Cedar Point, the popular Ohio amusement park known for its record-breaking roller coasters, announced Thursday morning that a new thriller, Siren’s Curse, will open next year. It will be the tallest, longest and fastest tilt ride in North America.
The announcement on the park’s website, which was only a few paragraphs long, included a video posted to YouTube that was just over a minute long, featuring music, an animation of what the attraction will look like, and the tagline: “ANSWER THE CALL.”
The video ends with the name of the ride, with stylized s’s in “Siren’s” and a stylized, downward-slanting letter in the “N,” followed by “Coming 2025” and Cedar Point, with the description “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World.” The screen goes black, and you’re left to imagine what it looks like for a few more seconds.
The announcement offers a few quick stats: Height: 160 feet. Speed: 58 mph. Duration: two minutes.
It also tells the backstory of the attraction — virtually every major attraction there has one — which ties in with the park’s location on the edge of Lake Erie: “Oft talked about — but never noted — the sirens of the lake who lured sailors to their underwater doom with their sweet, seductive songs will at last rise to land.”
They will “attempt to catch you on a sinister, two-minute rollercoaster of innovation.”
In the Odyssey, Homer’s Greek epic about Odysseus’s voyage home from Troy, the hero saves his crew, lured by the song of the sirens, by tying himself to the mast as the ship passes through a narrow passage surrounded by cliffs and other dangers.
Cedar Point, which has been around since the late 1800s, has long touted record-breaking roller coasters. In 1989, Magnum XL-200 debuted as “the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster,” with a height of more than 200 feet and speeds of at least 70 mph.
In Greek mythology, sirens were female creatures who sent sailors to their doom.
In 1994, Raptor was named the “world’s tallest, fastest, and longest inverted coaster” and two years later, Mantis was named the “world’s tallest, steepest, and fastest standup coaster.” In 2000, Millennium Force debuted as the “tallest and fastest complete-circuit coaster” with a vertical drop of 310 feet and a speed of 93 mph.
More: Cedar Point replaces Snake River Falls, once world’s ‘tallest, fastest, steepest’ slide
And in 2003, Top Thrill Dragster opened as the “tallest and fastest roller coaster” at 420 feet and 120 mph. It has since been surpassed, and the ride itself was redesigned after an accident so it could be marketed as a record-breaker.
Siren’s Curse will be located near the marina, across from Iron Dragon.
The ride’s description stated that “the legend is real,” which, it added, you “will hear and see,” teasing some new features such as “on-board audio” that lets you listen to the “sound of the siren” as you “escape her grasp,” and “high-tech LED lighting” so you can watch “the silky smooth movements” and “the nature of the mythical creature.”
Perhaps to reassure everyone – especially the nervous moms, dads, supervisors, insurance companies and park attorneys – the announcement listed some of the ride’s features: “an over-the-shoulder restraint with a flexible vest to secure the ride.”
But the animated video perhaps gives the best impression of what the ride will be like: you see a train of carriages climb up, level out again and then head towards a steep slope on a track that turns from a horizontal position to a vertical position.
Then follows a dive.
The wagons turn and spin on an iron track less than 900 meters long, at a speed of just under 96 km/h.
Cedar Point’s description states that there are “13 weightless moments in the air, two 360-degree barrel rolls in zero gravity and a high-speed ‘triple-down’ element with a twisted and banked track,” and the park adds that participants must be at least 4 feet (1.22 m) tall.
If you are not very tall and are still growing, the wait time may be just what you need.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Cedar Point to Open New Attraction, Siren’s Curse, Tilt Coaster in 2025
