Raptor 7/26

Hey everyone, long-time lurker, just now creating an account because I have a question. Yesterday, I was at Cedar Point and had gotten all the way up to being the next train for Raptor when they shut the ride down. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the ride because they kept running train after train of empty cars through without making any adjustments that I could see. They would bring a train in, the staff would run around checking the restraints without having released the hydrologic system (no whoosh and the ots wouldn't lift up), then wait for a while then send the empty train through. This happened multiple times with each train, then when they started pulling trains off the track, my group took off, not wanting to wait any longer at that point. We had talked to the platform guy while the trains were going about what was going on, and he also had no idea (shout out to Pietrock for being awesome and chatting with my group when he wasn't checking restraints). My question, because I'm curious, is what the heck was going on. Any insight?

It sounds like they were testing it. Maybe they had already fixed the issue, but had to run the trains through a certain amount of times before letting passengers get back on.

They must not have fixed it because they did not start removing trains until they had sent multiple cycles of trains through.

Not sure if the trains are timed, but if they are, maybe the computer flagged one as being slow so they removed it for inspection for possible bearing problems, etc.

I believe Raptor was down the rest of the night. We walked by quite late and there was no one around.

Also saw ride mechanics working on Shoot the Rapids' lift hill during the evening.

Yeah, I also believe Raptor was down the rest of the night, at least when I was by it. I will admit, yesterday seemed like a great day for all the rides, since I only encountered 1 short issue (will write a trip report, look for it there.)

Raptor is the one ride I've never seen down.

What was the weather/wind like that day?

Very low wind, upper 70s/lower 80s, partly cloudy. A perfect day when talking about weather.

was also there on the 26th.....raptor did stop, but was running again by the end of the night.

Rcoaster10 said:
Raptor is the one ride I've never seen down.

You need to get to the park more. ;)

The only time I ever see Raptor down is when has been a full queue for most of the day and then when I finally get on the platform it breaks. I have learned not to tait with a full queue now. :)

Sounds like it was definitely a mechanical issue. I don't have specific knowledge of the system, but the computer likely said something was not right, so they started running trains empty. The issue was obviously not resolved, so per policy or phone instructions, they moved the trains to transfer for maintenance to inspect.

Sealedseven said:
What was the weather/wind like that day?

It doesn't matter what the weather/wind was like. Raptor wouldn't have ran many empty cycles like that if the winds were high. It was clearly a mechanical issue.

Also, word of advice, a ride operator/host isn't going to answer your question as to what is wrong with the ride. The answer is most likely going to be "I don't know" and/or we're not sure how long this delay will last.