Farewell, Wildcat.

Bill02 said:
It's a RIDE for crying out loud! Some of you are delusional that a CARNIVAL RIDE is important in life! I would suggest stepping back from arguing on the internet with your tinfoil hats on and find something that honestly matters in life! It's waaaaaaaay to short to worry about 1 carnival ride being shipped off to a metal shredder for scrap value.

Bill, you clearly don't get why rides are important or emotional at all. I've been going to Cedar Point for almost 25 years. Do you think I still come to this park every year just to ride a bunch of meaningless rides that I've ridden countless times before?

I've discussed this in detail with several forum members that do understand, and I even created a whole thread with plenty of agreeable replies awhile back.

These rides are like portals into the past or keys to unlock vivid memories for me. Just thinking about the memories I have is not the same as riding the rides in person.

The ride experience last year on Wild Cat was the exact same one I had with my grandparents when they were still living 20 years ago. So when I was riding it last year, my mind seamlessly transitioned to that happy time with them so long ago. Then mid-course, my mind transitioned to being with my family as a child...that simple, purely joyful time in my life.

This is one of the primary reasons why I go to Cedar Point every year and ride the same rides over and over. I'm unlocking happy memories that make me feel good, and I'm creating new ones.

When a key is taken away (when Wild Cat was removed), it can be a very emotional experience, because I'm not able to re-create those memories so easily anymore. I have to completely rely on what's left in my head, and those memories just don't have as deep of a connection as being in the exact same car, on that exact same ride as I had been 20 years before.

This is a reason why people get attached to all kinds of material objects in life. Have you ever heard of a father and son who work on a car together their whole lives...the father passes away, and the son gets that car. By what you said of Wild Cat, that son should just sell that scrappy piece of junk; there are much newer cars out there that would be technologically superior. But in reality, that car is like a living memorial of the son's father, and nothing could make the son sell it.

djdaemon +1...I am bummed a little about the decision, but it is a testament to the new management style. Prior management would have left WC there and a new, $6 million family oriented show probably would have suffered. Sometimes the hardest decisions aren't popular but they are necessary.

Jeff said:

tcgolfer said:
That was the day the I felt betrayed by my ride.

This says volumes about the nature of your posts.

You can say whatever you want, but working in rides you go from being scared something is going to happen every day to not simply because you build a trust in your ride and the safety systems involved. When you run the ride for countless hours wile thousands of people enjoy taking a turn on it, then something happens, of course you're going to feel a little bit of trust broken.

Getting back on the ride a couple days later, I'm not going to lie, I was gun shy a little bit when I went to push the button to dispatch. I'm not trying to hide the fact that I'm emotionally upset about the ride being torn down. But when something was so intrinsically good to me gets taken away from me of course I'm going to be upset. You would be too.

tcgolfer: That's totally understandable - I completely get how you'd feel.

Also, everyone here should know what a truly hard-working, positive, and caring ride operator tcgolfer was on Wild Cat. I had a really great experience on Wild Cat last year that I meant to write Cedar Point about. After drawing some parallels yesterday, I discovered the person I was so proud of was in fact tcgolfer! It was so neat to be connected through a forum and be able to thank him for the experience. :)

There's a pretty wide chasm between having an emotional response and being overtly melodramatic.

tcgolfer said:
...this has done nothing but take another solid (family ride) away. WildCat was a great family ride that pretty much everyone could ride together...

C'mon now. WC wasn't a family ride (48" height requirement), and certainly wasn't the type of family ride that many have been pushing for.

I'm not trying to be overtly melodramatic, I'm just trying to express how it felt that day and how I feel about this whole situation.

I bet if you were to ask ride operators that were working a ride when an incident occurred if they lost some trust in their ride, then they would say yes.

tcgolfer said:

Jeff said:

tcgolfer said:
That was the day the I felt betrayed by my ride.

This says volumes about the nature of your posts.

You can say whatever you want, but working in rides you go from being scared something is going to happen every day to not simply because you build a trust in your ride and the safety systems involved. When you run the ride for countless hours wile thousands of people enjoy taking a turn on it, then something happens, of course you're going to feel a little bit of trust broken.

Getting back on the ride a couple days later, I'm not going to lie, I was gun shy a little bit when I went to push the button to dispatch. I'm not trying to hide the fact that I'm emotionally upset about the ride being torn down. But when something was so intrinsically good to me gets taken away from me of course I'm going to be upset. You would be too.

I work with animals. If you were talking about this for an animal, I would agree with you. Cause I build a relationship with them and try and create a trust. Killer Whale trainers are a great example. A Killer Whale could not listen to you. Or it could by all means tear you to shreds.

Now Wildcat could do that do in many ways. But the difference is an animal is living, breathing thing. Wildcat is a machine. Machines don't feel and machines don't think. They do what they are programmed to do. And when they don't, they just break down and have to be fixed. It's fine that it was good to you and it looks like your attached to it and had good times with it. I was attached to my first car. Had a lot of great memories with it. When my engine blew out, I didn't feel betrayed by my car. I was sad sure. But I knew my cars day had come. I cherished all the memories I had with my car and I still do. But I knew I had to let it go. I love the rides at Cedar Point. But I don't get emotionally attached to them. There are more important things in the world be emotionally attached to.

TheNewGuy said:
Jeff, why do you get to decide when people are being "too dramatic"

Where was his post marked as the official decision? Seems like he made a comment about a previous post just like many others have in this thread.

The Register photos tend to reinforce what I expressed yesterday: I think it's a little overly dramatic to say it was "poorly planned". But I would say that there was perhaps a lack of vision: there's really no way to see *exactly* what the ride was going to look like once the control booth was positioned *inches* from the facade. Once the booth was in position (is it even possible to open the booth door without banging it into the ride?) I suspect that's when the conversation started. And it ended just before 11:00 on Wednesday.

I still think they should have just taken down the station roof... 8-)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

WickedTwister 90 you said it perfect. They are acting like their childhoods have just been ruined by the decision to remove Wildcat. If you had great times on it, great! That has not changed, even with the ride gone. I loved White Water Landing because my whole family could be in the same log, and that was really fun. So while I miss it, I still remember how fun it was when all four of us were in that same log and that ride being removed hasn't taken those memories away from me.

You know that if they decided to remove a pretzel stand there would be someone out there saying that their grandparents used to buy them pretzels there so how dare CP remove it!

Just another opinion about what happened:

Perhaps the fire dept, and or the state inspectors said the control tower for luminosity was too close to Wildcat creating a fire hazard/safety issue if an emergency/fire occured on the ride.

I know as a teacher, the fire dept only allows us to cover 20% of our walls with paper/student work, etc. I could def. see them saying that the tower was way too close to the ride.

Alright, I really didn't want to get to this point but I feel like no one is even taking the time to consider where I'm coming from.

If you've never worked a ride before then you really just don't understand. There aren't many of you who understand what it's like day in and day out operating these things. Maybe I should stop expecting you to either. I'm not upset about the rides removal, just how it was done. I knew at best we had a year or two left of it gracing the midway where it was, but for them to just rip it out is not cool for me. If you're ok with it that's fine, but it doesn't mean that I have to be.

tcgolfer said:
...no one is even taking the time to consider where I'm coming from.

Not true. Some have actually agreed with your perspective. You seem to be focusing on those who don't agree with you.

Another problem, I think, is that you insist:

If you've never worked a ride before then you really just don't understand.

That's simply not true. I'd bet most, if not all, have experienced some form of similar loss. Changing careers, finishing college, selling a car, moving, and so on are all similar events that can have an understandable emotional impact. Just because people don't agree with your reaction doesn't mean they don't understand.

I can't speak for others, but where you lose me is when you allow your passion to delude your perception. Suggesting the park owes WC fans a better fate than this, implying the ride "betrayed" you, or that you know more about what the best decision is for the park regarding WC's fate. Your feelings aren't necessarily invalid, but you have to admit your reaction is colored by your passion. And because few share that passion, few will relate.

Instead of complaining that others (myself included) don't share your impassioned perspective, find those who agree with your point of view, and share your thoughts, memories or whatever else with them.

Long time listener, first time caller, yada yada. I've been to the Point a number of times and have been on WildCat a number of times. I've always enjoyed it and thought it was a fun ride. For those that don't remember, the original WildCat operated at Cedar Point from 1970 until 1978 when it was shipped off to Valleyfair where it ran as Wild Rails where it ran until the end of the 1998 season. The current incantation of the ride has of course ran starting in 1979.

The reason I felt obligated to chime in here is that I too once operated rides and while I get what tcgolfer is saying, I think he's off base. Even though I trusted the maintenance crew that worked on the ride that I was a crew member on I never fully trusted the ride. And, to be frank, its kind of worrisome that someone would think that way. I tended to think of (as I think a lot of ride ops do/did) the ride as like my car. You get to know all the sounds, sights and feels for the ride so that you're so in tune with the ride that you know what's wrong. To simply have blind faith that it will always run smooth I think is opening the door for a problem to happen down the line. Often the folks that had worked the ride for a while during the season are able to pick up on minor issues before they turned into major ones.

That being said, you do get attached to a piece of machinery, which is kind of silly, but its not too dissimilar from being attached to a house or a car, but just like those things you need to know when its time to move on, and for WildCat, that time seems to be now.

CoasterDude5 said:
The reason I felt obligated to chime in here is that I too once operated rides and while I get what tcgolfer is saying, I think he's off base. Even though I trusted the maintenance crew that worked on the ride that I was a crew member on I never fully trusted the ride. And, to be frank, its kind of worrisome that someone would think that way. I tended to think of (as I think a lot of ride ops do/did) the ride as like my car. You get to know all the sounds, sights and feels for the ride so that you're so in tune with the ride that you know what's wrong. To simply have blind faith that it will always run smooth I think is opening the door for a problem to happen down the line. Often the folks that had worked the ride for a while during the season are able to pick up on minor issues before they turned into major ones.

That being said, you do get attached to a piece of machinery, which is kind of silly, but its not too dissimilar from being attached to a house or a car, but just like those things you need to know when its time to move on, and for WildCat, that time seems to be now.

I know exactly what you're saying and you're right I respected the ride more than anything because I knew what it was capable of. I listened intently for little things about the ride that could point towards something that could be off. I don't think I ever fully trusted the ride because there is a reason we tested it every morning to be sure something wouldn't happen. I'm just saying that after two years there was some trust there. Thank you for at least understanding and posting your thoughts.

DJ,

I have said many times that I know my opinion is being colored by the fact that I was attached to the ride. I haven't tried to hide that. I just find it frustrating when everyone else here as you mentioned has gone through a similar type of loss and has no respect for my feelings. Does that make sense? I'm not trying to talk down to anyone really, just trying to share my passion.

I also never said I knew what was better for the park. I'm not going to try and be an armchair CEO, that's not my place.

TheNewGuy said:
Jeff, why do you get to decide when people are being "too dramatic" or feel entitled to mock people who otherwise express themselves, like above?

I didn't decide anything, I'm just saying what I believe, like everyone else. Am I to just sit quietly and never say anything because I write the checks to pay for the server? Yeah, that will happen.

^Zing!

Jeff said:

TheNewGuy said:
Jeff, why do you get to decide when people are being "too dramatic" or feel entitled to mock people who otherwise express themselves, like above?

I didn't decide anything, I'm just saying what I believe, like everyone else. Am I to just sit quietly and never say anything because I write the checks to pay for the server? Yeah, that will happen.

Just so everyone is aware. I have no problems with what Jeff has said especially consider I KNOW I'm being blinded slightly by emotion.

So, was it by chance the webcams were relocated right about the same time as the decision to remove Wildcat was made?

One was pointed right at it, while the midway cam would have likely caught the trucks hauling it's pieces on out of the park.

I think it's strange that we now have one returning that points to an area with nothing really happening and the other so far away you can't make out any detail.

When other construction projects had cameras on them, the locations stayed until (and after) the initial launch of the attractions.

99er, I'm crying over the speed slides! oh wait... no I'm not. When it comes to machines. I don't put my trust and faith in IT, I put my trust and faith in the people maintaining it. The reason it keeps functioning and working is because of the people who come and physically work on it. Without any kind of maintenance every type of machine will eventually break down and stop working, that's the only thing you can be sure of with a machine.

It's the same as the car you've had all your life and driven around the country in and created memories and stories and eventually it gives up and won't run anymore. You're sad, you move on (or at least should) and you tell the stories of that one time you drove it off a cliff and thought you were going to die, the memories are still there a ride doesn't store those memories, your brain does.

I was never fond of the ride, the dips and fast turns and whatnot were certainly fun, but it certainly isn't a family ride either. I rode it as a kid and was nearly thrown out of the car because of the lap bars, I got back to the station with the lap bar at my knees as I grasped the rest of the car to stay in, the safety issues have been going on for years at various levels of seriousness and let's be honest, with the new work their doing, it does look like crap now compared to the rest of the stuff around it.