CP: Thurs 7/31 - Fri 8/1/25

We made our first trip to America's Roller Coast since 2022. And although I've been here many times (grew up in the Cleveland area), the sight of the skyline as you roll down the causeway still wows me. We set up shop at the Holiday Inn Sandusky, which is next to Breaker's Express. While the location of Hotel Breakers can't be beat (we stayed there last time), the hotel itself is pretty underwhelming, ESPECIALLY for the price. The Holiday Inn was perfectly fine, was more than half the price, and with an excellent breakfast included. I thought I would miss the convenience of Breakers, but nope. Not at all.

Thursday’s weather was not ideal. Rainy and very windy. We ended up sleeping in since the heaviest rain would be early in the morning. Now despite any idea I had of completely waiting it out, the kids were having none of it. Since there was a break in the action, we arrived at the park around 11:00, and got our first lap on Siren’s Curse. After that, got some lunch while a heavy rain storm rolled in and most of the park was shut down. But, when things switched to light rain, CP opened up a few rides; I believe it was SV, Maverick, Skyhawk, Siren’s Curse, and Valravn (SV in the rain is quite the experience). TT2 was running intermittently between the passing showers. Other than that, a bunch of flats and kiddie rides. But to their credit, after things dried out late in the afternoon the park started opening up more, and much to my surprise even Gatekeeper opened up! I would’ve thought the weather would scare people away, but no. 45-60 minute waits for the major headliners. Not terrible, but more than expected.

Friday however, the weather was glorious as could be. Sunny and 74. You just can’t beat that. Given it was a Friday, the day before being very rainy, and perfect weather, I figured it would be very crowded and cracked open my wallet for FL+. And boy am I glad I did. Park. Was. PACKED. I mean, who waits 135 minutes for freaking Valravn?! Even with FL, Sirens curse was a 30-45 minute wait. But given the alternative, I’ll take it. Anyway, on to some thoughts about certain rides and the park itself.

Siren’s Curse
Homerun. We rode near the front, back, day and night. I think I prefer the back more. That tilt drop in the back… it feels like you’re falling for much longer than you are, just fantastic. Strangely enough, the airtime felt stronger in the front. I don’t know if that was just the time of day, weather conditions, or both, but I can definitely see people preferring a ride in the front to the back on this one. Otherwise, the theming, soundtrack, locker set up… it’s all so well done. The one negative? Capacity. This line just crawls. I mean kudos to the crew, they were sending trains out as fast as the ride would allow. But given the set up and two trains, their hands are a bit tied.

Steel Vengeance
Still an absolute masterpiece, and my favorite coaster overall. Night rides are absolutely insane. What else can be said that hasn’t been?

Maverick
I’ve always loved this ride but for some reason it felt like it had even more punch than I remember. Not that I’m complaining.

TT2
Great ride, and it had stellar uptime over the two days we were there. I have to give the park tons of credit here too, because the vibes out in front of this ride are fantastic. If you’ve been, you know. I’m not sure if I prefer the front or the back, so I guess you can’t go wrong here. I know I’m in the minority here, but I think I give a slight edge to the original version. As fun as TT2 is, the launch on the OG was just nuts. BUT… I’d rather have TT2 in the park than TTD because of the uptime. Yeah, I know, ironic after 2024 but based on anecdotal data in 2025, TT2 seems to do much better.

Wild Mouse
Also new to me, and what a great addition. Just plain fun. We didn’t get a ride in the cheese car but holy smokes you folks weren’t kidding… that thing spins like crazy!

Raptor
Still one of my favorites. I don’t get the roughness complaints.

Magnum
See above. A bit janky maybe but nothing that keeps me away from it.

Valravn
This one is just perplexing. How can a hyper coaster be… meh? I mean the drop is great but after that, it just feels like it’s lumbering along. I don’t hate it, but I also don’t understand why it often has such a long wait. But I recognize that in many other parks, this one be the headliner.

We did all the other coasters except Corkscrew (sucks) and Rougaru (closed). Ride ops were improved from my last visit in 2022, with the exception of Raptor and MF, which are absolutely dreadful. Hopefully they can continue to make gains here. Unfortunately many rides went down more than I recall. Not enough to ruin the fun and we could easily work around it, but it was noticeable.

Biggest surprise? Farmhouse. On our last visit we enjoyed it so much we ate their twice. This trip? Not so much. The meat was dry and bland, and the biscuits were flavorless. I don’t know what happened here, but it’s a shame.

All in all, we had an absolute blast. Can’t wait to return again.