Millie Seat Belts

From Tony Clark on Twitter:

Update on Millennium Force: The ride’s manufacturer (Intamin) directly supplies the seat belts to Cedar Point, and it has been identified that they are shorter than the manufacturer’s specifications. We are working with them to replace the belts in the coming weeks.

https://x.com/TonyClarkCP/s...4623994200

Case closed. All whole.

So Intamin manufactures something that goes against the parks & their own specifications, then nobody at the park bothers to measure it until its put into actual use.

Surely this is a one off error that legit never ever happened before.

I was wondering the same thing, CP gets new seat belts from Intamin that are shorter than they should be and not a soul recognizes that during any off season testing yet on the first train of early entry on opening day the proverbial poop hits the spinning blades. While I am glad they are looking into the situation for the folks that couldn't ride I am very skeptical of the explanation...

Same park that offered "Morning Rush".

I'm happy the situation is getting fixed and for the seemingly increased ability for a PR person to respond directly to a situation, and I'm tempted to say, "Intamin strikes again" because they literally sent belts that didn't match their own specs. But this really isn't a great look for the park either that no one eyeballed, measured, sat in a seat and felt that something was off. Is this a one off? Is it incompetence? Or is this a symptom of cuts that had everything being done rushed and at the last minute rather than having all three trains ready and on the track a month ahead so the crews could have a couple training weekends like they used to?

Now they have to waste extra man hours to replace the belts, possibly be down a train while they work on one at a time and get through all three, and have multiple weeks of the season passing by with a less than ideal situation.

And to top it off, they have two freaking people instead of four or even six checking restraints on a ride with still very large demand. Reports of 5+ minute dispatches and a 45 minute wait from the bottom of the ramp (Fastlane merge point) seemed pretty common during the first week of the season.

Oof.

I see a couple of possible options for what happened.

1) Intamin sent the wrong part. if Cedar Point ordered part XYZ, and Intamin sent part XYZ, why would Cedar Point question it? Also, if the YouTubers say on the interwebs are to be believed, Inramin doesn’t stock any parts for their rides, causing long lead times for replacement parts. It’s possible maintenance found the problem during the offseason maintenance, but can’t get replacement seatbelts for several months.

2) Cedar Point ordered the wrong parts. It’s possible Intamin says seatbelts XYZ or ABC may be used. Maybe someone accidentally ordered the shorter ABC seatbelts instead of the longer XYZ. See the above note about lead times.

Very bizarre circumstances, no matter how we slice it.

First, if Intamin messed up and sent the wrong length/ part (via a subcontractor?) that's certainly not good.

Alternatively, if CP ordered the wrong length (I read an unsubstantiated post that CP possibly because changed the anchor point of the belts in the offseason -- but have no idea if that's true?), that's also not good.

In any event, odd that no one appeared to notice this at CP?

Fortunately, the error only made the ride safer and more restrictive.

I'm not sure I see how an error that only makes the ride less accessible somehow makes it "safer".

If anything, it's this type of thing is a bit troublesome. Regardless of who was at fault, a key part of a marquee ride's safety system was not only incorrect, but also successfully installed, tested, and opened to the public.

Incorrectly.

Thankfully this error's worst case scenario was people unnecessarily not being able to ride, but there are also ripple effects. Whenever anyone has to do a "walk of shame" in the station, there is often a significant delay in operations, confused/angry guests (and rightfully so in this case), not to mention a pretty embarrassing public admission that only feeds the abysmal track record that the "Six Flags" brand carries with it.

Also thankfully it's mostly die-hard Cedar Point nerds like us that would even know about this.

To make matters worse, apparently they did not replace the test seat's belt when replacing the trains' belts, and only did so once guests began complaining about the discrepancy between the two. Which suggests that no one was aware that the new belts were out of spec.

I've always hated the belts on Millie. I've never had a problem with the length, including this year, but something about the angle and the way they fasten feels awkward to me.

On the subject of seatbelts, I find it odd that the belts on Blue Streak expand so far yet the seat is so narrow. What body shape could possibly max out the belt and still fit in the seat?

Kevinj:

I'm not sure I see how an error that only makes the ride less accessible somehow makes it "safer".

Well, to the extent a tighter seat belt means the lap bar can come down lower, it technically may make it "safer?"

But maybe not.

I guess the stronger point is that fortunately the seat belt wasn't longer than ordered.

I understand there really isn't a return on investment pitch to switch trains on coasters unless they reduce maintenance, but, man, CP (and so many other parks) could greatly improve capacity if they had trains with restraints that did not need seatbelts -- that's just a killer for cycle time.

And they are not needed on well-designed trains. For example, B&M is so ahead of everyone sometimes, as over 26 years ago they came up with a hypercoaster (and now giga coaster) that doesn't need a seatbelt, hasn't had a single incident of a rider coming out, and is so easy and quick to use and dispatch.

Yes, I know B&M's don't subject riders typically to negative G's of Intamin or RMCs, but the Velocicoaster (and I think Mack?) trains do, and still can manage it all without cumbersome seatbelts.

^To some degree I agree with you. If Cedar Point were to try to market new restraints to improve throughput as a big improvement for a season, most of the public wouldn't care too much. But if you bundled those updates in a year where you did have another attraction, there could be some serious merit to it.

As others have mentioned, when people leave a theme park, their feeling of the park is often gauged by how many things they were able to experience that day. And if they can cut 15 minutes off the wait time for their top-tier roller coasters, that enables more rides and a better experience, which might lead to a return visit ($$$) that they would not have otherwise gotten. I long for the days when we saw a train start going up the MF lift hill right at the same time the one ahead of it was pulling into the brake run behind the unload station.

https://fox8.com/news/mille...-they-are/

Dvo:

As others have mentioned, when people leave a theme park, their feeling of the park is often gauged by how many things they were able to experience that day.

The pieces to the collective pie that makes for a "best day ever" are many, but ride-ops absolutely has to be a priority piece. If that goes, so does the ship.

veritas55:

And they are not needed on well-designed trains. For example, B&M is so ahead of everyone sometimes, as over 26 years ago they came up with a hypercoaster (and now giga coaster) that doesn't need a seatbelt, hasn't had a single incident of a rider coming out, and is so easy and quick to use and dispatch.

Legacy Cedar Fair installed seat belts anyway on those B&M hyper/giga clamshell restraints.

Millennium Force doesn't need the belts. They're a failsafe to an already failsafe lap bar.

^^

This is why I don't go to the park nearly as often as I'd like to. Because of hearing about horrible loading and capacity issues, that and you know, life. In my Cedar Point glory days around 2010 I could find a week day in early June and go and ride everything, often with repeats. But that just doesn't exist any more because ride capacity clearly isn't a priority for the park.

I talked to two buddies who went to the park on Friday and they were telling me what they rode. They got on almost everything except Siren's Curse because of downtime. They waited 30 mins for Rougarou, an hour for SV, and about half an hour for most other big rides. And then they told me that was with Fast Lane Plus, for $185! The park has made it so that in order to experience all of the rides you almost need to buy fastlane. 30 minutes for Rougarou with fastlane? They must have been running one train. That's just wild.

Agreed, they don't need seat belts. There's a redundant hydraulic mechanism on the lap bar. If there are any examples of one of those failing ever, I'd love to hear about it.

Now, are they "unsure" on Millennium Force because of the people tossed from the Superman rides? I'm not a human factors expert, but I have a hard time seeing how, if the bar is down far enough, one can get out of that. Mind you, it wasn't until a later iteration that they finally got knees higher than butts, which absolutely will pin you in.

One possible explanation: The belt is just a proxy to size. In other words, it's not intended to keep you in, it's intended to keep you off if you're too large.

I agree with you about the belts being a measure of size for safe riding. Same as raptor belts are the upper limit to the ride restraints.