Cedar Point Announces New Water Ride for 2010 Season

The other thing sitting with the spiral stairs looks like a platform that you see on many water rides. A ride op usually sits there usually 1/2 way through the ride to make sure everything is fine. SRF has one before the drop, the river rapid ride at KI has one, as do both water rides at Busch Gardens Europe.

So on water rides like this, are there well-defined blocks that separate the boats, or are the boats just spaced out over a safe distance? In other words, could you do an e-stop without the boats bumping? I mean obviously, one boat clears the splash area before another goes down the chute, but beyond that?

No blocks on flume rides, other than the splashdown as you mentioned. I remember riding on Mill Race when the lift power went off and the boats just collected at the bottom of the lift hill, bumping the boat ahead to stop.

Don't they use the lifts as some sort of blocking? Or is it the speed of the lift that determans the space between boats?

I know when wwl was around, they did something called "jogging" the lift. I believe that was to add space between boats.

Ive been on Splash Mt when it went down and even on that ride its only the lift and drop sections that are blocked. At Splash there is a little "pre lift" lift section that is its own block, and when the log ahead of it has hit a certain point it releases the log onto the main lift. When the ride broke down I was right by the buzzards, logs behind us just log jammed back as far as I could see.

In a way, and there is (at least on WWL style flumes) a stop at the top of the drop so that a boat can be held up if the bottom is not clear. But on the water sections, if a boat gets stopped ahead, whether its at the bottom of the lift, or just outside the station, the boats behind will continue to run until they hit it. Its designed to do that, so its not like its a missed side-effect.

On the original STR, all the boat timing was done manually. The dispatch was when the boat ahead had cleared the small lift at the beginning of the long trough run. At the top of the lift hill was an employee control station where the main lift belts (two sides) and second drop belts could be controlled to help maintain spacing. Collisions in the upper splash pond could (and did) occur, but very rarely and not during my tenure. That upper control booth was great during hot days, as there was a roof and breeze. But during cold days, it was the pits.

If someone was slow in exiting, the boats would sometimes stackup waiting for the unload belt. That was amusing, as the wave from the splash of a boat coming down the hill would move along the trough and hit the nearest boat not on the belt with a tsunami-like wave. The looks on the riders unsuspecting faces was priceless.

I have to mention this; this is funny. Yesterday while I was at Cedar Point, I kept hearing people say "They're adding on to Snake River Falls" or they're making Snake River Falls taller". Some people just don't read the headlines that well I guess.

CoasterLine said:
Also, I completely disagree with the "many people are disappointed" posts. Being at Cedar Point on Friday night, and watching the people and families walking by the big advertisement for the ride right across from the petting zoo saying how "awesome" it looks and how "they can't wait to ride it," I stand to say that at like 85% of the GP will be excited to get on this, and be happy for the addition.

Interesting. I did not hear anyone say they were interested in the new ride. All I heard was "what are they thinking - we don't need another ride that gets us soaked. What is the point?"

Well, if you didn't hear anything positive, I wonder why CP is still planning on building it. With ironclad evidence of imminent failure like that, you have to wonder what they're thinking, ya know?

;)

Wow.

On a lighter note...

http://rollercoasterfreak.com/Cedar_Point/STRCam_1024.jpg

I would look forword to this ride much more if I was not gonna get soaked. I love log flume rides. Every park I visit that has one, I ride it.

But if I wanted to get soaked, I would ride snake or thunder.

That's why people loved wwl so much. You only got a splash of water on you, and it had some nice views from the top section of the ride. This new ride goes against both of those things.

The park needs a log flume ride badly. But come on cedar point....you can do a better flume ride than this.

Good one, Jason. No wonder they haven't started yet - they have to kill the huge mufflehead!

You can now see that they have backfilled part of the lagoon near the maintenance bridge. Based on the latest blog entry, I'd guess they'll back fill near the bottom of the camera's view, then start draining that section of the lagoon.

I'm not a big webcam person (although the Mave construction cam was interesting), but I just checked out the STR cam and was wondering how the dump trucks are getting back there. I would assume there is access from Perimeter Road? Just wondering and I'm not too familiar with the inner workings of the park.

There are different locations around the park where gates can be opened to let trucks and other equipment in. Some are more accommodating than others.

After taking a tour with the Coasterbuzz group on Saturday and seeing where the ride is going, I am really excited about the new addition!

Tennessee_CP_Fan said:
I just checked out the STR cam and was wondering how the dump trucks are getting back there. I would assume there is access from Perimeter Road?

Here is a marked up photo. The red arrows would be the most likely areas to enter with larger vehicles or equipment. The Blue Arrows, I'm not sure 100%. I know some of them can accommodate cars and small trucks. Some may not be access points at all.

The original unmodified photo (12MB) can be downloaded here.

I would assume that they'd come in under the Millennium Force first turn, but they might also come in via the entrance next to Planning & Design (between Gemini and Mean Streak) and then turn in the access road between Mine Ride and Skyhawk. Perhaps concrete and what not will come in via the MF gate, while parts, if stored in the Soak City lot, will come in via P&D.