Coastermania Q&A

I missed the first 50 minutes of the 60 minutes Q&A yesterday, can someone fill me in?

Some people were taking video, maybe they'll post it.

Basically, you had your standard "what are you building for 2007?" question(s), and then your "why can't I wear my glasses on XCelerator, but I can on TTD?" and then some other questions - some worth asking and some not.

I really wanted to ask what happened to all the cotton candy carts, but we ran out of time. - oh well.

-Josh

From what I hear it was a bunch off ungratefull idiots bitching about the most pointless things you can think of.

I did hear one question that was pretty dumb.

"How fast can an ambulance make it to an accident in the park?"

KingOfLouies said:
From what I hear it was a bunch off ungratefull idiots bitching about the most pointless things you can think of.

So it was like every other CoasterMania Q&A? :)

What were the answers to these dumb questions and good ones?

Walt said:

So it was like every other CoasterMania Q&A? :)

hehehe exactly`:)

My favorite question was still "can you at least tell us if project 2007 is going to be a unique roller coaster?"

I guess they were trying to figure out if it was a 4-d or something :rolleyes: - His answer was priceless. After about 35 second of awkward silence "every coaster is unique."

Makes me glad I wasn't there.

Yes, this Coastermania Q & A brought out the true "enthusiasses." I understand that the one guy was mad about not fitting on Top Thrill Dragster, but there was no need for all the complaining that he did to the park higher-ups.

One thing that I was particularly happy to see was that someone gave a suggestion that since the newly acquired parks open earlier (like in March), would it be possible to process the next year's season passes in the fall of the current year, or at least have the CP season pass center open early enough so that passes could be processed for the opening of these other parks. John Hildebrandt thought that this was a good idea, and you saw that he, Rob Decker, and the guy sitting next to Mr. Decker (his name escapes me-Sorry!) each got out pads of paper and wrote down this idea. That impressed me.

As far as the cotton candy carts go, my thought is that since there are so many bugs (mayflies?) out on the midway, they decided to pull them until their season is essentially over with. I got some cotton candy last week and was immediately swarmed with mayflies. Can you imagine the poor workers who would have to deal with this? It would be horrible.

Dick Kinzel got a standing ovation when he was called on statge.

Someone told John Hildebrand to tell Monty how much he is appreciated, so John called him on his cell phone (He was working on Millie to get it running) and he told him the coaster enthusiasts had something to tell him, and the place broke out in major applause.

1eJ

That was pretty cool. The season pass idea is also a good suggestion.

I guess it wasn't all bad. :)

I just have one question...

Can you really by seatbelt extensions on Ebay?

;)

Seriously...

WTF was up with that comment? You should have seen the look on some of the employee's faces when the comment about seatbelt extensions was made.

The Q&A was entertainment at its finest. It's amazing what people will go out of their way to gripe about. However, there were a few good questions asked. Another example was that someone wanted to know why Cedar Point season pass holders would have to get their tickets from Guest Services when they attend other parks. It never really occured to me but it made sense that each park has a different admissions system that was put into operation at different times.

It doesn't make much sense to invest thousands of dollars into these systems to appease a very small percent of people that attend other parks.

~Rob Willi

I asked about pricing structure at other Cedar Fair parks for next year since CP is being so agressive this year, and I knew that I would probably get the stock "we're looking into it" answer, but I thought that just maybe there would be some insight given into how Cedar Point was doing with these lower prices so far. At least my question was fairly intelligent and I wasn't complaining about something stupid. :)

Having the seatbelt extensions can get you thrown out of the park.Yes you can buy them on the net but doing that indangers the safety of you and others too by using them.But i thought it was funny that they didnt say a word about the new coaster for 07.I was at CoasterMania this year and it was cool as always.

I always feel bad for the higher ups on stage during these Q&A sessions. Every year it's the same stupidity, with an occasional intelligent question thrown in. The seatbelt guy and the glasses guy had to have hogged at least 20 minutes of the hour alone. It's a good idea and nice that they have it, but they really need a way to pre screen the questions or something to weed the idiots out.

I felt that there were a few times that I wanted to choke the life out of some of these idiots. Their behavoir really made me feel embarrased to be associated with them and give enthusiasts a bad name.

Coastermania is a Cedar Point event, not a Cedar Fair event. Who there as far as management is concerned even cares or knows what local policies go on in another park all the way on the other side of the country! A Cedar Fair exec was present to take on questions regarding the aquisition, not to escalate concerns of an enthisiass' gripe about another park's policies. That just made me angry.

I also loved how Tony Clark said "we only have time for one more question, let's make sure it's a good one."

What was the question that was asked?

"Can you guys make the rollbacks a part of the Top Thrill Dragster ride? We all want one and some of us haven't had a chance to get one yet."

Jeff Young-that was Bob Wozniak. Great guy, have worked for him before 3 years and adore the man.

These Q&A's bring out some of the stupidest questions some times. Some of the ??s Bill Spehn was asked at the CoasterEXT Q&A were along the same (stupid) lines. You think most of these people ask things just to hear themselves talk or bitch.

I could not believe the one chick who asked the stupid "how come our season passes won't work at the parks" question. OMG! It takes 5 freaking minutes to walk into guest services and get a ticket (we've been to Dorney MANY times) WTH is the big deal about that?? When explained that it would cost alot of $$ to do that- she said something to the effect of "you just spent 1.2 billion dollars to buy other parks, you don't have the capital to update all your entrance gates?" What a stupid thing to say!

The heavy set gentleman who went on and on and on and on and on and on about how he can't ride WT or MF and how he fits in the test seat but not the ride. At 1st you could be compassionate with the guy, but then he kept talking, asking the same questions over and over again, to the point where you could tell the audience was getting alittle frustrated with the guy. He could easily have made his point and then sat down...nope...we couldn't have been so lucky :(
I could be mean here and say something about how much I saw this guy eating at lunch but far be it for me to do that.

I jumped up after this guy to try to lighten the mood. Tony started by saying "uh oh" when he saw it was me and I personally know everyone on stage so it was kind of fun for me. I thought my "is the new coaster going to be an Intamen or B&M?" question was pretty funny.

The answer I got from Woz was "go sit down Jo" :)

It was great seeing Mr Kinzel, his standing ovation was well deserved! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 1113 :)