Shoot the Rapids?

That sounds like an "Ask RideMan" question you should submit.

The big one that most know about is that STR pumps the water out of the bottom of the boats while they are in the station instead of letting it drain out while the boats go up the lifts. They had problems with it working quickly enough, and at first the boats were slowly filling with water as they cycled. I'm sure there are lots of other things though, including changes added after the lift incident.

After my summer classes are over, I would love to ask RideMan some questions. That would definitely be one of them, and I'll post the response.

I just find it sad that CP maintenance has to do so many in-house tweaks to certain rides in order for them to work properly.

^ It's weird how you guys find downtime at Shoot the Rapids. Whenever I'm there, it's running. Well, except for May 28th, it was still testing then. It seems like they have the ride running enough to satisfy the average guest. I'm with you guys though, I wonder why it goes down when it's a simple design. Cedar Point obviously has faith in Shoot the Rapids, otherwise it would have been history. Plus they know how much I like it too. Lol

We know how much you love it. The problem, Shawn, is that Intamin took a simple design and made it overly-complicated. The aforementioned pumps is the perfect example.

And why in god's name would a ride still be unable to load an entire row of passengers in its vehicles?

The real killer for me, though, is that this ride should have been a family ride, and could have gone a long way towards filling that huge gap in Cedar Point's lineup; a gap that was widened exponentially with the removal of White Water Landing.

I know, I know...dead horse. In a pipe-dream of mine there is a clamoring in the board-rooms about possibly redesigning this ride; not scrapping the entire thing, but an in-house re-do.

The point is Shawn, is that it's not a simple design.It's over designed and over built. It should have been tho, heck the original STR was designed and built in house. It was dirt simple, two parallel troughs and , three lifts. It was a very labor intensive ride to operate (it had the second largest operating crew in the park at that time second only to the CP&LE) eventually the wooden trestlework and the sheet metal troughs began failing. After fourteen seasons it was replaced with an Arrow Hydroflume AKA Whitewater Landing.

The current ride looks like they tried reduce the need for a large operating crew , the elimination of the above ground toughs that would greatly reduce the maintenance compared to the above ground metal and fiberglass ones. The use of a track on the lift instead of a belt was an attempt to use it for a more accurate interval control. But all they wound up with is a mongrel that the father refuses to acknowledge exists

Dutchman said:

...the elimination of the above ground toughs that would greatly reduce the maintenance compared to the above ground metal and fiberglass ones.

As RideMan has pointed out, the primary motivation for the lack of above-ground troughs was probably the desire for lower operating costs with respect to pumping water. It takes a lot of energy to lift a bunch of water dozens of feet into the air all day long.

I've been to at least a dozen Blue Man Group shows. Do I win anything? And seriously, don't be a hater. The show has continually evolved over the years and varies a bit from one venue to the next. The arena tour was fantastic, and very different from the stage show except for the "drumbone" and paint ball/marshmallow acts.

And Stomp is still a touring thing, by the way.

Dutchman said:

But all they wound up with is a mongrel that the father refuses to acknowledge exists

I understand your points, but I still enjoy the ride for what it is. I wish they would open row 3 back up, but oh well. By the way, I don't know what you meant by mongrel, but here is the current definition. A mongrel, mutt, or mixed-breed dog, is a dog that is not the result of breeding within an existing breed.

Yeah, that sounds about right - except maybe it's a mongrel with mange, diabetes, glaucoma, and irritable bowel syndrome.

I gotta say... I really, really like Shoot the Rapids. I don't ride it much because I don't like getting wet, but I really do like it.

I have such a love-hate relationship with Intamin. On one hand I hate their down-time and reliability issues. On the other hand... Their rides are legitimately fantastic. I love B&M's, but my top coasters are all Intamins...

For all of STR's problems... It's a legitimately good ride. It's fun. It's interesting. It's better than White Water Landing that preceeded it.

I know I joke around a lot. I'm being dead serious here. STR is a good ride. It's a shame that it's had so many problems.

Blue Man has been paying me a very generous wage for almost 20 years here in Chicago. That said, and as great as our Chicago show is, it does open with 20-year-old LED screen messages; Orlando and Vegas and the tour and the NCL shows all get the benefit of advances in technology.

I'm a huge fan of BMG, but haven't seen them in recent years. I thought they changed the show to be about iPads and stuff?

Is it still the same sketches? Like where they're talking about indoor plumbing, but you think they're referring to the internet?

Each of the shows are different. What you might call the "legacy" shows -- New York, Chicago and Boston, the first three -- are constrained by the theaters they're in and contain a lot of the older material -- they just don't have the facilities to bring in industrial robots, for example.

In Chicago, we have the "GiPads" and the finale has been redone. I don't get out much, so I don't know exactly what Boston and NYC have.

noggin said:

Each of the shows are different. What you might call the "legacy" shows -- New York, Chicago and Boston, the first three -- are constrained by the theaters they're in and contain a lot of the older material -- they just don't have the facilities to bring in industrial robots, for example.

In Chicago, we have the "GiPads" and the finale has been redone. I don't get out much, so I don't know exactly what Boston and NYC have.

That is beyond cool! So you actually work with them then?

I have a deep love for BMG. I saw them my senior year of High School in Chicago. It blew my mind. When I walked out of that show I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment business.

I've seen them a total of three times. Twice in Chicago and once in the arena tour. I liked all three, but felt the intimacy of the small theater really made them shine.

Is "Last Train to Trance Central" still the closing? I hope so! ;-)

Yep... I'm only a cog in the Blue Man machine -- I work in the box office in Chicago -- but I work for Blue Man.

I think one of the great things about the show is the adaptability. I saw the show in Vegas back when it was at the Luxor, and they did an amazing job of filling the space (the theater at the Luxor had about 1,000 more seats than the theater in Chicago). It can be scaled up to fill an arena show, and scaled down to fill a show on a cruise ship.

For many of the shows, the finale is a variation on the Shake Your Booty number.

So I was at the park yesterday and I thought Shawn would like to know that STR was running just about the entire day. It was strange though because right when we were about to get in line they started cycling empty boats for apparently no reason and reopened the ride about 5 minutes later. Any one have any idea why?

Who knows. How long was the wait?

I walked by it a few times throughout the day and the wait was usually around 5 minutes. For how nice of a day it was the park was pretty empty and the 5 minute wait was about the average throughout the park except for Millennium, Dragster, and Maverick as you might expect.

"Please gently tap our balls..." Best ending ever.

Thank you Gatekeeper dude! I'm surprised the park has been dead at times during June. You would think that it would start to pick up with people being on vacation and Independence day coming around the corner. I hope it stays like that next Thursday so I can marathon Millennium Force and then go to Shoot the Rapids and marathon that too!