The Paddlewheel Excursions, a live entertainment boat ride at Cedar Point, was introduced in 1987 and closed in August 2021 due to an accident. It was later scrapped in September 2022 and replaced with Top Thrill 2 in 2024. The ride was originally renamed “Paddlewheel Excursions” in 1987, but it failed to live up to its potential. The ride was introduced for Cedar Point’s 150th Anniversary Celebration in 2011, and the Snake River Expedition was supposed to be a modern comeback of Paddlewheel Excursions.
The ride followed the same route around the parks from 1961-2011, but it was retired after the 2011 season due to rising fuel and maintenance costs. The docking area was repurposed for Dinosaurs Alive! in 1964. The new-for-2021 Snake River Expedition is a creative reimagining of the original Paddlewheel Excursions, which closed on Labor Day 2011 to make room for the defunct attraction Dinosaurs Alive!.
Cedar Point spokesperson Tony Clark confirmed that the Snake River Expedition boat ride will not return for the 2024 season. The pandemic scuttled plans, leaving the anticipated launch of the ride at the dock until 2021. The park seems to be removing more rides that everyone can ride together anyway, and the lineup for past-removed rides is not as impressive as the original Paddlewheel Excursions.
📹 Snake River Expedition at Cedar Point – Brand New Immersive Boat Ride
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📹 10 Defunct Rides in Cedar Point – Attraction Graveyard (Part 1)
In this video we cover 10 defunct rides in Cedar Point. Since opening in 1870, this park has gone through many changes.
MeanStreak was brutally uncomfortable to ride. Painful even. The redesign into Steel Vengeance is hands down one of the most intense coaster rides I’ve ever experienced and very smooth operating. I hope they find a way to redesign the Top Thrill Dragster and, of course, rename it (possibly to reflect the sensation of launching a fighter jet off of an aircraft carrier catapult). Because that ride is (was) the #1 most intense 20 seconds I’ve ever experienced! Most people concur!
Avalanche Run was not bad. Later, they built a box around it to enclose it and renamed it Disaster Transport. It was dark inside and decorated to replicate outer space. It was quite an improvement from Avalanche Run, and while you waited in line (in the air conditioning!) you were entertained by robots and futuristic props. One of the robots is now stationed in a gift shop, as you exit one of the coasters, but I don’t remember which one.
I rode Earthquake and enjoyed Cedar Point’s other two dark ride features, Pirate Ride and The Funhouse. Earthquake featured fake skyscrapers that tumbled toward the riders with barely-miss moments. The animatronics were wonderfully cheesy, including a line of rubber rats fleeing a giant sewer pipe! Very fond memories. Wish CP would build a new dark ride, something fun and retro. Enough with the 500 ft coasters, already!!!
The paddle boat adventure ride is no longer at Cedar Point either. I’ll miss that one, especially as it was an all ages kind of family ride. The captain always had corny jokes about the wooden native American and frontiersman manikins. They briefly ran one of the boats out of the Cedar Point Marina, and did tours on the Sandusky Bay. I think it was unde $10. Possibly closer to $5, for season pass holders. My girlfriend and I were the only 2 people on it, the only time I took the tour.
Earthquake was a fun ride. You got into a car, that actually looked like an old model T. It was basically a fun house style ride. The Pirate Ride was similar, just themed differently, and you rode in a boat (on wheels). It lasted longer than Earthquake and you can still see some of the props during Halloweekends
Earthquake was the best! we actually rode it when I was 11 right before we moved to CA. It was so realistic that I was terrified when we experienced our first real earthquake. I still have vivid memories of it today. You could not only see the damage but they added smells to the sounds around you. Just awesome.
My dad’s company picnic was always there on Labor Day Weekend, so I went at least once a year from about 1964- 1978 ( sometimes 2 times) so I went on ALL these rides..when I was small, the line for the Blue Streak went all the way to the midway!! When you had the nerve to ride it, you didn’t have to hang out with mom anymore! So I was there for all the ” firsts”…Corkscrew,Raptor,Mantis,Magnum etc… loved the little rides too, the Scrambler,Matterhorn etc. Rode the big slide the first year it opened & my sack had a hole in it & my tennis shoes stopped me dead & I rolled down it. Ended up with burns down my arm & leg. Today I would be rich!!
The Wild Cat was such a fun, nostalgic ride. Just like Wicked Twister (which is also gone now), wait times were never very long, the ride was thrilling and both took up very little real estate. They are the 2 rides that I miss more than any others. Demon drop also met those criteria, in it’s later years. It scared the crap out of me when it first came out (I was 10) and the line was always hours long for the first several years. The Power Tower is a superior replacement and wait times are unbelievably short (probably because similar rides have injured and even killed rider’s, at other parks). For awhile, both were in operation at the same park. Ahhh, the good old days.
Witches Wheel and Demon Drop were my favorites as a child of the 80s growing up in NE Ohio. I also enjoyed the Turnpike Cars as being a child it was cool to be able to drive on my own! You did forget an iconic attraction of Cedar Point back from 1965 to 2012…the Space Spiral. It gave outstanding views of the park from 300 feet in the air. It was also demolished to make room for Gatekeeper.
The last year of its operation, I finally got up the nerve to go on Jumbo Jet. It was a cloudy day. As we got up to the station, it started to lightly sprinkle. The next train pulled in and we got loaded into it, but the ride operator said he would have to wait to get the go ahead phone call in order to release our train. We were safety belted in and waiting. The phone rang and he said he was told to close the ride. He said that after the rain stops, they then test the brakes, and this can take around 40 minutes to complete. We got out of the car and the weather did not cooperate the rest of the day. The next year the ride was gone. Can’t believe I got that close, but no cigar!
I worked at Cedar Point summer of `78 and I never saw a Turnpike ride there! Seeing as how what you’re showing here looks just the Kennywood ride, I would’ve not only remembered it being there,I would’ve ridden it a few times as it was always one of my fave Kennywood rides. I lived right outside the park so, I could’ve got in any time I wanted. No, I never got to ride Earthquake when I worked there in `78 because it didn’t exist. I love dark rides and would’ve gone on that dozens of times! I went into The Fun House quite often and, even after the park closed for the night, I’d go in and walk through The Fun House in the dark and even climbed up the slide silos all the way to the very top. They actually go up about another 7 or 8 feet so, I’d go up and ride them from the very top. I don’t think I ever rode Jumbo Jet. I might have but don’t recall seeing that one there. Maybe they’d already replaced it before I got there in early July (the 5th). I’m pretty sure I rode Wild Cat. I remember that being there.
Adding on to rides already mentioned let me add the following significant defunct rides: Starting with my 1st trip to CP the biggest rides included the Mill Race which I believe was the 2nd ever flume ride built in the USA by Arrow. The Monorail and Double Ferris Wheel. The 1st ride ever built in Frontier Town was a flume ride called Shoot the Rapids which was replaced by White Water Landing. A 2nd Shoot the Rapids was built along Frontier Trail and its splash pool is now used as part of Forbidden Frontier. There was a 2nd Sky Lift which ran from the main-midway to Frontier Town and finally one of my childhood favorites The Western Cruise.
Earthquake was my favorite ride growing up. It was the first and last ride every trip to the park. I remember going to CP the day after prom in 85, and was sad to see it was replaced with a Bernstein Bears shop. Another favorite was the Jumbo Jet coaster about where Gatekeepers entrance is now. I was finally tall enough to ride it. Rode once and the next year it was gone. The other and most missed ride was, Bayern Kurve. That’s actually my vanity plate on my car.
Another ok ride that Cedar Point managed to transform into something better is the Rugaroo. Formerly known as the Mantiss, it was very slow to load and offload rider’s, do to the complexity of allowing them to remain securely standing as the train, sped, twisted, ascended, descended, looped and rolled upside down. It was a bit rough, especially as one’s head would pinball between the shoulder bars. Plus, pulling G’s while standing was a bit challenging, despite the awkward ‘groin pad’ that each rider straddled. But since adapting proper seating, it’s transformed into a smooth, fun, easy-going ride with shorter wait times.
I have a story about Witches’ Wheel, which is the attraction I miss the most. When it was in its last year of operation, I went to Cedar Point. I was pretty young, so I got height measured and I was pretty much exactly 54″ tall. However I got the wristband and was cleared to ride all height-restricted rides. I wasn’t super into coasters back then, so I immediately wanted to ride Witches’ Wheel. I rode it twice in the morning then went to ride other rides in the park. I would have ridden it more then since I honestly loved it, but the line was getting long. I went back in the afternoon when the line was shorter. There were different ride attendants there and even though I had the 54″ wristband for being able to ride they still insisted on measuring me THREE times and had three different attendants look at it. Even so, they said I was JUST not tall enough to ride. Even though I rode it earlier in the morning. Being a younger kid I walked out of the line on the verge of crying. I wasn’t able to return to CP that summer so even though I was a pass holder I couldn’t ride it again before it closed. It still kinda pisses me off to this day and I still half-suspect it was a load of BS that I wasn’t tall enough.
Yes, I remember riding Earthquake. I believe it started with a fortune teller “predicting a disaster,” then proceeded through a couple of scenes of tourist-y San Francisco. I think it then traveled through a bar or saloon where a brawl took place and the bar owner yelled “…and stay out!” as the car was booted outside onto the street where chaos ensued as the quake hit (CoasterBob62 has an audio-only ride POV and in the 1977 recording you can clearly hear this). Tower of falling barrels? Building facades that tilted in toward you as you sped past? Simulated fire? I really can’t remember but I wish I could. It was such a fun ride. I believe there was also a Pirate dark ride towards the front entrance which would have been on the left as you entered the park… And while it was not a ride, you did not mention the fun house that had an upside-room with an old man snoozing in a rocking chair… on the ceiling! And then the grain silo spiral slides at the end. It was replaced with Disaster Transport, a bobsled ride similar in theming to Disneyland’s Space Mountain. And yes, I rode Jumbo Jet as well.
Loved this ride (and its next-door neighbor, the Pirate Ride, another dark ride) and rode it multiple times on each visit to CP. On one trip, My Dad and I had barely started the ride when it stopped. We waited in the dark until, finally, the lights all came on and they said that we needed to get out of the car and make our way to the exit. The thing I remember, is how ‘cheesy and flimsy’ the ride was in the light. One particular sight was of a RECORD PLAYER which was used for some sound effect. the tonearm had a piece of string connected to it so the record would only play until the string made it lift off the record and being again. I miss that ride!
Every time our family went to CP we rode Earthquake! What I remember is that we always thought it was a little hokey, but we enjoyed none the less. We waited until later in the day to ride it because it was air conditioned inside and it gave us a reprieve from the hot weather. I never rode the jumbo jet, but I remember standing there perusal it run and seeing this couple get off of it and apparently the woman had been so terrified that she clawed her husband. He had scratches on him. Im not a roller coaster fan and so I delight in the smaller rides. Some of my favorite rides were The Rotor and giant slide and Disaster Transport. I also still love the racing carousel, the matterhorn, the mine car ride coaster.
Pirate Ride – it was one of the only things to do in doors when it rained Oceana – not a ride but an attraction was a great way to sit and relax and watch a show Avalanche run – was better than disaster transport but I feel the track was the same Space Needle – at 1 time was one of the highest rides. We would always look for our car in the parking lot
I grew up in NW Ohio, and went to CP every other summer or so between about 1975 and 1989. I remember the Pirate Ride, Earthquake (does anyone know if a ride-through of this is anywhere on YouTube?), Bayern Kurve, Schwabinchen, Round Up, the Rotor (one of my very favorites), Wildcat, Blue Streak, the debuts of Corkscrew and Gemini, the Mine Ride, both of the flume rides, the Old West animatronic skeletons on part of the train trip…I haven’t been back since 1989. Feeling old…but kid me and teen me loved it.
I rode skyscraper one time before it closed. I was forced to ride the ride after exclaiming that out of any ride at cedar point, i refused to go on that ride. It was sketchy to me, i hated how if you were the unlucky ones you got stuck at the top for 5 minutes while they strapped in the other riders. being forced to go on that ride still gives me some sort of PTSD. it was terrible. I rode everything there with no problem, but skyscraper was the worst thing i’ve ever done.
I miss a lot of cedar point my family came to the park for years. I miss a little playground near the hotel breakers with a little swinging gate. I miss kiddie land I miss the fun house. Mom and dad missed the ballroom and the big bands. I miss frontier trail where I used to work and the Polynesian hut on the beach. The fun house and the train ride and the giant ferries wheel. I miss Christmas in July and I did ride the earthquake it was important because my father had lived in San Francisco. So we’d go together. I miss the ferry between Sandusky and cedar Point but it might still run I’m not there. I miss going to peli island pelican island? Near Sandusky there was a ferry you could take a ride bikes. I miss the black smith and the sheep which I fed and took care of. I miss all the flowers on the midway it was landscaped so beautiful. They had flowers and a lot of natural gardening.
As a kid growing up in the 70s, Earthquake was my favorite ride there as well as Bayern Kurve. It was the first and last ride of the day when we went. Was sad to see it replaced with the Barenstien Bears. I’m lucky to have a copy of the soundtrack the used. Jumbo Jet I only rode once. The year I was tall enough. The next year it was gone.
Cedar Point was like a second home for me. I’d been going since 1969!! Never missed a year in 20 years, going up to 4 times each summer. I miss the Earthquake ride, The Schwabinchen, The Trabant, the Bayern Curve, the Mine Ride, Calypso, Tiki Twirl, the Space Needle, the Frontier Skylift, and so many others that were a part of my childhood into adulthood. Cedar Point is an amazing place to be!! 🥰
Jumbo Jet and Wildcat were pretty cool, but Jumbo Jet would get stuck a lot. What I miss most are Earthquake and Pirate Ride. My first visit was around 1973? I could only ride the “kiddie” rides. This year I’ve got the season pass, meal pass and drink pass. I’m planning on 15 to 20 visits, so I’ll get waaaay more than my money’s worth in the passes, no doubt. If you’re going to visit at least two or more times, the passes are worth it, because of the new admission rates, food and drink rates, and parking. Parking is $20 a pop, and you get free parking every visit with the season pass.
I don’t remember what it was called, but they had a giant sliding board, about 8 lanes wide, and you went down it in a potato sack! Lol. It burned like hell if you tried using your hands for brakes or accidentally rubbed them on it. My dad would take me down it and I felt like we were going 50 mph, and it was kinda like a staircase. So there were a couple G outs.
Still miss Wild Cat and Mean Streak those along w/ Gemini (maybe b/c I AM a Gemini?) and Demon Drop will probably be my favorites (at least top 10 faves) at Cedar Point always. Tho to be fair, I’ve not been but once in the last 20 or so years. So I’ve not had a chance at the newer ‘replacement’ rides.
The Iron Dragon is not the most thrilling ride. But it deserves honorable mention. The line is usually relatively short and they let you take a bag on the ride. So I have a tradition of drinking a can of beer during the ride. For a short time they incorporated VR headsets and this made the ride 5 times more entertaining, IMO. Unfortunately, I think COVID killed that provision. Either that, or just the logistics may have been too complicated.
Is the Baby (Jr.) Gemini still there??? It was directly across the way of the Big Gemini?? I haven’t been there in some years… I remember the summer when Magnum XL 200 first open…. I didn’t stand a chance of getting on that coaster.. because the line was entirely too long😂😂😂😂plus as a kid… I was way too scared😂