Peet
Giga Poster
Over 20 years ago as a young teenager I watched (many times) a documentary about Ultimate Thrill Rides featuring the latest cutting edge rides including “Top Thrill Dragster” – the World’s Tallest and Fastest coaster, and also “Power Tower” at a park half the World away over the Atlantic called Cedar Point, and I dreamed that one day I would be lucky enough to visit.
In 2020 things finally fell into place and flights were booked for me and two friends, but I don’t need to tell you how that ended.
Six years and three children later, it was time to try again. A group of four of us obtained the appropriate leave from work and, more importantly, from our wives (with a total of 7 young children between us) for a five-night trip. We also had enough accumulated Avios points between us for us all to get return flights to Pittsburgh for £100 per person. It seemed too good to be true. Was it? Read on to find out!
We arrived in Pittsburgh on the Thursday afternoon, hired our car which was of course huge, and stayed over just North of Pittsburgh ready to harness the jetlag to help get on the road bright and early up to Sandusky. Driving along the peninsula towards the park it was breathtaking to see Cedar Point’s truly ridiculous skyline come into view.
We were staying in a park hotel (Sawmill Creek) so got access to the park from 9am with a limited selection of rides running, so went straight to TT2. We then had an almighty faff of hiring a locker and storing absolutely all of our possessions, including suncream, hats and sunglasses before joining the queue. Now, it was a very sunny day and in our excitement, none of us had taken the time to apply suncream. It turns out the TT2 queue is not well shaded and was already long even during the early access time. The fast pass queue opened before we got on and took total priority for a while so we stood there sizzling in the full sun for a good half hour in total which was a very bad start to the day we had been looking forward to for so long. From here I’ll switch to a ride-by-ride review for our 2 days in the park:
Top Thrill 2 (total 7 rides)
My expectations for this ride were high but were blown out of the water. I can’t really explain how or why this is so much better than Kingda Ka, Formula Rossa etc but it really is. Absolutely amazing experience, especially in the front and back rows. This is a firm top five coaster for me, ranking wise really only the three big RMCs can compete. Speaking of which...
Steel Vengeance (total 12 rides)
Okay so when you ride a coaster that’s so widely regarded as the best ride on the planet, reality can never really live up to expectation. Riding it a handful of times on the first day it was clearly an absolutely elite coaster, but I found it doesn’t really have that “wow” moment like Iron Gwazi’s death roll, Zadra’s stall, R2H’s crazy double inversion, or even TT2’s reverse spike. Into the second day I was still mulling over where it might sit in my top ten, a little disappointed that it hadn’t blown me away. However as night fell, we headed over for some dusk and then night rides, and this is where everything changed. Not only was the ride experience in the dark out of this World, I also witnessed the greatest operations I have ever seen in my life. Staff were absolutely sprinting around the station, barking out instructions to colleagues and guests alike, apparently hell bent on churning out as many trains as physically possible in the final 30 mins of the day. The result was no stacking on three train ops, and on the run into the station you got to see the next train coming down the first drop towards you, which all added to the sensational ride experience to make this the best half hour of coastering of my life.
In all honesty if I’d had a similar night riding experiences on Zadra or Iron Gwazi, perhaps they would top my rankings, but I can only rank based on my experiences, so I have to follow the cliché: Steel Vengeance – New number 1.
Maverick (total 5 rides)
Yeah this is a really good ride, the first drop is punchy and quite unique and the launch is great. I’ve ranked it #23, a few spots behind Taron. If that missing roll was anything like the Mosasaurus roll on Velocicoaster then it would have been much higher.
Millennium Force (total 3 rides)
Fantastic ride, although it had much slower ops than every other ride in the park for some reason, hence the low number of re-rides. I’ve ranked it #27 overall.
Siren’s Curse (total 5 rides)
My first tilt coaster, and the tilt really does add a lot to the ride experience, not just a gimmick. Riding the tilt at the back of the train is one of the most “WTF” experiences on any coaster I’ve ridden, up there with Nighthawk’s corkscrews and a B&M pretzel loop. After that the ride has a brilliant layout for its size, the onboard sound is good, and we got two night rides on the first day which were fantastic. I’ve ranked it #28.
The above coasters were a clear "big five" after which there is a big step down, here are the rest.
Valravn (2 rides)
This is an enjoyable ride for sure but one of the weakest 200 ft + coasters I’ve been on; it just doesn’t really have any particularly memorable moments.
Gemini (1 ride each side)
Surprisingly smooth for an old Arrow, this was actually really good fun. Long live Gemini!
Magnum XL200 (2 rides)
I rode this in row 3 like you’re supposed to and I was not prepared for the amount of thigh bruising. The ejector airtime is out of control but I didn’t really find it enjoyable to be honest, I was too busy figuring out how to minimize bodily harm. Rode it again towards the back and it was more enjoyable but I still think I’d rather ride Blackpool’s version.
Cedar Creek Mine Ride
I have huge respect for Arrow and what they did for roller coaster technology, but this is a bad ride – it doesn’t do much and what it does do is jerky and uncomfortable, plus there is almost no theming.
Rougarou
We all enjoyed this one more than expected, nice and smooth, solid old-school B&M. Still once-and-done though given what else is on offer.
Iron Dragon
Quite long and fairly enjoyable but it feels rather slow, easily the weakest of the 4 arrow suspended coaters I’ve ridden.
Corkscrew
Janky and rough but a classic, and it looks great off-ride.
Blue Streak
I thought this was great, with a surprising amount of airtime for an old ride, but my friends disagreed and all thought it was too rough so no re-rides.
Raptor
We rode the clone at Walygator last year, both are great rides, among the best B&Ms out there excluding hypers/gigas.
Power Tower
I had to ride this having seen it on the Discovery Channel all those years ago. Of course it’s a standard S&S launch tower, these are always great fun.
Gatekeeper
Spite :-(
Leaving the park on the second day straight after the SteVe night ride session we honestly couldn’t believe how lucky we had been to fully experience this extraordinary place. Our sky-high expectations had been met in every respect. I have no hesitation in saying IMHO it is the Best Theme Park in the World.
TLDR:
In 2020 things finally fell into place and flights were booked for me and two friends, but I don’t need to tell you how that ended.
Six years and three children later, it was time to try again. A group of four of us obtained the appropriate leave from work and, more importantly, from our wives (with a total of 7 young children between us) for a five-night trip. We also had enough accumulated Avios points between us for us all to get return flights to Pittsburgh for £100 per person. It seemed too good to be true. Was it? Read on to find out!
We arrived in Pittsburgh on the Thursday afternoon, hired our car which was of course huge, and stayed over just North of Pittsburgh ready to harness the jetlag to help get on the road bright and early up to Sandusky. Driving along the peninsula towards the park it was breathtaking to see Cedar Point’s truly ridiculous skyline come into view.
We were staying in a park hotel (Sawmill Creek) so got access to the park from 9am with a limited selection of rides running, so went straight to TT2. We then had an almighty faff of hiring a locker and storing absolutely all of our possessions, including suncream, hats and sunglasses before joining the queue. Now, it was a very sunny day and in our excitement, none of us had taken the time to apply suncream. It turns out the TT2 queue is not well shaded and was already long even during the early access time. The fast pass queue opened before we got on and took total priority for a while so we stood there sizzling in the full sun for a good half hour in total which was a very bad start to the day we had been looking forward to for so long. From here I’ll switch to a ride-by-ride review for our 2 days in the park:
Top Thrill 2 (total 7 rides)
My expectations for this ride were high but were blown out of the water. I can’t really explain how or why this is so much better than Kingda Ka, Formula Rossa etc but it really is. Absolutely amazing experience, especially in the front and back rows. This is a firm top five coaster for me, ranking wise really only the three big RMCs can compete. Speaking of which...
Steel Vengeance (total 12 rides)
Okay so when you ride a coaster that’s so widely regarded as the best ride on the planet, reality can never really live up to expectation. Riding it a handful of times on the first day it was clearly an absolutely elite coaster, but I found it doesn’t really have that “wow” moment like Iron Gwazi’s death roll, Zadra’s stall, R2H’s crazy double inversion, or even TT2’s reverse spike. Into the second day I was still mulling over where it might sit in my top ten, a little disappointed that it hadn’t blown me away. However as night fell, we headed over for some dusk and then night rides, and this is where everything changed. Not only was the ride experience in the dark out of this World, I also witnessed the greatest operations I have ever seen in my life. Staff were absolutely sprinting around the station, barking out instructions to colleagues and guests alike, apparently hell bent on churning out as many trains as physically possible in the final 30 mins of the day. The result was no stacking on three train ops, and on the run into the station you got to see the next train coming down the first drop towards you, which all added to the sensational ride experience to make this the best half hour of coastering of my life.
In all honesty if I’d had a similar night riding experiences on Zadra or Iron Gwazi, perhaps they would top my rankings, but I can only rank based on my experiences, so I have to follow the cliché: Steel Vengeance – New number 1.
Maverick (total 5 rides)
Yeah this is a really good ride, the first drop is punchy and quite unique and the launch is great. I’ve ranked it #23, a few spots behind Taron. If that missing roll was anything like the Mosasaurus roll on Velocicoaster then it would have been much higher.
Millennium Force (total 3 rides)
Fantastic ride, although it had much slower ops than every other ride in the park for some reason, hence the low number of re-rides. I’ve ranked it #27 overall.
Siren’s Curse (total 5 rides)
My first tilt coaster, and the tilt really does add a lot to the ride experience, not just a gimmick. Riding the tilt at the back of the train is one of the most “WTF” experiences on any coaster I’ve ridden, up there with Nighthawk’s corkscrews and a B&M pretzel loop. After that the ride has a brilliant layout for its size, the onboard sound is good, and we got two night rides on the first day which were fantastic. I’ve ranked it #28.
The above coasters were a clear "big five" after which there is a big step down, here are the rest.
Valravn (2 rides)
This is an enjoyable ride for sure but one of the weakest 200 ft + coasters I’ve been on; it just doesn’t really have any particularly memorable moments.
Gemini (1 ride each side)
Surprisingly smooth for an old Arrow, this was actually really good fun. Long live Gemini!
Magnum XL200 (2 rides)
I rode this in row 3 like you’re supposed to and I was not prepared for the amount of thigh bruising. The ejector airtime is out of control but I didn’t really find it enjoyable to be honest, I was too busy figuring out how to minimize bodily harm. Rode it again towards the back and it was more enjoyable but I still think I’d rather ride Blackpool’s version.
Cedar Creek Mine Ride
I have huge respect for Arrow and what they did for roller coaster technology, but this is a bad ride – it doesn’t do much and what it does do is jerky and uncomfortable, plus there is almost no theming.
Rougarou
We all enjoyed this one more than expected, nice and smooth, solid old-school B&M. Still once-and-done though given what else is on offer.
Iron Dragon
Quite long and fairly enjoyable but it feels rather slow, easily the weakest of the 4 arrow suspended coaters I’ve ridden.
Corkscrew
Janky and rough but a classic, and it looks great off-ride.
Blue Streak
I thought this was great, with a surprising amount of airtime for an old ride, but my friends disagreed and all thought it was too rough so no re-rides.
Raptor
We rode the clone at Walygator last year, both are great rides, among the best B&Ms out there excluding hypers/gigas.
Power Tower
I had to ride this having seen it on the Discovery Channel all those years ago. Of course it’s a standard S&S launch tower, these are always great fun.
Gatekeeper
Spite :-(
Leaving the park on the second day straight after the SteVe night ride session we honestly couldn’t believe how lucky we had been to fully experience this extraordinary place. Our sky-high expectations had been met in every respect. I have no hesitation in saying IMHO it is the Best Theme Park in the World.
TLDR: