Cedar Point Iconic Ride To Be Demolished

From what I seen nothing was mentioned about the Space Spiral. They said it was Disaster Transport that was closing.

They don't mention it in the article's headline but they do in the body of the article.

shamrock44 - I felt the same way about the loss of the space needle. I wish Cedar Point would work on the preserving the history a little more.

I agree, Molsonator. There is no effort to retain any character or theme--other than higher, faster, steeper, longer, scarier, etc. Pretty soon it will just be all bright and shiny steel tubes with the occasional rush of coster trains going by surrounded by carnie games.

We gave up going to CP a couple years ago and our kids are still young. None of us like the big rides and there is zero appeal for us now. I had hope after they hired their new CEO from Disney, but apparently he has no desire to bring the "theme" park idea with him.

That thing sucks.

I love the Space Needle. One year, about 8th grade, we rode it about 15 times in a row just to see if we could memorize the speech that the (cute) girl gave during the up-and-down trip. I love the view from up there, too, and always wished the ride was a little longer to enjoy it more.

The article I read mentioned nothing about the space needle. Sad to see it go.

I read the wiki article about the space spiral. Kind of historic. Very rare. Actually quite relevant on the world stage. MUCH more important than the Seneca County Courthouse.

If it's true about the space needle, that sucks. I like thrill rides, but that one is not only a throwback, it's an icon of the park. Somewhere I have a T-shirt with that and the Blue Streak on it.

Not every ride has to have weightlessness, 3G's, 0-90 in 2 seconds acceleration, testicles smashed to oblivion, hyper-speed, a record amount of loops-twists-gallons of water, or vomit comet credentials to be considered "fun".

I'm fairly young...and I still miss the damn Pirate Ride at CP (a shameless rip-off of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at DisneyLand/World, but it was fun!).

Come on really? We're bemoaning the loss of the Space Spiral and Disaster Transport?

Rider count on Space Spiral is to low. It was basically replaced by the 16 ft higher Windseeker next door, that provides better unobstructed views, and is more attractive visually at night due to the lighting. Hated the Space Spiral as a kid and it hasn't gotten any better as I've aged.

Disaster Transport is appropriately named. Its a disaster that Kinzell the CEO admitted was his biggest mistake during his tenure. It started as Avalanche Run and was so bad they tried to salvage it by building a warehouse around it and adding a theme. They couldn't change the fact it was a terrible ride and the themeing has been broken and inoperable for years. The worst aspect is by adding the warehouse building they blocked off the beach.

I hate to see good rides go and lose history in the park, but these two need to go. Sometimes rides lose their relevance, sometimes they become too expensive to continue operating due to age or lack of available parts.

Now if we want bemoan history or family rides.....
History:
1. The botched hotel breakers renovation in the early 90's that caused it to lose historic status. Not to mention the fact the entire interior needs redone but they won't because they can get an arm and leg without rennovating because of the location.
2. Buzzsaw Kinzell removed so many trees the train ride and paddlewheel boats lost their other world feel and they won't fix half the animatronics. Then they built a stupid bridge so they had to get rid of the real Paddlewheel boats and put in the lousy motor boats due to height restrictions until they finally removed the whole thing.
3. The Ballroom upstairs on the Midway that can no longer be used thanks to the ADA

Family:
1. Pirate Ride-Dark Ride where whole family could get in one boat
2. Mill Race-Water Ride where one family can all ride in one log and not get soaked
3. White Water Landing-Water Ride with a family in one canoe
4. Wild Cat-tame entry coaster where a family of four had their own private car
5. Paddlewheel excursion
6. Demon Drop- family could ride in one car
7. Bearenstein Bears/Snoopy play area- walled off thanks again to the ADA.

It'd be nice if the train could loop from the back of the park to the front... three or four stops instead of two.

They also have been ignoring the arcades. And frankly the $2.50 Pepsi has to go. If there was actually anything coming out of Hollywood worth watching (now that I've seen Avengers and am waiting on The Hobbit) I'd go to one of the Rave theatres because they actually dropped the prices on food.

Theres a facebook page setup to save the space spiral and disaster transport.

Theres a facebook page setup to save the space spiral and disaster transport.

The facebook page must have been set up by the same people that wanted to save the houses and not build The Glass Museum.

Wow I agree with coward on something. Yes make the trains serve a purpose to transport the weary around the park to strategic places!

The arcades are neglected because you can play a video game just as superior at home now. Make the whole arcade area a great dark ride or two inside.

Disaster Transport is quite possibly the worst ride one could subject themselves to. My childhood memories of it were pleasant, and several years ago i convinced my roller coaster scared wife to come with me to cedar point. I told her it was a safe ride.. nothing scary at all.

It was by far, the most traumatic thing I had ever experienced with my wife. The car was shaking like it was hitting speed bumps every 3 feet, and the air conditioning was off so it was hotter than hell. She was terrified and i never lived it down.

I'm very very happy to see they are tearing it down. It's an awful ride.

I've often wondered what happened to all those classic glass and metal arcade games from the 50's, 60's and 70's. They kept many of them operating in the 70's and well into the 80's.

I realize they probably broke on a daily basis, and there's probably a retired technician somewhere in Sandusky who has the schematics for them burned into his brain.

Nostalgia is practically an industry of its own now; it would be cool if they had the space to maintain a better mix of old and new. Part of it's charm was that you could get the beejeezus scared out of you on a coaster, then go ride the paddle boats.

Also curious if the spiral is just scrap at this point or could it be reassembled in a different location?

MrGlass: The Space Spiral isn't on my list of favorite rides either; I was simply commenting that it is an icon of the park, similar to the Blue Streak (and many of the late lamented rides you listed for family).

As for Avalanche Run/Disaster Transport--any time I rode that piece of shit, the air conditioning was never working...so you got hit with all the stored up, hot, body odor of thousands of people throughout the ride.

Maybe that was the "disaster" part of the themeing. Nah...this video recreation shows how boring the damn thing was from the start in 1985.

I thought the Space Spiral was lame too, until I became of the age that anything that spins or moves too fast makes me want to heave! That and the paddlehwheel boats, train, and ferris wheel are the only rides I can tolerat anymore. Some of you have mentioned the Pirate ride....anyone remember the Earthquake ride? It used to to be next to the arcade. And speaking of games and "history", there was a game you cold sit at and roll balls under a glass and try to get so many in a row, I beleive. It was located right next to the Kiddeland section in what is now a Johnny Rockets. (Which irks me as well, as the food at CP was also always part of the experience). I suppose it won't be long before we see a McDonald's there....sigh. I suppose our days of going there are just about over. Besides the ticket price, the parking fee (do you know, you can now pay $20 (instead of $10) to get a "better" parking spot?), cost of food, etc. they now charge $7.00 just to rent a locker?! That's the small locker too. I believe the large ones are $14...what a rip off. We were there in the spring with our 8th graders class trip, and it was a rainy day. When the rain stopped everyone went to the lockers to stash their umbrellas, rain ponchos, etc. When people saw the cost, we saw them "hiding" their stuff in the bushes. Pretty crazy!
Speaking of remodeling the Hotel Breakers...I remember in the late '80's going there with 3 other girlfriends. We each had blow up rafts (the small swimming pool type) to go out on the lake with. The rooms were so small, in order for any of us to go to the bathroom, we all had to stand get on the beds with our rafts to let someone through! And I'm sure we paid a pretty price to stay there too! And NO air conditioning!