Category Archives: News and Updates

News and Updates, News Stories, Ride Construction, Ride Watch, Rides, Spinning Rides, Thrill Rides

New Cedar Point ride’s patent being disputed

Leave a comment

From toledoBlade.com…

SANDUSKY – Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky had intricate plans to use the social media site Facebook as the place next week to unveil its newest ride for 2011.

But now it appears that an Australian ride manufacturer has revealed it in a patent dispute over its version of a towering thrill ride it calls StarFlyer and a Dutch competitor’s version called Wind Seeker.

Funtime Group of Bundall, Australia, claims it thought it had a deal with Cedar Fair LP to build a 400-foot high StarFlyer ride to debut at Cedar Point in 2011, but now the Sandusky park plans to buy a Wind Seeker from Mondial World of Rides of Terband, the Netherlands.

Both rides feature a large tower that spins up to 50 riders from a center ring that rises high into the air. StarFlyer’s chairs are attached by chains, Wind Seeker’s by poles.

Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services Inc., of Cincinnati, said StarFlyer-type rides cost just more than $2 million each and do not require a large area like a roller coaster.

Funtime, which introduced StarFlyer in 2004 and has a U.S. patent on the design, has threatened legal action if Cedar Point builds a Wind Seeker.

“We’ve spoken with the folks at Cedar Fair and my belief is we’re going to work it out,” said Tony Handal, a lawyer for Cottingham Agencies, the U.S. patent holder on StarFlyer for Funtime Group. “We have a patent and it’s a remarkable ride, newer technology. I couldn’t imagine Cedar Fair wouldn’t respect our rights in this.”

Mr. Handal said Cottingham wants Cedar Fair either to buy a StarFlyer or pay a licensing fee for using technology it claims infringes on its patent.

The attorney said that, while the two ride makers attach their two-seat ride cars differently, Cottingham’s position is there’s “no significant difference” in the two rides.

Officials at Mondial could not be reached for comment.

Cedar Fair spokesman Stacy Frole said the company had no comment on the controversy or statements by Funtime.

“We haven’t announced the ride yet, so there’s nothing to comment about,” she said. The announcement on the ride is to be made Tuesday.

Mr. Handal said Cedar Fair went to Florida this year to view a StarFlyer at Magical Midway amusement park and contacted Funtime about one for Cedar Point. In July, Cedar Fair filed a trademark name application for a new ride called “Stratosoar.”

“[Cedar Fair] did contact us, but then they went with another company that doesn’t own the patent,” Mr. Handal said.

Jeff Putz, a Web site operator for PointBuzz, a Cedar Point fan site, said the patent controversy is now the hot topic among parkgoers.

“There had been a lot of rumors beforehand about what the ride was,” he said. “So far, people are talking more about the controversy than the ride.”

Contact Jon Chavez at:
jchavez@theblade.comor
419-724-6128.

News and Updates, News Stories

Cedar Point blaze cause undetermined

Leave a comment

From the Sandusky Register…

SANDUSKY

Sandusky’s fire marshal said the cause of July’s Cedar Point fire may remain undetermined, though he suspects an electrical problem sparked the blaze.

Fire marshal Rudy Ruiz said unless he’s 100 percent certain, he’ll leave the case open until new information or evidence crops up.

The July 6 fire at a service building at Cedar Point caused extensive damage.

Ruiz said there was a storage area above a ballast, a mechanism used to control electrical current. The fire appeared to have started there.

“Ballasts have a tendency to get hot and it could have heated up the storage area,”Ruiz said.

News and Updates, News Stories, Rides, Thrill Rides

What’s the commotion? Say goodbye, Ocean Motion

Leave a comment

From the Sandusky Register…

SANDUSKY

As Cedar Point begins to shuffle an old ride off stage, a new star is preparing to make its entrance.

The amusement park has put an old ride, the Ocean Motion, up for sale, and begun dropping clues about the new ride it will debut next year.

Offers for Ocean Motion are being taken by Ital International, which sells new and used rides. The ride is identified on Ital’s website as a Huss Pirate Ship, reference No. 1392.

The asking price is $179,000.

“In our industry, this is a very good ride,” said Carlo Guglielmi, founder and chief manager of Ital. “It’s a classic in the business.”

Ocean Motion is in good shape, well made and would cost more than a $1 million as a new ride, he said.

Cedar Point spokesman Robin Innes said Ocean Motion, which dates back to 1981, is less of a drawing card for Cedar Point than newer rides at the park. Reviewers discussing the ride at the ThemePark Critics website note that “short lines” are a major attraction for the ride. A YouTube user who posted a video of the ride labeled it “lackluster” and wrote, “this ride in hardly popular anymore.”

Fans, however, have noted on the internet that the ride is well-landscaped and that the beach location adds to the ride’s ambiance.

Jeff Putz, webmaster for Pointbuzz.com, said a swinging ship ride is “kind of a staple of theme parks everywhere. The fact that they are selling it surprises me.”

It’s also a surprise considering that Cedar Point has made a considerable investment to keep the ride in good shape, Putz said.

Construction markers near the ride have given rise to speculation that the space vacated by Ocean Motion will be used for the new ride.

Cedar Point announced Tuesday that it will reveal its plans for 2011 at 2 p.m. Tuesday. It began posting  clues about the new ride from its Facebook site. Tuesday’s clue linked to lesson plans for teaching students how to make a wind detector.

Over the weekend, the amusement park celebrated getting more than 500,000 Facebook fans by posting a clue about the new ride. The clue is “IEItRmA,” which unscrambles as “airtime.”

That’s not much of a clue, because most of the rides at Cedar Point spend time in the air, Putz said.

He said he’s confident the new ride will not be a roller coaster but will be a thrill ride with broad appeal.

Speculation has been rife at roller coaster websites that the new ride may be a ride resembling the StarFlyer, a ride made in Australia. At Vienna’s Prater Park, the ride has a tower 236 feet tall that spins guests seated in chairs at the end of a chain.

Roller coaster fans at a Dutch website have pointed out that Mondial, a Dutch ride manufacturer, is producing a new ride that resembles the StarFlyer but can operate against stronger winds.

Mondial said early this year that it designed the Wind Seeker ride “following requests from clients who wanted a Star Flyer-style ride they could still operate within normal wind conditions.” The company said then that “negotiations are currently under way to find the first client.”

Ocean Motion facts

• Manufactured by HUSS Park Attractions, Bremen, Germany

• Debuted in 1981 at Cedar Point

• Seats 54 people

• A boat that swings back and forth in the air

• Located next to the beach in the northeast part of the amusement park

Events, News and Updates, News Stories, Rides, RollerCoasters

Cedar Point to Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Millennium Force

Leave a comment

Cedar Point Press Release

SANDUSKY, Ohio – In 2000, fears and concerns about Y2K were running rampant across the world.  Closer to home, then Vice President Al Gore and George W. Bush, the governor of Texas, were campaigning for the presidency of the United States.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas was the year’s top grossing movie, and Beverly Hills 90210 aired its final episode.

In May of that year, Cedar Point made history.  The Sandusky, Ohio, amusement park/resort had just introduced the Millennium Force roller coaster.  Standing 310 feet tall and reaching speeds of 93 mph, it was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world!

Now 10 years and more than 17 million rides later, Cedar Point will commemorate this legendary coaster by hosting the Millennium Force 10th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, Aug. 21.  Some of the special festivities on that day will include a 10th anniversary ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. and contests for Millennium Force prizes.

One of these contests will be for guests who follow Cedar Point on Twitter and the park’s in-park mobile messaging program.  During the day, several messages will be posted instructing guests on how to win an awesome Cedar Point and Millennium Force prize package.

“From Day One, Millennium Force was an instant hit,” said John Hildebrandt, Cedar Point’s vice president and general manager.  “It is an international icon for Cedar Point and symbolizes the best in roller-coaster-riding.”

Designed and manufactured by Intamin AG of Wollerau, Switzerland, Millennium Force is one of the most popular roller coasters ever built and has repeatedly been selected as the best coaster in the world in polls throughout the decade.

This steel giant towering over Sandusky Bay on Lake Erie was the first roller coaster in history to surpass the 300-foot threshold and to exceed 90 mph.  With a track length of 6,595 feet, Millennium Force is still the longest steel roller coaster in North America.

At a cost of $25 million, Millennium Force is one of the most expensive ride projects in the history of Cedar Point.

To learn more about the Millennium Force 10th Anniversary Celebration or any of the other rides and attractions at Cedar Point, please visit cedarpoint.com or call the park’s General Information Line at 419.627.2350

News and Updates, News Stories, Ride Watch, Rides

Ride wars at Cedar Point?

1 Comment

From the Sandusky Register…

The fate of Cedar Point’s new ride could already be up in the air as a patent war brews between two ride manufacturers.

Brian Mirfin, of Australian ride manufacturer Funtime Group, said the new ride will be the Wind Seeker, made by Dutch-based manufacturer Mondial.

The Wind Seeker, however, is a patent-infringing copy of the StarFlyer — a tower ride the Funtime Group made and owns a patent on, Mirfin said.

Both rides are tower rides that spin riders around as they extend high in the air.

The StarFlyer pulls seats attached to a chain. The Mondial design is similar but uses arms instead of chains.

In its news announcement in early February, Mondial said it came up with the new ride “following requests from clients who wanted a StarFlyer-style ride they could still operate within normal wind conditions.”

“It’s almost like Mondial’s plagiarizing our idea,” said Mirfin, director of the Funtime Group and owner of Cottingham Agencies, which holds the patent for StarFlyer. “It makes us very, very angry.”

Executives at Mondial did not return an e-mail from a reporter seeking comment.

Dick Kinzel, president, chairman and CEO for Cedar Fair, said Wednesday night he had no comment. He repeated that the company plans to make an announcement at 2 p.m. Tuesday about the new ride for 2011.

Mirfin said his company, which has built 22 StarFlyers so far, thought it had a deal to build one for Cedar Point after amusement park executives flew to Orlando, Fla., several months ago to look at a StarFlyer at the Magical Midway.

Mirfin said his company planned to build a StarFlyer for Cedar Point that would be 400 feet tall — even bigger than the StarFlyer at Prater Park in Vienna, which stands 384 feet tall.

Instead, Funtime learned Cedar Point was buying a similar ride from Mondial, Mirfin said

“Now, not only do we not get the contract, now we’ve got to get into litigation,” Mirfin said. “The ones that we’ll be suing will be Cedar Point and not Mondial.”

Funtime’s U.S. patent for StarFlyer — patent No. 7666103 — was granted Feb. 23.

Tony Handal, the Connecticut attorney who filed the patent, said he believes the Mondial ride would be a patent infringement on the StarFlyer.

“It looks pretty much like the same thing to me,” Handal said, adding that he doubts litigation will be necessary.

“I think Cedar Point will not go forward without a license,” Handal said. “They can either do that or they can have the ride built by a licensed company.”