Roller coaster fans eagerly await park’s announcement

For roller coaster enthusiasts and lovers of amusement parks, Christmas falls in August.

Many parks like Cedar Point in Sandusky have circled Wednesday on their calendars as the day they will announce their new attractions — more specifically roller coasters — for 2018.

And the date of Aug. 16 is not so random.

It is National Roller Coaster Day, so some parks are celebrating the day by announcing new thrill machines designed to make us scream for more and offering exclusive ride times to coaster enthusiasts.

The history of just how Aug. 16 as National Roller Coaster Day came about is as murky as Cedar Point’s acknowledgment that work has been going for months to convert the old Mean Streak wooden roller coaster into a steel hybrid.

Legend has it that day can be traced back to 1898, when the first patent for a roller coaster ride was issued.

As for legends and back stories, Cedar Point is hinting that the Mean Streak’s revamp will keep in fitting with its location in the park’s FrontierTown.

Cedar Point has posted “wanted” posters around the old coaster for characters named Chess, Digger and Blackjack. They have also posted videos showing off the twisty, curvy new steel track, saying they “are coming.”

Cedar Point is remaining tight-lipped about what is happening to the Mean Streak (which closed last fall) until a high noon announcement is made Wednesday.

Workers from the Rocky Mountain Co. have spent months removing sections of the old coaster and adding new ones to what was a record breaker when it opened May 11, 1991, with the then-tallest lift and the longest drop on a wooden roller coaster.

Those records have long been eclipsed, but it appears the reincarnated ride will reach taller than the 161 feet of the old coaster — and riders will find themselves upside down at least three times thanks to the new, more versatile track design.

Robert Niles, editor of Theme Park Insider website, said Cedar Point’s announcement will not be the only one that day, with other parks including Silver Dollar City in Missouri also revealing new rides.

“Anything that Cedar Point does with a new or refurbished coaster automatically becomes one of the most anticipated coasters of the year — the park’s fan base is huge and intensely loyal,” he said.

Cedar Point’s announcements always create waves well beyond Lake Erie. And this year is no different.

Tim Baldwin, who is communications director for the American Coaster Enthusiasts club, said Cedar Point has benefited in an odd way from park visitors and coaster lovers having a view of the ongoing work on the revamped coaster long before the announcement of its name and specifications.

“Bless their hearts; you really can’t keep something like that a secret,” he said.

This has given enthusiasts months to pore over pictures of the alterations to the Mean Streak’s towering mass of lumber and the stacks of new steel track scattered about.

And Baldwin, who makes the trek from his Texas home to Cedar Point at least once a season, likes what he has seen so far.

“My hunch is it going to be more than 200 feet tall,” he said. “Cedar Point loves to measure things in the hundreds.”

This year was marked by a number of roller coaster openings that were more modest in size — in the 100-foot range — and slower speeds.

Baldwin said Kings Island’s well-themed Mystic Timbers is a good example of a midsize coaster that opened this season.

“Good things can come in small packages,” he said.

He suspects 2018 will mark a return for many parks — including Cedar Point — to much larger, record-breaking scream machines.

“I think in my heart of hearts that people will say this is the best coaster in the park when it opens,” he said. “And this is a coaster that will be among giants.”

Jeff Putz, who runs the Cedar Point fan site PointBuzz.com, said coaster enthusiasts had a love-hate relationship with the Mean Streak.

“Mean Streak has caught the ire of coaster enthusiasts for many years because it was beautiful to look at, but really unpleasant and uninteresting to ride,” he said. “If I ask around in friend circles, they’ve never been fond of it either.”