Cedar Point's Woodies are Good!

Mean Steak and Blue Streak were decent, but Gemini was the biggest surprise of my recent (and first ever) trip. I'm not sure if it would be classified as wood, though.
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Webmaster-Amusement Park Central

CP's wooden coasters are good, atleast the ones they have.  They will have 15 coasters next season and only two woodies.  Thats only one reason I don't go crazy for their selection.  I prefer wood over steel anyday.

Back to the topic.  I haven't been on Bluestreak for  years.  It's good, but I won't wait a ridiculous amount of time for it.  I actually take the old, and beat up Meanstreak over BS.  A lot of ppl complain about its roughness but I like them that way.  The view of the lake is sweet.  It was better in its younger years but I still take it over 13 of their other coasters.

1.  BS is fun fun fun.  Just about as fun as anything else in the park. 

2.  MS is very, very hit and miss.  At the 97 coastermania, it was running fast, furious, and very very MEAN but it was still quite an experience.  There were even some moments that kinda sort hinted at the existance of airtime somewhere hidden within the track.  Funny, it actually felt quite a bit like the beast back in the old days. 

  The last ride on MS i had, in August, may very well be the last ride i ever have on the thing.  It was in the back seat of the gold train, and it was the most unpleasent coaster ride of my life.  If you know me, i like my coaster rides violent and physical, but this was just plain awful.  Loads of shuffle, loads of nastiness that was all taken very very sloooooow.  I was bewildered when i got off it, and I still am.  From what i've heard the only thing, like jeff said, that could save Mean Streak is a complete overhall of just about everything, which i doubt will happen soon.  Just give me a 120 ft. CCI near Wicked Twister and I will be pleased as punch. 

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"When I come to a town I would love to see a children’s festival and children’s choirs singing my songs - maybe create a children’s day! A Holiday! With parades and songs - oh, I would love that!" - I swear to god its a Michael Jackson quote

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Andrew said:
"Call me crazy, but I prefer Mean Streak over Shivering Timbers any day.
"

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Crazy! Sorry..couldn't resist ;).
As for the CP woodies:
Blue Streak: classic, fun ride with lots of airtime
Mean Streak: Although I do not hate it as much as some people, its just not worth a ride in my opinion. Last time I was there, though, my friends made me ride it and I had a spiel war with the op:). Needless to say...the Timbers spiel rocked the MS station.

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Kara
403 Laps

Blue Streak is still a great classic woodie, and runs like one.  MS, on the other hand, ran pretty slow when we were there this summer.  I have experienced the ride at much greater speed in the past, and it actually ran smoother IMO.
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Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

Blue streak certainly is a classic, but I wasn't that impressed with it.  Not to say it was bad, but when it comes to classics, I prefer Kennywood's trio of woodies!

As for mean strek, I like it.  I rode it in late august, and had no problems with roughness or excessive brakes.  mY only complaint is a lack of an interesting layout.  It just kind of does a big figure 8.  I much prefer something really twisted, like Ghostrider. 

Is it just me, or does Mean Streak take up a LOT of room?  Huge space in the middle, where the queue partially is.  Its so huge...and for all that room, it could really have been more impressive.

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Xcelerator-
0-82 in 2.3 seconds! =Wow!

Blue Streak- I have had some good rides on it in 2001 but I thought it just was not that great in 2000.

Mean Streak- The brakes on the first drop suck. The rest of the ride just is not exciting. It is not the worst wooden coaster I have ridden. It is just mediocre.

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Barry Short
(who wants a percentage of the gross not the net)

Perhaps the ultimate insult that I have for Mean Streak is that it was boring. I'd much rather be on Roar east or the Phoenix at Knoebels, which are small in height, but large in excitement. By the way Darren, please read my new signature.

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If you have to figure out how to ride a coaster to be comfortable, then that's not a coaster worth riding.

Sorry, but I dont eat the "its needs to be braked to stay in one piece" argument for MS overbraking. Why?

Simple: intensive braking hurts a ride, as simple as that.

Why do you think Space Mountain at DLP launch was tamed down? No "ran too fast to be safe" BS, but its simply teared the block brake apart! That said, they slowed the launch, thus keeping the block brake in one piece.

Now, what whould CP have done in that case? Well, turn the block brake to "stop on a dime" every time, tearing the brakes, trains and track apart. When the block brake whould have been closed to falling apart... Well, trims on the first drop!

When the brake on the first drop of MS grabs the train and holds it as its tries to accelerate, what do you think hold the multi tons trains? The drop structure, which is not build for that.  Let's just say that I whould not be surprised if the braking all over the place destroyed the structure more than just letting it run like its supposed.

PKI does not have that problem with Beast, cause its uses skid brakes, but given the simple incompetence of CP wood maintenance ( what kind of maintenance will say that a woodie needs to squeal all over the place? They said that on national TV! ). MS needs three things to run good.

1- New trains. The PTC they have needs replacement! Get either Vekoma or GCI on the case.

2- Rebuild the ride! Vekoma or GCI could do that, as Vekoma pulled out one of the wooden twister in 2001and they are quite good for tracking and structure building  and GCI is simply the best when its come to wooden twisters. Also, GCI did a miracle with Arkansas Twister, so there's a chance they could pull the same with MS.

3- Sack the persons of wooden maintenance and get some guy who actually have a clue to what they are doing! This could save a lot on CP part, since they could find ways to avoid the every year retracking, etc.

According to the guy I talked to (who has actually designed the bents on some of your favorite rides), the problem isn't BS at all (BS as in cow crap). A good example might be the constant adjustment of track gauge after the first drop. It has something to do with the distance between the cross-ties and their relationship to the position of the bents. Again, he lost me shortly after, so I can't give you specifics.

One thing he was sure of is that trains are not the issue, and the fine carpenters on the ride are not the issue either. Major reprofiling is the only real solution, in his opinion, and that would not be an inexpensive venture.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

The Blue Streak is a great out and back woodie and the first time I rode it was about 10 at night, and the ride was pure magic!! The perfect breeze, the perfect sky, the perfect... everything! I don't think many coasters since then have had such a Master Card moment.

Mean Streak on the other hand is extremely boring and the odd roughness on the latter half of the ride is annoying. Overall, it can have a good time here and there, but I think, for the time being it's plaqued with a rare and mild case of PGA's Grizzlyitis.
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Thats funny I thought it was Dinn-Summesritis
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?

I dont know what everyones problem is with Mean Streak, as long as you sit towards the front of the train the ride is a semi-enjoyable ride.  Sure it doesn't have as much speed as it used too, and I can never recall feeling any airtime on it anyway; however it has great laterals and decent speed

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I don't care what anyone says, Magnum is better then Millenium Force.

Seriously I don't find MS rough at all, its too dang slow to be rough, the first third is semi exciting but the last 2/3's you could fall asleep on.  Even when MS was new I don't recall any airtime on it.

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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?

I consider Mean Streak decent, and not rough by any means.(I must've gotten one of those one-in-a-million rides on it)  Blue Streak on the other hand I didn't find was that amazing...good air, but it seemed pretty rough on the day I was there, and it featured nothing particularly outstanding in my book.

Intamin Fan,

I think figuring out how to ride a coaster is part of the fun. When a coaster is a little rough or a little wild and you have figured out how to ride it, you have "conquered" the coaster, which is what a lot of parks talk about in their ads. The only coaster I have been on that is too rough to have any fun on is Son of Beast. That thing is so bad, I deleted it from my track record.

Darren Mullins

http://www.angelfire.com/oh5/bluestreak

But you don't have a track record.
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?

Jeff, I understand that major re-profiling is a big undertaking with loads of cash involved, but consider that it really is fantastic to have a huge woodie right on the shore of the Lake, and that there are only two woodies at the park.  It would definitely be a great re-hab project in my book, and would be an excellent project for '03.  If I recall correctly, I have to agree that the second half lacks the rises and drops that vary the speed, and make a ride exciting.  With the MCBR set as tight as it was, the 2nd half was just too slow...  and woodies DO require upkeep!
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Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

*** This post was edited by gatorwoodie on 1/13/2002. ***

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see real engineers get a crack at reprofiling it, but if that's a multi-million dollar project and maintaining it (if you can call it that) costs less, what do you think they'll choose? The lines are still pretty long at various points in the summer, so obviously the general public hasn't lost interest.

Regarding the visual impact of the ride, it's a real phenomenon with the local boaters and ferries that frequent the islands. Heck, I still find it amazing to look at, and it's part of the reason I always park in the Soak City lot.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

That is one thing Mean streak does have going for it, it is so visually impressive its unreal.  the most beautiful and graceful looking coaster I have ever saw besides Chang which I find to be the most beautiful structurally coaster ever. I know its almost the same as matis but you can't see all of mantis at once.
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?