Crazy things you hear while waiting in line...

This technically wasn't in line, but this is the best I've got that would be considered "crazy."

While I was on my school trip back in 2012, I was passing by Top Thrill Dragster with two classmates. One of them told me that TTD was fitted with motorized wheels because the 120mph launch alone was not enough for the train to clear the hill. When I asked him to explain why it sometimes rolls back, he simply told me that the wheels didn't always work.

I'd love to know where he heard this from.

The most rediculous thing I have heard also came from a classmate. He was talking to someone about Cedar Point and he said " yeah I'll ride anything there except the Top Fuel Dragster one because if it doesn't make make it to the top then it goes backwards and there aren't any brakes on the first side so it has to smash into something to stop! It's happened three times already!" Then he continued his story saying "I remember last time I rode it I got stuck at the top. I was so scared. I remeber we got everyone on the train to rock back and forth until we finally rocked down the safe side"

TwistedWicker77 said:

If you watch the entire cycle from the queues, it doesn't take an enthusiast to figure out it doesn't go upside down.

But was the person asking the question in the WT queue? And even if so, is it really so unreasonable that someone lacking the refined palate of an enthusiast equate being sideways with being upside down?

The craziest thing I've heard in line was when a middle-aged man was trying to tell his friends about how one time when he rode Millennium Force the train got stuck "upside down" and how they got them down using firetrucks. I bet he was in for a surprise when he actually rode it and found out it doesn't even go upside down, putting quite a hole in his story.

noggin said:

TwistedWicker77 said:

If you watch the entire cycle from the queues, it doesn't take an enthusiast to figure out it doesn't go upside down.

But was the person asking the question in the WT queue? And even if so, is it really so unreasonable that someone lacking the refined palate of an enthusiast equate being sideways with being upside down?

You're thinking too much into it. It doesn't matter where the question was asked. And yes, being sideways is just as close to being rightside up as it is upside down, so you tell me.

There have been past visits that I've gone and I'll be behind someone that's never ridden Millennium Force before. The question I get asked most of the time is does this go upside down? I want to ask back, but at the same time don't want to be rude, does it look like it goes upside down? Lol

I can be a little uncomfortable with this sort of topic; I know there are others areas where I'm equally ignorant.

When I rent a car and they ask a question along the lines of "Would you like a Ford Focus, a Hyundai Elantra or a Kia Rio," I have no idea. They're all cars. They all have four wheels. They all move when I step on the gas. What difference do the details make?

Noggin, you are at least admitting of your ignorance in certain areas. It's impossible to be an "expert" on everything. It's different though when you hear grown adults who are clearly clueless on things just talking to hear themselves talk and pretend they're right. Maybe it happens at CP more because you're in line all day and you have nothing to talk about after awhile and you just start making up stories but when I hear guests describing in detail how many people have died on TTD or trying to feebly explain the mechanics of a ride they can't even name the manufacturer of, those are the things that leave me rolling my eyes. I understand new guests not knowing the layouts of rides though. Sometimes as CP fans I think we forget what it must be like to be a first time guest at this huge amusement park full of twisting track that you can't even keep straight, let alone remember the names of rides or find your car at the end of the day.

I don't think most people are making up stories. There used to be a game folks played at parties decades ago called Telephone. You'd get everyone in a row; the person at one end of the row would whisper a phrase to the person next to them, who would whisper what they heard to the person next to them, and so on down the line.

What came out at the other end of the line would be a very mangled version of what that first person whispered.

It's likely that many folks on line in parks are just repeating -- complete with wrong facts -- what they've heard from someone, who had heard it from someone else...

My favorite crazy conversation is, while waiting for Mean Streak, I occasionally hear people having a conversation about the "ocean" visible from Mean Streak.

...it has to be an ocean. I can't see the other side. :-)

My husband's former girlfriend was unimpressed with Lake Erie when she saw it because she thought it would be bigger. She couldn't get the idea thruogh her head that you can't see the whole thing because it's so big.

...it has to be an ocean. It separates two countries.

....where's the one place in the United States you can look south and see Canada?

Detroit, Michigan.

Is that a "crazy thing heard in line" or just a bit of trivia? Because if it's trivia, it's incorrect. The city of Niagara Falls, NY, lies due north of Canada, as does Grand Island.

I heard something crazy not too long ago on my last visit. This Dad and his sons were riding Giant Wheel with me. Before you ask, the ride operator paired me up with them. Anyhow, the father asks his sons, pointing at Magnum, "Is that Maverick?" Lol

Last weekend a woman told me that TTD is the only ride they don't do test runs on. She said they just put the first ten people in line on the first car and it does a rollback because the track isn't warmed up yet and then everything is good to go.

I can't even begin to list off some of the crazy stuff I've heard this season. Most of which involve Rougarou, and one guest that asked if STR was Maverick...

Last weekend waiting for TTD to open I saw two young girls run up to the sign showing the estimated wait time and stand next to it, trying to measure themselves using the arrow which was pointing sideways - they thought it was the "minimum height" sign. As the father came up and saw they were "tall" enough he was more excited than they were to get them in line - completely oblivious to the real purpose of the sign.

"Oh they took apart the Mantis, repainted it, then rebuilt it with new trains"

"This ride looks really similar to Mantis.. But Mantis was yellow and purple, not orange and green. And you stood up"