MM 9/14/01 -- Welcome to Six Flags Lake Erie

Ok, I'll start right off by saying that title is intentionally overstating things a bit. However, one of the biggest complaints many people have about several of the Six Flags parks is the sheer inconsistency of policies, while one of the praises Cedar Point frequently gets is good, consistent operations.

Cedar Point fell short of this expectation yesterday when they instituted a "no rerides" policy on the last day of their "Millennium Mania" event. After 4 days of MM rerides last year, and 3 days this year, the policy was suddenly stopped. When we asked why at Park Operations, the answer was simply "Because Cedar Point does not give rerides, ever." When we pointed out that they had been giving rerides the other 3 MM days, and indeed even earlier on THIS day, the response was "They shouldn't have been doing that, that was a mistake and it's been corrected." We were also told that the reason was that if we were reriding and someone was walking up the queue line, then we would be effectively cutting in front of them. I disagree -- what difference does it make if the train dispatches empty or with reriders to people walking up the queue, they're not getting on that train anyway. And if they were up in the station to be able to get on the train, then the people on the train would be moving anyway, and therefore not cutting the new riders off! Even the attempt to justify the mid-event policy change was stupid.

This, my friends, was very Six Flags-like. Actually, on second thought, it wasn't Six Flags-like -- many Six Flags parks DO allow rerides on empty days. As do Paramount, and even other Cedar Fair, parks!

Now, we didn't let that little bit of sheer stupidity spoil our day. "Our" being myself, LoriU and her husband Steve, my brother Matt (Googer -- I think he's posted maybe once ;) ), and we met up with Josh (Raven-Phile) at the park.

In spite of having to walk around (and watch trains we'd just gotten off of go around with only 4 riders in the process!), we hit all operating rides (except VertiGo which opened later in the day) multiple times. In my case, that's Raptor (3), Mantis (2), Magnum (4), Power Tower (1 down, 2 up), Millennium Force (13). Our group split into various subgroups at different times.

All rides warmed up nicely, with Millie giving incredible rides by the end of the day. No complaints there. Maggie was running with no trims when we hit it, and Raptor's midcourse was barely on if at all. Mantis' drop trim was off, but the midcourse was on HARD the first time we went through -- we were crawling, and I started chanting "rollback, rollback..." :)

Incidentally, those 2 Mantis rides, and 2 Power Tower rides, were both rerides AFTER we'd been told "No Rerides" at operations. Not that I'm complaining -- in fact I'm complimenting the crews on being sensible in the face of Dilbert-style Pointy Haired Boss management. ;)

Oh, and one more negative comment. At one point, the Millennium Force crew roped off several rows. When asked why, they replied "because there's not enough riders and we're tired of undoing and redoing seatbelts". At the time the guy said this, ALL rows were filled in 2 or 3 trains deep, with even more people being held at the station turnstyle. "Not enough riders"? Baloney. I realize that the seatbelt thing can get a bit tedious, but it's part of the job! I couldn't believe how far back the line started building before those ropes finally disappeared again. Sorry, guys, but that was pretty dumb.

So overall, not a bad day at all, but compared to some of the earlier MM trip reports, we came away feeling a bit disappointed. If this were due to crowds in the beautiful weather, that'd be one thing, but for it to be due to poor management and operator decisions was somewhat of a letdown. And I can honestly say that I can't remember the last time Cedar Point had let me down.

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--Greg
"Beat the rush, sign up for your post-Mean Streak MRI now..."
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*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 9/15/2001. ***

Wow, I am glad I went on Thursday. I just kept getting on and off MF. I went on it around 40 times. I would have never been able to do this if they were enforcing no re-rides. Then again, I wasn't really reriding it, they just had a gate between station 1 and 2 open. I would get off and get back on the same train.
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Bull rides: 103
Batman rides: 61

I know Cedar Point's official policy is no re-rides.  My guess is that this is a situation comparable to the first couple Joe Cool Club ERTs.  We were giving re-rides to the Joe Cool people because the trains usually had a maximum of 5 people in them and many trains were being dispatched empty.  In my opinion, I don't really see what the harm is in letting them re-ride.  We had to send the trains anyway, so why not at least have a few people in them.  But anyway, one day, we were told by higher authorities that we were not to allow re-rides.  I honestly don't know why, but we just had to deal with it. 

This didn't bother me as much as the fact that they let the GP into the park at 9:30, but we weren't supposed to let anyone except Joe Cool people past entrance until 10.  That's not fun sitting at entrance during a time like that.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew