Cedar Point: The Nerd Review Part 1: The Rides

This past weekend we took a trip to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. For the uninitiated, Cedar Point is the largest amusement park in the midwest.

It is pretty damn big.

As a nerd and avid fan of rollercoaster tech and amusement parks I will not try to hide the fact that I was absolutely thrilled to be going to the rollercoaster capital of America. I will also say that I was not disappointed.

The Review

The Rides

Currently Cedar Point has 16 rollercoasters. I have tried all of them in my lifetime and during this last trip I rode 8 of them (all level 5 "thrill rating"). In my opinion, the "must-ride" coasters would be the Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, and the Magnum XL-200.

 Millennium Force

• The Millennium Force was the tallest coaster in the world when it first debuted, and it still has the ability to scare the living crap out of me today, over a decade after I first rode it. You're hurled up the first hill quite quickly on a very quick lift. I thought it would ruin the anticipation I usually get when I'm slowly climbing a roller coaster hill but it actually added to my anticipation. The first drop falls at an 80 degree angle at 90mph, which is one of the best drops in the entire park. In my opinion, it is the best steel coaster I have ever been on. 10/10 must ride. 
• The Top Thrill Dragster is one of the scariest things I have ever rode, hands down. Being accelerated to 120mph in under 4 seconds is one of the craziest feelings I've ever experienced. It felt like I was making a warp jump on the Enterprise. The sheer force from acceleration almost made me poop a little bit of funnel cake. Just don't put your hands up because you might get hurt when it shoots you forward (and also because the ride won't take off if your hands are up). 
• The Magnum XL-200 is one of the original gangster roller coasters at Cedar Point. For a 24 year old coaster, it still manages to amaze and scare me to this day. It was the first "hypercoaster" ever built, and has held up very well through the passage of time. The carts are kind of old and their aesthetics are a bit dated, but if you like nostalgia and dig the 80's vibe, you will definitely enjoy their looks.

The rides at Cedar Point are second to none. It puts every Six Flags I have ever been to shame. The amount of rides and the sheer scale of the park would definitely warrant a 2 day trip to the park. I don't have that kind of stamina anymore, but 13 year old gerbil definitely wished he was able to go for another day. The placement of the rides facilitated the experience, as one could just walk along a set path and ride every single coaster in the park. It flowed very nicely and didn't confuse me as other parks often did. They did have a lot of those spinny rides that I hate. Spinning is the bane of my amusement park existence because I get motion sickness from spinning really easily. That said, Cedar Point has some really awesome spinning rides that I would never ever ride. The "Raptor" made me super dizzy but that's my fault for riding a ride with a lot of crazy spirals and loops first. Whoops.
I also got the chance to ride their newest coaster "Gatekeeper" which is currently the longest and fastest "winged coaster" in the world.

Nice and thick.

Gatekeeper was pretty interesting and quite fun and it didn't give me the same motion sick feeling that other steel coasters with plenty of spirals and loops did. It felt more like flying or gliding rather than being hurled through loops and spirals at break neck speeds a la Raptor. 

Rides TL;DR 

If you want to go to the amusement parks with the best rides, you have to go to Cedar Point. 10/10 must ride.