Future of Rougarou/Mantis

So Cedar Point is usually known for their great and diverse ride collection. Over the years, they have also been known to try to improve their rides obviously to keep them popular, one being to my former favorite coaster in the park, Mantis. The big rides, like Millennium Force, Dragster, GateKeeper, Valravn, Maverick, and soon to be Mean Streak all are popular and are huge crowdpleasers. Then there are other rides like Gemini and Iron Dragon that are pretty popular too, especially since they are more family oriented and especially with the new VR on Iron Dragon. And then there are rides that are on the more historical side, such as Magnum XL-200 with the ACE Landmark, Blue Streak, and Corkscrew (which I wouldn't be surprised if it gets an ACE Landmark soon too, unless CP messed it up somehow like they did with Blue Streak ). Yes I left two out because I honestly believe these two are on the chopping block, but this is about the gorgeous looking B&M next to Iron Dragon.

So from what I remember, Mantis usually always had a line. Yeah, the standup trains made it slightly longer, but I honestly don't remember loading being that bad. They had to have been a little more intensely trained to deal with the large crowds that come to Cedar Point, especially working on a standup. After changing to Rougarou, it had lines the first 3 months, then nothing. I have only seen the line over 5 minutes once, and it was on such a busy Halloweekends Saturday that even Mean Streak had a wait time of 1 hr 30 minutes. Yeah Rougarou has 3 trains now, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. There has been days I've gone when Rougarou has 2 trains running, and Iron Dragon has a longer line. In fact, Iron Dragon almost always has a longer line than Rougarou, which is kind of sad, because Rougarou was supposed to be an "improvement" over Mantis.

Why am I posting about this though? Well, I have heard rumors of Cedar Point already planning on removing Rougarou. Of course, these are just rumors, but honestly just hearing these rumors shows how much of a dud this ride was. Many praised Cedar Point for making this conversion, yet that's all they like about the ride. The enthusiasts asked for a floorless, they got it, and it kind of sucked. Ask almost anyone who has gone to Cedar Point if their favorite ride was Rougarou and I guarantee that 99.9% will say no. Ask anyone if they liked Rougarou or Mantis better and I think you would be surprised how many people liked Mantis better. And I'm not talking about picky coaster enthusiasts, I'm talking the GP (I hate using that but I'm gonna use it anyways). They're really the only ones who matter because they show the theme parks what they like and what will get the most business. I don't think anything is going to happen to this ride immediately, because I think they are trying to add some effects. I have noticed a considerable amount of fog outside the entrance this year and the sound effects have been going a lot more frequently. However, this seems to not really have attracted more guests.

What's in store for the future? Honestly, I have no idea. This just seems like something that won't be here long. Tony Clark even said something about how it would not be getting vest restraints as a floorless. My personal hope for this ride is for it to be completely retracked and transformed back into Mantis, with the new rumored B&M Standup trains. This would make the ride unique again and easily be one of the most popular standup coasters. This would also give other Cedar Fair parks the option of putting in standup coasters. I just think it's weird for Cedar Fair to completely push the idea of a standup coaster away, because in the end, it's another coaster option for them to add. Retracking it would also allow them to alter supports in case clearance does not pass. However, this is just my wild imagination, but I honestly could see it considering Cedar Point is in the race for the most coasters and losing a coaster definitely hurts them. I would really like to hear some opinions though, because I honestly have no clue what's in store for this B&M coaster.

Just because few people will consider Rougarou their favorite doesn't mean few people like it. Rougarou will stay as is for the foreseeable future. There's no reason to add vests to it and even less of a reason (i.e. none) to convert it back to a standup.

With the low ridership though, wouldn't the profit of the running costs kind of outweigh the reason for them to keep it?

I don't think it really attracts people to the park like the other rides, but I do think it adds value. Even the fact that it has a short line for a fairly high quality ride is important in a park that gets giant lines. I don't expect it'll go anywhere anytime soon, especially after they just put so much money into it.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Move the entrance to where it used to be and have a bridge over the railroad. It'll suddenly get more popular. Also I really doubt they'd dump the thing since the overhaul it had magically coincided with a schedule HEAVY maintenance block, so worst case scenario they'd do something like remove a 3rd train for parts for a season or two first and limp along on that.

I heard this rumor as well and I can only seeing it going out of the park for two reasons:
1. Ridership goes down which honestly B&M's (some) are built to be capacity monsters, just look at the beemers at CP, Banshee, Fury, and others around the world.
2. Parts get hard to find. WE ALL KNOW THIS WONT HAPPEN SINCE B&M IS STILL IN BUSINESS.

Then again we never know what CP has up their sleeve and with how landlocked they are park wise they could fit something nice in that spot. Personally I love Rougarou and i really do not want it to go. It is an underrated ride IMO

I still stand by what I've always felt about it. They spent all that time and effort redoing it, and placed trains on it with harnesses straight out of the '90s. I believe it was a huge oversight not incorporating the modern vests. I don't buy the "the vest restraints are wider and it wouldn't fit four across" response--it's not like there is one singular design of vest restraint possible. B&M has incredible resources and always do a stellar, solid engineering job; I truly believe they could have redesigned their vest restraint system to accommodate narrower seats. It's not like that ride has more than two moments of low or negative gravity; they could even have simple and open restraints like the Skyrush L-bar design, with or without the vests. I'm more than willing to be wrong about this for reasons I may be overlooking (harness class requirements or whatnot), but that's what ruined the coaster for me. The track is so old that the constant jerking side to side against the bulky OTSRs makes the whole experience distracting, irritating, and potentially headache-inducing for those prone to them.

I feel like Tony Clark honestly might have just said that so it seemed like it was impossible and so people wouldn't be constantly bugging for new restraints. But I do think the headbanging ruined the ride for many. I'm too spoiled to wait in lines so of course I usually ride this, and 75% of the time I hear people complaining about their ears, etc. on the brake run. Honestly, I never had a problem with headbanging on Mantis, because you had the floor to brace yourself (which is probably not a good sign that you have to brace yourself on a coaster, but hey it worked ) and Rougarou doesn't have that.

One other thing I forgot to mention in this post though is I could see (but hope doesn't happen) them adding VR to this ride. It would definitely attract people and seeing how SeaWorld did this to Kraken, it could definitely happen to this ride.