Sunday 29th October
Yesterday had been a Colossoal day, starting off in Canada, exploring the inspiring Niagara Falls before heading back into the States and then careering across 3 states all the way to Sandusky Ohio where we had the wits scared out of us at Ceadatr Points Halloweekend. Quite the day. Today would be more simple, at least in terms of planning.
We would rise late in the morning, head the 10 minutes across the Causeway to Cedar Point, ride a few coasters, and then grab some Dinner before relaxing for the evening. Honestly, we needed a rest we had been on the go one way or another for 12 days, covering nearly 1000 miles by car, 3,500 by air, and 200 miles by Rail, we had seen 6 States 3 counties, 5 Cities, and explored endless sights and attractions. We needed a break.
Cedar Point
It was a little odd this would come in the form of 8 EPic Roller coasters in one of the most highly rated Theme Parks in the world. But apart from a couple of issues today would be quite short and pretty easy.
The first hurdle sorted itself out. Early entry. As we were staying in a Cedar Point hotel we got early entry into the park. When we first remembered this, our hearts dropped. We couldn’t miss out on this as early entry can get you some valuable rides in without any queueing so it’s a must, but we REALLY didn’t want to get up early. Fortunately, Early Entry at Cedar Point is only 10 am with the park opening at 11 am so we could get up late AND hit the park before it opened to the Masses.
The send issue was just that, the masses. Yesterday had been manic. There was not even room in the parking lot for everyone. The park was rammed and the queues horrendous. We really didn’t want to contend with that today. Again this resolved itself as the third issue, which seemed to keep people away. As we arrived the parking lot was empty and we got a spot a couple of rows back from the gate as we headed into a near deserted park.
This leads us to Issue 3…the Weather.
Winter has Come
It seemed we had skipped fall altogether on this trip. For the most part, we had been encountering unseasonably warm temps even right up to 80°f+ in upstate New York. On the whole, it had been more Summer than Fall, but today, the last day of opening for Cedar Point this season, winter had appeared to set in.
It was bitterly cold, with a fierce wind howling in off the Lake. With rain heavy in the air, we really worried that the Park may declare a wash-out and close for the day. It really was on the edge with the wind and rain. We are hardy enough to brave it, but if the conditions are outside of the operational parameters for the rides then the park has no choice. And it seemed many people had accepted this and not even bothered to come today.
As we arrived at our Early entry, it seemed this was the most likely case and we prepared for a huge disappointment…Nothing was open for the early entry apart from the Wild Mouse Ride which while fun is hardly worth all the effort we went through to get here…
However, as the main park opening time drew near we saw the reassuring signs that the rides were opening up as the operators started carrying out the Test Cycles.
Cedar Point has an incredible line-up of Roller Coasters. They have definitely not been shy in mixing things up. The line-up of Coasters includes many different types from all kinds of the world’s best rollercoaster types and manufacturers. It’s really like a world-class tasting menu for coasters. However, there was no time for appetisers here were were straight into the main course…
1 – Millenium Force
- Manufacturer – Intimin
- Type – Conventional Giga Coaster
- Drop – 300ft (310ft high)
- Length – 6595ft
- Duration – 2:02min
- Speed – 93mph
Once the Tallest and Fastest Coaster in the world Millenium Force was the first of the Gigacoaster to be built and paved the way for some of the current monsters that thrill adrenaline junkies the world over. It is still the third tallest Giga Coaster in the world, has a bag of awards, and ranks right near the top of the best Steel Costers every year in the Golden Ticket Awards. While it’s over 24 years old, it’s still an absolute beast of a coaster and would be the biggest and fastest ride we have ever experienced.
We got to the Queue line as it was opening and still before the main gates opened so essentially had no Queue. We had to skip a few cycles as we asked to wait for the front row.
The Rain was just coming down a touch as we rolled out of the Station. The Lift Hill is colossal, and as you near the top, the feeling is pretty exposed. The wind was howling and the Cars suddenly felt very small and insecure as the ground disappeared below. We are sure the views from up here are stunning but this was not the focus right now, we just wanted to get over the top and down a little as the top of this coaster is very, very high.
Finally, after clunking away for what felt like an eternity with the weather closing in, the ride went over the top, the near-vertical plunge was awesome, and the speed got up incredibly fast. The wind noise at this speed, and with the already wild weather, was deafening as the ride flew along its 6000ft track layout.
There are no inversions, but this ride does not need them. It excels just by its sheer size and speed and is well deserving of the high regard it holds in the industry. It’s one for the purists who just love classic Coasters but amped up to the MAX!
It is fair to say coming off the ride, this is the BEST coaster we have ridden…until…
2 – Steel Vengence
- Manufacturer – RMC
- Type – Hybrid – I-Box Steel on Wooden Support Structure
- Drop – 200ft (205ft high)
- Length – 5740ft
- Duration – 2:30min
- Speed – 74mph
- Inversions – 4
Steel Vengence is a totally different animal. It’s still pretty huge, towering over 205 ft above the park with its imposing wooden frame. But the brilliance of Steel VEngence is not its size or its speed, which again at 74 mph is no slouch, but it’s a revolutionary I-Box steel track.
Rocky Mountain Coonstruction has changed the roller coaster game completely with this revolutionary new track. Allowing coaster designers to do things people just didn’t believe possible in the past. Thrills and one-upmanship came through bigger, faster longer, more intense rides and this has led to the likes of Fury 325, Top Thrill Dragster, Kingda Ka, and Torro Rosso, but the RMC approach is wildly different. Bollinger and Malibard took a similar tack and devised all kinds of alternate layouts, inverted, floorless, standing, flying, and winged coasters, all different takes on roller coasters but they have a similar feel and at the end of the day a roller coaster is just a roller coaster, the layout of the train only made a slight difference to the way a layout rode. RMC Just tore up the rule buck.
It’s not that obvious, the ride looks great, but they actually look more like period coasters than groundbreaking cutting-edge coaster tech, but the truth is they are just mindblowing. You just find yourself in unimaginable positions on the track experiencing feelings and forces you never have before. For instance, Steel Vengence, a wooden coaster in theory, has 4 inversions, not something usually associated with coasters like this, and on top of those, you will find yourself partially inverted, on the outside of a bend seemingly flying off the track.
There is one Corkscrew that stops halfway through while you are upside down and takes you back the other way. The seats are largely ornamental as you are practically never in them as the ide has unimaginable amounts to Ejector Air Time including the fastest Airtime on a Hybrid at 74mph. 27.5 seconds is spent at negative G and out of your seat, with the fast portion of the ride only being around 1:15 which is nearly half the ride spent ejected from the seat. Coupled with no over-the-shoulder harnesses this is a seriously wild ride.
If you are a roller coaster fan and have not ridden an RMC yet, hunt one out, and if you want the best RMC coaster in the world then Steel Vengence is that coaster. Of course, being the best RMC Coaster means Steel Vengence is also the Best Roller Coaster anywhere in the world and was essentially the main aim of this pilgrimage to caster heaven. We hope you can tell we were not disappointed!
3 – Maverick
- Manufacturer – Intimin
- Type – Dual Launched Steel Coaster
- Drop – 100ft (105ft high)
- Length -4450ft
- Duration – 2:30min
- Speed – 70mph
- Inversions – 2
Maverick is a bit of an oddball and one that does not really fit the usual mold of coasters. It’s not very impressive. Moderately fast, not very high, classic train layout, and with just a couple of inversions. On paper, there is not much going for it.
Its layout is pretty odd two, it’s a launched coaster but it launches pretty slowly up a small lift hill into a fairly high but “more than vertical” drop. This unusual element is when you start realizing Maverick is far more than the sum of its parts. The ride then lurches into a series of aggressive banked turns that really throw you around, but not in a rough way, it’s aggressive but not bangy.
The huge Airtime hill has you flinging out the seat before hitting the twin corkscrew rolls. You then head into a tunnel where you get the second launch, which is far more deliberate, accelerating you to the top speed of 70mph.
This speed is short-lived as you instantly hit a brake run after an aggressive turn bringing the speed down to a more manageable rate. You then pass through more aggressive banked turns some of which are actually overbanked, and over some more airtime hills.
It is a shockingly fun ride that really takes you by surprise. It regularly hits the top ten spots in Coaster Awards and is a real fan favorite too. It’s amazing that a ride THIS good is only the third-best coaster at Cedar Point and really shows how good the line-up is.
4 – Magnum XL-200
- Manufacturer – Arrow Dynamics
- Type – Steel Coaster
- Drop – 195ft (205ft high)
- Length – 5106ft
- Duration – 2:00min
- Speed – 72mph
Magnum XL is one of the park’s older coasters, but it marks the Milestone when this 150-year-old+ amusement park started converting from an “old-timey” seaside amusement park into the world-beater it is today. Magnum is not large by today’s standards but it was back in 1989. When it opened it was the tallest fastest coaster in the world and the first to breach the 200ft barrier. It was quite a feat, and such a coaster does not just become bad over time. it would still be the largest coaster in most theme parks in the world and still pops up in the top 25 coaster lists.
At 200 feet high it’s not exactly small, being the same height as Steel Vengence, it’s just in a park with such an immense roster, that it only manages the 4th tallest in the park!
Like Millenium Force, it relies on classic coaster values and simply offers a fast fun ride. It is nothing particularly special, the turns are not particularly aggressive and there are no really unique elements. There is quite a bit of Air-time, but nothing like Steel Vengence, and while it’s tall and long it is now hugely overshadowed by Millenium Force.
Overall it’s a solid coaster without being standout. We love it for what it brought to the park, but it’s one you could skip if pressed for time.
Bolliger & Mabillard
We didn’t do this one purpose, but we realized, we had left all of the B&M coasters till last. With a couple of exceptions, Cedar Point has one of each of B&M’s coaster types. They have an Inverted coaster, a wing coaster, a dive coaster, and a floorless coaster, all they are missing is a flying coaster, stand-up, and a family coaster. If you have no idea what we are talking about, sorry, we are deep into Coaster Geekery here. But B&M is our favorite Coaster manufacturer and Cedar Point really is a fantastic homage to the various types of coaster this Swiss manufacturer produces, so we were really happy to ride them all!
5 – Raptor
- Manufacturer – Bolliger & Mabillard
- Type – B&M Inverted Coaster
- Drop – 119ft (137ft high)
- Length – 3790ft
- Duration – 2:16min
- Speed – 57mph
- Inversions – 6
Raptor is one of B&M’s first Inverted coasters and it’s one that feels quite different from most of these types of coasters. Mainly as the ride was not limited by space and had around 1000 extra feet of track and 2 more inversions than most versions at the time. Making it the longest and fastest invert In the world upon opening.
We love B&M’s inverted coasters and still rank our hometown hero, Nemesis at Alton Towers UK as one of the best rides in the world. And while Raptor has Nemesis licked on paper, it’s not quite got the jump on our UK-based ride.
It’s a really good fun coaster though and feels different to most Inverts. The track is more open and less reliant on tight twists and turns that come from most installations being tight on space. This feels more like a flying ride as you zoom all over the park. This is probably our favorite version of this ride, apart from Nemesis, and that really does say something we love the B&M Inverts as these were really responsible for getting us into coasters.
6 – Rougarou
- Manufacturer – Bolliger & Mabillard
- Type – B&M Floorless Coaster
- Drop – 137ft (145ft high)
- Length – 3,900ft
- Duration – 2:40min
- Speed – 60mph
- Inversions – 4
The next up on our B&M Tasting Menu was Rougarou, (Roo-Ga-Roo) which is a kind of French werewolf, popularised by French settlers in Louisiana and Canada, but originating in France. But aside from the fun name the ride is basically a standard B&M floorless coaster.
This ride is a reworking of the Standup Coaster that was built here in 1996, that ride Mantis, was a mainstay of the park for decades but became pretty rough by the end of its life. The conversion to Floorless Coaster was certainly a welcome one, but still, the ride draws criticism.
We are not sure why as we found it a great ride. It was nice and smooth and had a fun floaty feel as the train soared around the track. It’s not very aggressive, which we think some people demand in a coaster, but we value smoothness over aggression and found Rougarou very enjoyable. There was no real standout feature and in a park with the likes of Steel VEgnece and Millennium Force it’s obviously not going to compete, but in most parks, Rougarou would be a headliner!
7 – Valravn
- Manufacturer – Bolliger & Mabillard
- Type – B&M Dive Coaster
- Drop – 214ft (223ft high)
- Length – 3415ft
- Duration – 2:23min
- Speed – 75mph
- Inversions – 3
The same can be said for Valravn. A headline ride in most parks and a real testament to the strength of the lineup here that this ride is languishing as an also-ran. There is almost nothing bad we can say about this ride. The vertical drop is fierce, with the hold, 223 ft above the ground, terrifying, and the ride experience smooth and satisfying. It still holds the joint record for the tallest Dive coaster and is, overall a fantastic ride.
If you don’t know a Dive Coaster is a coaster that starts off with a large vertical drop, the train plunging straight down face first. Again our home-town park, Alton Towers UK, was home to the first ever Dive Coaster so it’s a type that holds a special place in our hearts, but Obvlivian was always just too short. you got the drop, but that was it. Later Dive coasters added more elements to the track after the dive, and Valravn does just that with 3 huge inversions and even a second dive drop, although the second drop is much lower.
If we had a criticism, it’s the theme. the Valravn is a mythical Dutch bird, and while the floorless trains do give a great flying sensation as they glide around the track, there really is nothing in the way of theming. It’s a big ride, on a flat piece of land, which is really the whole park’s Achilles to heal.
8 – Gatekeeper – Left Hand Side
- Manufacturer – Bolliger & Mabillard
- Type – B&M Wing Coaster
- Drop – 164ft (170ft high)
- Length – 4164ft
- Duration – 2:40min
- Speed – 67mph
- Inversions – 6
Finally on our roller Coaster Tasting menu was dessert. While I could have stayed for hours and re-rode the whole line-up again, and a few of the other side-dished, it was bitterly cold. And While I am a true roller coaster nerd, Kate is less so, and really, didn’t want to be here. So having consumed the best the park had to offer I agreed that Gatekeeper would be our last ride. The ride is right at the Gate, hence the name, so we queued up for one last thrill before some time to relax and recover before moving on.
And GateKeeper is the perfect way to wrap the day up. B&M wing coasters are pretty underrated in our opinion. We love them. They are super smooth, and floaty, and give a real sense of flying. and their ability to squeeze through the tightest of gaps is amazing. They can do things no other coaster can pull off and the way they lift and twist the riders around the track is awesome.
Gatekeeper is one of the longest of this type in the world and the track winds its way right across the front of the park gates in a really cool fashion creating a huge upside-down smiley face above the gates, and one on your face too.
The initial drop is really special. The ride performs a unique barrel roll, named a wing-over drop which is essentially a fighter pilot term. This is a pretty crazy move, but at 170 feet above the ground it’s properly mental. The ride has some really powerful forces pulling over 4-g and lots of weightlessness, but the forces are applied pretty gradually so many people mistake this for being un-aggressive. There are also 2 Key-Whole slots and a few moments where you can’t work out how the train is going to fit, one of the wing coaster’s unique features.
Overall we love this ride, it’s another one where at most parks it’s a headliner, it’s just Steel Vengence is SO good nothing is ever quite good enough again. But the ride is super floaty and fun, a real flying coaster and unlike any other ride out there…apart from B&M’s other wing coasters, Gate Keeper is one of the best versions of this type out there.
9 – Gatekeeper – Right Hand Side
Not everyone knows this but B&M Wing Coasters offer a totally different experience depending on which side of the Train you sit on. Take the opening wing over. On the left side of the track you are lifted up and dumped head first at 170ft above the ground into the drop! but on the right-hand side, you are lowered under the track, headfirst, and then lifted up into place, a very unusual sensation on a ride.
This is repeated every time the train twists around the track, with certain elements much more visceral on certain sides of the track. Many people will ask which side is better, and while we all may have our favorites, the real answer is neither, they are just different. Which means you MUST ride it twice.
We agreed this was the last ride, but as we queued up in the loading bay, despite the freezing wind howling off the lake, we decided that as the queues were so low, the Ride was walk-on at this time, we would ride both sides of the track.
So which is our favorite, honestly we are not going to say, just ride it twice and decide for yourself, our only tips being to queue the extra for the front and try your best to sit on the outside seat of either side, everything is much more intense on the outer seat.
Note: Top Thrill Dragster – Top Thrill 2
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to ride one of the top-tier attractions at the park, namely Top Thrill Dragster. at the end of 2022, Cedar Point announced this monumental ride was closing forever. So we had missed the chance to ride this one. However, the good news was it was not being removed but re-imagined. Becoming the new and, hopefully, improved Top Thrill 2. However, this was not until 2024…so we would not get to ride that either. Guess we just need to come back.
Cedar Point Opinions
Overall we found Cedar Point not at its best. This was late late season and we felt they were not going out with a bang. There was no end-of-season party or big last roll of the dice. In fact, we got the distinct feeling the Park already wanted to be closed, and was just hanging on to get the last Halloween nights in.
However, even at its worst, on a horrendous day that was borderline wash-out weather- it was still an epic park. Likewise, we were at a breaking point physically and emotionally, but experiencing these rides was an experience nothing could dampen.
From a Ride point of view, Cedar Point has it all, and it has it at levels just not found elsewhere. The Park has so many rides capable of being headliners at other parks and rides most parks would kill for. It’s a real diamond. It’s just a shame it’s located in such an isolated and remote part of the country. There really is nothing else here, but we suppose this makes it one for the purists. Those who just want to ride the best ride in the world and care little for anything else.
On a real negative note, the park is definitely a parking lot kind of park. Theming is minimal and there is almost no topography to utilize. It’s just a bunch of huge rides on a large flat parking lot. This is common in America, but much prefer parks with more interesting landscapes and more intricate theming.
Downtime
This was day 12 of the trip and we really were running one empty. However, we still had a lot more left to cover and not much left in the tank. So after spending the morning and the first part of the afternoon in the park it was time for some downtime.
First on the agenda was a hearty meal. The wind and cold had really blasted us out on the windswept point so we wanted something warm and filling, but not too costly. One of our favorite chain restaurants would fit the bill perfectly so we headed to a nearby Chili’s!
We love the 3-For-Me off that gets you an appetizer, Main, and drink for a super low price. We had a bowl of Chill each then Kate had the Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas whereas I opted for a Double Old Timer Burger, however, they messed up and brought me a Triple! That was a lot of meat and an awesome Burger Experience! This was all washed down with a couple of Margs.
A great meal and just what we needed and helped warm us through after a day in the wind.
And quite honestly that was all we wrote for today. We nipped into a local Aldi on the way home for provisions and just spent the rest of the afternoon and evening, just relaxing and recovering in the hotel. Getting ready for another hard day on the road tomorrow as we push on the final leg of the road trip to Chicago.
Walking Total – 12,983 Steps – 6.6 Miles
Our steps were quite low today, especially as this was a themepark day, one that is usually high on step counts. However, we were really disciplined in the way we hit the park and did all the rides in a sensible order. Just doing one big lap of the park.
<<< Day 11 – Morning at Niagara – Halloween at Cedar Point
Day 13 – Epic Drive from Sandusky to Chicago – Deep Pan Pizza >>>
