Windseeker Testing

David Sagert said:
The arms either need to be either dampened better (likely option) or the seats all need to be loaded. Second option may be hard come a few years down the line and the ride is not as popular as a newer ride in May.

I noticed that the unloaded seats had more movement in them as well. Damping should fix that problem, but it is curious that it is okay to be operating with the seats getting that close to one another.

Did anyone on the fully loaded rides notice the arms getting too close? If they did then it's not a case of unloaded vs. loaded (for the most part) but maybe the wind is causing the movement? If that is the case then increasing the damping is really the only solution.

I wasn't expecting to see the seats bump into each other like that, considering the adjustments they made to the tops of the arms.

But now that I think about it, Wave Swinger will do the exact same thing if it's not loaded fully. The empty swings will have minds of their own and start to swing forward and backward violently when the ride starts to slow.

I doubt the wind had anything to do with it - it looks like it's the physics of having weight in the seats. Either way, yikes! And not good for a new ride. I see an adjustment in either the physical structure, or more likely, an adjustment in operating procedures.

I could imagine ramming another car either being really exciting or really scary......I'd rather the former, but the latter is much more likely. Do you think they're gonna try to fix the ride tomorrow, or "let it go"?

Does "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter play during the ride or is that just on the video?

TimChat2 said:
Does "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter play during the ride or is that just on the video?

That's happened on a few of the videos, so I would assume that that's one of the main songs they play when the ride takes off.

If so, that's rather odd choice. I suppose riding WindSeeker is kinda like flying on a broomstick.

Rode it twice tonight. Once at sunset and once after dark. The sunset ride was amazing. Not thrilling but relaxing with a nice view. Kinda crazy to think that the only thing keeping you from falling 300ft is a metal bar. I enjoyed it though.

David Sagert said:
Every 3 min? I thought the ride time itself was almost 3 min. What about load/unload time?

And I thought it was 50 people per ride!?

I did not time our ride tonight but last night during the employee ride time my son timed the ride at 3:12 from liftoff the ground to ride stop before being lowered to the ground. As for the number of riders there are 32 arms with 2 seats each for 64 riders. I did see some wicked swings from some of the arms and it can really be seen from my balcony, but I attribute it to people swinging their seats when they are not suppose to. I did not see any problems with collisions around us as the ride worked perfectly while we were on it but I could see 1 or 2 arms on our ride get very close together, as if someone was trying to do that. There were also some arms swinging higher and lower than others and attribute that to individuals, but I could be wrong.

Sounds dangerous. lol

Anyone have pictures of the speakers on windseeker playing that music? I have looked around but could not find anything.

I could not find the speakers either.

But windseeker is amazing at night!!! It was a very nice ride. Very chilly up there though.

That banging around would kind of freak me out. But I'm sure I'll still be riding it. Hopefully sooner than later.

Ohiocoasterman18 said:
Anyone have pictures of the speakers on windseeker playing that music? I have looked around but could not find anything.

You can kind of see them in the video I posted a page back or two. They sit lengthwise on the carriage near the bottom. I think they're white if I remember correctly.

Mrs. Jazdy is a Harry Potter nut. When she heard Hedwigs theme on the video yesterday, she almost had me convinced to hop in the car at 7 last night to make the 2 hour trip for a ride.

Of course, I will withhold any judgement until I ride it in October, but I am not at all encouraged by the reviews of these rides so far. Yes, it is pretty. I am actually impressed by the level of detail and little touches...that is fantastic. However, even the first rider review in the Register stated "not thrilling, but a great view..."

This was supposed to be a thrill ride. Of course one may be nervous the first time out (nervous is not thrilled), but from nearly every account, so far it seems like CP has installed a wonderful scenic ride that is not very thrilling that, once one gets over the first ride, is just relaxing.

This does not mean I won't enjoy it. Very much looking forward to it, but it was billed as a thrill ride.

Then again, Maverick was billed as a family coaster.

I don't know if anyone expected this to be a real thrill ride. There are plenty of people (especially those with a fear of heights) who will find this thrilling.

My biggest concern is the seats bumping. I know on other "swing" rides this isn't a huge issue, but I imagine the seats on Windseeker are a bit more heavy than your typical swing ride. I'm wondering if this is only an issue when seats are empty? Perhaps some of the people who have ridden already can comment.

Saw a new bill board ad on 77 North this morning just south of downtown Cleveland. Looked like they had just finished putting it up.

When I rode the ride last night, the seats didn't even come close to bumping when I was on it.

^(dumb question)Was it full? That's good to hear. In that video posted earlier, you could see the empty seats coming close to each other. And other swing rides coming close to each is a little different than 300' in the air.

Yes it was full.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEKfC6uji3U WATCH IN HD

Here is a video I took.

Sorry I didn't get a video of the ride going up, my phone was on low battery and taking a long HD video probably would have killed it.

I think the other video that soemone already posted is probably better because it's closer to the ride. I took my video while I was standing in line still. Hopefully we can see well enough to tell if they bump or not.

It was a little windy in the evening at the park so maybe most of the bumping was caused by the wind. It was still very windy when I rode it too. There was a full load though and no bumping. The cars do seem to come a little closer to one another when the ride starts to come back down though.

I'm not going to be able to go ride it till Thursday the 23rd :(