Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

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Wait…. I’m having a hard time placing that location with that pic? Is that a new second coffer dam being dug?!

I believe that's the same cofferdam. There appears to be a pile foundation in the upper right.

I’m wondering how they’re going to have Iron Dragon ready by opening day at this rate.

If that's a pile foundation, then the whole lagoon maintenance / queue line theories are out. Those things are used to support heavy structures or buildings when the soil up near the surface is too weak to hold a large amount of weight.

If nothing else it seems that LEL lowered the back ground music level in their most recent video to something much more tolerable.

Maybe, like Magnum, the lagoon was sinking, and these pile foundations will remedy that.

SRE123:

I’m wondering how they’re going to have Iron Dragon ready by opening day at this rate.

We have 18 days until opening day. In the last few days they appear to have drilled and poured (or prepped to pour) one pile foundation. If they have 3 or 4 more to go no reason that couldn't be completed in the next two weeks. A day, at most, to reassemble ID, and a few days to test prior to opening day. No reason to think it won't be ready in time, yet.

djDaemon:

Maybe, like Magnum, the lagoon was sinking, and these pile foundations will remedy that.

Fun Fact: Dragster is now shorter then MF due to it slowly sinking into the lagoon.

I think the construction's going fine, but Is it time to worry about the seasonal staffing yet? They had a job fair this last weekend, and are already advertising for more interviews today and tomorrow. No idea how it's going, but that doesn't look good. What's the gut feeling this season? Think we'll see issues like last year? Worse? Better?

Time to worry? I suppose we could borrow trouble.
I can’t imagine that the employment situation will be any better than it’s been the last several years. Job fairs and ads for employment are commonplace- not just at Cedar Point, but everywhere. Our Market District supermarket recently made all of the checkout lanes convertible. The positions can accommodate a cashier but can also be made into self check, which is the case most of the time. Lately I’ve taken to using a self scanner and expressed concern that I may be keeping people from a job. They assured me that won’t be the case- you can’t take a job away from people who don’t show up anyway.
Amusement parks haven’t figured out a way to let patrons run the show, aside from cash-free and small steps like that. Its still a labor intensive place and my gut tells me that there will be a shortage of employees, especially at first.

I could be wrong, but I recall the park advertising that they were hiring throughout at least early last year as well, so I don't think the advertising now is a sign of any more of a struggle than they've had the last few years. As RCMAC points out, everyone seems to be perpetually hiring these days.

A press release was posted in early February on the blog and on just about every news media outlet. It was quite confidently titled “Cedar Point Will Hire 7000 Seasonal Employees”. So far they have 423 signed up.

OK, JUST KIDDING!!! I have no way to know.

I also don't know if Iron Dragon is a priority for Opening Day. I can't think of an Opening Day in the last ten years that didn't have a non-trivial number of coasters still not ready.

Correct me if I’m wrong but my assumption was the Iron Dragon remark was “It will be open this season” not necessarily “It will be open opening day”.

From Cleveland.com (emphasis added):

“We are performing some maintenance work in and around the lagoon below Iron Dragon, so track sections had to be removed for equipment,” he said. The ride should be open in May, he said.

How many hours of testing does the ride need before the state can sign it off?

"Should be" is the key word here.

Yeah, I'm not suggesting it will or won't be ready by May 6th, just that at this point there's no indication it couldn't be.

I have much faith in the CP maintenance department that they can and will if everything else clears by then.

These semantics may have been discussed before but it's interesting to me that they said in and around the lagoon but not on the lagoon. My personal reading on that implies that the lagoon itself is not under maintenance but areas in and around it. If that implies something for a ride or just other maintenance that needs to happen in that area that is to be seen. But it stood out and I don't recall seeing it before.