Midwest Coaster Trip (SFGAm., CP, KW) - 5/29/2026 - 6/1/2026

Thanks to everyone who helped me plan the trip and gave me tips for navigating the crowds, especially at Cedar Point. This trip report will be in "observations" form rather than play-by-play. I took the red eye from CA on Thursday night, did SGAm. all day Friday. Drove to CP on Sat. and did the afternoon and all day Sunday (with FastLane+). I haven't been to CP in 23 years, so there were a lot of "new to me" rides that I had been looking forward to trying. Monday I drove to KW and spent a few hours before flying out of Pittsburgh.

Observation: I'm too old for this $#!7

I was struggling with motion sickness all trip. Inversions in particular and hang time/stalls really started getting to me pretty quickly. Any ride with inversions probably got a lower opinion from me and left a bad taste in my mouth (sometimes literally).

Observation: Great America is a great park.

The lines never got too long. The ride selection is good and the operations were decent. I didn't stay for the fireworks, but I guess I was there on the 50th anniversary of the park (the actual day), so I think they were celebrating that. X-Flight was running one train, which was annoying, but everything else was running at least two and there were headliners that were less than 30 minutes all day. Goliath in particular had less than a 15 minute wait the entire day, which is crazy.

Observation: Dive coasters are pretty much all the same.

Don't kill the messenger. I've ridden Sheikra, Griffon, Emperor, Wrath of Rakshahahah, and Valravn. They may have a few unique elements, but pretty much you're just there for the drop. Tormenta may change my mind, but right now I couldn't care less about the differences between them all.

Observation: Wing coasters can be cool.

Somehow I had never ridden a B&M wing coaster until this weekend. X-Flight was quite good and wish it were running more than one train so I could've gotten more than one ride on it. Gatekeeper was...boring isn't the right word, but it just kind of slowly lumbered through the course without much intensity and the second half was really uninspired. Maybe boring is the right word.

Observation: Maxx Force is the best launch since Hypersonic XLC

The launch on this ride was truly elite. The rest of the elements were just kind of there, but I haven't been that impressed by any of the hydraulic launches. Xcelerator comes close.

Observation: Goliath should have a longer line...and a longer ride time

I don't get why this ride doesn't command longer waits. Maybe it's got good capacity? Or people don't like it because it's such a short ride? But it was less than 15 minutes when Raging Bull was over an hour. That said, it could use another element or two.

Observation: Raging Bull is way better than I remember

I last rode this in 2001 and it was "good but not great." I got one ride in the back with the MCBR off and I was incredibly impressed. The air on the first drop, off the MCBR, and on some of the medium sized hills was really strong.

Observation: Cedar Point needs to do something about lines. And correctly estimate them.

When I got to the park on Saturday, even having low expectations, I immediately got a bad first impression. Everything of remote interest was 90+ minutes. Thankfully, Steel Vengeance dropped to 45 briefly (I ended up waiting about that long) and I was able to ride it, but aside from that, I spent the first 5 hours of the park day, wandering around not wanting to wait for anything. I attempted to use my single-use prestige fast lane on Maverick (claim was 30 minutes), but after 20 minutes, I had only gotten through a quarter of the Fast Lane line, so I aborted mission. After dinner, I got in a "35 minute" line for Gatekeeper which ended up taking 60 minutes. Thankfully, I was able to use my fast lane on Siren's Curse just as it was coming off a breakdown and got on within 15 minutes. Ended the night with a walk on of Rougarou and two night rides on MF (~20 minutes) which salvaged the day. Thankfully, Sunday's lines were quite a bit shorter. For most of the day, the major headliners were around 60 and it wasn't hard to find a 30 minute or less line every now and then.

Observation: Steel Vengeance is for real

I'm sure this is not news, but my goodness is this ride good. Big air, small air, great setting, good operations, and minimal nausea inducing inversions. I can see why everyone raves about this coaster. It is just that good.

Observation: Maverick didn't do much for me. Nor did Siren's Curse. Nor did TT2.

The pacing on Maverick just seemed all wrong. I appreciated the first half, but the brakes-launch-brakes and the layout of the second half involved more bracing for impact than enjoyment. Siren's curse felt like a dive coaster with a slightly more interesting drop, albeit much shorter, and a much more interesting course, but I didn't feel like I needed to ride it on Sunday after my one ride on Sat. My first ride on TT2 had a really unenjoyable vibration. It felt like the wheel was mismanufactured or something, but it completely ruined the ride. My second ride was in the front row, which was much better and smoother, but I still didn't get the ride. For such impressive stats and imposing presence, the ride experience didn't feel that much different from an impulse or Pantheon.

Observation: Millennium Force and Phantom's Revenge are both still elite rides

Bugs aside (yech), front row rides on these two coasters are still some of most fun I've had. Millennium Force has that feeling of speed and power that a lot of the RMC's lack. And there's good to great airtime on the two big hills and the bunny hop. Just a really good ride with a lot of sentimental value. Phantom's Revenge, on the other hand, feels janky but in the best possible way. The transitions, especially on the bunny hills, feel like old Arrow transitions (straight to fixed radius curve) but that results in super sharp pops of air followed by downward slams. It's almost like the train is trying to bounce you off the seat and out. Great fun!

Observation: Steel Curtain is way better than I thought

Super smooth and not terribly nausea inducing, even with the big stall on the return trip. That said, it's still a mega-looper so it was one and done for me.

Observation: I'm too old for this $#!7

I hadn't done a solo coaster trip in a long time and those days may be behind me. Not only do I have a lot more responsibility in family and work, making it hard to disappear for a weekend, but I just don't enjoy power riding coasters alone as much as I used to. I'd much rather have a more diverse experience with shows and different kinds of rides (see: Disney) and I'd much rather share the experience with family and friends. When I took my kid and friend to King's Island last summer we probably got on half as many rides, but simple things like power riding Racer and trying to beat each other were highlights of the trip.

In summary, I'm glad I did it, but I probably won't do it again.

Agree about CP with their lines and inaccurate estimations (which seem WAY off this year). It seems like a combination of factors might be combining to make it especially bad.

1) Running at less than full capacity in many cases (2 trains instead of 3 on Magnum, Raptor, TT2, SV, etc) so people that have estimated the lines in the past based on full capacity are undershooting. Running at less than full capacity can make some of these less busy days feel almost as bad as July/August days when it comes to lines. Hopefully they step up their game before the really busy season hits.

2) Fastlane users up the wazoo and no way to manage/predict their behavior. Between Prestige one time users and a lot of those $499 all season people from other parks making the trip to CP, it seems like literally half the park has Fastlane. They also don't seem to have any sort of formulas or math behind it so it just becomes luck of the draw with who is at the merge point. I've seen 33% Fastlane, 50% Fastlane and even 67% Fastlane. It's just so willy nilly and it doesn't help that the most in demand rides don't have the top capacity.

3) In many cases, they have digital signage now rather than just a manual sign that the entrance person (if they even have one - this is another contributing factor) can adjust. I don't know how the digital signs get adjusted. Maybe they have to call in their wait time to a central location like park op where it gets adjusted? Maybe there's an app? In either case, it's probably more tedious and done less often than it used to be with a manually adjusted sign.

So far this year I've experienced a 90 minute wait at TT2 (posted at 30) and a 5 minute Maverick wait (posted at 75, but this one was near the end of the night on the Saturday they closed early so they were probably trying to scare people off). A "ramp" wait at MF used to be 15-20 minutes, but now 30-45 seems to be the norm with the seatbelts and whatever other excuse they have for long intervals.

ApolloAndy:

Dive coasters are pretty much all the same.

I feel this way about pretty much every genre of coaster, which is why I'm not super into traveling to ride more.

I'm surprised about your experience on Gatekeeper, but maybe it's because I so frequently end up in the back left seat. That starts out great because of the first inversion, as it yanks you off the lift.

But also, I get the "too old" thing. For me, it's not even the motion or physical implications of the rides, it's the waiting in line. I've become completely wait-averse. I'm not that old, but how much time do I really have? 😆

I finally had the riding part of "too old" catch up with me on a trip to WDW last month. I ended up in the back seat of a Space Mountain train and absolutely got beat to hell. I've ridden it enough that I thought I knew what was coming and the forces in that back seat tossed me around anyway. I exited saying "never again" and my kid talked me into it the next day. I insisted in riding in either the front of the train or at least the front of the car where I could have more room to brace myself with my legs. It was much better, but still had its moments.

Great Trip report. Now I want to go to SFGAm. We've yet to visit that park.

I agree with you about all dive coasters being the same, but I do enjoy them. We are going to make a trip to Texas to ride Tormenta in the fall. I'm sure that height will intensify the same ride experience I've come to enjoy. 😉

We're also planning a KW, CP, and KI trip at some point this year.

bigboy:

I finally had the riding part of "too old" catch up with me on a trip to WDW last month.

For me I've realized a lot of it as an adult is hydration. As a kid I could take a sip of brown, rusty water from the Geauga Lake water fountain and be good for an hours-long marathon on Double Loop or the Rotor.

There are rides now I can't do under any circumstance, but the minute I feel a touch of nausea after a ride I'm normally okay with I immediately get some water. I also don't do as much coffee on a park day as I would on a regular day.

Yeah, I am now in my 65th summer, and I am finding out over the last few years that "I'm too old for this ****" is very real. The days of chasing 20-25 rides a day has given way to being happy with 6-8. 10 rides is a really good day. Rest and drink breaks are more frequent, and rides like Beast, Mystic Timbers, and even Blue Streak are one and done. The old body just won't take that much punishment anymore.

I still enjoy the park trips, and don't plan to give it up anytime soon. But it is exhausting.