Our Winter Begins
Tony Clark
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It’s about that time again. “Sorry folks, park’s closed!”
Welcome to our winter. Our off-season.
And our opportunity to respond to the question literally ALL of us get every year: “Hey – what do you guys do in the winter, anyway?”
Literally, this:
No, no, no. Not that. I mean, some of us DO play in our free time at home, but that’s not even close to what we’re doing.
In fact, there’s so much work to do, this team is pretty much busy EVERY single workday until we open. And we’re even busier than that once we open.
So what goes on here? I’m going to show you. I’ll take you behind the scenes, share photos and answer your questions.
Before I share photos, just a personal and professional note - as a courtesy, if you share photos we've taken, please give credit to us as the source or link directly to our blog/tweet/Facebook post, etc. Please don't re-post our content as your own. All online content creators deserve credit and accuracy when info is shared, so I ask that you do the same, especially in the winter!
Let’s get started with a few quick hits.
One of the first rides that starts its rehab is our oldest roller coaster, Blue Streak. That’s because its trains are sent to a company called Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, a manufacturer of wooden roller coaster trains.
They specialize in full refurbishment, inspection and construction of these classic cars. We put our trust in them each winter, knowing they will take care of our blue baby.
Soon, the cars will be loaded up onto a flatbed and taken to Pennsylvania and will return to us in the early spring, just in time for you to enjoy once again.
In the park, literally EVERYONE is taking HalloWeekends decorations down. Inside the park, inside our shops, landscaping, props, fog machines – they’re all going away.
At CornStalkers, the corn has…expired.
And over at the Crazy Cornstalks maze, the corn has also…popped.
Over at the Giant Wheel, the cabins are still on, which means it’s technically not winter yet. I think all of us use this as a “what season is it?” gauge. Once they’re off, boo. When we see them on in the spring, yay!
Oh, and right next door, there’s this.
It's still there. Let me bring you up to speed.
The train is already off and crews are disconnecting everything. Power, controls, linear induction motors, sensors, etc. In a few weeks, full demo will begin.
For clarity, Wicked Twister is not being reincarnated as a new ride at any of our sister parks; it’s not coming back to life as a climbing structure (although, wouldn’t that be amazing to climb the spike like we used to do as kids when playgrounds had big climbing structures??); it’s not being inserted into Maverick’s layout to bring back the heartline roll.
It’s being disposed of. Not coming back, anywhere.
Since it’s a rarity to remove coasters, I’ll show you things that are happening throughout the process. Just follow me on Twitter, as I may post photos there faster than I can get them on the blog.
That area of the park is being prepared for future development. No, I will not tell you what that development is. 😊
More to come on all that.
Stay with us for winter updates, exciting new news and more – we’ll help you get your Cedar Point fix.
If you have questions, or things you’d like me to answer or check out, shoot me a tweet on Twitter!