Cedar Point, the famous Ohio amusement park known for its record-breaking roller coasters, said Thursday morning that a new thriller, Siren’s Curse, is set to open next year as the tallest, longest and fastest tilt ride in North America.
The announcement, on the the site of the parkwhich was only a few paragraphs long, included a video published on YouTube that is just over a minute long with music, an animation of what the ride will be like, and the tag line, “ANSWER THE CALL”.
The video ends, with the name of the ride using stylized s in “Siren’s” and a stylized downward slant in the “N” word, then “Coming 2025,” and Cedar Point, with the description, “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World” and, the screen fades to black, leaving, for a few more seconds, to imagine it.
The ad offers a few quick stats: Height: 160 feet. Speed: 58 mph. Duration: two minutes.
It also tells the story of the ride—almost every great race has one—that ties into the park’s location on the shores of Lake Erie: “Often spoken of, but never seen, the mermaids of the lake that lure sailors to their underwater death, with their sweet and seductive songs, they will finally come down to the ground.”
They are “attempting to trap you in a sinister two-minute rollercoaster of non-stop innovation”.
In the Odyssey, Homer’s epic Greek poem about the sea voyage of Odysseus from Troy, the hero saves his crew lured by the siren’s song by striking the mast as the ship passes through a narrow area surrounded from rocks and other hazards.
Cedar Point, which has been around since the late 1800s, has long promoted roller coaster records. In 1989, Magnum XL-200 debuted as “the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world” at more than 200 meters high, going at least 70 mph.
Sirens, in Greek mythology, were female beings who usually sent sailors to their doom.
In 1994, Raptor was “the tallest, fastest and longest inverted roller coaster in the world”, and two years later, Mantis was the “tallest, steepest and fastest roller coaster in the world”. In 2000, Millennium Force debuted as the “tallest and fastest full-circuit roller coaster” climbing 310 feet and going 93 mph.
No longer: Cedar Point replaces Snake River Falls, once world’s “tallest, fastest, steepest” canal
And in 2003, Top Thrill Dragster opened as the “tallest, fastest roller coaster” at 420 feet and 120 mph. It has since been overcome, and the race, itself, after an accidentwas redesigned so it could be marketed as a record-breaker.
Siren’s Curse is set to be near the marina, across from Iron Dragon.
The description of the ride said that “the legend is true,” which, he added, “you will hear and see,” a tease of some new features, such as “on-board audio,” which allows you to hear the “sound “. of the mermaid “like “escape from her grip”, and “high-tech LED lighting”, so you can watch “the movement of silk” and “nature of the mythical creature”.
Perhaps to reassure everyone—especially nervous moms, dads, state regulators, insurance underwriters and park lawyers—the ad detailed some of the ride’s features: “over-the-shoulder lap bar with a flexible vest restriction”.
But the animated video gives perhaps the best sense of what the ride will be like: it shows a train of cars climbing, leveling, and then heading toward a vertical drop-off on a track that pivots from a horizontal position to a vertical one.
So, there is a dip.
The cars twist and turn on an iron track not quite 3,000 meters long at not quite 60 mph.
Cedar Point’s description notes that there are “13 moments of zero gravity, two 360-degree barrel rolls, zero gravity and a high-speed ‘triple-down’ element with a twisted and overbanked track,” and , the park adds, that riders should. be at least 48 inches tall.
So you are not so high and still growing, waiting time may be just what you need.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press: Cedar Point to open new Siren’s Curse ride, a tilt coaster, in 2025