The Coasters of Cedar Point, Part III

10. Maverick.  This ride, while not as graceful as Millennium Force, is fun in its own right for being a wild ride.  It packs a punch for only being 105′ tall.  The unique feature of this ride is the 95 degree drop, the most intense for its height that I have been on.  After the drop, the ride moves through a series of tightly banked turns, camel backed hills, and crazy inversions.  Just when you think that it has run out of steam, the train is accelerated intensely to 70 m.p.h.  This ride doesn’t let up until it hits the break run.  When Maverick was announced, many enthusiasts expressed their disappointment with the ride.  They were expecting a 500′, 150+m.p.h. record breaking coaster.  Instead they got what they thought was a “family” coaster.  They were wrong.  This intense coaster plays for keeps from the magnetically launched lift hill to the break run.

11. Mean Streak.  This monster of a roller coaster is impossible to miss once you are at the back of the park.  This 161′ tall coaster was the tallest wooden coaster standing at the time of its opening.  This coaster is notoriously hard on its riders and unfortunately has a trim break on the first drop, slowing down the ride considerably.  As a result, there are always short lines for this ride.  For those who want to brave the tracks of this woodie, the ride turns out to be rather long and satisfying considering the short wait time.  This ride will be fun for anyone who loves woodies, but even so, beware the back seat!

12. Millennium Force.  This is easily the best coaster at CP.  It is utterly graceful and thrilling, the result of 100’s of years of coaster design evolution and progress.  This coaster, being the second highest at CP surprisingly spends most of its time close to the ground, relishing its speed, then soaring again over hills filled with glorious air time.  This coaster is the smoothest coaster I have ever been on.  There is not a false note over its 6595 foot course.  The front seat is worth the wait (but avoid it in the evening, when the coaster becomes a 90 m.p.h. flyswatter, trust me, I know this from experience).

13. Raptor.  This coaster is an intense and wonderful inverted coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M).  It is a lot of fun because the sensation of having no tracks or car below you is amazing while the coaster soars along its course.  As any B&M coaster, it is incredibly smooth with a creative and twisted layout.  The front seat is a must for the full experience.

The Coasters of Cedar Point Part II

6. Iron Dragon.  Iron Dragon is alot of fun.  It is very unique for the park because it is an Arrow suspended coaster.  This differs from B&M and Vekoma suspended coasters because the cars are allowed to swing freely.  It is one of only a few remaining in the world.  Even though it is not as intense or thrilling (it has been nicknamed “Draggin’ Iron”) as its sister coasters (Ninja, Big Bad Wolf) it remains a fun ride.

7. Jr. Gemini.  This is the smallest coaster at CP.  It actually has a maximum height of 54″, so if you are taller than that, you must be accompanying a child to ride.  This height restriction makes the coaster an elusive target for the coaster enthusiast.  I got to ride it last summer.  We were walking past Jr. Gemini when I decided to try to get a ride on it.  I knew that my brother was just a little taller than 54″.  We decided that we might as well try because there was no line and the worst they could do was to turn us away.  They let us on.  The ride itself was rather disappointing, but the setting was nice, among some trees.  I knew that I was the tallest person to ride it in a while, because I got a spiderweb on my hair!

8. Magnum XL-200.  Another historic coaster at CP.  This was the tallest and fastest coaster in the U.S. when it was built.  It was not, however, the record holder of the world.  Moonsault Scramble at Fuji-Q Highlands in Japan was 246′ tall and opened 6 years before Magnum.  It was a shuttle style coaster which subjected the riders to 6.2 G’s!  Click here for pictures.  Anyway, Magnum was the first complete circuit coaster to break the 200′ mark and was designated a ‘hypercoaster’.  The ride remains exciting to this day, but gets a bit rough in places.  The bunny hills provide plenty of air-time, but are rather sharp.  The second drop is one of my favorites on a coaster, with a thrilling, turning plunge by Lake Erie into a very small tunnel.  Oh, and by the way, the rumors that Magnum is sinking into the sandy soil are…false.

9. Mantis.  This coaster is unique to CP in the way it is ridden: standing up.  This way of riding proves to be fun…if you follow the endlessly repeated warnings from the operations crew.  While it doesn’t measure up to the parks other Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) coaster, Raptor, it is smooth, powerful, and twisted, making for a good ride.

Here is the previous post in this series.

Keep tuned for more!

The Coasters of Cedar Point

I am a big fan of Cedar Point (CP).  I have been there three times and have ridden all 17 coasters.  I will take you through all 17 and comment on them.

1. Blue Streak.  This is a classic “out and back” wooden coaster.  The great coaster designers John Allen and Frank Hoover designed this coaster.  It has a real classic, rickety, seaside coaster feel, which is half of the reason I love this coaster so much.  The other half of the reason is that it, after over 40 years, still packs a punch.  With the debut of Maverick, I have been on a coaster that is over twice as steep (95 vs. 45 degrees), but this one always feels almost straight down.  It has an out of control feeling to the degree that cannot be felt on any steel coaster.  With every crest of the hill you are lifted out of your seat and you swear that the car lifts off the tracks.  This coaster was an American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) Classic Coaster, but they have taken away the designation after changes to the safety restraints.  The Blue Streak?  Still alive and kicking after 40 years.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride.  This was one of the first mine train coasters ever, and the first tubular steel coaster at the park.  Even though it is a historic coaster with a great setting over a lagoon, ridden today, it shows its age.  This coaster fails to be thrilling and often, instead, hurts.  It is, however, a good ride for those not yet ready for the larger coasters and never has a long line.

Corkscrew.  Another historic coaster at CP, this was the first coaster to have three inversions.  Corkscrew is a suprisingly rough and unforgiving ride, especially right after lunch.  While the corkscrew elements over the midway create a unique CP landmark, it is not my favorite ride there.

Disaster Transport.  You may not even know that this coaster existed.  It lurks in the right corner of the park, by Wicked Twister, MaxAir, and the ferris wheel.  It started out as an outdoor Intamin bobsled style coaster, but was inclosed and given a futuristic, space theme.  The theming was certainly well done, but it went by too fast for me to notice or get it.  While the feeling of a free wheeling coaster riding down a trough style track is unique, most of the ride was too dark for me to appreciate this.  Over all, I was disapointed.  The ride felt thrilling because I had no idea what was ahead at any time, but there were no actually thrilling elements or large drops.  There is, however, one plus: the air conditioned line!

Gemini.  This is one unique coaster.  It uses the same basic system as CCMR, but it is blown up to supercoaster dimensions.  Oh. And its a racing coaster.  At the time of its opening, it was the tallest and fastest coaster out there.  Having this crown has become somewhat of a tradition for CP.  This is one of my favorite coasters in the park.  It has the feel of a traditional woodie layout, but is glass smooth.  Its drop is one of my favorites; long, smooth, and a nice headchopper effect at the bottom.

Stay tuned for more CP coasters!