johnjniehaus

Hey I was up at Cedar Point today and the Maverick track slices are officially SOLD OUT just in case anyone was wondering

So I drove up to Detroit to catch Cyndi Lauper's farewell tour and decided to swing by Cedar Point for about 3 hours on the way home. I personally have never been disappointed in Cedar Point and have always considered it the best park in the chain all things considered. I have always valued Kings Island for having the best ride ops in the chain but Cedar Point cannot be beaten for the quality and quantity of different coasters and flat rides. I also love the location right out on lake Erie. Best park in the chain - until today So when I arrived at park opening (11am) it seemed like a lot of rides were not open when the park was scheduled to open - the only coasters I saw running were GateKeeper, Valravn, Magnum and the wild mouse. I decided to start the day with Magnum and as I was walking back there I saw corkscrew and the Himalaya were going to be closed for the day. However they were testing rougarou around 11:30 which gave me some hope the day wasn't going to be full of closures. I got two great rides on Magnum (one of which was in the magic seat). After that the day went south... I decided to ride the monster and whenever they spun it around to load the other arms, it made a squealing type sound and broke down. So I was stuck in the top of the monster for about 20 minutes before they brought it down and got us off. The ride then closed down. No option to even wait for them to fix it so not sure what was wrong but it was definitely down. At this point it was noon and I saw the first train run on Millennium Force. I walked past Gemini and it was closed for the day as well. They were also testing the cedar Creek mine ride at this point. The lines in frontier town were very long so I continued towards Millennium Force which had about a 45 minute wait at this point. I knew if I rode it, it would be the last ride of the day so I kept walking (that was a mistake). Upon reaching Iron Dragon it also had a sign at the entrance that it was closed for the day. Coming back around the front of the park it was noticeable that the skyride was still not open and that raptor has never opened either (it's about 12:30 now). I ate lunch at the grand pavilion which was good. After lunch I checked the Wild Mouse line but it was broken down. Then I decided to ride Cedar Downs Racing Derby which is always one of my must rides in the park. That's when I saw the first train run on raptor (about 1:00pm now). I checked its line which was probably about 40min and I knew I'd be cutting it close on time... So I ran back to Blue streak and every que was full of people. I've never had more than a station wait for blue streak so that was crazy but seeing as so many rides were closed for the day or just broken down, I understand why. So regardless I decided instead of hitting one or two more flats that possibly didn't have an extraordinary line, I would lodge a complaint with guest services which they were very cool about it and of course said they are short staffed on Fridays in October. I told them that I understand but that if the ride availability is going to be greatly reduced, a destination park such as Cedar Point should have that information on their website so that people do not spend lot of money traveling there believing they are going to get to ride everything and then are treated to multiple all day coaster and ride closures. Kings Dominion and Carowinds had a posted ride schedule this past year for the non peak season of what was available. Kings Island updates the website on what is available during winterfest and I believe also states that Planet Snoopy closes early during haunt. I think at a minimum Cedar Point should be transparent about the fact Fridays feature a reduced ride lineup. To top the day off, one of my friends asked me to pick up a maverick track slice for him and they are officially sold out so even that venture was a bust!

I totally missed that when I walked through the building earlier this year. Super cool!

Great Point, Don. I want a coaster that is the perfect balance between being thrilling enough that a real coaster enthusiast is going to love it but also has a lower height requirement and is appealing to the GP and a younger audience. Vortex is the coaster we are talking about replacing here and it had a 48" height requirement. If we could have something with maybe 2-4 inversions with a 48" height requirement and some other fun elements that are unconventional and the coaster really uses that terrain/valley in that plot well, I think that would be a big win for that park. I know copperhead strike at Carowinds has a 52" height requirement but something like that or something like Maverick or maybe velocicoaster would work really well because kids aren't too scared to ride because it has 10 inversions but also it's a really really good ride. I'm also thinking Cheetah hunt which does have the 48" height requirement and is a good ride but it needs a little more punch than that to be in that thrill category. Cheetah Hunt is a tiny bit too take I think for what we need

This might be a fun thread! While I'd love to see it happen, I'm going to SELL this one. It's easier to just keep the name of a park the same because you don't have to redo all the signage and ads. While I'd love to see Six Flags Magic Mountain go back to simply Magic Mountain, it's been six flags for so long I just don't see it ever changing. In some cases, the park name would not make sense if six flags was removed such as Six Flags Over Texas. While maybe there's a chance one park might drop the six flags from the name, I hardly think so seeing as it was a merger and the company name is six flags now. If Cedar Fair had bought six flags and wanted to get away from the old brand name I'd say absolutely yes but with it being a merger and essentially Cedar Fair as a name being retired, no I'm going to SELL that idea. We see 3 or more ride removals at Kings Island between now and 2030. Buy or Sell?

Sometimes when something has been done a certain way for a few years it's more inconvenient to change it rather than just doing the same thing you've always done. I'm excited for winterfest despite it being one weekend shorter this year. I hope they add a few new rides to the lineup if possible. I know people don't always go for the rides but I love riding them in the festive atmosphere

Does anyone know if Scorpion was sold off to another park or if it was scrapped for parts or just junked?

Well apparently it literally is being named the Big Bad Wolf: The wolf's revenge. https://buschgardens.com/williamsburg/roller-coasters/big-bad-wolf/ For me personally, will it be fun? Yes I think so. Will it ever replace the ride of which it's trying to carry on the legacy? No. I think the ride should have had an original theme or at the least not had the same name as the previous attraction unless they actually were going to get S&S or Vekoma to build a real suspended coaster with the old fashioned arrow style gondola trains. You can't replace one of the most famous coasters of the 1980s and 1990s with a B&M family invert...well to be fair you can but did they ever stop and ask themselves if they should?

Coney Mall is one of my personal favorite sections of the park and I of course want a very special coaster to take plot formerly occupied by Vortex. While I know the park would never do it, I'd totally go for a rebranding of the area back to "Old Coney". Put a skyride down the middle of the mall and add another classic flat (Trabaunt please!) and maybe a Ferris Wheel (I still say someone needs to revive those double and triple wheels) Then have a Mack or Vekoma in The Vortex plot with retro vibes and elements. That boomerang element near the walkway is an absolute must to pay tribute to The Vortex.

Any more updates from KD on Project 305? Please let the new name be more convincing than Thunder Striker

I think in general a coaster that is still in existence isn't worth as much as one that is being closed forever but we've seen wicked twister track sit on the shelf. Now Maverick is sitting but from accounts moving enough they are still limiting the sales to in person at the park. The Racer wood was not particularly expensive $150 I believe and it was available on the website for a few months. BGW charging $600 for loch Ness is ridiculous and that track isn't moving anywhere in terms of sales. Vortex sold out in 3 days of in person sales because unlike the other rides it was beloved and it was closing. Maverick, Racer, and Loch Ness are beloved but not closing and wicked twister was closing but not beloved. Vortex had both going for it and the fact that it was sold at a more reasonable price than a lot of the others. Now I'll be willing to attribute that to inflation... Can't deny inflation when even rollercoaster scap metal goes up $100-$400 since 2019. I know that I personally do not have $300 just sitting around to spend on fancy souvenirs. Sure Maverick track is cool and maybe some people have $300 of spending money and if they worked hard for it I don't begrudge them a bit. I just know that sales tend to be faster/higher when more people can afford an item than when you price out certain individuals.

I actually loved 2020. Of course offerings were reduced, you had to social distance, and wear masks indoors or whatever but to be honest I thought it was a great season considering you literally couldn't go anywhere or do anything for at least 3-4 months. Orion didn't get that big opening it deserved but I loved having a new coaster to be excited about when the world was falling apart in chaos. And I know others hated that reservation system but I actually really liked the timed que entry for Orion. Sure you couldn't ride it multiple times but at least you never had to wait long to ride it. I personally would like to see that implemented on all new coasters just because it manages the crowd and gives everyone a chance to ride and still enjoy the rest of their day at the park (not just the people paying extra for fastlane)

Did anyone happen to buy one? Anyone know if they sold out instantly or are they still trying to sell them?

All I'm going to say is that Cedar Fair owes me nothing. They were more than generous with giving the free year in 2021. I can see the argument for people who never used the pass should get a refund but anyone who used their pass in 2020 and 2021 and got their money's worth out of it should feel dirty/guilty to try to squeeze the park for any money through class action.

I never got to experience action theater but I'd love for something to go in there. Kings Island has so many old ugly buildings sitting around that need to be used for more than just a seasonal Halloween attraction. Imagine having two additional indoor attractions/dark rides of some kind... Definitely give you more to do when it's hot, rainy, or cold. Side tangent I want to know why on earth they flattened the beautiful, historic Vortex station house during the demolition of that ride but have kept every old ugly paramount generation building? We still have the big white box (tomb raider), still have the action theater, and the hideous SOB station but a beautiful building like The Vortex Station House immediately gets the wreaking ball despite being built in 1981 for the original Bat

SDC has been on my list for about 3 years now and it never seems to work out. The park is in a really bad location geographically for me (nearly 10 hr drive) and the flights to Branson, MO are never affordable either. The other issue is that MO.is so big that you really aren't close to any other parks either. At least if you go to Orlando you have Tampa and hour away. If you go to Kings Dominion you have BGW and hour away. Even Kings Island/KY Kingdom makes a nice weekend trip for someone coming from out of town. SDC looks amazing but geographically it's been a challenge to figure out how to work it into a larger road trip...

All I ask is that they give it a name better than thunder striker haha

So maybe this question has been asked elsewhere and if so please feel free to direct me accordingly but I've heard reports that Dorney Park's monster ride has been missing this season... anyone have any information on that. According to what I heard the ride disappeared from the park and the website this season and the pad was used for a seating area. Anyone know if it's in storage or if they scrapped it? Is it coming back? It was an absolutely beautiful flat

Removing both Firehawk and Vortex back to back years is definitely on of my least favorite decisions ever made by the park. However, nothing tops the decision to remove both antique car rides and the flying eagles for the junkyard coaster. I just genuinely want to know what someone was thinking or how they even for a second thought it was a good idea to remove 3 park originals in favor of backlot when it could have gone into the plot occupied by Firehawk just two years later. Then if it wasn't enough they didn't bother relocating the flying eagles to the vacant flight commander pad but instead sent them away to Carowinds. I just don't understand how anyone thought that was a good idea???

A Firehawk train piece was in there this spring during the ACE event

It's during the day on Sat and Sun before haunt begins. You wait in the que and then they take a small group and it's almost like a skit type of thing they do with madam and the tour guides about the museum and they walk you through the haunt maze. Anyone can go on the tour but on a rainy dead day at the park, I waited longer for this experience than I did any rollercoaster the entire day.

Did the walk through of Madam Fatales Cavern of Horror today to see what all remains of tomb raider. It was a really fun experience! I must say after seeing everything that is still in there, wouldn't it be awesome to eventually have a rollercoaster or dark ride return to the building? Something like DarKoaster or Verboten would be amazing in there or of course a Vekoma Mad House would be a riot too.

Good to know... Maybe I've never actually gone over to try to ride it during haunt (busy getting my coaster night rides). Still think it should be open though just saying.

ACE Friend was at Knott's yesterday...they might surprise me but this doesn't look like it's reopening next year... (Maybe they need to call Zamperla to fix it) I'm not sure what the problem is, why this project is delayed but all I know is that it's hard for me to justify all the travel costs to Knott's when this situation has not been rectified. I jokingly tell my ACE buddies that I'm boycotting Knott's until they get their act together.

I personally have a system to conquer the park but I have no idea how many steps I take to do it. I almost always start the day in Coney Mall. If I'm there at open FoF is first ride of the day. If I'm coming up after work it's racer. Then I usually work back towards adv Express and then Action Zone so that I'm near the entrance at lunch time (most of my family doesn't eat in the park but if we do, grain and grill or festhaus are near Action Zone). After lunch we hit boo blaster and then rivertown.