cousin...at best...of BBW.

I think he is agreeing that there are rides for everyone in the family but these two aren't the thrills they expected them to be.

Dick Kinzel wasn't CEO when the Iron Dragon was built. I think Robert Munger was president at that time.

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I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks,
than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.

I am sure that if he were around today, he too, would also agree with Mr. Kinzel

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