Great interview with Janice Witherow - CPPR

Walt has a great interview over at VM with Janice Witherow who is CP Public Relations Manager. Check it out here. There are questions answered that these forums were asking over the past few months, including some insight on the announcement philosophy. Nice job Walt.

Thanks Walt! Good questions (and good answers too!)

Jim

"...originally planned to announce Top Thrill Dragster on August 28 -- that was the magical date internally. Then came the buzz. The speculation. The rumors. It seemed everyone was talking about what in the world was behind "the wall" on the midway and trying to guess the height, the speed, the name, etc."

That's one of answers of why they waited so long to announce the ride. Notice that they were going to announce it on Aug. 28, but it's because of our speculation that they held off the date.

What have we learned? Never try to find out about a ride, since all that does is make us wait longer. HA For now on, we shouldn't talk about any new rides at CP. Yeah, right.

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If there's bugs on your shirt, you had a good ride.

Thank you Jeff for your work to make and run this site!
*** This post was edited by screammachinekid 1/15/2003 2:06:57 PM ***
*** This post was edited by screammachinekid 1/15/2003 2:07:30 PM ***

Its funny.... I was at the park on Aug. 28.

That was also the day the track was first seen.
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"I can't make a movie or write a song either, but that doesn't mean I'm not entitled to think they suck."
-Jeff

The only thing worse than people who make grammar mistakes are the people who have to point it out every ****ing time.

Ok, I have to chime in. I agree, a lot of the questions answered certainly have been asked here more than once, so it was great to finally get real answers. However, I do have two observations.

First, the presentation seemed more like questions and answers (via email or fax) rather than a face to face interview. If infact the dialogue was face to face, I am surprised Walt or the interviewer did not followup with additional questions based on some of her answers. Most noteably, her comments about Dragster being planned 3 years ago right after MF opened, and her confirmation that CP wants to continue being the first to break 200, 300, and now 400 feet.

I would not expect her to give a totally honest answer, but I was surprised the interviewer did not ask - if the opening of Dragster is successfull, will CP start planning a 500 foot coaster, as they did after MF with Dragster.

Secondly, regarding her comments about the announcement originally planned for August - I believe this is only a half truth - and followup questions were sorely missed. I am sure the free PR helped CP decide to delay the announcement, and I ageee 100% that the ride has to be HUGE (like Dragter) to warrant keeping everyone in the dark, but I cant help thinking another part of announcement delay (and I suspect the largest portion) is for competitive purposes.

Say what you want about the CP and MM rivalry, but the Goliath drop is only exceeded here in the US by MF. Dragster will exceed Superman at MM as well - the announcement delay has had to have an impact on other parks future plans. Janice confirmed it took 3 years to develop Dragster - some park, somewhere (Germany for example) started the same process last year or the year before, and I strongly suspect no one would have predicted a 400 foot continuous coaster so soon. If any park wanted to secure a world record title, I strongly suspect they are now back at the drawing board, trying to beat Dragster instead of SD2K.

Walt, the information was timely and awesome - THANK YOU. It also validates that in all likelyhood, at some point this year, CP will start thinking about how to beat Dragster (YIPPEE). May the trend continue.

Tom

I'm glad she mentioned why Schwabinchen was removed. A lot of people miss that point and think it was removed because the ride was not popular. I hate to say it, but Cedar Point doesn't have a space problem because most of these rides won't last forever. It will be sad when one of the coasters have to go. Not anytime soon, but it will happen.

Nice job Walt !

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Gemini 100 - 35
Aaron Radatz Centenial Theater '02
*** This post was edited by Freaky 1/15/2003 3:03:11 PM ***

The idea for the 2 pictures is a really cool idea....and althought Magnum really has no long lines, it'll be nice to see those lines shorter...lol.

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OMG! The Space Spiral is leaning!!" Must be the weight of that new air conditioning system everyone keeps hypothesizing about...

I wish the announcment was the 28th of August because that was the only day I was there all year.
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-Andy
'Le grill? What the hell does that mean?' -Homer Simpson

See that, if everyone would have just shut up about the whole thing, we would have found out about this in August! We would not have had to suffer all this time.

If only we didn't open our big fat mouths. Well, then again, since we did talk, CP might hold the record of world's tallest for an extra year since other parks couldn't start planning a coaster till they knew what had to be beaten. You're welcome Cedar Point!

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If there's bugs on your shirt, you had a good ride.

Thank you Jeff for your work to make and run this site!

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I was at the park on Aug. 28. That was also the day the track was first seen.

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Not quite: it was a week before; Walt's first pictures were from 8/21. My family was at Sandcastle that week. I was disconnected from the Internet, so had no idea track was there until Friday the 23rd, when I drove past it on Perimiter Road. I just about drove off of Perimeter Road shouting "New track!"

Don't blame yourselves. No one knew what CP were thinking when they heard all the rumors.

Well, we now know that in order to build Top Thrill, we had to sacrifice Schwabinchen and Dodgems.

Yes, August 21 was the first day track arrived at the park.

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BTS Cedar Point
http://www.btscedarpoint.tk

I found it interesting that she came straight out and said "CP is clearly not a theme park..." and that TTD is "...their closest attempt to theming a ride or attraction..."

Bob, I found that interesting as well. I will be the first to admit I was very disapointed late October when it was clear Dragster was a L-TH-B - but I have to admit the concept themeing MORE than makes up for the short ride time. I am in love with the concept, cars, and stats - I think CP has a real winner - with the themeing being the icing on the cake.

Considering this was a $25 mil investment, anything more than lthb would have cost like a million bajillion dollars.

Plus with the theming, anything more than L-TH-B would not have fit in with a drag strip.

Especially an inversion...I think.

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Cedar Point 2003, where no roller coaster rider has gone before

Racing would have finished the theme completely, but yet a racing coaster would also cost a lot more money.
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Aww.....Florida! But That's America's Wang

I thought of cool top-hat racing idea. One of the trains would go over a regular top-hat and the other would go under an inverted one. I tried building it in RCT2 but it wasn't that good.

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Cedar Point 2003, where no roller coaster rider has gone before