Iron Dragon disscussion

Agreed about the changes to the Paddlewheel cruise as a result of ID. But my recollection is that they did a remarkable job of preserving the trees around ID when they built it. I clearly remember riding it many times when it was a couple of years old- not remotely enough time for trees to grow back- and it was deep in dense woods throughout, except for the first lift and the pretzel over the water. It was a fantastic ride at night and my little brother and I would always run to catch a few last minute end of the night rides on it because of the effect of riding through the woods at night.

Anyone else think something has to be done with the line space for this ride? Sure it may not be a super popular ride but on busy days, it is not enough queue. The stage took a lot of it away. There is a lot of space under the transfer track and break run, is it possible to put queue under there? Or probably a hazard?

I've seen them rearrange portable silver rails around creating queue space or a shortcut in that area before but haven't noticed them do it this year.

Crossing under it is one thing, but having people be consistently under it is a safety hazard. There is really no where to put the queue unless they get a floating platform for the lagoon.

There's an employees only area behind Coasters that would accommodate queues. However, I don't think expanding Iron Dragon's queues is necessary

The reason that only temporary queue rails can be used under the brake run is so maintenance can get scissor lifts and/or cherry pickers in to work on the brakes above. Equipment also may need to be brought in to get riders off if the train if it cannot be advanced into the station.

The area behind Coasters has Luminosity stuff, food storage, and dumpsters that service many of the food stands in that area. It's right up against the water, so there's really room to move anything.

Source: Worked in foods a few years ago.

Okay, correct. Currently those things exist. But, things like that can always be moved. Especially because of the fact that a pretty view is being blocked by an employees area filled with dumpsters and behind the scenes stuff.

How long has that restaraunt been there? It does seem like a dumb place to put one from a visual standpoint. Wasn't that area completely open whe Iron Dragon was new?

Yeah, what a dumb place to put a restaurant - right at the intersection of the Main and Million Dollar Midways. What were they thinking?

I believe it was called the "Paddlewheel Cafe" during the 1970s when the Western Cruise dock was right next to it, and the area was a major fork in the midway where you went left towards the rides down the "million dollar" midway/frontier trail or right towards Jungle Larry's and Corkscrew. It certainly gets a fair share of customers with its centralized location. I'm unsure of when the name changed to Coasters but it had to be around when the dock was moved for the eventual construction of Iron Dragon.

Based on the now-abandoned trademark for Coasters (as in Coasters Drive-In or Coasters Diner), I would guess that Cedar Point's Coasters was renamed and re-themed no sooner than 1997. Walt's timeline seems to indicate 1999.

Iron Dragon opened in 1987.

As well as Walt's timeline, Jason Hammond's website shows that the 1998 park guide lists it as Paddlewheel Cafe while the 1999 lists it as Coaster's.

1999 Map

1998 Map

Mystery solved ;)

topthrilldragster4lyf said:

Yeah, what a dumb place to put a restaurant - right at the intersection of the Main and Million Dollar Midways. What were they thinking?

I specified visualstandpoint, not business. Obviously from a business standpoint it makes sense to cram as many restaraunts into the park as humanly possible no matter what view you block.

Paddlewheel Cafe was actually the original Western Cruise queue line house, with modification of course. It opened when the Western Cruise queue was moved to approximately where Iron Dragon is now when the Million Dollar Midway opened.

Paisley said:

topthrilldragster4lyf said:

Yeah, what a dumb place to put a restaurant - right at the intersection of the Main and Million Dollar Midways. What were they thinking?

I specified visualstandpoint, not business. Obviously from a business standpoint it makes sense to cram as many restaraunts into the park as humanly possible no matter what view you block.

There's nothing wrong with putting a restaurant on the water from a visual standpoint. What they went cheap on was the design - there should be waterfront seating but instead, the kitchen is in the back along the water.

Not sure I'd want to sit right on that water, anyway. :)

That's a whole other story entirely. :)