Demon Drop 1983-2009

Daniel T said:
So for those of you who got to go to the park on Sunday, did any of you get to be one of the final riders?

Me and my husband did. We were numbers 24 and 23 so we weren't the very last riders but even so, it was still a cool experience.

My friend Jonathan got a pair from Tyler around 4. He was sick and had to leave. But, Roco and I were 14 and 13. I kept lucky #13. :) I also know Jo got 5 & 6. I forget who rode with her. There was a family who got 4 tickets. 2 of them from Dick Kinzel.

I couldn't find anyone. I looked all over. I even came close to dropping my $6 pizza when I thought I seen some but it was just a lady wearing here season pass. And the one time I didn't see Dick Kinzel, he had tickets. I guess my Geauga Lake coat kept them away from me :-)

The grassy field that Demon Drop leaves behind will be the future location for the Lemon Chill Guy, he will be handing out flyers for a new ride in 2011.

I did not find a golden ticket, but I am glad I was able to ride it on the last day it was there! We were in car #4! My lucky number! Which is ironic because in 1983 it was the first car I rode in! I am going to miss Demon Drop! I am suppose to go to California next year to visit family and they live 30 minutes from Knotts so maybe I will have the chance to see it in its new home like I was able to do with Dominator form Geauga Lake that is now in Kings Dominion!

I saw a women nearly attack Bill outside of Park Operations for his ticket. I think he was scared.

Tom said:
Dave, why do you think DD will be replaced by a fence, since the DD location has amazing visability from the parking lot? I have no clue what will go there, and it certainly could be a fence, I just think something striking would go there, while a Zac Spin would look great by WT.

Time will tell.

For now, though, it's going to be a fence. Have a look at this photo. Unfortunately three of the four Bing birds-eye views don't show the current configuration. Anyway, the red lines are more or less where the current fences are (the one is actually the back of the new ice cream parlor...the photo shows the old one), and the pink line shows the perimeter of the current back-of-house maintenance, warehouse, receiving and other operational areas. Notice that with Demon Drop gone, the green fence goes up and the purple line shows the new perimeter, encompassing quite a bit of added space for "back of house" purposes.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I wouldn't entirely agree, Dave, because you still want foot traffic to have an opportunity to go back that way past the money-printing 3-point game. For some reason this reminds me of when Donut Time was an arcade and shooting gallery.

I seriously can't believe that people are reading into something as mundane as me suggesting nothing has to go there. For real, the most logical thing is for there to be nothing there next year.

I wouldn't be too surprised if the basketball game moved, it would be easy enough to do. If they put up the fence like how Dave suggested, they could relocate it to right around where DD's entrance was.

RideMan said:

...the red lines are more or less where the current fences are...

...the pink line shows the perimeter of the current back-of-house maintenance, warehouse, receiving and other operational areas.

According to the 2009 CP map, your current (red) fence lines don't exist, as there is no obstruction between DD's entrance and Lotsapalooza, and back onto the main midway. Similarly, your back-of-house area (pink) doesn't jive with the map or bird's eye view.

I've not been back that way in a while, so maybe there's something I'm missing.

Currently you can walk unobstructed from Demon Drop's entrance, past it's exit, past the 3Point basketball game and past Lotsapoolooza behind Park Plaza, Donut Time and Tofts and come out at the beginning of the midway games. There is no fence across there. Behind the basketball game and Lotsapoolooza there is a fence running parallel to that walkway.

Though I usually don't speculate on future projects, I will say that I wouldn't be surprised if next year the Demon Drop area is a patch of grass behind it's current decorative fence until they do something permanent.

Another thought is they may be doing more upgrades to the front entrance area and the DD site may be involved. They've been doing upgrades in stages over the last couple of years.

Okay, I'm showing that I didn't make it to Demon Drop last weekend...

Note that all four of the birds-eye views of that area are out of date. I thought they blocked the path next to the tower a few years ago, and I noted that the one more recent birds-eye view shows construction that looks like a fence about where I put the one red line; I had thought the 3-point challenge had moved over a bit to a more visible location and that they had turned the Demon Drop corridor into a dead end.

That's also what I get for looking at the hi-res park map instead of the low-res one.

In any case, Demon Drop is still contiguous with the service area, and I suspect it's going to become part of that service area for the near future. I fully expect wholesale renovation of the front of the park before too long, but when that happens, I expect they might actually demolish everything across the front plaza. Maybe even push the gate back a little, get rid of the little ticket booths that are far less useful than they once were, and maybe even build themselves a decent season pass processing facility.

Okay, yeah, now I really am dreaming... 8-)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Man, I kinda wish there was a webcam pointed at Demon Drop. Watching it go down would be pretty cool.

I was the last "public" rider on sunday night.

It was kinda funny, because as soon as I got back into the station after being the last public rider, the ride broke down. It was back up and running within 10 min for the ticket holders.

I'd think, Dave, that any wholesale renovation of the gate wouldn't be anytime real soon, given the work they did up there recently. Those pavers ain't cheap.

It seems to me that they are renovating the entrance in yearly stages. The first year was the turnstlie area, last winter was the pavers, screens and flag poles outside the turnstiles. I'm just guessing that the might be doing some work inside the gates this winter. Who knows, maybe they are done with renovating the entrance. But, I can certainly see them doing from the turn stiles to maybe the carousel which might include the Demon Drop area. This could include the restroom/rental building too.

I'd also add that, with the recent changes in the pass processing system that exponentially speed up the whole thing, the existing building is sufficient.

How about moving the main entrance over to where demon drop is now? That would free up quite a bit of land in the front.

I know it sounds far fetched, but just an idea.

Well... Demon Drop's page has been removed from the Cedar Point site. So long... :(

It is a shame to see it go, but at least it's not going to the scrap yard just yet.

It also appears official MM is getting their 17th next summer (things that make you go Hm.....) :)

http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/FamilyRides.aspx