After a brief and mediocre visit to Six Flags Darien Lake, we made our way west along the southern shore of Lake Erie towards Sandusky, Ohio. We have typically visited “America’s Roller Coast” at least every year or 2, but our European trip last summer and the initial failure of TT2 to operate reliably last season meant that we were overdue for a visit to Cedar Point. In fact, since our last visit to the park in 2022, there would be three new roller coasters to experience over our 2+ days we spent at Cedar Point.
I’ve been critical of Siren’s Curse since Six Flags announced it would reposition the Vekoma tilt-track coaster from Mexico City to Cedar Point last fall. Not only did this move scream of desperation caused by last season’s issues with TT2, but felt like the chain was “throwing the dog a bone” in order to satiate some of the most demanding and critical fans the newly merged company has. There were so many aspects of this project that seemed to lack foresight and common sense like the coaster’s location adjacent to another coaster with a vertical drop (Valravn), the timing of the decision that would all but guarantee that the new coaster would not open until a month or more into the summer season, and the overall design and specifications of the coaster that didn’t really align with a park like Cedar Point that is know for building the tallest, fastest, best roller coasters in the world. It was very much a Six Flags-y decision for what was the flagship park of the legacy Cedar Fair chain, which was not only troubling to me, but to many other fans of the Sandusky park. Siren’s Curse does establish some records, but they are more related to the type of coaster, a completely unique style to the western hemisphere. Even after Theme Park Insiders’ Jeff Elliot and James Koehl provided positive reviews of the coaster during its media day back in late June, I was still a bit skeptical that this would stand up alongside an attraction lineup that includes so many world class roller coasters.
While we were also interested in experiencing the other new coasters installed since our last visit (Wild Mouse and TT2), we made it a priority to experience Siren’s Curse. We utilized our passholder early entry privileges on our first morning to queue up early ahead of the opening, which corresponded with the official opening time of the park. Given the capacity, demand, and occasional technical issues with this coaster, utilizing that early entry time ended up paying off, because lines were routinely estimated at 90-120 minutes during our 2+ days in the park. We ended up being on the second train of the day and quickly got a first-hand experience with a coaster that exceeded all my expectations. First, the overall theming of the coaster and queue are well beyond what you would expect from a Cedar Point attraction. Most of the coasters at Cedar Point have theming that merely establishes a style or aura, but props and other thematic elements in the Siren’s Curse queue establish a much deeper and more detailed story. This is a massive departure for Cedar Point, that has always put more emphasis on trying to thrill guests with statistics instead of creating a cohesive backstory for their attractions. Perhaps these additional thematic and backstory elements were developed to compensate for the diminutive nature of this coaster when compared to its towering neighbors like the 420-foot tall TT2, 310-foot tall Millennium Force, and 223-foot tall Valravn, but my hope is that this is instead the start of a new trend for rides at Cedar Point that don’t skimp on the overall experience in order to chase statistical records. The queue of Siren’s Curse winds its way underneath the track, passing by a security booth filled with Easter eggs for long time Cedar Point fans, and along a number of ponds where the track supports appear to be suspiciously consumed by a green growth emanating from the water. The queue also provides excellent viewing angles to watch the coaster operate, which is a decent way to pass the time waiting to ride. However, because the coaster passes over so many areas where guests are waiting, Cedar Point has a strict no-loose article policy for riders that is facilitated by banks of small, free-to-use double-sided lockers located just prior to walking up the stairs to the loading platform. The setup is very similar to Steel Vengeance where guests only need to surrender their phones (and other small items) for short period, as opposed to the setup on TT2 where guests have to wait in the entirety of that coaster’s line with empty pockets. Once on board, riders will find comfortable bucket seats with soft-padded vest restraints, and when the train leaves the station, the on-board audio and lighting will activate, making this one of the most unique experiences at Cedar Point, and that’s before the coaster executes its signature maneuver. I had expected the tip-track experience to be similar to what you feel on a B&M dive machine, but our experiences (in the very front at night and very back during the day) were very different, and the time it takes for the track to lock in the vertical position and release the train into the course creates far more hang time and exhilaration than I expected, which is further magnified by the setting that allows guests to observe the drop from a far better angle than Valravn and most other dive coasters (save for maybe Oblivion). While I find myself looking out to the horizon of Lake Erie when waiting for Valravn’s first drop, I was much more drawn to the people below on Siren’s Curse and their reactions to the motions of the peculiar-looking tip-track mechanism. While that tip-track is what initially sets Siren’s Curse apart from other coasters, the rest of the ride is pretty darn good, most notably its smoothness and clean transitions between elements. Add a pulsing rock-based soundtrack and synchronized train lighting (changes halfway through the course to indicate it’s been infected by the “curse” as it passes through a fog-filled tunnel) and it's a complete experience worthy of a destination park. While I wouldn’t place Siren’s Curse among my top 30 coasters, it is a solid attraction that rates in the top half of coasters at Cedar Point. It definitely sets a new bar for theming in the park that hopefully Six Flags will maintain in future additions. However, the ride is not without its faults, which starts with the widely reported technical issues that have forced perilous evacuations from the top of the lift There’s also the low capacity of the coaster, which is not sufficient to match what other coasters at Cedar Point can reach. While the draw of a new coaster is going to naturally generate the longest lines in the park, this coaster just can’t match the throughput of other coasters at Cedar Point and will continue to carry long lines years from now when the initial interest dies down.
Speaking of coasters that have limited capacity, the other 2 new coasters at the park also had long lines during the duration of our visit that was caused by ride capacity that cannot meet demand. Top Thrill 2 debuted last year but experience a number of issues that forced the park to announce that the coaster would not operate for a majority of 2024 with the hope that it could “relaunch” in 2025. Unlike so many other broken promises from Six Flags in 2025, Cedar Point ultimately came through and, despite a few hiccups here and there, TT2 has consistently operated throughout this year. We did observe a few occasions when the coaster went down for periods of time, including one of our days when maintenance removed a train from operation, reducing capacity to just 2 trains on the coaster. However, we were able to get 3 rides on TT2 over 2+ days, which exceeds our first experience with the coaster’s predecessor (Top Thrill Dragster) during it’s opening season in 2003 where we spent 3 days at Cedar Point to get just 1 ride (though we did experience a rollback). I always looked back fondly on that rollback, and the story I always tell about the ride ops walking down the launch track and asking everyone on the train if we wanted to be launched again – of course, we waited 4 hours for this thing, we’d love to get launched again without having to wait another 4 hours. The new TT2 now gives everyone the chance to experience a rollback, though only from just over halfway up the tower. I felt that the initial launch and rollback are pretty pedestrian. The tunnel launch on Maverick feels much stronger, and obviously the new TT2 launch doesn’t come close to the original launch mechanism or other hydraulic launch coasters. However, once the train rolls back and through the LSMs for a second time, the ride really kicks into gear with a jolt of reverse acceleration that is unexpectedly powerful. It’s estimated that the train speeds up to 100 MPH before blasting up the reverse spike tower, but I think going backwards makes it feel like you’re going far faster than that. At the top of the spike, there’s an immense amount of hangtime, accentuated by the comfortable restraints that are a massive improvement over Intamin t-bars. As the train zooms back through the launch track, it feels like you’re already going more than fast enough to clear the 420-foot top hat, but another blast of acceleration kicks in to make sure the train clears the tower with ease. The rest of the course is identical to TTD, but again the restraints on the new trains make the downward spiral far more comfortable. Aside from the intensity of the first launch, TT2 is an improvement on TTD in just about every way, though I did prefer the speed with which TTD trains cleared the tower that frequently caused you to question whether you might get a lucky rollback. There’s little doubt that TT2 is going to clear the tower every time, and perhaps goes too fast over the top to the point that you start careening towards the ground before you have a chance to enjoy the view. The other massive drawback of TT2 is how the park has chosen to manage loose articles. It’s understandable given the history of TTD to take extreme steps to make sure guests are not carrying loose articles on board. However, the park has chosen to place the free small article lockers at the entrance to the ride with guests walking through metal detectors BEFORE they reach the end of the line (unless the line extends outside the entrance to the queue). If the line is just 20-30 minutes long, as it was when we went to the coaster on our second day during the early entry period for season passholders, it’s not a big deal to be without your phone, keys and wallet for that period of time. But when the anticipated wait is over an hour (the average wait we observed during the days we were in the park), that’s a long time to be without those personal items. The design of the TTD queue places the line inside the perimeter of the track, which makes it tricky to find a place to locate lockers where guests can store small loose items closer to the station, but I think Cedar Point could have done a better job or invested more to develop a better solution. Overall, I was satisfied with what Zamperla did to renovate such an iconic coaster, but I definitely miss that impactful hydraulic launch.
The other new coaster since our previous visit is Wild Mouse. We almost didn’t experience this coaster because lines were consistently over 30 minutes for a coaster type I typically don’t want to wait more than 15-20 minutes to ride. We ended up going back to the park for a third morning on the day we drove home explicitly so we could ride Wild Mouse. I’m actually glad we did, because Wild Mouse is a pretty unique coaster of this style. Though I wouldn’t necessarily wait 30-45 minutes to ride it again, it was fun to experience a design with spinning cars and banked track. It was very much a cross between Mad Mouse at Valleyfair (from Arrow with thick-spined, banked track) and Primeval Whirl (from Reverchon with boxy, flat track).
The rest of our time at Cedar Point was spent riding the park’s world-class coaster collection, though we did end up taking some time in the middle of our second full day to visit Cedar Shores for the very first time. As many times as we’ve been to Cedar Point, we had never been to the adjacent waterpark – we were always focused on getting to as many rides as possible in Cedar Point proper. With 2+ days and an impatient teenager who doesn’t need to ride kiddie rides anymore and doesn't want to wait in 45+ minute lines for repeat rides, we found ourselves with a few hours to check out the waterpark. Given how massive Cedar Point is, I expected the adjacent waterpark to be similarly massive, but it’s actually on par with most other accompanying waterparks in terms of size and number of attractions. Perhaps it’s because Lake Erie and a nice sandy beach are mere steps from the entrance to Cedar Shores, or perhaps it’s because there aren’t enough optimal weather days to make the waterpark any larger than it is. Cedar Shores has the typical lineup featuring a tower with trap door slides, 2 other combo towers with body slides and tube slides, 6-person racing mat slide, and a couple of larger raft slides. There’s also a second lazy river that has a section with a wave machine, a kid-focused splash complex, and the ubiquitous wave pool. Given there’s a Great Wolf Lodge and another indoor waterpark owned and operated by Cedar Point in Sandusky, I can see why Cedar Shores is not that big or cutting edge in terms of offerings. We ultimately spent 2 hours in the water park, and might have stayed a little longer if it wasn’t so windy that made it feel downright chilly even on a sunny August afternoon.
Even though we hadn’t visited in 3 years, Cedar Point is like an old friend, but with new toys to play with. Steel Vengeance is still one of the best roller coasters in the world, Maverick is a top 20 coaster, and Gatekeeper is still my favorite wing coaster in the US. We were only able to get 1 ride on Millennium Force because there are only 2 trains available right now, which resulted in surprisingly slow operations, mostly due to the need to use both load and unload platforms. We didn’t get on Gemini at all due to the racing coaster only running with a single track and just 2 trains and a delayed opened every day. Other than that, we generally observed quick and efficient operations throughout the park that kept lines moving with the expected culprits estimating waits over an hour. After we ticked Wild Mouse off our list, though, it was time to wrap up our vacation through the Great Lakes. We visited 4 theme parks in 4 different states/provinces over 2 weeks and experienced 3 new for 2025 roller coasters. In the end, Alpen Fury was still the pick of the litter, but Siren’s Curse and Wrath of Rakshasa were pleasant surprises. Now the question is, where will our next theme park adventure take us?
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I've heard that the reason they couldn't bring Siren's Curse to Mexico was local restrictions about tree clearing. Lame excuse, and even if SF wanted it out of Mexico, there are other parks. But it's not the worst coaster for cedar point.