Cedar Point and their coasters at night

I might be spoiled by too many county fairs, but I think CP and actually most of the other amusement parks I've been to, make a poor effort in the lighting department. I'm talking about the park as a whole, and especially coasters.

First off, what happened to the original lift hill lights on the Magnum? Anyone remember the little blip that shot up the hill kind of like a laser? That was cool. The lights that are there now might as well be invisible. As a matter of fact, the only coasters that look cool at night are: The Blue Streak, with it's tracer lights the full circuit, the Mean Streak, with it's search lights setting off the entire ride, and obviously, Millennium Force, with its brilliant intelligent lighting. Sorry gang, but as far as the rest of the coasters lighting schemes go... I have one word to describe them all....... PUS! *** This post was edited by Superstew on 2/8/2001. ***

Interesting word to use as a description... *Grin*

Yeah, I remember the old Magnum lighting, and it was neat. I totally agree, the lighting on all the rides could be kept up more, but I will note that I have no idea how many lights would burn out and have to be replaced in a week's time, so I don't know how big a job it would be. Some of them just look terrible, though, so many lights are out! I'm very glad that when they relocated the Giant Wheel they FINALLY replaced a lot of the lights. Other coasters could use better lighting effects, if that is possible. At the least, bulbs should be replaced more frequently!

I will say, though, I think Chaos has a great lighting job, or at least it did a couple years ago. I haven't seen it at night since then, so I don't know if it has degraded much.

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PO!NT OF VIEW - A Different Look at Roller Coasters
http://www.crosswinds.net/~justmayntz/thrills/
Let's ROCK and ROLLER COAST the vote!

The sad thing is, most nights during the summer, the park isn't open late enough for the lights to have too much effect. Wouldn't it be cool for the park to be open until 2:00 AM or so?! The best rides are always at night when the peninsula has cooled off and much of the crowds have gone home.

(I know--the employees understandably would want nothing to do with those hours--they work long enough as it is.)

The reason the Magnum lights were changed was because the FAA was not happy with them. They looked like runway lights from the air. Thats why they were changed, although I would like to see them go back.

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We bought a lifetime supply of pudding? How wasted were we last night?!
*Dude, Where's my car?*

Although Raptor isn't lighted all the way around, I like the light scheme. The coaster layout and the lights go hand-and-hand!

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Kyle
I'll take Roller Coasters for $200 Alex! *** This post was edited by Cedar Creek Mine Ride on 2/8/2001. ***

I agree, the Raptor silhouette type lighting is cool.

I too wish the park would stay open a little later on most summer nights, like atleast until 11. It is so nice to walk around the park at night, almost magical. But since most regular summer nights it's only open until 10, you get about an hour and a half of that feeling. I might be stupid about this, but I think the night time is just a really good atmosphere for the park and I wish they'd give us more of it.

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Question: How do you explain the actions of millions of people who wait hours upon hours to be dropped down a hill???

Answer: You don't...

Western Cruiser said:
I know--the employees understandably would want nothing to do with those hours--they work long enough as it is.

This is very true. The MF employees working last year know this best. On most 12 Midnight shifts, and some 11PM close nights, they didn't leave the ride until 2am.

Even though this is true, I would also like to see the park open until a late hour. Mabey 12 on the 10 o'clock closings.

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Monster Ride Host for 2 Years
3 Years Total @ CP

Although my biggest gripe with the lighting at Cedar Point is the lack of upkeep and burnt out bulbs, I would like to keep my post topical and wait for a thread specifically aimed at that subject. Now then, that said, I think that my close second in the gripe department is the lack of variety in lighting. I applaud the innovative lighting of the Millennium Force and hope that the trend towards grounbreaking technology and creativity continues. Aside from the that, I think that lighting a ride is a very artful endeavor that was neglected on several rides. I would like to see fewer tracer lights on lift hills with flood lights in lieu of something more interesting.

Interesting, InclInE LoOpEr...I'd never heard of any FAA trouble with the old Magnum lighting...I thought after the third time that lightning took out the controller they just opted to be done with it...

What I don't understand is why on both Magnum and Raptor, where there are chase lights on the lift hills, both rides have a section of lights near the top that chases backwards. On the other hand, Blue Streak has gorgeous running lights on the bay side that have more circuits than Magnum and Raptor (five circuits instead of three or four) and they all run together...What, sometime between 1964 and 1994 the electricians forgot how to do nice chase lights?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

It sounds lie CP is short on electricians. If it's just splicing wires and changing bulbs sign me up.

That FAA thing is interesting. I'd like to see a pilot try to land a plane on Magnums lift hill. I would find it funny if I were flying a plane and the runway was at a slope that and is only about 300 feet long.

The FAA theory makes sense since CP is within sight of Griffing, probably in line with one of the runways.

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Scott W. Short
scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Okay, I've been waiting to post this somewhere. I'm sure you've all read it, and I hope Jeff will excuse the size of the post, but I just feel it belongs here!

Q: How many GTTP readers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: 1,445

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed;

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently;

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs;

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs;

53 to flame the spell checkers;

41 to correct spelling/grammar flames;

6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb";

Another 6 to condemn those 6 as anal-retentive;

156 to email the Jeff complaining that they are in violation of the "acceptable use policy";

109 to post that this group is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a light bulb forum somewhere, maybe on Coaster Buzz;

111 to defend the posting to this group saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts *are* relevant to this group;

509 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty;

27 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs;

14 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and the post the corrected URL's;

3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group;

33 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too";

12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy;

19 to quote the "Me too's" to say "Me three";

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ;

44 to ask what is "FAQ";

4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

143 to say "do a GTTP archive search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs"

34 to say "FA: on Ebay---vintage light bulbs---no reserve"

68 to killfile anything with the words "light" or " bulb" in it;


Tim Bretz
"Remember to pillage before you burn"

What about Mantis? The "shot up" lighting effect returned on Mantis. I like the idea that Mantis has lighting that is unique to it. I was expecting something kinda like that for the Force. Speaking of, wouldn't the Force look great with chase lights all around the whole layout!?

Tim: You forgot to mention that several of the participants in the light bulb controversy would double-post... :)

(Sorry, CPcyclone, I couldn't resist)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Thats funny Tim, why don't you start that post and we'll follow your list. hehe

Yeah, I was just going to say something about Mantis. It also has the chasers, and the little section at the top that goes backwards.

The main gripe I have with Raptor and Mantis is that their lights should at least be the color of the coaster itself. Raptor\green and Mantis\red, blue or yellow. The rest of them don't really have lights at all. I could though, take care of any one coaster myself by driving my car in and shining the high beams on it.

No I think the color of the lights on Mantis should be either red, faded purple, or yellow :)

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http://sapman.homestead.com --- My stupid website

Cornbread, no you mean ugly pink, faded purple and yellow, right? ;) *** This post was edited by CP_bound on 2/10/2001. ***