Cedar Point, New Rain Policy

[raptor2011]

I was at the park today and it was raining/overcast in the morning. I'm in line for Mean Streak with my friends because they wanted to ride it alot. Anyway it started to rain and they cut it down to one train. Making a 15min. wait 1hr. When I got to the station I asked the ride op why they were only running one train for an hour wait. He said that Cedar Point's new rain policy will be that they will keep the rides open but only one train. I'm not sure if this is a huge improvement because the waits get very long, but at least the rides are open.

[Robbie]

I guess its sort of good today since I am going tomorrow

 

 

How were lines today?

[Xxhershey818xX]

Thats really intresting! Does anyone else have some insight to this?

 

P.S. -

I found this on CP's website. Its about thier rain policy.

 

Adverse Weather Conditions/Rain

Rides will close due to weather conditions, particularly rain, high winds and/or lightning. A specific answer as to which rides close or remain open is not possible because varying degrees of inclement weather cause different effects on different rides. Those rides affected the most are the roller coasters and the high rides. Cedar Point makes every effort to reopen the rides as quickly and safely as possible after the adverse weather conditions cease. Sorry, no rainchecks or refunds.

 

Generally, the following weather conditions will affect the listed rides and attractions:

 

HIGH WINDS - These rides MAY close depending on wind speed and direction: Demon Drop, Gemini, Giant Wheel, Magnum XL-200, Mantis, maXair, Mean Streak, Millennium Force, Power Tower, Raptor, RipCord, Sky Ride, Skyhawk, Skyscraper, Snoopy Bounce, Space Spiral, Top Thrill Dragster and Zoom Flume.

 

ANY PRECIPITATION - These rides WILL CLOSE: 4 x 4's, Challenge Raceway, Demon Drop, Giant Wheel, Raptor, Top Thrill Dragster, Wildcat and Woodstock Express.

 

STEADY RAIN - All rides listed under ANY PRECIPITATION and the rides listed below will close: Calypso, Corkscrew, Disaster Transport, Gemini, Iron Dragon, Magnum XL-200, Mantis, Matterhorn, Maverick, Mean Streak, Millennium Force, Skyscraper and Snoopy Bounce.

 

HEAVY RAIN - All rides listed under ANY PRECIPITATION or STEADY RAIN and the rides listed below will close: Blue Streak, Junior Gemini, maXair, Mine Ride, Monster, Ocean Motion, Power Tower, Sky Ride, Skyhawk, Snake River Falls and Wicked Twister.

 

LIGHTNING and SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS

All rides will be closed during the severity of the storm and will start to reopen as soon as the storm or lightening passes.

Please remember, it is not possible to specifically state which rides will be closed at a specific time because the varying degrees of inclement weather cause different effects on different rides.

[FeelTheFORCE]

I was there Wednesday the 25th and they closed down Dragster about a half hour before it started raining. They said they saw something on the radar. It did eventually rain, but not for that long, and not that hard. I thought that policy was a little ridiculous, but Power Tower ran constantly throughout that rain. As for the one train operations, yeah the same thing happened on Magnum when I was there in May. It's so if the train would happen to over-shoot the brakes, or MCBR in Mean Streak's case, it wouldn't matter because there is only one train on the track to begin with. It also makes guests a lot happier.

[coasterguy618]

On Saturday the 21st at night it started raining for a couple of hours. From drizzle to downpour, Millennium Force, Magnum (YES, MAGNUM), Gemini, Mantis and Iron Dragon were all running. I could not believe what I was seeing. I was expecting everything to be closed through the rain and throughout the night, but everything opened up right after the rained finally stopped. So much for that dreaded Cedar Point Rain Policy! I wonder if the management finally realized.

 

Oh, and BTW, I really felt bad for those poor Millie riders who got their faces pelted with rain . OW.

[Robbie]

Ive been on MF during rain, front seat, its not THAT BAD, or maybe im just crazy haha

[coasterguy618]

Ive been on MF during rain, front seat, its not THAT BAD, or maybe im just crazy haha

 

I'd go with choice B.

 

Well I mean I rode Nitro in the rain front row, its about 80 mph and that killed. Hell, even El Toro killed in the rain. I find it very hard to believe that Millennium Force, 310 feet tall 93 mph, wouldn't be that bad in the rain. And man, to think I was actually next in line during downpour then lightning comes. I now thank all thy mighty weather gods for lighting.

[raptor2011]

The lines at the park weren't horrible today after 2p.m. Before they usually were long. Mantis had a 45-60min wait, Mean Streak-60min wait, Millenium and Maverick were both around an hour and a half. But it was raining pretty good when I got on Mean Streak finally, same with Mantis today.

 

On a quick sidenote Wildcat's emergency stop button was used today, People were evacuated from it around 8p.m. Guess its lucky I got my ride in in the morning.

[Satchboogie3]

I'm sorry, but those policies are dumb, especially the one train operation. What on Earth would allow one train to operate, but not 2 or 3? It makes NO sense what so ever.

 

Closing rides due to rain is just stupid. I've been on some fast coasters (SOB, SROS, ETC) in downpour conditions and it wasn't that bad... well I guess it did hurt a bit, but it was worth it.

 

Closing a ride BEFORE it rains is just insane.

[raptor2011]

They claimed that it was something to do with the braking. Like they wanted to make sure if it started to storm bad on the ride they would only have to worry about getting that one train instead of three with passengers to safety. That is what the ride op told me.

[Robbie]

Well, last year when two magnum trains bumped they blamed it on rain, so I assume that if theres only one train then the train cant bump anything if the brakes fail or slip theres only one train.

 

 

 

but they better run two trains on wicked twister.......

[Astat]

As I've said before, Cedar Point's strict rain policy as of late is probably purely a result of the Magnum accident last year. They've been extra cautious (or paranoid, depending on how you look at it) as of late. I never once thought that it would be a permanent thing. It'd be a pretty bad business decision for them to stay that strict forever, as the park is in a location that gets a lot of rain.

[gk]

It rained off and on when I was there last Thursday. There was lightning and high winds on one of my MF rides, and we were the last train before they shut it down temporarily. We had to exit prior to the normal exit station since there was already an empty train in there, so they had to get a supervisor to unlock the trains to escort us off (don't exit on the left.. ha ha). I don't know why they didn't just run an empty train so that we could exit normally.

 

It was back up within 15 minutes, so we got on again - rode in the rain, and AGAIN we stopped outside the exit station. I thought they were shutting it down again, but it was because they were removing a train. Apparently they can run in rain (not lightning) but only with two trains on MF.

[Jman0477]

I was at Kingsdominion over the weekend it rained and down poured all weekend i was waiting for dominator when the sky opened up

all 3 trains were stopped but then the op said they started a new policy they were testing at Kings dominion and Canadas wonderland that they would let 3 trains or maximum but only load one until the rain stopped then back to full capacity without taking time to transfer trains back and forth which makes sense i hope this is a practice they will keep its easier to me

[handy-andy]

Is it me or does this policy just make even less sense than the first one? It's like they are purposely making people wait longer when there is really no need.

[Real]

Ive been on MF during rain, front seat, its not THAT BAD, or maybe im just crazy haha

 

Yea I was in line for front seat when a total downpour hit. They actually loaded us and sent us up. Rain has never hurt so much. I think it could have ben considered an extreme form of acupuncture.

 

Would I do it again though? Yes. It was hilarious. I laugh at things like that. Ive also witnessed Dragster run a few cycles in the light rain which has to be oh so fun.

[haux]

Cedar Point's rain policy is one of the things I hate about the park. There's no thought put into it. They close the rides well before the rain comes. Sometimes the rain misses (like it did two weeks ago), so people are left waiting for no reason.

 

The practice of going down to one-train operation during or after rain is ridiculous. Magnum's got a bad brake run. Taking the trains off MF and Maverick is completely ridiculous because the brakes are magnetic. It's like the person who makes the decisions doesn't work with the maintenance people and has no concept of how roller coasters work.

 

The park needs to go back to the old policy of running everything except TTD and Raptor in the rain. There is no safety issue. And shutting everything down well before the rain may or may not come is just going to get people angry.

 

I propose that all of us who have been to the park and not been allowed to ride during, before or after a rainstorm write the park. The contact form is here. I know Cedar Point takes lots of complaints seriously (they changed an articles in line policy in early 2005 because of complaints). I doubt we can make a difference, but we could at least possibly get them to think about how stupid this is.

[dandaman]

I was there yesterday as well, and it did indeed seem as if they were running more rides in... well, drizzle, at least. Our Maverick wait went from 1.5 to two hours due to a 15-minute rain shower; that's the only weather delay I encountered. It eventually cleared up around 3:00 (a great day, actually), but I rode Maxair, WT and Blue Streak in the rain in the morning nonetheless. And Disaster Transport, but that's besides the point.

 

Would I do it again though? Yes. It was hilarious. I laugh at things like that. Ive also witnessed Dragster run a few cycles in the light rain which has to be oh so fun.

 

Trust me, it is. Front seat, no less.

 

FWIW, I rode Magnum in light sleet last October...

[Loopy]

This is why:

[bpmitchell]

I'm going to the park on the 14th so I'm hoping that it doesn't rain and the crowds are decent

[TopThrill182]

Here is the problem. Last year Magnum had an incident during the rain. One train was able to get through the brake run and bump into the train in the station, and CP blamed it on the rain.

 

In normal weather conditions, the park, along with manufacturers, know what its going to take to stop a train. Rides like Magnum, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, etc, all have brakes that make physical contact with the trains to stop them. Rides like Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, etc, all have magnetic brakes that slow down the train, and kicker wheels that actually stop the train.

 

Let's take Millennium Force as an example. Let's say, I'm not sure how accurate this is but it doesn't matter, that there are 10 magnetic brakes and 2 kicker wheels before the exit station. In the exit station there are 8 kicker wheels before the loading station. Again, let's say that one train is in the loading station, one is in the exit station, and one is coming down the final brake run. In normal weather conditions, CP is certain that those 10 magnetic brakes will slow the train down enough so that those 2 kicker wheels will completely stop it. But then throw in some rain. Yes those 10 magnetic brakes will slow the train down to the same extent, but now those 2 slippery kicker wheels aren't as effective as they are when dry, and may not be enough to bring that train to a stop before colliding with the train in the exit station. To account for this, they take off a train in the rain. In this case, you would have one in the loading station and one coming down the brake run. But instead of that train only having 10 magnetic brakes and 2 kicker wheels to bring it to a stop, it has 10 magnetic brakes and 10 kicker wheels. Now that train would have to go through both kicker wheels before the exit station, and all 8 in the exit station before colliding with the other train.

 

What they are doing basically is adding a buffer. There really isn't a huge margin of error allowed on these rides when running full capacity, and they are decreasing the capacity to bring about a greater margin of error. Is CP being overly cautious? Hard to say. I don't think anyone knows enough details about the rides to know whether CP is wrong or not. Don't get me wrong - the policy is as annoying as heck because the park does get a lot of rain, but I just don't think they are doing it to annoy people. There has to be some reasoning back there that supports this. Sure, they may be being too cautious, but I'd rather have it that way than under cautious.

[handy-andy]

^ I understand what your saying but modern coasters are designed to work the same wether it's raining of not. Granted so of the older rides like Magnum might not but all of the newer rides like Maverick, TTD e.t.c. should work fine in the rain. So sure take a train of Magnum but on the modern rides their is really no need.

[Absimilliard]

Sorry, but it just doesn't make sense that some rain would literally cause brakes to not work, unless you're talking about wooden coasters with skid brakes, where you have to go down to one train operation until the brakes dry up.

 

Disney run their coasters with 5 or 6 trains in the rain and snow. Yet, the brakes still work! Even better, Matterhorn Bobsleds includes 2 lakes to brake the cars and unlike what CP would do... they run 10 cars on each track. It also was built back in 1959, with blocking system added in 1978.

[dandaman]

In addition to my Maverick comment a page back, here's how the wait played out: We got about halfway through the queue housed in the old WWL platform. Op comes on the almighty speaker and proclaims, "We are currently adding two trains to our circuit and we are not expecting a long delay." So they were added, quite quickly actually, to the main line. About 15 minutes later, he came on citing that's it's now closed not due to train problems, but weather conditions. Take that for whatever you wish.

[Baffles]

If we had this policy in the UK, no rides would ever run!