Cedar Point announces Shoot The Rapids for 2010

Well, actually, (and somewhat in my defense) I was trying to guard against opening up the same can of worms discussion about PointBuzz that took place a while back, maybe even in this actual thread.

I am an occasional poster at PointBuzz, although I try to make sure I have fact in hand before I speak. No offense intended toward Walt, his fine site, or his legion of dedicated Cedar Point fans.

If my post sounded pointless and troll-ish I apologize.

I agree 100% that cedarpoint needed a log flume ride but..........

The main reason I like to go on flume rides is because you don't get that wet. This is almost like a thunder canyon with drops. This ride is not filling a void, it is copying what thunder canyon does by going under a waterfall.

What they should have built is a ride like whit water landing, or wild thornberrys. Just a small splash of water....not a drenching.

There are strange and overzealous fans in all online communities.

/Lerch..... "You rang?" ;)

Seriously, it's easy to generalize when a community is as specific as an online coaster forum (and possibly even moreso when, like GAdv forums or PointBuzz, it's devoted to one park) - but there's significant variation between and among posters on ALL sites....far beyond the range of just amusement-related sites.

Gemini said:
My pet peeve is when someone overgeneralizes the site, lumping everyone together as one, as if they collectively share the same opinion and have the same posting style.

Yes, but I think it's entirely fair to say all of those individuals combine to form a general tone.

I don't think RCMAC was generalizing anything in his original statement. He was pointing out that someone made a ridiculous post about CP's hidden agenda with the new ride. His "I know" was merely a concession that if you are going to find that kind of ridiculous commentary, it will most likely be at PointBuzz.

I think that's a fair and true statement. But it's not an indication that that's all you find at PointBuzz. And that seems evident to me by the fact that he mentions that he himself posts there.

I took "I know..." as meaning, "I know, I should know better to even reference it," as if there's no trust factor. I hope that's not how people feel. I don't think there's a better source of Cedar Point information online or off than those forums. For someone to write it off as not trustworthy or full of ridiculous commentary is disappointing.

The community is very quick to shoot down the noise, better than most sites with a similar audience. People see the "500 foot" post as typical, but ignore the next 5 posts refuting it. I don't know where the specific post he mentioned is at, but I bet it was shot down, or at worst, ignored.

Crazy Horse, although I'm really digging this new ride, I really wanted a traditional log flume as well. It looks to me like this ride will be on a track, which means that it won't meander, but rather it will run a path much like Jurassic Park River Adventure. It's not a bad thing, but I would have much prefered a true replacement; an old style log ride like White Water Landing.

In saying that, I am very happy that they at least followed through with their promise of replacing it, and I am sure that this new ride will be awesome!

PointBuzz? It's still around? I haven't visited that site in years. :)

It only tracks on lift and the drop. It's a floater the rest of the way.

Speaking of track, I can't tell by the animations if the boats are attached to the track by means of an upstop wheel, or if the boat just rests on top of the track, like Snake River Falls.

I haven't seen the system up close, but apparently there's a "guide" down the middle that attaches to the boat. That's what the Holiday World system appears to do.

After a little googling, I found this blog which has some nice shots of how Pilgrims Plunge works:
http://utcoaster.blogspot.com/2009/06/holiwood-nights.html

Thanks for the info Jeff, and thanks for the awesome link, Fun.

I hate to dig up "old" topics but I just looked at the Facebook photo gallery Holiday World just posted and found the comments interesting.

The only negative thing I can find is.

I guess this will give HW another reason to increase their amazingly HIGH admission price.

When Cedar Point announced Shoot the Rapids the comments were overwhelmingly negative.

Not surprising when even the video of Dick Kinzel for this ride starts with, "I know we're known for 17 coasters/capital of the world blah blah blah." I suspect they'll never live that down.

I don't remember the response being so negative for MaxAir or Skyhawk.

At least they didn't remove a ride for MaXair & Skyhawk.

And the park didn't hype either of those rides....er, I mean, the park didn't publicize and market those rides with the same enthusiasm as it did Shoot the Rapids.

They made announcements on thoserides AFTER the end of the seasons, too.

Exactly! They didn't announce anything for those rides until afterwards and didn't make them out to be a huge deal. CP WAAAAYYYY overhyped here. I'm a big fan of flat rides, not just coasters. For instance when Tomb Raider was announced for Kings Island I was excited to see what they did with the theming/story and what not. That was a hyped announcement too because I remember on their maps they had "Coming Soon" where it was going to be and had signs all over the place in the park for it too.

Fact of the matter, CP cannot overhype things like this. It kills the ride before it gets started. If they would've waited until off season to announce it and build it without any "XXX Whyte Lightning" bottles being sent out and it's own dedicated website, then I really would have been fine. But this just feels like a low blow almost. I'm not saying I've never enjoyed a log flume, but seriously, don't make people think it's going to be a big deal by doing a ****load of marketing for it before.

I'm in advertising so I'm all about getting the product out there. I'm sure a simple commercial with "by the way, we have a new family water ride edition" would have been just fine.

For, what, the 239,645th time, CP didn't make anyone think it was a big deal. You did that yourselves.