Cedar Point 2012

How many new ride flops in a row is Cedar Point going to have before they put a coaster or a ride demanding attention?. This is the second year in a row that the topics are better about what is coming next year rather than what is new this year. Two giant yawn attractions in a row. 2012 has to be a homerun!!

This may not be the thread for this comment, but given the existing focus on CP at a family level I'll throw it out there.

Most people who visit the park realize that there are, indeed, several things that cater to the whole family as opposed to those looking for a thrill. Clearly that's been the goal for the past couple years, looking at Planet Snoopy, STR, and Kinzel's seemingly endless statements conveying that. We also can't discount all the shows the park puts on.

My question is in regards to advertising. With CP trying to focus so much on the park being a family place, why is that not reflected in their commercials? Of course, the commercials from the past year or two show a handful of kids bouncing around with Peanuts characters for split-seconds at a time. But the majority of spots I've seen display what the thrill-seekers want. They involve people break dancing in and out of graphic coaster loops and walking epically through fog, eyes to the horizon, and with looks on their faces that say, "GTFO. I'm 'bout to ride Windseeker." This hardly makes CP look like as much of a family utopia as the infamous spots featuring Mr. Six do for Six Flags.

For me it's not so much a question of "What do you think they'll build next year?" but more of "Is it equitable for them to continue to build family attractions if they don't do them justice in their marketing?"

-Sorry for this novel of a post.

I was at the park yesterday.

Dragster was down about 4 times in a one hour time span.

Aslo, Thunder Canyon was running.

The park was not as crowded as I had thought it was going to be.

It was a really nice day there, but it started to rain around 9 p.m. and I learned NEEVR RIDE MILLENIUM IN THE FRONT SEAT WHEN IT IS RAINING... it felt like there were needles going into my face.

I have heard rumors that in 2012 they will be taking out calypso and the turnpike cars to put in a new ride possibly a roller coaster

Great minds think alike, Ensign, right? :)

I must be a coaster-masochist, SSL488...as I actually enjoy that experience.

^^ It was still fun, just much more painful than I was hoping. haha.

When I was there, they kept pulling trains off the track. I asked the ride opp why they were doing that, he told me that it was because of the rain.

This doesn't make sense to me that they take the trains off...

Can anyone explain?

Kevinj said:
Great minds think alike, Ensign, right? :)

We know who we are. ;)

SSL488 said:
^^ It was still fun, just much more painful than I was hoping. haha.

When I was there, they kept pulling trains off the track. I asked the ride opp why they were doing that, he told me that it was because of the rain.

This doesn't make sense to me that they take the trains off...

Can anyone explain?

Were they taking them all off, or just one or two? I can see them reducing the amount of trains since people leave the park when it rains, and they wouldn't need all the trains on.

They took two of the trains off. But there were still a lot of people in the queue line. So they just made the wait even longer

I'm not sure which rides they were taking trains off of. But, coasters with friction brakes (Magnum, Gemini, Corkscrew, etc) would have more potential of not being able to be stopped by the brakes. If they go down to 1 train op, they can continue to run without the potential of a crash. They started doing this pretty regularly in 2007 after a magnum train slid through a set of brakes and hit another train. No one was badly hurt. But, it could have been a lot worse.

Rides like Millennium and Maverick have magnetic brakes which work wet or dry and with or without power. However, Magnetic brakes can not completely stop a train. Which is why those types have drive tires to move the trains around after the magnetic brakes have slowed them down to a crawl.

A ride like Lost Coaster of Superstition fountain at Indiana Beach is completely dependent on it's drive tires to get the cars back up into the station. So it will usually shut down in the rain just because they wouldn't be able to get the cars into the station. Wet Rubber = bad traction :) I don't know if any of CP's coasters that have drive tires are affected like that. Maybe Wildcat. Ocean Motion may not run in the rain for the same reason. It is accelerated and more importantly stooped solely by it's drive tires.

the ffej man said:
How many new ride flops in a row is Cedar Point going to have before they put a coaster or a ride demanding attention?

It's a good thing that it's not up to you, because I don't think you understand the motivation behind putting anything new in the park. A coaster offers a good marketing angle for a couple of years, sure, but if their capital expenditure program just focused on that, the park would have no value proposition for families, the groups of people who spend the most money.

Unless it's a family coaster, of course... ;)

I'm going to change direction a bit here for a minute. I was at Soak City yesterday and there is red paint indicating electric in a few places including just inside the entrance near the resort gate. There are also red flags in various places. I hope nobody already posted this. I'm trying to catch up for a few days of posts and could have missed it.

Currently under construction is a Tofts refreshment building located near the Magnum tunnels were they used to have the Boardwalk Fry cart.

They added a wood fence around park of Adventure Cove. Also,they added doors to the entrances of AC. At AC and Breakers Bay they replaced the tubes that stored life vests with decorative racks with hooks. There is now a Subway in SC too. There may be more changes, but I was pretty much in the one area the entire time.

Clevelandkid said:
There is now a Subway in SC too. There may be more changes, but I was pretty much in the one area the entire time.

There has been a subway there for quite some time..

I would like to see cedar point tear down disaster transport and put a GCI twister for the 2012 season and also put an Intamin Indoor Family Launched Coaster somewhere else. I like the theme of disaster transport but it shuts down in rain and whats the point of having an indoor coaster that shuts down in rain. Don't most people go to them when its raining and it looks bad on the beach.

@Jeff. It does not have to be a coaster. A nice dark ride would be nice. Something that Cedar point has that nobody else has. A large swing that has 3 other just like it and one in the same State is not a reason to come to the point. I would like a coaster, but a ride with some imagination and excitement will do just as good. Cedar point didn't make it's name and reputation by being a cookie cutter park.

Why? Do you know what the attendance did despite the "flop" last year? I think you'd be surprised.

SSL488 said:

Clevelandkid said:
There is now a Subway in SC too. There may be more changes, but I was pretty much in the one area the entire time.

There has been a subway there for quite some time..

The new Subway is actually inside the Soak City gates. The existing one is in Challenge Park.

Attendance did not flop last year. That had nothing to do with the new attraction last year. It had to do with the weather and the perceived economic upturn. Wildwater Kingdom had a stellar year last year and they had no new attractions for the 2nd year in a row. All I am saying is that The point could use some buzz, not just ho hum.

the ffej man said:
...The point could use some buzz, not just ho hum.

One teenager's "ho hum" may be a family's "buzz".

Did you go to the park last year? And are you going this year? If the answer to either or both of these questions is yes, then I have to ask... why on Earth would you go to an amusement park that didn't install something that generated "buzz"?