I’d been looking forward to Cedar Point for so long. It’s been one of my ultimate bucket list items, and once upon a time was the inspiration for its own road trip. But that’s a story for another day… (stay tuned!)
So you can imagine my excitement to finally go to this legendary theme park with some of the biggest, tallest, fastest roller coasters in the US (and almost the world). But in all the stress of planning its larger encompassing cross-country road trip, this incredible stop started to seem almost a burden… especially since I was now going to be doing it solo. I’d created a Facebook event and invited everyone I could think of who might actually come to fly or drive out and join me for just this stop. Because rollercoasters are better with friends.
But no one RSVPd. No one was going to join me. It was a long shot anyway. So I just went ahead and did it on my own.
And it turns out that roller coasters are also excellent solo!
You don’t have anyone to slow down for, or trying to go at a different pace, or prioritizing different rides. You can do exactly what you want, when you want, at the pace you want, and in whatever order you want. Plus, you can often get on rides faster when there’s an empty single seat sitting vacant that no one in front of you wants. You sometimes need to be more proactive about it, but it worked out for me a lot.
So that’s the first PRO TIP that I highly recommend for solo theme park travel: ask to snag those empty single seats, or use the Single Rider lines when they are available.
Now back to the story at hand. I drove into the Cedar Point parking lot, my entrance ticket and parking pass deal ready, trying to muster up some enthusiasm for the day. It’d been a long drive all the way from NYC on my long cross-country road trip and I was tired, cold, and a little lonely.
But the moment I hit the drop on my first roller coaster of the day, everything changed. I remembered how much I LOVE roller coasters!
More than that, these coasters were igniting and inspiring me beyond my wildest dreams. They are truly the best I’ve ever ridden. And I’ve ridden A LOT of roller coasters.
Overall in my one day at Cedar Point, I rode 10 new roller coasters and some of them twice. So in total, I got 13 rides in this day. Let’s break down each of these legendary coasters I had the privilege to ride, and tell you why every one of them is more than worth the trip!
When I first entered the park, I made a beeline for what I knew would be one of the most popular coasters there: Millennium Force.
This meant heading down to the left side of the park from the entrance. Now I normally head straight to very back of the park at the start of the day, which is one of my PRO TIPS because most of the crowds will get caught up on other rides on the way, so you’re likely to get the lowest waits in the way back.
However today, I discovered that my first priority coaster in the way back of the park was not running yet, and Millennium Force had a nice low wait time here, so I decided to start here first. This brings me to my next PRO TIP, which is to be flexible and ready to change your plans when necessary. Pack your patient pants, roll with it, and you’ll still have a thrilling day.
Now back to the Millennium Force. This iconic coaster has ranked as one of the world’s best steel coasters year after year since its opening on May 13, 2000, breaking the record as the world’s first gigacoaster – a term coined by the coaster’s manufacturer Intamin and Cedar Point to represent roller coasters that exceed 300 feet (or 91 meters) in height.
Millennium Force gets up to speeds of 93 mph and heights of 308 feet. Its first drop alone is 300 feet at an 80º vertical angle. And then the max G-forces it reaches is 4.5g, which is enough to make some people brown out.
Next on my Cedar Point plan was another park fan favorite: Maverick.
Maverick is located pretty far in the back of the park (though it’s not the first priority coaster I mentioned earlier). So I decided to ride this one while continuing my strategy to head to the back of park (and keep an eye on that other top priority coaster).
This legendary steel roller coaster is a terra coaster, which means it takes advantage of the usually-natural undulations of the land (or terra) upon which it’s built. This one was also manufactured by Intamin and opened on May 26, 2007. It reaches speeds of 70 mph at heights up to 105 feet.
It may not be as tall or fast as Millennium Force, but this coaster more than makes up for that with an incredibly interesting track full of twists, corkscrews, launches, tunnels, and plenty of airtime. It also has a more vertical initial drop at a 95º angle from 100 feet. And it’s a pretty lengthly ride too, lasting a good 2.5 minutes.
This ended up being one of my favorites in the park, and one of the coasters I made a point to ride twice. So that should tell you something.
Next on the agenda was another classic: Magnum XL-200.
Of course, I first checked ride wait times around the park (that top priority coaster was now a pretty long wait), and decided to loop around to other side of the park to give a go on the Magnum XL-200 (colloquially referred to as just “Magnum”). I knew this one would also be popular, so I figured I would grab it now while the wait was still low.
This steel roller coaster was the first ever coaster built over 200 feet (a.k.a. a ‘hypercoaster’). So this was the very coaster that started the global Coaster Wars back in 1989. Then in 2004 it was recognized as a ACE Roller Coaster Landmark, a designation reserved for rides of historical significance.
This one was built by Arrow Dynamics, and is a truly thrilling ride. It reaches up to 203 feet high, and 72 mph fast, with an initial drop of 195 feet at 60º vertical angle. It’s maybe not as smooth as some of the other coasters in this park, but that’s understandable given its age. It’s still a classic and historic coaster that everyone should experience.
My next stop was the world’s 2nd tallest coaster: Top Thrill Dragster
After that (and checking wait times again, you sensing the theme here?), I popped over to this coaster next, both because it was close by and had a decent wait time.
Top Thrill Dragster is a hydraulically-launched steel roller coaster with a max height of 420 feet, and speeds up to 120 mph. It never inverts, but boy is it fast! And it has one hell of an intense first drop at 400 feet and a 90º vertical angle. You almost feel like you’re going to fall forward out of the car, it’s so nearly straight down.
This coaster was manufactured by Intamin and opened on May 4, 2003 as the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, as well as the first strata coaster – which is any full-circuit roller coaster that exceeds 400 feet (120 meters) in height. To this day, it is still one of only 2 coasters in the world with a drop of over 400 feet. So it’s been impressive since day one, and still holds up.
Update: There has been one blemish on the otherwise sterling record with this coaster though. It closed down in 2021 after a fist-sized L-shape metal bracket flew off and severely injured a woman waiting in line for the ride. So they shut it down and are giving it some much needed improvements. It’s expected to be back and better than ever in 2024.
Then I kept going to the revolutionary “winged” coaster: Gatekeeper
At this point, it was getting into the busiest part of the day. Urgency was key. So next, I speed walked (which I could easily do since I was there solo, remember that PRO TIP?) to the front of the park for catch the Gatekeeper coaster, which still miraculously had a manageable wait time. It’s a slightly less popular coaster here, but still a super thrilling one. I’m always excited for a good winged coaster.
OK I gotta pause here real quick to say this PRO TIP (or rather PSA): please don’t run! It’s not nice to the other park patrons, especially when it’s crowded and you’re likely to bump into people. It’s just not good theme park etiquette. Speed walk all you want, but please don’t run unless it’s a serious emergency.
Now the Gatekeeper is a high-speed, wing looping steel roller coaster designed by Bolliger & Mabillard. It was the fifth wing coaster installation in the world when it opened on May 11, 2013 – which also happened to be the most successful opening weekend to date in the park’s history. Pretty impressive, huh?
This coaster is a bit gentler and less intense, given the restrictions of having wings, only reaching a height of 170 feet and top speed of 67 mph. But it still packs quite a punch with 6 inversions, and a first drop that involves a 180º rotation into a half loop from 170 feet in the air, which is the record for the highest inversion of all the world’s roller coasters.
(BTW you may have started to notice that a lot of Cedar Point’s coasters have broken world records. Just saying, that’s worth noting.)
Next I continued on to a rickety wooden classic: Gemini
Now nothing else in area was a low wait time. So I went back to my fallback strategy of checking wait times and speed walking, and decided to ping pong to back of the park for Gemini.
This is also a PRO TIP I want to mention. Ping pong baby! If you are up for the extra steps and you’ve got nothing holding you back from doing so (*cough* like if you’re going solo), it can be an ideal strategy to jump across and around the park as needed to chase those wait times and your heart’s desires. I do it all the time, and it helps me both maximize my day and get some extra exercise. Which is a nice way to counter all that delicious-but-not-the-healthiest theme park food.
Now Gemini is a hybrid roller coaster, which means it has a wooden structure and a steel track. These types of coasters are becoming all the rage more and more. They’re so hot right now.
It gets up 125 feet high and 60 mph fast, with a drop of 118 feet at a 55° vertical angle. Like most wooden coasters, it doesn’t invert, but it still boasts a thrilling combination of high speed banked turns, and rapid directional changes, and some solid airtime hills. It also has twin tracks side by side, kinda like Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California.
Gemini was built by Arrow Dynamics and opened on June 17, 1978 as Cedar Point’s tallest, fastest, and steepest roller coaster at the time. It was pretty impressive for 1978. And it’s still going strong as one of the oldest roller coasters still operating at the park.
At last I finally found my way to the coaster voted 2018’s “best new ride”: Steel Vengeance
Let me tell you, this coaster seriously earned that title. And I’m not alone in that opinion. It is widely considered one of the top 3 roller coasters in the world. So remember that top priority coaster I keep mentioning? Well if you thought that was this one, you thought right! I had been looking forward to riding Steel Vengeance most especially. And it did not disappoint.
I’d been hovering in the area towards the back of the park and waiting for the wait times to drop. So I was ready to pounce as soon as they did. Which is a PRO TIP I recommend if you have a ‘must do’ ride on your list. Of course, when possible, it’s ideal to hit those must do rides first thing in the morning at rope drop. But when you can’t (like I couldn’t today), then you just gotta keep an eye on the wait times, be flexible, stay ready, and give it time. And if by some cruel twist of fate it still doesn’t happen for you, don’t let it ruin the rest of your day. After all, you still got to go to a theme park and ride roller coasters! That’s a pretty fantastic day by any measure.
Luckily, my patience and obsessive wait time checking paid off, and I was able to ride Steel Vengeance. And it was AMAZING. But that’s not hard to imagine, seeing as it was the world’s first and only “hyper-hybrid” record-breaking roller coaster. That’s right, another record breaker. You can see why Cedar Point is truly the cream of the amusement park crop.
Steal Vengeance opened on May 5, 2018, built by RMC, reusing the structure of the park’s former Mean Streak roller coaster. It reaches heights up to 205 feet and speeds up to 74 mph, with a first drop from 200 feet at a 90.0° vertical angle, and then 4 inversions after that.
It was hands down my favorite coaster of the day, and that’s quite the honor considering how amazing all of these Cedar Point roller coasters were. But the amount of uncontrollable, ridiculous-looking, face-splitting laughter I exploded with at the end of this ride blew all the rest of them away. I seriously could not hold it back. I got a lot of funny looks, but it was worth it.
So worth it, in fact, that I also rode this coaster twice this day. I simply had to. And as my very last ride of the day, which was the absolutely best way to end my day on an unparalleled high. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
After that, I next went on to the extreme-dropping coaster: Valravn
What makes this one so extreme? After all, we already did a 400 foot drop on Top Thrill Dragster earlier.
Well Valravn has something else going for it. Suspense. This coaster first takes you up to 223 feet, holds you over the edge of the drop for 4 seconds, and then drops you down a 90° dive, followed by plenty of loops and rolls and thrills at top speeds of 75 mph. It’s quite the experience.
So after a second ride on some previous favorites (I went back to Maverick and Millennium Force), I finally hit this suspenseful coaster, which is also oddly slightly less popular and therefore safer to save till later in the day.
It’s a steel roller coaster built by Bolliger & Mabillard, opening on May 7, 2016 as the first dive coaster model in the Cedar Fair chain of parks, and the tallest, fastest, and longest coaster of its kind in the world.
The next two equally whiplash-inducing coasters I rode back-to-back: Raptor and Rougarou
First I hit Raptor, which was close by and easy to pop over to next. It’s a high-speed, steel inverted looping roller coaster designed by Bolliger & Mabillard that opened on May 7, 1994. It gets up to 137 feet high and 57 mph fast, with an initial drop from 119ft at a 45° angle (very similar to Gemini), followed by a whopping 6 inversions.
And of course, it was another record breaker, being the world’s tallest and fastest inverted roller coaster when it opened, as well as the first inverted roller coaster to feature a cobra roll (which is many people’s favorite part of the ride, for good reason).
Next I doubled back (doing that ping pong!) once again to the middle of the park to ride Rougarou, which is as fun to ride as it is to say the name. It had a nice low wait and I was curious to try it. Plus it was conveniently on my way back toward Steel Vengeance, which I was determined to ride one more time before the day was over and I knew would be most feasible at the end of the day. Because PRO TIP, the most popular rides are going to have the lowest wait times at the very beginning or end of the day (but you probably didn’t need me to point that one out).
Of course I likely could have gotten one or two other rides in instead that I hadn’t ridden yet. But I had to experience Steel Vengeance again. Besides, this is my day, right? So I can do what I want. And that’s another PRO TIP for you, a reminder that you can do whatever you like, no matter what others say you should do. Sure you can consider their well-meaning advice (mine included), but then you get to decide for yourself. It’s your day (and your park ticket money). Do what you wanna do.
Now where was I? Oh yeah, Rougarou. This coaster was formerly a stand-up coaster called Mantis (which was the tallest, fastest, and longest of its kind in the world when it opened on May 11, 1996), but then closed down and reopened on May 9, 2015 as Rougarou, the first floorless roller coaster at Cedar Point.
Rougarou was also manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, who built it to reach 145 feet in height and 60 mph in speed, with an initial drop of 137 feet at a 52° angle. So it’s also quite a beast in its own right. And that makes sense, since a “Rougarou” is a werewolf-like creature in French folklore. Hurray for fun useless facts. The more you know…
Altogether, this Cedar Point trip was like a religious experience that only a true adrenaline junkie can have.
It completely reignited my love for roller coasters. And it changed my relationship with them. Elevated it.
I found an even freer, deeper way to experience them. By truly letting go, relaxing my body, and leaning into every drop, every bank turn, every corkscrew and barrel roll, I achieved the exhilarating sensation that’s about as close as I think humanly possible to the feeling of flying (and not like in an airplane or hang glider, I mean just me flying with only my body holding me up).
I’m talking hands up the entire ride, no fear, letting my body rise and fall naturally with the rhythm of the coaster car as we flew down the track together. My arms outstretched to embrace the air rushing by me, imagining that this must be what the characters in Harry Potter feel like on their broomsticks.
Whenever anyone asks that classic question, “What superpower would you choose?”, that’s always my first choice. The power to fly.
And here I was feeling like I was flying. Fully relaxed and at peace with the sensation. Imagining myself in control of every twist and turn. And it was incredibly empowering.
I no longer felt my stomach leap into my throat with that first huge drop. Instead, I embraced the drop, every drop, and leaned into it with all my heart. It makes such a difference. Instead of gripping fear (however thrilling that is), I felt a flood of joy and lightness flow through my body as it dropped, swooped, and rose through the air. I grinned like an idiot through every turn, and giggled uncontrollably every time we pulled back into the loading area.
I must have looked like a crazy person to the others riding next to me. But I couldn’t care less. I was having the time of my life.
That’s my final PRO TIP for you, whenever you’re on any roller coaster in any theme park, solo or otherwise: let go and embrace the sensation of flying. There’s truly nothing else like it in the world.
