Record-breaking Siren’s Curse tilt coaster to lure Cedar Point thrill seekers in 2025

The most likely explanation is that, in this case, the tunnel is part of the original design, so their hand was forced. The alternative was to raise the entire ride ~20 feet, so I guess they figured this is the lesser of two evils.

I agree. The tunnel has already been manufactured and sitting on site at Six Flags Mexico. Its easier to install a tunnel that has already been manufactured, than to dig a brand new tunnel. If you allow me to speak from past project experience.

I understand why CP wouldn't want to go out of their way to build an underground tunnel but in this case I agree it was most likely in the original design and not difficult to mitigate. I think most rides already have a back-up generator installed so a few sump pumps in that tunnel and your good to go, even if power is lost. If everything fails then it can also be marketed as a water ride and CP's first splash down - its a win win situation.

So this is the Snake River Falls replacement?

Certified professional tunnel diggers spotted on site. What is this man doing here? I know nothing!

Not sure why so many seem so convinced this opens significantly later than May?

The ride is fully manufactured and apparently sitting in Mexico -- that should not take so long to ship.

The land is already cleared (other than the road area, which I understand to complicate things but off-season they can just use a temporary bypass while they build this).

I understand they may need to do some frantic surveying and marking and planning to get the footers in, but this is not a big ride install for CP at all. They have put in much larger rides in the time frame we have.

They still have plenty of time to get this ready by May or early June.

I agree with you that it certainly can be done. I think folks are basing it on the announcement that states "summer 2025." I think in past announcements specified "opening day" or "opens next May" or similar. But I didn't check and could be mistaken.

When was the last time a coaster's footers weren't at least partially done at this point the year prior to a May debut?

In November 2015, Valravn had already gone vertical, with most of the footers done. By October 2nd 2012, a substantial number of GateKeeper's footers had been poured. Steel Vengeance and Maverick both took the better part of two years. I mean, I think even Wild Mouse had more progress at this point relative to its debut, and that's a relatively small scale ride.

Meanwhile, at least as of a couple days ago when we could see it, nothing at all had been done on the Siren's Curse plot. So, it's not merely the announcement that indicates this thing won't open with the park, it's the actual progress on building it.

I don't want to get too technical, but speaking from experience: it is a lot easier to relocate a project that is partially complete, rather than build one from scratch.

veritas55:

Not sure why so many seem so convinced this opens significantly later than May?

The ride is fully manufactured and apparently sitting in Mexico -- that should not take so long to ship.

Plague on Wheels is slipping. I think there was a missed opportunity for a closing of the border joke here.

The manufacturing of the ride isn't the issue. Brandon is right that nearly every ride for as long as we've been watching this started on site and foundation work before the end of the previous season. The hardware could arrive tomorrow, but there's nothing to build it on.

I can confirm that as of last weekend there is not one fog machine on site ready to be installed in the tunnel. The fog machines for Magnum's 3rd tunnel were ready to go by late September in 1988.

I do recall seeing Magnum's footers from the Soak City slides pre-labor day in 1988.

But the question is, how long does the concrete need to fully cure once footers have poured?

If this isn't an issue, then I don't see any reason why they can't survey, pour footers, and assemble the ride during the off-season.

Concrete technically never stops curing.

28 days would be longest I would expect anyone to wait to ensure it reaches its design strength. Typically structures go up within a week of a footing being poured.

Also keep in mind that they normally start work on the station first, since that has the most of the ride's infrastructure, and it looks as though SC's station sits pretty much on top of the existing road there. And they have to relocate/remove existing utilities, bring in new utilities, etc.

But, to take a step back for a second, why are people questioning the announcement? The park is being quite clear that this ride won't open with the park in May, so I don't understand why there's some supposed mystery or whatever as to when it will open. They're getting a late start on this thing, and they have to relocate a road, which is itself no small task.

Have they even starting fencing off an area near Breakers Express to receive track? I remember some years track would be on site before work had started too.

One more month until Planet Coaster 2 comes out, then everyone can armchair virtual construction.

They used to build big beautiful coasters in this country, now they're just importing them cheap from Mexico. A big strong powerful man asked me: "Sir, why don't we get the Gigacoster, Hypercoaster anymore". It's such a shame what they're doing to this country, to the likes of which we have never seen. Give them a very substantial tax to ship this product in from Mexico, and see if they still go through with it.

On the other hand. Does anybody have any concrete predictions for Siren's Curse?

I'm really looking forward to Siren's Curse. The tilt is a unique element that is not yet common and the elements in the ride layout look intense. Hopefully the ride experience is comfortable through the elements but from all the reviews of what Vekoma is doing these days, it seems that will be the case.

With the lack of detail in the site rendering (no exit path..), I'm really hopeful some additional theming elements will be incorporated into the ride. There's just too much opportunity with the amount of track that is low to the ground to not at least try to incorporate some rocky cliffs similar to Maverick. Either way, late summer 2025 will be a great time to visit CP!

As for the concrete curing, seems to me that last year they were performing that "routine lagoon maintenance". They poured that concrete in the middle of the Iron Dragon lagoon that happened to line up directly with the launch of TTD. Then, just a short time after decided to build a massive spike tower on the cured concrete. Point being, I don't think it needed much time at all.