Arrow still has highest ridership/ capicity @ CP as of 2007

2007 top 5 Ridership: #1 Magnum 1,525,188

#2 Gemini 1,481,791

#3 MF 1,480,085

#4 Iron Dragon 1,434,393

#5 Raptor 1,421,255

Maybe CP should invest in S&S coasters?

I wouldnt mind a 4d myself. One day I plan to try and get out to MM to try that one out.

I'm thinking Maverick might top it out being open all season this year.

Doubt it, people will ride Magnum that won't ride Maverick and the capacity is not near as high as Magnums.

Bingo. I was initially surprised to see that Iron Dragon sees more riders than Raptor, even considering that Iron Dragon is more of a family coaster. But despite the fact that Raptor seats 4 more riders per train than Dragon's, Raptor has a lower overall capacity. Now the ridership stats make sense.

Its kind of sad that only two rides in the top 5 was an ERT ride too, Maverick has on average 3 extra hours of operating time per day then Magnum (1 in the morning and 2 in the evening as its long line makes it through.) Its a testament to how well Magnum is loved by guests that most days it sends out full trains up until closing even though the line has dwindled to nothing usually 20 min before, there are so many people like me that make it a point to marathon it at the end of the night instead of grabing one last ride on Maverick, TTD or MF.

The other funny thing to remember is that Gemini usually doesnt open the Blue Side until at least 11, usually 12 and closes it again 1-2 hrs before closing. Expect to have Iron Dragon bounce up some more spots this year now that its an ERT ride, I know waiting in line for MF most mornings it had fairly full trains from around 9:20 up to 10. I would not be suprised at all if it managed to leap over MF.

Finally this list is partially incorrect, if I remember correctly Magnum was not the most ridden attraction at the Point, the CP&LE RR was.

What a bummer that Millennium Force still didn't reach its earlier highs, especially since I thought the crew last year did a pretty good job. Although, most everything has trended down over the last few years, and I wonder why that is.

^MF had a bit of downtime last year though, including a transformer blowing. This year I think they did an even better job (so far) with keeping on interval, and I haven't seen it down for mechanical yet this year.

Of course, last year was also the year Magnum was down for 2 weeks and only running two trains for another two weeks too. So it might jump back over the CP&LE RR. I also have to say that the Raptor crew has really impoved this year too, after years of getting worse, I did not see much stacking this year. It will be interesting to see if a "Bill bounce" happens to all the rides this year.

Magnum will most definitely still capture the #1 spot in ridership for the 2008 season. Just before I left the park at the end of July, my crew had already topped out on the 1,000,000 rider mark with all of August and weekends in September and October left. Should be ending up somewhere near 1.8 million. Maverick will come nowhere near the top - not with their numbers struggling to exceed 1,000 an hour and all of their mechanical downtime.

I think it is interesting to look at the 'theoretical' hourly capacity numbers. Not really the theoretical capacities, but what the actual capacities would be if the trains always went out full, given the way the rides are operating.

And with that in mind, perhaps the saddest statistics in the park are Blue Streak, which has dwindled from 1,440 PPH to about half of that; and Gemini, which has gone from 3,400 PPH with six trains down to not 2,400 as you might expect with four, but more like 1,200 PPH.

Also notable is the relationship between ride capacities at peak for each coaster...

1964 1,440 Blue Streak
1969 1,200 Cedar Creek Mine Ride
1970 0,800 Wildcat
1976 1,440 Corkscrew
1978 3,400 Gemini
1985 1,200 Avalanche Run/Disaster Transport
1987 2,016 Iron Dragon
1989 1,800 Magnum XL-200
1991 1,400 Mean Streak
1994 1,600 Raptor
2000 0,900 Millennium Force
2002 0,800 Wicked Twister
2003 0,600 Top Thrill Dragster
2007 0,900 Maverick

Hey, what happened when they stopped buying Arrow coasters? And why don't they seem to care about capacity anymore? I remember when Cedar Point was Kapazität über alles (außer Sicherheit) and they actually advertised that they gave more rides per hour than anybody else in the industry.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The capacity is not as important as how long people are standing in line. With the exception of the busiest few weekends, I can't say that I ever spend a lot of time in line there. I don't know if I'm typical or not, but I sure seem to notice standing in line more at virtually any other park. I mean, even Maverick has never been longer than an hour for me. If the line was longer, I didn't get in it!

^^
Millennium gives more than 900/hour, it's more around 1,296/hour. Top Thrill Dragster should pull in close to 1,100/hour on a normal day as well. AS of right now, most coasters in the park are well above last years ridership numbers. All crews this summer have been doing a fantastic job. Magnum is approaching (or may have already) 200,000+ on last year and Millennium is up 120,000+ as of right now. Don't look at those manufacture capacity numbers, they are only good from their opening season. Most coasters have seen new safety systems implemented that slow things way down. Mantis, where I worked this season, is a good subject simply because in 1996 there were no seat belts, standing wasn't so closely watched and three trains making it pull in 1,800/hour. Today ride hosts have to deal with seat belts and properly positioned seats (absolutely no low or high seats) and only two trains. We are lucky to hit 900/hour.\

^^I'm not sure if you are typical either, Jeff, but I would have to say my wife and I would share your thoughts about being in line. I think it simply comes down to numbers; CP simply has so many options, that, unless you are there on a hideously busy July weekend, there is no reason one has to wait more than 15-20 minutes for even the newer/bigger attractions. How many parks can say that?

I dont know the "Bill" of whom people speak of (ride operations?), but I for one have noticed a significant difference in operations over the past 2 years. In fact, there seems to be a bit of the ol' ride-op charm that always made CP stand out.

Bill was VP of operations prior to being assigned to Geauga Lake as the GM there. When the park was closed, they pulled him back to CP to take on the operations role again. I think he's an excellent manager and he gets operations like so few do.

Jeff said:
The capacity is not as important as how long people are standing in line. With the exception of the busiest few weekends, I can't say that I ever spend a lot of time in line there. I don't know if I'm typical or not, but I sure seem to notice standing in line more at virtually any other park. I mean, even Maverick has never been longer than an hour for me. If the line was longer, I didn't get in it!

Thank you, Jeff! I get so tired of hearing people say they waited two hours for Millennium and three hours for Maverick. When I worked at the park for two summers, Millennium never got past 45-hour unless it was crazy busy in the park. Maverick's entire queue is probably 1.5 hrs, but there's no way people waited in a 1.5 hour line outside the queue.

Uptime has a lot to do with this as well. If TTD rolls back a few times in a day they lose over a lot of rides.

I am still surprised to see Magnum at the top since they have to actually close off rows at times because ridership is so low. They really got their money's worth out of those rides.

Its always interesting to see those numbers. Next time someone says its time for Draggin Iron to be replaced you can just forward them that list.

RideMan said: I remember when Cedar Point was Kapazität über alles (außer Sicherheit)...

Gewinn kommt erst heutzutage!

RideMan, how did you calculate the stats you came up with for the relationship between maximum ridership and capacity?

Cedar Point has always been pretty good with ride capacity and it hasnt really changed much over the past few years. The problems with the other rides not getting those numbers have been consistency.

If you look over the past few years, Maverick is still breaking in, and will get better over the next few years. It still has plenty of downtime, although not much when i'm there to notice, but i hear about it. Same goes for Millenium Force. The arrangement that i see when they work the circuit is that they have one loading, one in unload, and one on the track, most times they are sending one as one comes in. So generally most days they are at one train on the track moving while others are in the station. I wont even talk about the dragster, but it is not very smooth with operations in alot of different areas.

The intamins since being installed mainly dragster and millennium force have also added problems with seatbelts and things like that, which cause a delay in the station, although im not saying others don't, but its far more of a hassle when trying to squeeze someone in and unlocking restraints when they dont fit. On others coasters, its all about mainly someone getting off or they go through to the other side, its a quick release and recheck of the restraints. So it saves more time.

Lastly, i look at rides such as the magnum and Iron Dragon and they are always packing trains where they are set up to run multiple trains on the track, all in all the restraint systems for the most part allow for quicker dispatches and also better pacing for intervals to be hit. Thus allowing for quicker rides.

I haven't seen Millenium force hi tnterval since about 2003 when they changed things around a bit.

The train in load never leaves until the train on the course is dead stopped.

And the ridership for Iron Dragon still proves the point for family rides. I have seen some ridiculous waits for ID, even on days when things aren't that busy.