rwilli82

From the Sandusky Register: http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/439176 Part of it comes from the Ohio Department of Agriculture as well. Shoot the Rapids was originally going to have a 42" height requirement, but "Cedar Point and the state inspectors agreed to raise the height requirement for Shoot the Rapids. It had been 42 inches. That was raised to 46 inches for a person accompanied by an older adult, and 48 inches for a person riding by himself." But yeah, it's really fascinating that we can go to Knoebel's and my 5 year old can ride Phoenix and Twister, yet he cannot ride Blue Streak or CCMR. Or that my 2 year old can ride Jack Rabbit at Kennywood, but can't ride Beastie (or whatever it is these days) at Kings Island. Again, Cedar Point has a ways to go, but its a step in the right direction for now. ~Rob

It's a step in the right direction. These are two rides that accomodates both adults and kids together. I'm assuming the height restrictions will be similar to other CF parks. So, Pipe Scream could be 44" and flyers are 36" - 48" with adult and 48" and up can ride alone. We won't know for sure until CP announces that. After StR's announcement, then revision of the height requirement I wasn't too thrilled. I say a step in the right direction because a lot of rides that could accomodate the family has been yanked from the park since the mid 90's. They still have a long way to go. I would still like to see a more traditional flume in the park that includes a 36" height requirement but it doesn't stop there. I have three boys heights 36", 44", and 51" and it's a pain in the butt to do things together. We have to go to other parks 3 hours from us to trully enjoy rides as a family. ~Rob

I own a William's Black Knight, it's actually one of the "Limited Edition" machines that they made after becoming the highest selling machine of its time. No difference between my machine and the original run other than a "Limited Edition" sticker on the apron of the play field (which I think was a run of 600 of them). I still play it from time to time, here's a link to IPDB with info about it. It had a lot of features for its time. One of these days I'm going to add another machine or two from that era to compliment my old school machine. Some of my ideas include: Firepower Space Shuttle Pinbot If I had the $$ my dream machine would be 'Theatre of Magic.' That is my all-time favorite.

Watching the video, CF and those guests are very lucky that nothing more severe happened. Watch at 0:15 on the video (if you choose to see it), the seat where the boy is sitting in changes position. The kids leg gets pinched under the harness because of the new position of the seat. It looks like some major chassis damage occurred as the train rolled back and maybe rolled over the cable and catch wagon. Again, they are very very lucky nothing worse happened. ~Rob

I stole the Maverick pic for my work PC. It's hot. ~Rob

... or you all could just ride it first and decide if the ride is a failure or not. ~Rob

Kara, you must be bad luck or cop bait. Didn't I get pulled over when riding with you? In fact that was the last time I've ever been pulled over. Looks like you guys had a great time. Keep them pics coming, I would love to get back out to the area soon. ~Rob

Some good memories from my two trips in 2002. Screachin' Eagle is THE BEST "standup" wooden coaster ever. The airtime was so furious that it forced you to stand! I loved that park. It's a shame it is still sitting idle. ~Rob Willi

Nah, they'd just call Skip and he'd make it better ~Rob

Kara, yes it is me. I'm a lurker. Great memories! That was my first ever DDR experience and look where it lead. I took Cindy, Jacob and a few other friends out there for the first time back in '07. Jacob was probably about 16 months old and he was able to ride the kiddie rides. The funniest thing that happened (which I didn't get on tape ) was in the glass house. He was walking around and we heard the loudest 'thud' and then him crying. He smacked his forehead hard on one of the walls. Oh BTW, Zyklon had another accident while we were there. Even though it's a 2.5 hour drive from me, it was very well worth the drive. They had replaced the flyer tubs with the ones from Lesourdesville Lake and are now way better, almost on par with Knoebels. Good times! ~Rob

Craptacular, yes. But it was a fun place to go with the kids and was one of our planned day trips this year. The flyers are second best to Knoebels' and much closer to me (than Knoebels) in order to get my fix. I was hoping to put the fear of God into my three-year-old this summer on the flyers and have him get a second run at the glass house without smacking his head on the glass. I'm saddened that we won't be able to go this year. I believe it is home to Cedar Point's old Bayern Kurve... in pieces, since at least 2002. ~Rob

Glad I didn't get sactapped! It was nice meeting you Steve, this is the "other" Rob that was toting around his two boys and his wife who is a Sarah Palin look alike! Well, at least some random person told her that on Sunday. It was a freaking awesome time to ride. There was literally nobody there! ~Rob Willi

Wow! That pic that Robb posted is most definitely a photoshop. I can tell from the pixels and I've seen quite a few in my time. ~Rob Willi

What's crazy is that the ride op had roughly 10 seconds to react to pressing the E-stop. It doesn't sound like a lot until you count it out aloud to yourself. From the report: "Inspectors from the KDA timed the travel of the passenger car starting at 45 feet from the ground (the approximate position of the loud noise) and ending during the approximately two second pause at the top of the tower before the freefall (where depressing the emergency stop function would not have stopped the ride) as being at least 10 seconds." I honestly couldn't tell you what I'd do in that position. I do know when working at an automatic carwash we had an employee jump into a car while on the rollers too early, got his foot stuck in the door and I slapped the E-stop button on it so that the door wouldn't hit the dryers and smash his ankle in the door jam. If I had to guess I would have had about 5-10 seconds to react and I was 16 at the time. However I should note that carwash rollers move at a blazing speed of .5 mph compared to S:ToP which moves 100 times faster. It sucks all around, my heart goes out to the girl and her family. ~Rob Willi

I think we have seen that GG can make aggressive coasters but in that comes a price of lots of retracking. We've also seen that GCI can make somewhat aggressive coasters AND the rolling stock to navigate it. The upfront cost is higher for a GCI but it makes up for the amount of long term maintenance of the ride. I think Waldameer has a solid ride on its hands; however I hope that they can keep up with the maintenance or get the rolling stock necessary to keep the ride enjoyable. At this point its very reridable, much more than Voyage like I found out this past weekend. ~Rob Willi

Sheesh, you guys must have ridden so much that you can't remember. It was me sitting next to Janice for a few runs directly behind Coastin' Steve and Carsten. Those are my arms protruding from your head. Here in this pic you'll see that Janice had replaced the little guy (sorry I can't remember your name, but you were a trooper!) after a couple of runs. I'm sitting next to him behind Steve and Carsten.

Probably the craziest thing I've done and after some thinking I'm beginning to like RFII more than Voyage. I've gotten some crazy night rides on Voyage and I really hope to get back out to Waldameer when they are open later in the evening to catch a few night rides. It was an awesome experience all around and much thanks to the park and TPR for doing this. I can't wait to see the end results.

James, The hints are cool. Other than it being a B&M hyper I don't know exactly what this ride is going to do. However, I've heard of the possibility of the first drop not being the tallest (after it's initial lift that is) is this something you are allowed to confirm? I'm hoping the layout is creative enough in that the terrain is used and that speed through the woods is something that we'll see on the ride. That'd be sweet! ~Rob

Check your PM. ~Rob Willi

Dragster is like a date in high school, the long anticipation and quickly its all over with and nothing much afterwards, maybe a picture but that's it. Maverick is like dating after high school, where you mess around, have some fun, there's no waiting, you get beat up a little bit, then it's off to their place where it's a wild ride at the end. Yeah... I'd take Maverick. ~Rob Willi

Like Jason I too am a lurker and while the timing of the creation of my account seems suspicious I'll get to ride RFII whether or not I'm needed for this event. I've been following this ride since I caught wind of it back in 1998 and made plans to visit Waldameer in June. If this is anything like the filming event done at Kings Island for Delirium in 2002 its a neat thing to be a part of. There was a lot of standing around, but when we got to ride it was a lot of fun. I only lasted about 8 cycles on it and I actually held on a lot longer than many of those who showed up for the filming. After that event I didn't think anything of it until a friend of mine in Cincy called me from a Wendy's in the middle of summer to tell me that I'm on the placemat and a cup advertising Delirium at Wendy's. Kind of neat to see the green look on my face on a Wendy's cup. Fun times! ~Rob Willi

New member here, loooooooooooong time lurker. My name is Rob, married, I have a 2-year-old son named Jacob who is always up for an adventure at amusement parks with us. We also have another little boy on the way due in August. My hometown is LaGrange, Ohio. My home park is Cedar Point and I've been on 256ish coasters. I'm a computer geek but greatly enjoy being outdoors. Our trips are usually combined with camping and makes it fun for me and the family. I actually bumped into some of you TPR members doing the Midwest trip when you were visiting Stricker's Grove last year. I usually read up on what's going on, but I decided to go ahead and create an account here. So yeah, that's me! ~Rob Willi