How did you spend your previous weekend? Wait in many lines? Wait in many lines for 8 hours?
Day 1
It really is a bygone era of amusement parks when 4+ hours waits were the norm. We are so used to: 1. Small turnouts for openings or 2. Rides with massive capacity factors. Yet Cedar Point did something this past weekend they have not done for 15 years: open a roller coaster on un-even operational grounds, have it backfire, and have every roller coaster nerd under the sun be there to participate.
Let's start with Friday, May 4th. Ohio State Day has always been a hit or miss day between the literal worst weather witnessed at an amusement park to being severely understaffed that rides cannot open. The day started on a very high note - while driving to the back of the park for a quick jump to Steel Vengeance, my friend Kevin and I saw SV test run multiple times - a great sign. I was so confident with our prospect that I live streamed our march through the back of the park to the roller coaster for our first ride:
... As you can tell, things had taken a definite turn. Not only did SV not open due to high wind; it remained down for the entire duration of the day. High winds wreaked havoc on the rest of ride operations, relegating us to only ride a few roller coasters (Cedar Creek Mine Ride *FIRST RIDE OF THE SEASON, HUZZAH!*, Rougarou, Maverick, Corkscrew, Blue Streak) and a handful of other flat rides (train, Skyhawk... I think that's it?). All-in, it was a bummer of a day, as not only was SV down, but so too were all other major roller coasters. Cedar Point was great in response however, and refunded all tickets to be valid for any other normal operation day this year - something I do not take for granted.
Day 2
So, Day 2, and we are back with a Vengeance (hah!). We arrived for the season pass holder early entry at 9 PM, and bumped into @Youngster Joey , who was waiting to rendezvous with @Antinos and @Intricks. I'm sorry gang, but Kevin and I were not to be deterred - it was a regular running of the bulls to SV, with everyone jockeying for running position. We were lucky to be a part of the first rides of the morning, only having to wait ~20 minutes. Our chariot-of-choice was Chess (only Chess and Digger were operating), and we found our way to the middle of the train as a first ride experience.
Steel Vengeance Review
@Antinos mentioned this in his trip report, SV is a lot to take in. While Beast, Voyage, etc. may be long rides - SV is a long ride with a lot of technical elements. In general, I found the roller coaster to be very well paced. Airtime was not too overbearing, and flow was very good. The second half of the ride is really where the genius lies - close calls with the support structures are simply accentuated as you are not only doing turns and hills, but inversions, lateral airtime hills, etc. After having grown so acclimated to Mean Streak's layout, SV is like your first time watching the Matrix. Out of the gate, I was confident this would rank a solid top three in any book - and slotted in after Voyage and Storm Chaser for me personally. However, you never rank a roller coaster based on one ride if possible - we needed to ride for a second time.
... And Then All Hell Broke Loose
So we jumped back in line after texting @Antinos and the group I would catch up with them later. By this point, the queue line had swelled to be fully maxed, and expanding back towards the railroad crossing by Gemini. We jumped in line, as we had not seen any other roller coasters go operational, and wanted to see if we could get a second ride in.
So we were in pretty deep at 3 ½ hours of wait time. The coaster to this point was running both the Chess and Digger train, yet there were periodic lapses of 5-15 minutes where the coaster would go down. We were not deterred, but tensions were running high amongst the queue. Of note, there were a lot of roller coaster enthusiasts who had turned out for opening. RMC, Fury 325, Valleyfair, Dollywood - these were dime a dozen throughout the entire park. We remained patient however, and queued all the way through the covered queue right underneath the brake run ... and then this happened.
While our vantage point of what later transpired in the station was mixed at best, Kevin and I were directly underneath the train when the bump happened. To exactly reflect the moment though, we didn't think much of it - we heard and saw the audible hard stop, but only thought it was a very hard stop of the train on the brake run. It wasn't until after the fact we realized it had been contact between the trains. Confusion set in on the crowd for what exactly had happened. The ride staff did there best to contain the queue, however it's tough to deal with park guests, hours into waiting, who want to ride when the staff themselves are still trying to discern what exactly is going on. Grace under pressure, in action. RMC and Irvine Ondrey were both on-site (throughout the entire weekend actually), and immediately sprang to action. It was clear though, something was wrong.
It was this confusion though that made me want to tweet out what exactly had happened. Rather than bystanders speculate on how many fatalities, I was in a rare position, as an amateur expert, to share what we were seeing, and in a way help alleviate the tension. At the end of the day, we had waited 5 hours, gotten no ride, but came out with an exit-pass for SV good for any other operational day (those counting at home - that's 2 free things the park had given me).
By this point... I needed a drink. We headed to the Red Garter Salloon, got whatever Great Lakes they had on tap, and rode MF buzzed and famished (which is a pretty recommendable experience, actually). Fortunately, much of the park was open at this point, so we made some quick rounds of Gatekeeper, Maverick, Blue Streak, Iron Dragon... and then were too tired to go on. Anyways, the Kentucky Derby was on. So Kevin and I headed back, I watched the Derby, and headed back to the park to rendezvous with @Youngster Joey, @Antinos, and @Snoo. On the drive back to the cabin, I noticed Jason McClure - Cedar Point Manager - in deep discussion with RMC and Irvine Ondrey. While SV had the collision, they indeed put it back up operational by end of night with a very limited number of riders. We tried to get back in the park in time, but were unfortunately turned away. Instead, we settled for a spin on Maverick for a night ride (which was a good ride).
Day 3
After having a taste of SV, we wanted another go to getter a better feel for the ride. Again, back at it for the 9 AM queue, and rushing for the line... to only be foiled again by mechanical downtime. However this time, we decided to stick it out, and hope for the ride to open. While wait proved to be another 3 and ½ hours (and someone mistaking me for RMC staff), we eventually made it onto the ride (running one train operation with Chess), this time riding more towards the back of the train.
And man, was this a totally different ride.
Steel Vengeance Review #2
What was I missing during my first ride? I remember the inversions, the turns, the drops.. but everything just seemed faster this go round. The airtime more aggressive, the turns faster - everything had been turned up a few notches. And this is what really makes you appreciate the refinements of the ride - every element seems to have so much pre-meditation and perfect placement to maximize every square inch of speed and airtime. There are the obvious elements, but then there are the pre-banks to turns, the course alterations, and otherwise minor portions of layout that still deliver airtime, lateral g's, or other forces. This ride must be ridden multiple times in order to be comprehended - you have rarely ridden something else with so much design put into it. (and certainly gone are the drawn out Intamin element designs)
And it's for these reasons that I struggled to finally rank this roller coaster. Does it have airtime? Yes (literally the most). Does it have a unique layout? Yes. Is it something I would think is rerideable unending? Yes. And is it a #1 roller coaster? .... Yes. Because at the end of the day, my other top ranked roller coasters, while equally massive and delivering in their own right, simply do not have the same scale and stance as Steel Vengeance. This was a methodically plotted out attraction that took 5 years to design, 2 years to construct, and only continues RMC's saga of building ****ing stellar roller coasters.
The rest of the park beyond this point was pretty dead. 20 minutes for MF, 20 minutes for Dragster, 10 for Valravn - the roller coaster just stacked up all the way to a stormfront blowing through, when we broke for a final toast at the Shore House Tavern in Sandusky.
Overall, a successful trip, that left me dead exhausted.
Oh, and here's Dan.
Day 1
It really is a bygone era of amusement parks when 4+ hours waits were the norm. We are so used to: 1. Small turnouts for openings or 2. Rides with massive capacity factors. Yet Cedar Point did something this past weekend they have not done for 15 years: open a roller coaster on un-even operational grounds, have it backfire, and have every roller coaster nerd under the sun be there to participate.
Let's start with Friday, May 4th. Ohio State Day has always been a hit or miss day between the literal worst weather witnessed at an amusement park to being severely understaffed that rides cannot open. The day started on a very high note - while driving to the back of the park for a quick jump to Steel Vengeance, my friend Kevin and I saw SV test run multiple times - a great sign. I was so confident with our prospect that I live streamed our march through the back of the park to the roller coaster for our first ride:
... As you can tell, things had taken a definite turn. Not only did SV not open due to high wind; it remained down for the entire duration of the day. High winds wreaked havoc on the rest of ride operations, relegating us to only ride a few roller coasters (Cedar Creek Mine Ride *FIRST RIDE OF THE SEASON, HUZZAH!*, Rougarou, Maverick, Corkscrew, Blue Streak) and a handful of other flat rides (train, Skyhawk... I think that's it?). All-in, it was a bummer of a day, as not only was SV down, but so too were all other major roller coasters. Cedar Point was great in response however, and refunded all tickets to be valid for any other normal operation day this year - something I do not take for granted.
Day 2
So, Day 2, and we are back with a Vengeance (hah!). We arrived for the season pass holder early entry at 9 PM, and bumped into @Youngster Joey , who was waiting to rendezvous with @Antinos and @Intricks. I'm sorry gang, but Kevin and I were not to be deterred - it was a regular running of the bulls to SV, with everyone jockeying for running position. We were lucky to be a part of the first rides of the morning, only having to wait ~20 minutes. Our chariot-of-choice was Chess (only Chess and Digger were operating), and we found our way to the middle of the train as a first ride experience.
@Antinos mentioned this in his trip report, SV is a lot to take in. While Beast, Voyage, etc. may be long rides - SV is a long ride with a lot of technical elements. In general, I found the roller coaster to be very well paced. Airtime was not too overbearing, and flow was very good. The second half of the ride is really where the genius lies - close calls with the support structures are simply accentuated as you are not only doing turns and hills, but inversions, lateral airtime hills, etc. After having grown so acclimated to Mean Streak's layout, SV is like your first time watching the Matrix. Out of the gate, I was confident this would rank a solid top three in any book - and slotted in after Voyage and Storm Chaser for me personally. However, you never rank a roller coaster based on one ride if possible - we needed to ride for a second time.
... And Then All Hell Broke Loose
So we jumped back in line after texting @Antinos and the group I would catch up with them later. By this point, the queue line had swelled to be fully maxed, and expanding back towards the railroad crossing by Gemini. We jumped in line, as we had not seen any other roller coasters go operational, and wanted to see if we could get a second ride in.
So we were in pretty deep at 3 ½ hours of wait time. The coaster to this point was running both the Chess and Digger train, yet there were periodic lapses of 5-15 minutes where the coaster would go down. We were not deterred, but tensions were running high amongst the queue. Of note, there were a lot of roller coaster enthusiasts who had turned out for opening. RMC, Fury 325, Valleyfair, Dollywood - these were dime a dozen throughout the entire park. We remained patient however, and queued all the way through the covered queue right underneath the brake run ... and then this happened.
It was this confusion though that made me want to tweet out what exactly had happened. Rather than bystanders speculate on how many fatalities, I was in a rare position, as an amateur expert, to share what we were seeing, and in a way help alleviate the tension. At the end of the day, we had waited 5 hours, gotten no ride, but came out with an exit-pass for SV good for any other operational day (those counting at home - that's 2 free things the park had given me).
By this point... I needed a drink. We headed to the Red Garter Salloon, got whatever Great Lakes they had on tap, and rode MF buzzed and famished (which is a pretty recommendable experience, actually). Fortunately, much of the park was open at this point, so we made some quick rounds of Gatekeeper, Maverick, Blue Streak, Iron Dragon... and then were too tired to go on. Anyways, the Kentucky Derby was on. So Kevin and I headed back, I watched the Derby, and headed back to the park to rendezvous with @Youngster Joey, @Antinos, and @Snoo. On the drive back to the cabin, I noticed Jason McClure - Cedar Point Manager - in deep discussion with RMC and Irvine Ondrey. While SV had the collision, they indeed put it back up operational by end of night with a very limited number of riders. We tried to get back in the park in time, but were unfortunately turned away. Instead, we settled for a spin on Maverick for a night ride (which was a good ride).
Day 3
After having a taste of SV, we wanted another go to getter a better feel for the ride. Again, back at it for the 9 AM queue, and rushing for the line... to only be foiled again by mechanical downtime. However this time, we decided to stick it out, and hope for the ride to open. While wait proved to be another 3 and ½ hours (and someone mistaking me for RMC staff), we eventually made it onto the ride (running one train operation with Chess), this time riding more towards the back of the train.
And man, was this a totally different ride.
Steel Vengeance Review #2
What was I missing during my first ride? I remember the inversions, the turns, the drops.. but everything just seemed faster this go round. The airtime more aggressive, the turns faster - everything had been turned up a few notches. And this is what really makes you appreciate the refinements of the ride - every element seems to have so much pre-meditation and perfect placement to maximize every square inch of speed and airtime. There are the obvious elements, but then there are the pre-banks to turns, the course alterations, and otherwise minor portions of layout that still deliver airtime, lateral g's, or other forces. This ride must be ridden multiple times in order to be comprehended - you have rarely ridden something else with so much design put into it. (and certainly gone are the drawn out Intamin element designs)
And it's for these reasons that I struggled to finally rank this roller coaster. Does it have airtime? Yes (literally the most). Does it have a unique layout? Yes. Is it something I would think is rerideable unending? Yes. And is it a #1 roller coaster? .... Yes. Because at the end of the day, my other top ranked roller coasters, while equally massive and delivering in their own right, simply do not have the same scale and stance as Steel Vengeance. This was a methodically plotted out attraction that took 5 years to design, 2 years to construct, and only continues RMC's saga of building ****ing stellar roller coasters.
The rest of the park beyond this point was pretty dead. 20 minutes for MF, 20 minutes for Dragster, 10 for Valravn - the roller coaster just stacked up all the way to a stormfront blowing through, when we broke for a final toast at the Shore House Tavern in Sandusky.
Overall, a successful trip, that left me dead exhausted.
Oh, and here's Dan.
