What is your opinion on the Mantis?

I have ridden this ride once and it took me until last year to do it.

I did not ride it again this year, nor ever plan on riding it again.

Enough said?

MrScott

Did it scare you? Or it just wasn't fun?

It is not my favorite. Don't like the headbanging, but I will ride it once on my trip to the park, which isn't very often since I live in N.C. now. I would definately ride it over Mean Streak. Mean Streak is deffinately rougher, but I still usually get one ride in on it as well.

I feel a little headbanging but I still like to go back on it. It's a fun ride. One thing I wish Cedar Point could do which I know is not possible would be make Mantis a Floorless coaster. I know that's not possible because they would totally have to re-do the ride.

I agree with mason - I do not think that they will ever tear down any of the coasters because of the sweet 16 count. White water landing is the next to go. They will knock down those trees and put another coaster in there. At least that is my theory. I could be wrong. As far as Mantis goes I love the ride but I do agree with everyone else it is rough. I think that it is one for more hardcore coaster fans. It is the only one in the park that I have to sit down after riding and take a rest.

I personally don't think that Mantis is going to go, it's capacity is not that great but fans stay committed enough to stand in line for an hour. It was actually one of the three longest lines that I waited in last year. But I don't prefer this ride, I would have to ride Millenium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, Raptor, Wicked Twister, Magnum, and Mean streak, and power tower and consider Mantis if I don't have anything to do or havent' ridden it in awhile.

But my friends who are afraid to ride things like the new Intamin rollercoasters, Magnum, or Mean Streak are willing to ride Mantis and Raptor, the coasters seem to be very inviting to them. Tearing it down would be as tragedy to my friends whom don't go for the bigger rides.

Jesz - Even though most of the time I'd rather not ride this strangely enough the most comfortable rides I have had is when I have either kept my arms straight up in the air or holding on to the top-most part of the OTSRs and not onto the handles in the front. Food for thought, but to each their own. Good luck.

I like the Mantis, but I rarely ride it. The waits are just bad now. If you check out http://pointbuzz.com/mantis.htm, you can learn about that inital foot tall loop after the drop. ;) (Someone forgot to enter the loop's height. Tight fit, eh?)

Though I absolutely adored Mantis when it opened, I must admit that my interest in the ride has waned as the years have passed. However, that all changed instantly when I had a couple of trimless rides last fall. It was as fast, smooth, and intense as it was in '96. Smooth, you ask? Believe it. The headbanging just goes away. IMHO, Mantis becomes a masterpiece all over again when you can snag a rare trimless ride. I might even go so far as to call it a top 5 ride. Of course, YMMV.

Thanks everyone for your opinions. It sounds like most of you don't really enjoy this coaster, but I'm going to give it a go so I can form my own opinion on it.

I will just take all of your suggestions on how to ride the coaster. I will also make it my last coaster to ride. That way if I don't like it, it won't scare me off all of the other coasters.

I cannot believe that I am going to ride the Mantis though. I mean two years ago when I was introduced to the best place on this earth, I was hooked on coasters...but still terrified. Now I have ridden almost all of them and am willing to go on Mantis. That is some progression right there. :)

I remember my last ride on Mantis and it hurt me to admit that I didn't care if I ever rode it again. I tried all the tricks, but in the end that roller coaster just hurts. No matter what advice I took on ways to ride it, it wasn't a fun ride. Why? Because I have to do work in order to make it fun (and even still that didn't work)

Mantis will be around for a while. Cedar Point is not going to take down one of its (what used to be) fearsome foursome. Mantis continues to get long lines so it will be there.

The ride is one of the coolest looking and impressive rides to look at. Those are about its only good points. Loading takes forever, there's an intense feeling of gravity channeled through your feet and they hurt unless you pick them up (not a good idea, men), it jerks you around, and you come off of it thinking "Why did I go on this thing again?" I've been on another stand up (Steel Wolf?) at Six Flags Great America and it was the same thing. I say you might as well experience it once although your legs will hurt for a while afterwards.

Jesz, why do you keep thinking it might scare you away from other coasters? If you've already ridden MF, then ride Mantis (and it scares you), will you then never ride MF again? If you wanna be scared from suspense to no end, try riding Turbo Drop (at least for me)! For me, being scared is part of the fun!

About the Mantis this year. Ive been to CP 5 times already and i've noticed they only have 1 train running, yes 1 TRAIN!! I noticed that when the que only looks half full be prepared for a 2 hour or more wait. It takes so long for that thing to get through the entire track, plus the time for people to exit and enter the ride to get strapped in. The Mantis is a good ride, however there is no way i would wait more then 30 minutes for it. Last but not least, like everyone has mentioned, keep your head forward.. Its not a rough ride but it can be when the sides of your face hit those annyong shoulder harnesses.

p.s. SIT IN THE FRONT if you ride!

2 years ago I went to Cedar Point on a class trip. I had never ridden a coaster before in my life. By the end of the day I was in love with the place. The trip went like this. They ran to MF. Being the chicken I was (and I had never ridden a coaster yet) I didn't ride it. They then went to Mantis, which I also didn't ride. Finally I went on Iron Dragon. We then went to DT, Gemini, Magnum, and Mean Streak.

Once I got home I had realized how obsessed I was and fortunately found GTTP online. We returned to the park for Halloweekend, (me ofcourse making us, because I HAD to go there again!) I wanted to ride all of the coasters, besides for the upside down ones. I still had that fear then. Sad to say the people I brought with me were not coaster fans. They wouldn't ride ANYTHING, besides DT and Iron Dragon. It was a very dissapointing and sad trip.

Later that summer we went to Six Flags in Ohio. The first coaster we rode their was the Big Dipper. IDK if any of you have ever ridden this coaster...but there is A LOT of air time on it. I didn't know that it was supposed to be like that. I just felt like I was going to fall out the whole time. The rest of the day I did not want to ride anything. It scared me very badly.

After that I was not able to get back to CP until about a week ago. This time I was going to make sure I rode everything (besides for the Mantis :) ) lol. We rode the Gemini, Maggie x 3, Iron Dragon, DT, WT, Raptor...but when we got to them MF and TTD were shut down :(. I was very upset because I wanted to ride those.

Anywho, that is my coaster history. You are right MF&WTer, I probably won't be afraid to ride the other coasters after I ride the Mantis. But you never know. I didn't think I would be afraid to ride coasters that day after the Big Dipper...but I was.

You really do have a good point though, and it made me think. Thankyou all for all of your suggestions. I am going to MAKE myself ride the Mantis. Whether I like it or not, what kind of CP fan doesn't atleast try all of the coasters right? And the worse that can happen is for about 2 minutes I am scared crapless. O well, It will pass and I will finally know what I think of it.

We've all been there Jesz. I remember taking my first rides on MS and Magnum in '92. It was really amazing to conquer rides that big even though I'd been on a few dozen other coasters at that point. Dude, I would love to be scared like that again. The anticipation was awesome!

Enjoy your first rides. May they be swift with minimal trimming!

Mantis. What can I say? It is definitely one of the better B&M standups, and is better than the Georgia Scorcher IMO. I love the color scheme for this thing. IMO, Mantis is a better name than Banshee. I don't know why but Banshee sounds gay. The hang time on the loop is so awesome, and the rest of the ride is fairly well paced. I have yet to go on a coaster that most people consider "rough", and the headbanging was virtually non-existant for me. I'd say try out the thing. You'll enjoy your ride.

Thanks for all of your suggestions. My conclusion is that I am going to ride the coaster, and I will ride it the way you guys told me too so it won't hurt! :)

I personally love the Mantis. It is an awesome coaster. Up until 2000, the only stand up coaster I had been on was the King Kobra at PKI. Talk about uncomfortable. Anyway, my only complaint is that the loading and unloading takes entirely too long. I did get a little headbanging, but not so much that I wouldn't ride again. I remember after the first time I rode Mantis, I was completley floored. I had only been on Kobra, so I had no idea that standing coasters could do so much. And, yes I will say it, I couldn't believe how smooth it was compared to my only previous experience. Hope this helps.

The ride is fun before the block brakes, but after that it makes your head bang too much