Cedar Point Maverick Construction Report June 2006

Occasionally I run into something in my piles and piles of saved photos that transport me into another moment. The moment I saw and recalled today was my first look at the Maverick construction site at Cedar Point in June of 2006. No track or supports had made an appearance yet. The ride was announced at the end of August 2006 and the net abounded with discussion up until that point. I recall that the popular rumor was "AquaTrax" at the time, which would make sense since they had removed the terrific Whitewater Landing Arrow Hydroflume in the fall of 2005. On warm days at the Point, this ride is still greatly missed. Prior to that I recall rumors from dueling B&M flyers to a new GCI. It is funny how the discussions have not really changed much in speculation since that point. The classic "NASA studied Arrow Giga Arrowbatic" rumors had finally gone to rest now that Arrow was pretty much no more.

You can see the sandy soils which inhabit the point. I wonder if they have to take any out of the ordinary special considerations for projects at the Point in regards to the sandy soil. 

What fueled even more speculation was the fact that they opted to keep the old Whitewater Landing station that once housed the high capacity turntable loading system for the flume.

No one aside from CF management quite knew what that was all about. The park also opted to leave cryptic hints around the construction site, peepholes through the fence and hints around the net. They were utilizing social media at the height of early sites like Xanga and during the rise of Myspace, two sites that I am sure a few of you younger folks do not even know about. Youtube was also starting to really gain steam. It feels like this was yesterday, it is amazing how much has changed in a short 8 years.

I am trying to figure out as far as perceptions of the location. Is this the spot of the corkscrew roll thing or the entry into the launch?

No matter what the end result would be, we knew the addition would be huge. The footers were mysterious and this was a pretty compact site. If I am not mistaken, the first move the park made was moving the train tracks over a few feet to accommodate Maverick. I joked that since this was the year the Paramount Parks were acquired that Maverick would be an extension of Top Gun into the Point.

It is like that "Back up Bronco" warning was reinforced by the dynamic Lake Erie weather. Thankfully it was late afternoon and we were heading out anyways. We had to take shelter in a gift shop at the front of the park. The storm was wild! 

We all know the end result of the project

I love the way they opted to utilize the old station and grown in queue from Whitewater Landing for the Maverick queue line. When rides do not have large capacities, nice and shaded queues should be offered.