Welcome to another great edition of "Rumors of the Road" on your source for Cedar Point information, The Point Online presented by me, Sgt. RoadKill. It’s been awhile since I have made an article I know and I apologize. I have been very busy but there is good news included with that. I made it to Cedar Point earlier this week and I’m going to discuss some of my findings as well as include some pictures from my trip. So sit back and relax and I hope you enjoy this edition of "Rumors of the Road"

Some of you may not know this but Gemini celebrated its 25^th birthday on June 17, 2003. Cedar Point was kind enough to allow guests to sign a banner before getting on the ride that included information about Gemini. I am proud to say that I was lucky enough to get my name on of the banners. I hope some of you also got to sign your name on one of the banners. They turned the trim brakes off on both sides and the ride ran throughout the course at amazing speeds. The final helix without the brakes is something that I’ll never forget. After twenty five years Gemini is still one of my favorite roller coasters at Cedar Point and I have to give the credit to Arrow Dynamics and Cedar Point for being able to make such a classic ride.

Have any of you heard about this new ride at Cedar Point named Top Thrill Dragster? It’s the big 420 foot tall decoration that sets in the park that everyone loves to stare at. For the past week and a half Top Thrill Dragster has been down but all of two days. Some are beginning to wonder why Cedar Point doesn’t just rename it to Top Thrill Disaster. Could Cedar Point have made a foul decision in putting in this gigantic coaster for all of the down time that it has been experiencing? A year from now all of your worries I promise you will be set to rest. For every new ride that is opened it takes time to work out all the kinks. Millennium Force and Wicked Twister both had periods of down time and you have to expect that from a new ride. If you even look at Xcelerator at Knott’s Barry Farm, the younger sister of Dragster, you’ll notice that it some downtime after it opened and that it had to be actually modified. Now the ride has been running smoothly for the past few months and it seems like it has been a great investment so far.

When was the last time you ever sat and watched a ride test for a period longer than fifteen minutes? The amount of people watching Dragster test Monday and Tuesday was outstanding. At times the grandstands and the midway were full with people watching the beast test. Most were hoping that it would eventually open and hop over to get in line but some were just watching at just how fast the ride went. Cedar Point is known for having its high safety standards and that explains why they kept testing instead of opening the ride to the public. They want this fix for Dragster to be permanent instead of temporary. They want to check every last detail again before they open the ride to everyone. Do you blame them? The last thing they would want to do is open the ride back up and then close it down again a week later to fix it again.

All we need to do now is to have some patience with Cedar Point as they work on fixing all of the bugs that Dragster has so it can operate well for the rest of the season. Then if they have any major problems that still exist fix them over the off season like they did with Wicked Twister by adding the extra supports to the towers. Some say that the Intamin rides, Millennium Force, Wicked Twister, Dragster, were full of problems when they opened. Didn’t most of these rides though come out with prototypical ideas and computer systems that had never been used yet on coasters? If Cedar Point continues to deal with Intamin lets hope that we won’t experience all of this downtime. Some people say it’s time for us to see another B&M creation but I’d like them to work on Mantis before they create another coaster for Cedar Point. That’s just my own personal opinion though.

Some are asking when Top Thrill Dragster will open again for good. To my understanding it should be by the end of the month and unless something serious arises it should be open full time for the rest of this 2003 operating season. So there is good news at the end of the tunnel. I know the feeling of how it is to be there and find out the Dragster won’t open when the day before the ride was open. It’s a feeling that leaves you enraged in anger but you have to remember things happen and its life and stuff happens.

The ride did test as I mentioned earlier when I was there. It seemed to test fine and they performed multiple launches through the day. The lights on the tower are now working and are synchronized with the "Christmas Tree" at the start line. It’s a nice addition and it’s not as bad as I originally thought that it would be. When I first heard the news about it I thought it would be made too bright so it would be noticeable all throughout the park and be an eye sore. I have to admit they did a great job at the lighting and all of the details for the ride. The excellent theme of the area surrounding the ride is superb for something done by Cedar Point. All you have to do is compare it to Disaster Transport and see why Cedar Point usually doesn’t theme rides.

Now onto matters that don’t involve Dragster for a change. I want to discuss a ride that I have tried to avoid when I have gone to Cedar Point the past two seasons. Mantis for the past two seasons has seemed to be down in the dumps when it comes to efficiency. They have two trains running plus they have the seatbelts that take forever to check and they always lock the seats to early causing them to have to "unlock" half of the rows each time a train is loaded. My suggestion to Cedar Point is to find someway where they can possibly be able to get rid of the seatbelts without breaking some whacko law and run all three trains again. This would increase the ride capacity and would be a great move. Unless they can get rid of the seatbelts it isn’t practical to run all three trains which they found out after it opened. My point is if Corkscrew can run without seatbelts shouldn’t Mantis be able to as well? If you know anything more about this subject please e-mail me! I think it’s a shame when you have to wait longer to ride Mantis then you have to wait for Millennium Force.

Well it seems that it’s that time again to end another edition of "Rumors of the Road". I should have another edition out by next weekend before I leave for a week. We’re going to be opening a new type of thing up here real soon. It’s going to be shorter and be updated when new rumors come out. Don’t worry though I’ll still be writing these articles as well. Feel free to e-mail with all your comments and suggestions. If you have any rumors you’d like to share with me feel free. If you’d like to have something discussed in my articles let me know and if it’s reasonable I’ll try my hardest to get it in. Thanks again for coming and may God bless every one of you.

You can e-mail Sgt. RoadKill at marshall_dude@thepointol.com or if you want leave him a private message on the TPOL Forums.