Cedar Point to open for new season with Top Thrill 2 roller coaster
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Welcome, oncoming riders! Be sure to secure your seatbelt first, lap bar second, and keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.
State of play: Cedar Point, the Midwest's premier amusement park and America's "roller coast," opens for its 155th season May 4 in Sandusky.
Zoom up (and down): The marquee debut this year is Top Thrill 2, a 420-foot, triple-launch roller coaster modified from the original Top Thrill Dragster.
Flashback: Cedar Point closed the Dragster in 2021 after a metal object flew off the ride and struck a 44-year-old Michigan woman in the head while she waited in line.
- The park permanently retired the Dragster in 2022 and settled a lawsuit with the woman's family in recent weeks.
How it works: The reimagined and rebranded ride now includes three propulsive launches.
- The first (74 mph) shoots riders up the original tower; the second (101 mph) is a reverse launch, propelling riders backward up a new rear spire; the third brings riders forward again, up the tower, over its apex and then hurtling down at max speeds of 120 mph.
If you go: Admission at the gate is $85, up $5 from last year. But season passes offer tremendous value and are available in three tiers.
- The popular Gold Pass, which includes unlimited visits and parking, is $145 (or a down payment of $35 and then five monthly payments of $22).
- It costs an extra $100 for an "All Park Passport" — formerly the Platinum Pass — which gets you entry into other Cedar Fair parks.
Zoom out: Sister park Kings Island is already open for the season in southwest Ohio.
The intrigue: The park is also debuting a coaster with a "rollback" feature — albeit hundreds of feet shorter than Top Thrill 2.
- Snoopy's Soap Box Racers, a family coaster taking riders through a 672-foot track forward and backward, with a max height of 74 feet, will open at the new Camp Snoopy section later this spring.
- There are still old favorites like The Racer and The Beast, a wooden giant celebrating 45 years at the park.
- Daily admission starts at $45; a Gold Pass costs $145.

