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"How to handle an umbrella"
Ladies and Gentlemen, step right up for today's highlight match. In this corner, in the Ultimatte Green trunks, with degrees in meteorology, climatology, and Earth Science and lots of letters after their names, it's The Meteorologists!
In the opposite corner, with degrees in communications, computer science, and art, it's The Coasternuts!
For the day The Meteorologists consult their maps, their computer models and their years of experience and training. Their prediction: Scattered thunderstorms, some severe, throughout the day.
The Coasternuts look at the aggregate weather maps and make their prediction: Rain in the morning, clearing about lunchtime and clear the rest of the day.
Choosing to believe the coasternuts rather than the meteorologists, I got into the car, stopped off to round up the usual suspects, and proceeded to Cedar Point. Arriving at a quarter after nine, I was directed to park in the very first row, right behind the handicapped spaces. Personally I wonder how a little blue paint handicaps a parking space, but I digress...
It hadn't rained on the trip up, but the roads had been wet...in some places, very wet. It wasn't raining as we approached the park. We noted that neither Millennium Force nor Wicked Twister was operating, and signs at the entrance indicated that Millennium Force would be opening "later today." Scott Short had parked a couple of spaces over from me and joined our foursome. A light sprinkle began, and we opted not to take advantage of the Joe Cool Club early entry. Instead we ducked into the picnic shelter just as the skies opened up and rain poured down. What a miserable day. The rain abated just a little and we entered the park. For a time we simply moved from gift shop to gift shop. At an opportune moment we broke across the midway for Cedar Downs where we wished the small crowd would result in a longer ride. In recent years the park has made some unfortunate changes to the Racing Derby. In paticular, the controls have been automated and the operators no longer have a brake conrol. That in itself is not such a bad thing. But the ride profile is now a far more gentle start and stop. Again, that isn't itself a bad thing as it probably prolongs the life of the equipment. The bad thing is that now the total ride time is about the same as it ever was, but far more time is spent in ramping the speed up and down. I was once told that the ride's proper speed is 4.25 RPM. But while it achieves that speed, I doubt that it operates at that speed for even one full revolution. It's everyone's complaint about Cedar Point: The cycle times on most of their flat rides are terrible. It's an effort to keep the capacity up, but the result isn't very satisfying. Of course one of the results is that most people end up not riding the flat rides.
After riding we dashed into the Snoopy Boutique. The rain appeared to be settling
in, so I opted to run out to the car and get my umbrella. It's such a simple
thing, but I have found that it can make a rainy day a whole lot more pleasant.
It's not so much that I mind being wet, but there are certain details to walking
around in the rain that are more unpleasant than others. Getting rain in my
face, and all over my glasses is a particular annoyance because quite frankly
it means I can't see. Squishy shoes are another problem, though I usually solve
that one by wearing sandals. But a simple full-size umbrella can make things
just a little more pleasant. Of course I can't take it on the rides, but Cedar
Point has even thought of this. I
remembered seeing it on their web site and I thought it was a nice thing
for them to do. Here's what I am talking about...this is lifted straight from
Page 26 of Cedar Point's Little Book of Operational Paranoia, better known as
the "2002 Rider Safety Guide":
"...Items which are allowed past the entrance
but not permitted on rides include umbrellas, canes, crutches, etc. These items
may be left on the platform, however, Cedar Point is not responsible for items
lost or stolen."
Well, that's very nice! So very accommodating! Once the rain stops it will save me a trip back to the car...and I'll be prepared when the rain starts up again! Of course once I had my umbrella I was happier to be walking around in the rain, which means it was an ideal time for the rain to let up. Which it did. Iron Dragon came to life, and we took a ride on that one. As I stepped into the last car, I tossed the umbrella onto the platform, well clear of any operational areas. The platform attendant was most insistent. Not being in the mood for an argument, and knowing it would be more or less harmless on this particular ride, I tossed the umbrella into the car tub. This wasn't right, but for this ride it would be OK I suppose.
Iron Dragon has a new set of wheels this season. I don't know if that's it or if they have done something else to this ride. It's simply running better than usual. It's still nothing spectacular, but it doesn't shuffle as much, it seems faster, and best of all, the huge jolt halfway through the knot at the end of the ride seems to have been fixed.
We wandered around a bit and got a ride on Wicked Twister. More umbrella trouble here as the entrance host wouldn't allow it past the ride entrance. I guess the storage bins on the ride platform are strictly for decoration. If, as the attendants claim, they have problems with stuff getting blown off the shelves when the ride runs, then why not put a door on the front of the bin. The ride was a walk-on, and Scott is too tall to ride, so he obligingly held the umbrellas while we took a ride. For those of you keeping score, this time I know my weight was down by more than three pounds since my previous visit, but I needed help with the safety belt that I didn't need last week. Go figure. At any rate, the ride is consistent, and the more I ride it, the more I actually do like it. The park has lots of other rides that I like better, though!
We hiked across the park and I stopped in at the Ops office to report on my Iron Dragon experience and to find out if I had remembered wrong. In my brief visit I learned that I had been correct, though neither I nor the person I talked to could find the right chapter and verse (quoted above). Turns out we were looking in the wrong book. I hadn't asked for an explanation, but I was given one anyway...it was chalked up to what carnival operators usually call "green help." I dunno...I thought this guy was "red help"... [Footnote 1].
The weather was improving, and Raptor was practically a walk-on. We opted for a ride in the back row. Raptor presented a most Raptor-esque performance until we stopped on the safety brake, well back from the usual stopping place just uptrack of the station. Hmmm? After a few moments the third train came to a stop on the mid-course brake. I guess we missed that one by one train. A crew member walked out on the runway to tell us nothing we didn't already know. It took a few minutes as the rain started up again, but they finally loaded the train in the station, moved us up to the ready brake and released the third train from the mid-course to stack in behind us. Not a big deal except for the quickening rain.
Blue Streak was next, still flying in the second week of the season...and this is with a wet track that still wasn't squealing in spite of the rain. Not a word from the crew when I tossed my umbrella on the unload platform.
Millennium Force was running, and I hoped for a ride...but it wasn't to be. Yet again, the entrance host was, in spite of the published policy, not letting people bring umbrellas through the queue, and was in fact giving one lady quite a hard time about it. Not having found the official text at this point, I figured I didn't have a leg to stand on. But the rain had stopped, the wait was short...I figured I could just stuff the umbrella into a locker. It was then that I learned why the official policy is so accommodating: There is no way that a full-size umbrella can fit into any of the coin-op lockers at Cedar Point. It is simply too long, even for the larger units. Knowing that if the weather held I would be back later empty-handed, I bypassed the ride.
We took the train around to Frontiertown for a ride on Mean Streak. As I prepared to board, one of the crew members collected my umbrella and set it against the side of the doghouse. The ride was still running with tight brakes on the first drop and on the mid-course, but the ride seems to like having wet track. The notable exception to a generally competent ride is the sheltered bit where the train passes under, then over the lift hill. Because it is sheltered there it was screeching and shuffling at that point, but otherwise it was the "generally improved a bit" Mean Streak from last week. Had I been smart, I'd have stayed away from Mean Streak for the rest of the day.
I'm still getting used to seeing White Water Landing without the fake mountain. It just seems...well...odd somehow. But no mountain means no dripping waterfall, and that means that on a rainy day like today I could actually take a ride on it. Have to give that some thought, but for now I'll take a ride on the Mine Ride.
Cedar Creek Mine Ride was my first roller coaster, and as small and quirky as it is, it's still an interesting ride. Of particular note this time is the new brake installed on the rise into the place where the second block brake used to be. It's a bladder-type brake unlike the new block brakes on the ride, and was apparently put in place to either catch the train if it starts to roll back, or to prevent it fron rolling back when conditions are just wrong. I'm surprised they don't just put a sawtooth up there and be done with it. That would also give us back that "clunk-clunk..........clunk-clunk" noise we used to get up there.
A tradition is fast forming with the Mine Ride. Well, a pattern, anyway: Take a ride on Mine Ride, then walk across the plaza and say hello to Joe. Joe is a gentleman who mans the counter in the Town Hall museum, answering Cedar Point trivia questions, handling the message center, and doing Official Kid Measurements. And taking grief from frequently-visiting enthusiasts like me who hassle him about the museum not having a Fascination table or a "so-high" sign [Footnote 2]. We swapped speculation about what is going into the Big Grey Box™, and while we were in there I picked up a copy of the little paranoia book and thumbed through it. That was where I finally found the little tidbit on Page 26. Part of me wanted to go back to Millennium Force and make an issue of it, but I wasn't in the mood for such troublemaking. I simply made a note to include the incident and the official policy in an upcoming trip report. <grin!> But instead we went back to Magnum. I tossed the umbrella on the platform against the wall. I'm very pleased to note that while Magnum was a little slow to wake up on this rainy morning, all those problems it was having last week with broken lap bars seem to be sorted out. I don't think I saw any roped-off seats all day. Naturally, I rode in my customary seat. They seem to be doing better with the new signals, too. In any case, where the ride was really back again to its top form was out on the course. It was a little windy, the trains were lightly loaded, and the trims were on heavy, but it still flew through the course. Magnum is geting excessively rough in its adolescence, but when you get off there is no doubt about the magnitude of the experience.
It was early afternoon and the weather had cleared up nicely. A bit of legwork revealed that the mysterous Big Grey Box™ is an irregularly shaped space about 150' corner to corner. The peak of the Gemini lift is probably the best vantage point for getting a look inside unless you shell out $6 to go up the climbing wall. Aside from not wanting to spend the money, that seems to me to be an awful lot of work just to get a better view of bare dirt and three footers for round columns.
I eventually made my way to the car and dumped my umbrella, which made it a whole lot easier to get through the rest of the day. By this time virtually all of the rides were walk-ons. There was a negligible wait for Wicked Twister, a negligible wait for Raptor, no wait for Blue Streak, almost no wait for Millennium Force. Ah...there's something to talk about, as this was the day for my first Millennium Force ride of the season.
Millennium Force is not off to a good start this season. Part of it is probably the bad weather...the thing is running terribly slow, and only with two trains, meaning the capacity is awful. Things are a little different on the platform. The annoying music is gone, and the old, practially inaudible autospiel has been replaced with a new, equally inadible autospiel. The customized safety instruction signs on the far wall of the station have been replaced with the same meaningless boilerplate found everywhere else in the park now [Footnote 3]. In the train I didn't notice any major changes from last year except that a loop has been added to the free end of each seat belt. Initially I thought it was to aid in adjustment. It isn't, as the belt (still) cannot be adjusted once it is fastened. But it does give the attendant something to tug on to make sure the belt is fastened. Seems like a good idea to me.
Our train blasted out of the station and up the impossibly steep lift hill. I was trying to get a look inside the Big Grey Box™ from up there, but by the time I got my bearings we were over the top. Millennium Force is running smooth, fast, and QUIET. I mean, the sound the train makes out on the course these days is no louder than Magnum. But all is not well. The three major hills...the two lagoon crossings and the final speed hill...are all feeling a bit slow. I also noticed an unusual amount of axle hunt on the straightaways, as if perhaps the guide wheels are a little looser than they were last season. I wonder if perhaps the wheels have been loosened a bit to allow the tires to run a little cooler...as if the weather on the North Coast hasn't been cool enough! I do find it interesting, though, that they changed the wheel configuration after their maintenance director indicated over the winter that the combination they were using last year was gave "consistent performance under all conditions." I guess it's now a CoasterMania question. Anyway, what this all means is not that Millennium Force is suddenly a bad ride (quite the contrary; it's still a pretty amazing coaster!); but rather that it isn't presently performing in the way we CP regulars know from experience it can.
We went around the park again. A second ride on Mean Streak proved that if you get a decent ride on that thing, enjoy it and don't go back. With a nearly empty train but very tight trim brakes on both the first drop and on the mid-course, the ride's performance was absolutely pitiful.
Across from Mean Streak is White Water Landing. I was not carrying my camera, and with the mountain gone I knew there would be no "waterfall" so I opted to take a ride, sitting solo in the boat. The ride is in serious need of a cosmetic overhaul. The paint on the boats is looking really bad, the trough looks like it seriously needs paint, and in general, the ride could really use some sprucing up. I realize they recently planted evergreens around it, but that is not exactly what I had in mind. The new landscaping, on the other hand, looks fabulous, and it's the best-running flume I have ridden in a long time. It didn't attempt to knock my fillings loose on the lift hills, and it runs with just enough of a splash to be a little refreshing, without a gratuitous soaking. Mostly I noticed that the boats seem to do a lot less bumping around in the trough than other flumes I have ridden, making it feel more like a boat ride than like something on a track. I got wetter than I expected on the Hydro-Jump after the long drop; it's a good thing I didn't have my usual assortment of electronics with me [Footnote 4].
I rode all the coasters again, and finished the night on the Magnum XL-200. By the 8pm close, the skies had cleared beautifully and we witnessed a beautiful sunset. I could tell that all was not well. From Magnum's lift hill the sky looked beautiful, but on the turnaround the dark clouds were visible to the south. It was almost as though Cedar Point was the lone clear spot in the region. No surprise, we'd have rain for the trip home.
It got off to a slow start, but it turned into a really nice day with very small crowds. I got lots of rides on all the coasters in the park. The temperature was just about perfect, and except for the lousy weather before noon, I couldn't ask for a much better day at the Point.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Footnote 1: At Cedar Point there is a definite heirarchy. It's less obvious to the naked eye now than it once was, but you can get an idea of any employee's position in the pecking order by looking at his name tag. Most are red; foremen are blue; supervisors are silver...and the "green help" have red tags marked, "RIDE PRIDE." [Return to text]
Footnote 2: It was Joe who first told me it was a "so-high" sign...that is, a sign that says you have to be "so-high" in order to ride. [Return to text]
Footnote 3: The following sentence: "All passenger restraint systems, including lap bars, shoulder harnesses and seatbelts, must be positioned and fastened properly to allow guests to ride." ...is now posted on every ride in the park, including the Midway Carousel, Kiddy Kingdom Carousel, Racing Derby, Space Spiral, CP & LE Railroad, Witches Wheel, and White Water Landing...the seven rides which are not equipped with any of the enumerated restraining devices. Useless, meaningless boilerplate, good only for lawyers. [Return to text]
Footnote 4: Of course, not carrying the computer with me tends to delay the trip reports a bit... [Return to text]
--DCAjr
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