Michigans Adventure....Sat, August 24th

My family and I have Season passes to MIA and usually show up once a week or so. I've never really felt the urge to type out a trip report....but what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

One of the first things I did when I hit the park is to go to the ATM. I mention this only because it was right next to where they were selling fast passes. I simply couldn't believe the amount of people who were buying them. Even on the busiest days the lines at the park are not very long. I have bought it at CP before, but just seems ridiculous to buy them at MI Adventure. Just my opinion.

The park itself was moderately busy. As always the majority of the guests were in the water park, leaving the lines on the ride side short or walk-ons. Rode several rides on the dry side. Shivering Timbers was running well and still giving great airtime. Thunderhawk was only running one train which gave it the second longest wait in the park. What was the longest? The new gliders. I simply can't understand why CP is adding one of these to the park. It's not a bad ride, but it's loading and unloading times are crazy slow. Needless to say...I didn't sprint to any rides. Nor do I have a video of me not sprinting anywhere.

At the beginning of the season, the park opened up a "Beer Garden" behind the gliders. Small area with signs saying that you can't leave the area with alcohol. The sign isn't stopping people from leaving with their $8.00 beers and walking through the park. I think that, just like CP, its just a matter of time before they really aren't going to care where you go with your beer. They have now also opened up a beer garden in the waterpark as well. While talking to one of the "beer-tenders" I was also informed that they will be opening another "bar" at the train station next season. Yes, the beer is expensive, but it's not stopping people from kicking back in the shade and consuming one ....or six.

I tend not to do any slides in the waterpark. I usually sit in the wave pool or the lazy river. Speaking of the lazy river my three boys were in the river and out of nowhere this kid , probably 4 or 5, swims up and bites my son's (9 yr old) foot. Not just bit a little. He clamped on. My son shook his leg to no avail. Finally the kid let go. His mom swam up and asked if her son bit someone and I explained what happened. She said she was sorry and that her son had a thing for biting people.....EXACT WORDS "MY son has a thing for biting people".....Wow....maybe he shouldn't be around people, or at the very least have better/closer parental supervision. At least the bite didn't break the skin...darn close though.

I find it interesting that the park doesn't check your bags when you come in. Throughout this season I have seen everything from full picnic baskets full of food to alcohol bottles. I saw one man in the bathroom pouring out some of his coke and replacing it with rum. Nobody seemed to care.

The park itself has so much land around it. I have to wonder what Cedar Fairs long term plans are. The ride side doesn't seem to get busy enough to build more large coaster or even a large flat like a Frisbee. I could possibly see something like the Pipe Scream that CP is getting next year (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSyQsCXB3rU). Would love to see the park into a larger, more ride oriented park, but I just don't see it happen.

Well, I'm sure if you can actually call this a trip report....kind of just more of some random thoughts about the park....

Frankly, that was probably the most sensible trip report about Michigan's Adventure I've ever seen posted, and that's saying something given that it's probably in the top 3 this season for most TRs written, lol.

I will say that I think the long wait proves the Gliders are popular, thus explaining the addition of them across the chain. I wanted to try them out, but I didn't really have time.

Just a comment on the gliders. The only reason they are so popular at MA is because they are new, and it is the first new flat ride MA has added to the park in more than 15 years, maybe even longer than that. Also the long lines for it, proves that the park does need more thrill rides, and less expansion of the water park, if they are ever going to even out the crowds.

I agree that adding a ride like the pipe scream to MA, would be an excellent addition. I can see a ride like that being very popular at MA. Actually any decent thrill ride would be welcome. An enterprise, and a space shot tower would also be very welcome. If they added more rides to the park, more people would be interested in staying on the ride side of the park, for longer periods of time, rather than fighting the lines in the water park all day.

The park has potential to be a great ride park, if the owners were inclined to make at that way. At the rate that people can marathon the rides at MA, having a few more would just be icing on the cake. I also agree that Fast lane at MA is a joke, as the attractions with the longest lines are not included in the Fast Lane program.

sirloindude said:

I will say that I think the long wait proves the Gliders are popular, thus explaining the addition of them across the chain.

Timber-Rider said:

Also the long lines for it, proves that the park does need more thrill rides, and less expansion of the water park, if they are ever going to even out the crowds.

I assumed the line was long because the ride moves somewhere between 8 and 16 people roughly every 5 minutes or so.

When as few as 100 people can create an hour wait, I'm not sure it's a good indicator of popularity.

Hey Lord Gonchar. You pretty much have to go to MA to see the difference between the popularity of the gliders and the other flats in the park. The gliders might have a 30 minute wait, while nobody will be waiting for the trabant, so capacity is not an issue. If the park had better flats, there would be more people lining up to ride them. The gliders has the longest line of any flat in the park. The only rides that have longer lines are the coasters, grand rapids, Adventure falls, and loggers Run.

I was basing it off of the fact that it had a much longer line than I usually see for Gliders on a day that wasn't exactly crowded.

Also, Timber-Rider, Dorney is a prime example of how a great ride collection still won't necessarily keep people out of a waterpark.

Nobody has to go anywhere to know that a Trabant holds 40 riders a cycle (snugly) while the 8-tub Flying Scooters hold 16 riders for, I dare say, a longer cycle. That's a big difference in capacity.
I'll give you the fact that MA has a whole bunch of tired-assed flats, and anytime there's a new ride of any kind at any park people want to try it out.
I loved the Eagles at KI and remember sitting in my car waiting for the ride to start and watching 4 or 5 Vortex trains go by while the loading procedures took place. I also remember long lines for it and passing it by knowing it would be a really long wait. That ride had been there since 1972, hardly new.
It's always and forever a low capacity ride. I can't wait to see how Cedar Point's ride shapes up wait-wise! I still say they should've put two side by side for a duel, and when I was there last Friday I could see there would be room.

Timber-Rider said:

Hey Lord Gonchar. You pretty much have to go to MA to see the difference between the popularity of the gliders and the other flats in the park. The gliders might have a 30 minute wait, while nobody will be waiting for the trabant, so capacity is not an issue.

I was there August 5th.

The Trabant has 20 seats, I believe. (someone feel free to correct that if I'm off) That's 250% of the capacity that the Flyers have.

40 people in line for the Trabant could theoretically empty the line with one cycle. That could be as many as 5 cycles for the Gliders. That's the difference between no line and a 25 minute wait.

Capacity is entirely the issue in the comparison you're making. The gliders have the longest line because they move the least people.

^The gliders have the longest line because they move the least people.

....and because the Gliders are the newest ride. Those are always going to draw lines - even when they're flats. So it's more likely you'll have 20 people in line for Trabant, and maybe 50 for Gliders. Still, it only further proves your point about capacity...

My point was nobody ever waits for Trabant, because very few people ride it, not because it has 20 seats. While the gliders had a 5 cycle wait, there might have been 20 people that rode the Trabant during those 5 cycles.

I rode the Trabant on the same day that I waited 30 minutes for the gliders, and myself and 3 other people were the only ones on the ride. I have never seen a line for the Trabant, and I have never seen it run at full capacity.

Other rides that had no lines. Thunderbolt, tilt-a-whirl, scrambler, and the Flying Trapeze. I think Scrambler was the only ride I saw running at full capacity when I was there, and that was only one time, and there was no line.

However the Sea Dragon did have a good line most of the day, until it broke down. But the line for the gliders was the longest. Chaos used to have a good line. If it wasn't for the accident, it would still be the best flat in the park. The rest of the rides are dull by comparison.

Timber-Rider said:

My point was nobody ever waits for Trabant, because very few people ride it, not because it has 20 seats. While the gliders had a 5 cycle wait, there might have been 20 people that rode the Trabant during those 5 cycles.

Or there might have been 200 (40x5). There also might have been 64. Or 120. Or 19. Or 78.

I rode the Trabant on the same day that I waited 30 minutes for the gliders, and myself and 3 other people were the only ones on the ride. I have never seen a line for the Trabant, and I have never seen it run at full capacity.

That's still:

1. Meaningless
2. Anecdotal
3. Ignoring the math. Even if it doesn't run at full capacity it's moving far more people than the gliders. The only way the comparison is remotely valid is if every single cycle of the Trabant runs less than the 8-16 people per cycle that the gliders are moving.

Other rides that had no lines. Thunderbolt, tilt-a-whirl, scrambler, and the Flying Trapeze. I think Scrambler was the only ride I saw running at full capacity when I was there, and that was only one time, and there was no line.

#3 from the last paragraph applies here too. Other rides don't have to be running at full capacity to move more people and still not have a line. Capacity is irrelevant. Actual throughput is what matters.

50% of 20 is still more than 8.

^What he said, Timber-Rider. You seem to be confusing efficiency with unpopularity: rides that have a higher capacity than the gliders are not unpopular because they don't have lines.

Another example could be culled from Geauga Lake. X-Flight always had longer lines than Dominator, but Dominator was the more popular ride.

My main point was that the addition of The gliders and it's popularity at MA proves that the parks needs more and better flats.

The issue of capacity with the gliders vs the trabant, in the 3 times that I was there this year, the gliders always had a 20 minute to 30 minute wait, while nobody was waiting for trabant, and nobody was riding it. It's not that there is a line for trabant, that is hustling through people, it's that there is nobody waiting to ride it. Their trabant is probably the most boring version I have ever been on. Might be only 3 or 4 people on it per trip, if it is running, or just sitting idle waiting for riders.

I have been to traveling fairs, where there trabant rides run crazy! They run them at full speed, backwards and forwards. Another ggod one is the wipeout ride. But the best one I was on was called the casino. Very good ride. MA's trabant is Meh.

So. If on the one hand I have someone who visited the park three times over the season, and presumably did not spend his entire time at the park watching how many people were riding the Trabant, and on the other hand I have daily data on the ridership of all the rides in the park, I'm going to go with the daily data on the ridership.

In that case, I have to revoke your enthusiast card. There's no room for anything but anecdotal evidence in these arguments.

So that's where I've been going wrong....

Just one more comment about MA's trabant. If Cedar Point needs another one to replace the one they removed. They can take it, or maybe send it to one of their other parks that doesn't have one. One more ride for camp snoopy.

I was just looking at some of the rides that have been added to Cedar Fairs former park at Mall of America. Sure would like to have some rides like those at MA. I'm actually surprised they haven't built a half pipe ride at MA. I'm sure that would be a huge hit.

Though the local press says that MA has plans to build an unusual Dive coaster. Though Cedar Fair has not commented on when that will be, or if it will even happen.