Old Disaster Transport Photos?

I've always wondered what some of the original Distaster Transport effects/ decorations looked Iike when they had them back in the day. I'm especially referring to the orange jumpsuits, Dorothy the alien, the second robot (not Dave, the Orange one in happy jacks) and some photos of the TV monitors/ footage in the ride. Thanks, I doubt if anyone has any photos like this but if you do could you post them here? Stupid random question but hey, it's something.;)

I've been looking for the same things but I never posted here. I've always wanted to see all of the old queues open with all of the theming too because I don't remember what it looked like.

The earliest I remember of the queue line is the era when y walked through the different hallways with the theming, the glow paint and hand prints. I was very disappointed when I went to ride it and it entered right into the repair station. That ride really took a dump over the years.

I would love to see something like this too! When I was little and getting dressed to go to CP, I would purposely pick out clothes and paint my nails in ways that would look "cool" while I was in line for DT.

CoasterKyle1121 said:

That ride really was a dump over the years.

Fixed that for you.

I wish I had photos, but I don't. Just my memory. The hallways always had the black light but no hand prints. On the walls were tongue in cheek posters about the different places Dispatch Master Transport could take you. The original theme was that you were going to Alaska. Then, there was a room with a bobsled, repainted to look like a space ship. Several robotic arms were moving around it and you would hear an occasional hiss as though it was being fixed. As you filtered into the main room, you saw the tv monitors above the queue with someone (a pilot?) engaging in an animated argument with the aforementioned droid who stood off to the side. The droid was very rudimentary. He moved slightly and his face and eyes lit up but nothing fancy. All the while, the baskets with various parts would circulate overhead and loop around the room. Then the big staircase to the loading area.

This struck me, even in 1990 as an extremely cheesy version of a disney style preshow. The interaction between the video pilot and the droid was the highlight, but no one could really follow the banter as the room was so big and loud and the acting was about what you would expect to find in Northern Ohio. Having said that, it was still better than nothing!

Yeah, I do remember the hand hallway, the robotic arm bobsled and conveyer belt and even the posters on the walls very vaguely. I almost wish Cedar Point would re-release the posters from the que in their gift shops just for some retro/ nostalgia feeling. It would actually be cool if Cedar Point acknowledged some of their deceased attractions as Disney does in their merchandise. It would certainly be a seller and something special for the long-time Cedar Point fans. I'm just picturing the retro t-shirts, mugs, posters, and other small retro souvenirs.

^ I'm too young to be a considered a longtime fan of Cedar Point, but as a fan of its history, that would be a great idea, being able to buy merchandise of past rides.

In Mantis' case, this may be asking too much (given Kings Island resurrecting the name), but it'd be awesome if they even went as far as reproducing the old Banshee material. :)

Which old rides would sell merchandise? I can't think of any off the top of my head that would actually sell. Wildcat? Disaster Transport? White Water Landing? I'm not sure any of those rides even had merchandise in their last 10 years of existence.

The merchandise policy at Cedar Fair parks is still a mystery to me. Last year, I tried and failed to buy a Blue Streak 50th anniversary shirt. They were apparently so popular they sold out very quickly, but were never re-printed. There was also virtually no Mantis merchandise (which ironically, would have all been sold in October of last year I'm guessing).

Kings Island rolled out a series of retro shirt this year which I think are great. However, you can't find any merchandise for coasters like Vortex, Adventure Express, or Racer anywhere!

Edit: It looks like Kings Island worked with a local shirt company on those.

Let me see how much of the queue I can reconstruct from memory... This would be from the mid-2000s post-handprint.

First room you entered from the outside was the only room with true queue switchbacks IIRC, and was darkened/blacklit like a movie theater lobby. This is the room that had the fake posters and where they sold the pointless 3D glasses and light-up bracelets and stuff.

From there, you went into a handprint hallway through a couple of corridors to the 'storage hallway' with the glass windows looking into a very unconvincing forced perspective painting of a Raiders of the Lost Ark-esque warehouse. At the end of this hallway, you entered into the main room.

I think the queue only did a U around the center of this room with its "warp core" in the middle and that constant machine-like drone. You had the overhead equipment conveyer that didn't work for years but suddenly began working again the last few years of the ride, and off to the right you had the repair bay with the also unconvincing 'lasers' welding the sled. There was also a red light that would light up "REJECT" but to this day I'm not sure what was being rejected.

After this room, there was an emergency exit and a light-up full Disaster Transport logo (with the 'patch m' flying away) before you went up stairs on the right. At the top of the stairs was the second height check and the turnstile right before the boarding area.

Then pretty much you boarded and waited to see how many lights were burnt out on the lift hill.

There was actually more to it when the ride was new. You entered the ride by walking though a hallway that had the travel posters. That led to a room that had normal queue lines, which acted as a holding area for the first theater room, which was the control room. You would wait until the control room was emptied of guests, and then the room would be filled with guests waiting in the holding area. The control room had the robot and various videos. You would stay in that room to watch the show in it's entirety, which I think was about a 15 to 20 minute show.

When the show was over, you were let into the now almost empty repair bay. This is where you would slowly move to get on the ride as the show was going on. When new, the show in there was also much more extensive, with a robotic foreman moaning about the crappy work being done by the robots fixing the sled. The reject light was supposed to represent a scanner that was checking repair parts going by on the conveyor.

The stairway going up to the loading platform also had some videos. These were girls sharing some odd stories with guests and I think the girls were supposed to be flight attendants.

When the ride was new they really tried to present a complete themed attraction and it was a pretty good spoof of a Disney attraction. What really killed it were the terrible acoustics in the building which made it almost impossible to follow the dialog and really ruined the enjoyment of the show.

CPfansite has been posting a few photos of DT, since today is the anniversary of it being closed.

https://www.facebook.com/CpFansite

Looking at those pictures brought into my mind the distinct screeching sound of the tires when the ride began and ended. Even though it was a crappy ride (which I didn't realize until I was older), it was still a never-miss anytime we went to CP, even if it was just to cool off sometimes.

Everyone is saying how corney and how unconvincing the theming was of the ride but even though I agree it was corney, it was still neat to see. It at least gives you something to look at while waiting in line unlike how in Millennium Force's line where it's completely miserable to wait in especially on a busy day.

Forgive me if it has been asked & answered already, but what is the significance of "12-E" on the building?

http://web.archive.org/web/20090616123336/http://www.cedarpoint.com...98ec97e3aa

Gosh, how I miss the old blog posts... :(

Not sure if I have any of the pics, but the last time we were at Disaster Transport, was during a off season behind the scene tour. It was Feb (maybe 2012 or so?), very cold and we were taken through the building on the ground level. The lights were all lit up and we were allowed to wonder around. Very cool to see everything above, definitely a unique view. I remember there was a very old looking spiral staircase in a corner of the building.

It was also interesting to see how they used DT's building as a storage unit for a lot of parts for rides.

The Kinzel era= "The ride is the theme". Enter the 4 hour waits on busy summers standing in the lines going back and forth in the sun seeing the same people over and over again. It gets old.

The Ouimet era= whole experience. Spending 4 hours in a line....not as big of a deal. Time goes faster when your entertained in a queue for hours. The queue now is part of the ride (experience).

We all hate waiting in line. It can be miserable. Cedar Fair is turning that corner and presenting an entire experience from the time you enter the queue to the time you exit the ride itself. Does a park want to be remembered for a long line for a great ride (oh, its worth the wait, but wait you will). Or do they want to be remembered for a great experience? You get in line, go through pre-shows, props etc. Kids are entertained and not bored. Just sayin.....I've always been a fan of a ride experience rather than just a line and then a ride.