Downtime at Holiday World

Tall water ride has 'downtime' as sensors adjusted

1. Why would this even make it to the Chicago Tribune?

2. It's an Intamin. Is anyone surprised?

Downtime is a normal part of a new ride opening. Excessive downtime is what you want to avoid.

Hmmmm, having experienced "downtime" on both new Beemers D-back and Manta, I'm willing to wager neither of those has experienced the same level of problems with HW's new ride.

Then there's yesterday's MSN main page article on "this summer's big new amusement attractions", which STILL referred to the 45-foot-high WALL of water from Pilgrim's Plunge. For me, and many of us who ride, I don't think Pilgrim's Plunge will suffer from the smaller wave size. From the POV of those who stand and watch while family and friends ride, it might be a different story altogether.

Is PP experiencing "excessive" downtime? I'd say it's definitely too early to tell - but with Intamin, the hits AND misses tend to be highly visible.

Except when it comes to Intamin, excessive downtime is the norm for a new ride opening.

Yeah. Look at TTD. That's the only ride i've heard of that's been sidelined because of a drive gear breaking. (end of the '05 season).

I guess I'm not that convinced that the general public understands the idea that downtime is normal for any rides, new or otherwise. And before the coaster wars really started pushing the envelope on highest, fastest, loopiest, etc, was new ride downtime really the norm?

I think the news draw is that there is a risk when you put yourself out there as having the "est" of anything. If it is down, in general, people will want to know about it.

Gator, when I went, the ride was only open for the first and last hour of the day. It was down from 10:30am-4:30pm.

Many of my friends and other sources claim that it has been down for the majority of the day on their visits, as well.

I sure hope the Kochs are keeping an open mind, though. The new Mega-lites haven't experienced many reliability problems, have they? :)

I think the next coaster will be another Gravity Group ride because Will really likes to be involved in the design and I doubt Intamin would give him that oppertunity like GG/CCI did with Legend and Voyage does anyone know if the park had any major involvment in the design of the Raven or was that more here is land and money give me a wood coaster? Any way I just hope it is up and running for holiwood nights this weekend doubt I will ride it as much as the Trillogy of woodies but other people will keeping the lines down on the other ride :)

Parks tell the manufacturers what they want, not the other way around. Manufacturers in turn tell the parks what is feasible and/or possible. It's that process, the "give and take" of ideas one might say, that ultimately results in the end product. But to think any manufacturer -- Gravity Group, Intamin or otherwise -- wouldn't allow a park to be involved or have input into a ride's design shows a lack of understanding how the industry works.

Lord Gonchar said:

1. Why would this even make it to the Chicago Tribune?

Because the media's mission is to inform the public that every time we turn around, there's something else we should be afraid of? Because there are no new swine flu articles to toss out there? Throw in words like "complex" and "unexpected" to further add to the world is out of control feeling.

Which part of the article suggested any fear? All I got out of it was, "Hey, if you were planning to go, you're S.O.L., it's not running."

I remember reading an article when Farenheit was unveiled that pretty much said Hershey had a few requirements (capacity, footprint, cost etc.) and 3 or 4 companies submitted bids for the ride. Hershey then picked the one that they liked the most.

Thats kinda what I meant I think alot of rides are more of I want this ride It needs to fit here and cost less than so many $ I don't think the park is making changes during construction like the change Will made to the voyage on a regular basis I don't know though that kinda change later on seems unlikely to me as I have not seen it any other time except maverik but that was a problem that left them no choice.

Intamin is an interesting beast in the industry. While I've never spoken to anyone at Holiday World about the subject, there seems to be a pretty common thread about dealing with Intamin. General managers and planners don't care much for the US rep (Sandor Kernacs), they're frustrated with parts issues and support, and they feel the control systems are frequently over-engineered. But at the end of the day, they all say the same thing: They're the cheapest.

Jeff said:
But at the end of the day, they all say the same thing: They're the cheapest.

And you get what you pay for :(

Jo

^Exactly. In the end is going for the cheapest (money wise) worth the long term headaches?

See the Deja-Vu's. 2 are now gone after 7 years and I foresee the 3rd being removed in the near future. (Yes, I know it's not Intamin).

I'm sure Holiday World is well aware of the demand for a large steel coaster in their park, and whether they like it or not, TGG doesn't produce steel coasters.

They also have a trend of releasing '#1' rides, and if you take a look at recent steel coaster polls, it's pretty obvious which company tends to produce those... (Which is why I'm hoping that Pilgrims Plunge doesn't ruin their relationship with that company.)

I doubt Holiday World (or any park) has "Let's build a ride that'll debut as enthusiast's #1" near the top of their checklist.

Mamoosh said:
I doubt Holiday World (or any park) has "Let's build a ride that'll debut as enthusiast's #1" near the top of their checklist.

Exactly. Being an enthusiast #1 doesn't mean much when your 12 million dollars coaster didn't set the turnstiles on fire and you're actually on the verge of bankrupcy because it cost so much to maintain.

The park I'm referring to here is Holiday Park and the 12 millions coaster is Expedition GeForce. Beside one of those 200 feet swinging chair rides, they haven't been able to install a new ride in the park since 2001, the year they opened Holiday Park. Oh yeah, it was rated the best ride in the world... Too bad the germans don't care about it and except for a few days in the year, its basically an ERT session on the coaster. It got so bad for the park they stopped using Intamin wheels on the ride (cheaper locally made wheels are used and they give a slower ride) and they tightened the trim brakes so much its ridiculously overbraked.

You may then wonder why its still highly rated? Simple, the park cheats a bit when coaster groups visit or an event happens at the park. They get the good Intamin wheels out and install them on the trains and they send mecanics on the track to loosen the trim brakes. That way, the ride goes fast and keep its top 5 positioning... In one case, it was ridiculous. As soon as the group left, both trains were pulled in to change the wheels and the same evening, the trim brakes were tightened.

There is a small group of enthusiasts who, prior to the announcement of The Voyage, who would probably differ in opinion as to whether or not their opinions matter to Holiday World.

I'm not suggesting that it's the only thing that matters, but some parks do take it into consideration.