Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

Anecdotes are anecdotal.

IMO this site is really cool….😁

Cedar Point might be the coaster amazement park in our lifetimes, but it wasn’t so long ago that their coasters were small and irrelevant and low in quantity. They may have even gone a few years without any coasters at all.

Kings Island reignited the interest in major coaster construction. This probably struck a cord with a young Dick.

However, bigger taller faster longer seemingly left the peninsula with Kinzel. The exception being SV. (But 205’ isn’t truly record breaking anymore)

as much as I love bigger taller faster longer I very much appreciate the infrastructure, accommodation, and culinary improvements more so.

FWIW I prefer Canada’s Wonderland’s total attraction package over CP any day. KI is quickly gaining ground.

Augustmueller:

FWIW I prefer Canada’s Wonderland’s total attraction package over CP any day. KI is quickly gaining ground.

Hard pass on preferring Kings Island to CP. I went there this Summer for the first time in ~10 years or so since they had multiple new coasters that I had never ridden. Orion, Banshee, Mystic Timbers. And while I enjoyed the new coasters and had a good day KI just doesn't do it for me the way CP always has! There are easily 4 or 5 CP coasters I like better than Kings Island's best coaster.

I have wanted to make it to Canada's Wonderland for a number of years so can't compare there. Maybe next Summer I will finally make it there!! Its the only one of the former Paramount parks I have never visited.

NextGen89:

You have a beautiful Peninsula on a massive freshwater lake, with the best white sandy beaches in the state and summer temps in the 80s and 90s with a beach side resort.

Wait...that's the best beach Ohio has? Bummer.

We don't have a ton of options on that front

Master D:

...premier roller coasters creates the most "buzz".

What's the conversion rate of "buzz" units to U.S. dollars?

MagnumMatt:
...if certain aspects work...

But these "certain aspects" - record breaking coaster installations every couple years - don't work, in that they don't result in meaningful increases in revenue. Hildebrandt covers this in his book, where he explains that while in the 90's they saw attendance and revenue increase with some additions, that tended not to hold true as the years went on. In other words, record breaking coasters were harder to justify from an ROI standpoint as their ride lineup matured.

As Josh said, CF is running a business, not playing RCT in sandbox mode.

I’m reading his book now! And love it so far!

Am I the only one that would rather see them figure out how to efficiently operate the coasters they have before building more? Operational efficiency and the weather policies are so terrible right now, I'd rather they focus on getting back to where they used to be (if that's even on their radar, for all I know the park sees nothing wrong with the current state of operations) before worrying about building more.

It would be nice. If they can get this Dragster 2.0 thing open in 2024 AND improve the up time of the other major coasters, it certainly helps. Our summer trip this year was heavily impacted by having no Dragster and no Valravn for the entire week, plus significant downtime for Maverick, Magnum and Raptor during that week. Spotty downtime for SV, Millennium and GateKeeper.

vwhoward:

NextGen89:

You have a beautiful Peninsula on a massive freshwater lake, with the best white sandy beaches in the state and summer temps in the 80s and 90s with a beach side resort.

Wait...that's the best beach Ohio has? Bummer.

As a yearly visitor and not a resident, I'm certainly not an expert on the beaches of Ohio, but as far as beaches go I always had more fun at Headlands State Park than Cedar Point.

Regarding operational efficiency, it seems like the park is happy to forgo efficiency to save money on insurance by following those IROC procedures...at least that's my understanding. With as litigious as society is now, I can't really see them backing off that position as long as there is a financial incentive (with the added "benefit" of driving fastlane sales). I wonder if there are any actual metrics showing that a guest who isn't waiting in line as long will end up spending more money on in park purchases.

They are still capable. The Raptor crew was great this year (a ride with bins) as was Magnum and SV. Saw a bad metal detection bottleneck two weeks ago on Sunday, but the station crew has been great.

Cartwright:

Am I the only one that would rather see them figure out how to efficiently operate the coasters they have before building more?

I mean, it doesn't have to be one or the other.

Drbyq9:

Regarding operational efficiency, it seems like the park is happy to forgo efficiency to save money on insurance by following those IROC procedures.

Does that include the current rain policy as well? None of the other Cedar Fair parks close rides for light rain like Cedar Point does, but they all contract with IROC

Apparently you've never been to Knott's Berry Farm. They will shutter when it's forecast the day before....

The three times a year it rains there.

Drbyq9:

As a yearly visitor and not a resident, I'm certainly not an expert on the beaches of Ohio, but as far as beaches go I always had more fun at Headlands State Park than Cedar Point.

Ill give you that. Mentor Headlands has always been MY favorite to go to. Although Cedar Point beach definitely wins the cosmetic award.

On that note btw.. IDK why so many people slam mentor Headlands.. for some reason people seem to love Fairport Harbor and Huntington beach more... They act like Mentor Headlands is l Euclid Beach or Edgewater.. when its not even close.

I get the Fairport Harbor argument because its "nice" but its small.

Speculating that they do in fact retrofit the old track to fit a new LSM Launch and utilize the existing 420' structure, will TTD's previous struggles in high winds carry over to this new LSM Launch System? I'm wondering if smaller trains may be required?

Not sure how heavy Dragster's OEM trains were in comparison to say Maverick's or MF's trains, or whatever the closest B&M equivalent would be, but assuming the winds were more a weight issue than a wind resistance issue, I'm presuming the almost 20 years of development in coasters let alone materials and design would be able to make lighter trains that were just as sturdy if that's indeed something that would affect operations.

Catching up on this thread, kind of convinced me that the 20 year old track is not being reused: so here's another speculative answer to the why ship it question:

Intamin's not involved. There's no access to the original engineering documents. The new designer needs to field scan to verify all the connections points to mate to existing track and supports remaining.

Dragster is being reverse engineered in a warehouse somewhere, possibly in Waldkirch.