Cedar Point, 6/2... Wind policy too strict?

Went to the park today and forecast said rain all day which luckily never even happened! It was partly cloudy pretty much the whole day. The downer of it, was the wind... Gatekeeper, Raptor, Sky Ride, Windseeker and TTD (half of the day) were closed all day due to wind.

So started off the day going right to Gatekeeper, sat around for 20 minutes at the entrance to have no action occur (we had hope since one train did a test run as we were entering the park). Moving on... walked over to Iron Dragon. 2 train wait. Good ride per usual. Next up was Millennium and the line was just at the bottom of the ramp! Awesome! Next up was Maverick and the line was just a little bit in the queu house. Great ride as usual! After that we got some food at the Roundup and got two chicken tender combos... each was 14.99 each with a drink, fries, and strips. Seemed a little steep seeing as for two baskets it was like 32 dollars.

Next we rode the antique cars which was a walk on, then after that we walked onto Mine Ride, then went to Mean Streak and waited about one cycle for the front row. Hey, we got to be the only people on the train too! We then decided to take the train up front to see if GK and Raptor had opened back up. No luck. Walked over to Blue Streak and had a pretty good ride and then rode Giant Wheel after. Next we went over to Magnum and once again, another walk on! At this point it was getting kind of hot so next we went to Shoot the Rapids... pretty much a walk on like most rides of the day. Checked out the new petting farm next. It was actually kind of cool. They got llamas, baby pigs, and some other animals too. We then took a spin on Mine Ride again and next took a spin on Gemini. With the light crowds it was good to see them running both sides. As far as Slingshot goes... well, no progress has really been made since opening day.

Next we wanted to ride TTD since it seemed to be running well all day! Too late, closed for the day. High winds? Mechanical? No clue. We then walked over to ID and took a spin on that again, then took another spin on Millennium as well.

Dinner time rolled around and we decide decided to head over and check out Chickie and Pete's, on the way we took a ride on Cadillac Cars.

I was throughly disappointed in the place. The menu was very limited I thought and the prices were pretty steep even for CP standards. 10 bucks for just a burger! Then add 9 for crab fries. Almost 20 bucks for a burger and fries. The fries were decent I guess but not as good as everyone claims them to be. The burger pretty much sucked too. Very dry. Friday's blows it out of the water. Heck even Game Day Grille was much better in my opinion.

So as for the wind policy. Is it too strict? It was breezy but only about 20 mph winds. I can udnerstasnd Sky Ride being shut down for the day but GK and Raptor? How can Mantis run all day but not these two?

The problem with your assessment of the wind policy is that the "breeze" on the ground can be substantially higher at heights like TTD. Gatekeeper is another animal, as I think the majority of the ride is facing a pretty solid headwind. Raptor has valleyed in the cobra roll in high winds before. Remember, down on the ground, you have buildings and ride structures all around that are shielding the winds that you're exposed to once you get above the roof lines.

It isn't just speed, but vector that matters as well. Raptor runs fine in the wind, but not if it's coming out of [specific direction here].

I was there yesterday as well (day 3 of a 4 day trip). Jeff & Raven are right. It was breezy on the ground but we went up on the Ferris wheel and my son kept saying "Today is a very Blustery Day! Happy Winds Day!" ala Winnie the Pooh. But get this; they opened both Raptor and GateKeeper at 9:30pm when the winds BARELY died down! Both were still running at 11:30pm when the rain finally started! Little things like this are what make Cedar Point awesome. Anywhere else would've called it a day, CP opened 2 marquee coasters when conditions allowed with the park scheduled to be open for another 30 minutes!

I'm not sure what "too strict" means. I'm inclined to think nothing is too strict when it comes to safety. Amusement parks have been at it a long time, they know their equipment and whatever is mandated, and wind is tricky.

One year I was at CP during an opening week and on one particular day it was so cold and windy we could barely stand upright. I was surprised by the rides that actually operated. We could get on Blue Streak, Mine Ride, Corkscrew, Space Spiral, and of course the train, and most flats. The biggest shock, though, was Power Tower. We rode it and it was sooooo windy up there, just awful. Maybe it's sturdy enough and controlled enough that wind doesn't affect it as much as a ride that might sway or roll backward in a gust, dunno. But I thought that was a strange one.

I think they can run that thing in almost any conditions outside of lightning. Unless there are some temperature issues, I imagine not much else could get in the way of it operating.