CedarFlags

I spoke with someone who works in Rides Maintenance at Knott's today and she told me GhostRider is scheduled to go down for a long rehab in September, and that it's being done by an outside contractor. I couldn't get any more details from her than that. I would love if it got a topper track from RMC, but I don't know how realistic that would be in that timeline. Unless they only replace a few of the roughest sections instead of doing the whole ride...

Haha, yes I do. It changed from rain, to sun, back to rain, and back to sun in the space of about 36 hours.

The CEO of Cedar Fair has strongly hinted that a refurb for GR is on the way shortly. The basics of it are... Topper track uses a fairly thin steel box track that attaches to traditional wood stack that makes up the track of a wood coaster. Giving a ride topper track (usually) doesn't involve making changes to the layout of the ride, but topper track has also been used to make new rides. Riding on Topper track feels more like a traditional wood coaster. IBox Track (what TC used) is a very beefy all-steel track that looks like an I Beam that is then attached to the vertical support structure of the ride and (usually) accompanies significant changes to the existing layout. This is also sometimes called the "iron horse" treatment. Riding on IBox track feels more like a steel coaster. The RMC website has some more info... (Topper Track) (IBox)

^ Yes it did. Not much of a difference, tbh.

What's the best way to get to the Marina gate in the morning? Also, do they open that one for Early Entry?

Does the gate by Magnum open up for Early Entry, or do I need to use the main gate for that?

You do make a very good point. Regular shows don't generally sell many park tickets, but do cost a great deal of money from the park budget to put on. If they were to forgo a traditional theatrical show and focus on a series of special events designed to draw wide audiences into the park, it could be a great revenue generator for the Entertainment division, and the park in general. I still don't see it happening anytime soon. Knott's is rather steeped in tradition, and there's an entire production company that's sprung up around the ice shows (that's who hires the skaters, and the park contracts with the production company to put on the shows). All those people who have years long relationships with the park would be out of a job, as well as the technical staff who get 4 months of a steady gig. It would rub a lot of people the wrong way.

Can the you do early entry from the back gates?

With this being said though what day are you planning on going? If it's more than a few days out the forecast will probably change anyway so it's not worth worrying about. All day Friday the 29th and morning/afternoon on Saturday the 30th. The forecast says rain for that whole week right now.

RAIN ADVICE PLEASE!? Weather report is showing 60% chance of rain during my whole stay at CP. How many of the rides worth riding go down for rain? Is there a strategy for having my very first (15 years in the making) trip to CP not get shot to hell? Also... my flight and hotel reservations are transferable to a different date... would it be worth putting the trip off a bit until early September?

Well the two ice shows account for about 5 months of performances, plus there's a Haunt show for 6 weeks, and then periodic rentals (cheer competitions really like the venue). It's really only truly dark (vs transitioning from one show to another) for about 3 months per year. Ice shows are a specialty for the park, so I don't see that happening.

I agree. It's similar to the Dueling Dragons issue....it stinks make a ride that is designed and marketed around the experience of dueling, but then doesn't. Would have been a lot less trouble to just make a regular, non-dueling coaster. I feel like manufacturers in general tend to severely underestimate the amount of time it takes to unload, load, check, and dispatch a train.

Non- Reef park update: The Charles M Schulz Theatre is getting new seats in the orchestra level for the upcoming summer ice show (Blockbuster Beagle). The rear level will also be getting new seats at a later time. Maybe for this year's Christmas show, but definitely by next summer.

I went back for a visit today and spoke a little more to my RO friend. One reason the capacity was SO bad this weekend is that they weren't running all the trains. In order to minimize stacking, they were only running 6 trains over the weekend, and they finally got up to 8 trains today. I timed about 10 cycles while I was up at the dock and I'd say 7 of them were dispatched in 30 seconds, 2 were dispatched in about 40-45 seconds, and one took about 55 seconds because of slow guests and an issue with the opening/closing mechanism. My RO friend said that they were doing pretty consistent 30-40 second loading today and that the process seems to be getting a lot smoother.

I think the blame goes to TrioTech for that. The manufacturer estimates the rides capacity and then tells the park during the bidding and design process. Seems like TrioTech wasn't using a very realistic loading time when coming up with their capacity estimate. If it really was 800 riders/hour, that would actually put it on par with Silver Bullet. Xcelerator's absolute max is around 500/hour, so if Reef can get up to 600-ish, I think it'll be okay.

My RO friend said that the goal is 25 seconds, but between slow guests and the ride computer being spazzy with opening/closing the car, they're not making it. It great to have that goal...But 25 seconds does not seem possible. That's kind of what I thought too. If it was a line full of people like us, 30 seconds would be easy, but with GP and Blue Passes... ya, no.

My RO friend said that the goal is 25 seconds, but between slow guests and the ride computer being spazzy with opening/closing the car, they're not making it.

They're still have problems with the ride.. My friend who is one of the RO's said it went down 4 times today, and that there's something about the ride system that is making loading and unloading specifically a huge pain (didn't get the details). TrioTech told the park (and Cedar Fair) that the capacity was 800/hr, which is pretty decent. It just seems like that was a very idealistic estimate.

The projectors are a complete non-issue for me as well. I saw a projector and I was like "hey, there's a projector", then the vehicle turned and I was like "hey there's a screen" and thought literally nothing more about it. There's so much more to look at. I definitely agree with PeoplemoverMatt about the capacity though, it is going to be a big source of guest complaints when the crowds start showing up in a couple weeks. The load/unload time needs to get cut by 30-50% if they want to break even 500 riders per hour. And Gnome - Yes, the cars do have some motion simulation, it's just slight.

I'm hoping TC takes some of the Tatsu crowds away for a while.

One thing the video doesn't do any justice to is how immersive the ride environment is. The screens are huge and the rooms have a ton of GORGEOUSLY done scenery. Considering the absolute shoestring budget Knott's operates on compared to Disney or Universal, I think it's quite impressive. I wish the ride vehicles moved around more though.

With all this talk about closed rides, I'm wondering... why isn't this info on the website? A lot of other parks have really clear listings of closed rides on their sites, but CP doesn't seem to. It seems like a pretty simple thing to add, and it would cut down on the number of guest complaints if people could see before they left home.

By the way, I didn't know but SAG and AFTRA are acting unions. Basically, they don't want actors. More specifically, they don't want to have to PAY actors and/or get in trouble with the unions for not following the union procedures and pay scales.

So... I've been hearing a bunch about various gates. It was kind of news to me that the park has so many. What are pros and cons of using the different gates, and how do you get to them?

There's a pretty new sign, a queue, and the Arcade is back open