maXair Construction Photos

It looks like they've only had to tear down that mid-row of games stands. I expected the Kiddy Kingdom refreshments stand and possibly even the tubs to go to.

http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill/maxair/gallery.cfm *** Edited 1/13/2005 3:14:44 AM UTC by mike_fenn***

That midway sure opens up when you knock down a couple buildings!

I hope they plant a very nice amount of trees

You know CF.. they like planting concrete. :)

Maybe the pictures add a couple of feet or so. ;-)

That games area was always sorta "dead" anyway.

Nice!

-Tina

They really do like concrete, but they find a way to make it look good. TTD is a concrete paradise but somehow it is my favorite area of the park.

I'm glad to see they posted up some construction photo's. I mean granted the ride isnt anything we all don't know of but i always like to see construction of any kinda of ride whether its a clone or somthing new. But I agree on the location talk, I'm sure they wouldnt of picked that spot if they knew they couldnt turn it into a new hot spot. Which im sure it will be.

That was the whole purpose of WT too. It didn't work out as well as they thought, I think. For the size and how fun WT is its location in the park isn't the best. I've only seen people back in that area in 2002 when the park was packed, other than that the line has always been less than 20 minutes. They've been doing a lot of work at sprucing that area up, but sadly something has to be done with DT, it takes up space and its just plain old ugly. maXair's location is very well picked and will continue to pull more people to that midway, but I don't see it making a huge difference.

I wasn't aware that CP took the seats off the giant wheel during the off season. (2nd picture). Interesting.

Just about everything Fiberglass is taken inside at most parks. Now why this don't apply to waterparks, I have no idea

Don't forget that in its first year, WT didn't have the extra supports at the top, so the towers swayed a lot more. As a result, it was closed due to high winds a lot. I went out there for 5 days, and it was only open 1 day, and a couple hours the day before. The rest of the time we were told it was closed "due to high winds coming off the lake."

Why doesn't it apply to waterparks, Charles?

Would *you* want to take down every slide in October just to put them all back up in April? ;)
*** Edited 1/14/2005 7:57:18 AM UTC by Michael Darling***

IMHO I disagree with the statement that WT was put in a bad spot and that it didn't "work out". I think it was the ideal spot for that coaster and that maXair was in the works for a probably a long time. Look at where the Giant Wheel used to be and it's home now...the change was absolutely for the better and with the addition of WT behind it it only served as a good thing to draw people over there. I mean, let's face it, who wants to travel over there just to ride the Wheel and/or DT?

Another thing one might consider is that after WT was put in, we only had one year w/o a major ride and after Dragster was plopped down, that was surely going to effect the ridership of WT. Maxair will undoubtedly help out in this regard but not much I'm sure. You'll see more family groups over in that area maybe but thrill seekers are gonna get their one ride in on it and move on to MF or TTD or Magnum.

Somebody said that WT was down a lot in it's first year due to high winds? Was it really? I'm not doubting but I don't remember down time due to winds that much. I did see some downtime due to maintenance but every time I went that year it was up and running just fine and I do remember some pretty windy ol' days at the point that year. :)

Yea, I'll second that I don't remember WT being closed much due to high winds. In fact, that was and still is the worst part about that ride is waiting in that line when it's cool and the winds are really whipping off the lake, it's like being in a freezer over there, while over by MF it can feel like mid-summer!

WT's location is probably one of the best places for it, but I do think they could have done it better. I love the ride, it's my favorite in the park, but I just don't think it's enough of a draw to really revitalize that end of the park. Putting it in place of the Sky Ride, might have brought more ridership, but people would have been screaming about removing Sky Ride. If you don't put it straight down the midway, then a lakeside location is probably best.

I think maXair will bring people back there, but I think people underestimatae the people-eater that WT is. I feel it gets decent ridership, but the line doesn't build up because it's more of a constant feed than a big rush providing a big line. I sure hope maXair doesn't beef up the line, I enjoy my 15 minute waits for my favorite ride! ;)

People eater? It's 1K per hour---Probably in the bottom third of coasters at that park, capacity-wise.

While I've encountered long lines infrequently for WT, I can't say I've been on it much when they were only half-filling trains. I don't know what their numbers are, but I bet they're not bad. Chaos and Troika also seem to have pretty good numbers, and yes, Giant Wheel is "home" at that location, no question about it.

Honestly, prior to 2000, I rarely went downt that midway. Now I do every trip. MaXair seals the deal as far as making that a great midway (and there are fries there too!).

Well I don't know exact numbers, but I know you're rarely standing still in line for it. Since you can't wait at the individual lines except front and back, the line moves a trainload of people or more, depending on how many go for front or back row, every 30-45 seconds. To me, that qualifies as a people-eater and is the reason lines don't build up for it very much. You're always moving in that line.

In the same vein, can anyone answer why it seems like you're always standing still in line for TTD (even when it's running the entire time), yet Storm Runner with only two trains and a longer cycle time is like WT - near constant motion towards the station? MF used to have that near constant motion too until the "seatbelt incident", now my feet ache by the end of the line from standing in one place so much.

i would agree with that statement as far as TTD goes the line never seems to move, But i never had a problem with MF although the line may seem slow sometimes, it moves consistantly(spelling)

Maybe WT was just having a bad week when I was there, or maybe the ride ops were lying to me, but every time I asked that week they always said it was closed "due to excessively high winds".

As for the TTD/Stormrunner line, here's my theory: TTD loads 2 trains at once, so they let 2 trains of people go into the station(s). Then you have to watch 2 trains launch before you move again. So, you move the span of approx. 50-70 people once, and then stand around for about 2-3 minutes. Stormrunner, on the other hand, has several factors. With the dual station, you're always clearing 1 train out. So you're moving 25-35 people at once, and only waiting the course of one train (about 45 seconds). Also, because you can pick which row, sometimes there's movement "in-between trains" as a group of 4 finally manages to squeeze by people waiting in line for a car closer to the back of the train. This doesn't happen at TTD since there's always a member of the ridestaff guarding the entrance of the station so as to "prevent overcrowding".

Which I'd rather wait for a little extra-longer instead of having complete chaos in a station when trying to find a row.

I really like that area of the park, and MaxAir will just add to it. relocating Chaos during TTD's construction was also a perfect match. The only things that come across as an eyesore is Disaster Transport's ugly paint job (IMO - don't get me wrong, I actually like DT as a ride), and the aquatic stadium, which has never been slightly exciting to me since they Dolphins were removed.

But CP is seemingly creating their own, (to borrow a term), action zone. And it's shaping up great.