Extended Closure

heric:

How reliable is Screamscape? They are posting rumors of mid-July and alluding to the issue being quite severe.

https://screamscape.com/htm...m#Dragster

"For the sake of everyone involved, I’m not going to go into details about what exactly went wrong with Top Thrill 2." Ok lol...

I hate to break it to everyone, but now the newly renovated Magnum Bathrooms are closed indefinitely while they rework the toilet seats. Guess they also had a bad wobble......

Those darn welds on the train... Oh, wait...

I'm still hoping they will just tear down TT2 and replace it with the best theme park attraction of all time: The enchanted tiki room under new management.

djDaemon:

veritas55:

And that's you taking my statement entirely out of context.

I was taking it in the context of your other comments, including and especially this one:

veritas55:

...there's just no good way to spin this for Zamperla presently....

I'm not referring to the performance of the trains specifically, and frankly focusing on the use of billet aluminum is bizarre given that we know nothing about what the issue is, but I digress.

In any case, throwing shade at Zamperla while pointing out that "at least Intamin's trains worked... except when the tires flew off" was funny to me.

It's your eggshell sensitivity to any perceived criticism of Zamperla (or, really, any perceived praise of Intamin). It's like you are a child of the Zamperla family. Or the Intamin executives ran over your dog.

If you (fairly) read all my comments above (and in media day thread), I have praised Zamperla's engineering and performance to-date. The ride looks great, and did seem to be a substantial improvement in reliability over Intamin (yes! i said it!) -- until this train event. And even then, I stated it may just be a 2-week blip, which would "not be a big deal."

But it's patently ridiculous of you to contend that the current circumstances, a high profile, high visiblity ride with a notoriously unreliable history, shutting down for an extended closure one week after opening does not reflect poorly on Zamperla? I mean, that's just silly.

Even fn Zamperla would concede this is a bit of a bloody nose -- which may be easily mopped up, but nonetheless...

Yep, the only explanation for my taking issue with your comments is that I'm a biased hack. Cool. Anyhow, moving along...

heric:

How reliable is Screamscape?

Hard to say, really, but it is worth noting that they were confident, as far back as mid/late 2022, that Intamin was definitely not involved. I really don't recall the rumor/speculation timeline vividly enough to remember whether or not that was a hot take at the time, so maybe that wasn't "insider" info. But if it was, then Screamscape suggesting the ride won't open before July raises an eyebrow, to say the least. And that would be an unequivocally huge blunder on Zamperla's part.

djDaemon:

Yep, the only explanation for my taking issue with your comments is that I'm a biased hack. Cool. Anyhow, moving along...

It's not the only explanation -- just the most credible one.

Wild how Screamscape has the same design as it did when it first launched.

Intamin man have never run over someone’s dog, but they have killed or maimed numerous humans and affected the lives of their families - all while claiming “acceptable loss”.

Sandor threatened to bring suit against people talking about them online, and they generally provided extremely unreliable and sometimes unsafe products. Are their rides incredibly fun/intense and different? Sure, but this industry is more than just that.

e x i t english:

but they have killed or maimed numerous humans and affected the lives of their families - all while claiming “acceptable loss”.

Is not that simple really. The deaths and injuries could have been caused by negligence on the part of the park, or poor operators not following the protocol. (Like the death on the drop tower in Orlando) The ride developer isn't automatically at fault. We would have to look at each individual case to determine which party caused the accident.

I would like a source for how intamin claimed that the deaths were an acceptable loss. Where does that come from.

Screamscape can be hit and miss just like everyone else. What they posted is vague and generalized and I would bet they aren’t going into more detail because they don’t have more detail to give. That being said one can deduce from the statement given by Cedar Point that this is not a quick fix for Top Thrill so what Screamscape is posting should not be shocking to anyone.

e x i t english:

Sandor threatened to bring suit against people talking about them online, and they generally provided extremely unreliable and sometimes unsafe products. Are their rides incredibly fun/intense and different? Sure, but this industry is more than just that.

That's a red herring. We are talking about Zamperla providing a ride that can't hold up to the needs of Cedar Point and its only a week in.

Thank you for letting us know what we are supposed to be talking about.

I rarely question e x I t English, Jeff or DJ Daemon. Those 3 are true PBOG’s. I on the other hand have only been around for 18 years.

Frog Hopper King:

The ride developer isn't automatically at fault. We would have to look at each individual case to determine which party caused the accident.

See, here’s the thing. We HAVE looked at each of these cases individually, as have state inspectors and engineers.

Here’s an example - there were not one, but 2 different Superman hyper coasters with brake failures caused by design flaws, and both led to trains rear-ending the train that was loading or waiting in the station.

Sandor’s quote can be found in this archived article from RRC, after the incident on Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England (the one that was ultimately responsible for them changing from the T-bar to the current restraints)- one of the 2 that also had a train collision.

https://rec.roller-coaster....s-accident

Let’s not forget the design flaw that allowed a 12-year old boy to submarine out from under a closed restraint on the California’s Great America drop tower in 1999.

XCelerator’s cable snap that cut part of the front car in half.

Shoot the Rapids - many issues up to and including a derailed boat rolling back down the lift and flipping over.

The ZacSpin coaster that killed a kid when his harness just failed and flew open.

Kingda Ka shredding its catch car track and the bottom if the train (which would have resulted in a lot of injuries if it had been loaded) more than once.

The list really does go on, but there is plenty of analysis out there with plenty of evidence to show who was at fault. Even when the park was found to have been partially at fault, partial blame seems to fall on Intamin, too.

Partial doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

I simply do not find this argument to be up to PointBuzz standards until I see a strawman and an ad-hominem

djDaemon:

Thank you for letting us know what we are supposed to be talking about.

Thanks for missing the point.

And people wonder why the guy posting videos of his birthday at cedar point gets 300,000 views... because people aren't subjected to the insane belittling and childish know it all arguments that happen on here regularly.

I liked the ever gracious Pete and the informational RideMan posts. The snobbism unfortunately overtakes too many conversations.

e x i t english:

Let’s not forget the design flaw that allowed a 12-year old boy to submarine out from under a closed restraint on the California’s Great America drop tower in 1999.

:On August 22, 1999, a 12-year-old boy was killed after falling from the Drop Tower installation at California's Great America. His family claimed the harness was not locked properly and he had a mental disability. An investigation was inconclusive and no charges were filed.[9] Following the incident, the rest of the Drop Tower locations were shut down for inspections.[10]"

The investigation was inconclusive.

You also misrepresented the Sanders quote, which even in the context of the article seemed to be taken out of context.