Cedar Point Announces New Water Ride for 2010 Season

Do the signs posted every 3 feet on every fence seem a little tacky to anybody else?

I paid good money to put my used cow ad there... ;)

CP is damned if they do, and damned if they don't when it comes to theming.

If they dump a bunch of nice theming on a ride, like Maverick, it's difficult for them to maintain, because the park has 70 rides to keep in operation. As you can imagine, with a limited workforce, rides operating (and doing so safely) takes precedence over keeping tunnels misty.

It's a smart move to have "static" theming that requires little maintenance. Of course, this doesn't stop the kiddies from complaining about either the lack or quality of theming, or theming that doesn't get maintained.

And those same kiddies never seem to care about what it takes to maintain thematic elements when they're whining about getting yet another coaster. :)

If they dump a bunch of nice theming on a ride, like Maverick, it's difficult for them to maintain, because the park has 70 rides to keep in operation. As you can imagine, with a limited workforce, rides operating (and doing so safely) takes precedence over keeping tunnels misty.

I can't agree with that 100%

If they have no plans of keeping it up, why would they spend the money on it in the first place?Seems like a big waste of money. Just because they have 70 rides, does not mean that they can't keep theming up. Six flags, busch and I will even say Disney(allthough You will probaly come back and say that they have the man power) all seem to do a good job keeping it up. How hard or time consuming can it be to change a light bulb, or replace an fog machine?

Now when it comes to workforce, that's where I see a problem as well. They used to have someone who went around and worked on the animitronics. That was there only job. The last time I was on paddlewheel this year, over half the scenes did not work, so I am not sure if they eliminated that posistion or not.

This is one of the problems I have with cedarfair parks. Everything looks so "sterile" and bland. There is not much to look at besides cement, garbage cans, and steel. Sure the rides are fun, but I want more than just a fun ride plopped down on a a cement pad. I want something to look at as well....eye candy. It makes it more like an experiance and less like "just a ride".

You can have great theaming, and make it easy to maintain as well. Just look at rides like Alpengeist, big thunder mountain, or any of the batman coasters.Even most dark rides are kept up really well.

200, 300, or 400 ft... that is usually the theme :)

I think they wanted to give Maverick a little help because it didn't have the staggering height/records the last 3 coasters had.

I like the station and the cowboy music, that's good enough for me. And I think the landscape is really nice back there now, it looks great if you stop and look around under/around the horseshoe roll once you get off.

Kyle2154 said:
I like the station and the cowboy music

Pirates of the Caribbean is a cowboy movie? ;)

Kyle2154 said:
200, 300, or 400 ft... that is usually the theme :)

I think they wanted to give Maverick a little help because it didn't have the staggering height/records the last 3 coasters had.

I like the station and the cowboy music, that's good enough for me. And I think the landscape is really nice back there now, it looks great if you stop and look around under/around the horseshoe roll once you get off.

Exactly....

That ride with the cowboy music and cool looking station, has just as long and most the time longer line than that 300 ft coaster. A ride does not have to be 200,300,400 ft tall to be fun.

crazy horse said:
Six flags, busch and I will even say Disney(allthough You will probaly come back and say that they have the man power) all seem to do a good job keeping it up. How hard or time consuming can it be to change a light bulb, or replace an fog machine?

How many seasonal SF parks have ~70 rides? And Disney has far more cash to do far more stuff than CP could ever dream of.

Maintenance costs money. CP's attendance hasn't increased substantially since, what, 2000? Since then, they've added Wicked Twister, and ice skating show, Dragster, Maxair, Skyhawk, Maverick, Starlight and Shoot the Rapids (though they did remove WWL & DD). Basically, they have the task of doing more stuff with the same amount of money. If they have to let something fall by the wayside, choosing thematic stuff seems like a wise choice.

crazy horse said:

Kyle2154 said:
200, 300, or 400 ft... that is usually the theme :)

I think they wanted to give Maverick a little help because it didn't have the staggering height/records the last 3 coasters had.

I like the station and the cowboy music, that's good enough for me. And I think the landscape is really nice back there now, it looks great if you stop and look around under/around the horseshoe roll once you get off.

Exactly....

That ride with the cowboy music and cool looking station, has just as long and most the time longer line than that 300 ft coaster. A ride does not have to be 200,300,400 ft tall to be fun.

Maverick certainly has some features that were firsts and maybe even world records at the time. It's not like they threw in the station and music and the coaster was irrelevant. The ride has a pretty awesome rap sheet of its own.

Kyle2154 said:...the landscape is really nice back there now, it looks great if you stop and look around under/around the horseshoe roll once you get off.

Indeed. I'm impressed with how nice it looks after only 3+ years, and anxiously await how that area will look in another 5 or 10.

Talking about theme, I was looking at Woodstock the other day and the ride looks like it was built on a giant gravel parking lot. I know it's a kiddy ride, but sheesh, maybe a little grass... somewhere?

Looking at the Bing Bird's Eye View shows grass under half the ride. It'd be nice to see more grass, but it's probably a pain to mow under there, and perhaps a hazard to have natural, un-manicured vegetation underneath the ride.

I see what you're talking about. The funny thing is, is it shows the most important part (the part by the station/queue) as the part with grass, and I could swear while I was waiting in the queue last weekend it was all gravel now.

It could very well be. Some angles of the Bird's Eye View show WWL, and others Maverick, meaning the images may be as old as 2005, or as recent as 2007.

djDaemon said:

crazy horse said:
Six flags, busch and I will even say Disney(allthough You will probaly come back and say that they have the man power) all seem to do a good job keeping it up. How hard or time consuming can it be to change a light bulb, or replace an fog machine?

How many seasonal SF parks have ~70 rides? And Disney has far more cash to do far more stuff than CP could ever dream of.

http://www.sixflags.com/greatAdventure/rides/AllRides.aspx

http://www.sixflags.com/greatAmerica/rides/AllRides.aspx

Not quite 70, but close. And not to derail the thread, but if you did not count all the rides that cp has 2 of, then they have about the same amount of rides.

And why does Disney, Busch and Universal have the cash they have for theaming and such? Hmmm....they must be on to something.

So does six flags, universal and busch have more money to invest on theming than cp does? If that's the case, why does cp not? They used to. Busch, six flags, universal and Disney, all have great rides AND atmosphere that are great. Cedarfair is more about the bottom line, rather than guest satisfaction. Everything they are doing at cp is aimed at a bigger bottom line, rather than guest satisfaction. Sure I understand it's a buisness, and the goal is to make as much money as they can, but they are one of the few companies where it has become very obvious that profit has trumped everything else(look at the food and drink argument). Over the past 10-15 years, they have been cutting posistions, getting rid of great people, trippled the prices and lower the quality, eliminating lots of the things that have made the park great. And it really has showed.

Remember all the great theaming the park USED to have?

Look at a picture of calypso or himalaya from 15 years ago, and look at it today. Remember the huge animals that were in the kiddieland area? Remember how great the blue streak midway used to look with the pirat ride(with all it's great theaming like the huge boat out front) and the dome that used to house the turnpike cars line? Remember how cool it was to check out jungle larry, the aquarium or the dolphins? The live shows have took a nose dive as well. Imax used to be a great thing to do, hobo band was also fun to watch.

Now it just seems they do the bare minnimum and don't go that extra mile to make a good ride, a great ride. And what little they do with theaming, it only last's untill it breaks down.

crazy horse said:

The last time I was on paddlewheel this year, over half the scenes did not work, so I am not sure if they eliminated that posistion or not.

I rode both Paddlewheel Excursions and the railroad yesterday. It seemed to me that, on both rides, at least 90% of the animatronics that I could remember were more or less functioning properly. Although on CP&LE, there no longer are flames in the 2nd story of the burning building. The skeleton fireman now shoots his waterhose over the fence, apparently in a vain attempt to cool off Mantis riders...

crazy horse said:
Not quite 70, but close.

Nah, not really close at all. Great America has 16% fewer rides to maintain, while Great Adventure has 29% fewer. If CP could increase their attendance by 16% or 29%, then yeah, I'd fully expect them to be able to maintain every square inch of that park. But CP has pretty much reached their ceiling as far as attendance goes.

And why does Disney, Busch and Universal have the cash they have for theaming and such? Hmmm....they must be on to something.

They're open year-round. And BGW doesn't have near the lineup that CP does - a full 70% fewer rides & attractions than CP.

...why does cp not? They used to.

Maybe, but then CP hasn't always had such a massive lineup. That's the entire point - it's a tradeoff. CP can either have a buttload of rides and little (or poorly-maintained) theming, or they can go the SF/BGW route and have a buttload of theming with fewer rides.

^^^Yes we know. We have read from you a million times that SF is better than CP.

^ Yes we know. We have read from you a million times tha cp is better than sf.

...why does cp not? They used to.

Maybe, but then CP hasn't always had such a massive lineup. That's the entire point - it's a tradeoff. CP can either have a buttload of rides and little (or poorly-maintained) theming, or they can go the SF/BGW route and have a buttload of theming with fewer rides.

I would take quality over quantity any time.

And like I said, if you take away the rides that cp has DOUBLE of(balloon race, frog hopper, sub ride...ect..ect), then they have about as many as some other parks that have great theaming.

Even if cp had 10x as many rides as other parks did, does that make them any better than busch or six flags?All that is, is a number.

Cedarpoints rides are like ice cubes. The more ice in the cup, the cooler.But you get less lemonaid.