Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[Ape]

This weekend was the first time I experienced Cedar Point with young kids. Holy crap do they have a lot for kids to do and i never realized it. The only thing they really lack is a coaster that maybe has a 44 inch or lower height that kids and adults can enjoy. My kids loved it at the park and Castaway Bay. My daughter got to ride her first roller coaster.

 

Friday night the family was tired so I went back to Cedar Point by myself. I decided to ride anything I could with no line until 9:55 then get in line for Steel Vengeance. I only had an hour. Ended up riding Raptor, Magnum, Gemini, Gatekeeper before making it back to Steel Vengeance. Got a back seat bug free ride and yes it is still amazing. Riding the others at night was a lot of fun. Those are not rides I ever hit at night. Gemini and Magnum were especially fun.

 

I want to try and make a Halloween Haunt trip do a Friday evening and Saturday even though Saturdays are crazy.

[appel]

I’m at the park right now, does anyone know what’s up with all the coasters breaking down today? Millie has been down all day, Maverick is closed, TTD is closed (not shocking), Corkscrew is closed, Iron Dragon got stuck on the lift, and Pipe Scream has had a lot of downtime.

 

On another note, SV has had a consistent 45 minute wait for FL+ all day, but I finally rode it and it’s my first RMC. Oh my goodnesss it is amazing! It actually is as good as it was hyped up to be if not better, amazing ride!

 

This is interesting because Cedar Point is very good about posting open and closed status and Maverick only broke down once yesterday for like 15 minutes which is an amazingly reliable day for that ride. Any other delay in operation was likely not mechanical and extremely brief. Corkscrew broke down twice during the day but only for like 10 minutes each time. Iron Dragon only had a few extremely brief breakdowns and then ran for 5 consecutive hours at the end of the day without issue.

 

I feel like you had some really unfortunate timing where you happened to be near rides when they were down but in most cases they were only down for a few minutes.

 

Dragster is Dragster so like... lol. Millennium has been limping to the finish line this year. I don't know what's wrong with it but I feel like maintenance is probably working miracles because ever since it's period of downtime a few weeks back (right before TPR was there) it's had a ton of downtime and generally can't seem to run more than 2 trains for very long. It's a very reliable ride so my guess is that it needs some offseason work but they're trying to band-aid the ride for now so it can run the rest of the season since it's their most popular ride. The ride constantly runs two trains and constantly opens late which isn't normal. They're clearly working through something and so far it's been open at some point pretty much every day so good for them.

 

Honestly, when you visit a park with 18 coasters you're going to run into a few that are closed from time to time (especially when one of them is Top Thrill Dragster). It's just a numbers game.

 

We love the amazing collection of rollercoasters and we appreciate the effort to keep them running smoothly and with little downtime as possible. The mechanics are doing a wonderful job. In many cases, they managed to reopen rides shortly before park closing time, although they were down the whole day.

However this years’ downtime of the headliner attractions was unreal. Millenium Force, Dragster, Maverick, Valravn and Steel Vengeance had frequent breakdowns on all of our park visits (5th-6th, August, 21st-24th, August). I get that rides are down sometimes, but this time it was really annoying. We hope that, whatever the reason for these frequent breakdowns was gets solved, because our park days were not as enjoyable as expected.

[coasterbill]

If you expect them to fix the frequent breakdowns on Dragster I have some bad news.

 

Personally I've had great luck with everything else this year, though Millennium is undoubtedly having a rough year and Valravn does seem to be the most unreliable dive coaster ever built.

[rjr19]

Valravn just reopened, I’m in line now. I just want to get at least one ride on Millie during my visit, as I probably won’t be back for a couple years. Its just kind of annoying. I got in line last night after it finally opened, but it went down for the night as I got in line. TTD has been down almost all day, glad I got on it early yesterday. Currently, Corkscrew, Millie, TTD, WindSeeker, and Sky Ride are down. Anyone know what’s up with Sky Ride? I thought it was fairly reliable yet it has been down for a few hours now. There isn’t even any real winds.

[PKI Jizzman]

Valravn just reopened, I’m in line now. I just want to get at least one ride on Millie during my visit, as I probably won’t be back for a couple years. Its just kind of annoying. I got in line last night after it finally opened, but it went down for the night as I got in line. TTD has been down almost all day, glad I got on it early yesterday. Currently, Corkscrew, Millie, TTD, WindSeeker, and Sky Ride are down. Anyone know what’s up with Sky Ride? I thought it was fairly reliable yet it has been down for a few hours now. There isn’t even any real winds.

 

You're visiting during the last week of daily operations, I'm sure they're not as staffed as well as they were earlier in this month. Either mechanical or staff related, I wouldn't be surprised to see 1 side of Gemini open, Corkscrew closed, Sky Ride, other less popular coaster/rides closed, merch/food spots closed, etc. You might see them open up later in the day after school is out and there's more help.

 

I visited the same time 2 years ago and it was the same situation.

 

Anyone know what’s up with Sky Ride? I thought it was fairly reliable yet it has been down for a few hours now. There isn’t even any real winds.

You're at the park right now, you have better odds of figuring out than anyone else hundreds of miles away

Edited August 27, 2018 by PKI Jizzman

[Ed Farmer]

 

I feel like you had some really unfortunate timing where you happened to be near rides when they were down but in most cases they were only down for a few minutes.

.

 

That's pretty much it. I got to the park late (4-ish), and I don't think Millennium Force had opened at all yet to that point. Eventually, I saw them cycling empties, and then loaded trains a little while later. I figured I'd take care of other things first and make my way out to it, but by the time I did... I think this is the first time I've been to Cedar Point without at least one lap on MF. I was planning on finishing the night on it, but made the best of the situation and turned it into an extra lap on Rougarou, Maverick and Steel Vengeance to close off the day.

 

Side note- got my first taste of Fast Lane Plus yesterday, and I'm not sure there is any going back.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Ed Farmer

[rjr19]

 

I feel like you had some really unfortunate timing where you happened to be near rides when they were down but in most cases they were only down for a few minutes.

.

 

That's pretty much it. I got to the park late (4-ish), and I don't think Millennium Force had opened at all yet to that point. Eventually, I saw them cycling empties, and then loaded trains a little while later. I figured I'd take care of other things first and make my way out to it, but by the time I did... I think this is the first time I've been to Cedar Point without at least one lap on MF. I turned it into an extra lap on Maverick and Steel Vengeance to close off the day.

 

Side note- got my first taste of Fast Lane Plus yesterday, and I'm not sure there is any going back.

 

Yeah, I’ve been hitting very bad luck here. Every ride seems to break down as I’m in line for it. After Mille broke as soon as I got in line last night, I got 2 laps on Maverick and 1 on SV to finish the night off. This was because of FL+, I feel you, I don’t think I can go back to the “commoners” line

[rjr19]

Also forgot to mention: this morning I noticed MF’s Blue Train stuck halfway on the bottom of the lift. I don’t know how concerning this is, does anyone know if that could mean something bad?

[Comeagain?]

Also forgot to mention: this morning I noticed MF’s Blue Train stuck halfway on the bottom of the lift. I don’t know how concerning this is, does anyone know if that could mean something bad?

 

It's been doing that at least since sometime in July. We were at the park for three days and at least once every day it had a train stopped at the bottom of the lift with no sign of activity. But it also opened at least 2 of the 3 days we were there. At this point I wouldn't be particularly concerned about it.

[southpuddle]

Sounds to me like those magical six weeks of a fully-staffed, fully-operational, well-oiled machine of a park have once again come to an end for the season. Can’t wait till July 2019!

[rjr19]

Yeah, after my two-day trip for the first time in a few years, I can say that this was probably the most disappointing visit I’ve ever made to CP. This was my 5th time I’ve visited the park and I’ve never seen so many rides down each day. For example, I wa in line for Dragster, went down for 5 hours (I guess this isn’t that surprising though), Valravn went down twice for maintenance, SV did while I was still in line, Blue Streak went down, MaxAir went down as I was in line, and the worst of all, MF wasn’t open all day, after only sending two trains around last night before going down. It’s annoying that I never got to ride it this visit, but at least I got 3 rides on SV, one in the back row. Overall, just overall disappointing although it was still a fun time.

[coasternut]

^ No surprise here. That's the way it goes these days... Sad

[Ape]

It sucks you ran into those issues but it happens and at least you're able to make it to the park every couple of years and this wasn't a once in a lifetime or decade trip for you.

 

I guess I have just been fortunate in all of my years going as I rarely have run into the issues everyone brings up. they only time I ever ran into a major issue where i was upset was the year dragster opened. I convinced my parents to do a trip in the summer just to ride it and spend all winter watching it being built whenever I could. the day we walked into the park to start our 4 day trip in July we saw it running but by the time we made it back to it it had closed down. It never did open during that trip. Some of the fins were damaged on a roll back and it was down for 2 weeks from what I was told. It was a long time ago so I could be remembering that part wrong.

[coasterbill]

Again, Sky Ride and Windseeker were down for wind yesterday. Sky Ride was open briefly in the morning at park open. It wasn't a staffing cut. It was closed for wind.

 

It doesn't have to be "windy" you just need one gust of 25 mph or so to shut them down. This is the case with every Von Roll and every Windseeker but it comes up a lot more at Cedar Point because it's on a peninsula in the middle of Lake Erie. I glanced at the webcam yesterday afternoon which is on the flag (I assume as I tribute to John McCain) and it was blowing straight out. If the flag is straight out, Sky Ride and Windseeker aren't going to run (at least not for long). Trust me on this.

 

Some of your complaints are justified but some are ridiculous. You're complaining about Blue Streak breaking down? Blue Streak only went down twice yesterday for like 10 minutes TOPS each time. Really bro?

 

I'll give you Valravn. It's unreliable as sh*t for a dive coaster. Dragster is Dragster. Any day the catch car doesn't end up in the lake is a good day.

[rjr19]

I understand a lot of these at me being a bit nitpicky, but all the other times I have been to the park, maintenance wasn’t an issue. So either I just hit the park on two bad days, or the maintenance budget went down. My gut says option 2. Millennium Force being down with no mechanics even on site later in the day (as seen from the CP&LE RR) is just flat out ridiculous. Arguably the best coaster in the park, and only sent up 2 cycles in 2 days.

 

Maybe in a few years when I plan to return, the rides will actually work. My point is that CP’s down rides to working rides ratio is worse than Darien Lake’s. That’s saying something because DL is notorious for awful maintenance.

[coasterbill]

My point is that CP’s down rides to working rides ratio is worse than Darien Lake’s.

 

Obviously...

 

Cedar Point's coasters are always going to break down more often than Darien Lake's coasters because they roll trains. Ride of Steel runs one train and has a 2 minute cycle. It probably sends 15 trains an hour. Gatekeeper can send 50 trains an hour and most of the time 2 of them are in motion out on the course simultaneously. Which one do you think is going to break down more?

 

I guarantee you that if Cedar Point ran one train on everything like Darien Lake does then you wouldn't have nearly as many breakdowns.

 

The biggest factor in how often a ride breaks down due to it's counterparts is how many trains it runs and how often they dispatch them.

[jonskinny12]

^ No surprise here. That's the way it goes these days... Sad

 

This is just simply untrue. I was at the park for 3 full days in a row in early June and I've been to park for multiple days each year the last 4 years, and the only time I've experienced a large number of breakdowns is during one of the power outages last year. MF has had a strange year but that's an anomaly. During my visit it opened late one day but was fine the rest of the time. Obviously SV has had some issues but it's a brand new ride so what do you expect? I think that during my visit this year there were a grand total of 4 breakdowns in 3 days that impacted my experience. MF opened a few hours late one day, SV opened like an hour or two late one day, Maxair broke as we got in line, and TTD broke while we were waiting for the front row.

 

Some of these comments I'm seeing are making it sound like the park is just letting everything go but it's not the case. I know it sucks to make a special trip to a park and have some of your favorite rides be down (I visited Dollywood last summer, so I know), but from my experience things at CP in general are still running just as well as they always have. I'm sorry that some of you seem to have had worse luck.

[christianscoasters]

Millennium Force being down with no mechanics even on site later in the day (as seen from the CP&LE RR) is just flat out ridiculous.

 

What if they were waiting for a part? What if it’s a larger repair that required work to be done in a shop first? What if they were working in the electrical room? Or in the station?

 

Just because you don’t personally see something to your liking doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. CP isn’t going to keep their star attraction down any longer than it needs to be. After all, this is the park that will open rides with 5 minutes left in the day.

[TurnOfTheCentury]

 

Dragster is Dragster. Any day the catch car doesn't end up in the lake is a good day.

 

 

I'll give you Valravn. It's unreliable as sh*t for a dive coaster.

 

I didn't realize that it was that unreliable -- in my religious checkings of the webcam, it seems to always be operating?

[coasterbill]

Valravn isn't the kind of ride where you're going to go to the park and have it be closed all day, it's just the kind of ride that's going to break down constantly for stupid sh*t throughout the day. It's not unreliable, it's just unreliable for a dive coaster.

 

Queue Times has this cool new feature where it shows the uptime percentage for the last 7 days (which does include weather delays to be fair) and Valravn is down almost twice as much as (say) Maverick. 11.8% of the time for Maverick vs 20.1% of the time for Valravn.

 

... Jesus, I think I've hit my coaster-dorking quota for the year now.

[bluestreak]

Being a complete numbers nerd I absolutely adore that website.

[Texascoaster89]

I hate seeing the park taking a beating this season, it's been a rough year ever since SV played bumper cars opening day.

 

What's going on with Millennium Force is the lift drive motor. It started having fits in June and then progressively got worse to where we are now where they are having trouble rigging it to run. It's my understanding it will take several weeks (beyond the end of the season) to manufacture a new one.

 

Valravn had lift motor problem also that happened the day before opening day. They've been struggling with it since. I don't believe it's reached the point of needing replacement, but it's not acting right on top of the programming not being as good as it could be.

 

It's been a rough year with SV and top rides having more than just a minor malfunction. 2 power outages, rain a lot of the weekends in May and most of summer. It just hasn't been the best year, but they happen. MF is going to limp to the finish line, hopefully the rest of the park holds up for Halloweekends.

[rjr19]

I hate seeing the park taking a beating this season, it's been a rough year ever since SV played bumper cars opening day.

 

What's going on with Millennium Force is the lift drive motor. It started having fits in June and then progressively got worse to where we are now where they are having trouble rigging it to run. It's my understanding it will take several weeks (beyond the end of the season) to manufacture a new one.

 

Valravn had lift motor problem also that happened the day before opening day. They've been struggling with it since. I don't believe it's reached the point of needing replacement, but it's not acting right on top of the programming not being as good as it could be.

 

It's been a rough year with SV and top rides having more than just a minor malfunction. 2 power outages, rain a lot of the weekends in May and most of summer. It just hasn't been the best year, but they happen. MF is going to limp to the finish line, hopefully the rest of the park holds up for Halloweekends.

 

I know Dragster is very well known for its constant breakdowns, but it also seems to be doing worse this year than it historically has been the past few years. It has been down almost all day for the past few days now. I don’t even think it opened at all today. If it did, it was for an extremely brief amount off time.

[TurnOfTheCentury]

Valravn isn't the kind of ride where you're going to go to the park and have it be closed all day, it's just the kind of ride that's going to break down constantly for stupid sh*t throughout the day. It's not unreliable, it's just unreliable for a dive coaster.

 

Queue Times has this cool new feature where it shows the uptime percentage for the last 7 days (which does include weather delays to be fair) and Valravn is down almost twice as much as (say) Maverick. 11.8% of the time for Maverick vs 20.1% of the time for Valravn.

 

... Jesus, I think I've hit my coaster-dorking quota for the year now.

 

Ha.

Interesting stats. One would have thought that Maverick would fair outpace it, but no.

 

Overall, I have always been impressed with the maintenance staff and the ratio of uptime for Cedar Point rides. Other than Dragster, I am hard-pressed to think of another ride that has been down a full day for mechanical issues (vs. wind) when I have visited. I am actually surprised that Millennium has been struggling, since it always seemed be very reliable.

[coasterbill]

I know Dragster is very well known for its constant breakdowns, but it also seems to be doing worse this year than it historically has been the past few years. It has been down almost all day for the past few days now. I don’t even think it opened at all today. If it did, it was for an extremely brief amount off time.

 

We tried to ride Dragster 3 times last year over the course of the summer and failed all 3 times. The in the fall it vaporized a brake fin by railroading it with the catch car at 120 miles per hour and was closed for like 2-3 weeks (which was only a few operating days because it happened during weekend only operation but if it happened in July people would have lost their minds.

 

Dragster is Dragster. This is normal. Also, look at the flag on the webcam and the fact that’s Raptor has been down most of the day. That’s an indicator that Dragster is down due to high winds. When you combine that with it’s usual mechanical issues that I’m sure it’s having also it’s not going to be a good day for Dragster.

 

PS: It did run earlier for about 30 minutes or so.