WWL being disassembled

Shawn Meyer said:
What Im worried about is if they'll knock out a lot of the trees that are still part of Cedar Point and have been there since the park opened in 1870.

Actually, when Shoot-the-Rapids was dismantled, many trees were knocked down as well. WWL opened in 1982, and most of its course was very clear of any major vegetation. Trees had plenty of time to grow back in after 23 years.

When Shoot the Rapids was built, great pains were taken to build it around the many old growth trees in Frontiertown. Ironically, the ones closest to the flumes died from the huge quantities of lake water that splashed out and into their root systems. After they were removed it left "interesting " twists and turns in the course, which became operational nightmares, especially the ones in the final two drops.

Does this queue ever get filled to capacity?

http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?a=75

I've seen it filled last summer.

I've seen it filled many times during the hot summer months.

It gets filled easily on any hot day.

Right - because the ride has half the capacity it did a few years ago when they used to use both chutes. It takes literally like over three minutes for the turntable to go around once. The ride around the turntable is like as long as the ride itself! :)

The new slower speed of the turntable also makes the boats slam into each other much harder when reentering the station. They slam REALLY HARD, too.

Pity. They used to not slam at all.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The line is relatively slow moving; this past thursday we got in line with one switchback open and the wait was just about a half hour. When the queue is full, you're probably looking at 1.5-2 hours, easy.

What's worse is that they were sending empty boats! At one point, we counted four consecutive empty dispatches.

I'm sure there was a reason for the empty boats, Mr Noble...

I thought of two: new boats being put on (seemed unlikely at 2PM, but I suppose possible) or a disabled guest transferring into/out of a boat. It certainly wasn't that the turntable was spinning too quickly. ;)

WWL is another one of those rides that I don't understand why they can't run it the way they did for decades. The relatively minor collision at the bottom of the chutes was not that big of a deal. Furthermore with an operator at the top, a human being can prevent anything really serious from happening.

Being at the park last Wednesday, I got in line for the ride around 1pm and they were just then sending out boats from the storage area.

You have to remember that it takes quite a bit of time for crowds to actually build up in the back of the park. It's difficult to judge how busy the whole park is because it's relatively dead before noon. When I worked on Thunder Canyon we never really knew how busy the park was until our 1:30 shift people came into work and told us how full the parking lot was.

You probably knew a lot in the July months or days when it's like in the 80s or 90s. Thats where everyone goes, on a busy day, that ride and Snake River Falls can be the busiest water rides in the park.

Jeff said:
WWL is another one of those rides that I don't understand why they can't run it the way they did for decades. The relatively minor collision at the bottom of the chutes was not that big of a deal. Furthermore with an operator at the top, a human being can prevent anything really serious from happening.

There could have been an injury, I say that is a big deal. When the "minor collision" happened there was a ride op up there. So with a ride op up there collision can still happen.
*** Edited 6/27/2005 5:16:20 AM UTC by redwings***

Probably old news but worth mentioning:

Today (Sunday 6/26) the ride was up and running and extremely popular. Capacity way too low for me to bother with it, though!

As for the chute problem...what if they added a gate at the end of the run-out to insure that the boats are separated? It might require another switch or two for the safety system, but it would absolutely prevent another mishap with a collision between boats coming off the two chutes...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Shawn, you'd be surprised how "hit or miss" it can be over the course of the summer. You can have one of the nicest days all summer and the park is only half full. It's funny, when we expect the big crowds they usually don't show up, and when we aren't expecting them, they come in droves.

I think that it actually has a lot to do with the kind of weather forecasted on any particular day because the really packed days in the park are the days that many of the locals show up. (See closing time on the 4th of July :))

Unfortunately, the weather services are very unreliable regarding Cedar Point. In my experiences they are like <30% accurate on predicting showers or T-storms on my trips there. I can't even count how many times they have predicted T-storms throughout the day and the only thing in the sky all day was a few clouds.

Yeah i know what you mean about the weather. first time up there this season they said rain all day. we had maybe 1 hour of rain all day and it was around 1 in the afternoon. It wasnt heavy but it was enough to get you wet. and it doesnt help when they arent loading the ride. (Raptor)

And to me it looks like Splash Mountain is just in-between the size of WWL and SRF. would you conquor?