Maverick and TTD downtime

I am new to this website, so please, feel free to criticize me at any point. I was just wondering if anyone had any answers as to why both Maverick and TTD have suffered significant downtime this season so far. I visited the park on Tuesday, May 13th and this is what I saw: The TTD NEVER opened on this day with NO explanation from the ride crew (there wasn't even anyone posted at the entrance to the ride). Maverick didn't even open until 3:00pm on this day. I also talked to other visitors in the park today and some of them said that this happened the other day and that Maverick didn't open until 4:00pm or it didn't open at all. My fiancee and I rode some other rides today and noticed that some of the ride crews didn't really seem to know what they were doing and it made some of the waits much longer than they should have been.

Also, as we were going up the lift hill of the Millenium Force this morning (around 11:00), and we noticed that Maverick, Mean Streak, Gemini, Mantis, TTD, Magnum, Power Tower, and various other rides weren't even operating. Has anyone else suffered through any of these problems or did we just have a bad day? We went to ask an employee of the park why half of the rides weren't operating yet and got a real lame answer. We waited and watched other visitors ask the same question. I wish I could have quoted some of them on what they said, but this is a family website, and their quotes were very vulgar.

Now, we did eventually get to ride Maverick today (FRONT SEAT), only because I noticed they were testing the ride while we were on Gemini (after a 35 minute wait) and we were able to run over to Maverick before they made the announcement that they were opening the ride for the rest of the day. The thing that sucked was that, having some of their main attractions down, the lines for other rides were longer than usual.

I have been going to Cedar Point within the first week of the season opening the last 8 years, and I can honestly say that this was the worst trip out of them all. We did, however, get to ride 11 different rides today. But, to us, it just seemed that certain things throughout the park weren't opperating smoothly. Did I mention we had to wait almost 20 minutes for a Cheeseburger basket (with fries) near the Mean Streak? ALOT of things were NOT operating properly today. I just wanted to voice my opinion. I just hope that future visitors to the park don't have to suffer through alot of the BS that we had to endure today. If I wasn't a season pass holder, I would have totally demanded my money back for todays visit to the park. I really hope things improve quickly at the park before our next visit. If things like this start to become a problem for us everytime we visit, I will NOT renew my season pass ANYMORE. It almost seemed like the park didn't have enough time this past off-season to fully train every employee on what to do. I hope things change very quickly. We will be visiting the park again within the next couple of weeks. I hope things will be running smoother.

Just an FYI though , after riding MAVERICK, I can honestly say that MF and MAVERICK are the TWO BEST rides in the park. EVERYTHING about MAVERICK was top notch!!! The scenery, the ride, the music, the gift shop, & the wait for the ride (about 90% is in the shade). It was an awesome experience!! BEST PART OF OUR DAY!! GREAT RIDE

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

Maverick has been having some major blocking issues since the start of the season. Its been down more then its been up.

TTD on the other hand, was actually one of the parks best preforming (ie not breaking down) rides up until yesterday (and Monday, but thats because of the rain.) You must of just had some bad luck.

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

I was at the park on Tuesday the 13th for my yearly "first week of the season" visit as well.

I totally agree with most of your complaints. While I don't think it's appropriate to complain to or curse out park employees (it's not like they want the rides to be down), I felt every bit of your frustration.

TTD did not operate or even test all day, Maverick not up until 3:00ish, Skyhawk was off-and-on all day (and eventually just went down for good), maXair was obviously down (although that was to be expected)--for a good chunk of time, Wicked Twister was the most recently built "adult" attraction operating.

This was easily the most crowded I've ever seen the park on a weekday in May, and not because of high school Physics kids either (those are unavoidable this time of year during the week, and there weren't more than normal). I noticed while at the top of the Power Tower that the parking lot was somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 full. My guess is that it was because of the good weather sandwiched between days of poor weather, but it seemed more like a July weekday. It just seemed odd, especially in a year with no new coaster.

It wasn't super-packed (no 2+ hour lines), but I've never seen so many 1 1/2 hour lines at this time of year, and a 30+ minute wait for things like Mean Streak and Gemini. Probably mostly due to rides being down dispersing their potential lines to other rides.

I also agree that the ride ops seemed far less experienced than usual, even so early in the season. No one was rude or anything, but most people seemed to be a little lethargic. Props to the Maverick crew and the Millennium crew for being at the top of their game (at least when I was there) though.

I'm just going to chalk it up to bad luck.

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

Don't be surprised to get a "lame" answer from a seasonal. They don't know why rides are down (especially if you ask a sweep why Dragster is down, or a Demon Drop employee why Power Tower isn't running). Even the ones who are working their ride are not supposed to say WHY a ride is down other than "weather" or "mechanical".

---

Goodbye MrScott

John

Goodbye George. You will be missed.

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

TTD did operate later in the day around 6:00.

---

RIDE ON!

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

I was there as well on Tue and I agree it was overall a disappointing day at Cedar Point. It was ridiculous on how many rides were down for the first half of the day if not longer for some rides. One good thing was they were still letting people get in line for Maverick til a little past 730 that was cool I got 2 rides on Maverick in the last hour we were there.

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

I was able to go Monday afternoon, got to the park around 2:45, where almost everything seemed to be walk on with the exception of the 45 minute wait around 5:30 for Maverick, and 20 minutes for Magnum because they were only running one train..

I agree, Tuesday was a disaster. I think our highlight was being able to change and hit Snake River Falls and Thunder Canyon quite a few times around 2:30.. Quite refreshing.

After the public gates opened at ten(it was nice riding MF quite a few times without having to actually exit the ride) the lines and the rides that were down made it undesirable for a May afternoon let alone any other day..

I would hope its just early season rust, but it will be a bad year if the maintenance problems continue..

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

I went Tuesday and Maverick was open in the morning. I rode 3 times by 9:30, including a ride where just myself and my friend were on the train. I also checked the webcam around closing time and Dragster was running.

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

On Tuesday we noticed for most of the day that Maverick and TTD weren't running. Did just about everything else and by about 5:00, looked and saw Maverick going and made a B line there. Then about 6:30, noticed TTD was launching and ran there to get in line before 7. The line became pretty long, but it wasn't moving too fast since they weren't filling the cars up completely. They slowly added more riders. Overall, wasn't too bad. Got in the main ones, and Mav and TTD opened up later.

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

We went on Monday (although we strongly debated on changing our day to Tuesday) and are very happy we did after reading these posts! On Monday, TTD FINALLY got up and running after lunch and we waited for 20 mins for our first ride and 20 mins for the second ride. I've never once gotten on TTD in that short amount of time. MF was basically a walk-on (had to wait for one train ahead of us); Skyhawk and Wicked Twister were the same-a walk-on. The park itself was empty which we partly attributed to the forecast of rain for the day. It sprinkled for 5 mins in the AM and we never saw rain again the rest of the day. Overall, we had a fantastic day and my 8-year-old daredevil FINALLY got to experience the joys of TTD!!!! He absolutely loved it! Only bad thing was Maverick was shut down for a good portion of the day and when it finally started, the lines were long and it was time to drive back to Youngstown. Oh, well.

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

Nevermind. I realized I shouldn't be saying stuff like that on this site. Yay CP!

Last edited by southpuddle, May 16, 2008, 2:35P

---

Californian in Ohio

'08 - Magnum crew
'07 - maXair / Magnum crews
'06 - Wicked Twister / Skyride / Millennium Force crews

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

Wow... this is all really disappointing to read. Spare a thought though I'm visiting the park from NYC next Wednesday 21st May. I'm from Australia, and am on a round the world trip - I'm taking a day out of my NYC visit to fly to Clevevland to then drive to Cedar Point.. I have one day, on May 21, and that's it. I fly back to NYC on the evening of my May 21 visit.

I don't suppose there's any way to 'predict' before a particular day whether TTD and Maverick etc will be open? I do have the flexibility of changing my flight from NYC to Cleveland (with a fee) due to really bad weather for example, but, I guess with ride downtime, I'll probably just have to take the flight and cross my fingers huh.. I just want to ride TTD so badly.. I'd be so disappointed if it didn't open. I guess there's no way to know though hey..

Andrew

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

^^ - have you actually seen the year to year maintenance budgets? Didn't think so.

2 - It usually takes most new coasters at least 1 if not 2 years to really get going. Intamins also seem to take a year or 2 longer. So TTD is just hitting its stride and it'll be another year before Maverick is operating like a champ.

---

Goodbye MrScott

John

Goodbye George. You will be missed.

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

Sterlo said:
Wow... this is all really disappointing to read. Spare a thought though I'm visiting the park from NYC next Wednesday 21st May. I'm from Australia, and am on a round the world trip - I'm taking a day out of my NYC visit to fly to Clevevland to then drive to Cedar Point.. I have one day, on May 21, and that's it. I fly back to NYC on the evening of my May 21 visit.

I don't suppose there's any way to 'predict' before a particular day whether TTD and Maverick etc will be open? I do have the flexibility of changing my flight from NYC to Cleveland (with a fee) due to really bad weather for example, but, I guess with ride downtime, I'll probably just have to take the flight and cross my fingers huh.. I just want to ride TTD so badly.. I'd be so disappointed if it didn't open. I guess there's no way to know though hey..

Andrew

Well, the thing is this....next Wednesday is ALLEGEDLY the Points Perks day for Maverick ERT (I'm assuming that's in part why you're coming this day??), and so one might hope that would have some bearing in CP's urgency and motivation in getting Maverick "right" before that time (and please, don't laugh!!).

Honestly, and I'm no real CP expert (yet!), I think this weekend's TR's will tell the tale...if Maverick (and TTD) operations and maintenance are decent then I would say that might bode well!

I think TTD and Maverick are difference scenario's, however, and many TR's from this season so far have reported good TTD operations at times, and in addition, if you're already in NYC you can always go to Six Flags Great Adventure and ride Ka, which is a close substitute (though not as good in my mind), and right next to Ka is El Toro, but you're probably already going there anyway I'm guessing!?

So read TR's from this weekend and keep an eye on the weather, and hopefully by this Sunday night you should have much more information for a better informed decision (I know I'm only going next Weds if conditions are ideal, but I'm not flying to do so!). Best of luck!

Cheers,

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

^^^ You can count on riding TTD. Really, there are only a very small number of days throughout the season where TTD won't operate AT ALL, so the chance of you visiting on one of those days - especially if you're going to be there multiple days - is very slim.

---

Californian in Ohio

'08 - Magnum crew
'07 - maXair / Magnum crews
'06 - Wicked Twister / Skyride / Millennium Force crews

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

Sunday there was extensive, let me repeat. Extensive problems with TTD and it not being able to clear the lift hill.

In line at 6:50 PM we watched probably 1/2 to 1/3 trains not make it.Than the ride gets shut down for what seems like forever.

Some guys come out of the control room and go toward the ending brake run and release something.

Than the ride still wasn't making it over.

They decided that they could only finish the night with the first 7 rows open.

Weather was not on TTD's side. high 40's at best, and wind speeds probably bursting in to the 30's.

Last edited by factory81, May 19, 2008, 11:54A

Re: Maverick and TTD downtime

factory81 said:
Weather was not on TTD's side. high 40's at best, and wind speeds probably bursting in to the 30's.

Well, theres your problem. Cold wheels/track+high winds=No good.