Is Cedar Point going downhill, or are we just getting old? | Opinion

It happens every year without fail.

Right around March, I start to get the itch: That anticipatory thump-thump in my chest, the pit in my stomach as the track clicks upward, the weightlessness as I freefall down a 300-foot hill.

Yes, every spring, just like a holiday, I yearn to go back to Cedar Point.

My first time there was almost accidental – just an excuse to hang out with my much cooler half-sister visiting from Florida. 

At about 11 years old, I gazed up at the Millennium Force and thought, “No way in hell.”

She dragged me onto the Wicked Twister. I was sweating so much I thought I might slip out of the harness she pulled down over my shoulders. 

We were catapulted forward and up, and I squeezed my eyes shut as we were dragged back down, speeding backward to the other side. After the ride whipped us back and forth a few times, it effortlessly cruised right back to starting position. “Welcome back riders, how was your ride?”

Just like that, I was hooked.

I’ve since ridden just about every ride in the park. Some of the best times of my childhood involved roaming the grounds with my friends, goofing off in line and screaming as we hurdled through space. 

As soon as my brother was tall enough, I took him on the Magnum XL-200 and beamed with pride at his courage. 

The fear, the anticipation, the bravery – they form a camaraderie that tethers itself to your memory, captures it so clearly that you don’t even need the picture snapped on the coaster to remember the feeling, but you buy it anyway.

Admittedly, I haven’t been to the park in a couple years. At my ripe age of 30, I’ve developed this pesky aversion where I black out on the big coasters. Talk about a buzzkill.

But seeing the reactions to recent park changes feels like standing by while one of your dearest friends gets bullied.

There was outrage after the park announced a new, smaller “Morning Rush” event that replaced “Coastermania" that provided exclusive early-morning rides. The park quickly ditched Morning Rush and reinstated Coastermania amid the backlash.

Is Cedar Point going – so to speak – downhill after its merger with Six Flags in 2024? That’s the concern among ride warriors.

Perhaps there’s some truth to it. But the park will always be held to incredibly high standards, for better or for worse. 

Yes, because of safety and the cost to go there, but also because it’s a keeper of nostalgia. 

No matter what the park changes, whether it be events, rides or restaurants, there will always be someone with a memory attached to it who longs for its preservation.

Sometimes, the more things change, the more we want them to stay the same.

Because few things are more heartbreaking than trying to relive a memory that’s no longer possible. Like when a company discontinues a scent you wore years ago, or you can’t remember the title of a song from your childhood that popped back into your head, or, in my case, when the ride that launched a tradition is no longer there – it’s as if your personal time machine has broken, and the illusion of youth comes crashing down.

Suddenly, you’re reminded that things are different now. My half-sister and I no longer speak. I’ve parted ways with many of those friends I romped with at the park. My brother is an adult.

It’s a reminder that the only way to go is forward – even if that means getting old. And it does. 

Even though the Wicked Twister is gone, you'll still catch me at Cedar Point most summers. There's little the park can do to keep me away.

Instead of mourning the past, I'll be busy making new memories with my kids – and hoping that the physical ties to those memories don't disappear any time soon.