Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

And I want TV shows to stop ending on cliffhangers. Just tell me what happens in the first episode, so you don't keep me waiting all season to find out the plot twist. [biggest eye roll I can muster here..]

The whole point is to keep people engaged and wondering what's going on. Sorry you're impatient, but there's a little thing called "patience" that you should have learned in kindergarten or so. The marketing/PR department is doing their job by letting out a tiny bit of information and letting it stew - just like movies or video games putting out a preview or a band releasing a single for an album that won't be released for 8 months. See the connection there? It's all entertainment - that's how the industry works.

The injured guest aside, in what way would it benefit the park to tell you now?

Added - Yes, what Josh said. Should Star Wars A New Hope's opening crawl explained that - SPOILER WARNING - Vader was Luke's father? That would be pretty dumb.

PyroKinesis09:

Well no, what I want is amusement companies to stop being so secretive about their plans and stop beating around the bush and just announce their damn plans once they are set in stone.

Then what would you have to talk about on the Internets. I know from experience that people are more interested in what's not known than what is, after years of looking at site traffic. There are a lot of professionals whose job it is to figure out how to get the maximum result from the announcement of a new product. None of them believe that what you're asking for is the way.

djDaemon:

could offer dramatic improvement in reliability and capacity, which would provide positive ROI, even if those changes are less flashy than the launch tech itself.

I guess. And that's great for the ride itself and the park. But the GP would have no clue anything changed besides the theme/paint, maybe trains. Even a new launch could go unnoticed to quite a few people. But I guess that could still mean "reimagined". I'm not saying raise the height or get crazy with a layout. I would say I'm in the camp of just get rid of it altogether and reimagine the space somehow sometime. I would rather they did that. I'm sure I'm in the minority with that, though.

Oh I know I'm absolutely wrong in my thoughts, but you can't compare movies, something you watch with excitement hoping for a good plotline, to an amusement park saying what a ride is being updated to. If people spoil movies, people get pissed. If someone posted a 100% accurate listing of what every Cedar Fair park is planning, people would be like, hell yeah, bring it on.

If the park laid out their plans for the next 5 years it would make the next 5 years boring. We'll know what they're doing to TTD before it opens in 2024 or whenever. Until then enjoy the suspense.

Plans have leaked early (Maverick, Gatekeeper).

It pissed me off because I know how much work goes into the prep for the announcements and a few of the folks doing that work.

I personally find the waiting and speculation fun. I don't want to go down a time-consuming rabbit hole of internet games (not sure if anyone here remembers what Hersheypark did for Farenheit, for example), but the waiting is just one of those "enjoy the ride" things.

PyroKinesis09:

you can't compare movies, something you watch with excitement hoping for a good plotline, to an amusement park saying what a ride is being updated to

Oh, but you most certainly can. Think of the suspense of waiting for the details as the movie itself. The scene everyone is waiting for is them making the announcement.

If they laid it all out, it would slowly fade to the back of people's minds. Think of it like this - it has happened to every one of us before. You really, really, really, really, really want that shirt/toy/video game/movie/new tablet/fancy meal, etc.. and you can't stop thinking about it until you finally treat yourself. Once you do, it slowly just becomes part of every day life, and you live with it until you set your sights on the next thing you really want.

It's really no different. Keeping the thought of "what could be" fresh in people's minds for a few months to a year keeps people interested. Steel Vengeance is one of the most recent and prime examples within the same industry, and even the same park.

Oh, and they did it with Dragster while it was being built, too. Right before our eyes - but they said nothing. It's a little entertaining "game" that works to generate interest, and being impatient doesn't change that for everyone else.

Cedar Point did tell us all what they’re doing. TTD is being re-imagined. The rest will be known in time.

I forget where it was from (Dollywood or Hershey possibly), but my favorite pre-announce PR comment on a coaster was "Oh, that is just a landscaping project." Steel was going vertical, and they still had the chutzpa to just play it cool with "just a landscaping project."

I wish someone would ignore modern marketing practice and let the fan base sit and debate far into the winter. Come a month before opening (or even better a week or less), launch a cannon-blast Announcement Ad Campaign. Imagine showing up to Opening Day, and not quite knowing what the new attraction was.

Hell yeah I hope they open the ride without even announcing it. Just gotta go to the guy at the front of the queue and ask him if its open

If they would have revealed the the way the 7 stranded castaways got off the Island in the first few episodes I wouldn't have had to suffer through seasons of disappointment. Nor would I need to watch "Rescue from Gilligans Island" to find out.

Again.. Im not an expert in the field but..

-Ive done a little research, and discovered new rollercoaster trains can run anywhere from 250k to 1M+ a piece. Im sure theres some kind of bulk deal if they get 4-6 trains, but im sure they would get the newest LSM trains with all the newest safety features. So that's aroun 4-6 million right there at least.

-Then you have, probably the big chunk. The electronics actual operatong components of the ride. This is the comouters and diagnostic systems, sensors, and things that run the ride. Everything was gutted completely from the station. They are designing the ride op system from scratch again. This is HUGE money.

-THEN you have a completely new launch system your buying and installing. Also big money.

Dragster cost 25M new when it was built (39M in today's dollars.).

Just swapping the launch system and modifying the station, track, and adding new trains is looking to be like a 10-15M investment.

Whereas you can buy a brand new multi launch coaster the size of Maverick and all trains included for around 30 million.

If youre already going to buy new guts, new trains, and sink 10-15M into a 20 year old ride .. when literally adding 4k fr of track to it and redesigning a new layout would.. by the math, be an extra 15M on top of that anyway?

Financially, it downt make sense to sink that kind a dough into dragster, unless yiure really doing a complete redo.

People here talk about value, and investment. Sinking 15M into a 20 year old ride, that is a capacity nightmare doesnt make dollars and sense.

What does is explanding the ride, rebranding it, and massively adding capacity.

Cedar Fair knows far better than you what does and does not make financial sense when it comes to cap ex.

Sit tight...

Why would the spend money on a multi launch coaster the size of Maverick? They already have Maverick!

Because Planet Coaster is real life.

BleauxJays:

Why would the spend money on a multi launch coaster the size of Maverick? They already have Maverick!

Well, because Maverick is very popular but not efficient. There was a time when second a 300’ coaster was considered.

If all that is happening to Dragster is simply a new launch system/controls, new trains and a retheme (which is what I suspect), Cedar Point has determined that Dragster is iconic enough and a big enough draw attendance-wise (they surely have numbers to back that up) to sink the money into this redo.

Indeed, and that spending more on some of the more fantastical suggestions above would be a poor investment.