Why does a ride breaking down mean less of a time?

With all the recent problems with the kingda ka and ttd. Why does it always seem to be that people seem to think that they will have a worse time at the park.

A week ago or so i took my cousin to Cedar Point and the Dragster was down, now thing is we had a blast. People always seem to blame the park and think that since this particular ride was down that it was a waste of time to go there. Sure its upsetting cause he was looking forward to it, but we had a blast, and to tell you the truth, i didnt really miss it all that much. The thing is people need to realize that parks even with problems to some major rides have other good ones to compliment them. The thing is are people just upset or do they just miss out on these other hidden jems that parks have to offer. Seems to me that one ride cant put a damper on all the parades that they have out there.

Well partly because those two rides are like the main attractions in the park. I people are traveling from a long ways away they want to be able to go on the biggest and fastest in the park.

People seem to forget what made the park....that theres more to a park then a main attraction, you can still have just as much fun.Cedar Point though at least if you know you rode it, some of those are record breaking coasters for their time. Every park expereinces break-downs with rides, its just a fact of life.

Because no matter the situation, most people have to live in the negative. I went to Cedar Point for the first time a few weeks ago and spent 3 days. Dragster was down all 3 days, and opened the day I left. Sure I was disappointed, but I had a great time at the park (Mmmm...Maggie) and I didn't dwell on it. The more technological the ride, the more downtime there will be, and after looking at the insane amount of Prox switches on Dragster, it only gives me a slight taste of how thick that error code book must be.

Bottom line, most people expect things to be perfect all the time, and its a fact of life that things go wrong, things happen, and people dwell too much on the negative. Blah. That is all.

Remember there are still people traveling from all over the world to SFGAdv only to find out about KK when they reach the front gates. It's really a shame.

I was disappointed that Test Track wasn't open for the first couple of years that it was supposed to be. I'd go into the park and make a beeline for it only to find out it was closed.

Did it ruin my whole day? No. But it was disappointing.

It also depends on the park. I could spend the day at BGW, never ride a coaster, and have a GREAT day. The current state of SFMM there's nothing I want to do except ride a few coasters and then leave. When the park was smaller and didn't have the big coasters they had more to offer that is now just gone.

I have been to Cedar Point when only 3 of the coasters were running and there were no signs posting this on the outside or inside of the park. To top that off, I drove 12 hours just to ride Top Thrill Dragster and had to wait 8 hours while they filmed commercials. They filmed these commercials during park hours, which I thought was a stretch. Those are two examples of how a ride closure can ruin a trip.

Actually, there was a sign at each entrance. I still think you should know when these rides are down before you pay to get in a park.

Well, when you look forward, and plan your trip based on riding one ride it is dissapointing when it is closed.

If Raven is down while I am at Holiday World I would be dissapointed about it, that coaster is essentially the entire reason behind me planning my eight day trip next week. That and the other awesome parks and coasters in the area, but I think you get my point.

People have every right to be dissapointed when the headline attraction advertised on tv and radio is down when they go. At least in my opinion they do.

Its all in the attitude of the person.

I travelled to Mexico City with hopes of riding the monstrous racing woodie, Montana Rusa. Guess what: it was closed when I visited. I still had a great time. Hopefully the next time I'm there it'll be open.

I missed PKI's Bat by one week. I missed the entire Jersey shore to care for a sick friend. I've missed lots of coasters and rides closed on park visits.

Occurances like that are not limited to amusement parks. Its called life, people.

I think that it's just a "what if?" question for most people. ESPECIALLY if they haven't been on it, they continue to wonder what the ride would've been like, what if they had gotten on it? What would it feel like? Especially if you've come from a long ways away to ride it, and/or have ridden everything else in the park.

I totally agree with the original poster. Especially at parks like CP (or I've heard GADV, but never been there myself) that there is plenty of other things to do. It's kinda to say that if there was going to be a big breakdown or a ride, I would almost hope it's at one of those parks because there is so much else to do. Yes it's a bummer because you didn't get that new ride in, but there's still so much else to look forward to.

What if you went to a concert and the headlining band didn't play... Sure, there were other bands to hear, but you missed the big one - the one you went to see. If that happened at a concert, you would probably get your money back (or riot and destroy the venue *cough gunsnroses cough*) but at a park, you get nothing.

I think people have the right to be upset if KK or Dragster aren't running - whether it is the park's fault or not.

That being said, I tend to not go to a park just for the big, new ride in it's first year... I've been burned one too many times...

kip099 said:
(or riot and destroy the venue *cough gunsnroses cough*)

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ahh the infamous Toronto concert with Metallica and G & R, that would have been a sweet concert to go to back in the day, two of the biggest bands at that time.

It would have been even better if Axl wasn't such a douche...

Actually I was talking about St. Louis, but Toronto works as well...

Actually I thought the Metallica/GnR thing was in Montreal. Funny thing is I think the people would have rioted more if they heard Axl sing live. I have and my ears will never be tortured like that again.

But yeah not the same thing since the park tells you at the gates KK is not open. GnR did it as a last minute thing.

edited for grammar and to add more thoughts *** Edited 6/24/2005 8:02:47 PM UTC by dragonoffrost***

^ True, but posting it at the gate doesn't do the people who flew halfway across the country much good...

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dragonoffrost said:
actually i thought the Metallica/GnR thing was in Montreal .

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Yep, you are correct, I knew it was somewhere in Canada, it has been on Behind the Music on VH-1

So how can you expect any park to keep a ride running all day every day without any mechanical failures? How can you prevent bad weather from moving in?

I can understand being disappointed..I've been disappointed too when travelling for hours to a park hoping to ride specific rides that were down...but I can't understand people who feel their entire trip was ruined because a ride was down through no fault of the park.

Like Moosh says, it's life. People need to learn to lighten up, put disappointment behind them and enjoy what they DO have available to them.

And if I flew half way across the country I'd have alternate plans to do in case a disappointing situation did happen. I mean there is plenty to do within an hour of GAdv that if I went to the area and found out what I wanted to do would not happen I could do Plan B. Call me an overplanner, but I prefer to be prepared and be flexible in such cases.