Thoughts and observations

Pre-reply disclaimer: the following is just my opinion.

There, now that thats out of the way....I was skeptical about this ride at first. I wanted a coaster. I love coasters. The more I look at it, the more I think I may enjoy this ride. That's saying a lot coming from someone who doesn't really go for spinning rides. I'm sure down the road, CP will add another coaster. That remains to be seen in the future. Until then, I will continue to purchase platinum passes for my family, and we will continue to ride everything we love there most Sundays all next summer. Six Flags can build however many coasters they want, CP will continue to be America's Roller Coast in my eyes.

As far as these being 4 identical rides, we are just looking at an "artist's rendition" of the rides. I would think there would be plenty of time to make color / theming changes between now and next summer.

Kevinj, Ocean Motion was really boring for a while up until this year. The cycle is pretty long and the boat goes up pretty high.

I have a question about the ride. Maybe someone here can answer it. Do these arms swing out to 45 degrees mechanically? Or is it from the circular motion alone?

It's hard to tell from the animation. If it's anything like the star flyer, they will swing out from the motin of the center piece turning.

RideMan said:

sabers22 said:
Why over the shoulder restraints, and not lapbars? I think lapbars would make it more exciting

Where did you get that? The graphics I have seen all show lap bars similar to what they should have used on Maverick and did use on Shoot the Rapids.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

It is said in the video

It says "over-the-head lap bars" which is what Shoot the Rapids uses.

crazy horse said:
...winseeker looks far from a family ride, so your argument about adding family rides fails. The only real family additions there have been in a while was planet snoopy. Let's see here... Str...48" height requirement...windseeker...48" height requirement, maverick...52" height requirement, maxair 52" height requirement, skyhawk...48" height requirement. So yea, it does not look like they are aiming for the familys here.

Yeah, which is exactly why I don't agree with you that they need yet another coaster/ride that only caters to that demographic, and need to focus more on rounding out their offering.

Of the seven coasters CP has added in the last 20 years, only 2 of them - Mean Streak and Millennium Force - can be ridden by those under 52" (with the obvious exception of Woodstock Express). That indicates to me that even as much as WindSeeker may not cater to too many families, a coaster is almost guaranteed to do so to a lesser degree.

There is no specific height limit that makes a ride a "family ride". I feel the park needs more rides that cater to a younger/shorter demographic, and as I said, additions like WindSeeker, while not ideal in this regard, do help accomplish that.

With the exception of planet snoopy, when was the last "true" family ride built in the park? You know what a "family" ride is right? It's a ride that mom, dad, and jr can ride together. And even with planet snoopy, most of the rides are doubles of rides that were already in the park.

I'm not sure why you're making my argument for me... :)
...but yeah, this is exactly why I don't think the park needs another coaster in the immediate future.

TTD 120mph said:
It says "over-the-head lap bars" which is what Shoot the Rapids uses.

There is a really slow echo in here. :)

What I am getting at is if they are trying to cater more to the family crowd, they are not doing a very good job. If they were truley trying to get more familys into the park, why are they building what they are building and not something like a dark ride or other family type ride?

Let's face it, cedarpoint is geared to the "thrill" rides. They have backed themself's into that corner. The same can be said for magic mountain and great adventure. There is nothing wrong with that, as a matter of fact it's great. We need a few parks out there that are more about thrills, and less about familys. Hence the name "americas roller coast".

It's funny, but I found an old map from the late 80's, and by looking at all the rides in the park back then, there was 3x as many rides that would be considerd "family" friendly back then.

Some will argue "well attendance is up this year, and they did not add a coaster". Well that's been the case at just about every park this year. People are not taking the vacation to the virgin islands or alaska like they used to because they can't afford it. Instead, they are staying closer to home, or going on a 2 day vacation. Heck, even Michigans adventure's lines have been really long. We went a few weeks ago, and have not waited as long as we did for the rides in a while.

crazy horse said:
Heck, even Michigans adventure's lines have been really long. We went a few weeks ago, and have not waited as long as we did for the rides in a while.

As long as the economy continues as it is, I think Michican Adventure will continue to see good numbers. Much cheaper for most MI residents to head to Muskegon than make the trip to Sandusky or farther. We went with our son's 6th grade class when we still lived in Northern Michigan. It's a great park, and you can pretty much ride everything you want in a single day. Heck, we are even considering taking a ride up there next summer for a day, and we live in Sandusky. Unfortunately, it's almost a catch 22 for MiA. The same economy may prevent them from getting a major ride any time soon, as it's not a park people are going to travel a great distance to get to.

Jason Hammond said:

TTD 120mph said:It says "over-the-head lap bars" which is what Shoot the Rapids uses.

There is a really slow echo in here. :)

Sometimes a repeated question requires a repeated echo. ;)

It's funny, but I found an old map from the late 80's, and by looking at all the rides in the park back then, there was 3x as many rides that would be considerd "family" friendly back then.

Very true. I have very fond memories of Earthquake, Pirate Ride, Mill Race, etc. The arrival of Magnum certainly ushered in a whole new "breed" of park, if you will. Each new flat-ride...MaxAir, SkyHawk, and now WindSeeker are all geared towards the "category 5" high thrill population.

To balance this, they have added Camp Snoopy, Planet Snoopy...which while there are rides I can ride with my 3 year old, they are not truly family rides...just kiddie rides that adults can uncomfortabely squeeze into ( that said, it is a priceless memory being able to ride the lollly swing with my daughter...I love every second of it).

But your kids are a little older, correct? There is a gap there.

I get you on this one Crazy Horse man. I think there are many others on these boards as well that would agree even one great dark ride (no, Disaster Puke does not count as a dark ride...only garbage) would go a long way at Cedar Point.

Kinzel, however, most obviously does not feel this way.

We rode BooBlasters at KI on Father's Day with our 4 year old. I wouldn't mind at all seeing something like that come to CP. Not sure if that is what you are talking about or not, but we all enjoyed it, dad, mom, 14, 11 and 4 year old kids. It was a neat change of pace for a bit and the a/c rocked on a hot day.

Well, in a way, that's exactly what we are talking about.

For example, the old Pirate Ride was a great dark ride that everyone could ride and enjoy together. I have no idea who in this board remembers it, but I still rode it up until the season it closed (I'm 33 now)...as I got a little older, it was still fun to ride just from the memories it brought back. There was a great portion of the ride where your "boat" traveled between two ships firing back and forth....ah...I digress.

I totally agree with KevinJ. Windseeker in the eyes of the coaster lovers is kinda lame or boring, but I think the average family with smalls ones that are growing out of camp snoopy but still haven't made it to Iron Dragon or Mine Ride will find it way to extreme for them mostly due to the height. I'm not sure why everytime a new ride comes out like Shoot the Rapids, Maverick, Skyhawk, Maxair and now this they say "its something the whole family will enjoy" Sure they well standing back watching while the coaster fans line up. I really think that since Cedar Fair seems to like Mondial alot, they should order up some rides similar to Matterhorn and Calpyso the "familys" will enjoy them much more than a Giga swing LOL.

And that's not to say that I am not looking forward to Windseeker...I am, big time...but there is an undeniable "family" hole that even STR failed to fill.

I will give CP kudos on the parentswap slip. We have 3 kids, age 14, 11, and 4. Being able to have 2 of us ride a coaster, then swap out the other 2 without having to wait another hour or more a second time is a huge help. Although we do get some dirty looks when we get let into the MF line from the exit platform, or get on to Maverick or Magnum from the exit side of the train almost every time we use it. We still manage to break up big kid rides and little kid rides every Sunday, and without parent swap, there would have been days that someone would get the shaft on some rides.

I for one would not complain in the least at the addition of some more family friendly low speed rides. If I have to cram myself into the back of a mini 4x4 in Planet Snoopy or a mini Corvette on Turnpike Cars one more time, I may have to find a good chiropractor :)

@Kevin: Was the Pirate Ride in a water trough like Pirates of the Carribean at Disney, or was it just a tracked ride like Boo Blasters? I've only been going to CP for about 6 years now, so I'm learning the history as I go here.

Chase Gilbert said:
I will give CP kudos on the parentswap slip. We have 3 kids, age 14, 11, and 4. Being able to have 2 of us ride a coaster, then swap out the other 2 without having to wait another hour or more a second time is a huge help. Although we do get some dirty looks when we get let into the MF line from the exit platform, or get on to Maverick or Magnum from the exit side of the train almost every time we use it. We still manage to break up big kid rides and little kid rides every Sunday, and without parent swap, there have been days that someone would get the shaft on some rides.

I for one would not complain in the least at the addition of some more family friendly low speed rides. If I have to cram myself into the back of a mini 4x4 in Planet Snoopy or a mini Corvette on Turnpike Cars one more time, I may have to find a good chiropractor :)

Lol....

Looking back, I don't know how I ever fit into the back of the 4x4 ride when my daughter wanted to ride. I know that there would be no way I would fit in there anymore(at least not without a great deal of pain).:)

I agree, a shooter dark ride like boo hill would really help fill that gap a little bit. My daughter loves the scooby doo shooter rides.

A few of the rides I miss are these...

Eartquake

Pirat ride and the cool pirat boat out in front of the ride.

Satilite jets(remember these?)

Upside down fun house.

Bayern curve

Jumbo jet

Tiki twirl

Super slide

Trabant and swabinchen

Rotor

Double ferris wheel

Mill race

Jungle larry

And I really dug the aquarium next to the stadium.

All that stuff is gone now. Most of it was replaced by a coaster, or not replaced at all. It turned out good for me(as I love coasters), but bad for familys.

Chase Gilbert said:
@Kevin: Was the Pirate Ride in a water trough like Pirates of the Carribean at Disney, or was it just a tracked ride like Boo Blasters? I've only been going to CP for about 6 years now, so I'm learning the history as I go here.

It was tracked like boo hill.

There was a pool out front of the ride, with a big pirate ship you could play on. They also had water cannons that blasted water with cannon ball sound effects.