Magnum automated recording sucks

When I went to CP on July 31, I had two rides on Magnum. The first ride I took in the morning, the ride ops were giving the safety informaiton as normal. I went back on it about 6:00 in the evening, the ride ops were no longer giving the safety information, but they had an automated recording instead. When I asked the ride op when they made the switch, he said that it was about 5:00.

Two things that I noticed about the recording. First, the recording gives the informaiton to the people who are unloading from the train before they are in the station. Two, the recording seems to be longer than the dispatch interval on the ride.

With the new recording, I miss the "welcome back riders, how was your ride?"

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Q: What does Top Thrill Dragster have in common with Walmart?

A: Rollbacks

Yeah, I like the people talking. Quote form MF ride OP with a mike guy: "Make sure to buy a picture after your ride. If your's sucks, buy someone else's. Enjoy your ride..." At Kentucky Kingdom, the farris wheal op was one of the funnies guys I've ever talked to in line for any ride. No one else was on, so me and a couple of friends kept on yelling stupid stuff, he made us stay at the top for a while and he made it go a tad faster than normal. He hollored "The only people you see on Jerry Springer and Maury are only from Kentucky!" It was great. Anyway, the recording kinda takes away the 'personallaty' of the station. I'm used to people saying "Cedar Point, America's roller coast'. :o

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Courage is not the absence of fear. It is over comming it.

Auto-spiels suck. You listening, Cedar Point? THEY SUCK.

Probably the worse thing is that they do it as yet another over-reactive cover-your-ass-so-you-don't-get-sued measure.

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Jeff - Webmaster - GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

I'm with Jeff, there is nothing that sucks more than a recorded speil. With a recording, you can actually feel the lawyer lecturing you before you get on the ride. For some reason, Magnum was always the ride I never wanted to hear an auto speil on. When I think of a ride spiel, Magnum always comes to mind because the ops are almost always having fun with it. Somehow I knew when we saw one appear on Corkscrew a few weeks ago that other rides would follow suit.

I would urge some kind of uprising like there was when the MF station music disappeared, but since laywers are probably behind this, I doubt it will change.

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-Chris Woodard
"We got pop and Gatorade over here for $100 a bottle, so have your credit card ready. Seriously, the food here is so expensive, I just eat the condiments because I can't afford a meal." - MF que DJ 6/16/03

The ride op spiels were one of the things that make cedar point what it is. They will be *sorely* missed!

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It's not war, famine, or pestilence; it's only downtime.

Amen, Brian! It's so true that I'll simply repeat it.

The ride op spiels were what made Cedar Point more fun than the average amusement park. It was great because the op's personality could shine through. You'd get funny ones, enthusiastic ones, sarcastic ones. You could ride the same coaster multiple times and get a different variation of the spiel each time - each one as entertaining as the last. It was one of those "intangibles" that made the park stand above the rest. Subtle but incredibly effective at upping the experience.

So am I to assume all of the coasters are switching over (or already have)? :(

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Coasterimage.com

Well Cedar Fair added them to MIA last year. I understand that because MIA has always been laxed on safety guidelines. I am used to them, but they just really suck compared to listening to the excitement of the ride ops. Leave autospeils for SF or PKI. Their employees don't care about guest experience like Cedar Point's.

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Blue people fly sideways when it rains....

I also have to believe that the ops are pretty ticked off. Spieling was about the only way to introduce some variety into what is otherwise an awfully monotonous job.

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It's not war, famine, or pestilence; it's only downtime.

But...I have heard ride Ops that sound SO boered during their spiel that I am not suprised that it has come to this.

Not happy, but not suprised.

(I don't like 'em either)

MrScott

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

So instead of a manual spiel that most people will ignore, Magnum now has an automatic spiel that everybody will ignore? Cedar Point continues to defy logic...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Who would like to put a lot of recordings at CP out of his misery...

I really don't like most auto spiels, they are just so boring. That's one thing about most other parks that usualy makes me miss CP is the spiels.

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AKA...Somewhatchewy, Joseph the White.
Support PUTI! People for the Unethical Treatment of Idiots.

I also aggree with Jeff, the auto-spiels suck. I like when the ops throw somthing else into the spiel.

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Evan H.
"Oh, well look who thinks he's clever dan."-Strong Bad
rm-rl/dev/null- BOFH!

It was really kind of sad to pull into the station and not hear the question everybody wants to hear. :( The energy in the station is basically gone at this point.

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Millennium Force Laps-116
**Vertigo Launches-21**
Dragster Launches-8

Dear Cedar Point,

This is a stupid idea.

Signed,
John

Now, GTTP folks, let me tell you why this is a stupid idea.

Most autospiels suck. Correction: all auto spiels suck. People (myself included) are much more likely to actually pay attention to a real live person speaking to them. Hearing the EXACT SAME DAMNED THING over and over from a recording does nothing but turn the average person off to what they're hearing.

If a person is turned off ot what they're hearing they will NOT BE PAYING ANY ATTENTION TO IT.

If Cedar Point doesn't want to be sued for people getting hurt on their rides the only way to totally prevent it is to shut down the rides. That's the best way to ensure guest safety.

What? Cedar Point's an amusement park and can't shut down their rides? Then I guess they'll just have to pay attention to their guests instead of treating them like the potential per capita spending figures that they see them as.

I have not heard this auto spiel yet, but I'm very angry about it. I'm sure that anger will just increase once I hear it. And yes, I'll be sure to stop by the park operations office and tell them what a bad move this is.

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- John
I Snap Flyers

"Welcome back riders...HOW WAS YOUR RIIIIIIIDE?!?!?" ::sigh:: Man, I don't think I'm going to like this!!! Station music is one thing...but let the ride Ops be free to have FUN!!! I hope Gemini doesn't switch to automated spiel...Tuesday they were sounding like pirates right before closing -- Arrrgggghhhh. The Ops were having SO much fun with the spiels...sounding scary n' stuff, it was GREAT!!!

Speaking of switching things...they SHOULD bring back the entrance height requiement boards with the people and things on them...now there is just a bunch of wooden signs that tell you that you can't ride this ride if you have a stethascope, spine, heart, baby, and something else I can't remember....you know, those signs with the little circle and diagonal line through them....I couldn't ride anything the last time I was there becuase I have a spine, and heart...luckily I left my stethascope at home or I would have had to have a non-rider hold them for me.

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____________________________
Let's play "Find the one-legged seagull"

uh oh...
if the current trend continues, we will most likely see automated speils on Gemini and Mean Streak next. the one speil i hate the most is the one on Blue Streak. for some unknown reason, i just dont like a recording of a peppy lady telling me that i need to buckle the seat belt and pull down the orange lapbar. im pretty sure a human could tell me this same thing, and throw in some emotion, so maybe, just MAYBE, your ride is different every time because of the opening AND closing speil...

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"One word: DAMN!" - Large Man Exiting Dragster
Phantom's Revenge? DELICIOUS!
TTD: 6

The lawyers and the park operations people need to start talking to each other a little better. The lawyers are going to get somebody hurt.

How is it logical to have a notice on every single ride telling you that "lapbars, seatbelts, and shoulder harnesses" must be secured? What about space spiral? Seriously, I want somebody at Cedar Point to tell me exactly how these generic and blanket statements are contributing to rider safety.

RIDE SPECIFIC safety information and RIDE SPECIFIC and LIVE spiels are absolutely necessary to maintain rider safety. These blanket safety "policies" are exactly what is NOT needed at any amusement park.

My opinion is that these automated safety announcements on any ride (yes, that's Blue Streak also) put guests in danger of injury. It's so much easier to tune out the redundant recording than it is to tune out a person who can actually see what is going on in the loading/exit area.

I can only think of one reason for an auto spiel. Cost cutting. Rather then spending money on batteries for the wireless mics and for electricity for the receiver and PA system Cedar Point now only has to spend money on the electricity for the recording and PA system. No more expensive batteries!
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- John
I Snap Flyers
*** This post was edited by Michael Darling 8/2/2003 1:12:14 AM ***

I adore doing spiels but do have to admit they can get rather boring (especially on those 14 hour Saturdays) As far as "how was your ride?" I only ask that when the returning train is siked up coming back in the station, or there are friends I know on the train who I know will scream. There is NOTHING worse than asking "how was your ride?" To hear dead silence :( I will remind everyone there is that Raptor auto spiel they play CONSTANTLY in the queues.

Interesting note here is to mention that one of the ??s asked on an incident/accident report is "were spiels announced?"
So I'm smelling money hungry lawyers here and man it STINKS!! :(

Dave Altoff made the best Po!nt here, instead of ignored manual spiels, now there will be ignored automatic spiels.

Jo
2000 Raptor Crew
2002 Raptor Crew
2003 Raptor Crew
Lifetime Raptor flights: 763 :) (goin for 1k in '03!)
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It's all about getting around the barrels, or over the fences, right leads, no faults, fastest time and looking pretty when done. What's so hard about that? :)

I have even more of a gripe with the spiel on the lift hill. Now, I'm not sure how fast Magnum, Raptor, and Gemini move up the lift hill, but at the speeds they're going, the ONLY, and I mean ONLY thing you ever here is this:

"you will be..." "welcome to...." "emini...." "enjoy your.." "aptor...."

So here is how this will work, IMO: Not only will riders in the station be completely ignoring the auto spiel, they won't even have a chance to hear it on the lift hill as well.

Cedar Point: STUPID STUPID STUPID idea.

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Race for the Sky. :::::::::::::9

i hate it when no one screams when they say how was your ride and i normally just scream anyway, even if im not on the ride, just to break the awkward moment (like Ted Nugent on Conan O'Brian), and i sometimes even get a laugh out of it because i yell very monotonous.

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Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription... is more cowbell!