PointBuzz live blogging opening weekend at Cedar Point

They distributed the official POV...

Wow, no trim on the first drop, and that thing is just flying. Look at how fast it goes through the inclined loop. That's nuts. The low stuff at the end looks good too. The magnetic braking at the end will certainly be welcome, too.

Wow wow wow! That is so much faster than Mantis! I can only hope it stays like that at least until I get to ride it!

It's crazy how much that thing flies now. I only took 6 rides over the course of the morning, and I was graying out by the end.

I love, love, love the S turns even more than I ever did when it was a stand-up.

Cedar Point has a serious winner in this conversion.

This was my idea over a decade ago. I hope Cedar Point finds success with it. :p

how dare those bastards steal your idea!

The conversion works. It picks up serious g's at the bottom of most elements. My legs could feel forces through the whole ride.

As far as theming goes, it has a bit off the first drop with fog, but nothing too serious. The signage looks nice to replace that ugly Mantis one.

I never really thought it could improve the floorless design. I'm shocked, by the end result.

My idea, over a decade ago, was that it was a ridiculous notion and they would never, ever do such a thing.

Oh well.

LostKause said:

This was my idea over a decade ago. I hope Cedar Point finds success with it. :p

So are you gonna pull a Gonch and find the posts to prove it?

I do believe the oldest reference to changing Mantis over to a floorless is this thread posted November 4, 2000.

Which is kind of funny because the ride was just 4 years old at that point.

There was a little more of an actual conversation just a few months later in this thread posted on January 7, 2001.

Beyond that almost any mention of Mantis devolves into "Covert it to floorless!!!!!!!" territory.

So it looks like the number to beat on these forums is about 14 years or so.

Seriously though, it's funny how long that idea has been kicking around.

Remaining convinced that Lord Gonchar is an X-Man with the mutant power to instantly find Coasterbuzz threads....

Google has the site pretty well indexed. That's a good starting point.

(Sidebar: I'm actually experimenting with the search service in Microsoft's Azure, and it seems pretty robust. May give it a shot at some point.)

A little bit of Google-Fu is all you need.

I'll go ahead and tell you the story...

I worked the entrance to Mantis on Fridays in September for the Millennium Mania events. I encountered a lot of enthusiasts during that time, and I loved pulling people's legs. I didn't even think about it, I just blurted it out once. "Enjoy Mantis while you can, because within the next few years, they are going to make it a floorless."

After that, I heard the rumor going around every once in a while. It didn't grow like crazy, but it was amusing to hear about it sometimes.

I actually don't think that Cedar Point heard the rumor and took off with it though. If I ever mention that, it's just a little tongue in cheek coming from me.

I would have spilled the beans immediately at the time if I had read the posts Gonch linked to. I didn't even know about CoasterBuzz until sometime shortly after both of those topics were made.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. lol

I don't see why they needed to change the name though. Mantis was kind of a cool name and the logo was neat too.

I don't think you can really "sell" it if you keep the name. It makes sense.

They should have had the ride go back to the original name. That was much better.

It's taken.

Unlike Steel Sky Hawk-inator.

RCMAC got me thinking... I don't think I would ever like the idea of another ride claiming the Banshee name. It's probably just because I have an emotional connection to that ride for some reason.