Season Pass Preview Night and Dining Plan

Jeff said:
My union stage manager wife would probably tell you that if your opening show goes poorly, you were doing rehearsals wrong.

I was in a show once where the final dress went so badly we had to stop. The tech was that bad. Opening night several of us were near (or in) tears in anticipation of the embarrassment that was sure to come. Thankfully, the hand of God came down and moved us around like we knew what we were doing and the show was a success and got great opening night reviews.

We always said "bad dress, good run."

I haven't heard of Cedar Point being in such bad shape before. Perhaps all concentration was on Rougarou and the hotel to the detriment of other areas. They had to be up and running. Breakdowns have been reported in past years, but I can't think of a time when entire trains were missing. I remember when MF opened there was one train operating, Mean Streak, one train, and let's not go there with TTD, but on those days at least the rest of the park was rolling. This time it seems the opposite happened.

Magdrag95, If you think those are the only components that make up a coaster, then please do some searches. Sensors, computers, motors...these are usually the main things that cause a break down, and IIRC, I believe this has been discussed before.

thedevariouseffect said:

TwistedWicker77 said:

Last, guests don't know (and I don't expect them to) the new training program that got implemented mid last year that all ride hosts must follow. It's called IROC

So no more "I wanna ride THESE Bumper Cars" video :P

If someone has that video somewhere please share it hahaha

Hahahaha! No, you still have to watch that video. It's still part of ride operations training. I just saw part of it the other day on YouTube...

Aww it's not the full video unfortunately. I remember it posting the good/bad reactions..but..Oh God that video, so horrid and dated.

I still find it funny that up until I believe 2012 or 2013, sweeps still had the same uniform lol

I swear I've seen some stuff in my life, but that... was... AWESOME!

But sorry about opening day man... that sucks.

Most of the issues I encountered this weekend had nothing to do with new seasonal employees, it was mostly reliability of attractions. Preview night was a joke. Half the attractions listed weren't running and it was almost a mid-summer level crowd. And many attractions were down for a significant amount of time this weekend. Maverick opened several hours late yesterday and was down for a while today. Mean Streak wasn't open at all yesterday. Magnum broke down on preview night for a while, was down yesterday and a good part of today. Rougarou was down for a significant part of the day today. Where the hell is MF's yellow train and WTF is wrong with Wicked Twister not being ready? Cedar Point is always good with reliability and this should be an embarrassment to them. Sorry, but I can't give the park a pass on some of these issues. They had 6 months of off-season to work on this and they were still unprepared. I saw Jason in the park on Saturday and he looked frustrated. This is the first opening weekend I ever attended, but I don't ever recall reading about an opening day this bad.

With all the sensors and computerized controls on these rides, startup issues can be expected. Seems like this year was unlucky in that a lot of rides had issues at the same time rather than being spread out over time. I really don't think maintenance could have prevented this as it is hard to predict when these failures occur and you can't rewire the ride and replace all the sensors every off season. Things are different from the days of big wooden brake levers and simple relay logic circuits.

It may have been unlucky with the downtime, but I think some things were just a lack of preparedness. Wicked Twister and MF's yellow train not being ready and some rides not certified by opening day is inexcusable. I'm not the only one here who was disappointed with opening weekend. Sunday was by far the best out of the whole weekend. The crowd was light and almost everything was walk-on. Maybe I'll make a more detailed trip report later.

Thabto, I usually agree with you, and I'm not saying that your opinion doesn't matter. But, I thought it has already been clear that WT is going through some issues that have nothing to do with the train. I know by the end of last season, some sensors were almost shot during closing weekend, and some of those sensors are hard to get to while the train is in the station or on the track for that matter.

I'm no maintenance expert, but 6 months should be more than enough time to fix those issues. Even if they had to order parts from overseas. They could build an entire new coaster in that time. I know Intamin are rides are **** and poor quality. I'm not trying to be a downer here. I still had a good time this weekend with all the downtime. I got to do most of the things I hoped for.

Hey, I agree there. But sometimes maintenance doesn't know about sensors and issues until it's time to start testing.

What I'm most disappointed about is that I didn't get my first rider pin for Rougarou after riding it Friday night. However, according to Twitter, they were sporadically giving them out all weekend long. I was the 22nd person in line to ride Friday night too!

If the lead time on a failure-prone part is longer than the time between testing and opening day, you would think they'd have those parts on hand. I get that sometimes things break unexpectedly, but the reports from this weekend sure seem like the issue was a lack of preparedness.

I remember last year leading up to the revitalized Gemini Midway, that the park seemed to be scrambling at the last minute more than I'm used to seeing. And that sure seems to have been the case this year as well. The common factor in both years was that the park had work going on all over the park, rather than focusing primarily on one new attraction. I wonder if they've been more ambitious recently than their staffing can accommodate.

I am not excusing the park for not being prepared, but I do have a theory.

With the exception of Hotel Breakers, I have a feeling that the Mantis/Rougarou Conversion, Calyspo/TikiTwirl Relocation, Dogem, etc. was all done in house. In other words, when a new roller coaster is built, they hire Adena to come in and completely build the ride with their team. I think that the above upgrades were handled by in house carpenters/mechanics, etc. which overextended the winter workforce. Could be the reason the park was so underprepared.

Thoughts?

I hear you on that last sentence djDaemon. Anymore, large projects might have an impact on opening weekends.

But considering WT is still down and in pieces, tells me that it has nothing to do with not being prepared, rather a mechanical malfunction

One coaster being down might not indicate a lack of preparedness, I'll certainly grant that. Stuff breaks.

But from what we've been hearing, there were far more problems than just WT's issue. Yeah, it could have been a freak perfect storm thing where stuff was just failing unexpectedly all over the place. And new crews everywhere would certainly amplify the problem. But if I were betting money, I would bet on a lack of preparedness on some level. After all, trains weren't even fully assembled in time. That's nuts.

All that said, reading the reports from opening weekend makes me glad I continued with my tradition of choosing the second weekend of the season to visit. :-)

Tilt-a-whirl, I had thought the exact same thing. But I'm not too sure something like a conversion can be in house. But truthfully, I really don't know. Relocating Calypso is a definite possibility for in house work if you were to ask me.

I just can't wait to be back when my twisting steel beauty is running. Maybe they're working on it to operate at full speed again!!!?? :)

Yes, I do agree that the park put too many of their resources into Rougarou, along with relocating Dodgem and Calypso which caused other areas of the park to suffer.

So this is what happens when you hire a mechanic and don't designate a specific area for him to roam around in. It's been a few days and Mechanic 17 still can't find the entrance to Millennium Force.

djDaemon said:

All that said, reading the reports from opening weekend makes me glad I continued with my tradition of choosing the second weekend of the season to visit. :-)

Speaking as the gold standard for everyone, I recommend week 3. :)

Not sure if this was posted yet as I'm on my phone at the park and don't feel like scrolling. But my meal plan was accepted at Midway Market. However, it's an $8 up charge. Includes the drink. But basically you're getting the whole buffet for $8. Not a bad deal.

I think Rougarou may have been done in house, with the exception of the painting. Remember the pictures Tony posted which showed the CP techs wiring the sensors on the ride? All the modifications could have been handled by the maintenance staff IMHO.

As far as WT, some parts are just hard to get apparently. Remember the extended MaXair downtime because aledgedly they were waiting for parts?

I wouldn't be surprised if the MF issues have to do more with the supplier shipping the bodies late than a screwup on CP's part. Especially if the bodies came from Intamin.

Like I said, to me it was a typical opening day. Worse than some to be sure, but opening day problems I've seen before. The best thing to do if you just want to ride and have lighter crowds is to wait a week.

I'd agree with the in-house labor being the issue. It's cheaper (obviously) and uses your resources instead of paying double the forces. However, MF not being a priority to be completed in time is a shame. That ride should've been ready to go on May 9th. The bodies not being shipped in time seems like nothing more than a cop out, since I'm sure they placed the order for them long before opening day.