Mantis removal or transformation?

http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2014/09/cedar_point_annou...l#comments

If you read the comments the author confirms contact with Bryan Edwards to confirm or deny the ride's removal. He would not give a straight answer. It's staying. Revamped. If it was leaving they would confirm this.

Gotcha. Just didn't know if we were speculating or not.

Blimst said:
...the audio said "Wait we aren't telling the whole story, there's more" or something like that.

People need to get over that. What you're recalling is just a really poorly executed show, and there's nothing more interesting about any of that incident.

Read the caption to the video: "We're just gonna leave this here." I doubt CP would be so flip as to change their FB cover photo to Mantis Gets Squashed if they were truly talking about the dismantling and removal of the ride.

Jeff said:

Blimst said:
...the audio said "Wait we aren't telling the whole story, there's more" or something like that.

People need to get over that. What you're recalling is just a really poorly executed show, and there's nothing more interesting about any of that incident.

Okay I could understand that part of it, just wondering why that audio would even be in there. Was he gonna describe the revamp on the rest of the entrance after he said that and instead they decided to skip it out? Always wondering why that was added and what he would say. In either case, the reaper guy shows up again at the death of another coaster, pretty funny and interesting to me. Not trying to create conspiracies or pipe dreams, just putting it out there whether it's worth something or not. More than likely not.

Brian PSH said:
Read the caption to the video: "We're just gonna leave this here." I doubt CP would be so flip as to change their FB cover photo to Mantis Gets Squashed if they were truly talking about the dismantling and removal of the ride.

Why not? Get buzz out on their video, show fans the ride has a last date, and then get ready for '15. They did it before with DT, they can do it again.

I feel like I'm repeating myself alot today, especially with two Mantis threads xD

Agreed. One needs closed.

I think the dark ride rumors are entirely in the minds of fans of such rides.

As for the rest of the news....

If I recall correctly, CP agreed to terms with the related government agencies to not fill-in more of the lagoon without adding more wetland someplace else. So I doubt we see anything that "fills" the water space.

We don't know that anything will occupy the space where Mantis sits in 2015. They could move the ride either to another part of CP or to another Cedar Fair location entirely and refit it for another format as some suggest can be done. Plus we could be seeing part of a multi-year effort much as you see with the hotels.

Example: "celebration midway" is a mess. If they removed Mantis they could relocate the steam house and side-tracks for the CP&LE RR, and if you add space from the Cedars Hotel (dorm) and the exterior pre-seating space for the iMax/Ice Show theater than you could see massive improvements to traffic flow, capacity, show options, etc.

The same is true if you are seriously going to argue for a dark ride. Nuke Cedars and some or all of the current indoor/outdoor theater space. Large trees, easier to mask the "fugly" [sic] building any dark ride brings.

In any case this is all wild-arse guessing.

The safe bets would be on repainting and refitting the existing ride to a sit-down coaster. High riding seats could preserve the physics of the ride and might not need much track work. I would think refitting the pavilion area too, whatever that means, would be wise. The old calypso could be moved (again) and tiny-lizzie rides could be torn-out, added to the pirate ride and pavilion space to allow for something rather large. But is that the best use of space?

If Cedar Fair wanted to really compete with Kalahari, wouldn't they do a major expansion of Castaway Bay? A mostly enclosed waterpark against a mostly enclosed waterpark?

Pete said:
I think it's more likely though that the coaster is going to a different park (Dorney?) and something new (and big) is coming in it's place.

That's what I'm thinking as well. Mantis will be relocated to another park in the chain, and the area it occupied will most likely be fenced off for the next year.

^ then why the urgency to close the ride on 10/19 vs. closing day? There's obviously an urgency and as far as I know no other park has begun prep work/footers that would've been needed if the ride is going to be opened on time at another park.

All you people who complain that this was a flawed announcement must have short memories. Disaster Transport was closed before its replacement was announced.

Closing Mantis later in the year than Disaster Transport was closed, but earlier than the last operating day, says absolutely nothing about whether Mantis will be removed or refurbished. It's possible that Cedar Point would want to keep the ride open for guests as long as they possibly can, but no longer. But you can't infer much from the closing date.

I love these statements that it's too late in the year to remove Mantis for 2015. Based on what knowledge I wonder? Construction schedules are what they are. I'm pretty sure that people who know what they're doing plan the removal and installation of rides based on variables that aren't even mentioned in this forum. If it was convenient or necessary for them to remove it in December, they would do it then. There is just no logic behind "it's too late for removal so it must be a refurb."

All this stuff about reusing footers or replacing certain sections of track is pretty silly. Cedar Point is not the little amusement park on the edge of town that needs to stretch out the useful life of an old ride. Their modus operandi is to make major moves, not repaint, reconfigure, and rename old coasters (Wilderness Run excepted... it belongs at the county fair anyway).

I'll wager that Mantis is gone forever, but I admit that I have no idea what will really happen. It's not a long time to wait to find out. And I won't bother riding that thing one last time, either. Any change to Mantis is very welcome.

Lol..or again they're letting you know they're closing the ride so you can get a last ride on it and for memories sake just like they've done with every other ride.

^^ I agree with 94% of what Tod said.

Speaking only for myself, I think it will not be missed. I miss the boat ride, but the Mantis not one little bit. It had it's devotees, but I don't think it was very popular anyway.

I think that Mantis "closing" early is just a sign that it is going to be renamed for the remainder of the season after its "closure." Its fate after the end of the season is the real question.

Tod said:
Cedar Point is not the little amusement park on the edge of town that needs to stretch out the useful life of an old ride. Their modus operandi is to make major moves, not repaint, reconfigure, and rename old coasters (Wilderness Run excepted... it belongs at the county fair anyway).
.

I guess living in Orlando gives me a different perspective. Disney is constantly changing old rides and marketing them as new. Pirates, Test Track, etc. have all gone through overhauls and then received huge success in return.

Granted, we've never seen this happen at regional theme parks- but there's certainly no reason to believe this is not what's happening. I think a revamped Mantis is highly marketable. It may piss some of you off, but it's a great business decision in my opinion and does wonders for attractions all the time in Orlando.

So, we know something is going to happen with Mantis...is it being dismantled or re-vamped...but no one is talking about the color scheme that was painted on a portion of Mantis for the last few weeks and months.

So is it for Rougarou and they were seeing how the paint scheme would look in it's new location? Or is Mantis going floorless and being renamed Rougarou and being painted with this new scheme?

Who knows...Tony does...and I'm sure he's loving every minute of this....gives us more to discuss and chat about....

Got to admit this is fun, like a kid before Christmas.I believe that more is to come yet, based on what Jason talked about earlier this year that what is coming next year:

"Cedar Point's new ride in 2015 will be thrill ride aimed at teens and other hard core thrillsters, rather than a family-oriented ride" - Jason Mclure

Their not done yet, they are enjoying all of this....why not stretch it out as long as you can and have fun and get free publicity.

That's my take....

Allan Birmantas sr said:
Speaking only for myself, I think it will not be missed. I miss the boat ride, but the Mantis not one little bit. It had it's devotees, but I don't think it was very popular anyway.

Thank you Allen, and that goes for a large percentage of the GP. Only a few here still think Mantis is a great ride, why I have no idea. Its a gimmick ride and the gimmick is over. I highly doubt it will be razed, but if it is well that's a nice plot of land for a new coaster.

There have been many bits of "anecdotal" evidence all summer long pointing to something happening with Mantis, a few "experts" just couldn't see it because they are still living in 1996.

Well its time to get over it, someone new is in charge and I for one am happy he is.

So off topic.. But is that Rob Decker crying at 0:09 in the video?

I love the video. I think it's PR genius.