The Lobster

coolwavepic · Post by **coolwavepic** » Sat May 05, 2007 6:27 am

Just curious on why Santa Clara had a differend version of the Lobster than Gurnee.

pjm8071 · Post by **pjm8071** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:24 am

Because "Gurnee Rocks!"

Glorfindel7 · Post by **Glorfindel7** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:41 am

coolwavepic wrote:Just curious on why Santa Clara had a differend version of the Lobster than Gurnee.

You know I've never seen a picture of the Santa Clara lobster... Why would that have been different?

Glorfindel7 · Post by **Glorfindel7** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 4:06 am

Well now that I have seen the one in Santa Clara for myself (see "rides" section) I'm really stunned at the difference.

I think I like the one in Gurnee more. I wonder if the reason that the two aren't the same might have to do with the fact that there may have only been one of the Polyps version available at the time, and it was a business level decision to send it to Gurnee.

PGA ROCKS · Post by **PGA ROCKS** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:29 pm

I just saw the new Lobster page in the Rides section. Excellent work, Steven!

However, I would like to see some pictures of the Gurnee Lobster.

scott murphy · Post by **scott murphy** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:38 pm

As one of the less automated rides in the Park, I always enjoyed running this one. It actually felt like you where controlling it. And people would always ask for an extended ride.

Does anyone remember which handle controlled what?

Bryan · Post by **Bryan** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:56 pm

I seem remember there were three controls for the SC lobster...

The main control lever caused all the arms to rotate. I believe it was called the Rotation.

There was a lever that controlled the device at the top of the ride that rotated in the opposite direction of the ride itself. It was what caused the arms to rise and fall. I believe it was called the Eccentric.

There was an on/off button that caused the four cars on each arm to rotate. I believe it was called the Spider.

scott murphy · Post by **scott murphy** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:53 pm

That brings back some memories. Well, the word eccentric does. I don't remember the button controlling the rotation of the spiders at all. But I suppose that isn't surprising after all these years. And I only got to work the lobster a few times.

cheers

Bryan · Post by **Bryan** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:09 am

Hi Scott,

I worked on the Lobster in 1977, and it may have been different when you worked on it. However it has been 30 years, and my memory isn't what it used to be!

I liked working the Lobster as you could control the length of the ride time, zero downtime, and crowd control was much easier to deal with. That certainly wasn't the case on the larger rides. Also, you would get to go work on the Buzzy Bee, which was pretty relaxed.

The downside to the Lobster was it was physical as you had to open and close each car manually, and a lot of people got sick on the ride.

Best,
Bryan

yankee Clipper91 · Post by **yankee Clipper91** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:45 am

I know that this off topic but at Gurnee as everyone knows they don't call it the Lobster anymore they call it East River Crawler. We had a awesome ride op and she call it the Lobster just for us. After the ride we all gave her a high five. So the original name returned for one ride on June 27 2008.

gasc1990s · Post by **gasc1990s** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:38 pm

I got to go on the Santa Clara Lobster at least once way back in the early 90s. I liked it. I hope to oneday go on the Gurnee Lobster.

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