Millennium stuck

I think Cedar Fair should cut their losses and tear down all Windseeker rides. With all the issues on them, I'm never riding it. I'm sure many others feel the same way. Everyone knows it's garbage.

You mean like they cut their losses and tore down TTD? :)

TTD's been very reliable since it's second season. I hardly ever see it down. But Windseeker's are constantly getting stuck leaving riders in the air for hours. Such an issue like that wouldn't occur on TTD, other than the times the train stalled on the top but that was only for a few minutes and is very rare. The worst I would most likely get is a rollback.

This sort of thing tends to happen when you order mass quantities of a prototype. That was a stroke of genius no one ever could have predicted to go at least somewhat awry.

Then again, when you surround yourself by people that say "yes sir!", it's easy to get 'er done.

But I digress. I actually find Windseeker relaxing when it is running. Plus the light show at night is pretty outstanding. When it's running.

The swing rides that the Six Flags parks are installing (you know, the one we were supposed to get?) look absolutely terrifying to me. A whole different kind of pee-your-pants fun.

I think Cedar Fair made the right choice with Windseeker. The rides always have a line, have a very high capacity, and provide a great view of the park. The SkyScreamers at Six Flags are pretty cool, but the long lines and the very short ride ruin the experience.

I was stuck on MF last year for half an hour due to a power outage before they used a generator to get us up and over the hill. It does take about a half hour to make the decision. The park gave us a front of the line pass and half off a ticket for a return visit to the park. It was worth it!

Between Dinosaurs Alive and Windseeker, Kinzel really went out with a bang, huh?

(in all fairness, it was in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and the company was looking to keep up with adding new attractions with as little outlay as possible.)

In all fairness, Dick was trying to sell the company to private equity because he had no idea what to do with all of the debt he acquired overpaying for Paramount Parks.

Holy cow, I could not see myself riding those new swing rides with that kind of restraint. It's probably perfectly safe but I don't like Windseeker either. I'd rather go careening down a hill at 100 mph vs. just dangling in the air like that.

Like others, I am afraid of being stuck and having to use the bathroom. However, being stuck at the top of MF in the wind and rain would have been so uncomfortable for some minutes, let alone 2 hours, no side protection either. Yikes! Since we have passes, not worth a pizza to me, how about that Japanese Steakhouse in Breakers?

I don't care for the swing things either. I've never been on Windseeker but I hate Waveswinger or whatever that little one in the back of the park is so much I'm pretty sure I won't care much for a giant sized version.

After a few years, I don't think WindSeeker was that bad of an addition. It had its fair share of hiccups but the ride is almost always full and it did a great job of opening up that side of the midway.

Scottyf said:
Were there clowns to the left of you and jokers to the right?

I may be a few days late, but I want to acknowledge this awesome response.

I got 20+ rides on MF today and recalled this thread as a storm was moving in. But it didn't trouble me too much, because it seems that MF consistently has one of the best crews in the park year after year. Not to disparage those who work other rides, but I feel comfortable placing my safety in their hands.

Last night I was stuck on the 1st Hill of the Raptor for 30m. I wasn't scared; it was fun. This thing came up and took us down to the steps. We all got a free ticket to ride another ride anytime during this season.

So, let me put this to rest as to what actually happened. Like the spokesperson said, a power bump caused the safety systems to kick in. The ride EStopped at the top so it does not cause any problems to the systems. Also, when the power bump occurred the system thought the train was already cresting the hill and detached the catch car from the train. That is why yet could not simply pull the train over in manual. Also, it took an hour to start the evac process because they wanted to see if they could just reattach the catch car to the train. However, maintenance and the safety team did not feel comfortable doing this with people on board.

Good old Intamin and their over complicated design still failed to account for some freakish scenario. :) That the catch car can somehow detach from the train without first throwing it over the top just seems odd to me but I do believe it happened exactly as you say and in fact it's not the first time I've heard of the catch car returning and leaving a train at the top of the lift. Just seems like a fault in the logic of their program or something. Some of the things Intamin does make no sense.

No, that makes sense. If the catch car goes down while the train doesn't move (stopped in an anti-rollback), then that's essentially the same relative motion as when it goes over the top. What's probably less obvious is what happens is if the catch had to engage somewhere on the lift, and then began moving the train. Assuming it's a gentle engagement, I can't think of anything "bad" that could happen, but to your point, it's Intamin.

Yea - I see what you are saying - it might not be as dumb as I was originally thinking because the catchcar should only engage the train when it (the catchcar) is moving forward. I am not intimately familiar with how the catchcar engages the train though to be honest.

Assuming they can run the thing back up there slowly in manual mode or something, I agree with you - it should just grab the train on its way and get it moving again. This is essentially what would happen in the station at every dispatch, but it starts off real slow. Maybe they figured it wasn't safe to do without breaking the engagement hardware of the catchcar or on the train with a fully loaded train at the steep angle and with the thing moving at a higher rate of speed than it would in the station.

I would assume that as well. In the station, you can see it slowly backs under the hook, and you can hear the hook "thunk" into the catch car. Then it reverses direction, slowly at first, then starts hauling. Looking from afar, it looks like the catch car channel stays within the track rails at the top, and the hook simply drags over the catch car as the train descends, but I don't know for sure.

Red Garter Rob said:
You can not back a train down.

I just seen these posts about not backing a train down. We were stuck about half way up the hill on the Millenium for about 30 minutes and they did bring us back down to the station.

It is not possible to back the train down. If it were, that would mean there are no anti rollbacks or they were somehow disengaged. If the cable snapped at the same time, VERY BAD THINGS would happen. Most coaster lifts are "one way" for very good reason.