Magnum Gone To Hell

When I rode Magnum for the first time around 5pm I could not help but noticed how "out of order" things were already not even through the first operating day of the year. The queue line snaked only up to the DJ booth but took over an hour of waiting before I finally got a ride...and it wasn't even for the front seat! The slowest I've ever seen Magnum's line. When I got close enough in line to see the trains in the station as they come and go, I was shocked at the amount of orange tape there was roping off seats with broken lap bars, thus explaining the long wait in line. Magnum is the single most famous roller coaster in the world and Cedar Point continues to act as if they don't care. I can't help but wonder how much worse they are going to let things go?? On a brighter note, it did not seem to me to be as rough of a ride as it normally is at the beggining of the season...

I admit those lap bars were really getting on my nerves, especially trying to line up with people. There was a girl who got stuck, her lap bar wouldnt go up. They had about 3 trains left so they sent her a few more times to finish off the line! Too bad her parents and friends were waiting. I never saw her get off.

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Steve Sergent
MF count: 164
WT count: 14

Train 1's back car decided not to let the lap bars go DOWN. I had the "joy" of sitting back there.

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- The Darling one
"Danger: Hgih Voltage" -The DT Queue
"Those weren't trims, that was a buzzcut" - A Mean Streak rider

The girl in question was riding in the middle seat of the last car of the red train. She did indeed eventually get off of the ride. "Magnum Heather" got, depending on who you talk to, nine, ten, or eleven consecutive rides on Magnum; the last of those was a solo ride taken from the station to the transfer table where a crew of mechanics was able to get under the train and get the lap bar mechanism to release.
What we have learned from this: First of all, the Arrow lap bars are very secure. :)
Second, we learned that it sure looks like whoever put the Magnum coaches together durin the off-season did a really poor job of installing and/or adjusting the lap bar linkages. By the end of the evening, if you counted up all of the working seats on all of the Magnum trains, they were maybe running the equivalent of one whole train.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Who thinks maybe Magnum Heather should be introduced to Magnum Dan... :)
*** This post was edited by RideMan 5/6/2002 9:49:59 AM ***

Dave,that whole situation was too funny!!! I couldn't stop laughing about it! :)

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http://www.magnummania.com
jerry@magnummania.com

I'm sure they can get this all fixed by Friday. It was just frustrating to wait in line at the loading area and see that about half of the seats were blocked off. It's definitely one of the best rides they have (if not the best) and shouldn't run into these problems. Oh well, at least the wait wasn't too long and I got to ride in the vaunted ejector seat.

Actually I was pretty pissed about the condition of the ride, I mean to have to sit outside the entrance for 45mins in the morning becasue the new air gates were down wasn't a good thing.

Thats why I ended the night on Twister last night I was really disappointed.

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Danny J
WT: 11

Same here. MF and Magnum (well the lap bars and gates) both were very very poor.

What also made me mad was I only had a few hours of ride time yesterday. I had to work 8am-4:30, but left work early at 3:45. I arrived at the Point at 4:30, which gave me 3 hours till the park closed. Riding Magnum as my first ride of the year is tradition and I didn't want to break it, but the long what short changed me on other rides.

Dans Pissed Gang...Things will get changed..haha ;)

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http://www.msu.edu/~armbrus9/cp.html
Fear the Mullet!

I was disappointed too by the state of Magnum yesterday. I wasn't aware of the problem with the gates in the morning until just now, but I only took two rides yesterday. The ride seemed to be running fairly well, but what is up with the lapbars!? I remember last year by the end of the day we might have one or two rows down on one train, if any, but yesterday there were 8 or more seats down on all three trains. I didn't see how bad it was by the end of the night, but it doesn't really matter - it was sad. Whoever reassembled those trains must've been smoking something. They were on the track for quite a while before the season started too. Hopefully it'll get fixed this week because Magnum was truly a mainenance embarassment yesterday. Hopefully they put this off week to good use!

It was also disappointing to see the yellow train absent from MF. Also, there were no logos on the front of the other two trains. I was thinking that perhaps they are going to put the "M swoosh" on the front instead. It looked to me like the trains got painted because the bolts that were unpainted last year now match the train. Honestly, I think it looked better when they were silver, but that's nitpicking. :) One more thing I noticed about MF was the absence of the station music and a terrible new autospiel. That thing is pathetic to be perfectly honest. It is difficult to hear and the guy has wierd pausing spots or something that just makes it sound bad.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

I agree that the Magnum situation was pretty bad yesterdy, but I have faith that CP will get it fixed before Friday. I wonder if "Magnum Heather" will be receiveing any compensation for getting stuck. I wouldn't complain, 10 rerides on Magnum would be worth it. I got 9 on a JCC day last year, and that was pretty increadible.

Also, I agree with Matt about MF. I hated seeing the yellow train was missing (but that's only because my friend thinks that train is the devil). I hope it will be returning for this weekend. I also detest the new speil, the guy speaking on it almost put me to sleep.

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-Chris Woodard
"Mean Streak would be better if they replaced the square wheels with round ones."
VertiGo: VertiGone but not forgotten.
*** This post was edited by Ralph Wiggum 5/6/2002 4:11:10 PM ***

IMHO the park should have just closed the ride halfway through the day yesterday. I would have rather seen the ride down all afternoon than see it in the condition it was in. It was sad.

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Danny J
WT: 11

It seems to me that Magnum got neglected the year they built MF as well. Coincidence?

My wife and I both said the same thing, Dan. It was depressing. We did "ride it out" of the park as usual, but it left a bit of a somber mood on the trip back down the causeway.

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Without upstops, airtime would have a whole new meaning!

Its a shame too - if you look at Magnum's numbers over its 13 seasons, its ridership numbers have not fallen off at all. There is no reason to neglect this ride - I know MF was huge and everything, but you can't think Cedar Point and not think of Magnum. The number of people that come up to you and tell you the stories of the first time they rode it is amazing. You can't say the same for a few other rides like Mean Streak and Mantis. Heck, Mine Ride had better numbers than Mean Streak last year.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

It stoped on the hill allot.

and those NEW AirGates don't help!!!

:(

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Wicked Twister Rocks

Get To The Po!nt My Website

Evan H.
Webmaster
GetToThePo!nt

Magnum is the end all and be all at cp. They will never let there crown jewel fall to dismay. Although it sounds like they almost did. Everything will be fine by Friday.....i hope :/

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Mark O in B-lo
Magnum Crew 2k2

Speaking of the air gates, what's the point of putting the in front of the yellow line!?! I still heard them give the stay off the yellow line spiel a few times beucase people while behind the gate were still on the yellow line!.

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My CP and coaster pics

It didn't look to me like the gates themselves were hurting operations any, but the new signalling system is a real disaster. The old signalling system was much better organized; the new signalling system requires more coordination between the doghouse and the co-dispatch operator, but those two positions have no easy means of communication. It will be interesting to see if a new procedure evolves out of the new system 'cause right now it doesn't seem to be working real well.

Besides, I can't be the only one here who misses the window-pounding. :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Ha, that poor window.

Ready, WACK, Ready Ready, WACK WACK, clear WACK.