By now, you know the news that shocked the coaster world: that Cedar Point would get a very surprise addition for 2025: a second coaster to open alongside the highly-reviewed but infamously-pit-stopped Top Thrill 2. And we’re not talking about a kiddie coaster. Nope, Siren’s Curse will be a whopper – a sizable steel behemoth that will also introduce a coaster gimmick that’s still rare enough to leave guests stunned: a tilt drop.
Yep, Siren’s Curse will see a train come to a stop 160 feet over Lake Erie only to have the track it’s sitting on detatch, pivot forward, and lean until the train is facing straight down, aligning with a vertical plunge to Earth below. It’s a hypnotic display that’ll be “as much fun to watch as it is to ride” as the train suddenly releases into a swirling layout that’ll include 13 airtime moments, two weightless inversions, and a “triple down” maneuver.
It sounds like an interesting mix… but it also sounds like this coaster wasn’t meant for Cedar Point at all. Let us explain.
As you probably know, there have always been two companies with a stranglehold on the seasonal, regional theme park market: Six Flags and Cedar Fair. The lineups of these two giant operators have ebbed and flowed, and so have their focuses. In the ’90s and 2000s, each bet big on the “Coaster Wars,” waging battles to break records, court thrillseekers, and build taller, faster, and more than one another. Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain (near Los Angeles) were bitter rivals, and fans spent decades on message boards mulling over who was the true “Coaster Capital of the World.”
Image: Six Flags
Turns out, it all came out in the wash. This summer, it became official that Cedar Fair and Six Flags would combine in a “merger of equals” that would leave Cedar Fair’s CEO in charge, but the “Six Flags” name over the entire company. Fans would’ve sooner expected the sun to consume the earth than to have Cedar Point owned by Six Flags, but at least in name, it has happened. The new Six Flags has a portfolio of 27 amusement parks ranging from small family parks (like Valleyfair, Michigan Adventures, Six Flags Darien Lake, and The Great Escape) to mega-parks (including, of course, Cedar Point, Magic Mountain, Six Flags Great America, Kings Island, and Carowinds).
Even though the company is technically combined, the new Six Flags insists that there are no plans even under consideration to apply the “Six Flags” brand to the Cedar Fair Parks, and in fact, the portfolio is still “soft split” into two, with dining plans, some membership types, and other entitlements valid at only the “legacy Cedar Fair” parks or the “legacy Six Flags parks.”
Long story short, the newly combined Six Flags isn’t sharing everything. But according to insiders, it is sharing rides. Certainly a massive realignment of combining two portfolios into one has meant a major change-up to investment cycles and which parks will receive priority projects in the next few years. And if sources are to be believed, Cedar Point’s new roller coaster wasn’t meant to go to Cedar Point at all…
Image: Energylandia
It’s believed that the tilt coaster soon to come to Cedar Point is actually a ride manufactured in 2023 for Energylandia – the rapidly-growing park in Poland – where it would’ve been called Cliffhanger. However, Energylandia filed paperwork to cancel their contract with the ride’s manufacturer, Vekoma, in October 2023. As fans understand it, Six Flags swept in and purchased the already-manufactured ride from Vekoma, sending its pieces and parts to a staging area at Six Flags Mexico in 2024 with the expectation of building it there. It wasn’t until the merger completed that the new company decided to send it north to Cedar Point.
You might even get that sense from the last minute announcement – with zero speculation, leaks, or rumors until the first teases this fall. You might also notice that Siren’s Curse is fairly “off the shelf” in the sense that it could be set down on just about any flat space – not at all customized to Cedar Point’s terrain. Even more blatantly, this coaster will be set down right next to the park’s Valravn – a ride that also bills its straight-down, 90-degree vertical drop as its signature. Even if it’s the tilt aspect of Siren’s Curse that’ll grab attention, we’re about to see both Valravn and Siren’s Curse pause at the top of their hills before plummeting straight down, right next to each other – an odd repetition!
One thing’s for sure – Siren’s Curse is a somewhat odd fit for Cedar Point. Vekoma’s off-the-shelf coasters aren’t exactly renowned for their comfort, reliability, and capacity (like B&M) or for cutting edge maneuvers, intensity, and excellence (like Intamin or RMC). Even the LED trains feel more “Coney Island” than “Cedar Point,” and as we’ve written about here, the “New Coaster Wars” are about personality-filled, custom rides, not off-the-shelf installations.
Maybe the gimmick of a tilt will be enough to captivate audiences. And more to the point, maybe this inherited ride will draw people away from Top Thrill 2, which is expected to open next year but may still have its fair share of teething problems…
In any case, this is likely just our first glimpse at what a newly-combined Six Flags and Cedar Fair have planned, and we’re likely to see a few more years of adjustment, fill-in, and scrambling while they establish new budgets, new capital expense cycles, and new priorities for their parks. In the meantime, what do you think of Siren’s Curse? Is this ride a good fit for Cedar Point? Is there another park in the newly-combined Six Flags chain that could’ve benefitted more from this ride? Let us know in the comments below!
