Zamperla is selling a coaster wash

Will they be offering a Midland Dialect version of this? That is the Coaster Warsh of course!

When the playgrounds were closed in our local community group there were moms demanding to know if they were going to be cleaned and disinfected before they reopened. Out in the weather, rain, hot sun, unused for 2 months and these people were worried about cleaning it before their kids wiped boogers on it. The way I see it any room that has been sitting all this time likely has nothing much left in it to kill with the possible exception of mold. I'm wondering how long it takes for people to start getting sick from being over exposed to all the chemicals that are being used to keep them from getting sick. I rode GateKeeper last week and my seat was still wet with the disinfectant when my train loaded.

I only hope it works better than any of the rides they've designed in the past 15 years.

wahoo skipper said:
That's a pretty good idea...and one that merits consideration. This isn't the last pandemic of our lifetimes, I hate to say.

Reminds me of those huge, yellow evacuation platforms they made every Windseeker owner buy and then try to stash somewhere. I’ve never heard of one being used.
But, I mean, it’s bound to happen. Eventually. Right?

Time to break out the elephant repellant.

Those Windseeker evacuation platforms will *never* be used because there is no circumstance where that is the *best* option for getting the people off the ride.

At this point all the sanitation is just theater. Irritating, time-wasting theater that is more likely to make people sick than prevent infection. But in the early days when it was expected that fomic spread would be the major vector (as it is for basically everything else) that message got hammered home and people took it to heart. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate that the trash cans in the Wal-Mart and UDF parking lots actually look presentable for the first time in decades, it's just that we've gone way overboard and nobody quite knows how to back off without scaring people who haven't got the message yet...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I was going to say that it's theater as well...

Businesses want the public to feel safe, and sanitizing high-touch surfaces is one of those things that can be done to make them feel safe.

Unless the science has changed recently, COVID-19 is rendered ineffective by UV rays. Direct sunlight does the job in seven minutes, and indirect sunlight does the job in fourteen.

Before the parks reopened, I tried to imagine what they would do to deep clean the rides. I feel that simply spraying some kind of sanitizing spray on the rides between cycles and allowing it to evaporate would be enough. The sanitizer we used on the shopping carts at Walmart (I do not work there any longer, by the way) killed COVID-19 one minute after being applied.

So this is a pretty good idea, if you want to sanitize the surfaces of a coaster train, but we aren't even sure COVID-19 can bee spread from contact, or if it can, how much it is.

Theatrics.

Forget coronavirus, I’d be happy to see this to keep the sticky oily grossness that exists from people touching and sitting in/on these things all summer. It might help keep the light colored seat backs and OTSRs from turning black due to the oils and gunk accumulating.

It may be “theater” for the virus, but I’m all for it, from a general cleanliness standpoint.

I forget which ride it was but Tuesday at Cedar Point I was looking at the orange no longer all orange lap bar and thinking it doesn't need to be disinfected so much as it needs someone to take a scrub brush and some soapy water to it. All the disinfecting without rinsing is likely going to make everything stickier and grosser looking over time.

It’s like the seats on Diamondback at KI. They started off orange, and faded to this nasty pink-ish color, with black stains on the head and arm rests. It was nasty. They switched to black seat padding during a winter refresh, and it’s so much better.

Oils and gunk are still accummulating though, right? Just now you can't see the accumulation because the seat padding color has been changed. Case of out of sight, out of mind?

No, not in the least. Like, not at all. If you read what I said a few posts up about the grease and grime, the point stands. Trains, hand rails, and restrains are grimy and disgusting, cold/flu/coronavirus season or not.

I did read what you said. What confused me I guess was this statement:

They switched to black seat padding during a winter refresh, and it’s so much better.

Yeah, it is much better - looking. We all know the gunk is still there, but ok.

There is another possible way this could work, and maybe be of long term benefit... Just think how nice it would feel if you were standing in line for Millennium force or Steel Phantom and you go on board only to feel that the seat back is cool and comfortable from being cleaned in a foggy mist... The same as the mist of fog on some rides feels good...

OK, maybe not.

I don't necessarily think something like this is wrong, but I;m not sure it is 100% necessary either, though I do think of all the times I've been on a ride that has suffered a temporary "shutdown" due to a human cause (blood, vomit, etc.) and wonder if something like this might help speed up that process.

Yeah, but you also have to balance that against the amount of additional downtime for the wash system breaking or malfunctioning or tripping a sensor or something.

Also have any of you been into a grocery store recently? Grab a shopping cart and notice the condition of the plastic handle cover...if it even has one. Chances are it is discolored, brittle, and probably broken from the continuous sanitizing it has endured over the past few months.

Ride vehicles need to be cleaned. Scrubbed down regularly, and we all know it normally doesn't happen. Maybe there should be a schedule where one car gets a full scrub every night. After a week, that's a coaster train. Or maybe one car on each train. Not this hourly disinfection stuff we see now, but just an effort to get the grime off.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The cleaning of coaster trains is bittersweet for me. It's sweet the fact that trains are being cleaned WAY more often then they used to be. But the bitter part is I feel like they should advertise their cleaning times correctly. For example, I went to Cedar Point this past week and they said trains were cleaned every hour, but instead, they cleaned it every 15 minutes. Great that they're cleaning but it skyrockets wait times. I waited an hour for Raptor. Also, Zamperla is probably selling this to make a quick buck.

Zamperla has donated several rides to Give Kids The World, modified for ADA access. I don't think "quick buck" is really their m.o.

I also can't say I'd ever be upset with anyone cleaning anything more than they said they would.

"I know we said we'd wipe down this restaurant table after every five diners, but we've decided to do it now after every diner" isn't something I'm getting up in arms about. And if it's because you don't like that it makes the line a little longer, visiting an amusement park during a global pandemic is literally the definition of privilege. (or was it dry humping on Miami Beach? I suppose there can be multiple definitions.)

Okay. There's my "get off my lawn" moment for the month.