Knott's Berry Farm WindSeeker strands riders at top of ride for hours.

In the words of John Fogerty...and Yogi Berra...it's deja vu all over again.

Isn't this about the third or fourth Stuck-Seeker incident?

*EDIT*..Sorry..saw this before the thread on General Buzz. I hadn't known about the CP incident, but didn't Carowinds' get stuck for several hours earlier this season, too?

Short answer - yeah, about two months ago. Look at the upload dates in these results.

It appears to have happened at at least Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland, Cedar Point, Knott's... in some cases several times, at varying elevations.

What a nightmare. They really should have designed a much faster method for manually lowering it or some sort of backup. I hope nobody had to go #2.

You'd think they would evaluate their methods of retrieving guests from 300 feet after the last incident two weeks ago, so that it wouldn't take three hours to do it again. What a bunch of boneheads.

You're assuming there is a better system. Sometimes things just are what they are. Calling people boneheads when you know nothing about the ride makes you look stupid.

What scares me is that this ride is going into a LOT of parks. Many more potential incidents. Is it a design flaw, or something else ?

Of course, if you really need to get riders down quickly, there's always the Space Spiral method... ;~)

Pete said:

You're assuming there is a better system. Sometimes things just are what they are. Calling people boneheads when you know nothing about the ride makes you look stupid.

If they can't ensure people's safety, and cannot correct a recurring problem with the ride, then the ride should not be operational. These people are boneheads because they are imprudent. Explaining away something like this as "it is what it is" makes YOU look stupid.

The result may be reoccurring, but the cause may not be.

This was not a safety issue, the riders were not in danger. Perhaps it took a long time to get riders down because they were being extremely prudent to ensure the evacuation method didn't cause a problem which potentially could put riders in danger. Like I said bjames, you know nothing about the ride. I don't think you are in a position to judge if the ride should be operational, how riders should be removed or if the park is run by boneheads. Being judgmental about something you are not familiar with is not credible.

If Pete gets any angrier, he just might HULK OUT! lol

No need to get so offended about someone's opinion that the people running Cedar Fair are "Boneheads", Pete. If you were stable, you could simply say that you disagree and move on to more important issues. You are cracking me up.

This actually made the national evening news in Canada tonight!

Hey Kause, I'm not angry or offended - just hate when people talk like they know something when they don't have a clue. Similarly, about Obama - never mind, wrong forum.

I didn't read Pete's posts as angry or get the impression he was offended. He's just calling someone out for making a bold statement. That's what happens around here. I'm sure if bjames can show he knows there was a better way to get the people down that was arbitrarily dismissed by the park, then Pete would concede the bonehead remark.

To Pete's point, we don't know what the mitigating circumstances were for leaving them up there that long. I think that's extraordinarily problematic, for sure, but unless they tell us what was up, we'll never know.

I agree. But in addition to that, I think it's pretty safe to assume that the park's first interest in a situation like that is to get the guests down safely as fast as possible. Therefore, that it took that long, likely means there was a legitimate reason.

Do I think at this point the chain really needs to look at these rides and the problems they are causing? Absolutely. Do I think for one second that they are placing guest safety and well-being at risk arbitrarily? No way.

And I'm just curious... what methods can there be to evacuate a ride at 300 feet? If anyone asked me to slide out of a Windseeker seat to transition to a rescue basket at 300 feet in the air... well, let's just say it wouldn't go smoothly. :-)

Yeah, I think I'd rather sit and wait it out over climbing into a basket. Even with a harness and other safety measures in place, I'd be shaking too bad to be able to do anything like that, and if I slipped and was dangling by a cable, I'd have to buy new pants.

Safety issue: stuck 300 feet in the air, coupled with fear of heights=peeing pants, sitting on hard wet seat for three hours. That would be my issue, anyway. Hehe...

Not to mention the consequences of a racing heart and pumping adrenaline constantly for that length of time...yes, this issue needs to be thoroughly examined.

Raven-Phile: as would any firefighters standing directly below you.

(Bunky snuck in on me.)