WWL being disassembled

Concur, you mean? lol. :)

I can remember the old days when Cedar Point would start the day with the rides running at capacity and then they would transfer off what wasn't needed.

Earlier this month I ended up waiting 30min. for Thunder Canyon because they weren't running enough rafts. It was a 90 degree day and there were hardly any rafts in the ride. Just as we got to the platform the crew started adding rafts, but it was too late to do us any good.

*** Edited 6/27/2005 8:27:55 PM UTC by Rihard 2000***

Thunder Canyon can be tricky because you have to gauge whether or not to add rafts. You need an extra person to do it as well so you have to wait for a person to come back from their break.

It can currently run at the highest capacity of any ride in the park (with Gemini down to 4 trains and the CP&LE RxR using just 2 trains daily). I've never personally seen it run with all the boats in, but I have seen 16 (plus one left over in the storage flume in case a special access came to the ride). The platform is really hectic when this happens, and I'm thankful we never had an E-stop with that many in. It was pretty fun when we got that busy since it rarely happened though...as long as people went to the rafts we told them to. That was a big pet peeve of mine. Try keeping track of who you send to 6 separate 12-seated rafts constantly for 30-60 minutes straight--with a new raft coming in every 10-15 seconds--meanwhile, trying to fill them all to capacity and you can see what I mean. (That was a mouthful wasn't it?)

Unfortunately it takes a few minutes to add them because you have to space out the rafts, so you have enough of a gap to add 3 of them (and they are required to add 3 at a time after they have 5 in the water). After spacing them, you have to wait a couple minutes for that space to come back around to add them. Then you have to wait another couple minutes as the empty ones go around before you can load people into them . This is why you may see a few empty boats in a row during the day. Either because they are being added or they are being removed.

Getting back to my original statement about it being tricky. It takes one person away from spieling the rafts and many times when we were in the process of adding some, our line would die so we would turn right around and take them off again.

To put it into perspective, everytime rafts are added, it's like adding the capacity of another Magnum train to the course. The ride time is around 2 minutes 30 seconds and with 16 rafts in...well, you do the math! :)

*** Edited 6/27/2005 11:54:11 PM UTC by CP_bound***

I know this is a stupid question, but how does the second chute help WWL increase capacity? I don't remember how it used to work back then. It seems since they both run off into the same space, it wouldn't matter how many chutes there are.

They can space the boats on WWL closer together with the two chutes. If the boats were that close with one chute, you have the possiblity of a colision at the bottom of the drop.

Not to get too much off topic, but does the number of guests that enter the park determine how many trains are being ran on the CP & LE Railroad? On Friday the 24th there was one train running, while I have been there a few weeks back on a Monday and both trains were running and it was about the same crowds. I would of thought that since its getting into peak season, that they would always use both trains.

did anyone ever notice that they keep the skeleton from Halloweekends by WWL??

randinator, I suppose so. Although I can't remember when the last time was when I saw 1 train operation on CPL&E...maybe during one of the HalloWeekends. If there is a problem with one train they could just sub in one other. Although unlikely, it could be possible that two trains were down.

we went last week on the 20th & 21st. i am pretty sure only one train was running both days. i thought that was odd but maybe the other engines weren't feeling well.

I've personally only sene one engine on all my trips.

Pete said:
They can space the boats on WWL closer together with the two chutes. If the boats were that close with one chute, you have the possiblity of a colision at the bottom of the drop.

Apparently with the boats that close with two chutes, there is a possibility of a collision at the bottom of the drop... :(

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

So, Dave. What you're saying is the drop is the problem? If they remove the drop from the ride, they could speed up the platform rotation again, right? Then they could use two chutes, providing they weren't actually inclined, right?

Simple solution. Level the upper portion of the ride and it'll run the way it used to!

[Note to the folks from Cedar Point: This isn't a real suggestion. If you actually do this, I will never buy another season pass again.]