Shoot the Rapids still not running fully loaded boats

^^ I disagree about the lift hill, as I'm not sure Linear Induction Motors would be great in a water setting, or Cable lift on such a short hill, but I just think it's a dud because nobody gets that excited for water rides. I still don't understand the restraint system that is on the ride.

The only water rides I get excited for are the raft rides like Thunder Canyon. Those are always fun because you usually go through woods and not everybody gets equally wet and you're all facing each other. I just don't bother with Shoot the Rapids because it's not that fun and incredible slow.

Shawn Meyer said:
I must be the only one on here that likes Shoot the Rapids.

You're not the only one, but you'll only find me in line if the wait is less than 15 minutes

Vette, I'm saying that StR seemed bizarrely modest for Intamin...nothing particularly intriguing. The other Intamin water rides around this time used elevator lifts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A41brhgXlfQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHxqNFut2d8

So, I'm saying it almost seems like CP was holding Intamin back from the kind of stuff they normally do, probably with reliability / capacity / wider appeal in mind.

Vette said:
I'm not sure whether to be sad or thrilled at that prospect. On one hand, I rank all CP's Intamin coasters above our others (except maybe Magnum,

You rank Junior Gemini and Wicked Twister ahead of Raptor?

godsonsafari said:
...given their popularity and the attendance of the parks they reside at, I'd think it's obscenely likely to be the case.

But that's justification for CP to not install a high maintenance flume. CP will obviously never have attendance that comes close to any of those parks, so the cost/rider for CP would be extremely high by comparison.

What makes a flume high maintenance?

djDaemon said:

But that's justification for CP to not install a high maintenance flume. CP will obviously never have attendance that comes close to any of those parks, so the cost/rider for CP would be extremely high by comparison.

I don't understand your statement. Either you're railing against a strawman of "lol u suggested CP build Splash Mountain," which is, you know. Or you're saying that the more traditional sorts of log flume rides in place at Holiday World, Indiana Beach, Kennywood, Dorney, Knoebels, Centreville, Columbus Zoo, Fort Wayne Zoo, Kings Island, Six Flags Great America, Michigan's Adventure, on trailers with Wade Shows and NAME, etc. are intrinsically more maintenance intensive than the Cedar Point ride that keeps trying its best to capsize.

Captain Hawkeye said:

Vette said:
I'm not sure whether to be sad or thrilled at that prospect. On one hand, I rank all CP's Intamin coasters above our others (except maybe Magnum,

You rank Junior Gemini and Wicked Twister ahead of Raptor?

Im not counting Jr. Gemini as I've never ridden it, and I think WT is an underrated, unique ride experience. Raptor is a great ride ad well. In fact, I couldn't really rank CPs coasters except Millennium and Maverick are my 1 and 2. The only I hate are Mantis and MS when its trimmed badly.

In general, water rides have yet to fully recover from the "everyone needs an individual restraint" trend of the late 90's early 2000's. If you think about it, almost every water ride in the 2 decades before that used nothing or seatbelts, which are much less mechanically complicated.

Maybe the demand for water rides seems to be low due to the fact that most parks already have the typical: flume, shoot-the-chute, and round boat rides?

I cannot for the life of me understand how a flume ride could be considered high maintenance. Now if you have a Splash Mountain, it's obvious.

Then again, I've never worked a day in a maintenance department at an amusement park with a flume ride (and by flume ride, I mean a classic, like WWL or Mill race...just a log flume).

Can someone in the know enlighten me?

I might be wrong, but I believe the fiberglass hulls, used for the flume channels, don't mix well with the elements. So, after twenty years, WWL's channels were in constant need of repair to fix leaks.

Now that I can understand...so in my "if I ran the park"...this is what would've happened...

Mean Streak is torn down and replaced with Maverick (makes much more sense, and WWL is simply refurbished a la the flume at Knotts (to a lesser degree in terms of theming of course).

If only.

Did someone remember to save the park in its 2005 form so we can reload it?

That back drop of Mean Streak and the train station, with the old buildings just fits so well. It would've looked very empty back there with Maverick or whatever Kevin J. Kinzel decided to put in its place. ;)

RMC for MS :)

Not sure why they went the route they did with STR, cement troughs, coaster type lifts, boats etc. I enjoyed being up in the trees with WWL. I wish they would've put that money into fixing whatever needed to fixed/upgraded, and add some theming. Designed Maverick to go where STR sits.

It is what it is

godsonsafari said:
...you're saying that the more traditional sorts of log flume rides... are intrinsically more maintenance intensive than the Cedar Point ride...

That is correct, as I understand it, for the reason CDF mentions above.

Combine higher maintenance cost with lower ridership, and the cost/rider becomes unfavorable.

Now, it is true that StR turned out to be high maintenance (apparently) anyway, but the motivation for building a concrete-flumed ride versus a fiberglass-flumed ride is still sound, regardless of the outcome in this particular instance.

djDaemon said:

That is correct, as I understand it, for the reason CDF mentions above.

Combine higher maintenance cost with lower ridership, and the cost/rider becomes unfavorable.

I'm not going to argue about the costs of maintenance, what maintenance CF may have determined not to do at any given stage, why ridership greatly fell, or any of that because it is all speculation. However:

Now, it is true that StR turned out to be high maintenance (apparently) anyway, but the motivation for building a concrete-flumed ride versus a fiberglass-flumed ride is still sound, regardless of the outcome in this particular instance.

Who is arguing that they shouldn't have used concrete troughs? I'm not big on constantly answering strawman arguments.

godsonsafari said:
Who is arguing that they shouldn't have used concrete troughs? I'm not big on constantly answering strawman arguments.

The entire discussion here has centered on why WWL was superior to StR, and how it was a mistake for CP to install the latter in place of the former. You were a proponent of that argument. I'm simply pointing out the counter-argument.

And there's no need to get snippy. :)

djDaemon said:

godsonsafari said:
Who is arguing that they shouldn't have used concrete troughs? I'm not big on constantly answering strawman arguments.

The entire discussion here has centered on why WWL was superior to StR, and how it was a mistake for CP to install the latter in place of the former. You were a proponent of that argument. I'm simply pointing out the counter-argument.

Until my last post, I hadn't even alluded to WWL. The discussion was, more or less, whether or not it was a mistake to install StR based on criteria like the 48" height requirement and the fact that it soaks people to the bone, which are things comparable rides don't do. And I will be happy to not be snippy so long as you're willing to discuss things I've actually said and towards positions I've actually taken. ;)

Kevinj said:
Now that I can understand...so in my "if I ran the park"...this is what would've happened...

Mean Streak is torn down and replaced with Maverick (makes much more sense, and WWL is simply refurbished a la the flume at Knotts (to a lesser degree in terms of theming of course).

If only.

Did someone remember to save the park in its 2005 form so we can reload it?

Even better (ironically, I was thinking about just this at work today), would be to tear down Mean Streak and replace with both Maverick and a smaller Intamin woodie. There would be plenty of room especially if the engineers designed them at the same time, allowing for some headchoppers on Maverick. And that would have saved us some room on the island for a future coaster where STR stands.

darkrider68 said:

3snoH un=l said:
The ride was down in the heat of the day Saturday when we were going to ride it. I don't know what the issue was, how long it was down, and if this happens frequently.

I was there at that time as well, wonder if we walked past each other. I left the park after that. Had plans with the gf, plus not fond of saturday crowds.

Hey, perhaps we did! There were people still in line, I think the sign had just been recently placed. The employee didn't know what the problem was or how long it would be down either. It WAS getting crowded, we went over to Soak City the rest of the day, left there just in the nick of time before the storm. We rode Millennium the night before, actually didn't get there until after close!

I'm with others, in my regular clothes, it sucks getting completely drenched. I don't find it fun having a friggin bucket dumped over my head. Flume splashes are just fine without making you uncomfortable the rest of the day, or at least a large remaining portion of it.