Category: Cedar Point

                Valravn is the tallest, longest, and fastest dive coaster in the world.  A dive coaster is a steel roller coaster model developed and manufactured by Bollinger & Mabillard. The design features one or more near-vertical drops that are approximately 90 degrees, which provide a moment of free-falling for passengers.  Valravn was opened in May of 2016; Cedar Point’s newest roller coaster.  Valravn was manufactured by B&M, as any coaster of its kind is.  Valravn marked B&M’s 100^th coaster even built since their founding in 1988.  Valravn gets its name from Danish folklore.  Valravn is a based on a mythological bird; it directly translates to “raven of the slain.”  The valravn in Danish folklore is a bird who feasts on the dead bodies of those who die in battle.  Site preparation for the ride began in late 2014; a year and a half before opening.  They began by knocking down a theatre, a kiddy ride, and relocating several other attractions.  Each train consists of three cars holding eight passengers across.  This unorthodox train is typical for dive coasters.

                After leaving the station, the train turns 180-degrees and climbs the 223-foot hill.  Once at the top, it makes a slight turn just to build anticipation even more as riders approach the 90-degree free fall towards the earth.  Just as the train crests the top of the drop, it stops.  “What happened?  Oh no, did it malfunction?  How long am I going to be up here? I got places to be!”  many first-time riders think to themselves.  After this 4 second pause which feels like an eternity, the brake disengages and it hurls the riders towards the earth reaching a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour; the fastest of its kind.  The ride then climbs into an Immelmann loop which is very common for B&M coasters (if you happened to read my last blog, there is also one on GateKeeper).  The train then hits a series of brakes and goes into a second, smaller drop just like the first except it’s only 131 feet.  Right after the drop, the train dives into a dive loop, which climbs upward and then twists at the peak, inverting the train and bringing it back down.  It then leads into one last inversion which is a 270-degree zero-g roll.

                To simply regard this roller coaster as one of a kind is a mere understatement.  The overall rating will be based on uniqueness, speed, height, and ride experience.  The ride is the fastest, tallest and longest of its kind, and for that, it gets a 10 out of 10 for uniqueness, 9 out of 10 for speed (the speed isn’t its greatest attraction), 9 out of 10 for height (knock one point because there are plenty of taller rides in the park), and 10 out of 10 ride experience.  The ride overall is very smooth and invigorating, certainly worth whatever wait it may have.  Based on my sub-ratings, the final rating of the coaster is a 9.5 out of 10.

Imagine you’re going to Cedar Point for the first time.  You’re on the expressway taking you out to the park, and in the distance, you see it.  The skyscraping, bloodcurdling, gut wrenching heights of giga and strata coasters like Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster.  The adrenaline is already beginning to course through your veins.  Then you get to the main entrance and what do you see?  The record breaking blue beast that twists and turns ever-so smoothly over the entrance to the park.  Thrill truly starts at the gate: this is GateKeeper.

Designed by Bollinger & Mabillard (B&M), GateKeeper became the fifth Wing Coaster ever created.  GateKeeper became the third ride at Cedar Point to be created by B&M, following Cedar Point’s inverted coaster, Raptor, completed in 1994, and Cedar Point’s stand-up coaster, Mantis, completed in 1996 (Fun Fact: Mantis was recently renovated and changed from a stand-up coaster to a floorless coaster.  It was also renamed Rougarou).   A Wing Coaster is a type of steel roller coaster where pairs of riders sit on either side of a roller coaster track in which nothing is above or below the riders.  Construction began in September of 2012 and took eight months to complete.  In order to create the ride, Cedar Point had to get ride of two older coasters, bringing the number of rollercoasters in the park down to 16 (Now 17 with the addition of Valravn, which will be covered in the next blog).  The ride opened on May 11, 2013, on the most successful opening weekend to date in the park’s history.  GateKeeper has broken several records. Among Wing Coasters, it became the longest and fastest, featured the longest drop, and contained the most inversions.  It also set a new record for having the highest inversion of any roller coaster in the world, surpassing Volcano, The Blast Coaster (one of my personal favorites) at Cedar Point’s sister park, Kings Dominion.

The ride begins by climbing a 170 foot hill, and then dropping riders to a mere 6 feet above the ground at a 164 foot drop.  The drop puts the rider immediately into its first of 6 inversions, twisting and turning it back towards the lift hill.  At the bottom of the hill, GateKeeper reaches its maximum speed of 67 miles per hour, the fastest of its kind of coaster.  The rider experiences a G-force of about 4 at the bottom of the hill, in which riders feel about 4 times heavier!  Immediately after the drop the ride is brought into an Immelmann Loop, which is half of a complete loop and brought back into upright position by a twist.  Shortly after this loop is the camelback hill which gives the rider a similar feeling of weightlessness, or the closest thing to it.  The train then goes through a tall barrel roll followed by the most impressive inversions of the whole ride.  The ride snakes its way through two keyholes while performing a zero-g roll, which literally just twists the track 360 degrees.  The ride is then brought to the ground and sent into an inclined dive loop, in which the ride climbs a hill and twists back into the upright position at the point of inversion.   The train then performs an inline twist which is attached to the keyhole towers, before hitting a series of breaks and returning to the station.

The ratings of this ride will be based on speed, height, uniqueness, and ride experience.  Its not a lightning fast coaster, but it is the fastest of its kind so for speed it receives an 8 out of 10.  The drop could be higher, but it catches riders by surprise with an unorthodox drop, 7 out of 10.  As for uniqueness, there’s only 5 other rides like it to exist.  If it was the only and/or first of its kind, I would give it a 10 out of 10, but it isn’t, therefore it receives a 9 out of 10.  As for ride experience, it is one of the smoothest rides I have ever been on.  It doesn’t rattle you around, you feel very comfortable the entire way through, therefore it receives a 10 out of 10.  After factoring together all of these ratings, the final rating of this ride is 8.5 out of 10.

If you thought the west couldn’t get any wilder—you were wrong.  This western themed coaster sits on the appropriately placed west part of the park right across from Steel Vengeance.   Although this ride is a metal coaster, it whips and jerks you  around like its made of purely wood and nails.  The ride experience certainly fits the theme of “The Old West Was Never This Wild” because it is most definitely a wild ride.

Maverick was completed and opened in May of 2007 by Intamin.  This was also roller coaster designer Werner Stengel’s 500^th roller coaster design.  Maverick is also the first ride to feature a twisted horseshoe roll, a corkscrew that leads into a 180-degree banked turn and ends with another corkscrew that rotates in the opposite direction as the first.  In October of 2005, the log flume ride that used to be where Maverick is currently situated retired and construction began shortly after in the following February.   The ride was completed in late 2006 and testing began in January of 2007.  Originally, the ride was planned to open on May 12^th, 2007, but 4 days prior the park manager announced the opening needed to be postponed because three 40-foot sections of track needed to be replaced.   These pieced of track composed the original heart-line roll part of the ride.  Engineers ended up abandoning the heart-line roll and replacing it with an s-curve.

The ride begins with not a lift up the hill, but a launch.  Engineers on the project decided to use a LSM, or a Linear Motor, to launch the train up the lift hill, reaching the peak in less than 10 seconds.  Upon reaching the peak, riders are dropped in a 95 degree fall of 100 feet.  The ride reaches a speed of 57 miles per hour.  The ride isn’t very fast purely because most of the ride is composed of twists and turns, and if the train travels too fast it could pose a threat to the riders.  The ride then experiences a series of banked turns before embarking on the twisted horseshoe roll.   Following the horseshoe roll is a 400-foot tunnel underneath the station, in which the ride is slowed down and then launched to the maximum speed of the ride of 70 miles per hour.   After exiting the tunnel, the ride hits a series of brakes while climbing an incline before falling into an elevated banked turn.  The last attraction is the s-curve which navigates riders through a series of rock walls.  Its because of these rock walls that there is a height restriction on the ride.  The rest of the ride is comprised of twists and turns before finally taxiing back into the station.

A few blogs ago I received a comment that has certainly influenced the way I rate coasters.  I will be rating them based on height, speed, inversion quality, and uniqueness.  As far as speed goes, Maverick receives a 7 out of 10; it’s not a very fast coaster, but for a ride that, apart from the lift hill and launch track, is composed entirely out of twisted track, it’s pretty fast for its design.  For height, even though it is a small drop, I am giving it a 7 out of 10 as well because it has that wow factor in the 95 degree drop, therefore, making it a very invigorating part of the ride.  For inversion quality it receives a 10 out of 10; I can confidently say that there is no coaster that is more entertaining than Maverick when it comes to inversions.  For uniqueness it also receives a 10 out of 10 because for its time there was absolutely no ride like it.  By averaging these scores together, Maverick receives a final rating of 8.5 out of 10.

 

 

There’s absolutely no question as to why this absolute beast has won rollercoaster of the year since its opening in 2000.  Millennium Force, towering at 310 feet, and whipping  its riders around at a lightning speed of 93 miles per hour, this ride is sure to give thrill addicts their fix.  Personally, I’ve been to cedar point 3 times and have been on the ride more times than I can count, and when I tell you it’s the best ride I’ve ever been on—I mean it.  I’ve literally been to amusement parks from coast to coast, but there is nothing like this ride.  Some rollercoaster critics say Nitro at Six Flags, is a close second as far as similarity goes (and don’t get me wrong, Nitro is also an excellent ride), but it doesn’t even compare to Millennium Force.

Millennium Force was manufactured by Intamin, one of the world’s most prestigious rollercoaster manufacturers.  Rumors of its planning began five years prior to its opening in 2000.  There were also rumors of construction of a ten inversion rollercoaster by Bollinger & Mabillard in 1998.  Cedar Point confirmed its creation in July of 1999, as the tallest rollercoaster in the world at it’s time (only to be topped by Top Thrill Dragster in 2003 at the same park).  This made Millennium Force the first giga coaster (maximum height between 300 and 399 feet) to ever be created.  It was tallest and  fastest coaster until its speed and height was passed by Steel Dragon 2000 later that year.

The ride starts with a 310 foot climb to the peak of the coaster which overlooks the south shore of Lake Erie and gives a brief dazzling view of northern Sandusky.  Considering the height of the rollercoaster, engineers on the project exchanged the traditional “chain and gear” lift system of typical rollercoasters for an advanced cable-pulley system which hauls the coaster up the hill in less than 20 seconds.  After making this gut wrenching climb, the rollercoaster plunges to earth at an 80 degree angle.  The ride reaches a maximum speed of 93 miles per hour at the bottom of the hill and is then hurled into a 169 foot overbanked turn.  The rest of the ride is comprised of several banked turns, airtime hills, and 2 black out tunnels.  The maximum G-force on Millennium Force is 4.5! This means, assuming maximum G-force at the top of an airtime hill, a rider who normally weighs 180 pounds feels as though he weighs a mere 40 pounds at the top of the hill! Vice-versa, at the bottom of a steep drop, the rider could feel as heavy as 810 pounds!

Although I may have a biased opinion about this ride, if I could give it a 11 out of 10 I really would.  Those who have been on the ride would most certainly agree with me, and those who are seeking to ride it, your whole perception on rollercoasters and what you’ve experienced on a ride will change after this 2 minute and 20 second journey.

 

“Keep your arms down, head back, and hold on!” screams a voice from the speaker as the train pulls out of the station onto the launch track.  Strapped in and ready to go, the butterflies begin to build in the riders stomach as the latch releases and the train is pulled back by a hydraulic system into a locked and loaded position.  In the 4 seconds following that moment, the train will go from 0 to 120 miles per hour.  After a short 30 second ride, the  train will return to the station, leaving the rider questioning what actually just happened in that short period of time—this is Top Thrill Dragster.

Construction began on this absolute behemoth of the roller coaster world back in 2002. The ride was build by Intamin, a rollercoaster manufacturing company known for its incredible thrill rides of impeccable design.   The project was designed by Werner Stengel, a German rollercoaster designer and engineer.  At its completion in May of 2003, the 420 foot skyscraping thrill giver broke the record for tallest AND fastest rollercoaster of its time.  Today, Top Thrill Dragster and King Da Ka are the only strata coasters, a rollercoaster exceeded 400 feet at its height, in existence.  Since King Da Ka wasn’t built until 2005, this makes Top Thrill Dragster the first strata coaster to ever be built.  After giving some in depth background on the ride, let’s strap in!

The ride taxis out of the station and comes to a stop, with approximately a quarter mile worth of track in front of it and facing this 420 foot mountain.  There’s a stoplight positioned to the left of the train with a red light.  As the train pulls back into launching position, the anticipation grows to a maximum.  The stoplight quickly bursts through flashes of yellow and quickly changes to green as it launches the riders down the quarter mile run, hurling towards the 420 foot monster.  By the time the train reaches the bottom  of the hill, it has already accelerated to 120 miles per hour.  The train then begins its ascent to the crest, where on a clear day in Sandusky OH, the city which sits on the south side of Lake Erie, riders can see Canada from the top of the hill.  The ride goes over the crest, giving the riders the illusion of it potentially not making it over the top of the hill—which sometimes does happen! Fun fact: Sometimes, the hydraulic system doesn’t give the train enough energy, it doesn’t make it over the hill and it rolls back, in which case the riders get sent back up (this is on my bucket list, high-key).   Anyway, after the ride crests the hill, it plummets towards the earth, reaccelerating to 120 miles per hour.  The track flattens out again and it hits a series of breaks, bringing the ride to a speed slow enough to taxi it into the station.

Simply because the ride is the first of its kind and it broke the fastest and tallest rollercoaster of its time, it gets a 9 out of 10.  1 point off because, yes it is a thrilling ride (hence the name), but it’s way too short and it doesn’t have any other wow factors besides the height and speed.  Definitely a must ride though for thrill seekers of all kinds.

Welcome to Roller Coasters America! I will be taking you on a journey across America to some of the top thrill rides in the nation, one wild ride at a time.  So strap in, keep your head back, and hold on!  This blog will go from park to park, covering the biggest attractions in each, and then moving on to a new park.  For the first few blogs, we will be in Cedar Point: a man-made peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie.  This amusement park is considered the roller coaster capital of the world, and with 17 skyscraping roller coasters, it is easy to see why.

For our first ride we will be looking at the newest addition to the Cedar Point roller coaster family, Steel Vengeance.  What used to be Mean Streak, one of Cedar Point’s largest wooden roller coasters, was converted into a steel track on the original wooden skeleton of the former ride. Construction on Steel Vengeance was led by Alan Schilke of Rocky Mountain Construction back in August of 2017, where the original wooden track was being ripped up and converted into steel.  Steel Vengeance was marketed as the world’s first hypercoaster, a wooden and steel coaster reaching at least 200 feet at its peak.  After 9 months of grueling construction, the ride finally opened to the public on Cinco de Mayo; how appropriate for the southwest theme side of the park!  What makes this ride even more incredible is the fact that it has broken 10 world records:

1. World’s tallest hybrid roller coaster at 205 feet tall
2. World’s fastest hybrid roller coaster at 74 miles per hour
3. World’s steepest drop on a hybrid roller coaster at 90 degrees
4. World’s longest drop on a hybrid roller coaster 200 feet
5. World’s longest hybrid roller coaster at 5,740 feet
6. Most inversions on a hybrid roller coaster at 4
7. Fastest airtime hill on a hybrid roller coaster at 74 mph
8. Most airtime on a hybrid roller coaster at 27.2 seconds
9. Most airtime on any roller coaster at 27.2 seconds
10. World’s first “hyper-hybrid” roller coaster

The ride starts with a 45 second trek from the station to the top of the hill, which is 200 feet in the air.  Before the riders know it, they’re hurling towards the earth at a 90 degree angle: straight down.  This straight down fall simulates the feeling of free fall.  At the bottom of the hill, the train reaches speeds of approximately 74 miles per hour, the fastest of its kind.   The ride seems to flatten out for a bit before climbing another hill given the rider a sense of weightless as it passes over the crest. This ride constantly keeps its riders guessing.  Following the first airtime hill is a 116-foot-tall outer-banked hill placing riders on an outward tilt while moving forward.  The ride speeds on for a bit before going into its first of four inversions, the first one being a barrel roll that carves right through the scaffolding of the ride.  Soon after the ride embarks on its second inversion, this one being the first of its kind.  Deemed a “Twisted Snake Dive”, in this new maneuver the coaster’s train will enter a half-barrel roll, hang upside-down for a brief moment, and then turn back in the direction of travel, not completing a full roll.  As the coaster continues to speed on, it comes flat bank with a series of brakes to slow it down for the next half of the ride.  The ride snakes on in its figure-eight like fashion with airtime hill after hill. The third inversion is a half-barrel roll into a full one creating what seems to be an unorthodox corkscrew.  You would think the ride ends here, but steel vengeance is still not satisfied.   The fourth inversion is a barrel roll straight through the heart of the coaster, and as one approaches it, it probably seems like crashing is inevitable.  The ride then hits its final series of brakes and taxis into the station.

After some deep thought, it is clear that this new addition to the Cedar Point family is going to rise above the rest and prove to be one of the best rides in the park.  Of course it is relatively new and one of the first of its kind so there is a lot of hype around it, but regardless, I am still going to have to give this ride a 10 out of 10, purely because it has broken so many records and drawn so much attention to itself. Not many roller coaster fans have seen something like this, and it gets a 10 out of 10 for its uniqueness.