Ah yes, the Cedar Point credo: copy other people's ideas and make them a little bit bigger, so the yahoos that think that CP is the best thing since sliced bread can't stop blabbing on how much "better" it is, fully unaware that bigger does not necessarily mean better (also abhorrent is how many of them have never even been on the ride). Unfortunately, CP has yet to admonish this, and what happens is that once a ride (originally built with quantity and not quality in mind) is surpassed in height or length by another coaster, CP's huge investment gets lost in the abyss and is never heard from again (Mean Streak anyone?). I'll actually PAY to go to CP next time when they actually get a clue about this.
Of course they have the highest capacity! The park is 300+ acres and has the largest collection of rides out of any park! How in blue hell can Amusement Today vote on facts?! Are they so out of ideas that they have to resort to VOTING who has the highest capacity? Isn't there FACTUAL evidence for this? What will they "vote" on next, who has the highest food sales?
And no, CP has a HUGE overcrowding problem (sad considering it was "voted" as highest capacity park). Go on any Saturday (when Corkscrew usually has a 30 minute wait) to see what I mean. The understaffing and incredibly bad ride capacity issues don't help either.
First off, 1000/hour is not fast at all. By contrast, the Tomorrowland Speedway loads 1200/hour, and if you think that ride loads fast...get real.
Second, had you known anything about the way that capacity is calculated, you'd know that these capacities for, say, Delirium or Gemini (which is the 3000/hour example you use) are completely unrealistic. They are based on a system that assumes that all rides are full and running at full capacity. The problem, like in this case, is that these kinds of assumptions usually have a zero chance of holding in the real world. Attraction vehicles *never* leave the load station 100% full all the time – groups like to ride together and not with other groups (I mean, who really wants to ride Splash Mountain with an utter stranger in your lap?) – and theaters are usually not 100% full as well. This is why the "Single-Rider Lines" (like on the Rocket Rods or WDW’s Test Track) work so well – there are always vacant seats that can be filled. It takes a lot of extra time to mix, match and break up groups just to get full cars. Which, in fact, is why all other amusement parks (including Cedar Point) send out partially filled vehicles. They get higher real-world capacity by sending out partially filled roller-coaster cars more quickly than having to wait to fill them up completely.
My point here is this: though CP operates on the same unrealistic capacity goals as everyone else, they are prone to pathetic load times and capacity decisions. When was the last time you saw six trains running on Gemini? Or five trains on the Mine Ride? Those are the capacities that CP is basing their assumptions on, so you can see how fast capacity declines when more and more trains are pulled off the tracks, as CP is wont to do. Second, have you noticed how long it takes CP operators to load Mantis or MF as compared to, say, The Incredible Hulk at IOA? Their load time is much slower, and thus cars are cycling through at a much slower pace, lowering the already lowered capacities. So when you get all excited because MaXair will cycle through 1000/hour (an already slow ride time), take in load time into account, and how many employees are available to work the ride, not to mention how many empty seats there will be when the ride starts moving. Those numbers add up fast, and so does the wait time as a result.
And so, I reiterate: plan on MaXair taking a big chunk out of your day.
). Also, the overcrowding usually is no problem for CP, as they are the highest capacity park in North America (voted by Amusement Today). On a different forum, I've gathered that it can hold about 1000 riders/hour, which means a pretty fast-moving line. Almost all rides at CP have a very high capacity, the highest being 3000/hour.
