SLOW Moving line on sunday may 29th!

So the line for MF on sunday was only to the pop machines and all 3 trains were running and it never broke down while in line, YET, it took over 2 hours and 38 minutes to get on the ride.

I can recall that spot only taking about 1.5 hours max. am I wrong,

Once in the station I swas 3 trains loaded and the problem yet again, was with people who cannot fit arguing with the hosts that they have "Ridden it before". One host told me that it was happening "ALL THE TIME" It is really too bad that on that particular day the staff was not being as strict at the ride entrance like last year. it really slows things up if the wrong sized person gets in line without knowing or testing.. etc.. I hope they nip this situation in the but soon.. that was the slowest moving line. It is bad for everyone not just the people who cannot ride.

In my past experiences the pop machines have usually marked roughly the 1 hour mark.

Cedar Point is only trying to keep everyone safe. With the tighter seat belts and everything they are making sure that everyone is strapped in tight so that they do not have any seatbelt alarms that cause the ride to automatically stop on the lift. They are just being safe and double checking themselves. I would much rather have safe rides and longer lines than an accident. Cedar Point is concerned about everyones safety and they are doing things right, even if it reduces capacity slightly.

Hmmm...I see another dose of Kool-Aid has been distributed. I'm not sure if that stuff is coming from the CP operations department, or direct from Intamin...

a) The ride is not demonstrably safer than it was last year, the year before, or the year before that. It is just a lot harder to operate and accommodates a lot fewer riders.

b) Modifying a ride so that a very large percentage of the potential riders are excluded, in many cases for no good reason (seat belt fit on Millennium Force bears little relationship to lap bar function, for starters...) is a bad move that accomplishes nothing but to make people mad.

c) Modifying a ride so that the seats on the ride do not match the test seat at the ride entrance is simply inexcusable. Either the ride needs to be fixed or the test seat needs to be fixed, but at the moment people who fit in the test seat are not able to ride.

Cedar Point has a situation with Millennium Force which absolutely needs to be fixed, and for the moment, for whatever reason, they are doing absolutely nothing about it. Unfortunately I think I have a pretty good idea why, but from an operational standpoint, they have now got Millennium Force battling with Wildcat to see which ride can move fewer people per hour. And last time I was at Cedar Point, Wildcat was in fact moving more people per hour than Millennium Force. That is absolutely disgusting. It's time they brought in an engineer who understands how lap bars are supposed to work (since clearly no such person is on staff at Intamin...), do a proper analysis of the ride, get the +blessing of the State of Ohio, fix the problem, and tell Intamin to pound sand. It can be done, it's got to be done, and eventually it will be done. My guess is that there are particular reasons that Cedar Point is not prepared for that last step of the process just yet, so for now, everybody suffers.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I just wanted to say I noticed this slow moving line both times I have gone this year (May 14-15,26). Im very surprised that nothing was done over the winter to fix this. If the seatbelts really need to have that 1.5" spce in them, I wonder why they just didnt simply shorten the belts 1.5" so that half the problem would be fixed? What you have going now is larger people struggling to get the belt snapped and when they do pulling and tugging to get that 1.5" gap in there. To me, shortening the belts and letting the belt be out to the max makes more sense to me yet I am not an engineer so I dont know exactly what needs to be done. I know if I werent a skinny ass twig like i am, and was able to ride from 2000-2003 and now all of a sudden couldnt, id be real mad about it. I wonder how many people that got in this situation have wondered "ok so i was ok a year ago and now im not, I havent changed at all, so does that mean I was unsafe riding it before?" of course they werent unsafe but you gotta wonder how many people reriders that have been turned away have thought that.

On another note, before the MF seatbelt mod the line was approx. 20 mins when then 1st queue block was filled, 45-55 at the pop machines, and 75-85 minutes with the block after the machines was filled. When I rode the other day, it took around 40 minutes with just the 1st block filled. Id hate to see how long it takes now on a hot crowded summer day.

Yeah before freeway I remember if you got in line before the pop machines the line would usually take no more than 45 minutes. It would pull about 1100-1200 PPH back then. If it's taking over 2.5 hours from that point, it's prolly pulling only 300-400 PPH.

Yesterday we were at the bottom of the ramp/freeway merge point and it took almost 30 minutes before we were seated in a train.

People who have ridden before in previous years are slipping by the test seat, generally when the person at the line entrance is occupied with someone IN the test seat, or trying to get someone else to try the test seat first.

Add to that the inconsistency with the belts on the trains. There are people who DID ride and returned for another only to be turned away because they encountered a shorter belt on their next ride. Those are the ones who are extremely frustrated and arguing with the ride ops.

Fixing the inconsistency in the belts on the train would help with those problems. Making sure the test seat belt is consistent with the belts on the trains would be even better.

But it's still not going to alleviate the problem of slow loading as guests who have ridden in the past will continue to get into the line, will still spend a few minutes trying to get that belt buckled with the required slack, will still be told to leave...all of which slows progress.

I was there on the 26th, 27th and 28th and the wait was 45 minutes from the 1st queue. 20 minutes from the ramp/ freeway merge. This was a big difference from when I last went to the CP in 2000 (MF 1st year).

Bottom line, do something about the riders who can't get the seat belts to fit. It causes at least a 2 minute delay to reset all lapbars and check etc.

Along with the test seat at the entrance, why don't they put another right after the turnstile in the staging area? Make it the responsibility of the person at the turnstile to suggest that the guest try and fit into the seat before actually getting in the train.

They were launching a train every 2 minutes at best and in my particular case 4 minutes. All because some person, (who while waiting on line I noticed and said to my father, "no way is she fitting in the seat"), tried to get on and couldn't.

I felt bad too. Afterall, she wasted 45 minutes in line and had to have the embarassment of being told she can't ride, compounded with her son/grandson dissapointment of not riding either.

And finally if this keeps up, MF will have 4 hour wait times this summer. NO WAY is that worth it.
*** Edited 5/31/2005 6:55:36 PM UTC by Shake it up !!!!***

Bottom line. Cedar Point needs to do something asap. If not the summer will be hell.

Joe E you are right about the soda machines. They used to mark a 45 minute wait but they moved them and up until this seatbelt fiasco they marked an hour wait.
I also noticed ride hosts trying to help riders get the slack this year, which they definitely didn't do last year. While this may seem helpful, it is slowing down the line even more. :(

I used to ride MF but have completely stopped with this seat-belt fiasco. I can ride Magnum five times in the time I can ride MF once.

When I was there in may of 2004 it took almost 2 hrs. from the machines. I see they haven't improved it!

I was there last Saturday and the line started at the pop machines, and to me it seemed to the same length it had always been (approx. an hour). There were no problems at all that day with the seatbelts, and the park was PACKED. Maybe this was just a bad day you had, because I had not one problem that day.

I guess its what day you go.

What CP needs to do is get the trains used on dragster for MF. Is there a reason they couldn't be used? I know something would have to be modified for the sled hookup as it is probably different from Dragsters, but the trains run on the same kind of track, it would be logical that they would work, then the size issue would be a moot point. People can ride Dragster with room to spare that can't get on MF. I myself an 5'8' with a 36" waist,I was a MF Red Cross Auction rider and I was told last year when I was there that I was 'of extreme size and not able to ride'. Yet I had several inches of belt slack. I haven't been back to CP since.

As stated earlier, Cedar Point needs to do something about this situation ASAP. Summer is fast aproaching, and in some cases it has already started. The large crowds are coming. Cedar Point has always been known for having rides with extreme capacities, but with Top Thrill's downtime and now this situation, their reputation could possibly change.

OldCPer said:
Fixing the inconsistency in the belts on the train would help with those problems. Making sure the test seat belt is consistent with the belts on the trains would be even better.

And it's blatantly obvious how eager Cedar Point is to make that idea a reality.

I was there this morning. Got in the station about 9:10 with only 1 train load of people in front of my. By the time we finally got off of the ride, it was 9:30. The line was already almost to the pop machines.

I also agree, they need to make the test seat belt equal to the train belts. I fit ifne on the test seat with a good 2.5" of slack, but could barely get 1" on the actual ride. *** Edited 6/2/2005 2:52:13 AM UTC by Maniaman***

Maniaman said:

I also agree, they need to make the test seat belt equal to the train belts. I fit ifne on the test seat with a good 2.5" of slack, but could barely get 1" on the actual ride. *** Edited 6/2/2005 2:52:13 AM UTC by Maniaman***

It needs to be the other way around. The ride seat belts should be the same length as the one on the test seat, as that is the length it was last year. If they make the ride seat belts any shorter than they already are, even normal-sized people are going to be having trouble getting slack.

I don't ever wait in the MF line if it is over 30 min. That is the worst line to be waiting in because of the slowness. That's what FREEWAY is for! Lines are usually shorter first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening as well, and I've been managing to get at least 2 MF rides in each time I've gone this year, all with a wait under 30 min. *** Edited 6/2/2005 4:52:47 PM UTC by svolk***