Cedar Point: America's Rockin' Roller Coast

I had the good fortune to spend a week on vacation with my family (immediate and a large collection of in-laws). During this week, our travels took us to Sandusky, Ohio, the home of Cedar Point.  For those of you who don't know, Cedar Point is an amusement park known for one thing above all else: roller coasters.  It's nickname, in fact, is "the coaster capital of the world".  As of this writing, Six Flags Magic Mountain actually has two more roller coasters than Cedar Point, but that doesn't change the fact that Cedar Point is a bastion of thrill rides.  The Point, as the second oldest amusement park in the country, has a very interesting story, but this isn't a history of Cedar Point (and if you want that, there are many resources available to you), this is a ranking of their 17 wonderful, and not so wonderful, roller coasters.  So, without further ado, lets take the plunge.  If you want to take a look at any of these rides: https://www.cedarpoint.com/things-to-do/roller-coasters

Honorable mention: Pipe Scream

This ride spins, and I can't spin.  So, I didn't ride it.

16th: Mean Streak


When it was built, Mean Streak was the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster in the world.  Now, only its looks remain.  This is an amazingly imposing structure, both gorgeous and terrifying.  Unfortunately, once you are on the ride, the fun goes away, never to be seen again.  There is no airtime, no great lateral jolts, no surprise turns or drops, and thanks to the heavy breaks applied in the middle of the FIRST DROP, no speed either.  A really rough, headache inducing ride.  No fun to be had here.  Now, Mean Streak has a sister coaster called the Texas Giant.  The Giant, which was always considered to be the better ride, has recently been revamped with steel track and other tweaks, supposedly breathing new into it.  Perhaps that would help Mean Streak find a ride worth of its structure.  As for right now... skip it!



15th: Wicked Twister


I just don't find monotony that fun.  You get launched forward up the spiral, then backwards up the other spiral, then rinse and repeat a few times, and that is it.  It should be said that the more repetitive nature does give me motion sickness more than "real" roller coasters, but beyond that, I don't feel the dynamic thrills that roller coasters can offer are alive on the Wicked Twister.  I know people who love this ride, and if that is you, great.  I am glad you like it, but it just doesn't do anything for me.  At least, however, it doesn't physically hurt to ride.  You may not enjoy the ride that much, but at least you wont regret it.



14th: Corkscrew

When it opened in 1976, this was the first roller coaster to take riders upside down three times.  As such, it is a classic.  As a ride, however, it has not aged well.  It is a showpiece for the one vertical loop and two corkscrews.  The ride goes: drop, small hill, loop, turn, corkscrew, corkscrew, end.  Were it not a historically important roller coaster, I'm not sure it would still be here.  I rank it above Wicked Twister because it still has more variety than that, and Valley Fair's clone of this ride is the first coaster
I ever went on.  Still, this is an easy one to skip, as there are much better rides with more daring inversions at this park.


13th: Wilderness Run


This is one of Cedar Point's kiddie coasters, originally called Jr Gemini.  The fact is I would rather watch my youngest daughter ride this than I would ride any of those listed above.  No offence meant to the Corkscrew, but it was really cute how excited she got when talking about this and...






12th: Woodstock Express

This one I could actually ride with my daughter.  This is bigger than your average children's coaster, which makes it a good stepping stone ride.  Obviously, this and Wilderness Run are sentimental picks, but as this is my list, I can do that.







11th: Cedar Creek Mine Ride

This is one small step above the Woodstock Express.  It is a very mellow, but still enjoyable mine train roller coaster set in the woods and over a small lake.  The location and feel of the coaster are nice, and after some of the more thrilling rides, it can be nice to tackle something more mild.  I was able to sneak my daughter on this ride despite her being an inch too short, and she loved it.  The 48inch restriction on this seems a little silly.







10th: Iron Dragon

Similar to the Mine Ride in its setting, Iron Dragon beats it out by virtue of being slightly more intense, and being the only suspended roller coaster at Cedar Point.  There are some nice turns during the first half of the ride, and the pretzel like finale over the lake is pretty cool.  All in all, it is a fun, but rather slight ride.  Suspended roller coaster can produce a very unique ride as they are not that common, and I wish this one had a little more bite.  The Bat, at King's Island, which I rode two days prior, is a much stronger ride.


9th: Blue Streak

A classic wooden roller coaster.  A simple out and back design sporting some pretty decent airtime.  It may not be anything fancy, but when the bigger rides in the area have lines stretching as far as the eye can see, you can usually get on this one pretty quick and have a good time.  There is a reason simple designs like this are still being used.  It works.






8th: Rougarou

Although Cedar Point is saying this coaster is "New for 2015", a more accurate phrase would be, "Slightly Different for 2015".  This ride was actually built in 1996.  They called it Mantis, and it was a stand-up roller coaster.  Of course, it put a lot of pressure on the legs, and it wasn't to my great surprise that Cedar Point decided to close it down.   In 2014, had its last run. (In fact, Stand-up roller coasters on the whole seem to have fallen out of vogue).  Not wanting to waste a pretty good design, Cedar Fairs (the owner of Cedar Point) repainted the track and added new floorless trains, creating Rougarou, their first floorless roller coaster.  I don't find the floorless gimmick to add much to the ride.  As for the ride itself, it is pretty smooth with four large inversion elements and a fairly crazy spaghetti bowl of a finale.  The problem is that it was designed as a stand up coaster, and the layout looses some of its intensity in this new format.  Don't get me wrong, this is still a very good ride; it just isn't as memorable as the ones that follow


7th: Gatekeeper



Cedar Points first wing coaster is a real winner.  Sitting far off the sides of the track really adds to the feeling of flight, having a much bigger impact on the ride than the floorless coaster does.  Opening with upside down diving first drop, the Gatekeeper has several great inversions, including what might be the best corkscrew loop I have experienced, leading to a great near miss of the supporting structure.  Then, with about 25% of the ride left, the ride hits a brake section where they slow the trains down, and then... a couple little drops, and maybe a turn...  Quite frankly, the ending of this ride is a real dud.  I don't get how such an exciting and exhilarating ride could end of such a dull note, but it does.  Due to that, I can't rank this any higher.


6th: Magnum XL-200

At 205 feet, this was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world when it opened in 1989.  Obviously, it no longer holds those records, but this ride still kicks ass.  The first two drops are still quite potent, and the first tunnel has you fearing for you head.  After a rough turn around, there are a series of bunny hills (small hills for the purpose of providing airtime when you go over them) back to the station.  On some roller coasters, airtime will make you feel like you are floating out of your seat.  Some, you feel like you are being launched out.  On the Magnum, you feel like you are being ejected!  When I say this ride kicks ass, I am being completely literal.  With every hop, you feel like someone is kicking you in the ass so hard, you are flying our of your seat.  Someone likened it to a bucking bronco, and that feels accurate.  There is a feeling of wildness that will never get old.  I rode this with my sister-in-law, and during those crazy hills something she had been sitting on came flying out from under her and hit someone a few seats back.  This was hilariously captured by the one ride photo, as well.  This ride is killer.  Just remember, this is not, in any way, a smooth steel roller coaster.  If you are feeling sore, stay away!


5th: Top Thrill Dragster

This sucker launches you forward, accelerating to 120 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds.  Then you go straight up 420 feet, and then go straight down 420 feet.  This ride, but especially that launch, is the most exhilarating, breathtaking (again, literally) experience I have had on a ride.  I foolishly decided to shout "GERONIMO!" just as we were about to launch, meaning I started with no breath.  I was gasping for air when the ride came to an end 17 seconds later.  Yep, you read that right, and you now know why this ride only ranked 5th.  It is only 17 seconds long.   And as awesome as those 17 seconds are, this is the roller coaster equivalent of a terrible price to performance ratio.  Add to that the fact that this ride goes down with mechanical issues a lot (it did so at least three times the day I rode it), and this is a ride I want to adore, but just can't quite love it like I wish I could.  Obviously, I'm not saying don't ride it, because it produces an amazing sensation, but falls short of the total package that some other rides here provide.


4th: Gemini

Ranking this above Rougarou, Gatekeeper, Magnum and Top Thrill Dragster, may be my most controversial choice, but, despite being fairly large, and being in the middle of the park, and having been the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world when it opened in 1978, I think Gemini is Cedar Points best kept secret.  Gemini is the only roller coaster I have ever been on where I have probably spent more time riding it than I have in line waiting to ride it.  That's not a joke or an exaggeration.  Due to a combination of Gemini being an older ride, and the fact that, as a dual tracked racing coaster, it can handle almost twice as many riders per hour as any other coaster there.  A long wait means 15 minutes, but go at the right time, and you are walking right into the loading station, waiting for the train to pull up.  Of course, none of this matters if the ride isn't fun, and Gemini is a blast.  This ride offers good airtime and some surprisingly deep drops.  If you have a good crowd, there is also a fun rivalry between the red and blue trains as they race.  Gemini may not reinvent the wheel or do anything crazy, but it knows how to have fun, and, bottom line, that is what counts.


3rd: Raptor


This used to be my favorite roller coaster off all time ever!  While it has fallen a bit from that lofty position, it is still an unquestionably great ride.  This inverted roller coaster offers a first drop with a  terrific feeling of free-fall.  It has six well placed inversions, with the zero-g roll being my favorite, and just in general, I love the sensation of flying that the inverted roller coasters create.  This is where Gatekeeper would probably of finished if it had a better ending, but Raptor makes no such mistakes and ends with a crushing heavy g-force spiral before slamming you into the break run.  Again, bigger and faster roller coasters have opened since this debuted, but this well designed roller coaster is standing the test of time.


2nd: Millennium Force


This ride is the reason that Top Thrill Dragster doesn't rank higher.  Although topping off at 92 mph and 310 feet, it isn't quite as tall or fast as the Dragster, but this is a complete ride, and the first drop here makes for the most intimidating site in the park.  Standing under it, waiting for your turn is gloriously nerve-wracking.  A quick accent and a giant plunge later, you are off to the races.  At 182 feet, the third hill here is comparable in height to the main hill on Magnum.  This ride just about has it all: non-stop speed, good airtime, heavily banked turns, tunnels, and hot damn is it fun.  It is 6595 feet long, but is over in one gigantic blur.  This has won the Golden Ticket award for best steel roller coaster for years running, and it isn't hard to see why.


1st: Maverick




Maverick doesn't have the height, length, number of inversions, or speed of some of the other rides at Cedar Point (though 70 mph is not exactly slow), but the creators of Maverick wield, with unerring skill, the greatest, and most underused, weapon in the roller coasters arsenal: surprise.  As much as I want to describe this roller coaster in detail, I am not going to say anything, because the less you know, the better it is.  It is full of constant twists, blindsides, and the best use of the corkscrew I have experienced.  This might also be a somewhat controversial choice, but this is the most fun I have ever had on a roller coaster.