Cedar Point announces record breaking dive roller coaster, Valravn
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From the press release:
Cedar Point will change the Lake Erie skyline once again with over 3,400 feet of thrill ride innovation when it introduces Valravn (val-rey-vuhn), the world’s tallest, fastest and longest dive coaster, in 2016. Valravn is the regal king of birds, swooping in to conquer all other dive coasters on the planet with its powerful and intense maneuvers, massive structure and immense ride vehicles. Valravn will become the 18th coaster to take reign at The Roller Coaster Capital of the World® and will claim its rightful place among other record-breaking roller coasters at Cedar Point.
Riders on Valravn are carried more than 20 stories up to the top of the coaster’s 223-foot-tall first hill. Once there, the train is held perilously over the edge of the first drop for approximately four seconds, giving anxious guests unparalleled views of the park before free-falling a record 214 feet at a completely vertical, 90-degree angle, reaching a top speed of 75 mph!
Valravn then flips its passengers upside-down through a 165-foot-tall Immelmann, a fighter jet-like maneuver that takes the train into a half loop, then a half roll before traveling in the opposite direction. The train then approaches another drop zone – but there’s no stopping this time as riders plunge 125 feet down at a near-90-degree angle once again, twisting and turning upside-down two more times, once through a dive loop and then through a 270-degree roll before completing its epic journey over 3,415 feet of tarnished copper and silver steel track.
Valravn will shatter an astonishing 10 WORLD RECORDS when it debuts next summer, including:
1.Tallest dive coaster (223 feet)
2.Fastest dive coaster (75 mph)
3.Longest dive coaster (3,415 feet)
4.Most inversions on a dive coaster (three)
5.Longest drop on a dive coaster (214 feet)
6.Highest inversion on a dive coaster (165 feet)
7.Most roller coasters taller than 200 feet at one amusement park (5)
8.Most rides at one amusement park (72)
9.Most steel roller coaster track at one amusement park (52,125 feet/9.9 miles)
10.Most roller coaster track at one amusement park (60,110 feet/11.4 miles)
Valravn is also the signature 100th roller coaster designed by the imaginative coaster minds at Bolliger & Mabillard in Monthey, Switzerland, and will feature ride vehicles never before seen on a dive coaster. Riders will sit eight-across on one of three, 24-passenger floorless trains, featuring tiered seating as well as comfortable over-the-shoulder restraints with interlocking seatbelts, much like those on the park’s GateKeeper wing coaster. Valravn can accommodate approximately 1,200 riders per hour and guests must be 54 inches or taller to ride.
Cedar Point is also making history as the first amusement park ever to utilize 3D virtual reality to introduce a new roller coaster. Guests can experience Valravn in 360-degree virtual reality by downloading the Cedar Point VR app onto their smart phones and inserting them into the Valravn VR Viewer. The app is now available in the App Store and Google Play store. To take full advantage of the virtual reality simulation, Valravn VR Viewers can be purchased by visiting cedarpoint.com/Valravn.
“The introduction of Valravn is a first for the amusement park industry on many fronts, including the exciting virtual reality experience,” stated Jason McClure, vice president and general manager of Cedar Point. “For the first time ever, guests are able to take an immersive ride on Valravn before it opens next summer – and the actual experience will be unmatched with the tallest lift hill, fastest speed, longest track and most inversions on a dive coaster, right here at Cedar Point, The Roller Coaster Capital of the World.”
See the official site from Cedar Point.
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Don't worry. I imagine for next year Cedar Point will concentrate on family oriented attractions, just to piss everybody off.
I hope that it's at least the worlds tallest and fastest dragon wagon, and that it breaks 6 more made up records in addition to that.
You know, I do remember some people being underwhelmed when Maverick was announced. Turns outs it's one Cedar Point's best. Hashtagjustsayin!
A ride doesn't need to be intense for me to enjoy it. I think one of the best aspects of Valravn will be the views.
Brian
Hadn't thought about that, but yes -- what a great view of the park you'll have as you hang at the top of the drop.
Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.
--Fran Lebowitz
Can you imagine what the sunset will look like as you crest the top of the lift hill? I understand that this is probably not the coaster that much of the enthusiast community would have preferred to see put into Cedar Point but I think that it still is a good coaster for the park. It is the tallest, fastest, and longest dive coaster in the world. Don't forget that it's yet another coaster for you to ride and enjoy and add to your track record, plus you can then brag to your non-enthusiast friends about how you went on another "tallest, fastest, etc." coaster. All in all I think we need to appreciate this coaster for what it is, and not for what it isn't and never will be.
I don't need to appreciate anything. The park is adding this for reasons other than to gain appreciation of enthusiasts.
ApolloAndy said:
To 99.9% of visitors, Valravn is completely earth shatteringly unique, even with Maverick, TTD, and WT across the park. "What do you mean they hang you over the edge slowly before you drop!?!?"
This this this!
My 18-year-old sister, for whom I've bought season passes for the past 3 years has never been to any parks except Cedar Point and Kings Island (don't worry - I'm fixing that next year). When I handed her my Google Cardboard last night to "ride" Valravn, she said "Wait?! It stops you at the top!!!?!" incredulously, because she didn't understand what a "dive coaster" even was.
Long story short: She's excited, and has already told her boyfriend that he has to go with her next summer. +1 ticket sale.
I really like this addition for Cedar Point. It checks a lot of the boxes for what I consider to be a good addition:
- Location. It's placement won't just allow it to thin the lines out for the Intamins (which it will a little bit), but it will help to balance crowd distributions and keep more people in a part of the park that didn't see much action. I can't imagine it's coincidence that the last two coasters they installed were in areas that didn't see much foot traffic.
- Interaction. The first drop is going to be visible from a lot of different areas - the front gate, the marina gate, the main midway and the Top Thrill Dragster midway. That whole area is going to be much more open now that the old theater is out of the way, and the views along that midway now are going to be sensational. It's also right next to Perimeter Rd. which will provide yet another amazing view.
- High capacity. 1200 PPH is right around what Millennium Force puts through as RideMan mentioned so it will move a good amount of people. Ironically enough this will be Cedar Fair's lowest capacity B&M install since 2008. Wrap your minds around that for a second. Every other B&M installed since that time all have maximum capacity numbers of 1470 PPH or higher. The higher capacity will also help to lessen the impact on standby wait times due to Fast Lane guests.
What kind of installation would have been a better choice for the park? It seems like the only way some folks are happy about an announcement is if it's for a new RMC, a new Intamin, or a ride made by someone other than B&M. Cedar Fair B&M installs since Behemoth have all been amazing additions and are all loved by the general public. Why does anyone have reason to believe this will be any different?
Congratulations on being allowed to have an opinion.
My opinion of Valravn;
Looks like a fun ride. I loved Griffon and Sheikra, so I expect that I will thoroughly enjoy this. A bit disappointed to not see a splashdown or a tunnel/bridge like the other two, though. Oh well, I'll live...
...
My opinion of this Valravn thread;
Wow, there's a whole lot of butt-hurt going on in here. Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
However, if you post said opinion on a public forum such as this, you'd better be prepared to have your opinion attacked, questioned, validated, ridiculed, agreed with, dismissed, ignored, or any combination thereof. You are deliberately seeking out some form of discourse by speaking up. Getting upset over someone else not being in lockstep with you is quite daft, especially in an environment of free-flow ideas such as this.
When you post/opine/speak in any public setting, you must (in the words of ol' Woody Harrelson) be prepared to.....;
"Nut Up or Shut Up"
Welcome to reality, folks.
Later,
EV
My issue is what it has been. I'm not saying someone who is happy with the addition is anything. I get annoyed when I see people telling me how I should feel this way, shouldn't feel that way, and should just be happy, bla bla bla.
If someone attacks my opinion, fine. But don't tell me how I *should* feel.
This will be nice addition to the park. Since there are only two other dive coasters in the U.S., majority of the guests have never seen anything like them before.
Having been on Oblivion, Griffon, and SheiKra, I am not a fan of the dive coasters. They have their moments. I just wish there were more to them. They are over too quickly. I was hoping CP would have done something more. For me, they fit into the "gimmick" category along with TTD. It is more fun walking around on top of Griffin than riding it. :)
On the positive side, I admit it will look nice where it is going, with plenty of photo opportunities.
Jerry - Magnum Fanatic
Famous Dave's- 206 restaurants - 35 states - 2 countries
I really can't ever wrap my head around the idea that any coaster has a gimmick to it. I suppose it depends on what one means by the term. The hold and dive is an element that defines it. One hell of a gimmick, though. 😊
I don't see labeling something as a gimmick, as far as roller coasters go, as always a bad thing. The word gimmick does assume a bad reputation in most cases. Like M. Night Shyamalan's films, for example. The gimmick is that it will probably have a twist ending that makes you want to watch it again. If it's a good twist, like in The Sixth Sense, the word implies positive. If it is a terrible twist, like in The Village, the word implies negative.
-Travis
www.youtube.com/TSVisits
A gimmick, in and of itself, is not a bad thing.
What some posting here have done that puts me off is to use it dismissively: Valravn is a bad decision by the park because it's a "gimmick" coaster -- somehow, because there are two other such coasters in the U.S., the nearest of which is nine hours away -- it's not completely unique to the park, is not what the park should aspire to.
Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.
--Fran Lebowitz
I agree, and at least how I typically read it is with a negative connotation. Countless times I have read how Top Thrill Dragster is a "gimmick" coaster (again, with a negative tone), which makes no sense to my brain at all. There is no gimmick; it launches you in orgasmic fashion up a giant twisty hill and lets you plummet back down to where you started. Where in that 17 seconds of bliss is the gimmick? That's the ride.
Are the corkscrews on Corkscrew just a gimmick? Are the twin trains on Gemini just a gimmick? I digress.
When I hear the word I think if something tricky or deceptive meant to lure me in. "Buy on get one free" is a gimmick when the store merely increases the price of something. 50% off an overpriced item is an advertising gimmick.
And man was I ticked off when I figured out the gimmick to The Village about 10 minutes in. Terrible. :)
OhioStater said:
Are the corkscrews on Corkscrew just a gimmick? Are the twin trains on Gemini just a gimmick?
I would definitely say that, yes, they were, at the time they were built. Corkscrew inversions were unheard of at the time of Corkscrew's construction, and twin coasters were uncommon at the time of Gemini's construction. Top Thrill Dragster was built to be the tallest and fastest anywhere, and to hell with the rest of the layout. They're all gimmicks. Does that lessen them? No. (That said, I don't agree that Valravn is a gimmick. I'm just pointing out the flaws in your argument.)
"The term is 'amusement park.' An old Earth name for a place where people could go to see and do all sorts of fascinating things." -Spock, Stardate 3025
I pointed out over on Pointbuzz, to someone complaining about Valravn being naught but a gimmick, that pretty much all coasters do the same thing: mechanically move riders to a high point, gravity does the rest. Anything else a coaster does is,, arguably, a "gimmick".
Corkscrew's three inversions were unique at the time and so easily considered a gimmick. Geauga Lake's Double Loop, with the then unheard of two consecutive loops? A gimmick.
I've often referred to Top Thrill Dragster as a one-trick pony with one hell of a trick.
Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.
--Fran Lebowitz
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