Valravn is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its steel Railway track, track, which consists of long steel tubes that are run in pairs, supported by larger steel columns or beams. Trains running along the track typically rely ...

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. It opened in 1870 and is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US behind Lake Compounc ...

amusement park in

Sandusky, Ohio Sandusky ( ) is a city in Erie County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo, Ohio, Toledo ( west) and Cleveland ( east). At the 2020 United Stat ...

. Built and designed by

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by engineers Walter Bolliger and Cl ...

(B&M), it was the first

Dive Coaster The Dive Coaster is a steel roller coaster model developed and engineered by Bolliger & Mabillard. The design features one or more near-vertical drops that are approximately 90 degrees, which provide a moment of free-falling for passengers. T ...

model in the

Cedar Fair Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, or simply Cedar Fair, was an American company headquartered at its flagship Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. The company was a publicly traded master limited partnership that origina ...

chain of parks and opened on May 7, 2016, as the tallest, fastest, and longest of its kind in the world. It remains the tallest, sharing its height record with Yukon Striker at

Canada's Wonderland Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting, Taft Broadcasting Company and the Gr ...

. Valravn is also the first Dive Coaster to use B&M's vest-style, over-the-shoulder restraints and the third Dive Coaster overall to open in the United States. The installation marked the hundredth roller coaster from B&M, dating back to the company's founding in 1988. Following on the heels of

Rougarou The Rougarou (, alternatively spelled as roux-ga-roux, rugaroo, or rugaru) is a legendary creature in Cajun diaspora and a tricker in oral traditions in Metis and Francophone communities linked to traditional concepts of the werewolf. Versions ...

, which opened at Cedar Point in 2015, Valravn also takes its name from cultural

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. The ride's theme is based on a mythological bird from Danish folklore called the valravn, which means "raven of the slain".

History

In January 2015, the ''

Sandusky Register The ''Sandusky Register'' is a daily newspaper serving Sandusky, Ohio, as well as nearby Port Clinton and the Lake Erie Islands (collectively known regionally as Vacationland). History The ''Sandusky Register'' has been in production since ...

'' obtained a memo from Swiss manufacturer

(B&M) announcing the arrival of a record-breaking

at Cedar Point for the 2016 season. The memo stated that the ride may be installed on land formerly occupied by the Good Time Theatre, which was demolished a few months earlier. The park's spokesman, Bryan Edwards, later confirmed that the Dive Coaster was one of several possibilities the park was considering. Site preparation began in late December 2014, when the Dodgems and Calypso rides were relocated to the Lakeside midway section of the park. The Good Time Theatre and Turnpike Cars were demolished and removed as well in early 2015. In May 2015, interest in the new ride grew when Cedar Point trademarked the name ''Valravn'', which in Danish folklore stands for a mythological bird known as the "raven of the slain", describing a raven that feasts on the dead bodies of those who perish in battle. In early August of the same year, images showing the layout of the new roller coaster and its logo appeared in the amusement park's smartphone app. Responding to the leak, Cedar Point temporarily disabled the app on

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

and announced that details would be revealed on August 18, 2015. However, the park decided to postpone the announcement following an incident in which a park visitor was struck and killed when entering a restricted area underneath

Raptor Raptor(s) or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of avian and non-avian dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunt ...

. Visitors began to report seeing pieces of new roller coaster track being stored on park property. On September 9, 2015, Cedar Point officially unveiled plans for Valravn. The roller coaster is based on the Dive Coaster model developed by B&M and is also the company's hundredth roller coaster installation. Its trains were the first on this model to use a "vest" style over-the-shoulder restraint system, similar to the design used on Cedar Point's

GateKeeper A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, controls who is granted access to a category or status. Gatekeepers assess who is "in or out", in the classic words of manage ...

and other B&M

Wing Coaster Wing Coaster is engineering firm Bolliger & Mabillard’s designation for its winged roller coaster designs. Winged roller coasters are a type of steel roller coaster where pairs of riders sit on either side of a roller coaster track in which n ...

s. Each train consists of three cars, each of which has a single row holding eight passengers, for a total of 24 riders per train. Construction finished as Valravn's last piece of track was put in place on March 2, 2016. Video showing the ride being tested was released in early April 2016.

Ride experience

After leaving the

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

, the

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

turns 180 degrees to the left, then begins to ascend its chain

lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from t ...

. Upon reaching the crest of the hill, the train turns right and pauses for several seconds as it slightly hangs over the edge of the first drop. The train then suddenly releases, descending at a 90-degree angle and reaching a maximum speed of . It then immediately enters a

Immelmann loop Roller coasters are widely known for their drops, inversions, airtime (rides), airtime, and other intense ride elements that contribute to the ride. They are also made up of a variety of features and components responsible for the mechanical opera ...

before rising into the

mid-course brake run A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of track that utilizes some form of brakes to slow or stop a roller coaster train. There are various types of braking methods employed on roller coasters, including friction brakes, skid brakes, an ...

. The train then drops and enters a

dive loop Roller coasters are widely known for their drops, inversions, airtime (rides), airtime, and other intense ride elements that contribute to the ride. They are also made up of a variety of features and components responsible for the mechanical opera ...

, followed by a third and final inversion with a 270-degree zero-g roll. Riders experience an airtime hill and turn left before entering the final brake run.

Characteristics

Location

Valravn is located on a new midway stretching from the Blue Streak area to near Celebration Plaza. Another way it can be accessed is behind the cobra roll on the Raptor and is the centerpiece of a redesigned Marina entrance.

Manufacturer

Valravn is a Dive Coaster model manufactured by Swiss roller coaster firm Bolliger & Mabillard. Notably, it is the 100th roller coaster produced by B&M and the fourth to be built at Cedar Point, following

and

. It is the 10th Dive Coaster to be built in the world and the third in the United States, with the other two being

SheiKra SheiKra (, ) is a steel Dive Coaster roller coaster at the Busch Gardens Tampa Bay amusement park in Tampa, Florida, United States. The roller coaster was proposed by Mark Rose, vice-president of design and engineering for the park, and design ...

Busch Gardens Tampa Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a animal theme park located in Tampa, Florida, United States, with the entire park landscaped and designed around themes of Africa. Owned and operated by United Parks & Resorts, the park opened on June 1, 1959. The p ...

and Griffon at

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Busch Gardens Williamsburg (formerly Busch Gardens Europe and Busch Gardens: The Old Country) is a amusement park in James City County near Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, located approximately northwest of Virginia Beach. The park w ...

Trains

Valravn operates with three-tiered seating, open-air steel and fiberglass

trains A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

. Each train consists of three cars with eight seats per car, for a total capacity of 24 riders per train and approximately 1,200 riders per hour. Riders are restrained by flexible over-the-shoulder restraints and interlocking seat belts, and riders must be at least tall to ride. Valravn is the first Dive Coaster to use B&M's new restraint system, which can also be found on GateKeeper.

Track

The steel tubular track is long and the lift is approximately high. The track colors are copper and silver with the supports being regal blue. There are 103 pieces of track with the heaviest weighing . The width of the track is 6.5 feet wide, making it the widest track in the park. A total of 51 supports hold the track in place. The track and supports were manufactured by

Clermont Steel Fabricators Clermont Steel Fabricators (abbreviated as CSF) is a private steel products manufacturing company known for making Bolliger & Mabillard roller coasters. The plant is located in Batavia, Ohio. CSF was founded in 2004 after the closing of Southern O ...

in Batavia in southwest Ohio.

Records

Upon opening in 2016, Valravn broke six Dive Coaster records and helped to break four amusement park records. On August 15, 2018,

announced Yukon Striker, a dive coaster which shares Valravn's height record of but surpasses other records including speed, drop length, track length, and number of inversions.

Dive Coaster records

Valravn held records upon opening for the following: *Tallest Dive Coaster – *Fastest Dive Coaster – *Longest Dive Coaster – *Longest drop on a Dive Coaster – *Most inversions on a Dive Coaster – 3 *Highest inversion on a Dive Coaster –

Park records

Cedar Point holds records for the following: *Most roller coasters taller than at a park – 5 *Most rides at one park – 72 *Most steel roller coaster track at one park – *Most roller coaster track at one park – )

Reception

Rankings

References

External links

Official attraction page
{{Cedar Point Cedar Point Roller coasters in Ohio Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Roller coasters introduced in 2016 2016 establishments in Ohio