Cedar Point 2013

Sause said:
Wow, they're working in the rain, good for them. Won't be long now and the whole thing will be gone!

Why wouldn't they be working in the rain? It's just a late-Summer/early-Fall rain shower.

I wasn't sure of the protocol for their equipment in that weather. We sure needed the rain tho here in northern Ohio.

Sause, you have a good point asking that question. Some construction companies will shut down if it rains, especially if you work with pouring concrete.

They are tearing a building down. Who cares if the building also happens to be wet?

looks to be a few new pics on the blog... http://www.cedarpoint.com/blog-article/online-fun/GateKeeper-Site-Update

What I love most about B&M coasters. The capacity!!

GateKeeper - 1710 riders per hour
Raptor - 1800 riders per hour
Mantis - 1800 riders per hour

Compared to the popular Intamin models in the park.

Top Thrill Dragster - 1000 riders per hour
Maverick - 1200 riders per hour

Millenium Force - 1300 riders per hour

^ Not to mention, Wicked Twister's whopping 960 riders per hour.

I've been away for a little while and I don't know if this has been discussed, but are they trying to get DT's area cleared out in time for Space Spiral's final days of operation? Or have they already determined Space Spiral is done for good? Because I remember before, they said it would run through Labor Day weekend.

TwistedWicker77 said:
Not to mention, Wicked Twister's whopping 960 riders per hour.

It is sad that Wicked Twister has better hourly capacity than most of King's Island's roller coasters.

GateKeeper has a high hourly capacity, but I wonder if it will be subjected to 2 train stacking with no separate load and unload. Even though it is a different type of ride, Skyrush was supposed to pull 1300 riders an hour. It can't even do 600 with its same side load and unload.

^^^ Mantis gets no where near that capacity. It's actually much closer to half that. I have the 1996 poster from the park featuring Mantis and some of the stats. It always makes me laugh when I see that 1800 pph mentioned on it. Raptor doesn't quite get that high either. All of these are theoretical of course.

It's really interesting seeing that area without DT. I didn't go to Cedar Point until 2004 so I never knew what it looked like without the big warehouse. I've always thought it looked ugly but looking back on pictures of it even one month ago, it was really ugly. That area of the park is just going to be beautiful, Wicked Twister's front tower is going to look much better now.

Mr. Potato said:
^^^ Mantis gets no where near that capacity. It's actually much closer to half that. I have the 1996 poster from the park featuring Mantis and some of the stats. It always makes me laugh when I see that 1800 pph mentioned on it. Raptor doesn't quite get that high either. All of these are theoretical of course.

I looked up Mantis and was really surprised by the numbers. The first time I ever visited Cedar Point (2005), the longest line I waited in was Mantis, as crazy as that sounds. I was naive and didn't know any better...

I'm expecting the numbers to be lower than estimated, but I'd still be shocked if GateKeeper isn't a people eater.

Just the front of the park is like an entire lesser amusement park. Raptor, Wicked Twister, GateKeeper, and the flats = everything at Valleyfair.

The 1,800 riders per hour on Mantis would have been if they hit interval every time, never had an empty seat and of course, ran three trains. When I worked Mantis in '10, we would generally have 900-1,000 hours.

As for GateKeeper, in order for it to even come close to hitting 1,700 hours, it'll need to be no loose articles. Period. Raptor's biggest downfall as far as capacity are those stupid bins.

MillenniumSpork said:.

As for GateKeeper, in order for it to even come close to hitting 1,700 hours, it'll need to be no loose articles. Period. Raptor's biggest downfall as far as capacity are those stupid bins.

I'd much prefer the ride having those stupid bins, personally.
.

If they do the bins like X Flight at Great America, it should have a very minimal effect on capacity. They have bins between every other airgate, which means when you get to the gate, there is a bin right next to you either on your left or right side.

It's too bad the Raptor station is small. I would suggest the way they do it at Kings Dominion. For Volcano, before you boarded, you had a ride attendant go around with a cart and you put your belongings on it before boarding. My other suggestion would probably piss a lot of people off. Have lockers like you do Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster.

^Agreed. The setup in that station was pretty good. I don't recall much of a holdup by people wandering around to place their junk in bins.

For the past 2 seasons, I have been trying to figure out a way to make loading time quicker on Raptor (or any coaster with 3 train operation and same load/unload station) without having to worry about bins and lockers. I like the idea of a ride host coming around with a cart.

I know we'll never see it, and it's been brought up a million times, but I would love to see a setup, such as the one at the Universal parks, with the free lockers based on wait times.

^ I wouldn't say never, but it's unlikely in the near future. In order to do something like that they need to have a way to more accurately and actually measure the wait times than just a guess based on how full the queue is. Both Universal and Disney have a system for that in place.

I love the Disney system. Cedar Point's wait time's are close to accurate, but they could definitely be improved.