Rides closing too often?

So I have been going for years now to know Cedar Point, minus TTD, has kept rides flowing decently smooth and keeping from breakdowns. But now this year I'm hearing more complaints of the coasters constantly malfunctioning and closing down for long periods every day. I also looked at the posts to the page on their Facebook and sure enough it was filled with disappointed tourists having complaints of the rides closing way too often. Is there reason to this? Will it continue? We plan to get fastlane plus and would not like our trip to be a disappointment.

I have been to the park many times so far this season and I haven't noticed anything that would lead me to say the rides are down more often. Gatekeeper has been down quite a few times but over the past several years I have come to see that as "normal" for the ride. On the other side, Maverick seems to be doing much better than I would expect so far this season.

Of course people will have different experiences on different days but overall things seem normal to me. Rides can and do go down from time to time and on any given day there are going to be some issues that arise. Of course this is only my opinion, but I think CP does a very good job keeping the rides operating and quickly fixing them when something does come up.

I've spent several days at the park this year and have not noticed any significant changes in downtime. Valravn has had some minor breakdowns like any new ride which might be the cause of the people whining on Facebook. TTD has been running great this year too - I just saw them performing some scheduled maintenance on the launch last night and it closed early for that, but was up and running to start today like normal. I just took a peek at the CP Facebook page though and now I remember why I stopped checking it - it's like reading YouTube comments.

CoasterFollower said:

I also looked at the posts to the page on their Facebook and sure enough it was filled with disappointed tourists having complaints of the rides closing way too often. Is there reason to this? Will it continue?

Worst possible place to look for even anecdotal evidence of anything. Unless, of course, you're looking for a logical, rational, well-balanced discussion about politics, abortion, or gun control.

Ive been to the park about 15 times this year and the rides are running very well. I havent seen any rides that have been experiencing any significant downtime.

Kevinj said:

Worst possible place to look for even anecdotal evidence of anything. Unless, of course, you're looking for a logical, rational, well-balanced discussion about politics, abortion, or gun control.

Surely, you jest...

^In response to your signature... 'Cause then women would complain about our sweaty butt cheeks.

I also think the rides are running very well. You have to remember that the amount of technology in rides now will cause more problems than rides in the 70s had. Complex control systems found now are way different than the old relay logic systems that rides like Mine Ride, Corkscrew, Gemini, etc. had when they first opened.

Remember, you're going to hear 100 complaints for every one compliment. This is for any business. If the experience is not great, they want their voices heard, but if it's acceptable or even exceeds expectations, then everyone goes along with their day.

I have not been on CP facebook recently. If they have that many complaints posted and they are outnumbering compliments so much, they should just turn off comments or hide the comment feed deeper in the page.

Facebook allows for businesses to do this as to avoid undo negative comment spamming.

It sounds like it would be hurting their reputation more than helping.

I haven't noticed anything too out of the ordinary the four times I've been there so far (since TTD being down most of the day has just about become "ordinary".) I think Valravn has had a bit more downtime than we usually associate with B&M coasters, so that causes enthusiasts to take extra note. And given that it's the huge new coaster for this season, and is the big draw for a lot of GP visiting the park, I would imagine they are interpreting its downtime more dramatically than may be needed. Outside of that, and the early season Mean Streak downtime, I haven't seen much in the way of breakdowns at all (even from Maverick, as a previous poster mentioned.)

The only down time I noticed a few weeks ago was the usual TTD quirks here and there. Milly was down for just a short bit one day. Valravn was down a few short periods which is pretty good imo.

The one thing that struck my attention was the Queue signs on a lot of rides that says they open at 11am. I dont remember that many rides waiting until 11am to open in previous years, but maybe my memory is getting bad.

You can never please some people. They expect 100% of the rides to operate 100% of the time. These perfect people expect everything to be perfect. They forget nothing is perfect--especially them.

deeturnerjr72 said:

The one thing that struck my attention was the Queue signs on a lot of rides that says they open at 11am. I dont remember that many rides waiting until 11am to open in previous years, but maybe my memory is getting bad.

I hadn't noticed any additional signs, but I've noticed a lot of stuff doesn't seem to open at 10. I'll have to observe more the next time I am there. I know Mean Streak and I think Snake/Thunder Canyon have been 11 for a while, but I didn't think too many others were.

I'm pretty sure it was Gemini, Mean Streak, SRF, Thunder Canyon and CCMR that were 11:00 for a few years. Gemini is the one I'm not sure about.

We came in through Challenge park entrance and started with Magnum at a little after 10am. We headed back down Gemini midway and they all had open at 11am signs all the way around to Milly. Except for Maverick. I dont know about the front because we never made it around that far till after 11am.

As for Gemini, we reached that area at about 11:20 three days in a row last week. Each day it was running red train only, we rode it and then walked right back on as each day they opened the blue train at 11:30 sharp. It is always more fun when both are running for the "race" and hand slapping.

I visited the park for the first time this year yesterday and I think I know why people think the rides are down more often. After a day in the park, I felt as if rides were going down more often as well. For myself, I believe this is related to the new park app. Before, you only saw if a ride is down if you were walking by. Now, I am checking the app often to see wait times and thus, see exactly what rides are closed.

The problem with the App listing rides is that it is not always accurate. I was in the Maverick Station one day when the app said it was temporarily closed, I was watching Valravn from the Skyride platform when the app said it was closed, and just this past week at Kings Island my son and I rode Diamondback while it was temporarily closed.