Cedar Point's Maverick will not open with park

Rip-offs? I don't think so. If Cedar Point didn't go with Intamin stuff, I probably wouldn't have much of an interest in returning. What got me to the Point in the first place? Millennium Force (not to mention the stop at SFO to ride S:UE). There was nothing else there that hadn't already been (somewhat) duplicated or exceeded in other parks that were closer than Sandusky, OH.

Raptor? Busch built Alpengeist. Magnum XL-200? Steel Force opened up at Dorney Park in 97' and is fairly similar (the overgrown minetrain), not to mention Apollo's Chariot opened up at BGE a couple of years later, and S:ROS the year later.

Do I doubt that another B&M will probably land back in Cedar Point at some point? Maybe, but there's got to be some kind of innovation that gets my attention. Floorless? Been there done that. A monster flyer? That could work, but could be quite sketchy as well based on people's reaction to Tatsu's pretzel loop which is supposedly overly strong. Dive coaster? Is it shocking enough? I'll find out this summer I hope.

I'm hearing advertisments for Maverick right now on television they stoped doing the commercials due to the delay. that's good they will do them again in late may to early june. If They still did them it will be wierd.

GASP! A first in CP's history?

So, who wants to take a chance and bet that it won't make it up for Coaster Mania. After all, the recent history on new coasters running for this event isn't too good. Think back:

#1 Wicked Twister down for it's debut Coaster Mania due to electrical problems.
#2 Top Thrill Dragster down for Coaster Mania and quite a bit of the summer its initial season.

But then again, maybe the third time will be the charm.

Screamscape mentioned the rumor of a late opening back on March 16-17, so theoretically (and hopefully) this decision was made around that time. Hopefully that means the new pieces are already on the way.

Early June? With new steel placement, another pull through, testing, certification by the state? The new track better be here soon. I wouldn't be surprised if the staff worked 24/7 once it arrives.

You know, with the exception of Cedar Point, you really don't hear that many parks complaining about problem Intamins (Volcano and Xcelerator being the only two, however, after a season or two, both are VERY reliable and VERY well running rides), you could throw Kingda Ka in there too, but again, now that it has had a season or two to break in, it's running quite well. I personally think Cedar Point is pushing Intamin too far... let Intamin go back to building hypers and jr. hypers for a while and their rep will be right back up.

Mavrick has had several long weeks if not months of testing, Im sure the problems encountered with this ride were discovered long ago. But again, Im no engineer nor park personell.

B&M likes chain lifts. Those are susally quite long. CP doesn't have much room. Intamin likes new lifting/launch technologies. They fit more in CPs layout. Maybe it's just me, but I thought I heard them say that they want to fit the best layout into their parks, and usually that involves a short lift hill/none at all.

But whatever, just me. Worried, but I won't be there anytime soon, just as long as they have it open when I go and have it run with a good capacity.

The reason CP chose Intamin is because B&M's are all basically the same. B&M's are very reliable because they never came up with an inovative idease ever they just copied other companies (standup-Intamin, Flying-Vekoma).

Intamin likes to push the envolope and sometimes it does not pan out like they wanted it too. And one other thing that i find funny is when Kinda Kha did not work it was Six Flags fault and now that it is happining at the point it is Intamin's fault

Stephen Chbosky

Not all B&M chain lifts are long (see Goliath SFOG, Sheikra, Griffon, etc.) I don't think space is really an issue of choosing Intamin over B&M, as B&M has fit coasters into small spaces just as well as Intamin (see Dæmonen.)

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Screamscape mentioned the rumor of a late opening back on March 16-17, so theoretically (and hopefully) this decision was made around that time. Hopefully that means the new pieces are already on the way.

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Nonsense. They didn't even have the accelerometer dummy on the ride until a couple of weeks ago. You don't spend all kinds of money booking satellite time and production equipment knowing you're not going to use it.

I'm about to fantasize here but how about raising the barrel roll somewhat into a barrel dive rather than being so flat to the ground or will it still susbstain the same about of force either way? Or extend the layout a tad now that your working with that 70mph launch you could possibly have room to work with tweaking the direction?.

Granted the whole point of maverick in the first place was to be a fast/low to the ground swooping coaster. But to see a straight run through the canyon would disapoint me a little bit deep down though it wouldnt make me want to ride it any less, maybe if plans go in that direction possibly next year they could add on to the canyon and make it enclosed and a little longer which could make for some fun flying down into.

Somewhat related: Here is a high-speed Intamin Heartline with extra-wide trains testing in spain: Furios Baco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNG-NWhM3TY

I

Jeff,

Your point makes sense, but then how do they intend to go from manufacturing a new piece of track to opening the ride in just a few weeks time? I mean, what else is a more major operation to a coaster than replacing a piece of track? I'm sure the people who know will be tight-lipped about the "real" details and timeframe in order to avoid as much negative press as possible.

Here's hoping they were wise in the estimation, even if I don't get how it can be done!

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pkidelirium said:
I find it strange that in this world of advanced computer design you can still have problems like this. And I highly doubt it was any fault of Stengel's.

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This is directly from Stengel's website:

"We provide any or all of the following professional services for all kind of amusement rides (Portable and Permanent):

- Overall Design
- Design of Roller Coaster track following spline curves
- Computation of all forces react on the passenger
- Determination of all units including drives and brakes
- Stress analysis, structural analysis and fatigue analysis "

So, if they are removing or modifying the heartline due to excessive forces, how is this not "any fault of Stengel's"? If they did all of the calculations and Intamin built it to spec, how would this be Intamin's fault?

- Aaron K

(edited for formatting)

*** This post was edited by ColumbusCoaster 5/9/2007 8:58:35 AM ***

The blame lies slightly with Cedar Fair also..............they want everything to be sensationalistic and prototype at Cedar Point. Bigger, faster, etc. instead of building moderate rides with successful technology. Intamin is at fault for poor design and simply for their willingness to take on these prototype projects.

The biggest concern though with Intamin rides IMO should not be their mechanical failure, but their restraint failures over recent years.

A nice GCI twister like Valleyfair would be a nice addition to Cedar Point, but it is not sensationalistic enough for them to install at this point..........In recent years they have chosen hype over quality of the ride. Very few problems with Hershey's moderate version of TTD technology...............*** This post was edited by super7* 5/9/2007 9:05:42 AM ***

Well, that all goes back to the precedent that Cedar Point themselves set. Almost every time they build a coaster, it has to be the -est something, either the tallest, fastest, longest, loopiest, whatever. By constantly upstaging themselves, it has gotten to the point where the park can no longer build anything unless it can be marketed as sensational from a statistical standpoint. Funny how the one time in recent memory that CP decides to build a ride that doesn't outright break any major records (although I'm sure they found a way to market it as the best of something), they still run into some kind of problem.

In response to the person that mentioned Cedar Point Intamin rides as the only ones with known problems, have we already forgotten Kingda Ka, Superman: Ride of Steel, Perilous Plunge and it's twin at Oakwood and Steel Venom? All of those rides were problematic, especially the ones that killed people.

So, instead of being the tallest, fastest, longest, loopiest, this one will be the:

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LATEST

Sorry, couldn't resist. The problems affecting CP right now remind me of a good story about McDonald's. McDonald's was the standard bearer for many years with friendly employees, outstanding service, clean restaurants, etc. When things started to slip everyone got on their case. The problem was, they were a victim of their own success. When you are on top, any blunder you make is amplified that much more.

That fact that CP has never (or at least in the past 15 years or so) had a new attraction NOT open on opening day adds to the shock/disappointment/outrage here.

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Your point makes sense, but then how do they intend to go from manufacturing a new piece of track to opening the ride in just a few weeks time?

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How should I know? I'd bet if Intamin wants to get paid, they'll have those things in a shipping container and on a boat as soon as possible.

Let me put it this way about what they "knew" prior to this announcement. I was asked to strap my HD camera to the ride last weekend for POV (I've done a little video contract work for them before). Do you think they'd be asking me to do that if they knew there was a show-stopping problem?

Shipping container and boat? Three pieces of track might be able to be "airlifted" here. If I were Intamin that is exactly what I would do...if it was feasible.