Corkscrew Suggestions

It has been a number of years since I last rode the Corkscrew. My eight year old daughter has finally decided this year to begin trying roller coasters. It started out pretty shaky with the Mine Ride and Iron Dragon, but she eventually got over her fears (lucky that we live in town and can come over regularly!)

Last week we did the Blue Streak, but she was reluctant to try Corkscrew because of the inversions. Without PUSHING her, we finally talked her into trying it today. After the drop and the first loop, she yelled out that she LOVED it! I was very pleased. I yelled to her when the corkscrew part was coming and she loved it as well, but then it all turned to crying and tears when her ear smacked the ride harness. I think it was coming through the final inversion and it appeared to hurt quite a bit. I didn't want her to be afraid to get back on again, and luckily she had enough fun on the rest of it, to want to try again later. I told her to try to brace herself as best she could, but with the SAME result. Tears again and this time she was angry because she didn't like getting hurt on a ride that otherwise was a lot of fun for her.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me to give to her to better brace herself to keep from getting boxed ears? I told her that I try to push out with my shoulders and chest into the harness to stabilize my upper body; but I am a bit taller in the seat, so it isn't really at head/ear level that the harness rests on me.

For all the progress that she has made (in June she was 100% opposed to anything and everything coaster-wise) I want to give her some advice to keep it from hurting, but I am at a loss. Maybe I should just tell her to wait until she grows a little bit taller? If anyone else has had this issue and overcome it, I would very much like to hear what might work for us!

I had the same issue. I have not ridden it in a few years because of it. But when I've had issues with banging my head on the restraint, I put my hands around it where my head would hit and try to lean my head forward a bit. Hope it helps!

Yeah, tell her to hold the harness with her hands at ear level. It'll be awkward at first but that's how I kept from smacking my head on Rougarou.

Thanks for the advice. I let her read both of your comments this morning and she agreed that she could try that out for the next time.

Front seat might be slightly smoother ..and definitely hold restraints by ears.

Just remove corkscrew! Cool to have something fly over you? Yes. But we have Gatekeeper. Corkscrew is not a very exciting coaster. I feel as if they could design a better kid-friendly coaster...

Yeah, but there is a roof when Gatekeeper flys over you, so when you look up you can't see it. Takes away the effect.

^^Only response needed:

Kids tend to be pretty visual. Try to have her look ahead to where the track is going. Have her move her head in that direction before the track goes there. Front seat Maybe? Much like you rode maverick with the old restraints. This could be helpful moving on to bigger coasters in the future too.

Corkscrew is one of the coasters that I never really ride but it has such a tiny footprint all things considered that I only really see it going away once Arrow parts get REALLY hard to find.

I'm almost 100% certain that whatever does wind up replacing it will replicate the corkscrews over the midway almost exactly, sort of like how Verbolten retained the best known part of Big Bad Wolf.

What's the basis for your certainty?

..about aging coasters, specifically steel coasters erected before modern computer engineering.. They're rough, bumpy, jarring, uncomfortable, abusive, and at times.. Fun.

Flame me all you want but I'm all for the quality of the experience. I'd love to see Chance re-track corkscrew, magnum, and mine ride. RMC could work some magic on Gemini and Meanstreak.

Keep the history, nostalgia, and names.. Just improve the comfort and experience.

Corkscrew is an old Arrow looper, which means it's rough. I've quit riding a certain Arrow multi looper on the West Coast because it's become just too brutal. You shouldn't have to wear protective headgear to ride a coaster. They need to come up with a retrofit of some kind for the restraints. Otherwise you have to really ride defensively.

Ensign Smith said:

What's the basis for your certainty?

Honestly, there really isn't any, but you could argue that the corkscrews over the midway have always been one of the most iconic parts of CP, and it's not something that would be that difficult to replicate.

Iconic? Sure. But the park doesn't seem to have concerned itself overmuch with replicating "iconic" views, such as the Giant Wheel behind the train station, the Sky Wheel towering over the Midway, Jumbo Jet along the beach.....

I remember my older sister having bloody ears when we got off Corkscrew as kids from her earrings. I wonder if restraints can be switched out of some padding glued to the inside edges that easily. I have not ridden Corkscrew in years because of the head banging.

In the past 22 years,I've ridden it twice,the second time just to see if it was still abusive. I don't have a problem with the restraint but the body gets too beat up in the seat.

Corkscrew may seem obsolete to many CP patrons, but was one of the big dogs in the park along with Gemini for many years. I always thought those two coasters shared the "signature ride" title due to different thrills and experiences offered.

Corkscrew was a record-setter in 1976, with three -- count 'em, three -- inversions.

And three trains!
And it caused a sensation like you wouldn't believe. The reaction of visitors when they reached that end of the midway and saw a train flip over their heads for the first time was priceless. Lines for Corkscrew were over an hour every day, and some days it would stretch all the way to the Skyride station. It was unheard of back then, really.

I suppose the old gal will go someday, (imagine the last rider auction for that one!), but so far it seems to endure and it is an iconic view at Cedar Point.

I'm not sure what I would do with that long narrow space if I was in charge of replacing Corkscrew with something else. The thing that comes to mind is one of those S&S flip coasters like Batman at SFFT. Or maybe a really tall, long El Loco. Get Super Himalaya out of there and there would be a little more room, too.