Hypothetical ride refurbishments

Hudson:

It looks a bit more .. intimate than other coasters.

Let's hope so...

I hope not. Otherwise it will be down for frequent cleaning!

Just last weekend my son and I went to The Park at OWA in Foley, AL. Their ride is called "Crazy Mouse" by Zamperla. The cars had a bench designed to sit four across, no dividers, with two separate lap bars to pull down, left two passengers, right two passengers, no seat belts. Ethan and I rode it about 6 times and as was stated above, the spin factor was dependent upon our weight distribution and possibly car mechanics. Generally we sat at the far left and they spun like crazy.

Is the spinning limited to certain sections of track, or does it spin the entire time (other than the lift/brakes/station)?

Brandon, if you are asking about the one at OWA, the first half of the ride has no spin whatsoever. that is the lift-hill and a couple of descents & turns. Then, the car crosses a certain point where the spinning is enabled, some sort of a release switch under the car. The final half of the ride is filled with spinning action at several corners.

That is exactly what I was wondering, thank you.

The Steel Dragon (manufactured by Maurer) at Waldameer in Erie works like that also where spin is enabled for the second half of ride. These are getting pretty common nowadays. I can't do spinning flat rides anymore at my age but I can do the Steel Dragon a few times in a row. Fun ride, not great. I hope the CP version is a bit better and longer than the Waldameer version.

Yeah, I definitely wasn't intending to make this thread into a generational slap fight.

Again, I have no personal gripe with Magnum and would be perfectly content with the trains being left as they are, but even in this thread it's pretty obvious there's a few different opinions about the restraints and the ejector air.

There's just a part of me that's paranoid about diminishing returns if too many folks have the equivalent of a "Magnum XL-200 looks too intense for me" thought bubble and it starts affecting whatever metric CF uses to determine when it's time to take a ride out behind the Mystic Timbers shed.

Obviously Magnum has a historical factor that, I dunno, Vortex didn't necessarily have, but if a train refurb is the difference between Magnum continuing on and a retirement ceremony, I'll take the refurb.

At least nobody here's asking for the bunny hops to be reprofiled.

I’m 6’4” with long legs. The lap bars straight up suck on the return trip back to the station, which means I ride Magnum maybe once a summer. It can be an awesome ride, but those lap bars aren’t it anymore.

I'm fine with being the guy to say that SV hurts my thighs way more than Magnum's ejector seat... but I dunno if we're ready for that energy around here. And as a disclaimer I'm 6'6".

Dvo, I completely agree. I love SV, but if we're talking about thigh pain, SV holds the crown for me. I could and have re-ridden Magnum several times. On SV more than 1 (maybe 2) rides is pure thigh pain to me.

My experience is pure fun on SV, I can’t remember any thigh pain.

Magnum OTOH I get the thigh pain. I am 5’11”. Must be based a lot on height.

This is what I was getting at a few posts back - ride tolerance, whether it's of lateral G's, roughness, spinning, etc, varies from person to person. Magnum and SV are popular rides as-is. If someone can't tolerate Magnum's bunny hills, Gemini is right around the corner. If SV is too intense, Maverick is next door, etc., etc.

I’ll defend Magnum to my dying day but I will say that my ride on Sunday liked to kill me. Seat 9, left side. I haven’t ridden mid-train in years, traditionally preferring the back of the train, but they were assigning seats and as a single rider I was a fill-in. I found the ride to be bumpy and rattling. The turn around was rough and the return trip was a galloping kind of physical abuse.
I was glad it was over until I was back in the station and delayed things when my size 13 Skechers got wedged and caught in the footwell preventing me from “quickly and carefully” making a graceful exit from the train. The couple behind me waiting to board patiently watched my struggle and listened politely to my apologies. I couldn’t wait to be out of there. I was the last to limp down the ramp. My photo looked like I was enduring dental work.
I’m still not recommending big alterations to Magnum’s trains, track, or profile. I think instead I’m finally at the place where my age will prevent me from doing a big day full of challenging rides. Sadly.

What was with that on Sunday? Platform attendants who think they're at Kings Island or something? I made it a point to politely ignore anyone who tried to assign me to a seat on Sunday, particularly since there are certain rides where I kind of have to sit in certain rows, or at least in odd-numbered rows.

Nobody gave me any hassle about it, but on certain rides the seat assignment was having the predictable effect--they didn't have enough people in the station to keep the trains full.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

They were assigning rows on Magnum when were there the day before Coastermania. It's the first time I've had them assign rows like that. My body didn't like the seat and it beat the crap out of us. It was the only time we rode it in the 4 days we were there. I'll take the wild rides on Steel Vengeance any day!

I’m usually with Dave on the seat thing. Over the years I’ve learned to just ask (May I go toward the back?) or if it’s busy enough just do my own thing and hope they’ve already forgotten about me. On MF they were assigning but my favorite seat is not everyone else’s go to. So when I politely ask for it it’s usually ok. As for Magnum I was down the steps and foolishly raised my hand when she asked for a group of two or a single. I should have known that meant assigned seats and an empty platform but I was about over it all anyway so I thought eh what the heck. Seat 9 should be fun. It wasn’t.

RideMan:

Nobody gave me any hassle about it, but on certain rides the seat assignment was having the predictable effect--they didn't have enough people in the station to keep the trains full.

That is such a problem at CP these days. Seeing filled queues with half empty trains is frustrating.

Aaronosmer:

I love SV, but if we're talking about thigh pain, SV holds the crown for me. I could and have re-ridden Magnum several times. On SV more than 1 (maybe 2) rides is pure thigh pain to me.

Total agree here as well, and honestly, I think it’s a lot to do with the trains, specifically the very loose retractable seat belts on SV. On Magnum, I cinch the traditional seatbelt all the way down to as tight as it can go, and that keeps me from launching up into the lap bar too much during the back half of the ride. On SV, since the seatbelt cannot be firmly tightened, I constantly am being launched into the lap bar over and over again, with my thighs taking the brunt of the impact. When you couple that with the incredibly firm restraint padding on SV and no decent places to hold on to, it makes for an experience that is frustratingly unenjoyable for me.

(Bonus negative points for the insane laterals in the last hop before the midcourse brake run and right at the end of the final inversion. Several times, when I’ve sat on the right side of the train, and the person next to me has their hands up, I’ve been clobbered in the head/shoulder/face by their arms when the train slams through the hard lefts in both transitions. I’ve even started to raise my arm and guard myself preemptively at those points in that situation—sitting on right side of train, rider next to me with arms up.)

Since I’m up and can’t sleep I’ll “dream” on the forums.

Blue streak: GCI “Ghostrider” treatment / complete re-track with new Millennium Flyer trains.

Coliseum refreshed and updated to mimic its 1906 splendor, second floor ADA compliant and utilized for the masses.

Midway Carousel refresh with new building that’s more open and grand. (that’s not remotely 1990s chic)

and finally (for now) the return of the DJ/rave MF line experience.