Every Roller Coaster & Thrill Ride at Cedar Point, Ranked

From Blue Streak’s historic prowess to Valravn’s death-defying drops.

If you’re going to call yourself the “Roller Coaster Capital of the World,” you’d better be able to back up that claim. Fortunately, Cedar Point delivers—in spades. Considered the second-oldest amusement park in the entire US, Cedar Point turned the ripe old age of 150 last year. And in terms of providing heart-pumping, adrenaline-rushing thrills, it’s showing no signs of slowing down.

Countless coasters on this list have held world records at some point, and the park is constantly at the forefront of creating new innovations in the coaster world. It’s nearly impossible to cram every coaster into a single visit, so we’ve done the grueling work of ranking each ride from skippable to essential. Don your Dadbags and stick with a light lunch—it’s time to fly.

pipe scream
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

18. Pipe Scream

Opened: 2014
Top Speed: 43 mph
Max height: 43 feet
A recent-ish addition to the roster, Pipe Scream gets marketed as a roller coaster, but it’s really more of a glorified Tilt-A-Whirl. Passengers file into a spinning car that drifts back and forth atop a half-pipe-shaped track. A good selection if your favorite part of riding the rails is getting motion sickness.

wilderness run
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

17. Wilderness Run

Opened: 1979
Top Speed: 6 mph
Max height: 19 feet
No, that wasn’t a typo—this tiny coaster tops out at a whopping six miles per hour. You can likely reach a higher velocity sliding Risky Business-style across your kitchen floor, and you’d probably have more fun doing that than trying to fit your grown-up butt in one of these kiddie seats. This one’s best saved for the littlest daredevils in your crew.

woodstock express
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

16. Woodstock Express

Opened: 1999
Top Speed: 25 mph
Max height: 38 feet
Named after the Peanuts character rather than the music fest your uncle swears he attended, Woodstock Express is, we can safely say, the crowning jewel of the family-focused Camp Snoopy area. It’s not without value, though: Start the kiddos on it young and they’ll be working their way up this list in no time.

cedar creek
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

15. Cedar Creek Mine Ride

Opened: 1969
Top Speed: 42 mph
Max height: 48 feet
Joining the ranks of mine-themed coasters the world over, Cedar Creek Mine Ride is a step above the aforementioned junior coasters—just not a very far step. Think of it as a roller coaster for folks who are otherwise terrified of roller coasters.

Corkscrew
Corkscrew | Courtesy of Cedar Point

14. Corkscrew

Opened: 1976
Top Speed: 48 mph
Max height: 85 feet
Groundbreaking in its heyday, the Corkscrew is a little past its prime. Decades of high speed inversions have made for a bumpy, rocky ride that all but the most die-hard coaster fans might find unpleasant. The park would go on to perfect this style of coaster, and your time may be better spent on its successors. But, admittedly, it’s tough to beat this ride’s central placement, especially if you’re looking to lose (or find) some pocket change.

iron dragon
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

13. Iron Dragon

Opened: 1987
Top Speed: 40 mph
Max height: 76 feet
If you’ve ever wondered what a sky tram would be like as a roller coaster, the Iron Dragon is for you. It offers hanging trains like the Raptor, but the cars here have floors. This makes for less of a crotch-threatening experience while also detracting from the thrill factor somewhat. Trade-offs, amirite? Iron Dragon at least ends with a boom, slinging riders mere inches from the park’s murky lagoon.

Blue Streak
Blue Streak | Courtesy of Cedar Point

12. Blue Streak

Opened: 1964
Top Speed: 40 mph
Max height: 78 feet
A must-ride for the nostalgia-afflicted, the Blue Streak is the oldest ride still standing in Cedar Point’s 150-plus-year history. Everything about it, from the groaning wood latticework to the crowning cupola, screams mid-century Americana. It’s a rickety experience today, but somehow the whiplash hurts less when you’re riding history.

gemini
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

11. Gemini

Opened: 1978
Top Speed: 60 mph
Max height: 125 feet
Named for both the Gemini space missions and the constellation twins, Gemini marks a transitional period for coasters. It’s an old-timey timber structure housing tubular steel tracks that would become the basis for nearly all succeeding park rides. It's also a racing coaster, which means that if the ride ops dispatch them at the same time, the red train takes off right alongside the blue train. Sometimes passengers in both trains get so close, they can high-five each other (blatantly violating the "keep your hands inside the moving vehicle at all times" policy and definitely not recommended if you value your limbs). Despite its vintage, Gemini is surprisingly smooth and tons of fun.

Rougarou
Rougarou | Courtesy of Cedar Point

10. Rougarou

Opened: 1996
Top Speed: 60 mph
Max height: 145 feet
Cribbing its name from a Cajun folkloric term for werewolf, the most monstrous trait of this coaster was, for nearly 20 years, its propensity for crotch-crushing. A much-needed 2015 revamp swapped the standing saddles for chairs, and now riders can enjoy the winding loops and stomach-churning inversions from a sitting, bottomless position without risking any major damage to their reproductive organs.

Wicked Twister
Wicked Twister | Courtesy of Cedar Point

9. Wicked Twister

Opened: 2002
Top Speed: 72 mph
Max height: 215 feet
Placing this intense inverted coaster right along Lake Erie’s placid shore is a study in contrasts. It’s an uncomplicated ride—a U-shaped course with twisty, corkscrewing towers that send riders catapulting from end to end at rapidly accelerating speeds. Casual riders may find it punishing; coaster fanatics will find it exhilarating.

raptor
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

8. Raptor

Opened: 1994
Top Speed: 57 mph
Max height: 137 feet
Since opening in the ‘90s, Raptor has set the national standard for legless inverted coasters. Incorporating six inversions in just over two minutes, this beast sends riders kicking helplessly at the sky over a 100-foot teardrop loop, then continues the wild disorientation with a series of zero-gravity rolls and coils. It takes its name from the bird of prey, allegedly, but opened a year after the original Jurassic Park debuted, so we all know what was really on the marketing team’s mind.

magnum
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

7. Magnum XL-200

Opened: 1989
Top Speed: 72 mph
Max height: 205 feet
In Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point created a ride so extreme that a new term had to be coined to describe it: the hypercoaster. And at 200 feet tall, it was, at the time of its release, the tallest coaster in the world. Magnum’s barrier-breaking status has been surpassed since then, but the ride still delivers on thrills, and presents some breathtaking Lake Erie views along the way.

Gatekeeper
GateKeeper | Courtesy of Cedar Point

6. GateKeeper

Opened: 2013
Top Speed: 67 mph
Max height: 170 feet
The park’s first “wing coaster,” GateKeeper has a split structure that suspends riders from either side of the track, creating a midair suspension effect unique to this coaster type. Named for its position straddling the park gate, it set seven world records upon its 2013 release and threads riders through two “keyhole” towers with openings that seem, as you hurl toward them at 60 MPH, impossible to fit through. It’s a real butt-clencher, to say the least.

Steel Vengeance
Steel Vengeance | Courtesy of Cedar Point

5. Steel Vengeance

Opened: 2018
Top Speed: 74 mph
Max height: 205 feet
When the beloved Mean Streak gave its last ride in 2016, there was mourning among the roller coaster nerds of the world. But they need not have feared—the ride reopened two years later as Steel Vengeance, a “hyper-hybrid” able to reach speeds previously unthinkable for a wooden coaster. It’s the longest of its kind, and you’ll spend a full thirty seconds of its two minutes and thirty second ride time suspended in mid-air, courtesy of negative g-forces that make you feel like you’re floating above your seat.

Valravn
Valravn | courtesy of Cedar Point

4. Valravn

Opened: 2016
Top Speed: 75 mph
Max height: 223 feet
One of a handful of so-called “dive coasters”—no, that doesn’t mean you can get a PBR and a $2 shot onboard—Valravn takes riders up 223 feet before subjecting them to a literal 90 degree drop. Even the most battle-hardened aficionado will have a hard time not yelping in the lingering moments at the edge of that precipice. Do we even need to say this one leads the world records for coasters of its kind?

top thrill dragster
courtesy of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company

3. Top Thrill Dragster

Opened: 2003
Top Speed: 120 mph
Max height: 420 feet
When it launched back in 2003, Top Thrill Dragster was the world's tallest and fastest coaster. Sadly, it was (just barely) overtaken in both regards by Six Flags Great Adventure's Kingda Ka two years later, and yet the two rivals remain almost identical. Using a hydraulic launch system, the car accelerates from 0-to-holy crap (read: 120 MPH) in a scant four seconds before climbing directly up a 420-foot looping tower then freefalling 90 degrees down the other side. The whole experience is over in 30 seconds, but at the height we're talking about, even three seconds would be well worth the trip.

Millennium Force
Millennium Force | Courtesy of Cedar Point

2. Millennium Force

Opened: 2000
Top Speed: 93 mph
Max height: 310 feet
Another mold-shattering Cedar Point addition, the Millenium Force ushered in the 2000s with a previously unbeaten height of 300 feet. And in contrast to Top Thrill Dragster’s wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am quick burst, Millennium Force provides a sustained intensity. Nearly two-and-a-half minutes of ride time are spent zooming up to astronaut-in-training speeds of 93 MPH. Though the international coaster speed arms race has intensified in the decades since its release—sheesh, UAE, what are you trying to prove—the Millennium Force still remains in the world’s top ten for speed, height, and length.

Maverick
Maverick | courtesy of Cedar Point

1. Maverick

Opened: 2007
Top Speed: 70 mph
Max height: 105 feet
Sure, every other coaster in the top 10 is taller than Maverick—some by a considerable margin—and many of them reach faster speeds as well. That said, this sucker packs a whole lot into its comparatively small frame, including two take-your-breath-away launches, a beyond-straight-down first drop, nice pops of airtime, and a few inversions and over-banked turns. The whole shebang is well-paced and gloriously smooth. We find it to be not only the finest ride Cedar Point has to offer, but one of the best in the entire country.

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Billy Hallal lived in terror of falling off the Blue Streak until he learned that fear, in coasters, is half the fun. His writing can be found in Thrillist, Time Out, and at billyhallal.com.