Hypothetical ride refurbishments

This is just kind of a thought exercise regarding other potential ride refurbishments that could be done around the park, anywhere from new paint to new trains to RMC-level rebuilding, regardless of a perceived level of return on investment.

It's mainly borne out of the cyclic discussion about LSMs and such in the Dragster thread, but also inspired by a gaggle of high school kids behind me on Magnum yesterday that were kvetching incessantly about how painful the ejector airtime was and blah blah blah never again this ride's horrible and so on and so forth.

While it was tempting to just write it off as a "these kids these days with their hair and their rock music and their B&M restraints" moment, I know folks on here have complained about the Magnum lap bars being murder to their thighs, especially if paired with an overly gregarious stapling ride op. Does anybody know if any Arrows have ever been retrofitted with newer restraints, or would that be something you'd be better off replacing the whole train for? I'm also not sure if MF-style or B&M clamshell-style restraints would actually make a huge difference or if it's just the design of the Arrow bunny hops.

Leave Magnum alone.

It's the triangular shape of the hills on the return side.

Next time that happens, advise the complainers that tightening the belt reduces the impact between the legs and lap bar.

People just don't know how to ride Magnum. The front and back row of every car are the roughest and that has a lot to do with the wheel placement on arrow trains. I've always had the best rides when sitting in the middle row of any arrow train car. It doesn't murder the thighs so much, and makes for a lot more comfortable ride.

A ride should not have to require a working knowledge of seat choice to be rideable or painless.

Magnum isn't un-rideable without this knowledge, it's simply more rideable with it.

And it remains a popular ride regardless. As recently as 2018 when they were still posting ridership numbers, Magnum was still consistently ranking in the top 5 coasters in the park.

I propose they replace the bumper cars with cars that are worth riding. That would be an amazing refurbishment.

I still don’t understand the rough ride complaints. I like the back row of Magnum because it throws me around!

I totally agree with the last two posts. JohnMosesBrowning is spot-on, that type of ride is very thrilling, vigorous, fun. Granted, not for everyone as some prefer smooth and gentle. And Paisley has made the accurate point that the newer Dodgem cars are slow, unresponsive ho-hum cars.

Leave the Magnum trains alone. If you must fiddle with the trains, then replace the stickers with the old relief panels, and bring back the smoke-tinted windshields. Anything done to modernize those trains would be ruinous. Do you really want form-fitting seats, infinitely adjustable lap bars designed to clamp you firmly into the seat, crotch bumps on the seat, and headrests?

There is a reason that Magnum can provide stronger -Gz forces than Steel Vengeance and still offer a much more comfortable ride.

Now, if you want to go modifying some existing coasters, here are a few ideas--
CEDAR CREEK MINE RIDE:
At the very least, restore the soft seats; that alone would make it more accommodating to larger riders. Much as I dislike the idea, new trains similar to the ones Premier built for the Hersheypark Trailblazer would be another option.

GEMINI:
Tracer lights on both sides of the track for the full length of the ride. Like the ones on Blue Streak. Put blue ones on the right and red ones on the left. Perhaps some dramatic floodlighting as well; make that ride look like it belongs on that retro-style midway that bears its name.
Bring back the fifth and sixth trains, or at least one more train on the red side, and get the crew skilled up in three-train operation. There may be no reason to ever run six trains on the ride again, but the combination of large crowds and short staffing should make it look really attractive to be able to run three on one side.

CORKSCREW:
Fix the red tracer lights on the arches. Maybe switch to LED, but definitely get the dark red color back, and get the tracer pattern working again. The other change Corkscrew needed, the change to that upper pad on the back of the seat, finally got done...thank you, Cedar Point, for that!

MAVERICK:
Redesign the lap bar and get rid of the shoulder restraints entirely.

BLUE STREAK:
Lose the headrests. If they aren't needed on Steel Vengeance or Magnum XL-200, then they certainly aren't needed on Blue Streak. Switch to soft seats, and make the buckle end of the seat belt long enough to get above the seat divider. If you really want to make me happy, restore those trains to the way they were in 1995. Even better, restore them to the way the lead car on Train #1 was in 1995 (with its brand-new black lap bars).

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

GL2CP said:

A ride should not have to require a working knowledge of seat choice to be rideable or painless.

And not every ride needs to be a smooth relaxing adventure.

Sometimes a little ultra-violence is just what the doctor ordered.

That makes me wanna wear guyliner and a tophat.

I wasn’t saying the ride was bad I was suggesting that someone saying “people don’t know how to ride it” is silly

Speaking of the CC Mine Ride I always thought CP should add some theming to make it much more interesting. It sorely needs a dark tunnel or cave somewhere and also they could add theming or even a show scene in the wood barn after leaving the station. This could be relatively inexpensive and add a little hype to kind of an irrelevant coaster. This would have been perfect for the 50th anniversary which they celebrated but did very little of anything to the actual ride.

They could easily enclose the entire ride, except for the two lift hills, add some Boneville theming and have a nice dark ride. The Mine Ride could enter a mine inside a mountain. If they had to, they could even slow the ride down a little. That gives CP the dark ride everyone seems to want.

^ cool idea but that’s a bit more elaborate (and expensive) than I was thinking. They already have the big wood shed at the beginning of the ride where it is going slower anyway, kind of lazy of CP not to put some theming in that. Boneville stuff is a good idea and ties in with railroad. And then add at least a fairly long dark tunnel somewhere else. Or enclose the helix at the end of the ride and make that dark at least. I’m trying to make it economical for all the ROI people haha.

Still cheaper than starting from scratch.

I think there is a difference between having a fun, thrilling ride experience and a rough, uncomfortable ride. I would like to experience speed a G forces while experiencing little to no pain. And I think the general public would agree. My wife and I normally ride Magnum once per our yearly trip. Just to get the credit. Even trying the magic seat didn't help much to make us want to marathon the ride.

RideMan said:

There is a reason that Magnum can provide stronger -Gz forces than Steel Vengeance and still offer a much more comfortable ride.

Steel Vengeance is a much more comfortable ride for me than Magnum. On Magnum I know how to stop the thigh pain but keeping my head from being shaken up is the problem for me. I have modified the hands up riding style to putting my hands behind my head to form a make-shift headrest to try and hold my head steady. I can re-ride SV much more so than Magnum, and I used to marathon Magnum.

As a youngster, the thrill of coasters was that it WAS going to shake you up, bump you around and be "scary". If it is too smooth (GK) is it even a thrill ride!? We have gone too soft.