I had a little time to sneak up to Cedar Point this morning to get a couple of spins on Maverick. I sure have been a geek the last few days, but I'm told that's OK.
I got to ride with a bunch of employees who were there to beat the Joe Cool rush, and rush it was. After my two rides, the line wrapped around Frontier Town to the Wave Swinger. Keep in mind the general public wasn't even in the park yet. This was all Joe Cool and resort guests! In fact, when I walked up toward the front of the park immediately after, Dragster only had a couple dozen people lined up prior to opening the queue. Clearly Maverick has captured a lot of attention.
In any case, first time out, I got in the front seat. My second lap was in the back. It was a beautiful morning. The crew seemed really on top of things. The trains are shiny, and station is really quite beautiful. The exit offers a nice view of the ride. The kickers pushed the train out, and the LSM's grabbed and very quickly moved the train up the hill.
It's certainly not the tallest drop, but it's such a strange feeling to go through that tilt beyond vertical. Before you know it, you're off racing through the course. The first two turn transitions are a little quick, which isn't a great thing for those restraints, but it's not a deal breaker. I found on my second ride that simply pushing your head back prevents any discomfort.
After the quick turns, up you go over that giant airtime hill. Holy crap! This is ejector style air, and it's even more intense in the back seat. Very nice. It was at the top of this that I realized I could hear the conversations of everyone on the train, because it's so quiet. They were all very excited to ride and enjoyed every minute of it.
Next was the twisted horseshoe roll, as they call it. While the marketing folk have made much hype of it, I really never bought into it. Here's what we didn't know: These things are perfect airtime hills, only inverted. While we're used to most inversions of this kind pushing you up into the seat, these things perfectly float you through them! I didn't get pressed into the seat, and I didn't drop into the restraint. Well done! They really nailed these things.
Then comes the "great great tunnel." The lighting package is interesting enough, paired with some thundering bass noise. I'm not sure how it fits into the theme exactly, other than to say that the lights at the start of the tunnel look a little like lanterns. Still, it's pretty cool, and I really look forward to some night rides when there's no light leaking into the end.
The launch is very smooth, and very steady. I think they found a sweet spot where it certainly has some intensity, but it doesn't stress you out either. Loved it. At the top of the hill, you barely notice the slight trims, and you get a slight pop of air before you dive down over the old Swan Boat pond.
And at the bottom of the dive comes the notorious "S-curve" where the heart line roll used to be. You know what? I can't imagine taking that roll at that speed. No good could have come of that. Even the quick direction change here is pretty aggressive, and that's only 90 degrees or so of rotation. I don't think anything is lost here.
After the dive over the tunnel, you do that other weird not quite an inversion thing, then another smaller airtime hill, and finally the brakes.
I think that this is the ride that the amusement park-going public has been waiting for, for, like, forever (not ages ;)). It's not too intense, it's mostly comfortable to ride, and you can ride it over and over without feeling like someone beat the crap out of you. And who knew the thing would be an airtime machine? I mean, airtime in the inversions... that's not something I expected at all.
I'm very impressed. I think Cedar Point has an insanely good winner on its hands.
No comments yet.