Mantis Future

Why wouldnt it be possible to simply keep the current trains, send them back to B&M over the off season, repaint and add modern OSTRs, then repaint the ride and trains? Maybe just wait a few years till Mantis is up for a repaint.

The line for Mantis was a 45 minute wait around 1:00 yesterday. I came back to ride it around 8:30 and it was complete walk on at that time.

Re-fitting the trains with new restraints would not be trivial. The newer B&M OSTR is mechanically different than older ones in terms of how it is released, etc. People who know better could probably share more details on that. The restraints have not been put on any stand-up coaster and never fitted to an existing train either.

It's not necessarily impossible. I always thought the pain from Mantis was in the groin/knees/feet and not from head banging.

I still say the best thing to do with Mantis would be to reformat it into a floorless roller coaster. But at the very minimum I would love for them to redo the restraints.

anthony battaglia said:
The line for Mantis was a 45 minute wait around 1:00 yesterday. I came back to ride it around 8:30 and it was complete walk on at that time.

I'm surprised as I have yet to see the line anywhere near that - even on the 4th of July. Yesterday was actually one of the busier days I have been to CP this year. That being said we arrived around 530 and headed over towards MF, so around 6pm the Mantis was a walk on.

Any mention of Mantis lines here is anecdotal. No one posting here is spending the day in the park tracking ridership of the ride from open to close. Seems to me the ridership number Cedar Point pay attention to is how many people ride the ride over the course of the season, not how many people happen to be in line at any random time on any random day.

Of course they pay attention to rides per season as that tells them what people want to ride. Nonetheless, a ride that consistently has no wait, while others have waits, is indeed a sign of ridership and popularity. Capacity per day also needs to be taken into consideration, for example Gemini usually has a minimal wait, but also one of the highest capacities.

Granted, a ride with a 10 hour wait at noon but none when the park closes has given the same rides that day as one with the same capacity, but no waits and full trains all day. I am not speculating what is going to happen, but it is very reasonable to assume that Mean Streak and Mantis are not very popular rides with the general public. I could care less to what happens to them, and if the economics were right Cedar Fair would tear down Millenium Force and put something else in its place if they thought it would make them more money. Bottom line, mantis is not that popular of a ride and the lines, therefore ridership, bear that out.

True enough. I'm just dubious about making assumptions about ridership based on the anecdotal evidence of a minute percentage of the park's attendance.

noggin said:
True enough. I'm just dubious about making assumptions about ridership based on the anecdotal evidence of a minute percentage of the park's attendance.

That's also an assumption on your part there noggin. I've been there 15 times this year and I've never seen a wait, and they were running trains half empty. Also, I'm not saying anything either, but from what others say (besides the few that love it), and wait times it is possible that Mantis and or MS might have seen there last days.

How many times on each of those visits did you check the line on Mantis?

noggin said:
How many times on each of those visits did you check the line on Mantis?

Every time on my way to MF and there was no line and like I said center rows were blocked off making for even lower capacity. One of those days was July 4th.

Everytime I am at Cedar Point I usually look at the lines to see how long a wait is. That way if something I wasn't planning on having a short ride, has a short ride I'll go on it. Power Tower is a great example, I like the ride, but don't like waiting for the ride. So when I walk by and see the shoot ya up side is near walk on... I'm game. I prefer the drop side but it usually has longer wait.

I would love it if Cedar Point could keep every ride they built. Even though I didn't ride it much I miss Space Spiral as it is the only ride I was ever kicked off of... ( 3 year old son...). I remember waiting hours to ride Mantis, but for some strange reason these days I just walk right by it, even though I could be on it so quickly. I guess others do the same thing I do.

As I said earlier, I haven't rode Mantis in years and on our next trip it is on my must ride list, so long as I do not decide to just walk by it again.

So is that two peeks at the Mantis line? Five? Seventeen? No matter how many times you may happen to look at the line on your non-daily visits to the park, you're still substituting anecdotes for facts.

You are reading way more into this noggin. All I am saying is that Mantis wait times used to be up to three hours every time I was at the park, now every time I am there its a walk on. Now does this mean its like that every hour of the day, no. What I am saying is that ridership has obviously decreased substantially. Why, I don't know. I do know that for me the ride is extremely painful and not an enjoyable experience at all. Combine that with lower than usual wait times and what I've seen on my many trips to the park and ...well make your own conclusion.

noggin said:
So is that two peeks at the Mantis line? Five? Seventeen? No matter how many times you may happen to look at the line on your non-daily visits to the park, you're still substituting anecdotes for facts.

You haven't provided any argument of your own. I have seen this personally myself. All you have to do is sit in line for MF. For the size and cost of the coaster, Mantis does not have great ridership. Mantis was sending out half empty trains with people just walking on just this Sunday for for about an hour while the other major rides had 30+ minute waits. Similar to Mean Streak. Where is you evidence against this.

Simply labeling his statement as "anecdotal" without making your own claim doesn't make him wrong.

coasterJay said:
What I am saying is that ridership has obviously decreased substantially.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

Your anecdotal experiences don't make for a convincing conclusion, much less one that is "obvious".

We get it: you don't like Mantis, and you seem to think posting wait times will convince others of... well, I don't really know what you're trying to prove here. But your observations are useless, which makes your conclusions useless.

cpfourlife1 said:
For the size and cost of the coaster, Mantis does not have great ridership.

Oh, cool! I was hoping someone had the actual cost-per-rider data from the park. Would you mind sharing that data with us?

;)

djDaemon said:

We get it: you don't like Mantis, and you seem to think posting wait times will convince others of... well, I don't really know what you're trying to prove here. But your observations are useless, which makes your conclusions useless.

Mantis isn't my favorite ride, correct, but there are others I don't call my favorites that I don't really see ridership down on. I guess I didn't know I needed a scientific explanation to post my thoughts here. I have been going to CP for lets just say quite some time. I was there when Mantis opened and waited the entire queue line that spilled out onto the midway. I go there now almost weekly and there is no line, the queue is empty every time I go, the photo booth doesn't look to have been updated, etc. These are obviously my observations only, but like I said I've seen the ride before. So my assumption seeing that is ridership is down. Obviously other rides like TTD and MF have taken up some of the ridership - but no queue and half empty trains just doesn't look right on that type of ride. What does this mean? Who knows - this is just my observation.

Dj - Since I have no idea what I am talking about and you have a reason to believe otherwise just by your observations please explain.

No, it is obvious when Most rides at the park have 30+ minute waits, and I can still walk on Mantis and Mean Streak that ridership is down for those 2 coasters. Now if I were to base this completely on ride wait times, then the most popular ride at the park is definitely Woodstock Express as I have spent far more time waiting for that ride than everything else combined...

I truly have no agenda against either MS or Mantis, but the writing is on the wall that both are just not that popular with the general public who visits Cedar Point. If they were popular then they would still have waits like they used to. Now, that being said does not mean they will be torn down, replaced, changed etc... anytime in the near future.

I do not know what the exact capacity is on the rides at Cedar Point, but I would guess that Mantis and Raptor have close to the same capacity. Seeing that Raptor has had consistent waits, and Mantis has not, I can logically conclude that more people ride Raptor than Mantis. I do not need park operating budgets, expense reports etc... to come to that conclusion.

Magnum used to have 3 hour waits in 1990. Now it is a walk on most of the time. Clearly, it has become less popular with guests and should be removed, or better yet, have new floorless trains installed. :)

Chuck Wagon said:
Magnum used to have 3 hour waits in 1990. Now it is a walk on most of the time. Clearly, it has become less popular with guests and should be removed, or better yet, have new floorless trains installed. :)

You obviously don't know what you are talking about, Arrow doesn't make floorless trains! :-)