The Ouimet years: some early thoughts

It's not that much smaller. They have an impressive lineup of rides, including the token hyper, drop tower and a copy of the big swing.

The Fundorward presentation shows its one of the bottom. Michigans adventure, worlds of fun and valleyfair all get under a million visitors.

And MiA also has the highest margin. What's your point? Valleyfair is a large-ish park with a lot of great rides, on par with Dorney. I've been there. Have you?

I'm quite positive that if the demand was there, Valleyfair would be grown accordingly.

It serves its purpose, much like Dorney.

I know this post might fit better in the "Cedar Point 2013" thread, but I've been thinking about 2013 with Ouimet as CEO.

When Ouimet first began his position, he mentioned that CP needed more lights and a better night life. And then in April/May/June 2012, we got new midway lights, new MF/PT/GW lights, and Luminosity.

Now, he's saying that the beach is "underutilized" and that it could "come to life". I wonder what is going to become of the beach in 2013? Especially with DT/SS being removed and the new Wing Coaster.

Jeff said:
And MiA also has the highest margin. What's your point? Valleyfair is a large-ish park with a lot of great rides, on par with Dorney. I've been there. Have you?

Large-ish is the right word.

It certainly has nothing on Cedar Point, but it's got it's fair share of decently good attractions! Renegade being one of them.

This is sort of off topic but I was reading old threads and it said that Kinzel said that TTD was a huge mistake. I didn't know he felt that way. I honestly don't feel like it's a big mistake at all! Its a great ride. What did Kinzel expect from a 17 second coaster. Its not going to be like MF and be #1. I never knew Kinzel said that.

When it first opened it was always down for repairs.

Yeah, I think Kinzel saying that was a reaction to TTD's issues in the moment. I don't think the park would agree it was a huge mistake today. While still a maintenance hog, it's running fairly reliably, and it has become an icon of Cedar Point.

It took my wife and I three seasons of visits to ride TTD for the first time, and we visited the park about 7-8 times per seasons during that span.

That's a problem.

It has come a long way since then.

^This.

Or when you would wait about 2 hours then it would break down and you had to decide to stick it out or leave the line (even if you stayed it might not start up again).

The ride is a staple of the park but it had it's fair share of growing pains

Regardless of how well it's been running in the last couple seasons, I think more than a few of the folks in charge, knowing what they know now, would question spending $25 million (well over $30 million on today's dollars) on that ride, given its not-exactly-awesome rider throughput.

Really, the fact that only 2 parks (who were locked in a silly "coaster war" at the time) built these things speaks to how valuable they are to a park's bottom line, I think.

Had Ouimet been in charge at the time, I'd place a ton of money on TTD never having been built.

Did you guys know that Arrow had plans to build a 700ft coaster in 2001 but then they went out of business.

Here's the link

http://www.thecoastercritic.com/2009/11/arrows-700-foot-tall-fish-hook-roller-coaster.html

I think it's a cool idea but it would probably be high matinence. If CP purchased a 500 foot version, it would probably be from Intamin, but this ride would probably be too short of a ride but I think it would be a unique experience.

Im happy with everything that he has done up to this point, maybe its a little disney but it still make that park that much better. time will tell what he does with new rides

thepoint4life23 said:
maybe its a little disney

I like when people are critical of Ouimet in that respect. (Not saying you are.) Yeah..because who would want to follow Disney's failed model?

Im a Fan of it i saw drummers in the park yesterday and it to me was a great thing

CedarPointTaylor said:
Did you guys know that Arrow had plans to build a 700ft coaster in 2001 but then they went out of business.

Here's the link

http://www.thecoastercritic.com/2009/11/arrows-700-foot-tall-fish-hook-roller-coaster.html

I think it's a cool idea but it would probably be high matinence. If CP purchased a 500 foot version, it would probably be from Intamin, but this ride would probably be too short of a ride but I think it would be a unique experience.

I'm assuming that's the ride down the side of the Stratosphere. It would have been great but it the people living close to there thought it would be too much noise and an eye sore.

^^ I agree. I wouldn't want some 700 ft roller coaster going across my street making loud noises all day.

You've obviously not seen how non-fancy that end of the strip is.

Of all the crazy things in Vegas, would a roller coaster really be a problem?