Magnum automated recording sucks

Ralph, you hit the nail on the head there, the station is alot more dead too, its not fun, it just makes the wait for that seat longer and more boring, and just doesn't put you in a good mood on your way up the lift hill.

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2003 Stats: Top Thrill Dragster: 9
Magnum XL-200: 47
28 trips to the Point

They can always put me in charge of Magnum.

I haven't been to the park in the last two weeks, but most of us knew the automated spiel was coming.

Part of the parks charm was the ride ops who made the park more enjoyable with their energetic spiels. Yeah it sucks but theres isn't much we can do.

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Dan Haverlock
'03 Magnum Crew
magnum 2430 * TTD 12
www.dannyjphoto.com
"get a job man!"

There's plenty we can do. They listen to us if we complain enough because who better to dish out the criticism than your biggest fans.

Cedar Point has been doing a lot of really stupid little things the last few years. Individually, none of them are day-killers, but collectively they tarnish the overall experience that we've grown to love.

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

The spiels on magnum were sometimes just as fun as the ride. I really missed that this year.

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http://said.uc.edu/students/oakleysd/cp/CP.jpg
Now tell me Cedar Point is running out of space.

I even miss the "ready ready" when they pounded on the booth. The little things really do matter.

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Steve Sergent
MF count: 247
TTD: 11

The more I think abot it, the more I realize even though they are stupid little things, they are there for a reason.

Yeah there are people who give energetic speils, but the majority and we are talking 90% here don't say everything that has to be said. Speiling isn't fun, granted I only had to do it a few times I hated doing it, yeah the first couple of trains is fun to do but when you do it for an hour or longer straight you forget things and and you end up sounding like a teacher in a Charile Brown cartoon.

Seriously, how many times have you waited for a ride and have made fun of the way a ride host says their speil becasue you can't hear or understand what they say? We ALL have.

With the automated speils, air gates, and new ride entrance signs the park is covering their butts. Do we all want the Cedar Point of ten years ago back, yeah, but when the park can't build new rides becasue they are racking up high legal bills over stupid lawsuits you might understand better why they do the things they do.

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Dan Haverlock
magnum 2432* TTD 12
"get a job man!"

Just have the automated spiel say one thing, and that is the safety concerns of the ride. Then still have the ride ops say the spiel of the ride themselves. Overlay them if you want so the automated spiel is in the background and the ride op is talking over it. Or have it first then the ride op next, which brings to mind ride intervals and if they could still hit them with that method? Or still the best solution is go back to ride op spiels.

Yes, your right Dan there are times when I ignore the ride op's spiel entirely, but what about the time the ride op throws in something you have never heard, tells a person not to stand on the yellow line in a funny new way. With automated spiels I can see less enthusiasm by the ride op's and less fun in the station.

Like Jeff said, I don't see the problem with a sign on the lift hill, in the station and the ride op's saying the safety rules themselves with their spiel. Yeah many people sue for the stupidest reasons (ah crap I just spilled my Mcdonalds coffee, time to call my lawyer). Which just proves we revolve around money.

Either way you look at it even with the autospiels I can see someone suing CP because ther got hurt and were not told the safety rules and winning the suit. Come on CP do something for your locals and get rid of the automated spiels.

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"This second hill is my favorite part of the ride. It is so Cool!"
TTD Status: "Contaminates in the system" S.K. Per my conversation
EA Sports "It's in the Game"

Yeah you would think common sense says don't stand on a roller coaster, and those funny littles signs from 20 years ago don't cut it anymore. Thats why we have video cameras on the lift, why? People are dumb enough to stand up.

With the don't stand behind the yellow line issue, thats why they added the gates. Especially on Magnum there isn't much room between the guests and the track, and coming from experince I see those gates as a blessing becuase its easy for a guest to walk right up to the track, or accidentally hit a ride op and fall into the track or a moving train. I have even seen people walk right up to a train while it was coming into the station to give some one a high five.

I know it sucks but they have to do their best to make the park idiot proof.

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Dan Haverlock
magnum 2430 * TTD 12
"get a job man!"

Can't we just round up all the idiots and wipe their seeds from the Earth? :)

Seriously though, while I see Dan's point, I still think there are plenty of alternatives. For starters, they could just throw up some extra signage in the queues, station, lift, etc and include a part in the spiel that says something like "Cedar Point cannot be responsible for failure to read posted safety instructions." I think that would be just as effective legally as a recorded spiel that guests only hear half of.

Also, making fun of the ops that are doing the spiels is practically a Cedar Point tradition for regulars and once a year visitors alike :) Even the ones that sound like they're half asleep have more energy than that stupid recording.

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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

But Dan, you're missing the point. These measures assume that there was a problem and lawsuits in the first place, and there weren't. You were a rideop on that ride, and you know all about the emphasis on safety. A lot of these "improvements" are solutions in search of a problem.

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

Last night, the op in the control booth was trying to tell us something (most likely, "We're sending a limited number of trains."), but when his voice combined with the recording, you couldn't understand anything. Same thing happened when the midway speakers started informing about the laser show.

"If you have any questions, o............. Welcome back riders." And the recording is way off. It instructs riders to enter the train after it has come to a complete stop and the platform gates have opened, but everyone's already in the train with seat belts fastened waiting for the lap bars to lock. (Maybe they figure if you're standing at the air gates, you'll be listening?)

I know there are stupid people out there, but shouldn't the courts recognize when someone does something stupid (such as the guy suing McDonald's for becoming 'unfit'), or is it the fact that reaching a settlement is cheaper than a trial the reason to attempt to block the case in the first place?

They're so concerned with my safety on the coasters, but why when the CP&LE RR train goes over the lagoons are there no bars/gates keep me from falling in the water? They trust me on there...

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18 straight years of real thrills and counting...

...Or problems that desperately need a solution, like Magnum's brain-dead co-dispatch panel that is positioned on the wrong side of the track, facing the wrong direction.

I can understand the gates. Certain ways of reading the ASTM standard imply that those gates have to be there, and it's industry "best practice" (although the ASTM draft standard does have a spot where it says, "Boarding gates, when used, ..." which implies that they are not required by the standard). And quite frankly, the way CP did them on Magnum is fine except for the way they screwed up the station queue in the process. That's a change they made for good reason, and for the most part you won't see me complaining too much about it.

But there are other things they're doing or have done in that park that make no sense at all. Want to put an auto-spiel on a ride? Okay, but if you're gonna do it, do it right. And from everything I've read here, on Magnum, they did it wrong. Pity it will be a couple of weeks before I have a chance to see and hear for myself.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I was at the park today (didn't ride magnum though) but on every other ride that I rode the ride-ops were very energetic with their spiels. I spent most of the time in the stations laughing at the ride-ops, not because they sucked, but because they were funny. Today I saw more energy in the spiels than what I saw all year and they also asked "how was your ride" in a very funny way on every ride (expecially on MF). This proves that they do listen to us.

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www.RideWorld.com

If it were up to the lawyers, amusement parks in general would all be closed due to their, "hazardous nature," and, "risks to personal health."

How long until we have to sign something stating that we read, heard and were given the code of conduct?

Be careful what you wish for. That system I believe is implemented in certain locations around the country, not parks or anything though...thank God for that.
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Race for the Sky. :::::::::::::9

I agree that the auto-spiels are there for legal reasons, that they can say every train had the same, complete information.

A scary thought I've had concerns the length of the recording. What if they decide that it is more important to have all that info play than to have high capacity? Magnum only running two trains because the legal information won't fit in the interval required to run three trains? Sounds stupid at this point, but if the legal climate gets any worse it may become an issue.

I do hate the auto-spiels though. The ride operators talking adds a personal touch that I believe improves the ride experience.
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I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks,
than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.

...Then reconfigure the speakers on the lift and play the behavior stuff there. Cut the station message down to "Sit down, fasten seat belt, pull down on lap bar, and if you have problems we'll be around to help." and put the rest of the legalese on the lift hill. With smaller, more frequent speakers that are actually pointed at the train instead of at the parking lot. To see how to do lift speakers right, visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg and ride Apollo's Chariot.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Seriously. I can hear the recording just fine in the Soak City parking lot, but on the lift hill, well, that's an entirely different situation altogether.

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

That's an entirely different situation.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

They can put in all the speakers they want on the hill, but you'll still never be able to understand anything over the sound of the lift! :D