Wait Time with Maverick in 2007?

After reading all the media out there now that Maverick has been announced, I see many people stating that this is going to be a family pleaser of a ride. They are also saying that this will increase attendence in the back of the park. With all that said, Do you think that this will have an effect on the wait time for Milliennium?

It will be more of a family coaster, but a 95 degree drop and then being launched to 70mph (not to mention the inversions) still makes it a coaster that enthusiasts will want to ride- inlcuding myself. Will it have an effect on MF's line? Definately. It will probably have an effect on all of the coaster's lines (except for the Woodstock Express and Jr. Gemini). Having said that, it probably won't decrease the waits on MF or TTD to a point where it is very noticeable.

It will decrease wait times just by the fact that there's another queue to eat up people. So, overall, wait times should be less all-around the park in 2007. But, that's assuming attendance stays the same.

^Very true, but in 2005 and 2004 the attendance at the park went down, but did you see any differences in the lines? Probably not. Any type of new coaster always raises attendances so you'll never notice any difference in line length. But another factor is that new coasters can play are increasing line wait for other rides around the area of the new attraction (ie: Thunder Canyon, SRF, Skyhawk, CCMR, and MS). Look back at what happened with Mantis when MF was built and Magnum when TTD was built. It is very likely that Skyhawk and Maverick together will do the same thing to Frontier Town as Wicked Twister and maXair did to that midway. *** Edited 9/10/2006 2:57:49 AM UTC by Gomez***

Gomez said:
Any type of new coaster always raises attendances...

Let's hope...

MF, WT, and TTD all did, I don't see this one being any different, but yeah let's hope.

I'm just saying that based on the fact that maXair and Skyhawk haven't helped at all.

CP's attendance needs a boost somehow. Hopefully Maverick will pull it off.

I wouldn't really say that WT or TTD increased attendance all that much.

Attendance increased 150,000 people when WT was introduced. That's not very much.

But, its even worse because the park only saw an increase of 50,000 people the year TTD was introduced.

I don't have 1999 attendance figures, but since the park had its highest attendance over the past 6 years in 2000, I'd say that it experienced a nice jump because of MF.

I doubt Maverick does much to attendance figures beyond what TTD or WT did.

That's certainly a lot less than I would have thought. Wicked Twister was even closed a good portion of it's first season.

150,000 people is still 150,000 people. That's still $6 million more from just tickets if they pay full price. I remember TTD giving a bigger jump than that, maybe I am wrong.

Weather plays a MUCH MUCH more important role than a ride or two on attendance. 1 rainy week can eat up 150,000 guests alone. This is why CF wants a "Geographically Diverse" Portfolio. If Dorney gets rained out, there are other parks that wont and the overall revenues will be less affected for CF every year. 1% is not noticable to you or I when it comes to queues, but like Gomez said, its very noticable to the bottom line in the office!

CP doesn't really need attendance increases. Their best year ever was in 1994 and yet they could still afford MF and TTD. As long as attendance stays where it is and hotel rooms are getting filled, they don't need any increases to keep the new rides coming.

Well Cedar Point would like to keep their numbers up though. They have a lot of expenses now with the aquisition of Paramount Parks now owning 12 parks in the whole chain. So Cedar Fairs Main goal is to see their attendance numbers stay at the top. Now to comment on wait times for Maverick. I doubt it will affect Millennium Force or Top Thrill Dragster that much. Let me explain my theory. Like Top Thrill Dragster when it opened, everyone was over there, but there is still people that knew that coaster was busy and rode other coasters. So what I'm saying for Maverick is that there will be more people in the back of the park which I'm very very glad about. There will also be a lot of people at coasters like Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster, so I think line waits for these top 2 will be about the same.
That's my opinion here.

Cedar Point's attendance numbers are more a product of the economy, especially of the surrounding areas (primarily Detroit and Cleveland). Gas prices also are a factor. The economy the past five years has not been good, and Detroit has been hit hard, therefore Cedar Point has been thorougly affected as visitorship has decreased. I believe Cedar Point's yearly addition of attractions has kept the attendance levels from dropping below the 3 million mark.

I think 2007 will be a great year for Cedar Point with Maverick, the Maxx pass bringing in King's Island regulars, and an economy that *looks* to be on the rise.

As for lines, if the attendance goes up like I expect them to, then the waits are probably not going to change. Darn.

I think that Maverick will draw more people back into the back areas, to help fann them out. So its not always like the huge groups are in the front and middle of the park.

I find it funny that WT had less ridership in 2005 when maXair came out than it did in all previous years. So did maXair really help the oceana midway?

Who knows really...

WT also had 2 long weeks of downtime in addition to a lot of sporadic downtime in 2005 when maXair came out. That certainly doesn't help ridership -- no matter how many people are over on that midway, they're not riding if the ride doesn't work!

I'm not sure how long the wait time will be on a packed first month, however if the line is long then in line I'm bringing some spare cloths, some water to bath with, and some wood and a lighter just incase it gets cold at night.

^ why bring water, there is the lagoon there beside the coaster, not to mention the entire lake erie surrounding you.

^^Exactly what I was saying about ridership. If it storms or pours rain down and the park is basically closed for a week or two, having NOBODY in the park for that time GREATLY affects the numbers, much more than the economy would. In fact if anything, the economy down could help, if you consider that not as many people are taking as long as vacations as before.