Cedar Point announces... wait for it... WindSeeker

"Cedar Fair is proud to announce 2011 ride selection and naming is sponsored by Xerox!"

I do like the ride and think it will be really neat there. I'll definitely be riding. I'm happier with this than I would have been most choices and I'm glad they are emphasizing the beach.

With that said, Cedar Point is really lacking in whole family rides and removing Ocean Motion is just another blow. The park has a lot of thrill rides and a lot of kids rides, but it really hasn't put a lot of money into any whole family rides. This one kind of struck me because my sister who won't ride anything bigger than Iron Dragon always loved the boat.

I know it's contrary to the direction they've been going for years, but I'd really like to see a seriously themed ride that you could take everyone on. I haven't been up to the park yet this year so maybe the new Shoot the Rapids will help (Whitewater landing was always good for that role), but I still think more focus should be that direction.

On a different note, does anyone else find it odd they'd put the same ride at Cedar Point and Kings Island in the same year? They definitely have an overlapping market in at least central Ohio and I'd think they'd want to space rides like that out among the two parks.

The Cedar Point version should be made the extremist of the installations by returning back to the loading platform by freefall, with the seats flying up past the 90 degree mark.

All while spinning at 93mph.

Doesn't the FunTime version drop a little bit, causing the seats to swing out further?

My thoughts...a repost from pointbuzz...

I think the "Stratosoar" name change can be explained. Here is the timeline:

* Early 2010: CF Execs go to Florida to check out a Starflyer. They plan to build a 400 foot Starflyer at CP, breaking the current world record. (source: Register article)
* July 16 2010: CF applies for the name "Stratosoar" as a trademark.
* August 18 2010: Register posts article stating that Funtime plans to sue CP for buying a "copied" ride from Mondial.

So, it would seem that talks failed with Funtime in late July, early August. We can guess that it might have been related to wind, as that was mentioned in the Register article. CP wanted to ensure less downtime due to wind, Funtime couldn't make any guarantees, and CP went with Mondial instead.

For whatever reason, Mondial didn't want to do 400 feet. So the Stratosoar name got tossed out in favor of WindSeeker. Funtime was, as they put it, "very, very angry" about being jilted at the last hour, so they went public with their story. It would not shock me if they contacted the Register first.

I still don't understand the Ocean Motion removal. It was first found online on July 21, so it does not appear to be related UNLESS the fallout with Funtime happened between July 16 and 21 and there is some major difference between the ride footprints for Starflyers and WindSeekers. It doesn't seem like there would be, so OM appears to have been on the chopping block all along. 180K doesn't seem like enough of a benefit to fix up a ride that 'might' sell, especially for a company spending $80M in CapEx every year.

All of these are, of course, my own personal theories.

I believe that they did indeed buy four of these because likely they got some type of discount for ordering in "bulk" with those rides. Also keep in mind, alot of times when one park on the other side of the country gets a ride, alot of people near the parks on the other side of the country usually beg for one nearer to their park. In this fashion, this attraction can be experienced around the country near both coasts and also near the larger majority of the population.

Seeing that some Cedar Fair parks got the Planet Snoopy this year and more next year, chances are if everything goes well with the Windseeker, some of the other parks will get them in 2012.

kRaXLeRidAh said:
Wahaha.

It's funny. A lot of people were expecting the Cedar Point ride to be 100' taller than the Knott's and Canada Wonderland rides.

Another example of how Cedar Point doesn't always go bigger than her sister parks.
==========8<----------
1992 - Snake River Falls & sister park Dorney's White Water Landing. Same exact ride, down to the specifications.

Funny thing about that...the rumor was that Cedar Point was going to get two Shoot-The-Chutes rides, interwoven and with the downchutes facing each other. Is it coincidence that Snake River Falls/White Water Landing were the first Arrow chutes rides built in a figure-8 configuration? It would be interesting to find out if the two rides are just enough different from each other that they could have been built on the same site. Remember, the Dorney purchase went through in 1991 so there might not have been time to develop a new project for that park.

jive2 said:
I look forward to make fart jokes while in line for these rides.

I've been doing that for a week now...

Cedar Creek Mine Ride said:
...On a different note, does anyone else find it odd they'd put the same ride at Cedar Point and Kings Island in the same year? They definitely have an overlapping market in at least central Ohio and I'd think they'd want to space rides like that out among the two parks.

This is the company that will buy back-to-back slots during the 11pm newscast in Columbus and run two virtually identical spots for Kings Island and Cedar Point in those two slots. Both parks identified as "The Fun and Only." They have absolutely not figured out how to handle overlapping markets.

"At Kings Island. Where else?" Uh, maybe Cedar Point?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Well, heck Dave. Their first problem is that their target demographic is probably not watching TV news at 11PM. Present company excepted, of course.

Michael W. Moss said: "I believe that they did indeed buy four of these because likely they got some type of discount for ordering in "bulk" with those rides. Also keep in mind, alot of times when one park on the other side of the country gets a ride, alot of people near the parks on the other side of the country usually beg for one nearer to their park. In this fashion, this attraction can be experienced around the country near both coasts and also near the larger majority of the population."

My take is that they wanted the 400 footer just for CP only and after they changed ships things changed. I did find it odd 3 other parks got it this year but agree about how people want a fun ride in their park as well. It does just feel that some of the parks has this kinda pushed on them. They had a place to put it, but were they really planning on doing something like this? So is CF going to start the 6Flags way of pushing a ride to all/most parks? I like the somewhat uniqueness in parks. I just expected to hear KI spending money in waterpark next year. Really need to do something with that hot concrete.

CoasterDaddy said:
I just expected to hear KI spending money in waterpark next year. Really need to do something with that hot concrete.

Yeah that is a common problem I see all too often in parks. There are areas even in Holiday World in the Thanksgiving section that have the concrete issues. They have gotten better and it takes time for the shade to grow in, but it's a bit much at times especially near The Voyage.

Pagoda Gift Shop said:
I still don't understand the Ocean Motion removal.

My guess is that is has more to do with operating and maintenance budgets, and cost of ridership, than location. Case in point: Demon Drop was "replaced" by Shoot The Rapids.

Yeah, because Shoot the Rapids has proven far less expensive to operate and maintain.

[/eye roll]

Well, it's better than CornHole!

Isn't this Moosh's cue? Hope he comes back soon. :(

GoliathKills said:
The Cedar Point version should be made the extremist of the installations by returning back to the loading platform by freefall, with the seats flying up past the 90 degree mark.

(like Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein)...MMMMMMMMM......

Tekwardo said:
All while spinning at 93mph.

(Peter Boyle again)...Double MMMMMMMM........

Wait! Where are you going? I was going to make expresso!

Where did u see the Top Thrill clue? All I saw was a windmill, a dinosaur, a couple on the beach, a diaper, crayons, feet, and the clue with mixed up letters that might have said airtime.