jsus

And here I was thinking condemnation would be bad...

Yep, it'd be entirely unreasonable and irresponsible to return to 3 train operation within a week had a collision occurred. It was close, about an Orion car-length or two, but that makes all the difference in the end.

The post you quoted was about posting a message on the website if the ride will be down for a while. So, if the ride will be down for a while, then they should let people know, lest they show up expecting to ride Orion and find it closed. It's unlikely that it will be down at all given that it reportedly reopened the next day, albeit with single train operations. And there's no reason they can't run at least one train.

You sure they weren't just lost in transit? For context: In 2012, when Luminosity began and Celebration ShowPlazaPlace opened, the park decided to see if Carly Rae Jepsen would call them, maybe. So they arranged a concert hosted by a Cleveland radio station, WAKS. The radio station had to stall for at least an hour past the expected start time because... the talent simply hadn't arrived yet. *shrug* Press release: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carly-rae-jepsen-to-perform-live-at-cedar-point-153793695.html

WXIX also says that bond was set at $100k, whereas WCPO says $150k. *shrug*

Imagine continuing to run the ride with multiple trains without knowing why the station overrun occurred and taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again, then someone gets hurt. It's a given at this point that the park will need to err on the side of caution with regards to Orion for some time, even after they get this issue understood and learn from it.

All available evidence points that way, including an apparent lack of anyone complaining of injuries (and you bet the media would eat that up).

The key difference is likely that no collision and no injuries took place, "only" an overrun of the station where there happened to be another train just beginning to climb the lift. No collision, no injuries, no damage, if that's the case, then there's no real need to keep the ride closed, albeit limited to one train operations until the incident is better understood and mitigated. Looks like the trains came close but never actually touched. Could be wrong, of course.

It's not just a block violation. What roller coaster, at least in normal auto mode, is designed to not bring the train to a safe stop in the station and wait for 1) all restraints to be secured, and 2) dispatch command from the operators? The train entering the station should've easily come to a very controlled stop and apparently didn't. This isn't even a train slipping through the brakes since modern stations like B&M's use drive wheels to move and stop a train, not magnetic or friction brakes. Something seriously wrong had to happen for the system to mess up something so simple, basic, and normally highly controlled.

... Yes? Tents are not an inherent part of camping, that's only one way about it. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/camping

In recent years, the former Oceana/Extreme Sports Stadium site has been filled with a grassy lawn and some sandy patches, alongside a stage, used for shows and a play/relax area, not quite a playground. Believe it was also one of the designated mask removal zones in the park in 2020 as well. In other words, it had already been filled in with an interim purpose, until construction on a long-term Capex project began along the beach. Now that Wicked Twister has been taken down, that whole area has been blocked off, including the Stadium site that had remained accessible to guests the last few years. While there's no rumor or leak that explains what's going on there, it's logical to conclude the wall went up for some sort of construction, else the area would have been left open as it had been.

No system will ever be 100% accurate, it's just not possible since you're using past data to predict the future. It would only lie an issue if substantial amounts of guests bail out of the queue, which would have the impact of inflating the posted wait time. It might get iffy around downtime but then you could design the system to account for that as well.

It would theoretically be very simple to implement, only needing at most 3 sensors per ride (1 at main entrance, 1 at FastLane entrance, 1 at exit). Maybe count again at the merge between FastLane and main line. The system would run itself, so no need for the crew to periodically scan the queue and guess, and it should be relatively accurate and reliable.

What's the tangible benefit to Cedar Fair to put in a facial recognition-based system to time individual guests' voyage through the line as opposed to simple turnstiles (physical or virtual, i.e. overhead sensors that detect each guest passing through) at main and FastLane queue entrance, and station exit? If you know how many guests leave in a given period of time (e.g. 15 minutes), you can get an approximate riders per hour rate. And you know how many guests are in the queue, so you just divide that by the number of riders per hour.

And Wicked Twister, especially before the additional bracing was installed on at least one of the spikes...

Aren't we good with the plague we're working our way out of now? How about we settle for a plaque?

I've definitely seen a decent number of internationals from Russia at Cedar Point, probably Ukraine and other countries in the area as well. So, just when we thought that side of things could get back to normal as the pandemic starts to wind down, that may not pan out after all. Combine that with trying to go back to $15/hr from last year's $20/hr and it'll be interesting to see the level of staffing shortages that recur this year.

Seems like the consensus is that Harmony Hall has a lot of features we would like to see brought to Festhaus, and Cedar Point for that matter. Better entertainment, a wide menu of quality, in-house food stands, a more modern and inviting design, etc. Sure would be nice if they could make it happen. Agreed on the pizza in there being terrible.

But at least it will look good! Right...?

Strange question, so the follow-up would be, does anyone actually like the asphalt? What happened to ripping it all out? I'd take pavers or even just concrete (preferably stamped with a neat pattern) over asphalt any day.

LIMs and LSMs are both types of linear motors - to put it very simply, giant electromagnetic motors. When power is applied to them, they are used to propel the ride vehicle. When no power is applied, they effectively act as brakes all on their own. For example, the one rollback I've ever had was on Maverick. Whether because of a blocking issue ahead or something else, the launch hill stopped sending us up the hill. We came to a stop and then slowly rolled back down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, the LSMs were holding is on so strong that the drive wheels that advance the ride vehicle to the LSMs to go up the hill, had to kick and scream backwards to pull us off the LSMs before we could launch again. The rubber tires were slipping hard against the bottom of the train trying to drag us backwards, the LSMs were holding us in place that hard. Once we were clear of the LSMs, and the all-clear was given, an op at the control panel at the base of the lift hit the button and off we went.

Has it gone that far downhill the last couple years? Used to be good...

Pretty much what I was saying. Subway doesn't really have the brand power it used to have IMO. And it's easy to replace. So if CP finds it's able to make more money by replacing it (in their case, with a completely different, less healthy concept, unfortunately), KI will likely follow suit.

That they do, my point was that KI wouldn't necessarily need to replace CfA with an in-house knockoff since Chicken Shack provides a similar enough product IMO. And, even on its bad days, is better than some of the stuff CP puts out, especially with Corral recently. So, it depends. If one park removes an outside brand with success, it's likely that other parks will follow. CP tried to remove a highly popular, profitable brand in CfA and quickly realized it was a mistake before other parks followed suit. But if CP removes Subway and finds it financially advantageous, other parks (e.g. KI) will likely do the same. Reality is that, if you get quality produce, meats, and breads, Subway should be much easier to replace with an in-house option. And it'd probably be tastier.

KI already has Chicken Shack, though. CP wasn't even trying with their sad imitation. And they're not even trying now with Corral. The quality isn't there. I mean, at least Subway isn't Jimmy John's?