Dive Coaster coming to Cedar Point?

1974 is in my humble opinion the near perfect year when it come the perfect balance of high and flat rides in the park. Those of you that have been on these boards a while know me, and why, and I'll leave it at that.

CPboy77 said:

Scottyf said:

Wait, what's all this about cleared lan....holy crap! Look at all that space. When did this happen?!?!1eleven!!

Ok, no offense or anything but I have never once seen someone act like this in a serious matter. Why do some of you always do this? It really gets old.

I deeply apologize, for I wasn't aware that because you can't find humor in something, nobody else is allowed to either. Thank you for clearing that up.

Is it that "nobody else is allowed to either," or that some people might not share your sense of humor?

Sometimes I just can't believe this nit picking BS is brought up on every thread. I'm not saying I'm inocent of this, but I feel like it's the same people who aren't even contributing to the flow of the topics at the same time.

Since I'm not old enough to remember some of the rides mentioned, it would be nice to see some of those rides revived. Like It has been said though, there were reasons that these rides were removed in the first place though. I remember seeing pictures of the Skywheel. It looks like a crazy invention, possibly something built before it's time. But, like I said, I wasn't even around at the time of it's existence. I wonder why that ride was removed...maintenance, low popularity....

Scottyf said:

CPboy77 said:

Scottyf said:

Wait, what's all this about cleared lan....holy crap! Look at all that space. When did this happen?!?!1eleven!!

Ok, no offense or anything but I have never once seen someone act like this in a serious matter. Why do some of you always do this? It really gets old.

I deeply apologize, for I wasn't aware that because you can't find humor in something, nobody else is allowed to either. Thank you for clearing that up.

It wasn't funny the first 20 times and still isn't funny. Moving along now...

While I don't know why Sky Wheel was removed, I am old enough to remember riding it. I would actually consider it a thrill ride. When the entire thing started going end over end, and you where going over the top, it felt almost like a roller coaster drop. Sky Wheel was definitely the best Ferris Wheel type ride I've been on and would love to see it return also.

CPboy77 said:

It wasn't funny the first 20 times and still isn't funny. Moving along now...

Right, just move along in the first place next time.

The Sky Wheel was patented in 1939 by John F. Courtney, The prototype was installed at Riverview Park in Chicago for the 1938 season (this date is disputed, quite possible 1939). The various patents on this ride were assigned to the Velare & Courtney, Inc. The Velare Brothers partners in the Royal American Shows. The next ride built by them was a portable version for RAS in 1940. After that season it was installed at Palisades Park in NJ for two years, after which it was set up on the Santa Monica Pier (length of date unknown) after which it went to Mexico City.

After WWII the Velare's sold the production rights to the Allen Herschell Co.They were built in both park and portable versions up until the sale of the company to Chance Manufacturing in 1970. Chance continued to build them up at least the 1990's, and supplied support for them up into the 2000's. There are a few of these rides still touring, but beyond the spectacle of them, they are slow loading and have a low rider per hour figure, and have dropped from favor with most operations. IMHO this is the reason why the one at Cedar Point was retired after twenty years of service. Essentially the carousel and the Scrambler had better figures than the Sky Wheel.

Double ferris wheels were popular and fairly common, and could also be found at fairgrounds.

There's been a Sky Wheel at the Ohio State Fair for at least a few years.

Scottyf said:
Right, just move along in the first place next time.

Pot, meet kettle. Perhaps next time, one should stop provoking.

Last question about Skywheel from me...where was it's location? From the few pictures I find of it, it looks to be near a SkyRide station. Now, I'm not too sure if this is near the current SkyRide, or the old Frontier Lift.

The Sky Wheel was located directly behind where the Main Entrance Carousel is today; where that patch of grass is currently to the left of Starbucks. It's two wheels rotated facing west (toward the Sky Ride station, not the main entrance) and I vividly remember seeing the different flags of countries hanging from the Sky Ride station roof on each rotation. The ride truly scared the crap out of me the first time riding it when I was younger.

Like Pete and others, I'm fortunate to also have ridden it and wish it would return. It was definitely a unique experience. Don't quote me on this, but I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that the ride was damaged and removed due to weather in its last year (1980). I'll have to research that. It definitely wasn't a popularity issue.

BTW, Cedar Point's first model of the ride was a trailer portable model, located in the middle of the midway in 1961, and the following year, a permanent Herschell model was purchased and moved up front (partly due to the construction of the sky Ride) for the 1962 season. Just some random info....

I'll never forget my first visit to CP in 1962, and I had heard the park had a double ferris wheel, but how it worked was a mystery. As we were pulling up to the parking lot my dad said "there's your double ferris wheel" and I was shocked to see two small wheels in a stacked position. It took me a number of years to get the nerve to try it.

In its last years the ride was kind of a drag, as the wheel never made the traditional full cycle- all they did was unload and load seats all day. Riders got time at the top while the other wheel loaded, but otherwise the experience was ruined. I'm sure they did that in the interest of capacity. I wasn't surprised when it was removed.

I still see Sky Wheels, but I visit the big state fairs. It's expensive to transport on two trailers, and it takes at least two men to run. As mentioned, in Columbus the Ohio State Fair midway features Belle City's Sky Wheel. It sits in a corner of Kiddy Land. I'm not sure why, as it's quite thrilling and every time I ride it I die of fright a little.

I ride the one at the State Fair every time we are both there. Great ride. One of the few that can actually get me motion sick. Not actually vomiting, but feeling very nauseous. Still I won't miss it.

So I was at the park yesterday and I was looking through the Speed Zone Gift Shop and there was a shirt that caught my eye. The shirt had a pictures of a few of the big name coasters on them along with the name of the coaster and it had the Cedar Point logo at the top. Well there was track going straight down through the Cedar and the Point and it looked awfully like a dive coaster. The picture of this coaster was black and white and it clearly showed a train with 8 seats across and it looked like it was hanging off the edge ready to drop. It was also the only coaster that did not have a name on it. I might be looking too far into this but I just thought it was sketchy.

Here is the shirt:
http://imgur.com/rFxBKli
And here is it zoomed in on the Dive Coaster:
http://imgur.com/WfDAOU8

That is very interesting but it was probably added to fill empty space. Parks do it all the time. I have a CP shirt with "Gatekeeper" on it. It actually has the outline of X-Flight's second zero-g-roll. I still don't understand that though because that isn't even in a Cedar Fair park.

I hope this means something, but I am next to positive that it doesn't.

Yea, I wouldn't look into it any further. I've seen many an amusement park shirt with rides being depicted incorrectly or having rides on a shirt that don't even exist at that park. My personal pet peeve are the awful NoLimits creations I see on shirts but I know it's beyond getting worked up over. :P

That dive coaster on the shirt is nothing more than something that they figured would look good to include.

I can't for the life of me remember if they still offer this, but if anyone remembers the on-ride video you could buy on Raptor and maybe a few other coasters, this reminds me of the complaint that the video of yourself was intercut with stock footage of roller coasters that weren't even at Cedar Point.

It's dumb, but it's not unheard of.

This is very telling imho. If I were in marketing, and I knew a dive coaster was coming, this is a perfect example of how I would tease the thing - some seemingly mundane addition on a trinket today, that you can look back tomorrow and say "hey, that's Valravn!"

The alternative is that someone put a generic, meaningless coaster on this coaster shirt, in the most conspicuous spot there is. That seems less likely.

Good spot Kyle.

Or, you know, it's a stock photo put there by some graphic designer in New York who doesn't even know what Cedar Point is.