Cedar Point Announces New Water Ride for 2010 Season

Now you're making sense. ;)

I agree, if they announce an Intamin for 2011, it's time to think about forcing a shareholder vote to remove Kinzel.

That all depends on how much of a discount CP gets on the next Intamin. ;)

Yeah, Intamin needs to offer something. Don't we still have 6 days left to take advantage of their 30 day, money back, guarantee on StR? ;)

How does the lemon law work again?:)

Once a lemon, always a lemon?

djDaemon said:

Captain Hawkeye said:
PR rules are clear: The more info the better. Not because CP "owes" anyone anything, but to get people on your side. The more you disclose the better off you are. Ask the Tylenol people. Or the Toyoda people. Tylenol's PR after the scare was much better than Toyoda's simply because the Tylenol people were out front so it appeared that they were doing everything to makes things "right" and not leaving malcontents room to second guess. BP is learning that lesson again, now.

Did you really just compare safety-related problems that lead to deaths with an amusement park water ride that simply isn't ready yet? Wow. And here I thought I'd seen & heard it all.

;)

Of course not--that would be stupid. :)

But I am comparing the effectiveness of PR strategies. CF is being vilified over a ride not working. Tylenol was praised for its handling of the crisis despite 7 people dying.

How hard would it have been for CF to say that the boats have been removed from site for repairs? (Or that new boats are being built in Europe? Apparently CF can't decide so they combined both.) The only reason we found out that it will take way more time than "after the inspectors inspect them on Tuesday" is because of a stockholders' meeting.

People are right--CF doesn't owe us any explanation. (The unitholders are another matter.) But it is good public relations to keep people informed. It keeps potential customers happier. It shows people that you are on top of things. (How competent does CF look after implying that STR will open 2 weeks late, then after it is inspected, and then saying nothing? Let alone not being able to decide if new boats are being built or the old ones are being repaired in Europe?)

I don't make up PR realities--but even CF has to live by them.

I agree with Dj that what Tony told us didn't really change the status of the situation. StR is still closed.

But I have to agree with Captain Hawkeye as well. I can't exactly compare to Holiday World since the Voyage is still open despite not having the Timberliners ready, but compare the way Holiday World and Cedar Point have been informing guests on the availability and status of their new stuff. Holiday World has been providing information, whether it was testing, delivery, lack of delivery, something broke and posted it on their website blog, twitter, and Facebook. That information has been provided every couple of days. Prior to Tony's remark yesterday, the park hasn't really taken the initive to inform guests on what was going on since Memorial Day weekend.

Both parks can't really give an exact timetable on when their new thing will be ready, but one park is making a better effort at least establishing a rough guess on the time table and if something changes they have let their guests know.

Either way, both parks don't have to give us any information about the status of a new attraction, but it's good for customer service to inform the customer to make that a better informed customer when it comes to any planning.

~Rob

Captain Hawkeye said:
CF is being vilified over a ride not working.

Methinks you lack perspective. I would be willing to bet that outside of our enthusiast world, pretty much no one even knows about the new ride, let alone is upset that it's not open.

How hard would it have been for CF to say that the boats have been removed from site for repairs?

That's just it, though - they did say that. We've known that was the problem for weeks now. Nothing had changed - the boats still were not working properly, and they needed modifications. We've known that was the case for quite some time now. And again, nothing has changed since.

But it is good public relations to keep people informed.

I agree. But again, they have kept us informed. Have we received up-to-the-second updates via Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, MySpace and Orkut directly from the guys in the shop performing the repairs? No, but what we have received has been an honest explanation from park officials about what has been going on. What more can you ask? (Don't answer that - the answer has already been demonstrated... not necessarily by you, but by some.)

(How competent does CF look...

To people like us? Not very, but that was the case prior to them even announcing StR. I'd wager the general public's perception of CF is impacted more by $3.50 sodas than it is by the new water ride not being ready on time.

JuggaLotus said:
Now you're making sense. ;)

I agree, if they announce an Intamin for 2011, it's time to think about forcing a shareholder vote to remove Kinzel.

I mean seriously, I'm so glad they have such a good relationship with Intamin and they are always willing to do something new and over-the-top to fit Cedar Point's reputation, but after the problems and delays with Dragster, Maverick and Shoot the Rapids...it's like, ok, they can do better.

I know and understand not everything goes perfect, duh. Delays happen. But having a coaster not open half of a season, removing an in-line twist from a completed coaster circuit for various reasons and installing the wrong size boats on a completed flume are just all things that seem a little odd. I could understand one of the three, but all three happening consecutively? Sorry, I'm rooting for B&M for 2011.

I also want to note that I love Cedar Point and I think they are doing a great job at running the world's best amusement park...I for one am just tired of Intamin always being their go-to guy since 1999. I'm ready for more variety.

Rob - The status Tony gave us yesterday is the same status that was available before Memorial Day.

The boats don't fit and are being repair/replaced/retrofitted and we'll have the ride open as soon as we can.

Just because he doesn't copy and paste that text into a new blog entry, post on here/facebook/twitter doesn't mean we aren't up to date on the status of the ride. In fact, I'm sure that once they have the right boats in house and are getting them on the ride, we'll see posts in all those places saying the boats are in and they can move forward with testing.

You guys aren't seriously going to continue this "discussion" for another 5-10 pages are you?? Its just a RIDE that is not open yet. Take some valium and go lay down for a while, about 4-6 weeks!!

Good point. Back in my day (good Lord...I sound old) we would drive to the park and find out what attractions were closed as we walked up to the front gate.

I didn't know Kennywood was closed on Mondays until I made that mistake once.

That's what we call progress.:)

Dj, I'm pretty sure you don't have a clue what anyones talking about outside of your own delusions of grandeur. You take a psychopathic approach to your arguments while your own flavor of scripture. You argue with anyone even if it contradicts your previous arguments. I see all these problems and think to myself "Self, whats the common denominator here? DjDaemon."

So you say it provides "NO, new information" on Shoot the Rapids. Tony gave us an update on the boats. So you knew before everyone else did they were making modifications to the boats. Suuuure you did. I didn't and I've recently been reading this website pretty regularly. I also go to Cedar Point more times in one year then you go in 4 according to your own numbers. So to all intents and purposes, I should be king knowledge or at least a lord of my own ride if you want to get technical. Instead of relying on rumors, I rely on official information. Also, due to the lack of updates from the park in any official fashion after being mum for a week, I thought and non-enthusiasts I congregate with thought there was potential for the ride to be inspected yesterday. Especially since I have documented proof they were doing work to the splash down. Splash down work + long boats = problem fixed.

Now, I don't pretend to be an engineer, but I just described a completely plausible situation.

Also, he or possibly someone else fixed the Cedar Point webpage to not have "Memorial Day" in the status. Clearly someone realized this was misleading in many ways.

You and 30 others can say what you want about the status of the ride. Until a representative of Cedar Fair makes it official, you're continuing to blow smoke in the wrong persons face.

OMG I'm tired of this. Have you seen past threads? Any one who argues with Dj and Jugga loses. Just stop. If you think you have a good point and think you win the arguement friggin fantastic for you! But save us all the time from reading post after post after post and just stop. We get the point you are trying to make. You are the only one on this website who agrees with what you are saying. The ride is closed. It will be closed for a long time. Most people know that. Thanks. :)

"Lightning Strikes again " ok the ride has not opened which sucks BUT when it does everyone will be happy, the ride looks great and you will get Really wet. It"s not like the park is happy about STR not being ready but what can they do? I've been to the park 12 times so far this season and have had a blast every time when STR open ill ride it but just because one ride isn't open does not spell the end of the world. What will happen in 2011 if the new "Thrill Ride " doesn't open on time nothing we will ride all the other great attractions and just wait with anticipation.

Your mom is to fat to ride TTD. said:
OMG I'm tired of this. Have you seen past threads? Any one who argues with Dj and Jugga loses. Just stop. If you think you have a good point and think you win the arguement friggin fantastic for you! But save us all the time from reading post after post after post and just stop. We get the point you are trying to make. You are the only one on this website who agrees with what you are saying. The ride is closed. It will be closed for a long time. Most people know that. Thanks. :)

I think that someone needs to step away from the computer for a while. Just take a deep breath and count to 10. I find it hillarious how some people can get so pissed off and go on and on about something so silly.

It's a freakin ride at an amusement park....not a oil spill or an umpire who makes a bad call. Why are some of you getting so crabby around here?

If you don't like what someone is saying, disagree with them and stop feeding the fire.

Can't we just all get along around here?

^ getting along now thats just absurd. ;)

PrawoJazdy said:
Tony gave us an update on the boats. So you knew before everyone else did they were making modifications to the boats.

Yes, because its the same reasoning they gave for why the ride wasn't going to open on opening day. So yes, anyone who was paying attention that week and saw the release from the park knew that the reason it wasn't opening was the boats. Not because they had some inside knowledge.

And since nothing new had been stated (and the appearance/disappearance of boats over the ensuing several weeks) it was pretty safe to assume that the boats were still the issue and they hadn't quite figured out what it will take to get them running right.

So, when Tony posted on Monday to say that the boats were still the issue and the ride still wasn't open and they weren't sure when it would open, he really wasn't saying anything new.

Any real indepth updates are pretty much out of the question. I'm assuming Intamin and Cedar Fair still have good relations and aren't going to be throwing one another under the bus. Explaining why a ride is delayed a month without making one or the other look bad is near impossible.

Still sucks the ride isn't open though, I couldn't care less about whether it's because of the washer or the lug nut on the boat.