Why is Cedar Fair taking down so many flume rides????
Valleyfair and carowinds this year. I know there have been more But I don't remember where?

Why?????

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1st ride on Renegade for the 2009 season.

What kind of Roller coaster are you?

I dont see Dorneys, MIAs, or PKDs going anytime soon.

MIAs isnt even that old, Dorneys is built on the hillside and kinda under steelforce and hydra.. And PKD I just dont see going...

KBF's log flume also isn't going anywhere.

Dorney's flume doesn't even take up any space that could be usable for anything else.

Cedar Point also lost White Water Landing to Maverick's construction in '06. Which leaves that park with a measly two water rides.

Why?

Could be a number of reasons. Low ridership, deteriorating parts with no replacements, needed room for expansion, etc.

It could have a lot to do with the ride and available parts. Arrow is really not around and Arrow under S&S dose not offer water rides. Capacity on some of the smaller flumes could also be the case. The Fiberglass on the ride can also brake down and replacement cost might not be worth it.

A new Sky Trans flume is less the a million dollars.

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Michael C

Easy...in the case of Maverick, what would sound more appealing to the public?

"Come ride the BRAND NEW, TOTALLY TWISTED, STATE OF THE ART Maverick, Cedar Point's newest Roller Coaster!"

or

"Come ride the same water ride that's been here for years and one you can find at any run of the mill amusement park."

New coasters like Maverick not only attract the general public, they also attract credit whores. Not saying I approve the removal of Log Flumes, just the decision is probably pretty easy from a business point of view.

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Thornton to Heatley all day, every day.

I'm a little upset to see the Carowinds flume go but as said if parts are no longer available then i could see the need to remove it.

A new coaster or even some flats would be more appealing to everyone.

Carowinds has now removed 2 water rides this year which only gives us the rapids and White Water Falls and i could easily see both taken out in the coming years.

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

It sad but I think flumes are on the outs. I believe low ridership probably has the most to do with it. Cost of operating is probably another factor. The fact is that parks need to look at the economics of the situation. High cost of operation and low ridership is a bad combination.

I say it is sad because I really like flumes. I also realize that they have had thier time in the spotlight and there is nothing new about a flume.

That being said I think that if the manufacturer's wanted to they could do some things to revive flumes. Jurassic Parks River Adventure comes to mind. This is a great flume like ride. But what makes it so spectacular is the theming. They could do a lot more of that.

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Jim says; "The Potential energy of the system at the height of the lift hill is equal to the Kinetic energy at the bottom of the hill...."
Jim's friends say; "Just shut up and ride it would you."

Why would a park in the south remove all it's water rides? Their Flume looks a bit simple but takes up a lot of room. They could possibly build another one using less space that could be a much better ride.

Jim, the cost of operation isn't that high and the ridership on flumes at many none coaster focused parks are normally very good. The Flume at my Home park Canobie Lake is still one of the rides with the best ridership's in the park. But then it's a 2 hill drop 2 in ground short drop flume. The manufacturing companies have nothing to do with the surrounding themeing. Though parks could do more to make the rides more interesting.

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Michael C

As older rides, I can understand parks removing these rides for any number of reasons including availability of spare parts, declining ridership, and the fact that it isn't something new.

But I must admit that I view a log flume as something that should be a staple, such as a carousel, or some kind of mine train coaster (if the park has coasters), bumper cars, etc... While staples are not a prerequisite for any park, I just see them as key elements.

And this brings me to another water ride - the Shoot The Chutes I believe. I could be mistaken, but it is White Water Falls at Carowinds, or Escape From Pompeii at Busch Gardens. And I do notice a striking difference in the two. On a busy day, at least in my experience, at Carowinds the draw for White Water Canyon may be 15-20 minutes at the VERY most, often times much less. But when Busch Gardens is busy, I have been known to wait much longer. So, what is the difference? I think Jim and Michael hit on it - theming. Maybe some rides need to be overhauled, but theming is the key I think.

That really cant have anything to do with it. Old age of ride parts, yes. Money? No.

Think about it. No way in hell does Mav use less power/money than the flume it replaced.. And I bet WT and TTD use more power too.

^ Eh, I don't know about that. Operating a huge water pump and filtration system on just an hourly basis for a flume (which generally require up to thousands of gallons processed per hour) can get extremely costly. You'd be surprised how expensive it is to operate any kind of flume.

Still... LIM/LSMs are power hogs

I honestly don't know. Carowinds has now removed 2 water rides this year. FSS was the other.

It could be because availability of parts. I honestly think it's being removed because it sits on a very large plot of land at the entrance to the park and Carowinds feels that large area could be better used if it had a coaster or some new flat rides or both.

I doubt it's being removed for low ridership. Almost every day of the season the line is about 2 hours long.

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

I have worked at Valleyfair for three years, and I can tell you that the Log Flume was one of the rides that broke down the most. So that's probably one of the reasons they decided to remove it.

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A flume from Hopkins Runs off 130KW high Compared to family flats but not that high compared to coasters and thrill rides. actually it's about 2 chance wipe outs. So operating cost isn't terrible.

Ridership can also have a lot to do with the quality of the ride itself. If the ride is good your more likely to ride in on future trips if it's just OK you might be more likely to skip it.

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Michael C

Did that flume stick out like La Vibora at SFOT onto the edge of the park?

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
2008 & 2009 TN Coaster Draft Champion
You knew I wanted the other repeat too

I think the Carowinds flume broke down like once or twice a year. Even then it was down no longer than 5-10 min.

I can't even remeber of a single breakdown my last 2 years working at the park.

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

I had the joy of working at power tower/xtreme swing/MRVR (big train) at valleyfair two summers ago. Swing was down several times and the engine for the MRVR was breaking down all the time. Towards the end of the season you had to absolutely baby it in order to keep it going. It got stalled on the back track many times (the part that runs along wild thing). I don't see the train going anywhere though.

Riptide was down a ton that summer, too. I would really like it if it didn't waterboard you 8/

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^EL TORO^ RULES!!!

Still, It just seems odd to have two flume rides one year and the one at CP too.
I'm happy that we are(Valleyfair) getting a wave pool, but its still sad and odd, to see so many of these going.

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1st ride on Renegade for the 2009 season.

What kind of Roller coaster are you?

^ Isn't the one at the Mall of America going soon too?

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if it was it wouldn't have anything to do with this conversation since CF doesn't operate it anymore.

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Michael C

I know the two water rides at Cedar Point this past season were always packed through the summer. On colder days I'm sure this wasn't the case, but while we were waiting 15-20 minutes for most of the roller coasters, there was a 45-1 hour wait for Snake River Falls!! This was during the last week of July, so it was hot outside and the water park and water rides were absolutely packed. We waited as long for SRF as we did for Millennium Force.

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05.16, 05.17, 05.18, 06.05, 06.06: Cedar Point
05.25.09-06.01.09: KD, SFA, BGE, SFGAdv, Morey's & More!
06.18.09: Holiday World
2009 Diamondback laps: 41

That could have a bit to do with the overall capacity of the rides as well.

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Michael C

With Cedar Point I can't understand why both water rides are together and why they are in the most shaded areas of the park?

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I'm not gonna lie, I could see Viking Voyager at WoF coming down in the next five years...hopefully it'd be replaced with a more exciting log flume. I do like the ride; it's really fun to go on with friends but it is getting outdated.

And I also noticed that when I went to Cedar Point, but back then I think there were 3 water rides right by each other.

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Dirty Tramp

I think it makes sense, honestly. In that area of the park, the dress code is less restricted, so you can run around barefoot and in nothing but your swimsuit. You've got to get fully dressed before you can go back into the rest of the park. At King's Island, there are 2 water rides next to each other (and right next to the train station, which takes you to the water park), and one on the complete opposite side of the park. I don't like walking across the park in wet clothes, so I never ride that one. I change right there in Rivertown and then head off to more coasters, completely skipping Congo Falls. I haven't ridden it in at least 10 years because of it's placement on the opposite side of the park from the other wet rides.

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05.16, 05.17, 05.18, 06.05, 06.06: Cedar Point
05.25.09-06.01.09: KD, SFA, BGE, SFGAdv, Morey's & More!
06.18.09: Holiday World
2009 Diamondback laps: 41