Episode 25.
Roller Coaster Parks

Question:

Does Cedar Point have the best roller coasters?

Key Points:

  • What criteria should you use to determine the "best" roller coaster?
  • Tallest/Biggest Drop (all steel coasters):
    1. Kingda Ka = 456' tall, 418' drop
    2. Top Thrill Dragster = 420'tall, 400' drop
    3. Superman Escape from Kripton
    4. Tower of Terror 2
    5. Red Force (tall only; no drop)
    6. Fury 325
    7. Steel Dragon 2000
    8. Leviatan = 306' drop (position on drop list, but not tallest list)
    9. Millenium Force = 300' drop
    Cedar Point is the only park that has two coasters on the list of tallest/biggest drop.
  • Speed:
    1. Formula Rosa
    2. Kingda Ka
    3. Top Thrill Dragster
  • Length of the ride:
    1. Steel Dragon 2000 = 8000' long
    2. Ultimate = 7442' long
    3. The Beast (a wood coaster) = 7359' long
    4. Fujiyama = 6709' long
    5. Fury 325 = 6602' long
    6. Millenium Force = 6595' long
    7. Formula Rosa = 6562' (2000 meters) long
    8. The Voyage (a wood coaster) = 6442' long *(Not in podcast: this is at Holiday World)
    9. Incredicoaster = 6072' long
    10. Desperado = 5843' long
    11. Steel Vengence = 5740' long (Number 9 on the Steel coaster list because 2 of the above are wood coasters)
  • G-forces are a good criteria, but I couldn't find any objective data on this
  • Mean Streak used to be a roller coaster at Cedar Point which jerked people around. Since it was hardly anyone's favorite ride, Cedar Point closed it, used the wooden structure to convert it to Steel Vengence
  • Could include inversions in criteria (i.e. how many times it goes upside down), but we didn't talk about it
  • Cedar Point is the only amusement park to have 2 coasters on any of the lists of tallest/biggest drop, fastest, and longest. Cedar Point has two coasters on each of those lists.
  • Back in 1998, Amusement Today started handing out "Golden Ticket Awards" for theme parks
    • Cedar Point won the "Best Overall Park Award" every year from 1998-2013
    • Cedar Point always wins the biggest capacity award
    • In 2018, Steel Vengence won the best new coaster award, but it did not win the best overall coaster
    • In 2018, Steel Vengence only got third in overall coaster. Fury 325 got first and Millenium Force got second
    • Of all the points that have been assigned for roller coasters every, Cedar Point's coasters got over 30,000 points
    • The next highest number of points had less than 15,000 points and was Six Flags New England
    • The coaster that has earned the most golden ticket points for best roller coaster, ever, was Millenium Force
    • Magnum was at the top of the list back in 1998, but it is still on the list.
    • Holiday World, in Santa Clause Indiana has gotten 55 golden tickets, the most of any theme park. They have consistently won the friendliest and cleanest park awards
    • Schliterbahn, in Texas, has the second most golden tickets, but it is only a waterpark, so they have only won waterpark awards
    • Cedar Point has gotten the third most Golden Ticket Awards of any park
  • Goliath is possibly the best wooden coaster
  • Cedar Point focuses on making Steel roller coasters, not wooden coasters
  • Malachi's conclusion: Holiday World and Schliterbahn are really great waterparks/theme parks, but Cedar Point has the best roller coasters