Extended Closure

Mitchell Williams:

Have seen multiple videos of it testing today.

https://www.instagram.com/s...k2cWxrMA==

That seems encouraging. Not getting my hopes too high. But not something I expected

There’s another possibility…. Zamperla has arrived on site and TT2 was running to show their techs first hand what issues the trains were having.

Pretty sure Zamperla has been on site, in some fashion, for the past few weeks. They should probably just put some living quarters in the old hydraulic room for them.

Faulty memories here, but back in October riding Millennium Force, did I see what looked like an ad-hoc trailer park on Millennium Island? I wondered about that, then kind of dismissed it, figuring either I was looking at it wrong, or it was some HalloWeekends thing. When I rode on Sunday I had completely forgotten about it and didn't bother to look.

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This ride is big and fast, but not significantly bigger than Dragster was. More important, though, is that the dynamics of the ride are limited. The forces exerted on the train are limited by what the riders can comfortably handle, which means...well, maybe this is a poor example considering history...the forces experienced by the TT2 train (2024) are not that different from the forces on, say, Dreier Looping (1984). The one concession to the increased speed is the larger wheels, which is to reduce the wheel rotations; that was why Arrow changed from 8" road wheels on, say, Gemini, to 12" wheels on Magnum. To make the wheels spin slower, make the urethane tire bigger, and reduce heat in both the tire and the bearing. Other than that, the actual forces they are dealing with are still limited, and well within the confines of roller coaster engineering experience. The ride is not as groundbreaking as the marketing hype would lead you to believe, and that's why...now that off the shelf LSM systems can be bought and built by specification...Zamperla was confident they could pull off a project like this. There is no reason to believe that the engineering isn't solid and fully compliant with the Laws of Physics. It's just that sometimes it seems reality never studied law.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

^You’re correct, the trailer park out on Millennium Island is a set for the HalloWeekends scare zone Blood on the Bayou, which was expanded and relocated from the woods underneath Iron Dragon to the island in 2021. And yes, the set pieces (e.g., trailers and 50gal drums) are still there and left up even outside of HW. Given that Forbidden Frontier on Adventure Island has closed and the island is therefore unused/inaccessible outside of HW, I guess the park decided to just mothball the set for the summer and leave it all in place to make HW prep easier.

SRE123:

This coaster does what only one other coaster in the world (Formula Rosa) does and that is going this fast for this long.

I've ridden Formula Rossa. It doesn't go that fast for that long. Immediately after the launch, you hit trims that slow you way down, and the rest of it is pretty tame. Lousy ride IMO.

From what I have seen, both the black and silver trains have been cycling.

If the issue was a mechanical "failure" as many ridiculous rumors have suggested, there is in no reality that Cedar Point would be full cycle testing without a fix in place.

Points mostly to accelerated wear or certain other components needing modifications just as Cedar Point announced.

It's almost as if some people might be talking out their butts. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ElToro Ryan 2 days ago:

"Now take this with a grain of salt, but I'm hearing rumblings that TT2 may be closed for a month or more"

ElToro Ryan 3 hours ago:

"Now take this with a grain of salt, but I'm hearing mumblings that TT2 may open sooner than the date I pulled out my ass 48 hours ago"

Now please, please, please...

...take this with a grain of salt.

These latest developments make me wonder if the issue was in fact with the graphics package on the trains being easier for unruly guests to peel off than either Zamperla or Cedar Point thought possible.

ElToroRyans videos are about 20% of my daily sodium intake. :P

awesome they are testing it -- it may simply be to obtain additional data for the fix or they may farther along than some thought?

I will say Cedar Point was great about making a very quick and clear announcement. So, if future problems arise, if they handle it this transparently, I think there will be little blowback...

Kevinj:

ElToro Ryan 2 days ago:

"Now take this with a grain of salt, but I'm hearing rumblings that TT2 may be closed for a month or more"

ElToro Ryan 3 hours ago:

"Now take this with a grain of salt, but I'm hearing mumblings that TT2 may open sooner than the date I pulled out my ass 48 hours ago"

Now, in defense of him (and I don't know him or follow him closely), it may be well both postings were accurate at the time -- because the situation is evolving. Cedar Point and Zamperla may well have initially thought the wheel bogies (just as a hypothetical) needed to be redesigned, reengineered and replaced before continuing operation with passengers. And then may have determined the excessive wear (hypothetically) was not as bad as initially viewed, and modeled the likelihood of castrophic failure as near-nil (or nil) in a continued operation scenario while they work on the redesign/ replacement for later in the year?

(I understand that the more prudent thing to do is just to report nothing until there is some clarity on the situation, but I didn't see his initial report as alarmist or excessively definitive .... but.... others may disagree...)

He hasn’t said anything that anyone couldn’t have gathered from the information at hand. It’s obvious a few days ago el toro simply read the press release from Cedar Point and said wow, they need to fabricate and test a new part. That has to be a month and possibly more of downtime. Nothing he said was a shock nor anything anyone else didn’t know.

Move along to yesterday when it was reported all over social media that Top Thrill is testing. Now they are testing again today with people in the park. Well, that essentially eliminated any possibility of a major issue or potential failure of any component. Based upon the new information he now says it could open this weekend but maybe longer. Take it with a grain of salt…

The guy sets himself up to never be wrong. But for those who enjoy his videos go for it. Just take his word with a grain or 5 of salt!

JUnderhill:

The guy sets himself up to never be wrong. But for those who enjoy his videos go for it. Just take his word with a grain or 5 of salt!

Lol. Salt taken!

I'm definitely salty.

Making things up can be lucrative. Entire cable "news" networks are built on this idea.

Mmmm, salt.

Honestly I hope it's up and running again by the memorial day holiday when my trip is. Maybe that's overly optimistic and I can always go back later in the season, I'm just eager to give it a spin.

JUnderhill:

...sets himself up to never be wrong

I think that pretty much sums up almost all of these "TT2 Closed Forever????22" clickbait videos that have bombarded my YouTube homepage over the past week.

"I have heard that Cedar Point will re-open Top Thrill 2 after May 16th, but before October 30th, and there will be some changes made to the ride vehicles that will allow the park to operate the attraction once again. These changes may or may not be visible to park guests. I also predict that if the ride does not open before October 30th, then it will re-open to guests when Cedar Point opens for the 2025 season." Ugh!

To be fair, there are some reputable people out there, but most of the videos that showed up are from people I have never even heard of before, so why in the hell am I going to believe anything they have to say?

Regardless, I hope the park is able to get the ride back up and running in the next few weeks, mainly for my own selfish reasons as I really want to ride it again!

^I mentioned it before and you mentioned it in your last sentence. I believe any testing we are currently seeing is to fully understand the issue at large.

^ I agree with this. I don't think it is necessarily a sign that reopening is sooner rather than later.