SANDUSKY — When “Whyte Lightning” makes its debut next summer as Cedar Point’s newest thrill ride, it will have been three years since the park’s last major thrill ride investment: the $21 million Maverick roller coaster that replaced the Whitewater Landing water ride.

Cedar Point officials were hush-hush Wednesday about what the new ride will entail — saying only that it formally will be introduced today and ready for the 2010 summer season.

But at least one astute amusement park observer, Gary Slade, publisher of Amusement Today, who refused to disclose in detail what he knows, was fairly emphatic about what it won’t be.

“If it’s what I think it is — and I’m nearly 100 percent sure of this — it won’t be another roller coaster,” Slade said Tuesday from offices of the Arlington, Texas-based publication whose yearly poll has ranked Cedar Point the world’s top amusement park for 11 straight years.

“You’re not going to see a Millennium Force or Top Thrill Dragster,” Slade said. “This is still going to be a very marketable ride designed for families to enjoy together.”

While he declined to discuss specifics of the new ride, Slade hinted that it will not be any type of first-time-ever attraction, but something that has been missing from Cedar Point for a while.

“Other parks have them, but if they (Cedar Point) are going with the manufacturer I think they’re going with, it will be something sporting new technology to a degree,” Slade said.

A one-page online notice from Cedar Point alerting media to today’s big announcement took the form of a cartoon depicting a hillbilly with pipe in mouth, holding a shotgun and a dog laying nearby on a barrel.

Robin Innes, longtime director of public relations for the park, declined to detail anything about the new attraction pending today’s formal announcement.

Cedar Fair, which owns Cedar Point and 14 other amusement and water parks, invested some $62 million in its facilities during the 2009 season, topped by the $22 million Diamondback roller coaster at Kings Island near Cincinnati.

A poor economy in 2008 led to most parks cutting back on plans for major new rides or other attractions this summer, according to Eric Gieszl of www.ultimaterollercoaster.com.

A weakened dollar also impacted the situation, he said, as many ride manufacturers are based in Europe, which is making new attractions much costlier.

Despite the nation’s economic downturn, attendance rose 3 percent or 607,000 in 2008 for Cedar Fair parks, which also saw increased revenues, according to Stacy Frole, the company’s director of investor relations.

Recently posted stories on Gieszl’s Web site announced Cedar Fair’s plans to build the $25 million, 305-foot-tall,
93-mph steel Intimidator 305 “gigacoaster” at King’s Dominion near Richmond, Va., and the smaller, similar, $23 million Intimidator roller coaster at Carowinds, a park that straddles the North and South Carolina state lines.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

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