Cedar Point Announces New Water Ride for 2010 Season

On the 4th of July, when it was a really hot day, seeing the lockers i figured there was no place to put stuff once you got to the loading area. so not knowing there was a place to put ur shoes, i saw many people piling there shoe out by the lockers so i put mine there too. However, that was a mistake because the stone material on the ground before you get to the queues has a color that makes it burning hot. I also noticed that they had none of the fans that shoot mist. It was so hot that the woman standing behind me in line almost passed out.

the "theming" of STR consists of old signs and terrible country music. also, when i got up to the loading area i saw 2 large barrels blocking the last row of seats. stay classy Cedar Point. ;)

The real truth is that the complainers make up a very small minority of those here. I see nothing but laughs and smiles coming from the people getting off the ride. It's a classic shoot the chutes ride with some fun western theme to it...that's all. And for what it is, it delivers wonderfully.

What strikes me as odd are all these reports of no wait or 15 minutes. I remember Snake River Falls opening year on a hot day...every que filled with a 2 hour wait.

I guess it must be that people don't know about StR yet, or they think it's closed still. Still seems odd though for an opening year ride with the hot weather we've had. I was expecting 1-2 hour waits during the hot weather consistently this year.

Also, does anyone know what particularly is making this ride so problematic? It seems like such a simple log flume! This is the first Intamin product that I can't make excuses for.

At 1 trip every 6 min that is 10 trips per hour x 10 boats x 8 people = 800 people per hour. IIRC SRF does not have 10 boats. (Of course, it doesn't have STR's blocking problems either)

since the back two seats cant be used maybe they should mount an out board motor to get the ride time down to the 3 minute mark and double the ride capacity....

or

put two light weight plastic hillbillies in those seats....

jo linn said:
put two light weight plastic hillbillies in those seats....

They tried doing something like that on dragster, and it did not work out to well.:)

Cardboard cutouts of Tony and Tyler, perhaps.

I just spent nearly 4 days at the Point, and the wisest decision I made was to ride Shoot the Rapids first thing upon our arrival on Saturday. We managed 2 rides Saturday evening, waiting about 15 minutes each time. STR was only open sporadically during the rest of our visit, and we didn't ride it again.

My reaction? It was a fun ride, if not particularly thrilling. Pilgrim's Plunge is more exciting to me, but that's a different story. The theming was decent, though didn't need to have so many wooden crates stacked everywhere. But I will say it's a great addition to my favorite amusement park. Any ride that the entire family can enjoy together is a good thing... We got soaked riding in the front seat our first ride, and experienced one of those splashed mentioned earlier where we got splashed by another boat going down the second hill. Our second, we rode in the second to last row(the last open row), and barely got wet.

One thing I noticed is that riding in the back, we took a pretty big jolt at the bottom of the second hill. After this, we watched the ride for awhile and the back end of the boats seems to really bounce at the bottom of the hills. I suspect this why the back row hasn't been opened...

I guess it remains to be seen what STR will actually add to Cedar Point in time. On Tuesday morning, we rode Thunder Canyon 7 times and Snake River 4 times, and had a blast, not really lamenting the fact that STR was closed... It's just nice to see families having a great time and staying cool on a very hot day.

I also felt the jolt at the bottom of the 2nd drop in the current last row. I really do like the ride, but think alot of guests don't know where it is surprisingly.

In line for Millennium Force, I heard guests saying they couldnt find the new ride. Maybe a sign on the frontier trail would help.

Why is there a crane at "Shoot the Rapids" area?

Because they need to lift something heavy. Most likely boats.

Actually, they have small cranes mounted at the base of the first lift (and perhaps the second as well) that allow the installation & removal of boats.

Though if the second hill doesn't have one, then I'd imagine that is indeed what's going on.

Well, that could get them out of the water. But if they need to move them elsewhere they'd need to bring in a second crane.

Based on what I see on the cam right now, the crane is no longer needed - Spiderman has provided a web to hold the second hill nice and secure. As an added bonus, a fly is hanging as an ornament.

Ah yes... reminds me of the good ol' days when Wicked Twister was being built and we named the spider on the camera "Twistee"... anyone else remember that?

Judging from the webcam it's raining at CP, yet the line for STR appears full. Perhaps we've found a ride people don't mind riding when it's wet outside :)

Ok, so I was at the point on July 7th and July 8th, it was 97 on the 8th and in the 90's on the 7th. Shoot The rapids was closed on the 7th when we arrived at 5pm for the starlight ticket.

On the 8th it did not open until 1030ish. We were the in the first group of people to ride that morning. Once in the station they sized us all up, paired up the single riders, then sat us in the boat. They then promptly had people switch seats which became pretty annoying. We started out in the back seat then got moved to the middle seat and finally to the front seat.We finally got on our way.

With the long run out at the end of the first hill, we got misted at best, then a nice medium size wave washed over the top of the boat and left us in the front seat with shin high water. The seat behind us was complaining they didnt get wet hardly at all. Then we sailed toward the "canyon" all the effects were on but the boat missed them all, again the people behind us were disspointed as we were also. The geysers to the side weren't even timed well and didnt even come close to the flume and the current took the boat out of the reach of the water falls. Then we hit the second hill and I do believe we hit the second hill, there was extremely rough jerk at the base of the hill, it was a bit of a shock and painful, there was nothing like this on the first hill. Then down to the uneventful more looks than soaking splash of the second hill. There was no one paying money to soak us with the geysers from the observation deck.

SO we got off and walked back for a 10 minute wait to ride again. We did the curly shuffle again in the station switching seats, then took off for our second journey only to have a bigger jerk on the second hill and the ride stop. It was as if we didnt make it on the track or the back of the boat hit bottom making it so something didnt engage. We sat there for about 20 minutes while maintance and some guy sat on cell phone talking to someone saying it happened again but for the most part walking all over and talking( this guy had a busy day we saw him earlier speaking on the cell after some guy sliced himself pretty good on the fence in the gemni line ), asking if any of us were hurt, then finally after the maintence people had small meeting after looking over everything, they got us out and walked us back to the exit. Then asked us if we wanted a to ride snake river falls by being walked on to the front of the line, sad things is there was no line for snake river falls and it was 97 degrees.

Shoot the rapids was down for a good few hours, then up and running about 3pm then down again by 6pm when we were back in the area, then the storms rolled through so it didn't open for the rest of the day.

Its a pretty tame ride, not as soaking as I hoped it would be, especially for a summer day like we had. To me, thunder canyon is a better ride and snake river falls as old as it is; is better as well. I know this wont happen but they really need to add something between the first and second hills to spruce things up, maybe extend the canyon, add more effects, maybe an expolding or leaking still or more effects that actually hit the boat. If the line was under 15 minutes I would ride it again but its not worth more than a 15 minute wait.

That was hard to read.

Might want to try using paragraphs.

Just got back from my first ride on Shoot the Rapids.

I can't complain about it being boring because, there is more to look at than White Water Landing, and I really like that ride. Maybe I was expecting more from the theming as it seems it was built up over the winter to be more than signs.

I ended up in boat filled with people reaching into the flume and splashing water on other riders. I turned around in the canyon and just about made some little girl cry when I finally had enough of her splashing me. I was waiting for the boat to hit the side of the flume and crush the older girl's hand in front of me.

Its possible the jarring bump at the base of the 2nd lift is whats causing these problems. In all my years of riding and experiencing little jolts caused from wear and tear etc... This did not seem normal by any means. As was said earlier, I'm also pretty sure we hit the hill instead of floating up the incline into position for the lift to catch.

Loading is just as bad as Sky Hawk. The person at the entrance tells you which row your in. Then stops additional people from entering the station. Then they come off the entrance to the station and switch people around until the boat goes from heaviest up front, to lightest in back. Then they go back to their post. THEN the ride hosts shuffle everyone around again. You keep your row and the heaviest people stay up front, but row 2 through 4 must alternate heavy and light.

For example, row 2 starts with the heavier of the 2 people on the right and lightest on the left. So row 3 has the heaviest on the left and lightest on the right. Then row 4 with heaviest right, lightest left. In other words... dumb. Not that its dumb to do so, as I'm sure there is a very good reason for it, but a new ride should be able to handle any combination of weight in any order.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Shoot the Rapids a 4.

Well then - I suggest having a rotation between the STR ride hosts and the midway weight guessers. Sounds like they have similar job requirements.

I might feel embarassed if they say "Sorry sir, but you need to sit in the front of this boat".