Defunctland: The History of Cedar Point's Disaster Transport

there's a world apart a place in your heart can she be recalled summer never [Music] recorder position coordinates x7 disaster transport it'll take you out of this world but it may not get you back new this summer at Cedar Point [Applause] [Music] hello my name is Kevin perjurer and welcome to another edition in defunk time for background slash context on this series please visit the function comm with the link below today we will be attempting to resurrect the extinct indoor rollercoaster disaster transport I decided to make this to appease all of these wonderful coaster fans Lake Erie Cedar Point Peninsula located in Sandusky Ohio first opened in 1870 as a recreation center for Lake goers the peninsula named after its large population of cedar trees was mainly used for fishing until 1870 when ferries began to shuttle people to Cedar Point usually for picnics and other summer activities 12 years later Cedar Point debuted its first roller coaster the Switchback railway 20 years after that a second roller coaster was built than a third in 1908 and a fourth and 1912 and more and more throughout the years until today when they now call themselves the roller coaster capital of the world but they weren't void of missteps and this is the story of one of their most infamous the years 1985 Careless Whisper by Wham is topping the charts Back to the Future is about to be released in theaters and Michael Eisner is taking a shot at running the Walt Disney Company in Ohio Cedar Point CEO Robert L Munger jr. has found the recipe for his park success while previous administrations had attempted to copy Disney successes in theming Munger found that record-breaking and unique thrill rides best fit Cedar Point the park was pumping out coasters as fast as possible on May 11 at the 1985 one of these new coasters Avalanche Run opened at Cedar Point in the spot previously occupied by another coaster jumbo jet the Avalanche run was a bobsled coaster which meant there were no rails and the ride car would move freely down a two propelled by gravity alone with a build cost of 3.4 million dollars the coaster had a two-and-a-half minute run time with the lift hill taking up over half of that reached a top speed of 40 miles per hour and a top height of 63 feet the ride was cute and a hit with families due to its gentle speed and quick turns it had its issues though mainly its location near the coast of Lake Erie which allowed gusts of wind to blow large amounts of sand into the track when this happened it would have to be cleaned out which was costly to maintenance and lost ridership just one year after the opening of avalanche run in 1986 monger stepped down a CEO of the new organize Cedar Fair Richard dick Kinsel who at the time was the general manager of Cedar Fair's only other Park Minnesota's Valley Fair was appointed to CEO his plans for the company were ambitious and he would go on to acquire literally all of Cedar Fair Sparks besides the original two in his long tenure when he first took over however his focus was on Cedar Point Kinsel had been keeping a close eye on Disney during his time the Valley Fair and the year he took over Cedar Fair was the same year that star tours opened at Disneyland drawing huge audiences of media attention Kinsel saw the benefits to theming attractions if he could combine the intricate theming and story of Star Tours and redress one of his already existing coasters as a space mountain type ride perhaps he could push Cedar Point into a new direction the Disneyland of the Midwest the coaster to be redressed couldn't be too big for obvious cost and logistics reasons and they just happened to have one that both fifties parameters and even needed the ride building to protect it from the loads of sand that kept blowing into its tubes Cedar Point is now the most visited seasonal amusement park in the United States and it like many other seasonal parks closes during the winter or longer when Disney or universal renovates a ride there's a massive amount of attention on its progress when Cedar point or another seasonal park renovates a ride during the offseason it just opens it isn't there on closing day and it is on opening day the next year so when guests entered Cedar Point in 1990 avalanche Run was gone seemingly replaced by a new enclosed attraction with the mysterious name disaster transport next time you get bored with life on earth disaster transport this summer at Cedar Point the conversion costs an additional four million dollars in building costs theming and the addition of two animatronics the new building and special effects were made by ite see productions a small company out of Orlando Florida the new ride building was awkwardly shaped as I was trying to conform to the track of avalanche run it prominently displayed 12 E in large letters some thoughts of the stood for the 12th coaster that was build at Cedar Point but Avalanche Run was the seventh and disaster transport was the ninth the actual origins came from an IT EC employee named Eric disaster transport was the 12th ride that he had designed hence the 12 e guests flocked towards the new building wondering what mysteries were waiting for them inside mysteries is exactly what they got and they didn't get much else guests were confused at what exactly the story behind the ride was this is what could be pieced together through the cue and ride experience gues entered the first room nicknamed admission control this completely black lit section featured posters of vacation packages a diagram of the ride vehicle videos of space pilots talking about their trip and an animatronic trying to sell you travel destinations in future years guests also had the option of buying a pair of chromatic glasses these were used commonly in amusement parks and live attractions to enhance practical effects after exiting Mission Control guest entered a hallway with murals of cargo boxes and glowing hand prints with the chroma depth glasses these appeared to stick out and move his guests walked by next was the biggest room of the queue line the repair Bay this room featured industrial equipment in over hanging basket with lost luggage and replacement parts a robotic arm working on a rocket sled a sci-fi generator thing and a security camera that would reject guests after observing them at the exit of this area there was a logo of the transport company featured on the wall dispatch master transport but it was subtly broken to indicate the rides actual name finally the station was called the launch Bay new trains come from behind a curtain eerily with no passengers in them guests board the train then the lift Hill just as slow and long as avalanche run but now with flashing lights lining the side in audio clip emission control would attempt to dispatch master transport only for them to lose control and guess would begin their descent a projector displayed a brilliant star field and as guests began to pick up speed they would see a similar rocket to their own explode with their sled moving to avoid the debris next guests would fly past glowing planets around a large spaceship over the surface of Mars and then it was over guess exit the bobsled in the show building and encounter a peculiar sign that reads welcome to Alaska if you're confused welcome to the club this ride has basically two narratives one is the Star Tours knock off space transportation vacation story I guess the funny part is that you go all the way to space just to end up in Alaska the other is the cargo transportation story in which something goes wrong whether it be a malfunction or space pirates neither was fully realized and resulted in a weird random space adventure some claim that there were more effects present on opening day than I just described such as the voices heard being from the in-flight computer named Dave while others think that dave was the robot at the beginning is very difficult to back these claims with the lack of evidence and the fact that the ride opened 27 years ago so it isn't fresh in anyone's memories when the ride first opened lines would reach upwards of 90 minutes Cedar Point seemed to have successfully renovated a Blanche run but this was just the beginning of the true disaster the attractions animatronics and decorations immediately began to break down but instead of fixing or replacing parts Kinsel refused to have any work done the most that was done was the removal of some of the effects such as Dave eventually riders would find themselves in complete darkness where there was once projections and lights in 1997 a section of the queue line was removed to make room for Cedar Point's Halloween event have a weekends as Kindles rain at Cedar Fair continued and he began his long string of acquisitions of parks such as Knott's Berry Farm disaster transport sat as an embarrassment to his original ambition for the parks Cedar Fair was not Disney and it would never again tried to be disaster transport was an embarrassment to the park but instead of destroying it Kinsel decided to milk it dry this is when Cedar Point began selling the chrome adept 3d glasses for $1 as well as glow sticks and other toys in the rides queue if you remember the defunct line on sunna beast you know that in 2006 Kinsel and Cedar Fair acquired paramount parks these parks had extensive theming using paramount licensed properties instead of redeeming the rides Cedar Fair simply ripped off their labels turning them into generic thrill rides proving once again how much disaster Transport scared Cedar Fair away from anything out of the ordinary in 2009 another section of the queue was acquired for a Halloweekend haunted house happy jacks tie factory which moved the main entrance to an emergency exit leading directly into the repair Bay the multiple acquisitions and construction of new attractions during the recession put Cedar Fair and huge amounts of debt seeing that his tenure was almost over Kinsel attempted to create a 20 million dollar golden parachute for himself by selling the company in refinancing their debt this failed and on January 2nd 2012 Matt women took over as CEO of Cedar Fair we met was the former president of Disneyland so he had some experience cleaning up after CEOs failures but where's disaster transport six months after women took over Cedar Point would closed the attraction after 22 years of operation the final dispatch event was held on July 29th 2012 raising money for charity soon after both disaster transport and its neighbors space spiral came down in his place came a new coaster gatekeeper bringing the outdated and decane entrance new life as well as telling all those who entered that they were in the roller coaster kingdom so wide a disaster transport closed besides you know duh disaster Transport had many unmentioned issues that added to its demise firstly avalanche run itself had many mechanical problems with its air brake systems these failures would cause sudden emergency stops and extensive downtime secondly the ride building itself wasn't watertight in the event of any rain water would pool inside the track areas and would need to be shut down guests were not happy that an indoor attraction couldn't remain open during a slight downpour but the main reason for his closure was the newly-appointed we met his plans for bringing Cedar Point back to life included promoting the Lake Erie beach front turning the park into a summertime resort disaster transport was an ugly square industrial building sitting on the edge of the beautiful beach so it made sense to destroy the ride there is a tribute to disaster transport in howl weekends with one of the bobsleds filled with skeletons and the old exit sign with every attraction there comes a certain amount of nostalgia even the biggest disasters hold a place in the hearts of park goers while the majority of guests might not miss disaster transport there few that were devastated by its closure and even today yearn to go back on their trip to Alaska [Music] [Applause] [Music] some things [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Defunctland

Views: 1,386,538

Keywords: defunctland, kevin perjurer, theme park, extinct, abandoned, defunct, history, disney, disneyland, disney world, previous, attractions, on ride, lights on, cedar point, disaster transport, roller coaster, roller coasters, funny, cedar fair

Id: cWEdlLwvKOM

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Tumbling-Dice]

It should be pointed out Gatekeeper was far into its development when Ouimet became CEO. It takes a couple years to approve and design a coaster, so he can't be given credit for its creation.

This was still a great video, though, and it showed some queue line video I hadn't seen before. I really wish I could have ridden Disaster Transport in 1990 when all the effects were present and operational.

[u/wavvvygravvvy]

check out the sub! r/Defunctland

[u/Mooco2]

Disaster Transport was the right idea at the wrong park.

It was honestly a ton of fun when I rode it in 2011 even with the derelict effects. It was just awesomely mysterious and kitschy in the best way. Plus, at a park with no other discernible themeing, it was a nice change of pace!

Gatekeeper is great, and a much better fit for the park, but I did miss this on my last trip there.

[u/bachrodi]

You beat me to this post!

I loved Disaster Transport because we'd go on it and totally accept how cheesy it was! I grew up in Florida, so I was used to theming at that level. It was one of my favorite rides because I never took it seriously and just let myself go and have fun with it! Totally wished the effects worked, but maybe that added a defunct charm?

[u/Yukonkimmy]

Am I the only person who thought it was a pretty good ride when it was Avalanche Run? I felt like it being outdoors and being able to see the bobsled track helped it.

[u/[deleted]]

Disaster Transport >>> Gatekeeper

[u/marcus27]

This video made Kinzel's tenure seem terrible, but I think they learned, mostly, from the mistake of DT and built most of their iconic rides during his time.

[u/twatchops]

I like Definctland videos a lot, but he is REALLY harsh on Disaster Transport being bad or wrong. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a decent ride. I never saw the downtime referenced, maybe I was lucky. The only complaint I had was the long lines.

I get it's not the right themeing fit for CP. But it served its purpose until they wanted to open up the beach and re-do the park entrance.