Next Defunct Attractions

Anyone else remember when Maverick was marketed as a family coaster?

lol.... My wife hasn't been to CP since the weekend Maverick opened because they weren't putting in rides that appealed to her. She will ride Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, and 7 Dwarfs every time. Most days she will do Everest as well.

On the other hand.... we have threads about

• traffic backups on the causeway getting to the park,
• the nightmare of getting all those cars and people off the peninsula,
• near record attendance
• long FastLane lines when the park is busy
• hotel capacity

I would love CP to add more attractions for the whole family, and especially for smaller guests, but could the park's infrastructure handle increased crowds, and would the park become so crowded as to no longer be enjoyable?

Members on this site have been screaming for more family attractions at Cedar Point for a decade now. In the mean time, we have lost Space Spiral, Paddlewheel, White Water Landing, Wildcat, Disaster Transport, seen an increase in Iron Dragon height requirement, and I’m sure there are some things I’m forgetting. Also in the mean time, as Ken pointed out, we’ve seen record (or near record) attendance. So maybe more family attractions aren’t as vital to the success of Cedar Point as you all swear so vehemently it is.

Having new, bigger, and better coasters certainly bring back the crowd that I'm in. Having been a coaster person for 11 years now, I'll gladly come back for new coasters (this decade, we've had some good stuff at CP).

Yet, to build a child's interest from the time they're young, it is important to keep those family rides so they can gradually work their way up to bigger coasters. That's why it's so important to have Woodstock Express, Wilderness Run, Iron Dragon, Mine Ride, and so on.

This^. Why my parents' parents took them, who took me, who take mine who will mostly likely take theirs. Got that?

Smiley5129 said:
In my opinion, CP should invest in more rides that kids 42 - 48 inches can ride (for those that are past Planet Snoopy rides, but yet not 48 inches for the "big rides").

You mean like Coast Rider at Knotts w/a 44" inch height requirement? Yes, its a coaster but I also enjoyed it with my family this summer there. There are lots of other flat ride type possibilities out there (ala Pipe Scream and Lake Erie Eagles), its just a matter of adding them to the lineup. Btw, what happened to that tour of Europe looking for old flats recently? Any of those ever going to end up at CP? Hmmm....

Of course coasters bring in the crowds and that is my favorite type of ride now. That doesn't make family rides any less important. When I was a little kid, what got me hooked on CP are attractions like the beach, CP&LE RR, Western Cruise, Cadillac Cars, Turnpike Cars, Mill Race, Earthquake, Pirate Ride, Sky Ride, etc. Mine Ride was also a favorite but most of my family didn't ride it often. I enjoyed going down the Midway and riding the "big rides" with the entire family. Sure the flat rides were fun but they were not like "big rides" like Pirate Ride or Western Cruise.

The point is, CP should get some rides that are impressive in scope and are family rides as well. Put 20 or 30 million into a dark ride instead of a coaster and make it really impressive. If it is a good enough ride, it will bring people in that maybe don't go now and encourage even more families to stay in hotel rooms. And, bring back something like the Western Cruise. It was really fun to get the entire family on the boat and take a pleasant ride while listening to corny jokes.

Once you have three dozen coasters, some imaginative, large scale family rides would go a long way to rounding out the experience.

CPfan1976 said:

Btw, what happened to that tour of Europe looking for old flats recently? Any of those ever going to end up at CP? Hmmm....

Off the top of my head, Carowinds got 4 of them in a new section (HUSS Troika, Wave Swinger, Mondial Top Scan, and Musik Express), and Worlds of Fun got a couple (HUSS Condor and another Troika), both for the 2017 season. From my own anecdotal observation, there may have been some issues with the age of the rides, especially with getting them up and running. When I went to Carowinds in late March, their Top Scan was constantly being worked on over the day, and when it did open, it immediately broke down in the air on its first cycle. (Of course, I was on it when it got stuck, so that was quite nerve-wracking.) Worlds of Fun's rides also had some issues when I went in late April; their Condor was half-built and still being worked on/repaired, and the Troika opened late in the day. I'm guessing it was just early-season gremlins, but regardless I feel there is something to be said about the expected reliability of ex-fair circuit rides. (For your information, when I finally got off the Top Scan, I noticed from the manufacturing plaque that it was a model from either 1998 or 1999. These are certainly "old flats," in ride years.)

Going to go out on a limb and say if Cedar Fair's research showed that a $20 million family orientated, dark ride would get a better or similar ROE than a coaster of the same price, they would have already built one. Cedar Point isn't Disney or Universal, nor should they try to be.

djDaemon said:
I think the traffic backup justification is an amusingly far reach.

Only if you've never experienced sitting on the causeway for an hour or more.

In the last ten years I have aborted at least 5 trips to cedar point in exactly this way. These were days when I wasn't expecting a crowd, but it showed up anyway. Chausee for the win.

XS NightClub said:
The toll booth operations were particularly atrocious in my visits this year.

Most days they had the leftmost, the RV/resort lane, closed and merging into the others. Then all traffic was getting diverted to the right towards the middle of the main lot, then a left was able to be taken at the chausee road lane to get to the resorts.

I have no idea what was going on at the booths as the lane closures seemed random and unnecessary. They also posed huge problems to large RVs to merge into those other lanes just to have to make almost impossible hard left and right turns. There’s a reason why the left RV lane stays straight to the back of the park.

New management at traffic control maybe?
I’m not sure, but it was clear that the mess at the booths was causing delayed traffic on the causeway.

When in doubt, blame Carson in Park Ops.

I would LOVE to have a new dark ride coaster at CP again. That was one unique thing we lost when Disaster Transport was taken away.

If it were me, I'd build a dark ride coaster where Shoot the Rapids used to be. That's a private space there, so it wouldn't be much (if any) of an eyesore.

Cedar Point already has their share of old assed flats.

Cedar Point isn't Disney or Universal, nor should they try to be.

CP's ride package is better than Disney or Universal in my opinion but that does not mean guests won't respond to attractions other than coasters. How many coasters can you have in one park before it becomes diminishing returns? Some variety is good and it should be CP in scale.

I would love to see CP put in a version of Mystic Lodge at the Shoot-the-Rapids site. Cedar Fair has one at Knott's Berry Farm. When I lived in Southern California, I saw it several times. It is award winning, will fit perfectly with the Frontier Trail theme and is a great family attraction. Google it if you want to find videos.

Amend that to Mystery Lodge.

Well, since Mystic has been coined by Cedar Fair, and since Cedar Point doesn’t have one yet...

I thought Mystery Lodge was a treat, especially the first time. I didn’t know what to expect, maybe a show (which it is), but it was full of illusions and so unique. I liked it a lot. I’m easy to fool, too, and a couple of times my jaw dropped.
I remember thinking at the time that with a few alterations it would be a great attraction for the Trail, and the Indigenous American theme would work well.

99er said:
I think since it isn't the main entrance to Cedar Point the residents have the right to bring up the annoyance of traffic congestion on the road and to ask for something to be done about it.

Why so? They knew -- or should have known -- what they were getting when they bought their houses.

When I go to SF Great America, I always come in from the east and take the back entrance into the park. I am, frankly, not concerned about any supposed inconvience that people who bought houses near an amusement park may suffer.

Even if there weren't houses along that stretch, it still isn't a road that should be handling the amount of traffic it does. They built the causeway to support that traffic so there isn't a reason that the Chausee should be traveled on as much as it is. That road isn't the entrance to Cedar Point so I wouldn't care if they did gate it and would understand completely if they did.

They built the Chausee to support traffic to the park. The Chausee, for several decades, was the main entrance to Cedar Point. A causeway to the park took three decades to be realized.

I'm sorry, but in my opinion, people who buy a house near a significant attraction (Cedar Point, O'Hare, Midway) don't get to complain that they suffer inconviences.

noggin said:

Why so? They knew -- or should have known -- what they were getting when they bought their houses.

As Kevin mentioned earlier, are those residents not allowed to improve their neighborhood? Further, is it not conceivable that some purchased those homes (or their ancestors did) before the park - thus traffic to and from it - became what it is today?

They built the Chausee to support traffic to the park.

And the Causeway was built once traffic on the Chausee became a problem.

noggin said:
I'm sorry, but in my opinion, people who buy a house near a significant attraction (Cedar Point, O'Hare, Midway) don't get to complain that they suffer inconviences.

I had a sort of snarky response to this in my previous post, but I edited it out. But I can't not respond to this preposterous statement.

Just because you buy property somewhere does not in any way mean you abandon your right to seek to make it a better place. It's true that being in proximity to an airport or amusement park means that there will inevitably be noise and traffic and whatever else coming along with it, and that residents should consider that when deciding whether or not to buy said property. But why should those residents be disallowed from seeking the best outcome when it comes to managing noise and traffic?

And especially if their neighborhood changes over the years as a result of the airport/amusement park changing, why should they forfeit input on how best to manage those changes?

A ) They knowingly bought a property in proximity to an amusement park or an airport. The road was built in the 1910s, thanks to Boeckling's foresight; I'm dubious that there are many folks living along the road that have any sort of heritage investment in their property.

B) They don't live in a neighborhood; they live along side a road that leads to an amusement park.

C) The causeway wasn't built as a response to increased traffic on the Chausee; the causeway was first proposed in the 1920s. It took three decades for the causeway to come to fruition.