Cedar Point announces Shoot The Rapids for 2010

I think there is very much a sliding scale when it comes to enthusiasts, and Im not even talking about the level in which they indulge by going to parks. On one hand you have people who only care about the coasters, nothing else matters, period. On the other hand you have some people (mostly Disney fans which is a varient of enthusiast) that only care about the whole park experience and could be perfectly content to not ride a single ride all day, some even hate coasters.

Then you have the type that tends to prevale here, people who definatly love roller coasters, but in the end prefer to go to have a "complete park experience" by riding other rides, seeing shows, enjoying good food, etc. While good coasters are a huge plus, in the end we are happy at parks that have good customer service, are clean, run efficiently and have a wide range of amusments to tie us over the whole day. I know thats where I personally fit in, and from the comments Ive read here over the years a lot of others here do too. When the term "enthusiast" is thrown about here its mostly in reference to the coasters or die club which at least I know will never understand. I tried doing only coasters a few times at bad SF parks (AW, DL, etc.) and guess what I did not enjoy my time there, something was seriously missing and even if the coasters were decent to good the parks still stunk and I have no desire to go back to them.

Give me WDW, Universal, Busch, Kennywood, Hershey, SFFT, SFOG, CP, KI, etc over any of those. In many reasons my trips to those SF have soured me on that chain (in addition to some bad times at SFGAm in the mid 90s) so much so I havent gone back and dont know when I ever will.

Wow!! The topic under I305 has 228 comments and this one already has over 300 in less than 2 days dealing with a log flume!!

^ interesting point you make. Maybe if you fall under the complete park experiene your an amusement park enthusiast or if you fall under the roller coasters and nothing else matter category which i lean towards your a roller coaster enthusiast. :)

My only comment is, with OTSR's, will this truly be a family ride? I remember WWL was neat in that I believe the height requirement was only 42 inches, and at one time it may have been less than that. With OTSR's, that will probably be 52 inches or even 56, making it that much harder for a "family" to truly enjoy a "family" ride together. I recall many times on WWL as a kid with the entire family riding (and on the Mill Race as well). That didn't happen with the coasters, and I don't know if it would have happened with this ride either.

It will have over the shoulder lapbars, which isn't anything like over the shoulder restraints at all. From my understanding, it may have a bar between the two-across riders, like an otsr, but it will not be over the solder like a looping coaster. That bar in the middle will hold the lapbar...at least that's how I have interrupted it.

Wait isnt this going to have the same restraints as Pilgrim's Plunge? If it is it will be like Maverick's restraints, minus the OTSRs and with less padding.

Once again, I think we should refrain from referring to them as OTSR's. They are over the head lap bars. Nothing on these restraints will be pinning your shoulders.

I'm not sure what that has to do with height restriction, necessarily. These boats are rather open compared to a standard log rides, and I suppose they could've ordered high-sided logs and avoided lap bars, (although IOA managed to do both), but then they lose the ease of loading and 10 person/boat capacity.

I like the idea of lap bars on this type of water ride. We've all seen people stand on log and raft rides to try to move out of the way of approaching water. One spring a young girl made an untimely exit from the upper portion of WWL and the result was not good for her. People "accidentally" fall in and go swimming on raft rides, too. Since this ride is drenching and seems to have some speed, the less shenanigans Cedar Point has to worry about the better off they are. I think the lap bars just might help lower that height restriction.

^That post right there is post #305. Coincidence?

Touchdown said:
Then you have the type that tends to prevale here, people who definatly love roller coasters, but in the end prefer to go to have a "complete park experience" by riding other rides, seeing shows, enjoying good food, etc. While good coasters are a huge plus, in the end we are happy at parks that have good customer service, are clean, run efficiently and have a wide range of amusments to tie us over the whole day.

This has always been the vibe I was going for, with the site, and with CoasterBuzz Club, and I'm thrilled that for the most part it's what we've got. It's nice to meet up with folks and do more than talk shop.

^ I fully agree.

Yeah, we try to look at day at a park not just on how many laps we got on a ride, but on the "complete package."

And, yes, if there's a coaster within two hours of where we are, we would drive the distance to get a lap or three :) (I'll admit I'm guilty of that one.)

305th post! Wow! Is that anything like being the millionth rider? I'm completely taken by surprise, and I would like to take this opportunity to say I'm thrilled and honored! Thank you, friends! And thank you, CoasterBuzz!

Where's my CF prize package?

^ You get: a left-handed screwdriver, an all 16ths wrench, a can of blinker fluid, and a case of muffler bearings!!! :)

Oh.

I can't help but remember how much fun it was to ride the old Shoot The Rapids. Dual wooden canals .... no lighting at night ... the smell of the smoke from the train ... the boats getting stuck between the first and second drop. Getting wet from the drop ... not from some cheap waterfall trick. For a kid it was a good fun and long ride. While I like the idea of the retro name ... the ride does look like it could use some help.

Interesting factoids from my memory - for the first couple of seasons Shoot the Rapids had a mobius track - what appeared to be 2 courses was actually one. The two tracks were side by side until near the end of the low section where one separated from the other and went under the lift. When they met back up for the lift the right was the left and vice-versa. It was changed to two separate tracks some seasons later, probably to allow 1 track operation and I think it also allowed them to widen the path of that part of Frontier Town. It was right behind the Roundup where the queue for Maverick is now.

Remnants of the original STR could be seen from WWL below the short lift just before the cave/tunnel. That's where the loading platform for STR was, near the train station. The double drops were fun, although short, and there was another small lift before the second one. The runoff after the 1st drop curved to the right and if you were in the right chute the curve was more abrupt and the water just poured in the left side of the boat, drenching the riders legs and feet.

I remember during the school year before the ride debuted (67-68) a friend of mine who talked about amusement parks incessantly came running up to me with the news that CP was building a new ride called Shoot the Rabbits! I said "What?!?" Well, he didn't have any details, just the name, so I spent a great deal of worry about a ride that expected you to hurt bunnies. Much relief that summer to find out it was another flume and nothing to do with rifles!

I wonder if that guy isn't around here somewhere...

LostKause said:
It will have over the shoulder lapbars, which isn't anything like over the shoulder restraints at all. From my understanding, it may have a bar between the two-across riders, like an otsr, but it will not be over the solder like a looping coaster. That bar in the middle will hold the lapbar...at least that's how I have interrupted it.

Didn't your mom ever tell you it wasn't polite to interrupt? ;)

And for a second there, I thought Touchdown defiantly loved coasters (I love coasters--- and nothing you or anybody else can say or do will ever change that!).

WildStangAlex said:
Police officers and Security Guards and major urban areas that use them are able to protect larger areas because they have greater mobility and are now taller than the general public.

And fatter...

The hype machine before the Segway was launched said that cities would be designed around them. The exact opposite is the trend in urban planning right now.

RatherGoodBear said:
I'm more amused how enthusiast is such a naughty word on a coaster site.

Heh, IMO if you're a member of a web site that talks about roller coasters you are an enthusiast.

Walt S said:
My only comment is, with OTSR's, will this truly be a family ride?

I am surprised there hasn't been more comment on that, especially from the same group that has criticized Intimidator 305 for having OTSRs (me included). Dudley Do-Right has lap bars and that's still a pretty family friendly attraction. Sort of takes a tiny bit from the experience.

Perhaps that's because they're not OTSR's.

Thank you. Once again- no they're not.

Maybe I need to pay more attention when choosing from the list of correctly spelled words, RGB. Feel free to interpret me anytime with any spelling suggestions. ;)

8.3, Word is that it's not going to be over the shol- ...

Wait. I already said that in my very last post. :)

Edited to separate words from each other.

Sorry, I meant OTSLBs, which is why I mention Dudley Do-Right in the same breath. Muscle memory.