New for 2015

Here is a quick question. Say a dark ride does take the place of the Pirate Ride Area and Point Pavilion. Now, last time I was in line for Raptor, I noticed there is only so much room in between the Blue Streak and the Raptor que that canyons in the Point Pavilion from the PR building. How exactly will they expand a building or build an entirely new building in a spot that narrow? I mean, I know it is possible somehow, but if this happens, then will we see a shorter version of the Raptor que line?

^I may be misunderstanding what you guys are talking about, because I don't know the exact Point Pavilion layout, but looking at google earth and satellite images, the Raptor que line and station separate these two places. :/

Indeed they do, actually the Raptor track and Blue Streak track itself separates the 2 areas. There is not much room at all between the 2 rides - think about when you leave the station of the Raptor, there is a pretty sharp left turn to head to the lift hill. That is due to the Blue Streak being maybe 20' away.

I'm not seeing how the old Pirate Ride building, and Point Pavilion areas could be linked together for the same attraction. If something is to happen in both spots, I think it would have to be independent of each other. Perhaps a ride at the point pavilion location, and simple removal of the pirate building for future development etc...

I would not be too excited for a dark ride at Cedar Point. The fact is that the really good dark rides I have been on are out of a seasonal parks budget - in my opinion. Bringing up Canada's wonderland and the costs of the Guardian there are misleading. They already had the mountain correct? They were able to use that for part of the ride which saved tons of money, Cedar Point would not have that luxury.

Bottom line is that in order for me to get excited about a dark ride at CP they are now competing with Disney and Universal. Their best bet would be a ride like Rock n' Rollercoaster or Flight of Fear etc... In this case I agree that the building would not look all that great, unless they dumped tons of money into themeing it somehow.

It's August, enjoy the speculation while it lasts!

A) Cedar Fair adds rides based on what they've determined will appeal to a broad spectrum of their customer base, not what will excite enthusiasts.

B) Cedar Fair is not competing with Disney and Universal. That's like saying Taco Bell is competing with Topolobampo. In both cases, I like them both; they just are not competitors.

To add to the fun speculation, here's just what I personally think will come to the park for 2015.

1. A new pavilion. By now it's pretty obvious that something will be going on with that area (Fear Faire not being listed on the HW site, while the site was still fully accessible), various markings in this area, and the fact that 2 other Cedar Fair parks (Carowinds and California's Great America) have announced new pavilion like structures. I'd even love for something more like Harmony Hall at Carowinds. It would be nice to have a big food court area like that, although maybe the multi use functions of the new pavilion at CGA could be good too.

2. A WMG style dark ride at the site of the old Pirate Ride building. Different layout, different theme, and hopefully an improvement over WMG. I'm sure Cedar Fair has been listening to the feedback from this ride and plans on tweaking the ride experience to make it better. At least I hope this is the case, if the Point gets a dark ride like this. I'd still rather have a traditional, non interactive dark ride but I guess it would be better than nothing.

Between Tony's pirate-like tweets, his Canadian tweet (my guess is referencing WMG since it's in Canada), and Jason's picture of the old Pirate Ride building by listing the rides in view and ending with "and" there is plenty of evidence to support this theory.

This has no evidence to back it up at all but is more of my own personal wish. I hope that maybe this will also be part of a multi year Blue Streak midway improvement/expansion that will be announced. In addition to the new dark ride, the area immediately around it and near BS will be enhance.

3. A retheme/ravamp of Mantis into Rougarou. At the very least, new paint and new theming to go along with the name change. At the most, a floorless conversion. I'm still not sure if this is even possible, but it sure would be nice. There is the trademarked Rougarou name, the grain-of-salt (yet still interesting) rumor that I have heard of Mantis closing in September, and the visual evidence of new paint on a portion of the ride, it looks as if something will be going on with it. If it wasn't for the paint I'd still be very skeptical of Mantis changing for next year, but I feel like it pretty much validates at least its color scheme will change.

Whatever ends up coming next year, I'm sure it will be great. Cedar Point has not been disappointing recently and their most recent additions have been completed with high quality. I can't wait to find out what's in store.

Also, I'm sure an announcement date can't be too far off. It's already August and typically announcement are made in the middle of end of the month. Hopefully we'll find out soon!

Pirate Ride old building is way too small for a GWM type dark ride. Cedar Point would have to enlarge the building to make it work!

The old pirate ride building maybe used as the queue for the new dark ride, with a small path between Raptor and Bluestreak linking to the actual new attraction at Point Pavilion.

noggin said:
A) Cedar Fair adds rides based on what they've determined will appeal to a broad spectrum of their customer base, not what will excite enthusiasts.

Thank you Mr. Obvious, I thought they were going to build what I told them to build. If you notice I used some phrases like "in my opinion" in my post. I never said what I thought would or would not excite the general customer base.

B) Cedar Fair is not competing with Disney and Universal. That's like saying Taco Bell is competing with Topolobampo. In both cases, I like them both; they just are not competitors.

Once again - I said "in my opinion". I have been to numerous parks and rode a number of dark rides. I have been on some really great ones, and also some low budget ones that can make you laugh.

A new dark ride at CP will compete with all the others I have been on. That list includes some great ones at Universal and Disney. Perhaps saying compete was a slightly bad choice of words as these parks would not compete for the same customers on any given day. So lets change the word compete to compare. Disney and Uni set the dark ride standard and that is one mighty high bar for CP to climb. I will compare any new dark ride at CP with those I have been on elsewhere.

Does anybody think either of these are possibilities still. I just found these pictures on bing images, under "Cedar Point 2015":
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cedar+point+2015&go=Submit&qs=...tedIndex=0
This next one has a ride where Mantis is:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cedar+point+2015&go=Submit&qs=...tedIndex=2
This one goes from behind Gemini, all the way to where Mean Streak is:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cedar+point+2015&go=Submit&qs=...tedIndex=3

^ All of those come off of this website and you could find then either in this thread or some other one. Those were mainly discussed when we really had no idea, even to a general area of the park the ride was going to go. They are more of a wish list than a possibility.

I for one hope that any attempt at a dark ride includes some actual stage craft as apposed to all digital screens. The Fun House , Earthquake and Pirate Ride were all examples of how even the simplest of staging was fun to see despite them all being kinda cheesy.
I can certainly see the advantage of being able to modify the ride experience once in a while, but hope that the entire ride is not solely based on fancy TV screens.
For example, the Paul Bunyan Log ride at the Mall of America is a perfectly satisfying "dark ride" experience that uses very little space and is just plain fun for all ages. One fun thing they have done there is hid little tiny items throughout the sets. I always have enjoyed just trying to spot all the tiny little figures and "hidden items" that had been placed throughout the ride.

kylepark said:
The old pirate ride building maybe used as the queue for the new dark ride, with a small path between Raptor and Bluestreak linking to the actual new attraction at Point Pavilion.

I guess I should have said that I'd think a WMG style ride would be at the current site of the old PR building. I'd expect that entire building to be removed in order for a completely new building to be built to house the ride.

I just went to the park today and i saw some construction going on in the center of mean streak. Is this where a haunt is or where they prepare? Because I saw a lot of wood and tractors and such.

And I have platinum passes so i go to the park about every week so i go to the arcade very frequently and every time i see a good amount of people in there so i doubt they would take that out

This was interesting to catch up on. Still wondering what 1880 meant. Something is going on with Pirate Ride building, that sounds for sure. I think it would be nice if they did clean that whole area up and connect Raptor to Blue Streak area because now there's no flow, it's a pocket. I am one hoping for non-digital screen dark ride. What do you think by what Tony meant, "afraid of the dark". It could mean he is "too afraid" of putting a dark ride in, and that it is something else.

You guys should make that Lemon Chill thread a sticky. Hilarious!

^Isn't 1880 the date on the old Pirate Ride ship? The Black Raven?

^My mistake, it is actually 1590. Maybe that is the date when the first coaster or attraction opened at Cedar Point, back when it was more of a bath house/ beach resort? Could even be when that area of the peninsula was founded...:-/ I got nothing.

I want to say the first coaster at CP was Switchback Railway in 1892. I could be wrong however.

CoasterKyle1121 said:
I just went to the park today and i saw some construction going on in the center of mean streak. Is this where a haunt is or where they prepare? Because I saw a lot of wood and tractors and such.

They have the Wax Museum exhibit in the building in center of the mean streak for Halloweekends. Probably just setting it up