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by **Dom497** » Sep 22, 2012 6:49 am

Looks like after the two Knott's Berrry Farm WindSeeker stalls, Cedar Fair has shutdown all WindSeekers until furthur notice.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/the ... 4072.story

by **BrotherJay** » Sep 23, 2012 3:20 am

Honestly, it's about time they took this move after the thousands of people that have been stranded on the windseekers all over, myself included. When I got stuck for 30 minutes with my friends.. fast pass burning away.. they didn't even offer a bottle of water.. a coupon for anything.. just a muttered under their breath sorry.

I love to photograph this ride at all times of the day or night but I will never ride any version of it ever again.

What did we pay for it again ?

by **Dom497** » Sep 23, 2012 6:32 am

5 million. The only reason why Cedar Fair shutthe rides down NOW was because they were forced to. After the second stall at Knotts, Californa order the ride to be closed for an investigation. Also, the fact that news made it all around the states and here, CF had their hands tied.

by **chadta** » Sep 23, 2012 6:35 am

I dunno, They have so many double and triple redundant safety features on these things, from what Ive read it has always been a safety system that has failed. Guess what, things fail, would you rather have it fail and get stuck at the top for a half hour, or would you like it to not have the double and triple redundant safety things, but know that if anything fails its going to come crashing down. I would have thought that they would have a manual override that would be able to release the brakes and lower the thing tho.

by **Dom497** » Sep 23, 2012 8:00 am

I remember at the beginning of this season, the ride would stop at the top but then slowly come back down (too about 20 minutes for it to get back down) which means that there is some sort of override. Why it didn't work at Knotts? I don't know.

by **mess98** » Sep 23, 2012 12:25 pm

So NOW this is a big deal?
Maybe I'm overthinking this... but I saw our Windseeker getting stuck almost every time I was at the park.

Website · by **kunpc1** » Sep 24, 2012 8:54 am

It all depends on what the issue is. WindSeeker at Cedar Point was shut down as high winds ripped the electrical conduit right out from its guide rails/track. The problem with something like that is that you can't just manually lower the ride as it can cause even more problems/damage if the wires get caught in the the ride carriage.

I don't know what's caused the Knott's problems. If it's a sensor or some other similar safety check system, then yes, there should be a manual override that lowers the ride. However, it may be something that doesn't allow for that type of thing in which case, it should be investigated.

I think there's a bit of over-exaggeration of how horrible this ride is. I've been stuck on coaster lifts numerous times. I've also spent almost an hour at the top of Drop Tower many years ago. Aside from high winds keeping it closed, I've never had an issue with any of my rides on any of the WindSeekers I've ridden.

by **bratman** » Sep 24, 2012 10:28 pm

Ride breakdowns are FREQUENT when I am around. Ask any ACEr who knows me.... I am known as the "ride breaker". I have have been e-vaced off so many rides. I am actually kind of hoping for a Windseeker e-vac

.

Seriously, people make too much of ride breakdowns. Cedar Fair is doing due diligence in shutting them all down to get the the bottom of the matter.

by **canadaswonderlandguy** » Oct 02, 2012 6:55 pm

I figured I should post this just for fun. :lol:

http://memegenerator.net/instance/27041562

by **AAA101** » Oct 03, 2012 3:54 pm

I can understand them shutting them all down now, because it's a safety issue, but I just wish they could've held off until the season was over to do a full inspection.

by **TheCrypt** » Oct 03, 2012 8:14 pm

And risk the lives of park patrons, and the parks' reputations?

by **emery96** » Oct 03, 2012 8:36 pm

What? Last I checked, the safety systems were performing exactly the way they are supposed to. It was left hanging for hours because of the safety systems working. No ones life was at risk. Shutting these rides down was not because they are unsafe, it's because they wan't to know why they malfunctioned.

by **cheese** » Oct 03, 2012 8:53 pm

It was left hanging for hours because of the safety systems working. No ones life was at risk.

Right, being stuck for nearly 4 hours at 300 feet is all fine and dandy until a severe storm rolls in or a passenger suffers a health issue.

by **emery96** » Oct 03, 2012 9:04 pm

cheese wrote:Right, being stuck for nearly 4 hours at 300 feet is all fine and dandy until a severe storm rolls in or a passenger suffers a health issue.

If we want to start pulling at straws, 148km/h on a roller coaster is all fine and dandy until someone gets hit in the face by a bird. Of course there are situations that could arise, my point was that the safety systems were performing correctly, and a bizarre accident would be the only risk to the patrons on the ride.

Website · by **kunpc1** » Oct 03, 2012 9:43 pm

Everyone that was stuck on the ride was safe. The issue here is that a safety check stopped the ride. They shut down all the rides across the chain to find out what caused the shut down and why they weren't able to manually lower the carriage.

My understanding is that the issue has been identified and a fix already implemented (or soon to be implemented). Hopefully they'll all be back up and running soon.