Mean Streak?

Closing "after July" so sometime in August?...we'll see. Hopefully it's true!

Carowinds' Thunder Road closed July 26th and was announced in May. I would expect a similar fair warning. As such, MS very well may finish out the 2016 operating season and close on October 30th with the rest of the park. Perhaps returning for 2017 as the same back injury inducing bore. Mean Streak, the real Disaster Transport.

I had a chance to ride Mean Streak a couple of times this week. Wow, that ride is so rough compared to last season. I'm only 19 years old and I can't ride it even more because it's too rough for me. I thought I had punctured a lung once the ride ended.

And still no red train....

It's not that rough. There are so many rougher rides out there (like vortex or mighty Canadian spinebuster.) it's just plain boring.

Well, it IS rough. Not the roughest out there.....but still rough and boring.

I rode in the last row a couple months ago, worst idea I ever had at cedar point. Rode it in the front row last month again and loved every second of the ride. Hint: push yourself up with your legs to maximize the airtime hills, or lack there of.

While at the park on Monday and Tuesday, my two non-enthusiast friends couldn't get over how bad it is. They even mentioned that it would not be any good even if it was smooth. The GP feels the same about MS as most enthusiasts. At any other park it would be a decent coaster but CP has high standards which MS just doesn't achieve. It does puzzle me why Cedar Point of all parks has not done anything with it. Also, if MS is in fact not closing early this year, why did the crew mention being relocated to other rides after July. That came from multiple sources including friends and family members of the crew members themselves. Unless it was a big prank put on by the whole crew it still makes me wonder why we have heard nothing else since early June.

Screamscape is a reliable source when it comes to RMCs, and they said its coming, so I'm about 60% sure that it's going to happen.

The Screamscape article said the ride would close in late July at the EARLIEST. Plus Cedar Point never said Mean Streak wasn't closing this year. They keep answering to people who asked about July. I am about 70/30 with something good happening to Mean Streak in the next two years. Kings Island is getting an epic GCI so I am happy already for 2017

Augustmueller said:Mean Streak, the real Disaster Transport.

Nice.

GL2CP said:
I rode in the last row a couple months ago, worst idea I ever had at cedar point. Rode it in the front row last month again and loved every second of the ride. Hint: push yourself up with your legs to maximize the airtime hills, or lack there of.

Totally agree. I don't hold on for any roller coaster, I'm hands up the whole time. Last seat on the Mean Streak was terrible. I had to hold on just to brace my body from being jarred so much. Front seat was surprisingly pretty good.

Cedar Point just re-tracked the whole entire ride a few years back. Plus, wooden coasters are supposed to be rough, it's just the nature of the ride. And I'm not trying to be one of those people, but if they haven't made plans to get rid of it in the past 25 years, I think there's a good chance that Mean Streak will stay the way it is. If it's too rough for you, just don't ride it. It's as simple as that. That's why there's 17 other coasters to choose from.

The roughest part for me is the entire leg going into the drop right before the ride goes inside the structure for the final turn heading back to the station. That entire stretch until you hit the brakes is bad! Even in the front seat it feels like you are just bounced up and down the track. You can even see it in the track.

CoasterCam said:

The GP feels the same about MS as most enthusiasts.

Rather, your two non-enthusiast friends feel the same as their enthusiast friend. A sample of two is a bit skimpy to make such a broad generalization.

Go Intamin said:
It's not that rough.

My lower back has a much different opinion.

Jake10 said:

Plus, wooden coasters are supposed to be rough, it's just the nature of the ride.

Although large wooden coasters usually end up rough due to pushing the limits of wood (speaking of a traditional wood stack), smaller wooden coasters can be quite smooth. Cedar Fair, SIx Flags, and Darien Lake have a poor history of investing the money necessary into the upkeep of their traditional wooden coasters. A perfect example of this is Wolverine Wildcat at Michigan's Adventure. It is supposed to be a duplicate of Phoenix at Knoebels, but the experiences are barely comparable. With the ratcheting lap bars, and the roughness, I have enough after one ride on Wolverine Wildcat, but I could be very satisfied riding Phoenix all day.

Jake10 said:

Cedar Point just re-tracked the whole entire ride a few years back. Plus, wooden coasters are supposed to be rough, it's just the nature of the ride.

No. No, they're not. At least not in the way that MS is rough. There are many, many wood coasters around the world that are vastly smoother - and frankly better in every imaginable regard - than MS.

...if they haven't made plans to get rid of it in the past 25 years, I think there's a good chance that Mean Streak will stay the way it is.

That doesn't even make sense. Avalanche Run/Disaster Transport was around for 27 years and got the axe. WildCat was around for 33 years, and was removed. I could go on.

True, but...

Disaster Transport was a ride with multiple issues and low ridership, on land the park wanted to use for GateKeeper.

Wildcat was a ride with maintenance issues -- the park had to manufacture replacement parts (fun fact, also true of Fascination*) -- adjacent to land the park wanted to use for Valravn and to use for Luminosity.

Until the park wants to repurpose the land Mean Streak sits on, I expect it's going to stick around. (And, for all I know, the park's five year plan has something in place for where Mean Streak sits.)

*I miss Fascination. "It's like bingo, with lights."

noggin said:

CoasterCam said:

The GP feels the same about MS as most enthusiasts.

Rather, your two non-enthusiast friends feel the same as their enthusiast friend. A sample of two is a bit skimpy to make such a broad generalization.

It was not just them. While hanging around the MS dead end and while waiting for the train I heard multiple people of ranging ages complaining about its roughness. One man said,"It doesn't look bad from here but once you get on it's terrible."

A friend of ours came up from North Carolina and rode it for the first time. When he got off, I believe the quote was "burn it down."