Cedar Point tops out its newest roller coaster

This seems, unnecessary. Like someone in Marketing said "We need a triple launch coaster to tick some box" and they came up with the cheapest way to do it

What made it necessary was Cedar Point's refusal to continuing running an unreliable hydraulic launch system after that accident that severely injured a guest in the queue. The LSM launch needs multiple launches for the trains CP wants to run to reach a speed sufficient to clear the Top Hat, so... here we are.

Now, should CP have just ditched the concept and built an entirely new coaster in Top Thrill Dragster's place? I would not have objected to that. But that's not what CP chose to do. I am willing to give it a try and see how it goes.

Or, more accurately, I am willing to let Jim Koehl give it a try and tell us how it goes. ;-)

Ultimately Cedar Point was sitting on a lemon and had a couple of different options...

1. Write off TTD as a loss, remove the coaster, and build something new in the space in the middle of the park with a likely 2-3 year old timeline and a few million just to tear down the worthless coaster.

2. Figure out a way to fix the unreliable hydraulic launch and simply maintain the status quo without the bump of a new attraction.

3. TT2 - Make minor improvements/modifications to the existing layout and "relaunch" the coaster as a new attraction over the course of a single offseason.

I'm sure this renovation is not coming cheap, but it's almost certainly less expensive than a brand new headline coaster. I'm still skeptical about this renovation, but I can definitely see the thinking, especially if Zamperla is either giving Cedar Fair a deal for TT2 or perhaps gave them a cut rate price for Wild Mouse.

I would ride this with some trepidation and I don't scare easily.One thing I've always found odd is that the other Intamin speed demon/strata coaster has proven more reliable than the demised TTD. Same concept, same hydraulic launch. True that Kingda Ka is the newer of the two and can be temperamental at times but nothing like TTD. I've been to Cedar Point only about 4 times but there always seemed to be some issue with TTD. I don't believe that hydraulic launches are intrinsically flawed so there was some other factor in play. Oh, and I did get to ride TTD as a walk on. It was Cedar Point's way of compensating me for getting stuck on Maverick for 45 minutes. Russell should get a good laugh out of this because he's not an Intamin fan.

I'm sure CP looked at the relatively more reliable LSM launch technology they use on Maverick and decided that was the way to go for TTD's future. Plus the new Zamperla trains have fewer pieces — obviously, less things that can fall off and potentially hit someone on the ground. I know the plan is to have a covered queue, but I'll be shocked if TT2 doesn't incorporate the same in-queue locker system for cell phones, etc that they use on Steel Vengeance now. Those of us that are CP fans are awaiting the transformation with some trepidation as this is Zamperla's biggest project to date... but *something* had to be their biggest as the company grows; I imagine CP was wishing they just didn't have to be the guinea pig here. Crossing fingers that it all goes well... can't wait to ride!

I have high hopes for TT2, but I notice the que has metal roofing. I know they don't want someone getting hit again, but they could have moved the que, as now you will not be able to see the coaster in action while waiting in line.

@Milleniumpotato - There's no way Cedar Point could have left the queue area uncovered given the recorded incidents. Moving the queue outside of the track also doesn't make sense given the amount of space needed - there isn't really a lot of space in the adjacent midway to place a massive queue area needed for this coaster.

I remain highly skeptical of this. The triple launch seems utterly pointless (why have a 19 mph booster launch???) and will torpedo capacity at a park that already has some of the worst issues with unreasonably long lines in the world. Zamperla has never made anything close to this scale and their limited thrill coaster output has been mediocre at best. Just seems like Cedar Point took the cheapest possible option rather than find a long-term fix, even though this will probably cause them a far greater headache in the long run.