Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

Hey, now. If Mr. Cedar Point doesn’t know then who does?

Son of Beast was SBNO for 3.5 seasons before it finally was removed. So it could potentially be a long time before they make any final decision about the ride.

Opening day is still several months away, but if there are still legal proceedings happening, Dragster might not be on the park map.

Mr. Cedar Point said:

It's coming down. I don't know if it will be open this year.

These two statements are contradictory. If last year's incident is enough to warrant TTD's removal, there's no chance in hell they'd reopen it before removal.

If they haven't made a statement by Winter Chillout, everyone's going to be asking about it. And if they actually have info they want to make public, I doubt they'd wait till then. So most likely the wco statement will be something like 'the investigation is still ongoing and the ride will remain closed until it's complete'

Then we won't hear much more until they decide to either start testing, or deconstruction. Either would be difficult to hide. I wonder if they'd start training a new ops team before revealing a reopening? I just wish they were able to be more open about the whole thing.

I'll wait until we get a official statement from Cedar Point and Cedar Fair!

https://www.cedarpoint.com/rides-experiences

FWIW TTD is still listed on their website, Antique cars and Twister are not.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/fast-lane-passes

FWIW TTD is not on the fast lane lists, Twister isn't either.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/rides-experiences/top-thrill-dragster

ALSO... TTD does still have its own page... with a link to buy FL+, Twister does not.

For those thinking that because of the incident this last year that they will remove the ride because of whatever settlement they come to.... The Smiler is still running at Alton Towers under much worse circumstances, and likely a far larger payout.

Jordan_Vanichek said:

Wilderness Run ;)

Actually that’s not true. Just a new paint job and made part of Camp Snoopy to make room for Pipe Scream.

Chuck Wagon said:

Son of Beast was SBNO for 3.5 seasons before it finally was removed. So it could potentially be a long time before they make any final decision about the ride.

Opening day is still several months away, but if there are still legal proceedings happening, Dragster might not be on the park map.

Yes that’s right about Son of Beast. If they are able to safely, I hope that they can re-open top thrill dragster. If they can’t that would be prime spot for a GCI wooden coaster. With the lagoon they could theme it to a swamp monster.

DragsterD said:

I'll wait until we get a official statement from Cedar Point and Cedar Fair!

Not to be confused with Mr. Cedar Point and his friend from Cedar Fair.

XS NightClub said:

For those thinking that because of the incident this last year that they will remove the ride because of whatever settlement they come to.... The Smiler is still running at Alton Towers under much worse circumstances, and likely a far larger payout.

That may be the fairest comparison to a still operating ride out there, but what sets Dragster apart is its abysmal operational history (and cost thereof). If they did remove it, it would be because the latest incident was the final nail among many in the coffin.

Put it this way; if CF management could go back in time and had a crystal ball into TTD's future, I don't think it ever would have been built even if this latest incident hadn't happened.

Top Thrill Dragster is, I suppose, iconic to the park at this point...but the interesting thing about that status is that it seems to be iconic in equally positive and negative ways.

If I had to put my money on it right now, I would say it's staying, but I would love to be a fly on the wall to hear the discussion around that decision. I would venture a guess that there is more than one multi-colored-shirt higher up at Cedar Fair that would not be sad to pull the plug to replace it with a much more reliable investment.

TTD was a cool ride experience for me when it first opened almost 20 years ago. But after the first couple of years, it didn’t stay on my list of coasters to ride while visiting the park. - And that wasn’t due to all the downtime. If the line is short, I’d hop on for a ride. In fact, I think it’s been 3 or 4 years since the last time riding TTD.

One thing to remember about the incident on Smiler is that from a purely objective standpoint, the ride did nothing wrong. It did exactly what it was told to do, which was to advance a train out of a block zone while in manual mode. No mechanics - physical or electrical - malfunctioned. The same series of events that caused the Smiler collision could, in theory, have happened or could be replicated on any closed circuit roller coaster running multiple trains. Obviously public perception will never be purely objective, but technically the mechanics of Smiler never did anything wrong.

What we still don't know is if the same holds true for Dragster. Was the issue 100% preventable? Or was it a freak design flaw that no amount of preventative maintenance could have predicted or prevented?

At this point I'd be surprised if the park even knows what they are doing with the ride given the investigation is ongoing and they don't know what changes, if any, the state will require before recertifying the ride.

If it were me in charge I would be looking at the cost for Intamin to completely revamp the ride to improve reliability while at the same time completing any other projects that would need to be done in the next few years(new paint, new queue, retheme, etc.). I also would be talking to demolition companies and other manufacturers about what it would cost to tear it down and build something new in that space then I would simply choose whichever was cheaper.

Again, I can't believe it was any design flaw. Xcelerator never closed, not for a day. Xcelerator is older, operates at a year round park, and was the ride prototype. It's since even been repainted and operates normally, indicating it has a long term future at Knotts. Dragster IS an icon of the park. Some may avoid it due to perceived or real downtime issues, but it's removal (I think they will, sadly) will significantly reduce the park. In my opinion, it's irreplaceable.

That One Coaster Guy said:

If it were me in charge I would be looking at the cost for Intamin to completely revamp the ride to improve reliability...

They'd be better off hiring a company experienced in reliability. :-)

They're not going to comment on it until the investigation is complete, but I would imagine the park already has enough information on the root cause that they know the ride's fate.

Regardless of what actually ends up happening, now I'm actually kind of curious how or if they'd be able to reuse the top hat structure while swapping out the track and all the other Intamin components. Granted, I imagine comparing a wooden support structure like Steel Vengeance to the TTD tower is very much apples and oranges considering the redundancy that goes into the former, but still.

This is totally wishful thinking, but it would be fun to see a clean-sheet replacement of TTD completely redoing the launch mechanism and all the repeatedly unreliable parts but in a way that preserves the launch and top hat, which is to say, pretty much the entire ride experience. Whether you'd want it to be effectively a 1:1 copy without Intamin parts or if you'd want to expand the ride experience a la the artwork that was being thrown around back in 2002 or so when the tower was most of the way up but well before the ride was announced, I feel it'd probably be a net gain either way.

(Incidentally, I'm not even sure if that piece of art with the top hat followed by a more Xcellerator-esque course was actual concept art or just something somebody sketched up that looked legit, but I just remember how many folks back then took it as gospel and then were inordinately pissed off in the "THAT'S IT?!" sort of way when dragster was actually announced.)

James Parker jr said:

Again, I can't believe it was any design flaw. Xcelerator never closed, not for a day.

That really doesn't mean anything. I'm exaggerating, but no two Intamin rides are really alike. They're iterative it seems with every part. Look at how much the standard seat changed every year.

Dragster has been a disaster from the start. People seem to forget that it was closed for a significant part of the year it opened. The media event mostly involved the media sitting around not seeing it run. There was the shredded cable incident, then the flying part last year. And this might be an unpopular opinion, but it's not a ride I've gone out of my way to ride because it's a lot of wait time to invest for something so short.

I wouldn't miss it.

Personally I'm of a similar opinion. It's just not a ride for which I enjoy to wait. Just guessing, but I bet about 60% of my TTD rides were either the result of dead weight empty seats at the end of the day, or CoasterMania ERT. That's not to say that it's not an exhilarating experience, because the launch and speed are really intense. But if I'm going to wait for a ride, I'd rather invest my time in some of the other options at the park.

If they do fix it up I would say add enough footage at the top and regain the height record from Kingda KA.

Unfortunately, it would likely just get yet another Immelmann loop.