Magnum Overlooked?

Finally, a word from Jerry. I was begining to think something happened to him.

Magnum is an amazing ride....I know I get the pleasure of running it all season long. As most of you keep on saying, I have to agree with you as I do feel it is over looked. People are constantly asking what ride our line is for and most of the time just walk by. If you've ever waited in line for Magnum you'll notice the line moves incredably fast....this is becasue she has one of the highest capacities of all the coasters in the park. Not only do we have a high capacity but I crew this year is amazing....I have never seen a crew in any park hit interval the way we do. So if you happen to be walking by this season and you see us with a full line, I assure you that unless some idiot is trying to stand up on our ride or someone busts out a carmera and we have to shut down briefly, our line will never be over an hour. Hopfully I'll be seeing you!

I don't know where everyone is sitting that they experience this roungh/uncomfortable ride. As long as I sit in my favorite seat, and not on the red train, I've found Magnum to be just as smooth as some of as some of the other steel coasters.... and don't ask what my favorite seat is... ;)

Well yes Magnum is a very good ride, but sometimes can be a little rough, sorry for complaining. :)

The ride to the park is rougher than Maggie :/...For a 17 year old coaster, It's pretty smooth. My favorite part about the ride is when you ride during the nighttime (I wish challenge park would turn their damn lights off) and the tunnels are so loud. And it's a roller coaster, It's supposed to be wild. If you want smooth, put on a dress and go ride the ferris wheel:(

By the way, dumb question here, but for you Maggie vets who have visited the park since 89 and before, would you happen to have any pics from those times of the queue or even openind day of may 6th 89?(unlikely :( )
*** Edited 7/2/2006 2:02:10 AM UTC by magnum_shawn***

*** Edited 7/2/2006 2:07:33 AM UTC by magnum_shawn***

Pictures from back then are kind of rare. Cameras weren't digital, so not many pictures made it to the internet from that time. That, and your average person doesn't take pictures of a queue full of people.

Back in 2004 when Magnum's queue was completely full (minus the now inaccessible queues behind the bathrooms) one person from our crew took at picture from the station. We were extremely surprised (and happy) at how big our like got that day. I think it had to do with it being already crowded and Dragster went down for about an hour.

http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/park/rides/coasters/magnum/index.cfm

The 8th picture (in the gallery to the right) on this page shows a decent picture, but it's from pretty high up.

Three lifts hills?

Well, I just got back a little bit ago after being at CP for 9 days. Got a little over 100 laps on Magnum. We did a lot of hanging out. Could have rode more.

But, anyways, the lift has been sped back up to the old 45 second climb. First part of season, it was pushing the 60 second mark. It's great to see it sped back up. Of course, the ride-ops have to work a little faster now! :) But the line moves much faster!

Thursday, when ALL 4 queues were full, it was about 45 minutes.

It's good to see them trying to get the capacity up!

That's good to hear. As much as everyone is say Millennium has a great crew this year, I think Magnum does as well. They really are on top of the ball with things, imo. They can definitely handle the lack of 15 seconds...

Welcome Back Jerry, how was your trip? ;)

Good to have a few good rides with you Thursday morning. Good to see the crew hauling ass too.

Hope you enjoyed yourselft all of last week Jerry! It was so weird not having someone to talk with today down at entrance...

That lift speed really does make a huge difference in numbers though, since the increase in speed, an average of 2,000 or so more guests can get on the ride in a given day.

And please, How about a nice sign telling people what the ride is...a good 25% of people come up to the ride asking what it is and what it does...not something the current #3 rated coaster in the world deserves!

Just got back from a trip to Cedar from Florida. As MF was down I don't have it to compare it to,but I came away with Magnum being my favorite. I rode back seat everytime(probably six or seven). Part of the appeal is that view from it I'm sure. Close to night fall it is also so breezy there. You get that convertible ride wind in your face ,hair blowing feeling. I've always loved dark rides so the tunnels were a nice surprise first ride. I could ride it ten times a day.

I believe Zach meant 2000 any given hour...;)

I think that Magnum really is overlooked a lot of the time by just your average public. Coaster Enthusiasts will appreciate it more for the sentimental value (starting airtime fever of course) and for the airtime, but the general public really doesn't know all about airtime and that, so I'm sure they'll just pass it by.

Plus, you can't really see the layout from the park itself, and I've actually heard of people not even knowing it existed. My cousin went to the park and didn't even see it until passing it a few times.

Maybe people figure that Millennium Force is a bigger thrill then Magnum, so maybe they think it's a waste waiting a whole 15 minutes for the 17 year old steelie that still packs a punch, and that has better airtime than Millennium Force!

CP_bound said:
I believe Zach meant 2000 any given hour...;)

2,000 MORE per day makes sense though - so the increased lift speed is getting them an extra 150-200 riders per hour.

I wonder if this was a consious act on someone's part or whether it just sort of happened that way after a lift motor got replaced. Because in '04, our lift motor was replaced in about July and it was SLOWER afterwords. :( We were unable to do better than a 1:24 interval when the manual says it should be 1:15. Previously, it had been 1:20. We tried to get them to speed it up, but they insisted it wasn't worth their effort. We still ran the crap out of that ride, but having that lift sped up would have helped us tremendously.

I'm glad to see this. It will give this year's crew a chance to compete since they are really at a disadvantage in some other areas (mainly not being able to move from those red dots to group riders).

901liveson said:
I think Mag's deserves a better looking entrance!!! You can walk right by it without even noticing it.

This is what I was going to chim in about. The entrance needs to be more enhanced. There are times, even looking, one cannot find the entrance to MXL.

Even though I've been to CP each year for the past 12 years, I still find myself and the others I go with always passing by the entrance only to back up and enter the queue.

The ride time and thrills are not only classics, but give a great rush of adrenline (sp) everytime I ride it, even after repeat rides, it just doesn't become old feeling.

Thats an easy solution - Bring back the stormtrooper.

Yes, I did mean 2000 per day. With the increased lift speed it is now possible to get those 1500 hours again, instead of the accepted 1300 or so. So, with this new lift speed, instead of 14,000 or so on a 10am-10pm operating day, about 16,000 is a definate improvement.

And Matt, lets just say it was a conscious act on the part of the crew that was taken to maintenence and within hours, about 13 seconds was shaved off the lift climb.

And those red dots.....arghh!

Yes, was a great 9 days up there! That's the nice thing about being there for so long. Just mellowing out! It is a lot of fun just hanging out at entrance chatting with you guys!

Ben - you missed it Sunday morning, JC on Magnum!! :)
It was so cool to see Maggie testing before 9am! :)

Wow, I'm glad you were able to get maintenance to fix that for you! :) It's good that they took some time to make something run the way it is supposed to. That's an encouraging sign. All too often, the motto of maintenence seemed to be, "as long as it's not going to kill anyone, it's good enough."

Next thing you know, all the strobes and fog will be working, rather than just the fog - when it feels like it! :)

I totally agree with people about the entrance. Get something simple likre Raptor has over the top of the entrance and a lot more people will stream into that line. And with the way Magnum can move people and the thrills the ride delivers, guests will leave the park a lot happier.

Then again, I shouldn't really be asking for more people in the line, but while working the ride, it was nice to look out and see a big queue to give you some extra incentive to work hard.