TTD Status Reports

This story is off topic as far the thread subject goes I know, but bear with me because certainly does bear saying here... I'm going to CP next week, and I'm driving 8 1/2 hours from Virginia to do so... Now as far as this "downtime" disscussion goes, I have four words for you: "Volcano: The Blast Coaster" for those of you who don't know this coaster is another ambitious IntiminIG project involve a LIM launched inverted coaster which features a verticle LIM hill that shoots from the mouth of a faux volcano... now as far downtime... After failing in the preseason more than 90% of the time to clear the hill, the coaster remained close unitl August of it's opening season which was to begun in March, once it opened it ran for what amounted to a couple of hours a day, a few days a week, before running into massive downtime... and as far a ride capacity goes, when it opened every other row of each train was removed reducing the trains to 4 rows of two, which is insanly low for what amounts to a mostl;y traditional full circuit inverted coaster...

Now this is ride that Virginia residents had waited literally ALL OF THIER LIVES to ride, and I mean that... plans for an amazing volcano themed rollar caoster have been rumored sense the mountain was constructed over approx 20 years and subsequently filled with Smurfs...

...and folks if I'm still not getting my point accross here... "X" ... enough said about that...

I've been following downtime reports as closely as anyone... and frankly I'm amazed at the round the clock dediction CP has to this coaster... It's certainly not industsry standard...

To blame this downtime on "bad engineering" is ridiculous... I'm a F-14A Tomcat Mechanic by trade, and if there's on thing I've learned it's that spending more time fixing high-performance machinery than using it inevitable

To blame the park for caring more about having the ride running is simply illogical, do you REALLY think that Cedar Fair shareholders can REALLY afford to have their 25 million investment just sit there?

Sure, it's a dissappointment... You think your going to ride the tallest faster rollar coaster in the world... and then you can't... That would upset anybody, we're all only human... I'm going to be dissappointed if I don't get to ride it next week... but you know what? This trip is going to cost me around $700, 17 hours of driving... and most of my last leave before going out to sea for 6 months (or longer)... I'm not going to make an investment like that on ANY one coaster... I'm going to make an investment like on that only MANY of the best coasters of every type... on what is one of the oldest and so easily on of the greatest parks in the world... As it already was when I went in 1989, When there was no Top Thrill Dragster, no Wicked Twister, no Millinium... Raptor, Mantis, Mean Streak... the list goes on... even then it was the greatest park there is, and all of these magnificent coasters have only imporved on that reputation... so yeah, I'll be dissapointed if I don'y get my TTD ride... but there are still so many great coasters to ride... it's not like I won't be having the time of my life... and it's not like I'd be having the time of my life if I just rode TTD for 2 days and didn't ride anything else...

Anyway... whew... I'm done... for anyone who plans to be there Tuesday and Wednesday next week... maybe I'll see you there!!!

~Keith

SuicideSpeed: You hit it on the head. Have a great time before your 6 month cruise. My brother just got back in and can't wait to go to the park. He's also in Norfolk.

5/24/ ERT were in effect (stayed in Breakers Express) I asked a ride op about Freeway and she said maybe LATE this season but definately next season.
------------------
2003 Counts
Visits : 2
Dragster:2 Millie:2 Maggie:1 WT:1 Raptor:1 Mantis:1 MS:1 BS:1 Gemini:1 CCMR:1 Corkscrew:1

---

cpREBEL85 said:
But of course...this post will most likely be deleted because anyone against the park is not entitled to their opinion, and even if it stays on, you guys will deny any comments whatsoever and will not admit facts...stunning.

---

Look everyone, it's "steelrider33"....

suicidespeed: anyone that lives in the dc metro area remembers that debacle. I still havent rode volcano, considering I just dont return to pkd because I have never been pleased with they way they run the park. And SFA(six flags america) is just a classic example of an amusement park gone wrong, it seems no matter what they(sfa) build it will still never be good. So a piece of advice for all those who are able to go to Cedar point more often then 1-2 times a year, be thankful for what you have instead of worrying so much about TTD having problems which the park is so anxious to fix.

sorry to add to the off topic bits of this thread but here i go. One thing that i would hate to see is if Top Thrill Dragster was at any non Cedar Fair park, but especially Six Flags. If this beast was at a Six Flags park only half the number of people (or less) would have gotten to ride it. The way that Cedar Point has been handling the breakdown issue is simply amazing. This kind of technology doesn't belong anywhere else in the world, or it would be a horrible waste.

------------------
Can't wait to be at the Point!
2003 coaster count:28
*** This post was edited by The Coaster Kid 6/1/2003 8:03:01 PM ***

Dragster was open consistantly and running very smoothly on June 1st. I was able to ride three times. (2 hours, 1 hour and 15 minutes, and just under an hour.) The launch intervals seemed to be very inconsistant however. One time they would be 40 seconds apart and the next time the train would sit there forever before launching, but if I had to guess I'd say the average interval would have been a minute and 15 - 30 seconds. Still not running the yellow train.

------------------
May is here, the sun is out and Cedar Point is rolling again!
*** This post was edited by shwilson24 6/2/2003 12:47:45 AM ***

http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/trips/tips.cfm

On the CP tips and FAQ website, they've taken TTD off the list of rides that operate freeway. So I'm guessing it wont be available for a while yet.

------------------
Louise
----------------------------------------
2002 - Guest Services
2003 - Rides 1 week to go!
*** This post was edited by ScottishLou 6/2/2003 7:48:40 AM ***

Well, not entirely consistently. It went down for about an hour just after opening yesterday.

------------------

Come on people, this poetry's not going to appreciate itself!

Where did you get that from liebevision????? I dont see why they would say they would have freeway and not use it.

------------------
- Dennis
When I die, They'll read this And say a genius wrote it.
http://drinkduff.com/

Forcedude, we must have been in line very close to each other last Wednesday as I was on the second train to go at 7:30 after waiting for 4.5 hours. Was it worth the wait?? You'd better believe it!!! My nephew and I drove 900 miles and spend all day Tuesday and all day Wednesday in the park waiting on the ride to open. It came down to the wire as 30 minutes before the park closes they finally opened it and we got to ride before heading back toward home. What a great way to end two incredible days at CP!

I asked a ride-op about freeway and she said Freeway will be used next season or late this season

------------------
2003 Counts
Visits : 2
Dragster:2 Millie:2 Maggie:1 WT:1 Raptor:1 Mantis:1 MS:1 BS:1 Gemini:1 CCMR:1 Corkscrew:1

On Sunday 6-1 I was very happy to see the gold train in operation. The happiness was cut short when I realized that the black cherry train was on the transfer track and only 5 trains were running. Later in the day I noticed that the gold train was on the transfer tracks again.

We had an excellent time at The Point that day. Our morning wait for Dragster(using Joe Cool ERT) was around 2 hours for front car. It would have been 30-40 minutes if not for the two periods of downtime. Later in the evening the sign outside of Dragster said it would be a 2 hour wait. The actual wait time was around 45 minutes, with an additional 15 minutes for front car. Talk about false advertising! Everyone just has to ride this thing in the dark! It was truly an amazing experience.

As far as I could tell, it ran reliably all day long except for the delay in the morning. With every ride I absorb a little more of the experience and I'm really starting to love the twist on the way down.

------------------
Millennium Force Laps-111
**Vertigo Launches-21**
Dragster Launches-4

6-2-2003 It was down in the morning but i still got on it very shortly and i was even in the green train about to be launched when we got pulled back into the station, and the gold train taken off but hey i got to go on the purple train, it was a fairly short wait for it including the morning breakdown and then the for some reason taking off of the gold train. Oh yeah it is still fast tall and the launch building isn't sinking cause they took off the speedometer! ;)

------------------
Ed Markey is my anti-drug.
Rollercoasters have proven to cause brain damage in stupid politicians.

trips to CP:6 Dragster:2 MFer:6 Magnum: 13 Running with the bulls for a 15 minutes dragster wait, Must be June!

Went to the park June 1, and TTD ran intermittently throughout the day. It was about 60 degrees with gusty winds. The coaster was down for about 30-40 minutes because one of the safety brake plates on the launch straightaway got stuck in a down position.

Rode it June 2. TTD ran smoothly all day, from what I've seen. No speedometer, but the lights on the tower were running from about 2 p.m. on, despite a pretty breezy day. I also saw Lebron James (future No. 1 NBA draft pick) get kicked out of TTD's queue for line jumping (see post on TTD board).

The Freeway for TTD is not being used due to the unpredictablilty of the coaster's down time, according to a CP guard.

It is simply the fastest, smoothest, most exhilirating coaster I've ever ridden. Check it out!

6/3/03 - The ride was running decently. Periodic breakdowns of about an hour occured regularly throughout the day. - (3 rides, 2 front seat)

6/4/03 - Today the ride didn't fare so well, for it was closed from 1:00 on - it only ran about 2 hours the whole day (1 ride, front seat)
*** This post was edited by Michael19887 6/7/2003 12:20:26 AM ***

6/5 - Got there at 2:30, was closed all day.

6/5 - I was there at 9:30 AM, and can vouch that it was not open before 2:30. Or after.

6/5 it was closed..all day, only saw it test once

-Jeremy
------------------
Born To Ride The Rollercoaster

*Supposedly* It's down, waiting for parts...now that's a big *supposedly*....but hey, a 420 foot coaster was once a rumor too...

------------------
OMG! The Space Spiral is leaning!!" Must be the weight of that new air conditioning system everyone keeps hypothesizing about...