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Cedar Point | Top Thrill 2 | Triple Launch Renovation | 2024

I want to chime in because this discussion is mostly about fees and not having your phone in the queue. With my medical conditions, not having my bag on me, which carries my water bottle and medicine container, being in a queue could put either me (via dehydration, which sometimes takes less than an hour on a hot summer day) or someone else (via getting a panic attack, not having my medicine on me and accidentally breaking someones nose, which has happened before) in the hospital.

I don't understand what the point of is shelling out millions of dollars to renovate a ride after it has severely hurt a guest, only to then resort to this weasly, pathetic "we don't care, our asses are covered"-attitude.
 
Agreed overall, and I'm realizing I may have already assumed lockers would be pay-for when they announced a few weeks back there would be no storage space within the TT2 infield. While I'd like to think this is more an oversight (e.g. Steel Vengeance too debuted with pay-for lockers, which eventually received in-station/in-queue locker storage in subsequent years), it's still an obvious gaff having had years to plan this retrofit and lay blame at "later revision" of layout.

We unfortunately have been desensitized to requirement of pay-for lockers (cue SFGAdv) as a society, and while I know coaster enthusiasts are hoping for a certain Les Miserable-style battalion to form of unhappy guests rising up against the tyrannic bourgeoise - I fear this will mostly be an annoying grumble from park goers as they still cough up their $5 locker fee. Here's hoping CP rights the wrong (as requiring pay-for lockers for any guest experience once in the park is always wrong) in subsequent years. 🙏
I truly enjoyed the Les Mis reference. Thank you for that. I do agree it's a desensitization issue when it comes to paying for lockers. If you are *requiring* items to be left in a locker and/or have no bins available in the station then they should be free. Otherwise I understand charging for the convenience of something that isn't necessary due to other free storage options.

I want to chime in because this discussion is mostly about fees and not having your phone in the queue. With my medical conditions, not having my bag on me, which carries my water bottle and medicine container, being in a queue could put either me (via dehydration, which sometimes takes less than an hour on a hot summer day) or someone else (via getting a panic attack, not having my medicine on me and accidentally breaking someones nose, which has happened before) in the hospital.

I don't understand what the point of is shelling out millions of dollars to renovate a ride after it has severely hurt a guest, only to then resort to this weasly, pathetic "we don't care, our asses are covered"-attitude.
I feel like in your situation you could go to guest services to explain the situation and I would be very surprised if they didn't allow an accommodation.

As many have said, this seems like a lazy attempt to excuse poor planning for something they should have been thinking about.
 
Do glasses straps even work against negative G's?
I use glasses straps on all sorts of rides, and haven't had an issue with them yet.

Strangely, at SFOG, one ride op asked us to remove my glasses, even though they had a strap. And I'm basically blind without them. Which is why I figure CF is allowing glasses with straps, because if someone who is visually impaired can't wear their glasses in line, it could be a safety hazard.
 
I feel like in your situation you could go to guest services to explain the situation and I would be very surprised if they didn't allow an accommodation.

I would expect to have no problems when it comes to Cedar Point, but first of all, I shouldn't need to explain my medical history to guest services, and second of all, I have encountered more than enough braindead security-NPCs in my life (sorry, I know you guys are doing an important job) who wouldn't listen to anything. I can easily avoid places that don't allow bottles because most of them make it clear on their websites, but this sort of thing is just annoying.
 
I want to chime in because this discussion is mostly about fees and not having your phone in the queue. With my medical conditions, not having my bag on me, which carries my water bottle and medicine container, being in a queue could put either me (via dehydration, which sometimes takes less than an hour on a hot summer day) or someone else (via getting a panic attack, not having my medicine on me and accidentally breaking someones nose, which has happened before) in the hospital.

I don't understand what the point of is shelling out millions of dollars to renovate a ride after it has severely hurt a guest, only to then resort to this weasly, pathetic "we don't care, our asses are covered"-attitude.
You can bring a medical bag with you into the queue. I'm sure they'll allow water bottles into the queue as well. Can't have anyone pass out from dehydration while waiting for hours. A lot of parks in the US have adopted a "zero bags in the queue" policy for quite some time now and medical bags are usually the excepion.

I think part of the reason they're requiring lockers is because the ride hurt a guest. They're doing this to cover their asses. Maybe requiring lockers was included in the settlement with the victim's family. I don't think we'll ever know the true reason why they're requiring it.

Yeah CP should've added double sided lockers or free storage like other parks are doing. Yeah forcing everyone to pay money for lockers sucks big time. The park will probably look at their options once the park opens and people have had a chance to ride. Or they'll probably go the GAdv route and require lockers for other rides. I've fortunately got a non-rider I can leave my stuff with.

I'm in a group chat where one of the members has basically been whining about this policy for the past couple weeks now. I'd be ok with the rest of the park requiring lockers just to spite him lol.
 
I feel like in your situation you could go to guest services to explain the situation and I would be very surprised if they didn't allow an accommodation.
In short, if you have medical note from a doctor; medical exception can always be made for needing to bring medical equipment/medication/etc. needed to address any conditions.

To the glass strap question, yes it goes with you: https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog/2024/top-thrill-2-rider-safety-guidelines

GLASSES​

Glasses may be worn on Top Thrill 2, provided they are secured with a strap that is tightly secured to your head. You may not hold glasses or any other items while riding.

And for more context to the "later revisions", have been doing some added sleuthing with local friends and folks closer to the know at the park; it sounds like "the call" for clamping down on no items allowed within zipper pockets may have been made by Ride Operations or park insurance adjusters. On both of these fronts, there is a quasi-process for a new ride, where the park's construction team builds and commissions the ride to ensure complete and safe operation of the ride. At this moment, the ride is "handed over" to the park's operations team (aka Ride Ops) and other park departments to finalize all ride operation standards and requirements; this is things down to the detail of what is the minimum/maximum number of ride ops needed for safe ride operation, rider minimum height, and other semantics that can exceed manufacturer minimum recommendations. Insurance adjusters can also make recommendation of ride operation requirements to minimize risk/ensure optimal safety. Somewhere between these two factors was the moment of nixing allowance of riders to use zip pockets/require all items be stashed in lockers or with a non-rider.

Gives some rationale to the later nature of this announcement (I still so fondly recall rogue Steel Vengeance riders who snuck cell phones onto the ride, only to accidentally tomahawk them off the ride on the double up after the MCBR), but still an obvious gaffe having a suboptimal "Plan B".

But, if you'll indulge me in a brief story time from my 2009 stint in CP Guest Services, that directly links to Top Thrill loose article policy:

A couple marched into the Guest Services office around mid-day, sharing the unfortunate news that they had lost their digital camera while riding TTD, which had photos of their newborn child. Setting aside the notion of why they wouldn't backup/send baby photos, were definitely not wearing cargo/zipper pockets, or the sheer safety question of if a newborn mother should be riding a roller coaster; we called down to the area manager, who flagged it for the ride ops team to do a careful sweep of the track infield that night (standard process for ride open and close).

But that wasn't enough - the couple wanted their photos now.

Often these types of gripe and complaint go unmet - it's easy to say no to guests who grow irate or come to expect anything outside of normal operation (e.g. YOU SHOULD REFUND MY PARK TICKET BECAUSE A SEAGULL POOPED ON ME!), but this couple managed to persuade the area manager enough to shut down TTD for 30 minutes, dedicating staff to quickly scan the area under the launch, brake, and top hat for a missing camera.

And you know what - the camera was found!

Except one thing, the camera memory card slot was popped open, and no SD card present. So with the camera returned to the couple - 45 minutes into the encounter I might add - they were even more unhappy that they did not have a memory card in hand. Things only digressed from here, getting to the point of the gentleman threatening to: 1. jump the fence and search for himself 2. sneak into the park at night 3. swim (?) around the lake to sneak into the TTD area (I don't think he realized the park's lagoon is, in fact, not Lake Erie).

So try as we might, the couple left unhappy (albeit gently accompanied by CP Police). Never heard if they tried to sneak back on property, but I do know the missing SD Card of 2009 was unfortunately never recovered.

TL;DR Maybe this locker policy is a better idea than not. 😅
 
P.S. last construction update is out. Can you believe it that comments are turned off? ;)

 
TL;DR Maybe this locker policy is a better idea than not. 😅
I don't understand this widespread appeal to thoroughly debate solved problems. Nobody is preventing Cedar Point from implementing F.L.Y.s security system if they want to go ape on rider security. They just couldn't be arsed, and honestly, at that point I can't really blame guests when they don't give a **** either and just sneak on their phone regardless.

You get what you incentivize, and the 7,000,000th anecdote about if only some people weren't so ****ty does not change that. People want to play cookie clicker in the queue, and a management that tries to ignore this problem away isn't doing it's job.

In short, if you have medical note from a doctor; medical exception can always be made for needing to bring medical equipment/medication/etc. needed to address any conditions.
This is another thing, I don't know what doctors notes in the US look like, but in Germany, they don't list out your conditions for incredibly obvious reasons that I'm not going to explain. So, if I'm going to show guest services anything, it's going to be my disability pass and then I'm just going to skip the queue altogether, even though I do not have the kind of disability that prevents me from queueing. Is that scummy? Yes. Did the park bring this on themselves? Also yes.

And to be clear, I'm not attacking you, or anybody else in this thread, I'm just angry at a management that isn't at the level of a first semester sociology student.

You have a kindergarden, it closes at 5 pm. Mother sits in traffic, arrives at 5:05, says "I'm so sorry", kindergarden says "this is unacceptable, from now on we'll charge a 20$ fee for late pick-ups". What happens the next day?

Mother shows up at 5:30 and says "Hello, I want to pick up my kid, here's your 20$.

Most people do not want to lose their phones, and simple bins at the station cover this. Some people are idiots and need to be reminded, that can be accomplished easily as well. And if you take these measures seriously, what remains is a few phones on the ride ever day, maybe 100. Is that too much? Of course, but there are systems to prevent these last 100 phones, but they are a little expensive and take effort to implement.

What does the current Cedar Point system accomplish? Well, in the first few weeks, security is going to be tight. But over time, slip-ups are going to happen, and I guarantee you, tens of phones will be snuck onto TT2 every single day because people are going to be motivated to sneak them on, which ends you up in the exact same situation as before, except this time people will shut the hell up about their phones in the station and are guaranteed to take them onto the ride, because they obviously can't tell the staff about it. Congratulations.
 
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There is going to be a metal detector at the entrance:

WARNING: This ride requires Guests to pass through metal detection prior to being allowed to enter the line.

So probably no phones sneaking through, which is good.

@Fluorineer
So, if I'm going to show guest services anything, it's going to be my disability pass and then I'm just going to skip the queue altogether, even though I do not have the kind of disability that prevents me from queueing.

In the circumstances, it seems that you do have a disability that makes this specific queue impractical - this is the sort of thing that a disability queue ought to be used for; nobody would think less of you for using it. Please use it. If that means you need that pass for the whole park, then so be it. It’s not ideal, but as a silver lining, the inconvenience in getting a pass is somewhat offset by not having to queue… maybe? I appreciate that there is a tension there though. I can’t tell you how to feel.

As long as Cedar Point is able to accommodate people that are unable to join the regular queue in that way, and you’re able to access the ride, then the policy is within the realms of reasonable, IMO. If you were unable to get a disabled access pass and/or could not safely access the ride, that is when it would become unfair / unreasonable - I would feel sorry for you if you’re unable to access the ride in the circumstances. Whether the lockers should be an up-charge or not is another issue.

Perhaps it’s the case that Cedar Point couldn’t actually get the ride insured (and therefore built) if they didn’t have a policy like this, in which case it’s this or nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case, considering the history of the ride.

Also, @Hyde is just sharing an amusing anecdote and his views - it’s a discussion forum and there’s plenty of room for different opinions.
 
So probably no phones sneaking through, which is good.

Well, there are several POVs of F.L.Y. at this point, and its metal detector wasn't a last minute decision but is hardwired into the queue. And since the person responsible has a proper job that also includes telling people in advance to store their things and explaining the locker system, he/she is unlikely to become bored or stop paying attention, compared to some poor dude standing around at the entrance of TT2, waiting for something to beep.

This is going to work perfectly fine in the first 3 months, but eventually this system will succumb to the same lack of determination that brought it to life in the first place. If their plan is to buy time and copy the approach from Steel Vengeance eventually, that's fine, but we'll have to see.
 
I've never been to CP before, but my home CF park makes everyone pass through metal detection if you're planning to ride Twisted Timbers. They don't allow anything in the station. Even if you're loading on the DAS side of the platform, the moment you pull your phone out, the staff member will direct you to a place to put in on platform. I'm pretty sure CP will be the same way. If you have a medical bag, the staff won't care if you take it into the queue. Most of the time you don't need to show documentation. Just bring up that you have medication in your bag that you can't part with and they'll more than likely let you on.

When I worked at BGW we tried to enforce the whole "if the medication was small enough to fit in your pocket, you'd still have to lock up the bag. Just carry the medication with you" policy. That lasted maybe a day before we stopped caring about it. The staff here really don't get paid enough to care. They're already getting cussed out and spat on by most guests because of the policy. No need to make it more difficult for them.

The documentation only works if you're trying to get a DAS pass, although most parks are requiring you to go through a third party to get that sorted out. They do it to curb the people who think they can use the DAS system as a free all day fast pass. If you don't need it, don't worry about it.

Every park I've been to in the States with a no bags policy still allows medical bags in the queue. The park doesn't wanna be held liable for issues that happen in the queue like not allowing someone access to life saving medication. Yes plenty of people game that system too, but the park can't really do much about that.
 
As someone who used to work metal detection on a ride, if you try to sneak a phone or anything else that isn't medically necessary or allowed in line, you're an asshole. It's not that hard to be without your items, and if you're not comfortable with that just don't ride. You're just making the job harder for ride attendants who already have enough to deal with as it is.
 
Yes, to affirm, was offering fun anecdote and regaling ye old tales of park guests. Pretty sure it's fair to say everyone is simultaneously on team "yay lockers" and team "boo, pay-for lockers".

To also affirm, the metal detector scheme is a solidly tight ship for Cedar Fair operations across parks - don't bother trying to sneak the most metallic object in your possession (a phone) through please.

But, we have some of our first rider events for TT2. From across the Twittersphere (or I guess Xverse?)

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Hello coaster fans, first time poster but a many year follower. My home park is Dorney Park and I love the safety record Cedar Fair has with their parks versus others like Six Flags but that is another topic. As a type 1 diabetic there is no way I could stand in a 1.5-2 hour line for an attraction and be healthy enough to ride once I reach the end of the line. As a previous poster stated, they had two years to design this layout and forgot about all the safety measures? Hershey Park is my favorite and I loved how they integrated the pass through lockers for Wildcat's Revenge just before the station. I felt comfortable removing my insulin pump and riding the ride as it was only a 10 minute departure from my pump. Cedar Fair has gotten so greedy with there upcharges.

Also wanted to state that I thought it was funny that the park posted a video of Tony Clark riding TT2 with sun glasses and no strap!! Did they fall off?? But you can't put things in a zippered pocket!
 
1st off, I thought the initial accident was caused by a piece of THE RIDE that flew off the freaking train...NOT something that flew out of a guests pocket...so after years of the ride operating with, apparently, not an issue with guests putting their crap away responsibly...why are they deciding to punish the guests for that now?

I also just can't buy that this was a massive oversight, nor that both metal detector/2 way locker solution upon entering the station, then leaving the station is not possible. So not having a solution to this problem with so much time to figure it out is pretty unacceptable.

For some reason, after the ride opens and we see the changes made to the entrance/exit of the station, I have a feeling some of us will see that they indeed had a way to organize this much better. It's not like you just exit to the right of the station like you used to, anymore, because the launch track is now in the way.

Last, fine, oversight, blah blah blah. Then don't charge for the first hour/two hours or however long the queue is. If the items are in there after that, start charging for the amount of time the items are in there longer.

For the record I really don't care about paying for lockers, not having items with me in the queue, but I know a lot of people do, and them not having a practical solution to both accompany their policies and PAYING GUESTS kinda blows my mind. So I understand the frustration.
 
Bored of lockers now.

This expected to run on opening day (and... more importantly the 28-29th)?
 
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