10 years ago today Millennium Force was announced.

The only RMC I've ridden is Stormchaser and I was very impressed. I can't wait to eventually ride Twisted Timbers. I am definitely ready for Steel Vengeance in May.

Cartwright said:

I don't think a nine year old thread needed to be brought back from the dead, but I do agree. I have not been this excited for anything coaster related since the one-two punch of Millennium Force and Six Flags Ohio 18 years ago this May. 18 years. Wow.

I am quoting your response, but my question goes out to everyone. What is making (seemingly) everyone on this site lose their mind over SV? Is it because everyone, apparently except for me, has ridden other RMC's and they are anticipating how good this one will hopefully be? Is it because Mean Streak was so bad that this one has to be better? Is it a function of social media and the internet being so prevalent now as compared to when Millennium was new?

Don't get me wrong, I want to ride SV but in terms of anticipation and shock value it comes nowhere close to the excitement that I had the first time that I saw MF from the causeway.

I will answer your question as a fellow never-before-ridden-an-RMC coaster lover. Personally, I'm incredibly excited just because the coaster itself looks ridiculous. I have no RMC experience to go on, but the thought of a drop as big as Magnum's that is 90 degrees? Holy crap! Big drops and airtime are my two favorite elements in a roller coaster, so I'm confident this will quickly vault up my personal rankings and be right up there with Magnum and MF.

Not exactly sure Shades but it is like MF and Maverick combined into one ride. I maybe hyping myself up to much but just imagining the night rides weaving through that structure under different lighting conditions.

I think watched SV vein gbuilt, not just through blogs but live in the park, added to the excitement for me. I’ve never ridden an RMC. But that outward banked hill makes me DROOOOOOOOOL...

Shades said:

I am quoting your response, but my question goes out to everyone. What is making (seemingly) everyone on this site lose their mind over SV?

I am sure we all have our own personal reasons, but there is first the collective obvious; it's a new coaster that shatters records using a well established but still new method of building a coaster, that being RMC. It's exciting and fun to see your home park, which many of us feel personal attachments to, get what will clearly be recognized as a gem in the industry.

But for myself, there is the turd factor. What is that, you ask? Well...

Under previous leadership, I watched the park I love live under the presumed mantra; "let turds lie".

Don't flush them down and move on, just let them lie. Dress them up if you have to, but above all, let turds lie. They collected in the park. Disaster Transport was the big turd greeting people as they walked into the park. Let's just shut all the lights off and maybe people will forget they just rode a giant ugly turd. Hell let's just completely stop trying. No one cares, right? 20 by 2020!@!@!

And what's that ugly pile of concrete next door? Why it's the former aquatic stadium. What better way to distract folks from it's turdiness than fill it with a kick-ass bike show. Hooray! "But honey, what's that smell? Hey wait a minute, are we sitting in a giant tur.....OH WOW LOOK AT THAT FLIP!"

Onto the Frontier Trail we go. A rapids ride? Cool! I remember my grand-pappy showing me pictures of the ol' Shoot the Rapids ride. How wonderful it is that Cedar Point chose to weave the past into the present. C'mon kids, let's go! Huh. Why are they not filling the boats all the way? Whatever. Is it supposed to go this slow? It's been 32 minutes. Are we supposed to fall backwards? Mommy!

But then, in the back of the park (fittingly) sits possibly the greatest turd of all. Ah yes, Mean Streak. So very bad for so very long. But any ride that has it's own living rabid fan base of one can't be all that bad, can it?

Who cares if it takes up an amazing and valuable chunk of real estate by the water. Let's just toss some new wood on it and keep it going. Let. the turd. lie.

But then the Winds of Change began to blow. Listen...

Slowly and steadily, the turds have been systemically removed. The aforementioned trip to Alaska was wiped clean, and the plug was pulled on Shoot the Rapids. And now for the 2018 season, no one will ever have to lay their eyes on the long-abandoned dolphin tanks, and in the same stroke the biggest turd of all (in humble opinion) is being removed.

So for me, yes of course it's fun to get brand new roller coaster, especially one from RMC. But at a deeper more personally fulfilling level, it's the turd factor.

When I look at Kevinj's post, it reasserts that the new management has really cleaned up Cedar Point in this decade.

Disaster Transport (which I miss)... now Gatekeeper
Gemini Midway... got a new makeover
Mantis (which I miss)... now Rougarou - just fix the restraints so they don't bang your head
Good time theater, Turnpike Cars... now Valravn
Mean Streak (which I miss)... now Steel Vengeance :)
And the old stadium... to be replaced by something good, I hope.

Lots of cleaning up at CP in the 2010s. Fun to watch.

And when I think about the "turd factor" Kevinj brought up, CP needs to renovate all of their restrooms. Please renovate 'em and make 'em look as nice as the ones at Kings Island.

I feel irrational excitement about the construction of Steel Vengeance because I felt Goliath and Outlaw Run lived at the outer boundaries of exciting/thrilling/freighting rides. The fact that Steel Vengeance is significantly bigger, taller, and faster than both of those roller coasters has me feeling like I did when I first laid eyes on Magnum XL-200 in 1989.

Not really considered "cleaning up" at all, because there was nothing wrong with the former rides/buildings (except for Shoot the Rapids).

If you don’t think there was anything wrong with Disaster Transport, you are sorely mistaken my friend. Shoot the Rapids (2010)=FAIL! Mean streak: trimmed to death with unsupported foundation and vigorous rocking through those turns.

I’m just waiting for the day that Magnum gets those new trains :)

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that SV will quickly be considered "best ride in the park". Yes, even better than my beloved MF. I predict it will earn the golden ticket award this year too, definitely best new ride, but probably also best steel coaster (if it qualifies).

Then, when all this comes to pass, I'm going to waste a saturday searching the archives and calling out each and every person who begged for Mean Streak to be burned to the ground. You know who you are. There were quite a few of you over the years!

This is just my prediction, but I feel pretty confident about it.

Disaster Transport was not only fun, but it also had an awesome queue which was air-conditioned so it was a great way to escape the summer heat.

Mean Streak was rough but not painful unless you pushed your spine into the seat during the ride. The bumpiness of the ride made it very thrilling.

Shoot the Rapids, correct me if I'm mistaken, wasn't a failure until that accident. Is Skyhawk a failure now too?

Magnum doesn't need new trains. Part of the fun is being able to experience the airtime without being hydraulically clamped to the seat.

ValravnCP, I agree with you about Disaster Transport, Mean Streak, and Shoot the Rapids.

As for Skyhawk, I am curious about the ride's future. With the cable incident in 2014 and other times when only one swing has run (and with the potential of tearing down Snake River Falls), I wonder if Skyhawk will go when Snake River goes.

I hope that day doesn't happen soon.

I am quoting your response, but my question goes out to everyone. What is making (seemingly) everyone on this site lose their mind over SV? .

Have you seen the POV? It looks badass! My easy response though (never been on an RMC before either) is this is the first coaster in like a decade that we got that isn’t super drawn out with the elements (Gatekeeper and Valravn). I like those rides, but I love fast paced rides. This thing is going to have real airtime and is going to be out of this world crazy.

ValravnCP said:

Shoot the Rapids, correct me if I'm mistaken, wasn't a failure until that accident. Is Skyhawk a failure now too?

You are mistaken.

It opened late. Pumps had to be installed in the boats because they weren't draining as designed to. Boats couldn't be loaded fully, harming already-poor capacity. The boats were painfull slow, to the point that it was basically a chore to ride. Aside from all that, the ride got riders wet primarily by anticlimactically dumping a bunch of water on their feet. Yay.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, the height requirement was 46", that alone making it a poor replacement for WWL which allowed shorter riders accompanied by a 46+" rider.

*Self-correction* It had a 48" requirement, 46" with an adult (according to Wikipedia). Which is even worse.

Perhaps the only positive attribute was the impressive theme and rock work.

ValravnCP said:
Shoot the Rapids, correct me if I'm mistaken, wasn't a failure until that accident.

StR was a failure from the get-go, if I remember correctly. The boats were too big to navigate the course, they would get stuck. Then they had to redesign the boats, and they couldn’t fill them to capacity because they wouldn’t float. The ride was kinda boring; ridiculously slow. The rollback accident made it a dangerous failure.

Yeah, Shoot the Rapids was something else, that's for sure. Everything stated above, plus ridden with mechanical issues, unable to run at the designed capacity, ride time was close to 3x originally anticipated... I could go on and on

STR is a great example of "good concept, bad execution." The theming was about the only successful part of it, and it's nice that they reused that station for Frontier Fling's staging area (and all the back half theming should still be in place too if they wanted to reuse that for a future flume or coaster.)

It's also why you shouldn't use a water coaster system for a simple log flume/small shoot-the-chutes ride (look at it and you will see that it basically uses the same ride system as Divertical, and really only wasn't a coaster because its layout was that of a log flume with no uphill coasting sections.)

As for the Golden Tickets, it seems that, for whatever reason, the GTAs tend to take a year to crown a new "best coaster..." Magnum was best in 2000, while MF was #10 or something... which honestly shows some of the fishiness of these awards. Did Fury win for 2015 or not?