Earlier this week, Cedar Fair decided to shut down all of its WindSeeker rides. Like an over-sized version of the traditional amusement park swing ride, the WindSeeker’s boast impressive views some 300-feet above the ground. Unfortunately, on several occassions this year, riders have been treated to those views for an extended period of time.
Riders have been stuck on the ride for hours at several of the chain’s parks. WindSeekers are at: Kings Dominion, Carowinds, Cedar Point, Kings Island, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Canada’s Wonderland. According to Brady James of the LA Times, there have been incidents this 
year on all of the WindSeekers except for the one at Kings Island. The most recent incident happened last week at Knott’s Berry Farm where the ride malfunctioned for the second time this month. This time it stranded riders for nearly four hours.
To date, no one’s been injured on these attractions, but the thought of being suspended that high in the air for that long, doesn’t look good for the parks and I’m sure it has some worried about the ride’s safety. Even once they get the issues resolved, I might have to think twice about riding the WindSeeker at my home park. I’m not really afraid that I would be injured, but being stuck on it wouldn’t be how I’d like to spend the last few hours of the 2012 season.
Read my review of Carowinds’ WindSeeker here: WindSeeker Review
And here’s my on-ride video of WindSeeker at Carowinds with Clint from CoasterCrew:
What’s your take? Once they’re fixed, will you ride WindSeeker again?
September 26, 2012 at 23:23
If I'm not mistaken. The ride at Knott's Berry Farm was transormed. Didn't it use to be a parachute ride before it was transformed into a windseeker. Were the ones at the other parks transformed also or built from new?
October 1, 2012 at 17:44
Unfortunately, you are mistaken. The Knott's Windseeker is a separate ride from the pre-existing K-tower, which used to house the parachute ride. The big K tower still has the Sky Cabin ride and is located in the Boardwalk area. The Windseeker is located in Fiesta Village. Each Cedar Fair Windseeker was built as a new ride rather than refurbishing an old structure. This is why the continual problems with the ride system are becoming a serious concern.
September 27, 2012 at 12:22
This has been the only ride that I have been on that made me physically uncomfortable. I think the fact that I was suspended in the air at 300 ft and swinging around just didn't do much for me. I can say that I did it once but that will definitely be the only time. Fortunately for me when I did ride it, there was no stalling, so I am happy about that.