Cedar Point's Maverick will not open with park

And how much experience do you have testing rides, structural fatigue and recording accelerometer readings?

As I mentioned somewhere on PointBuzz, I don't think anyone here knows what division of responsibility is between Stengel and Intamin. I was always under the impression that Stengel's firm designed the path of the ride, calculating forces on the body and those kinds of sensations. The structural part I've always assumed was on Intamin. After all, the same folks have their hands in most of the B&M rides ever built, and none of those appear to have the structural retrofits that Intamin coasters have had.

I'm not going to bash Intamin here, even though this is a very unfortunate oversight.

Nothing great comes easy, and Intamin has been designing the best rides in the US for a while now. Perhaps it's just the price parks will have to pay in order to claim some of the best rides out there.

Unfortunate? Yes. Should Cedar Point be upset at the disappointment this delay will cause? You bet.

But as a coaster enthusiast, no one can touch an Intamin ride experience (see: El Toro). So why does CP keep purchasing these rides? Because when all is said and done, Intamin *delivers* rides that are ultimately worth the trouble.

I have no idea. But, I've worked in construction long enough to know it is already being fabricated or it's already fabricated if they plan to open the ride in a month. For instance, I just placed an order for aluminum doors for my project. Compared to coaster track, these things are cake. They started producing them today and won't be able to ship them for four to six weeks. I won't see them for another week because of shipping times. Sure, CP is in a bind and I'm sure someone is going to rush this job for them. But, my point stands that you can't design (CP said they are redesigning the track now), fabricate, paint, ship, install and test in a month.

Didn't MF have to have a support altered due to clearance issues?

I find it strange that in this world of advanced computer design you can still have problems like this. And I highly doubt it was any fault of Stengel's.

Just like Son of Beast. Stengel designed the layout. The structural engineering was an RCCA doing.

I'm not sure I would say Intamin designs the best rides. Perhaps their rides create the best rider experiences (although that is clearly subjective... a matter of personal preference), but as far as rider safety and mechanical reliability are concerned, I think they're an unquestionable failure.

I will get bashed for this question but I dont care. Why is it when something like this happens at a Six Flags Park everybody blames Six Flags and calls their parks bad and everything else but in this thread everybody is like ooo poor cedar point , must be intamins fault.

Are people that biased?

I have a feeling that either one of two things happened a) some people rode it and decided that it was too much to handle or b) they were testing it with the robot we've seen on some of those t.v. shows and they didn't like the results they got back in that section. Better safe than sorry.

I may make an unpopular comment about the park, but it seems like they're way behind schedule considering all the lead time up to now.

Well, we'll be there in the middle of June on the 20th and 21st. The trip is flexible enough though where we could easily rearrange the trip to push Cedar Point to the end of the trip if we had to.

I agree that it's a shame for the park, but this goes back to something that gets mentioned every year in the sticky topic about Vacation Planning (if it goes up again)--Don't plan your whole trip around one coaster, especially a new one. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and if it's open--great--and if it's not, well there are plenty of other coasters and rides we haven't ridden at CP since 2000.

Last year, we missed Mr. Freeze at St. Louis. I was more bummed for my friend who hadn't ridden one than for myself, since I had ridden the Texas version. My only regret is that it woud've kept me off The Boss again for sure.

^^ Of course most people here are biased! This is the part of the internet where Cedar Fair can never do any wrong. But seriously, I don't see how this could be Cedar Point's fault, just like I can't see how Kingda Ka's initial problems could possibly be blamed on Six Flags.

I see the heartline being totally replaced with a straightaway. It's probably the easist to manufacture and should be the most comfortable following the launch. I always felt a little iffy about that part of the layout - either it was going to be taken way too slow and you'd end up hanging from the restraint (Jo-Jo roll), or you'd take it way too fast and get some serious headbanging in the OTSR (Jo-Jo Roll from hell). Sounds like the latter happened.

Think about it. The same heartline inversion exists on Raptor. There, it's on the top of a hill where some speed has been bled off and the turn is comfortable. On Maverick, it's on the bottom of a hill (albeit after a trim brake) following a 70mph launch. No wonder they've found potential "guest experience" issues...potentially some extreme headbanging.

They've done the right thing here, however. Better to fix it before it's truly a problem than to gamble and potentially hurt people. Sure they're losing a little face on this, but the proactive move could save them in the long run.

No question there Rob, but my point still stands.

Count the # of Intamins on *any* poll (including Mitch's), and it may be a matter of preference, but an *overwhelming* preference in Intamin's favor. No doubt that these "incidents" are unfortunate, but by now it should be clear to the parks involved what they *may* be getting into.

However, I'm not sure you can even measure the positive PR, interest and ride experience an Intamin limit pusher can and has generated for Cedar Point alone.

Hey hey.. Come on Guys!!!!

This is the first major ride in forever that would not open up on Cedar Points opening day. They even had Dragster operating Opening day '03!

Early June isn't all that bad. The vactioners would have just started to trickle in and such. Im no ride engineer, but perhaps the barrel roll was just too much.

Uh oh... twice in one day, I'm forced to take the side of business rather than the side of emotion. While highly-rated rides are all well and good, they aren't good for a park if they get more coverage for being problematic than being an exceptional thrill. Maybe TTD and Kingda Ka get people all charged up, but what good are they if they're always down for repair and paying guests can't ride them?

You know, if Cedar Fair was THAT dissatisfied with Intamin, don't you think they would have stopped going to them LONG ago? I mean, after Perilous Plunge and Xcelerator, and the troubles they had with Wicked Twister, should have called it quits right then and there... but no, they go on to build Top Thrill Dragster and see worse problems than any of the previous coasters... AND STILL go back to Intamin...

...why? Because you look at ANY list of the best steel coasters out there and Intamin ALWAYS occupies the majority of the top 10. And pretty much ALL of their wooden coasters are ranking way up there too. When the problems are all worked out, Maverick is going to be a VERY popular ride for Cedar Point, just like all the other recent Intamins.

Remember when we all thought Intamin was Da Bomb.

On SOB Stengal's Company not only designed the ride but the loop and trains. RCCO and Premier originally started the project. RCCO was kicked off and the trains were altered to not include layered shock absorbing wheels.

If I also remember right, Stengel's Group was never named as a defended in the insuing lawsuit although tons of extra supports have been added since it opened. It's true, The ride broke a riser the second day it operated.

Chuck, who just thinks there are way to many *INSTANCES* and *MYSTERIOUS* things going on with intamin rides.

Didn't take long for the name IntaRide to become tarnished.

Exactly i hope CF will rip Intamin's contract because every ride in CP made by Intamin had opening delays even TTD had delays i just hope that Maverick will operate better.Intamin built Steel Venom At GL the ride opened better than Maverick,or Top Thrill it was a great run.

CF and Intamin A.G It Does't Mix. it just gets a little weirder than I expected as those three CP Intamin coasters didn't open right away.

Yep they are great coasters but they didn't work as they are expected to operate. Intamin's rides are great but cheap.Maverick I can't wait to ride it but delaying the opening i have to wait.

Rip offs Just rip offs for CP's money. I just hope it opens soon to coaster lovers who want to ride it.

They already know what they're doing for 2009. Let's just hope it's something well thought out and designed thoroughly. I don't hate Intamin though. I love their rides. As we all know, if we want extreme or unique, hiccups are going to happen. No matter what you're talking about, when you try something new and different, problems arise. The only way to "guarantee" no problems is to build clones like Six Flags. Do we really want that? I don't. The thing I love about Cedar Point is they're willing to push the envelope and everything always works out in the end. Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster and Wicked Twister all pushed the envelope. The problems are for all intents and purposes resolved and I love them all. The same will happen with Maverick. It's just unfortunate they weren't able to catch and repair this sooner. I'm sure this is going to hurt them in some way which sucks.