Cedar Point announces Wicked Twister will close in September

Good call. I should have scrolled down on rcdb. I'm secretly hoping for Michigan's Adventure as we're considering a midweek getaway there next summer. Besides TimberRider needs a win.

The two most used buzzword on the last investor call were efficiency and optimization. I don't think they are going to move this maintenance problem from one park to another. The steel is headed for the scrap heap and the rest of salvagable parts will be relocated.

I know we don't talk rumors here, so I'll just say I expect a new coaster to be announced within the next few weeks.

I liked WT. I haven't been on it in a very long time, because the park has many other better ways to spend my time.

I had one of my most amazing rides on WT in 2006. I was working at the park, and it was my day off. There was a huge downpour, and the ride was still running for some reason. I rode in the front seat, and as it rose up the frontwards twisted spike, a waterfall fell directly into my and my riding partner's faces from the center of the spiral. Then the same on the return climb up the spike. It was insane.

I guess you had to be there. LOL

I'm definitely sad about losing the ride. I hoped it would be something I could ride with Simon when he was brave enough to do it. I think the impulse is actually a great ride model, regardless of how the general public perceives it.

I can't say I'm surprised though. That thing was always a dog to operate. It was expensive, required a ton of maintenance, and never really captured the public's imagination the way that other coasters have. It's disappointing that they didn't even get 20 years out of it.

I will add that the media day for this was easily the most miserable of any at Cedar Point. It was rainy, and as they day went on, it kept getting colder. There was also some controversy about shooting video of it from Giant Wheel, which they were running.

Joe E. said:

I agree it doesn’t make much of a dent in your total park capacity, but it's one less good ride you can get on if the park is slammed. .

Completely agree. The only reason I mentioned not making a dent in capacity was actually with regards to this; even with its one-train operation, you can typically count on WT as being a relatively brief wait for an intense ride because 1) the line is generally nothing to write home about, and 2) the operations are usually really quick.

There is just something about this area of the park that feels...disjointed, and has for quite some time. I'm curious whether the "park improvements" will be focused specifically on the beach area itself, or with a larger footprint that extends out into the Kiddy Kingdom area, which could also use some love.

Dear Cedar Point,

We'll take your old broken-down leftovers here at CGA in California. Much appreciated!!

--Josh--

I suspect that the hardware is end-of-life.

The U-shaped coaster in China (https://rcdb.com/10044.htm) had a specification placard on it that quoted a service life of twenty years. It only lasted one due to a fire in the electrical room, though that's another story.

Yeah, watching with fresh eyes, there is definitely something going on with the purple chair in that video. Almost every shot is build around it and it is purposefully angled to simulate track where Wicked Twister should be. And looks like it has been CGI-ed with.

Again the page in the book talks about a kid going to CP when he was nine and sees "vibrant blue track". (MF in that case).

Remember back in '99 everyone was calling MF track purple when it appeared?

I wouldn't say everyone was calling it purple, they just saw some photos (captured with film cameras, because 1999) that had poor color rendering of the track sitting in what was then referred to as "the boneyard," which is now Lighthouse Point.

I thought the whole point of the book was simply to say that now Wicked Twister is becoming part of the park's history.

Where in the video is the chair weird? I don't see it.

Seems like in the first shot where the chair subs in for something in the skyline that would be in the space of WT, the camera momentarily purposefully refocuses on the purple rail.

Then a shot the chair is not even in of her from behind that obviously has some purple overlay.

Then there's the drawn out shot that shows the bottom edge of the chair with the sand.

At least two more shots where the purple chair is lit prominently.

Maybe I'm nuts or maybe the 2022 improvement will be more beach chairs...

When is a chair not a chair? When roller coaster enthusiasts see it in a video.

The video clearly showed mantis in the history book.

So all this means is WT is getting converted to a floorless for next year.

can’t believe you all missed that…..

That's the one thing that makes me wonder if it is going somewhere. Mantis closed but did not totally disappear it took a different form so maybe Wicked Twister will take a different form. If that happens though I would expect tat new form to be in another park. They can't have chosen the Mantis page randomly. They could have chosen it to mess with us though.

It's one less Intamin headache to work on...

I can see it going to Carowinds.

I know groupthink is +13 plussing against me here... But I own the book, and the page they show twice and point to the sidebar on has a big a$$ header that says Cedar Point has 18 roller coasters.

I don’t actually care enough to have read your (or anyone’s) speculative theory. I am personally so far past needing to figure out before the announcement. I remember when Hershey did their big puzzle for I think Faernheit? I didn’t especially care for that and that was 13 years ago before I had kids or a mortgage.

I dunno... she does "turn the page" on Maxair, which hasn't run this year. Just sayin' ; )

ApolloAndy said:

Dismissive stuff

Insinuate against time, but did have effort to respond to swat the newspaper on my head? I didn’t really consider in the lane of broad speculation... More making notes on the video, which IS the posted story topic?

I dunno...I like Cedar Point. This is more fun to think about then the Covid thread? Which I gave up on like Page 90.... What happened to Coasterbuzz