Cedar Point Coaster Ridership: 2014 By-The-Numbers

Have you rode Millennium Force a million times? How About Raptor? Well, Cedar Point is watching closely and tallied up the numbers. This past week, Tony Clark, who is Cedar Point’s Director of Communications, released the 2014 ridership numbers for coasters and other attractions at America’s Roller Coast. The list shows some pretty significant capacity for their hottest coaster rides—except for one of the major ones; more on that later. With the park’s popular “Fast Lane” option and emphasis on getting riders through the lines as efficiently as possible, there’s certain to be a cubicle party in the Cedar Fair offices. Let’s take a look inside the numbers: Starting with the Number 1 Stunna: GateKeeper! The newest neighbor in Thrillville is expectedly slaying it with their rider counts, clocking in at over 1.8 million rides granted to coaster heads last season. A very impressive number and as it should be, as Cedar Point fans have embraced the ride since the time it was announced. The Winged Coaster is 67 MPH and has a sweet 164 foot drop; important metrics to keep coaster lovers clamoring for more rides. Also, it’s the very first attraction to capture your attention when you come to the park, since it’s right over your head when you go through the main gates. The ride placement proved a fantastic idea when Cedar Point and Cedar Fair officials got to ring the stock market bell last year with the ride swooping behind them in perfect timing [see the video below]. Remember those days when you’d be waiting for about three hours to ride your favorite or the latest and greatest coaster? Seems like Cedar Fair is very committed to changing all of that. With GateKeeper breaking 7 world records, including Longest Winged Coaster-4,164 feet, Tallest Inversion on a roller coaster-170 feet and Most Inversions on a Winged Coaster-6, that’s worth a couple of trips on the coaster, both coming and going through the main entrance! The Bolliger & Mabillard manufactured ride is alluring for many, many seasons to come and is upholding Cedar Point’s legacy. But I gotta ask, which one would you pick: Cedar Point’s GateKeeper or Sigourney Weaver’s GateKeeper in “Ghostbusters”? We won’t rush you [sarcasm font].

Who’s Number 2? Millennium Force! The nearly decade and a half old ride is still crowd pleasing as arguably the greatest steel coaster on the planet. It was bestowed the 2014 Amusement Today Golden Ticket award for Best Steel Coaster, for what that’s worth. However, the best endorsement comes from the amount of riders scream and thrill on the coaster years after it’s been surpassed in ride metrics. The Force raked in over 1.7 million rides last year and keeps a high level of interest from guests worldwide as it’s a destination coaster year after year. When you watch The Travel Channel every spring and summer, you’ll constantly see Millennium Force appear on their specials as it’s pitted up against other steel scream machines; a good measure of it’s mass appeal. As Cedar Point’s website pointed out, the coaster created a new category, giga-coaster, when it opened in 2000. As the ride lurks over Frontier Town in the park, it’s certainly what helps to keep Cedar Point welcoming fans back for more each year. Well, that and those deliciously-addictive bottle neck fries. *Wipes drool off keyboard* Then, there’s Raptor checking in at Number 3. Since the coaster turned 20 years old last year, it can be deemed an old faithful. The Raptor is still soaring high with over 1.4 million rides served out to park guests last year & why not? The Raptor’s speed is 57 MPH, has that sweet inversion and floorless coaster trains keep riders coming back for more. No doubt, there’s been bigger and badder inverted coasters built but when Cedar Point unleashed the Raptor to Rule the Sky, it was one of a kind and kept the park as a top coaster destination in 1994. The coaster is still considered a favorite to many coaster heads and commands respect among other’s in it’s coaster class; it is refreshing to see those 90’s neon green and pink colors on the track and train! The coaster replaced the Mill Race log water ride and relocated others when it was built; when one legacy ended another one began. Jumping down the list, we now visit the numbers for Top Thrill Dragster, which is Number 8 on the list with 1.07 million rides in 2014. Many coaster heads will look at this number and SMH because of the obvious. Due to Top Thrill Dragster logging a lot of down time for mechanical issues, that causes for the 2003 debuted hot ride to flame out more often than not. With speeds of a whiplashing 120 MPH and a ride duration of a quick and dirty 17 seconds, it’s has the opportunity to be in the Top 5 of most rides granted in any given season. Again, 17 seconds to ride and 120 MPH in speed; that accumulates to a lot of down time from repairs and such on the coaster. Nonetheless, the ride is still in high demand nearly 12 years later. With a 420 foot high point, that’s some awesome way to view the park and probably all the way out to Canada! Here’s hopin’ that Cedar Fair has a way to cure the issues that plaque the coaster from keeping Awesome during all park operating hours. We know there’s destined to be down time with coasters from time to time to be safe and efficient; however, this is part of the TTD’s legacy despite still keep fanatics craving more Dragster action.

Here’s a look at the top 1o:

1 GateKeeper – 1,898,204 2
Millennium Force – 1,721,918
3 Raptor – 1,414,447
4 Magnum XL – 200 1,355,861
5 Gemini – 1,298,304
6 Maverick – 1,153,896
7 Iron Dragon – 1,092,242
8 Top Thrill Dragster – 1,077,885
9 Mantis – 925,667
10 Wicked Twister – 794,264

Other notable numbers in Tony’s blog include Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad and Camp Snoopy area rides giving more than 1.2 million rides each and Power Tower lifting off more than 789,000 rides. The whole blog post can be found here.

For tickets and more information, visit the official Cedar Point website here.

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