Tranquil Cars?

Is it just me or does CP need to get rid of one of the car rides. (Antique Cars, Cadillac Cars, or Turnpike Cars) and get something else here for the future. What do you Cedar Point fans think?

They are what I would consider to be true family rides. The whole family can enjoy them together without getting wet or scared. Probably CP should keep them.

They are good family rides. I don't think they need both Antique and Cadillac cars though. I do enjoy both rides. If one was to be replaced, I don't think many would care. Both of those rides take up a lot of space and could be used for expansion in the future. It would be a good way to expand I think. Of course I hope they would replace one of them with a family ride if they were to do that.

Keep all the cars, just don't replace them with the kind that Michigan Adventure has. They are electric, which is greenier, and they are automatically controlled, which is probally safer since you cannot bump cars. It just makes them not as fun IMO. I like to be able to control the pace of my car and yes I will admit it, part of the fun is bumping when your out on the track but not in the station.

I can't enjoy the Turnpike cars with my family, my legs are to long to activaste the gas pedal. :)

tambo: So don't. Reach over the side of the car and push the operator's handle instead. That's what I had to do last time I rode those! :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The last time I climbed into Turnpike I had to do the walk of shame- for some reason the seatbelt wouldn't fasten around me. I dunno. Do you suppose I got a really, really short one? Yea, that's it.

Turnpike and Cadillacs are iconic at Cedar Point. Those rides have been in place since the early 60's and I would hate to see them go. Turnpike saw an alteration when Raptor was built, but I believe Cadillacs remains exactly the same to this day. Antiques are ok, the layout is not as fun or interesting, but the area where it sits makes a nice "island", if you will, that adds to the beauty of Frontier Town. It's a relief that after all the speculation CP found a different spot to place their new water ride, and old favorites like Mine Ride and Antiques get to stay.

So my vote is no. Those rides, no matter how space eating and redundant they may seem, are a part of Cedar Point and families continue to line up so kids can have a turn at driving.

The electric vs. gas powered debate had come up here before. Electric cars are greener and quieter, but they essentially turn the rides into outdoor dark rides. The retrofit would be costly - new track and new fleets of vehicles would be required. I think in the end though, operating expenses would be less, maintenance would be less, and safety would be improved. Best of all, the operators would no longer have the backbreaking work of chasing down cars, climbing aboard each one as it comes into the station, and bending over to work that lever. Far less yelling at drivers, too! Believe it or not, Turnpike is probably the most physically demanding of all the rides CP has. Ask anyone who's ever worked it.

So I think, if these rides stay, that it's just a matter of time before it happens. BeBop Blvd at Michigan's Adventure is ok, but I think the best example is Rockin Roadway at Dollywood. Cute cars, great station, easy loading, and tunes playin over the radio.

Kennywood's Turnpike, rest it's soul, was an example of a retrofit, but they did some odd things. They reversed the direction of the ride when they went electric, and for some reason changed the cars from sportscars to antiques which looked ridiculous with the modern gas station look of the loading platform. The layout was, IMO, one of the best and most beautiful. They promise it will be back in some form, some day. Hey...didn't King's Island promise the same thing?

I could see the cars go to electric. You could probably still control your car. I knoe on some car rides you can do that. They could be like dodgems pedals. At the end of the cars coarse, the car could be taken over by sensors. The ride could still be more fun but require less workers and a safer journey.

I remember when I was riding the Cadillac Cars a couple years ago my car just died on me in the middle of the track! Everyone behind us were being held up. Finally some worker came over and got it restarted somehow. It was an interesting experience.

Funny to hear about a dead car during the ride. I have gad several past experiences while riding Turnpike cars, during one trip the car in front of me died, then the operator came out and told myself and the a few cars behind me to push them back into the station. Being able to bump and crash into another car was a unique experience, since they will tell you not to do it especially as I was reading the bumper sticker warning sign while I was in the process of doing it.

I enjoy the car rides! Its a nice break from coasters!

I'd keep all 3 of them. I know the two old time cars are the same but, they are at oposite ends of the park. The cars rides provide some nice scenery too. The Turnpike Cars do need new cars. They are almost impossible to get into for most men.

There is room in the park for a few new flats. The area in front of Blue Streak, the area behind Giant Wheel and the area betwen the Main Midway and Maxair come to mind immediately. Coasters of course and wind around and over things.

I definitely can see one of these being replaced by a new attraction, as the park's variety wouldn't go down with 2 other rides of the same type.

I haven't been to CP on any busy days this year, but I can't imagine they still command the 1 hour+ waits that I remember back 15+ years ago?

A quick look at the ridership of Turnpike Cars, Cadillac Cars, and Antique Cars shows that ridership of the 3 combined has decreased by more than a third over the past decade. Axe 1, and the demand could still be fulfilled...

Just sunday I was suggesting to my son that Cedar Point combine all three rides in one area. Have a three lane highway with each on their own track.

The kids then can pick which lane/car to drive when they get closer to the loading station.

Just a thought. :)

Given that Turnpike Cars obviously have the lowest ridership of the 3, I wouldn't be surprised to see them go away sometime in the distant future. The area they occupy isn't exactly "in your face", and something that is a bigger draw would probably be a better choice back there, in terms of spreading crowds out around the park. And there's a considerable amount of room back there.

If they get rid of one get rid of the Cadillac Cars. The Antiques kind of go with the nostalgic theme of frontiertown. But I don't see them getting ride of any of them soon.

Agree with dj, turnpike cars are the most expendable of the three. From experience, I can say that an adult can't comfortably fit in those - so riding with your kid is not practical. So, least enjoyable of the three, but I'm not exactly advocating its demise.

If they do take it out, maybe they can bring back the Mill Race (he said with STR satire in mind).

Why does everyone think that just because a ride is not a 5,000 foot, 50 inversion, mega-twirl-twisted, super heartline rolled, quadruple-dropped, power coaster, then it must need a good reason to be torn down.........sorry, couldn't resist.......:)

While I really don't think losing one of them would be a big deal, whats the point? They can be easily rerouted. Pour new concrete, check. Put in metal fin, check. Done. Not really much point in getting rid of them, not to mention it can't be that hard to just put something over them ala Raptor.

Well, actually, you can only do so much when it comes to putting one ride "over" another. Take Skyhawk, for example. A ride of that size and "shape" would fit quite nicely where Turnpike is, but there would be no easy or cost-sane way to keep both in the same location. Sure, they were able to do that with Raptor, but its comparatively easy to route a car ride around coaster supports. Not so much around a flat ride.

And its not that I necessarily want to see Turnpike go. Its just that I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the car rides removed sometime down the line, and I think Turnpike is the best candidate for extinction.