Is Cedar Fair done with intamin?

I'm just passing on something I heard (I think over at Coasterbuzz) so if it is a lie, don't shoot the messenger!

I have also heard that B&M is just waiting for a park to request a launch coaster before they build one. If they were to build one, I would hope that it's something more like Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens Tampa than Blue Fire at Europa Park or Helix at Liseberg because the latter two rides seem too similar to Maverick to fit at Cedar Point.

Cheetah hunt is like a neutered Maverick. It's fun I suppose, and visually interesting, but I suppose Maverick spoiled me.

Well Holiday World is getting a launched B&M so that settles that

Settles what, exactly? HW has long been in talks with B&M before the failed INTAMIN experiment. :-/

Jeff said:

Thabto said:
I've only seen...

Anecdotes don't really describe the bigger problem, for which there is plenty of data. Sure, you like the rides, and a lot of people do. A lot of people like the more reliable rides too, and those have a lower cost-per-ride and greater capacity. Which one is a better investment? Obviously the latter.

I think reliability is, by far, the most important issue discussed here. Let's set aside the thought processes in terms of cost for a second.

Only the enthusiasts would care enough to know that TTD has frequent downtime. In fact, I think that the demographic is far more forgiving in terms of that. What if you're a family of four and you come to the park and their star attraction doesn't operate all day? What if that WAS your vacation that summer? What would you remember about that day? Would you be tempted to go back?

I remember my first visit to Cedar Point back in 2007. I had always heard about TTD and I just HAD to ride it. The darn thing was down all day. Only - by the grace of God - did it happen to reopen as we were leaving the park and I was able to squeeze in a ride. If I didn't get to ride it I would have had fun that day, but I would have always kind of remembered it as a day when I didn't get to ride what I really wanted to ride when I went there.

These are the sorts of things that you have to put into the mindset when it comes to adding a new attraction. The fact that something is the tallest, fastest, etc is an interesting factoid, but it's not going to matter if it doesn't open. I'd agree that some of CP's most thrilling rides are made by Intamin, but at what cost?

topthrilldragster4lyf said:
Settles what, exactly? HW has long been in talks with B&M before the failed INTAMIN experiment. :-/

The question of whether B&M will design and build a launched coaster. They've apparently come up with a launch design that they feel is reliable enough to operate one of their rides.

Ok, that's not how I interpreted Vette's post. Indeed, B&M finally seems to have come up with their own LSM launch design. I'm excited to see what they do with it next. Launched invert or flyer anyone? ;)

Flyer? Oh, please no.

It always strikes me as odd that the same place that fosters annual discussion of a gimmicky ride being converted into a floorless, would also be a place where people would want another gimmicky ride. :)

I think a face down launched flyer sounds like a lot of fun :)

What? It's more enjoyable than a stand-up..

To you it's more enjoyable than a stand up. But I'd be willing to bet that you're very much in the minority, just as those who thoroughly enjoy stand-ups are probably in the minority.

At the end of the day, they're both gimmicks, which is why there aren't tons of them in operation, nor are many being built lately.

Any statement of enjoyment comes down to personal preference. :)

Anyway, myself and others enjoy flying coasters ala KI's Firehawk. You don't, making the mine shorter for the rest of us. Isn't variety great?

Does anyone know if Thunderbird at Holiday World's launching mechanism is actually going to be made/engineered by B&M or will the launch be done by an outside company/subcontractor (like the Incredible Hulk at Universal Studios)? If so, wouldn't this be B&M's first launching coaster--giving CF even less of an incentive to approach Intamin for future launching coasters?

I believe B&M is engineering the launch system.

Presuming it is a B&M-designed system, and from what I hear they've been sitting on the technology for a little bit, it makes me wonder if Cedar Fair is waiting to see how the system works out. They likely could have snagged it up for Gatekeeper but I presume they wanted to play it safe.

If they indeed could have, I, for one, am glad they did not. I love the lift by the beach, and the slow twist at the top. Gatekeeper has enough speed throughout the rest of the course, its doesn't need a launch (my 2 cents).

I agree about the wingover drop. It's amazing; there's really nothing quite like it that I've experienced. There is little I would change about GateKeeper.

Same here, and I tried my damnedest to remember the technical name. I hated just calling it a twist...makes me sound like such a noobie, but I was drawing a blank and too lazy to Google.

cedar fair is taking a break not getting rid of intinman at some point the park will install a intimin they have 3 intimin coasters they have to go back to them at some point and probably will. B and M is great but can not install every great cedar point roller coaster eventually they will go back to intmain when who knows possibly for the 150th anniversary of cedar point they are supposed to go really big then most of cedar points success was in intimain so no they are not done with intimain.