# Release

Title:
CEDAR POINT ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR TWO NEW ATTRACTIONS FOR 2002 SEASON: A FOCUS ON THRILLS AND FAMILY

Release:
SANDUSKY, Ohio, Nov. 20, 2001 - Cedar Point will give guests a "double whammy" -  focusing on both thrills and family – when it debuts the world’s tallest and fastest "double-twisting" impulse roller coaster and a PEANUTS ice show for its 2002 season. These new attractions will represent a $13 million capital investment project at the famed amusement park/resort for the upcoming season. 


THE COASTER: Named Wicked Twister, the 215-foot-tall, 72-mph steel roller coaster will launch riders into a new dimension of thrills and will be Cedar Point’s 15th roller coaster, enabling the park to break its own world record for having more coasters than anywhere on Earth. 
A "double-twisting" impulse roller coaster, Wicked Twister will use the advanced technology of linear induction motors (LIM) to rocket riders out of the coaster’s station - at a maximum speed of 72 mph in 2.5 seconds! - propelling forward and backward and up and down a U-shaped track with spiraling 450-degree corkscrews atop each vertical 215-foot-tall tower. With "twists" on both towers - instead of just one - Wicked Twister will be the first and only coaster of its kind anywhere in the world. 


With its train suspended from below its track, Wicked Twister will challenge passengers immediately by launching halfway up the first 90-degree 215-foot-tall tower before briefly pausing, reversing direction and accelerating into the station where it will be thrust nearly all the way up the second 90-degree 215-foot-tall tower. The coaster will be launched out of the station five times - three forward and two backward - while reaching the apex of each tower on the U-shaped track as it picks up speed through the LIM propulsion system. Riders will face the sky while rotating up the twisting towers and will face the ground while rotating backward in the opposite direction, creating a unique visual illusion of the ground rotating below. 


With the addition of Wicked Twister, Cedar Point will be the only amusement park in the world to stake claim to having three roller coasters above 200 feet tall: the 205-foot-tall Magnum XL-200 (1989); the 310-foot-tall Millennium Force (2000) and now the 215-foot-tall Wicked Twister. This twisted scream machine will also be the eighth world-record-breaking ride Cedar Point has introduced since debuting the world-renowned Magnum XL-200 roller coaster in 1989. Plus, Wicked Twister will be the eighth roller coaster the park has added during this same time period. 
Located on the east side of the Cedar Point Peninsula, along the park’s historic beach and stretching on both sides of the Giant Wheel, Wicked Twister will have a two-tone structure, blending a sunburst yellow track with bright teal columns. Wicked Twister’s train will be a mixture of blue, magenta, teal and yellow. The ride will use a 32-person train consisting of eight four-passenger cars and will have a ride capacity of approximately 1,000 riders per hour. Each seat will have an individual shoulder restraint and restraining belt. 


The roller coaster engineering and manufacturing firm, Intamin, headquartered in Wollerau, Switzerland, is the creator of the "double-twisting" impulse coaster concept. Guests will be able to take their first Wicked Twister ride when Cedar Point opens for the 2002 season in May. 



THE PEANUTS ICE SHOW: Good Grief! Cedar Point will introduce guests to the world’s only skating beagle when it debuts "Snoopy Rocks! On Ice" an elaborate ice show hosted by the park’s "top dog" himself and also featuring four other popular PEANUTS characters - Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and Sally. A cast of professional ice skaters will complete the dazzling ensemble and will showcase entertaining skating elements with artistry and technical wizardry. 
"Snoopy Rocks! On Ice" will feature several favorite PEANUTS classics - on ice - such as Snoopy battling the Red Baron, Charlie Brown’s infamous kite-eating tree, Lucy’s five-cent psychiatric advice and the Great Pumpkin Patch. The dramatic grand finale will highlight a high-energy skating number with the entire cast at - Club Snoopy, - a groovy ice disco. 
Throughout the 30-minute ice spectacular, guests will be wowed by lavish sets, detailed props and colorful costumes, along with an upbeat musical score, including everything from rock ‘n’ roll to hip hop. 


This PEANUTS ice extravaganza will be located in the former Cedar Point Cinema, which housed the IMAX film presentations at the park since 1975. Renamed the Good Time Theatre, the 900-seat theater will be climate controlled and its stage will be renovated into a giant ice platform. The Good Time Theatre is sponsored by FirstEnergy, the official energy supplier of Cedar Point. 
Co-produced by Cedar Point’s sister park, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif., and Woodstock Ice Productions, Inc. in Santa Monica, Calif., which is headed by Jill Schulz, daughter of the late Charles M. Schulz, and managed by Cedar Point’s live entertainment department, 
"Snoopy Rocks! On Ice" will debut in mid-June and will be presented through Labor Day, Sept. 2. Karen Kresge, who worked with Charles M. Schulz for 21 years and is the resident choreographer of Schulz’s Redwood Ice Arena in Santa Rosa, Calif., will be the principal director-choreographer of Cedar Point’s "Snoopy Rocks! On Ice." 


"The 2002 season will be an exciting time at Cedar Point - for both thrill-seekers and families,,- says Daniel Keller, vice president and general manager of Cedar Point. As our 15th coaster, Wicked Twister will reinforce Cedar Point’s reputation as the world’s roller coaster capital, while ‘Snoopy Rocks! On Ice’ will win over audiences with a brand new type of family entertainment."

 
Construction of Wicked Twister and the production of "Snoopy Rocks! On Ice" are currently under way and will continue throughout the winter. For frequent updates, log on to cedarpoint.com.

Closing:
Visit:


- Wicked
            Twister's Ride Page, for ride stats, desciption, and more.


- 2002 Section, for all the information and news you can dig on 2002 at the Point.


Title:
JUST THE FACTS: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WICKED TWISTER;
CEDAR POINT’S 15TH ROLLER COASTER

Release:
SANDUSKY, Ohio, Nov. 20, 2001 -  It’s the news you have been waiting for.  The latest addition to Cedar Point amusement park/resort’s incredible array of record-shattering roller coasters, Wicked Twister, will make its worldwide debut in May of 2002.  Until then, here is the 4-1-1 on the first "double-twisting" impulse roller coaster ever built!


Looming 215 feet above the coast of Lake Erie, this steel giant will be the 15th roller coaster at Cedar Point - still more than any other park on the planet.  Riders will sit two abreast in specially designed seats suspended from the track above.  Once secured in the vehicle, Wicked Twister will use a linear induction motor (LIM) to launch its passengers forward out of the station and up a 90-degree twisting steel tower.  As the train slows near the top of the U-shaped track, guests will experience pure "airtime" - that feeling of floating in air - before streaking back down the structure and into the station.  There, riders will be launched backward up another 90-degree twisting tower, again providing maximum "airtime" with a view of the midway spiraling below.  The train will race up and down the towers a total of five times (three forward and twice backward) reaching a top speed of 72 mph!  But that’s not all.  Both towers of the sunburst yellow track twist an outrageous 450 degrees, providing one of the most unusual ride experiences ever!


With the addition of Wicked Twister, Cedar Point continues its world record of having the most rides (68) and roller coasters (15) on planet Earth.


Title:
WEBMASTER OF CEDAR POINT FAN SITE GOES FULL FORCE WITH GUIDEBOOK

Release:
UTICA. MICHIGAN, November 29, 2001 -- 14 year old webmaster of Experience The Point.Com, Andrew Hyde decided to take his love for Cedar Point one step farther with a first of a kind guidebook. <BR<>
After seeing how much people from all around the world visit my website, I thought there was market for a book ” said Andrew  Hyde.Experience The Point: The Unofficial Guidebook to Cedar Point is a 100 page trip planning, strategic guidebook on Cedar Point with information on every ride, restaurant and hotel. The book also offers information such as:-	When To Go-	Where to Eat-	Where to Stay-	Strategies for Riding-	History of the Park It goes in depth on how to take advantage of some of the hidden features at the park.  For example,  Hyde tell us“ Most people go to Cedar Point and park in the main lot and enter the main entrance without even knowing there are several other entrances and parking lots.” The book is available to order from Hyde’s website, Experience The Point(http://www.experiencethepoint.com) and will be in stores (and on most major online bookstores) by early winter.###


Title:
CEDAR POINT NEARS COMPLETION OF
WORLD-RECORD-BREAKING ROLLER COASTER

Release:
SANDUSKY, Ohio, Feb. 15, 2002 – Building a world-record-breaking roller coaster is no “walk in the park.” Just ask Monty Jasper, vice president of maintenance and construction at the famed Cedar Point amusement park/resort.  A roller coaster rider himself, Jasper is leading a team of roughly 50 workers who is nearing the end of a tedious construction phase on the park’s 215-foot-tall, 72-mph Wicked Twister, the world’s tallest and fastest “double-twisting” impulse roller coaster, which is designed as an enormous U-shaped steel structure with spiraling 450-degree corkscrews atop each vertical 215-foot-high tower. The $9 million Wicked Twister will be Cedar Point’s 15th roller coaster, enabling the coaster-crazy park to break its own world record for having more scream machines than any other place on Earth. “Roller coaster construction is a very involved and rigorous business,” says Jasper.  “Every coaster project presents different challenges.  With Wicked Twister, erecting the structure was relatively straightforward since it’s on a small footprint – even with its location on the Cedar Point Beach and steps away from Lake Erie.  However, the detailed stage is yet to come, which is the complex electrical installation.” Because Wicked Twister will use the advanced technology of linear induction motors (LIM), which will launch riders out of the coaster’s station a total of five times and at a maximum speed of 72 mph in 2.5 seconds, instead of the typical “lift chain” technology where riders gradually ascend up a hill, a dedicated 34,000-volt power line that stretches four miles is being put in with one purpose: to power the coaster. “Let me put it this way: we’re using such a massive jolt of electricity to operate Wicked Twister that it would be enough to power 550 average-sized houses,” notes Jasper. Electricity aside, Wicked Twister’s 230-ton steel structure was recently completed as crews positioned the last pieces of track into place.  Construction on Wicked Twister’s structure, which began with site-clearing in October of 2001, involved a five-month phase, followed by a year-long design and development stage with engineers from the ride manufacturer, Intamin in Switzerland, working with Cedar Point to calculate and create the layout of this twisted machine. Two cranes, including one that extended 250 feet in the air, were required to lift Wicked Twister’s 20 individual sections of sunburst yellow track and 24 teal support columns precisely into position.  More than 29,000 cubic yards of concrete were used to pour the 20 footers, four of which measure 44 feet by 22 feet and all of which are seven feet in depth. “People usually think that once the coaster itself is completed, then that’s it,” smiles Jasper.  “But there’s still so much more work to do before Wicked Twister is ready to roll.  It’s a long haul.” The final construction stage on Wicked Twister will consist of finishing the coaster’s station, landscaping, installing the queue lines, signage and pageantry.  A painstaking testing and inspection program will follow with such tests as water-filled “torsos” that simulate the average weight of riders; accelerometer tests conducted by a biodynamic engineer; a checklist of thorough inspections by Cedar Point’s maintenance, safety, operations and design experts; licensing by the Amusement Ride Safety Division of the Ohio Department of Agriculture; and approximately a month of operating Wicked Twister before it opens. “I get such a charge out of building a roller coaster like Wicked Twister,” confirms Jasper.  “The most fun is watching it come together from conception to completion and then finally observing guests riding and enjoying this machine that you’ve helped create.  Now that is what I call a good day.” The first opportunity for guests to get a “wicked twist” on Cedar Point’s newest thriller is on Opening Day, Sunday, May 5, when Wicked Twister will debut to the general public.


