Millennium Force (Cedar Point)

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Millennium Force

The lift hill, first drop, and the tallest over-banked curve
Cedar Point Location Sandusky, Ohio, USA Coordinates 41.481635°N 82.688144°W / 41.481635; -82.688144 Section Millennium Midway Status Operating since May 13, 2000 Cost $25,000,000 USD Rider height 48 inch minimum
Statistics
Manufacturer	Intamin
Product	Giga Coaster
Designer / calculations	Ing.-Büro Stengel GmbH
Type	Steel - Giga
Riders per train	36
Hourly capacity	1300
Propulsion	Cable lift hill
Height	310 feet
Drop	300 feet
Top speed	93 mph
Length	6595 feet
Inversions	0
Drop angle	80°
Duration	2:20

Millennium Force is an Intamin built giga roller coaster located at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, USA. It was the park's fourteenth roller coaster since Blue Streak in 1964. When it opened on May 13, 2000, it was the first complete circuit roller coaster over 300 feet tall and was briefly the tallest full-circuit roller coaster in the world. It was surpassed by Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land in August 2000.

Millennium Force receives consistently high ratings from the Golden Ticket Awards. It switched between first and second place with Superman The Ride at Six Flags New England until 2016, when it was beaten by Fury 325 at Carowinds.

The ride is marketed with the slogan "The future is riding on it".

History

A train on an airtime hill

On July 2, 1999, Cedar Fair filed a trademark for the name Millennium Force.

The roller coaster was announced on July 22, 1999. It was the first major coaster built to take advantage of the internet, with both a teaser video and construction updates released onto the web.

Millennium Force opened to the media on May 11, 2000, two days prior to the official opening on May 13.

On September 2, 2001, Millennium Force was closed after one of the cables separated, leaving 30 employees stranded 275 feet above the ground for an hour.

Design

Elements
310 foot tall cable lift hill with a 300 foot drop at 80° 169 foot tall 122° over-banked curve Tunnel 182 foot tall hill 87 foot tall over-banked curve 100 foot tall 122° over-banked curve Hill Tunnel Bunny hill 68 foot tall over-banked curve

Millennium Force uses a cable lift hill rather than a more traditional chain lift. While cable lift hills had been used on smaller roller coasters, this was the first time this technology had been used on a large scale.

Trains

3 trains with 9 cars per train. In each car, riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows, for a total of 36 riders per train. Riders are held in by individual seatbelts and lap-bars. The trains are colored red, blue, and yellow with the Millennium Force logo on the front.

Color scheme

Blue track and light-grey supports.

Station

Millennium Force has separate areas for loading and unloading. Within the station there is a dedicated queue for the front row.

Ride experience

Overview of Cedar Point, with Millennium Force at the front

The catch car for Millennium Force's cable lift carries the train up the 310 foot hill at a 45-degree angle in a little over 20 seconds by latching onto the middle of the train. The train then drops 300 feet at an 80-degree angle, reaching a top speed of 93 mph. It then climbs a 169 foot overbanked turn at 122 degrees. Then the train travels through the first tunnel and over a 182 foot parabolic airtime hill, passing over a lagoon and down onto Millennium Island. While on Millennium Island, the train completes an 87 foot, 360-degree helix, followed by a 100 foot left overbanked turn at 122 degrees. Then, riders pass through a small right-hand turn before traveling over another airtime hill to exit the island. The train then travels over a smaller airtime hill and into another tunnel, right next to the first tunnel from earlier in the ride. A final airtime hill, right next to the queue line, is crested. The train finishes the ride by traveling through a 68 foot overbanked turn over the queue and stops at the brake run. Riders exit the train at the exit platform, and the train then returns to the station.

Rankings and records

When Millennium Force opened, it broke 11 world records:

Coaster records

1. First ever complete circuit roller coaster to top 300 feet
2. Tallest complete circuit roller coaster (310 feet)
3. Longest drop on a complete circuit roller coaster (300 feet)
4. Fastest complete circuit roller coaster (93 mph)
5. Steepest non-inversion banked turn on a roller coaster (122°)
6. First roller coaster to feature a magnetic brake system

Park records

1. Most rides at an amusement park (68/75)
2. Most roller coasters at an amusement park (14/17)
3. Most complete-circuit roller coasters over 200 feet high at an amusement park (first park to have more than one) (2/5)
4. Most steel roller coasters at an amusement park (12/15)
5. Most feet of roller coaster track at an amusement park (44,013 feet/53,963 feet)

Note: (Record at 2000/Current Statistic)

Trivia

• Part of the area of the park occupied only by Millennium Force's track is known as "Millennium Island."
• This coaster is one of the few that requires riders to buy lockers in the queue to store loose items.
• During "Halloweekends," some sections of the track travel through mist.
• In theme park sim game Planet Coaster, the giga coaster Invincible is based on Millennium Force.

Images

• 
  The ride's entrance
• 
  The queue line
• 
  The extended queue area
• 
  The loading station
• 
  The unloading area
• 
• 
  View from Lake Erie
• 
  The first hill
• 
  The front cable lift hill drum
• 
  The cable winch drum
• 
  The layout
• 
  The final turn
• 
  The second tunnel

External links

The category Millennium Force (Cedar Point) contains additional media.

• 

  Millennium Force on the Roller Coaster DataBase.

Tallest complete-circuit roller coaster May 2000–August 2000
Preceded by Fujiyama	Tallest complete-circuit roller coaster May 2000–August 2000	Succeeded by Steel Dragon 2000

Fastest complete-circuit roller coaster May 2000–August 2000
Preceded by Goliath	Fastest complete-circuit roller coaster May 2000–August 2000	Succeeded by Steel Dragon 2000

Articles on Cedar Point
Coasters	Present Blue Streak Cedar Creek Mine Ride Corkscrew GateKeeper Gemini Iron Dragon Magnum XL-200 Maverick Millennium Force Raptor Rougarou Siren's Curse Steel Vengeance Top Thrill 2 Valravn Wild Mouse Wilderness Run Woodstock Express Former Broadway Trip Cyclone Dip the Dips Scenic Railway Disaster Transport High Frolics Jumbo Jet Leap the Dips Loop the Loop Mean Streak Racer Scamper Super Coaster Switchback Railway Wicked Twister Wild Mouse Wild Cat (1970–1978) WildCat (1979–2011)
Other attractions	Present 4x4's Atomic Scrambler Balloon Race Cadillac Cars Calypso Camp Bus Cedar Downs Racing Derby Charlie Brown's Wind-Up Dodgem Dune Buggies Flying Ace Balloon Race Giant Wheel Helicopters Kiddy Kingdom Carousel Kite Eating Tree Lake Erie Eagles Linus' Beetle Bugs Matterhorn MaXair Midway Carousel Monster Motorcycles Mustangs Ocean Motion Peanuts 500 Peanuts Road Rally Pipe Scream Police Cars Power Tower Red Baron Rock, Spin & Turn Roto Whip Skyhawk Sky Fighters Sky Ride SlingShot Snoopy's Deep Sea Divers Snoopy's Express Railroad Snoopy's Space Race Space Age Super Himalaya Thunder Canyon Troika Wave Swinger WindSeeker Woodstock's Airmail Woodstock's Whirlybirds Former Antique Cars Bayern Kurve Challenge Racing Chaos Demon Drop Dodgem Earthquake Frontier Carousel Frontier Lift Jaycopter Mill Race Monorail Pirate Ride Professor Delbert's Frontier Fling Schwabinchen Shoot the Rapids (1967–1981) Shoot the Rapids (2010–2015) SkyScraper Sky Slide Sky Wheel Snake River Expedition Snake River Falls Space Spiral Star Voyager Trabant Tumble Bug Turnpike Cars VertiGo White Water Landing Witches' Wheel