Windseeker seats: neat-o

These are far more open than I expected...

http://twitpic.com/49rtfx

That was my first thought too. I'll try it once, but I plan on being terrified.

It won't be that bad. People likening this to an extreme thrill ride will be surprised at how mild an experience it's going to prove to be.

I suppose that depends on whether or not being hoisted 300 feet up is "mild" to you!

Windseeker just went from mild to extreme in my book. Those seats are WIDE open!

Ever gone parasailing? Height by itself isn't a terror-inducer, or at least it doesn't seem to be among the hardened lot of us enthusiasts. I don't shriek with fear when I go over Millennium Force's lift hill (I do tend to shriek, but for joy).

Why? Because I know I'm attached to the track. Not only do I rationally comprehend that I'm not falling off, but viscerally I feel safely secured. And this is with MF's teensy crotch-stopper lap bar. And even these just-unveiled seats have more restraining "substance" to them than that example.

The only way Windseeker might have provoked terror (in the people who tend to frequent this site, at any rate) is if they had gone with the original design...i.e., freely swaying chair swings. That's gone.

Having ridden the 200' + tall swing tower at Martin's Fantasy Island and only had an initial bump in heart rate for the first few twenty seconds or so, I will say it again: this ain't going to be that bad.

I freak out on things like this, which is why I love them. The drop ride at KI is at the top of my freak out list for some reason.

I rode a couple of the StarFlyers in Europe and just about pooped and these seats are even more wide open than those.

I'm not sure why I freak out. I don't have an issue with coaster height at all.

I will say it again: this ain't going to be that bad.

Speak for yourself, I rode a 45' starflyer and freaked out the entire time. Ferris Wheels terrify me too. I'm terribly afraid of heights. I can't get close enough to the windows at teh Stratosphere tower without having to sit on the floor to take pictures. While I'm leaning away.

aAd I thought this was going to be in some sort of tub, but now that I see what the seats look like, it's about 100x more terrifying.

Terror? Not me. I do, however, expect to feel my man parts retreat inside me in a similar fashion to a just-finished-swimming George Costanza as I look down from those open seats.

They really should consider putting a trouser store at the exit of these things.

KI's Drop Zone scared me like no other ride has done before, and it was all the way from waiting in line up to the moment it dropped. That was the first time since I was first tall enough to ride Demon Drop that I had an "unlock this restraint and let me out!" moment. I was freaking out in my mind the entire way up, and I can normally forget the fear to enjoy the view around me. I think this will be a very similar experience when I ride one of them. I just don't get scared about rides...unless its like this. I wonder if my nerves will calm down after being at the top, or if I'll be scared the entire time from sitting down to getting back out of the seat.

Here's a sample of ratings for various rides and experiences I've had over the years. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not scary at all and 10 being the scariest conceivable. I'll use my home park, CP, for examples.

Parasailing: 1
Millennium Force: 2
maXair: 2.5
Flight (Starflyer knockoff at MFI): 3
Skyhawk: 3.5
Power Tower (up): 4
Top Thrill Dragster: 4.5
Power Tower (down): 5
Skyscraper (at Challenge Park): 6
John Kasich being elected: 8.5
Skydiving: 9.9

So I'm going to guess that Windseeker will land around 4 to 6 on my personal scale. No biggie.

MF, to me, was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life, back when I first rode it during it's first year.

Windseeker will definately be a thrill to me. I think it would have been terrifying to me if they had went with chains. I get really scared just on the flyers at Knoebles or Hershey.

I wonder if I had anything to do with CF going with Windseekers instead of Starflyers? I mentioned here, when this was all just a rumor, that a ride like starflyer was going to have a lot of downtime at Cedar Point due to the winds, and might be too scary for a lot of people, me included.

Ensign Smith said:
Parasailing: 1
Millennium Force: 2
maXair: 2.5
Flight (Starflyer knockoff at MFI): 3
Skyhawk: 3.5
Power Tower (up): 4
Top Thrill Dragster: 4.5
Power Tower (down): 5
Skyscraper (at Challenge Park): 6
John Kasich being elected: 8.5
Skydiving: 9.9

Interesting. My numbers would be very different:

Parasailing: no idea
Millennium Force: 2
maXair: 1
Flight (Starflyer knockoff at MFI): no idea
Skyhawk: 1.5
Power Tower (up): 5
Top Thrill Dragster: 2
Power Tower (down): 7
Skyscraper (at Challenge Park): no idea
John Kasich being elected: 1
Skydiving: 10 (perceived fear, never tried)

and I'll add

Wave Swinger rides: 5
That wicker basket seat is scary stuff.

SkyCoaster: 7

Large Ferris Wheels: 5

I expect Windseeker to be quite unnerving.

MF didn't scare me, but just looking at Windseeker and/or it's seats EEEKS! Almost as much EEEKS as when I look at a Starflyer - but in a slightly different way.

I would rate Wave Swingers around a 1.5 to 2, maybe, with the entire scare factor coming, as you pointed out, from those damcrappy wicker seats.

Sky Coaster: 4.5

large Ferris wheels: 2 to 2.5, depending on gondola configuration

and I'll add:

Double Wheels: 7. Those things are (were) freaky scary!

Another ride capable of causing extreme terror is Skyscrapper.

Sitting at the top swaying like a mofo while people load at the bottom is the worst.

jive2 said:
Skyscrapper.

You added an extra 'p'. Perhaps you meant to remove the second 's' as well? Cuz that's what people would be doing...y'know...from the sky.

Vater said:
Terror? Not me. I do, however, expect to feel my man parts retreat inside me in a similar fashion to a just-finished-swimming George Costanza as I look down from those open seats.

I was in the Pool! I was in the POOL!

Skyhawk is more of a 10/10 in makes you feel like puking, and 2/10 on fear.

Raptor 1/10

MF 2/10

Demon Drop 3/10

Power Tower Up 4/10

Ferris Wheels 5/10

Power Tower Down 6/10

SkyCoaster 7/10

First time on an upsidedown roller coaster 8/10

Driving to Kennywood for the first time at night in horrible traffic 8.5/10

Bungie Jumping 9/10

Drinking American Coffee 10/10

Riding Behemoth on halloween after your so called buddy feeds you a weed brownie that may/may not have been laced with something else in snow flurries ..... 8576/10

Uh oh. Here goes my hope for a high yet sturdy feeling ride experience. Now I'm anticipating being very very afraid spinning that high up in a little chair with no sides whatsoever! I'm no fan of Starflyers and Drop Tower's always been scary to me, (for some reasom my seat gets smaller as the ride goes higher) , and this looks even worse. Oh, no.