This ride was HEAVENLY. I went to Cedar Point on Closing Day for the FIRST TIME and waited under 30 minutes for this thing. The launch is great as is the vertical ascent. The downward spiral didnt do too much for me but overall, this was an amazing ride.

The launch is intense, the drop is great fun. Really quite thrilling. I do, however, wish the ride were a bit longer. Waiting 2 hours for a 15 minute ride is rediculous.

Amazing. Just AMAZING. Everything about this ride is just... indescribable. I must have gotten lucky, because when I went to CP, I rode 3 times over the course of two days, waiting only about an hour each time. My first time riding it, my hands were literally shaking on the lap bar. But when the treelights started going, I just put my hands up and took a deep breath. The launch- holy freakin crap. INSANITY!!! But somehow I had always thought it would be faster... :\ Nonetheless, that launch is so powerful and incredible. In the blink of an eye, youre on top of the world. 400 feet up with almost nothing around you. When the train was up at the top, I sat whispered to myself "Oh. My. God." Then you get to go straight towards the ground. Spinny!! After you hit the brakes, you cant help but just laugh and say to yourself "I can NOT believe I just did that..." Sure the ride is short, but come on, nothing beats it. Even after my third time riding it, I couldnt prepare myself for that launch. Just... wow. What more can I say.

This is a difficult review to write, because my score would be different depending on whether I rated TTD in the broad category of "thrill rides" or reviewed it as a roller coaster. Rather than get into that argument, and for the sake of simplicity, Ill take my cue from Cedar Points own marketing strategy and rate it as a roller coaster.

Even for a seasoned, slightly jaded coaster enthusiast, TTD is intimidating. The way I felt standing in line for TTD was similar to the way I felt standing in line for SFOGs GASM at age 8. It kind of puts you in that place where you think that nothing in your experience can quite prepare you for what youre about to do. Recapturing that feeling is priceless and what I hope for year after year when new rides are built.

TTDs lines are long, but the day I went (18.09.04), several trains were running, and the line moved at a reasonable pace. I waited about 90 minutes for a seat in the front, but I didnt mind. I enjoyed watching the ride, seeing the reactions of people as they returned to the station, listening to the Elvis music, and talking to other TTD newcomers. The anticipation TTD evokes makes for an unsual amount of friendly, communal, and nervous banter in the queue. Although Im not big on themeing, my hats off to Cedar Point for the drag racing concept, which is very appropriate and adds to the atmosphere of speed and excitement.

So far so good. Really, I cant say anything negative about any single aspect of the ride. Weve all been on launched coasters by now, but never like this, and that long straightaway lets you feel like Evel Kneviel on his Skycycle. The transition to the tower is absolutely seamless, and the ascent is incredibly fast, yet the immense size of the ride lets you experience the varying sensations of each section. Time-consuming rollbacks nothwithstanding, the short pause (or at least deceleration) at the apex of the hill provides a moment to take in the view, throw up your hands, or utter a prayer. Then youre into a vertical, 400, corkscrew dive, followed by another seamless transition into the brake run, by which time youre singing, "I am / I am Superman / And I can do anything" or something similar. Its the most intense 18 or so seconds to be had in the park, and an indispensible experience for thrill-seekers of all persuasions.

Yet having done it, I was content to move on. This is difficult to explain, but the classic coasters foster a relationship and keep you coming back again and again. They have sublety, variety, and personality, and each ride on them is a different and rewarding experience. TDD is a conquest, a trophy coaster, but you dont settle down with it. This is the coaster you ride to tell your friends you rode it, and its charms, while considerable, are also somewhat superficial. If height and speed were all that coasters were about, then wed all be writing to each other on a skydiving website. Lets face it, when engineering science gives us the 500-foot, 175 mph launch coaster, TTD will go the way of the Laser Loop, but people will still be lining up for the Coney Island Cyclone, just as they have since 1927. Thats the difference between the latest technology and enduring design genius. TTD has plenty of the former but not much of the latter, so I cant rate it as a classic.

very few times have i gone on a ride that is TOO out of control that it huuurts. This ride was one of them and it was amazing. Just complete insanity for 20 seconds, which is more than worth it. The launch is so powerful that u find yourself yelling at it to stop, cause it feels like that acceleration goes on forever. And the tower has no mercy, its so high up that my ears popped cause of the elevation change, thats never happened to me on a coaster before! The best part was i never had to wait above 30 mins for this ride,i just got lucky with the day or something. The best is when the train FLIES over the top and u get sucked out of your car at 420 ft in the air. Buts it is also cool when the train creeps over the top cause ur up there for longer and the drop is scarier. Ohhhh the drop, wow, thats all i can say, 270 degree turn just disorients the junk out of u. And hey, the ride is even fun to watch. Plus the park runs it amazingly, good job CP. It rolled back 4 times in the morning, but its funny cause everyone on the ground screams like the world is ending, to tell the truth i was praying that i got to roll back, oh well i didnt. Everyone, ride this ride, it may be short but its perfect, and theres no down time on it either.

Before I went on this ride, I never expected the launch to be THAT powerful. I knew it would be fast but this was just unbelievable. Every time I went on it I couldn’t help but scream!! Going up the 420’ hill was so cool too! You have to keep your hands up when on that 90 degree twist up. It feels like you are going to fly off the side of the tower. Another thing I liked was that the top of the coaster actually had airtime! Looking at it from the ground, it looked extremely slow cresting the top, but there were some negatives there. The descent was awesome too. That 270 degree spiral is very disorienting and a lot of fun. I was also surprised to see that the coaster actually goes FASTER than 120 mph. Normally parks tell us the speed on the high side. Although this ride was short it was the best ride I have ever been on!

Im not even gonna try to describe it...wow.

Somewhat revised review - No longer my favorite ride in the park (Thanks Maverick), mostly because of it's length. This is the shortest yet tallest ride in the park. On to the review - I remember waiting in line and thinking that I'm crazy for going on this monster. Just waiting for the launch, you can feel the sweat start accumulating all over your body. You think, "What wrong choices did I make to end up here..." The launch, although less than four seconds long, feels like it lasts forever. It's incredible how powerful it is. Because the speed takes you back so much, the lift up the hill is less intimidating than it would be on a normal coaster. When you start cresting the top of the hill, the chance of a rollback never leaves the back of your mind, and makes it that much more exciting. Please do yourself a favor and take a look around once you get to the top of this mammoth, because the view is incredible. The drop happens almost too quickly, but is still an experience on it's own. Maybe the best thing about Top Thrill, is the accomplished feeling it seems like people have after they ride it. Maverick, Raptor, and even Millenium don't give people the same satisfaction. This next statement may be obvious, but it's a must ride at Cedar Point. Still #2, only behind Maverick.

Im giving TTD an 8, and though I have given dozens of coasters scores lower than 8, I am going to call it the most overrated ride in America. Im not trying to lower the rating, in fact, I was still considering giving it a 9. Anyway, I waited about 1.5 hours for this, just like MF and apparently, not too bad. The heartrate pumped quicker as we rolled towards the christmas tree (bonus: I liked how the 420ft tower itself had lights too). The green hit and before I knew it I was going 122mph and up a 420ft outward tophat. The crawl to a stop was nice- it provided a great perpective of Millenium Force, and down it went spiraling 270 degrees before leveling out and hitting the finish line and subsequent brake run. "Thats all? All of that hype and build-up for the past year and a half?". Needless to say that I was a bit disappointed, because I figured it would be one of the best rides of my life, and I didnt have it in my heart to take the Giant Dipper from Belmont Park or the Mindbender from SFOG off my list of the 16-second ride. Pretty weak when a ride with the hype of Armstrongs lunar landing fails to provide good reason to be put into my top 10. I cant see how I could rate this above Millenium Force.

Nov. 11: Spelling Update

Top Thrill Dragster is one of the most intimidating roller coasters I have ever been on. While you are sitting on the train waiting for it to launch all you can do is sit there with your head against the head rest listening to the vroom of the engine and watching the lights change from yellow to green. Even when you know the launch is coming it seems like a suprise and it is one of the most intese moments on a ride I can ever remember. But that wasnt my favorite part, my favorite part is coming back down the hill, which is like falling of a cliff at 120 mph and spinning the whole way down. I knew that the corkscrew was going to come but while you are on the way down you cant tell all you see is the ground below. Then you begin to turn your way down and see everything flash by you as you make your way to the final brakes. Once you get off you feel like you can do anything.