Dragster Closes Early 10/5

Ya and they dont care how they make some of the employees feel either....Trust me I know I really hate when ur in line or come to a line and you see its down. The thing is when I see this I either might wait or go on to somthing else(this does include other parks as well) It just erks me that many people come up to me even if I AM working on another coaster why its down. Listen even if I did know about it ...i woundt want to say somting that might get me in trouble....Thats just how i feel....Well got to go for now time is up on my computer
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Kelly aka TazMaster
CP@LE RR 2000
White Water Landing 2001
Wicked Twister/Kiddy Kingdom 2002
Atl Gca/ Magnum Crew 2003
RIP STEVEN CROWE 8-6-82 1-4-03

Top Thrill Dragster was down for days at a time earlier this summer. Anyone who complained was torched by the flames.

Now, it closes an hour early and everyone is upset? Lots of assumptions and armchair maintenance happening around here ...

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway

R.C. Can I ask who you are? Because I am on the Dragster crew and I sure don't remember them giving us a choice to close the ride or not. They didn't give us a vote, nor would they give us a vote. And Intamin doesn't have to be present for them to work on the ride. Intamin has been gone since July.

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Brent Haley
Gemini Crew '02
Dragster Crew '03

Adding to Brent's questions...

When did maintenance lose the ability to "touch" the ride without Intamin present? I don't remember one of their employees being there each and every night for inspections...let alone whenever it went down during the day.

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James Draeger

R.C. is just pulling our leg! He's really just The Lemon Chill guy!!!!

Someone posted the fact that the recordings are there so the park can say they had them there...

If you could name me even one time when you stood there, listened to the entire warning, without straining to hear it, and were able to hear it completely, loudly, and clearly, then maybe I'd give credit to that comment.

Oh, never mind. Like Jeff said, the recordings play longer than the interval that the train spends in the station..So I guess I answered my own question.

Point being: it doesn't matter if the park has them there or not, because in the end, when the issue becomes a lawsuit, guess whos' gonna win?

I'm placing my money on the guest who didn't hear it, not because they chose not to hear it, but simply because it is impossible to.

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Werewolf Canyon: it's a lot like shopping for a christmas tree. Only, with werewolves.

*** This post was edited by neo 10/8/2003 2:06:58 PM ***

In my dealings with lawyers (as an expert witness and as a private client) I've found that the law has surprisingly little to do with common sense. While common sense dictates that the auto-speils are less effective, I'm guessing that CF's general counsel has decided that the auto-spiels better reduce potential liability in the case of an accident than do human spiels, and that's the only reason they're there. After all, given their obvious practical uselessness, what other reason could there be? Saving the precious vocal chords of employees?

Then again, I'm not a lawyer, so what do I know?

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It's not war, famine, or pestilence; it's only downtime.

On the issue of the announcements even though you may not be able to hear them in full. You can still overhear them while in line for the ride. When you're waiting in the station for your seat. Another thing, I was there on Saturday 10/11. They kept sending empty trains on Millennium Force because of P.A system problems. Even when half the spiel played it cut out. They made the people in get out and wait until the spiel started and the gates opened again. So I think it is to some concern a big issue to them. Legally or not they made sure they did the right thing.
*** This post was edited by CaptainSteveo 10/13/2003 1:47:37 PM ***

Im sure glad Brentcleared the Intamin maintenance issue up.I'd bea little upset if I paid $25 million for something I cant touch.

OK!!! Being in charge of Dragster I can give you the scoop!! We were closing due to the fact that maintance could foresee a major problemif we didnt shutdown. Since the line was so short we could run the line out with out it being a problem. But running anymore then that may of kept the ride down a lot longer then that. Second i dont know who the hell RC is but they did not give us a vote. They called me and told me to close the the line and that was it. Thrid, yes we did have a very late night the night before but that was not anywhere close to being the reason we shut down early.

On the other side of the coin. I was at the park on 10/11/03 (busy day) and they were test running Dragster at 12:10am. People were in the cues and outside along the fence waiting to get in. At 12:25am when they got the bugs worked out and trains were going over the top they let everyone along the fence go in to the cues (only people along the fence, however). This was a very busy day so one would think it was in their best interest to go late, but they didn't have to...

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Gemini 100 - 35
Aaron Radatz Centenial Theater '03