Cedar Point announces new roller coaster

Editor's note: Justin Dietz is a Register correspondent representing CPFoodBlog.com and @FUNFoodBlog on X. SANDUSKY — In an unprecedented move, on Thursday, Cedar Point announced it will add another roller coaster for 2025, making it the third in three years following Wild Mouse and Top Thrill 2. Called Siren's Curse, the new coaster will be the tallest, longest and fastest tilt coaster in North America, the park highlighted in a news release. Manufactured by Vekoma Rides out of the Netherlands, the ride features 2,966 feet of track that takes guests to a top speed of 58 mph while going through 13 airtime moments, two 360-degree, zero-gravity barrel rolls and a triple down element. Siren's Curse will be constructed across from the Iron Dragon and the current Celebration Stage. The area is currently vacant concrete and the site of the former Cedar Dorms. What will make this coaster beautiful to look at will be the onboard LED lights and audio on each of the trains, making it really glow against the red track and dark grey supports. Guests will need to be at least 4 feet, or 48 inches, tall to ride Siren's Curse. How did we get here? If you recall back in May 2024, Cedar Point circulated a survey, which asked guests about various new attractions that the park could build in the future. In that survey, the amusement park stated the following: • "As riders board, the journey begins with a slow ascent up a towering lift hill, the track ahead seemingly severed. At the apex, the coaster halts, the weight of the train shifts forward, tilting riders face first and lifting riders in the back 90 degrees vertical. • "As the coaster continues to tilt forward, the two pieces of track connect, sending riders down a twisted beyond-vertical drop, traveling 78 mph through the world's first upside-down tailspin, a triple dose of airtime on three camelback hills through a series of double twists, turns and rollovers on the world's only tallest, steepest and fastest tilt coaster." As guests can see, this is quite different than what is actually being built with Siren's Curse, which is not surprising given how projects evolve through the design process. Location dissection Perhaps one of the most intriguing discussions to be had about Siren's Curse involves the location. Being constructed on the vacant area across from Iron Dragon and the Celebration Stage, Siren's Curse will extend out beyond the current boundaries of the park. Per concept art, this means the perimeter road that separates the park from the marina is going to need to be shifted onto the site of the former Cedar Dorms, creating the additional area needed for the ride as well as a new parking lot that can be seen in a couple of the concept images and video. An interesting discussion is why Cedar Point elected to build a similar concept adjacent to Valravn, which features a drop element. While a tilt coaster is something Cedar Point currently did not have in its lineup, it is an interesting move to build something so similar to Valravn and right next to it. The theme This leads into an intriguing discussion on the chosen theme. Siren's Curse is meant to play into the lore of Lake Erie, we suppose, and the location adjacent to the marina. The teaser and theme have a focus on water, which the attraction does not feature. What the attraction does feature is a tunnel under the queue, which officials have mentioned for years was not possible due to the sandy soils and high water infiltration rates. We are very interested to see the construction details that deal with the ground and surface water in this area, as well the design elements that keep the structure from floating. We are actually surprised to not see this same roller coaster be built back in Frontier Town where the theme could have been really interesting around a steampunk theme. Where Six Flags' — formerly Cedar Fair — focus has been for the past several years is a cohesive themed area, Siren's Curse does not tend to tie the whole area together. The stage So what happens to the Celebration Stage that is being removed to build Siren's Curse? One of the big caveats of the stage was the location and how it bottlenecked the midway during show performances. So to take out the stage at this location makes total sense. The bigger question is where if they choose to rebuild it? This might be an opportune time to brush up on the Boardwalk midway that never was. After uncovering an old concept plan for the area, there is a large area adjacent to the Grand Pavilion that has the potential to be used for a stage area. Though in concept it is quite small, its out-of-the-way location sort of makes it ideal where guests do not impede the flow of traffic outside of a small path between Wild Mouse and WindSeeker. For 2024, we saw much of the live entertainment get gutted as budgets were cut, so we can only hope there is a return to rounding out the Cedar Point experience and they bring back a stage worthy of larger performances. The timing This is where things get intriguing. We now know we are living in an alternative universe where Cedar Point is building its third roller coaster in three years, especially when the merger was on the books and budgets were being cut left and right. So it is crazy to see this much investment in such a short period of time. Getting all the pieces together for a major new project takes an unprecedented amount of coordination and planning. So it is not like Siren's Curse was a complete last-minute change. Though the timing does seem to lead at some point Cedar Point shifted their focus away from Top Thrill 2 and needed to come out swinging big since 2024 did not draw in the crowds the way everyone anticipated. While the intended focus for the 2025 project could have easily been the water park update or even some concept for the forgotten island, at some point they did shift their attention to this type of big project. When all the 2025 announcements were made back in August, Cedar Point was never mentioned. When Six Flags corporate released its 2025 investment plan, Cedar Point was never mentioned. This means likely this could have been a last-minute shuffle, causing the delay in the announcement until now. Also a very minor clue, but when Wild Mouse was built, the area adjacent to the Breakers Express resort was installed with temporary fencing for the storage of materials. When that project was complete, they kept the fence up for the Top Thrill 2 construction. Earlier this summer, that fence and laydown area was removed. If the park knew it was going to build another coaster and needed a laydown area, why take it all down only to build it again in the near future? The little bit of cost savings from renting the fence does not add up. Therefore, we venture to guess a lot of the pieces for Siren's Curse came together relatively quickly as the park shifted their focus away from Top Thrill 2 and toward something more reliable to bring in guests. Overall, the new ride looks fantastic and really fun.