[Jonathan]

It's not going to open Saturday...

[Jarsh]

I heard they sunk again... with employees... with water up to their chest.

They should've build a floorless from B&M on that spot, lol!

[Jonathan]

Stunningly, Shoot the Rapids is in fact open to the public.

[Skycoastin Steve]

They should've build a floorless from B&M on that spot, lol!

I gotta say there's no way that'll ever happen unless B&M comes up with some new elements and such that have never been seen before. B&M's layouts are too boring for CP.

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

hmmmm must be broken already? 2 boats sittin on the lift just chillin... wonder what is goin on? Those boats seem close together, but I guess its safe on this type of flume?

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

Well looks like people are enjoying the new flume...

[flyer1965]

sorry, maybe it's just me, but that ride just looks boring. kind of like a bigger version of that ride back by putt-putt that nobody ever seems to want to ride

[Skycoastin Steve]

^In fairness, most flumes don't have much to them (with the exception of ones like Splash Mountain and Dudley Doo Right's). From what I've heard, Shoot the Rapids does have a decent amount of theming, and it's a nice way to cool off. It's also got a bigger drop than most water rides do. Not intended to be a hugely thrilling ride, but fun enough.

[Jarsh]

They should've build a floorless from B&M on that spot, lol!

I gotta say there's no way that'll ever happen unless B&M comes up with some new elements and such that have never been seen before. B&M's layouts are too boring for CP.

Yeah... that's why they have two already, one of which consistently ranks in the top 10 of most peoples list. I don't get the idea that people think B&M needs to come up with new elements. I mean, coaster elements are like the alaphabet... there are only so many items to choose from. The only thing they can do differently is change the order that they happen in and they've already tried that with Hydra and it got less than stellar reviews.

B&M would build more "interesting" layouts if requested. I know for a fact that they were contacted to build Millennium Force and they backed out because it was over their "normal" height.

If I was a park and trying to choose between a "cookie cutter" B&M that will open on time and run consistently or an Intamin that pushed the envelope a bit causing it to open late and have long bouts of downtime, I know who I'd go with. Parks should realize 99.9% of the general public doesn't give a crap who manufacturers the coasters. They simply look at the ride and go "This coaster is broken, it's always broken... Cedar Point sucks" or "This ride was fun and the line is short because it never breaks down... I love this ride and this park is awesome".

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

^^^ I agree jarsh, the GP dont care about the manuf at all. The public just wants something exciting to ride. I also would choose a B&M for the fact that its reliable and they do have good designs from what I have seen. Unfortunately for me I havent really been on any intamin coasters, so I cant really judge them on being smooth and stuff like that, but I can judge just from reading reviews and seeing what happens to their rides that they dont seem as reliable at B&M and other manufacturers. Oh well, I am sure that intamin will one day figure their issues out, maybe they are like Microsoft, they release their designs to early and end up with a lot of 'bugs' to fix... Oh well, we got a good ol B&M and so far its been very reliable...

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

sorry, maybe it's just me, but that ride just looks boring. kind of like a bigger version of that ride back by putt-putt that nobody ever seems to want to ride

Are you talking about white water falls? When I was there this past sunday the line for WWF was pretty large, every boat that was released was full so I dont know why "no one wants to ride" it. With the heat that we have down here and the lack of water rides, we are lucky to have a WWF ride. I do agree that yea it doesnt seem to exciting, but the point of the ride is to get you wet not to thrill you. You also have to look at the theming and the height of the flume, which is larger than most I do believe so it maybe more exciting that you think...looks can be decieving...

[flyer1965]

Are you talking about white water falls? When I was there this past sunday the line for WWF was pretty large, every boat that was released was full so I dont know why "no one wants to ride" it. With the heat that we have down here and the lack of water rides, we are lucky to have a WWF ride. I do agree that yea it doesnt seem to exciting, but the point of the ride is to get you wet not to thrill you. You also have to look at the theming and the height of the flume, which is larger than most I do believe so it maybe more exciting that you think...looks can be decieving...

yeah, i was talking about that. just that it seems like there's this big deal to load up the boat, go up, do a u-turn, and splash down. Escape from Pompei was the same thing for me. I was like, "you mean this is IT?" they are slow to load (at least not as bad as the raft ride though). I rode the raft ride a couple times last night when there were ZERO people in it, but the time waiting to unload was ridiculous.

Its just funny to think how some of these older rides that are pretty mild by today's standards were "the big new thing" some time in their past. I think the long line at white water canyon is also due to it being a VERY low capacity ride.

The new cedar point shoot the rapids ride looks like what carowinds would have gotten when Paramount owned it (ie less thrilling than all the new Diamondbacks, Intimidator 232 and 305, etc.). It's just cool that Cedar Fair gave is paying attention to Carowinds and put in such a great coaster instead of giving Carowinds a new flume.

I've been to Cedar Point, and it blows the socks off Carowinds or Kings Dominion, but it's so far away. Good for them, I will wait to go back there till after they build something else besides this, however.

[Skycoastin Steve]

They should've build a floorless from B&M on that spot, lol!

I gotta say there's no way that'll ever happen unless B&M comes up with some new elements and such that have never been seen before. B&M's layouts are too boring for CP.

Yeah... that's why they have two already, one of which consistently ranks in the top 10 of most peoples list. I don't get the idea that people think B&M needs to come up with new elements. I mean, coaster elements are like the alaphabet... there are only so many items to choose from. The only thing they can do differently is change the order that they happen in and they've already tried that with Hydra and it got less than stellar reviews.

B&M would build more "interesting" layouts if requested. I know for a fact that they were contacted to build Millennium Force and they backed out because it was over their "normal" height.

If I was a park and trying to choose between a "cookie cutter" B&M that will open on time and run consistently or an Intamin that pushed the envelope a bit causing it to open late and have long bouts of downtime, I know who I'd go with. Parks should realize 99.9% of the general public doesn't give a crap who manufacturers the coasters. They simply look at the ride and go "This coaster is broken, it's always broken... Cedar Point sucks" or "This ride was fun and the line is short because it never breaks down... I love this ride and this park is awesome".

CP's two B&Ms.

Raptor: built in 1994 (only the 6th invert B&M built, and only the 4th unique layout), introduced the cobra roll element, and was the tallest and fastest invert at the time.

Mantis: built in 1996, introduced several elements to the stand up variety, including the dive loop and inclined loop (which was the first of its kind), was also the tallest and fastest stand up at the time.

Common denominator? New elements, tallest and fastest. CP doesn't want some boring floorless coaster that you can ride anywhere else, and they don't want a dive coaster that repeats the same elements twice in a row. They want a coaster that will make your jaw drop and make you want to ride again. For instance: Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, Maverick.

At this point in time, B&M provides absolutely nothing that you can't experience at any other park in the country. However, companies like Intamin, Maurer Sohne, Premier, and S&S (among others) are coming up with new ideas and new ride types that have been moving the industry forward. A perfect example, this new coaster going in at BGT is highly rumored to be built by Intamin and is supposed to introduce something never seen before. When was the last time B&M could say that? The dive coasters? I'll give B&M credit for building reliable people eaters for coasters, but if you've ridden one, you've ridden just about all of them.

[Jarsh]

It seems like you didn't understand my post because you just resaid everything you'd already said. My post was pointing out the fact that the GP doesn't care who the ride is made by as long as it's open. And while I'll give Intamin the edge (by a mile) on creativity with their designs, that has also hurt their reputation. B&M may be boring, but they get the job done and they get it done very well.

Out of all the manufacturers you named how many of them can say that ever single coaster they've ever opened always opened on time (if not early - including "prototypes") and ran constantly?

[Skycoastin Steve]

My entire point about this is that CP is not going to build a coaster that is "ordinary" by any stretch of the imagination. They're willing to take the risk of downtime to build a ride that delivers something totally new and exciting. Which is why there's absolutely no way they're going to use B&M until they come up with something that the GP won't say, "oh, this is just like Ride X at Park Y." That's been my point this whole time. I never said anything about reliability, I was talking about how CP won't be interested in B&M because of their horrific lack of creativity.

I don't know anyone that hates CP because some of their rides might be down at times. In fact, their maintenance staff is one of the best anywhere. Take the MF cable incident for example. At a Six Flags or smaller park, that would have taken the ride down for weeks upon weeks. CP had it back up and running in what, a week max? Any time a coaster of theirs experiences downtime, they have it operating again in the shortest amount of time possible. Shoot, even Magnum was running (albeit with one train) the day after its "crash" in 2007. They don't have that mentality that some parks have where they just leave it down for the day and say "tough luck" to their guests. And even if it's a downtime that takes them past closing, they still get it running again as long as people are still waiting to ensure that everyone still gets to ride. Even then, coming from someone who worked there for two years, their coasters aren't down that often.

So once again, all they want is a ride that's going to blow the GP away and deliver a unique experience. That is, and most likely always will be, their #1 priority with new ride installations. Which until further notice takes B&M out of the discussion.