Cedar Point 2013

Perhaps people who go to Cedar Point. Go to a park that has gotten wood coaster recently and you'll probably find people who are more aware of the fact that they're still being built. Remember, were the 0.01% Very few GP know the amount of useless information that we do. :-)

I love pointless,useless information...

Ride On_17 said:
djDaemon said:

From what I can tell, this coaster design is nothing more than a modern version of Mine Ride.

Granted I've never been on Verbolten, but to me it doesn't really look too similar to Mine Ride. It looks more intense, plus Mine Ride doesn't have an indoor section and a freefall drop.

Verbolten isn't Intamin.

Renegade said:
Yeah, but are either popular rides? Very few people get off Mean Streak and say, "I love it!".

Enough people enjoy the ride that the queues are jam-packed during HW at a park that has been doing record attendance over the last few years. I'd say demand doesn't really exist outside of the minuscule enthusiast community.

Would a brand new wood coaster be popular? Of course, but the same could be said of nearly any attraction, including (or perhaps especially) a family-focused attraction.

I am not understanding what you are trying to say. Saying people enjoy a ride simply because the queu is packed during HW does not really mean anything. Everything is jam packed at that time including the toll booths. Does that mean people like the toll booths?

I was responding to the assertion that lack of riders means a ride should be replaced. I was simply pointing out there is no lack of riders for MS and BS, and thus, no immediate need to replace the coasters.

Say what you will about MS now because as much as I loved it when it was new it is and never will be what it was but BS (I know it has changed over the years heaver trains and what not) but its still a great coaster for being as old as it is!

Kevinj said:
Well, at the time none of those coasters existed. As much as I loathe the Mean Streak experience today, it was a wooden home run when it debuted.

You can't pretend that we had El Toro, Voyage, and Thunderheads out there to compare it to when it opened.

Sure, but plenty of quality wooden coasters were around, like The Texas Giant, The Beast, Phoenix, Grizzly (Virginia), Thunderbolt, Coney Island Cyclone (various versions). etc... There were tons of wooden rollercoasters that provided more thrills and ran smoother.

I don't think Cedar Point has ever considered Mean Streak a "home run," at least with respect to the general public's reaction. It's never been one of CP's most popular coasters -- compare how it was received its first year with Magnum, Millennium, Raptor, and Maverick -- these were indeed home runs, and they showed up not only in ridership numbers and reviews, but in the constant popularity of these rides over the years. Mean Streak was a solid coaster when it opened, but there is no way the general public reacted the same way to Mean Streak as to these other rides -- not to even mention how the enthusiasts reacted to it.

djDaemon said:

Renegade said:
Yeah, but are either popular rides? Very few people get off Mean Streak and say, "I love it!".

Enough people enjoy the ride that the queues are jam-packed during HW at a park that has been doing record attendance over the last few years. I'd say demand doesn't really exist outside of the minuscule enthusiast community.

Would a brand new wood coaster be popular? Of course, but the same could be said of nearly any attraction, including (or perhaps especially) a family-focused attraction.

I have been to Halloweekends every year for the past 7 years, and I have never once waited in a line for Mean Streak longer than 5 minutes.

Regardless of when I visit the park, either in May, or July or August or September, I don't think I've ever waited for MS. Blue Streak, on the odd day, will have a lineup of 15 to 20 or so, but I don't think it's accurate to say that MS's queues are "jam packed"

djDaemon said:
Enough people enjoy the ride that the queues are jam-packed during HW at a park that has been doing record attendance over the last few years. I'd say demand doesn't really exist outside of the minuscule enthusiast community.

Last year MS was closed durning halloweekends for repairs, and the year before it was closed after the first week of halloweekends due to a fire. so any jampacked halloweekend line for MS was AT LEASE 3 years ago

djDaemon said:
I was responding to the assertion that lack of riders means a ride should be replaced. I was simply pointing out there is no lack of riders for MS and BS, and thus, no immediate need to replace the coasters.

Except perhaps when the dude doing the maintenance budget says, "Holy crap, we sure spend a lot of money on this ride."

But would a new wood coaster be significantly less expensive to maintain? Especially if it gets the typical "bigger, faster, longer" treatment (i.e. The Voyage)? If that were the case, why did they spend so much money the last couple seasons doing extensive work on it? If MS weren't long for this world, you'd think it would receive the same or similar care DT has over the last several seasons.

CanadianPointKid said:
...I have never once waited in a line for Mean Streak longer than 5 minutes.

Ridership for MS increased after the installation of Maverick, and in 2008, MS gave around 850,000 rides. That's more than Mine Ride, Blue Streak, MaxAir, Skyhawk, Thunder Canyon, Snake River Falls and WildCat.

And it seems reasonable to assume that if the rough ride MS offered was disincentivizing people from riding, the recent improvements would push those numbers even higher, right into Wicked Twister and Mantis ridership territory.

So while "jam packed" may be an exaggeration, it doesn't seem MS supposed "lack of popularity" is justification for its removal.

djDaemon said:
I was responding to the assertion that lack of riders means a ride should be replaced. I was simply pointing out there is no lack of riders for MS and BS, and thus, no immediate need to replace the coasters.

I was responding to, "Lots of people seem to enjoy the wood coasters already offered.". Even with decent ridership numbers, I don't think that's the case. If it is, they would really end up enjoying a new wooden roller coaster.

Those ridership numbers are a bit shocking though.

This is just random, but I'd love for some 3D Street art on the midway, it would be a cheap and unique addition to the Point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfWzR2JgWw&feature=related

^ Doesn't that 3D street art only work if you are looking at a certain angle? I'm not positive, but in my art class in school a few years ago we had a 3D street artist come in and talk to us about it. If I remember correctly, he told us that you can only see the "3D" part if you are looking directly into the camera lense at a specific angle.

I don't want to break up the debate here but I just wanted to bring up ride names for 2013. I don't know if a topic was created for this already, but what would be a cool name for the 2013 roller coaster? If the track is Orange, it would be cool if the name was Wild Cat. Bring back the name like we did with Shoot the Rapids.

^ Sandpiper or Semipalmated Plover, or "We Met " on the boardwalk. Or make a flyover Pinks and call it the flying bun...

I'm guessing it will be something sea creature related since it will be by the beach, but who knows. I'd like it be named Scylla, after the 6-headed sea monster from The Odyssey, and have it a color like Leviathan. Then is could have 6 inversions to represent the 6 heads...The name really doesn't matter that much to me as long as it has a nice ring to it, but I'll only be happy with the color as long as it isn't red or green.

Well, nothing has been trademarked yet. :)

Ride On_17 said:
I'm guessing it will be something sea creature related since it will be by the beach, but who knows. I'd like it be named Scylla, after the 6-headed sea monster from The Odyssey, and have it a color like Leviathan. Then is could have 6 inversions to represent the 6 heads...The name really doesn't matter that much to me as long as it has a nice ring to it, but I'll only be happy with the color as long as it isn't red or green.

I like that idea.

SSL - I'd assume the 3D art works better from certain angles than others. It's something that could make for an interesting photo opportunity / memory.