What a Waste of Money (A dark ride would have been better)

Again, CP drops the ball on a new attraction. Why didn't they use the money to create a new high tech dark ride. A dark ride would fill a big gap in CP's attraction line up. An air conditioned indoor ride would be very welcome on a hot and humid day at the park. They could possibly build one where the old IMAX cinema currently exists.

Having also just returned from the future, I agree that this was a total waste of money.

rjacek1 said:

An air conditioned indoor ride would be very welcome on a hot and humid day at the park.

According to Kinzel that would be Disaster Transport. :P

But on the topic at hand, like JD stated how do you know Windseeker is going to be a bad ride? It hasn't even reached a foot off the ground yet, ride it first before calling it a bad decision.

I do agree with the dark-ride statement though, Cedar Point does need one badly, maybe next year.

CP fanatic 2400 said:

rjacek1 said:

An air conditioned indoor ride would be very welcome on a hot and humid day at the park.

According to Kinzel that would be Disaster Transport. :P

But on the topic at hand, like JD stated how do you know Windseeker is going to be a bad ride? It hasn't even reached a foot off the ground yet, ride it first before calling it a bad decision.

I do agree with the dark-ride statement though, Cedar Point does need one badly, maybe next year.

Why wait to ride when we can use our psychic powers to see what the ride is like?

To the OP. No one hear I think will argue that CP could really use a dark ride. The only concern I have is can CP really pull off a good dark ride TODAY.

wow, really? Windseeker is a disappointment to me, BUT I still think its going to be a great addition to the park. Its going to be very eye pleaseing to everyone, and fun. I don't see this as being a waste of money and I don't think you need to be so negative. Sure most people on this forum are the hard core thrill seekers, we all want a new coaster every year and we want the best wildest rides. well guess what, this forum defiantly dose not represent the majority of people. I believe the majority of people are mild to medium thrill seekers so that makes this a great ride for them. you may not like it, but there just as many people that would not like a new coaster. with out rides like this, Cedar Point would not stay in business. you have to please everyone. just because there not pleasing you this year doesn't mean you have to talk **** about it.

Well, to me WindSeeker is many times more terrifying than even the wildest coaster. I think it will depend on if you like being out in the open in high places to make it either a mild thrill or a high thrill.

It amazes me how people defend Cedar Fair's management decisions to no end - (is this site funded by CF?). Check out MiceAge.com where Disney get's a daily dose of what's being done right and wrong at thier park.

Like it or not, Windseeker is what we get for 2011. It may actually turn out to be a great attraction, but I believe the project was a last minute attempt at what would be "new this year" given all the time wasted on the Apollo merger (and if it had happened - what would be different today).

Having the identical ride put in at so many of the parks (with two of them in the same state - Ohio), says a lot about long term planning in the front office as it's clearly a one size fits all solution - and it kind of ignores what the paying customers are asking for (reflecting a lot of the negative comments on this site clearly wanting other changes and improvements).

There are a lot of boardroom shuffles going on at high levels - and one thing is for sure, it's going to change (better/worse?) the way future planning is done. After all, Six Flags seemingly overbuilt coasters in several parks playing the "count-em-we-got-more" game without a long term plan. And look where they ended up.

PT Barnum always found a way to attract customers by giving them something they couldn't get anywhere else - of course, he also believed there was a sucker born every minute. (Don't forget to see the egress!)

So if Windseeker is a bust, if it is late, or if it is the eight wonder of the world - time will only tell. But if it does fail to attract, management needs to get the formula correct and learn from the experience.

SteveH said:
It amazes me how people defend Cedar Fair's management decisions to no end - (is this site funded by CF?).

You cannot be serious. There's a 12-page, 232-response thread specifically discussing being disappointed with this newest attraction, and they've barely broken ground on the damn thing.

Yes, there are people who defend the park, but there's absolutely no shortage of criticism. And frankly, being less insane than some of the Disney psychos is a supreme compliment.

I too am one of the people who was disappointed at the renderings of Windseeker AT FIRST! But we haven't even ridden it yet. And like many have said on here, they haven't even started to erect the ride yet and people are already passing judgement on it. Yeah ok, everybody might have the thought that it is the same concept as Wave Swinger, but try a couple hundred more feet up in the air.

As time has gone by, I have come to terms with it and I know this is the ride we are receiving this year. That's it, end of story. All of the moaning and groaning isn't going to make Cedar Point build a coaster in place of Windseeker.

How many years have you been going to Cedar Point? Did you enjoy it in past years? Is there more than enough to do where you have to come back more than once a summer because you didn't fit everything in? Because that's how it is for me and if I ride Windseeker and don't like it, there are plenty of other rides/coasters/shows to enjoy throughout the park. Come to terms with it too, ride the ride, THEN let us all know what you think of it.

SteveH said:
Having the identical ride put in at so many of the parks (with two of them in the same state - Ohio), says a lot about long term planning in the front office as it's clearly a one size fits all solution - and it kind of ignores what the paying customers are asking for (reflecting a lot of the negative comments on this site clearly wanting other changes and improvements).

I don't remember off the top of my head what the cost of each of these rides was, and after a half hour of digging, I gave up trying to find out. If memory serves correctly, the deal they got on multiple copies of this ride for multiple parks didn't cost much more than what one roller coaster at one park would cost. Seems like pretty good planning to me.

Long term planning.......doesn't CF start working on ride plans at least a year or two ahead of announcing the new rides?

A lot of the negative comments on here are due to the fact that this site has a high percentage of riders who are coaster junkies. Using Point Buzz as a baseline for what your paying customers want would make CP a park with 40 roller coasters, free soft drinks and a lemon chill guy.

Yes, I'm a coaster junkie. Yes, I was disappointed when the new ride wasn't a coaster. The more I look at Windseeker, the more I look forward to riding it. I may hurl all over half of Planet Snoopy the first time I ride it, but I'll save my final judgement until I've actually been on it.

Put me down as one of the people who think a modern interactive dark ride would have been just what CP needed BUT, I think it is a good idea to wait and see what Windseeker is all about after it opens. When MaXair was annouced I was sort of meh about it, just another spinning ride. But that ride turned out to be one of my very favorite rides in the park. Sometimes you just can't tell before riding something.

CP doesn't like rides with a high liability rate.
That's why they wont build a dark ride.

Link, please?

Just curious, why do dark rides have high liability rates? It seems to me that you're not going to get injured on a dark ride unless you flagrantly disregard the rules and jump out of the car for some unknown reason.

A dark ride would have no more liability than the Skyride, three car rides and all them Intamins.

Each of the Windseekers cost 3 Million right? Even if you added up all of the costs for these rides you still wouldn't have enough for one good dark ride. (I cound Darkastle at Busch Gardens good, and I think that was $25 mill) These are expensive rides and unless you are going to do a cheap, poorly-done "Boo Blasters", Windseeker was a better choice.

Actually, it is closer to $5 million at Knott's, Kings Island, and Canada's Wonderland; the investment is $6 million at Cedar Point. And say what you want about the Boo Blasters, but the theming is 2 steps up for Cedar Fair. From what I have read and experienced, Boo Blasters is actually highly rated compared to Scooby Doo. But DarkKastle is amazing; even the former Corkscrew Hill was very good. Maybe if CP did something like a snoopy themed Corkscrew Hill, I am sure that it would be very successful.

coolkid said:
And say what you want about the Boo Blasters, but the theming is 2 steps up for Cedar Fair.

And would be so degraded in 5 years, we'd all be complaining about it.

Honestly, I'd rather the park wait until it is willing to commit the long term budget to maintaining a dark ride before it goes and installs one.

And that's not going to happen until the mindset at the top of the management structure changes.

I guess im one the the few that is happy with this. A 300 foot swing ride. Sounds pretty fun to me.

Cedar Point is trying to appeal to everyone, particularly families at this point. That is why they built something somewhat family friendly.

If you haven't noticed it seems that they only build a thrill ride or coaster every few years. So just be patient and you will get your 500footer looping wooden coaster.

Until then ride the 17 or so other coasters that CP has to offer, or try another park. Trust me, it's not the end of the world.