When the train stops, you sit in the seat as you normally would, except you face backwards. Then the train departs and goes up the first hill. As you go up, all of the seats lean back until you are flat on your back, facing the sky. After you go over the top of the hill, the track flips over 180 degrees and you are now facing the ground. Just before returning to the start, the track flips one last time and you are again upright.
The sensation is intended to be like flying. All you can see is the ground and, during one of the eight inversions, the sky.
It opens this Spring at Paramount’s Great America near San Jose, California. I will ride this thing even if I have to hitchhike to get there!
Jab, I’ll hitchhike with you. I love roller costers. All of my fav’s are located at magic mountain. Riddlers Revenge, The superman, and the viper would be the best three that I have had the privlage to ride sofar
I like different coasters for different sensations. The steel/engineered marvels are one thing; the soft sway-and-give of classic wood frame coasters are another.
Dunno; it’s too hard to choose a favorite. Really fine engineering and craftmanship makes it apples over oranges. The math, the vision, the terrain and setting make them all mostly wonderful, IMO.
Sorry, this isn’t an answer. But FWIW, this amusement park vet put in 4 good (if punishing) years pulling down wages under the legal protections offered to migrant (read: seasonal) workers. 16 hour days were the norm, and the rides were tested (!?) by employees taking an early morning spin.
Tough but good memories; you qualified for the “right stuff”, i.e. mundane Yeagers et al) if you could pull a double, deal with the drunks, corporate idiots, shin splints and reports, down the beer and junk food at the end of the shift and report for work in the morning; brass shining, eyes propped open and then ride the Looper, tha Flume and the coasters.
If begged, I will share the Tested, Weighted and Scientifically Sound Barf Index.
Joke, you say? HA! Forget cyber-quizzes. That one is a real-life, psych-meets-guts test.
I cant wait to see that. I go to Cedar Point once or twice a summer and think it is the greatest place on earth. My favorite coaster is Raptor, there at Cedar Point. Mantis is another good one, and you stand up the whole time. By the time you’re done your legs feel like jello. Of the old school coasters, I like the Gemini, which has to coasters on parallel tracks going at the same time. It’s awesome.
Jab1, the hair on the back of my neck stood up just reading your OP. And Great America is only 45 minutes from here. Woo hoo! Now, if I can only find a babysitter for my five year old while I go play at the park…
I’m so lucky, I have easy access to both King’s Island and Cedar Point!
I can’t wait to try out the Millenium Force, that looks like one bad ass coaster. I also can’t wait to try out Son of the Beast at K.I.- a wooden roller coaster that goes upside down… some cry heresy just at the idea… but I just gotta try it!
“People must think it must be fun to be a super genuis,
But they don’t realize how hard it is
to put up with all the idiots in the world.”
– Calvin and Hobbes
(__) /
Speaking of King’s Island, did you ever try the Outer Limits? That was a pretty bad ass coaster. From 0-60 in just a couple seconds IIRC. Awesome ride, except for the whiplash factor.
Run to the bedroom,
In the suitcase on the left
You’ll find my favorite axe.
That Stealth coaster has not even opened, and yet Disney has evidently already decided to make it the basis for their new ride at WDW in Florida. It will probably be called Fire Mountain. I’m guessing it’s supposed to be a high-speed flight around an erupting volcano, all indoors. They also may be planning to reproduce the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (now at Disney/MGM) at their other parks. I got this from www.disney.force9.co.uk/magic.htm This is a site from Britain devoted to discussing and disseminating Disney theme park rumors. Another good place is www.thrillride.com/WildRumors/WildRumors.html
Stealth hasn’t “flown” yet but Disney has decided it will be the basis of a new attraction at WDW in Orlando: Fire Mountain. An indoor roller coaster that simulates a flight around an erupting volcano. This is according to www.wdwmagic.com/magic.htm It was originally believed this new ride would go in Adventureland at the Magic Kingdom near the Pirates and Jungle Cruise. Now it’s believed the ride will be built at Animal Kingdom. Also, it looks like there will be a new version of Star Tours based on the Pod Race sequence in Episode One: The Phantom Menace.
I can’t explain that simulpost. I made the first one nearly an hour ago, but it never showed up. So I make the second one, and they BOTH appear together.
Ooh! Take me! Please?? It’s been about three or four years since the last time I went to Cedar Point. Millenium Force sounds like an awesome coaster. My favorite is the Magnum. First time I went on it, I rode in the very front and lemme tell you, that very first hill is absolutely killer! I also loved Raptor and the Iron Dragon.
Shadowfox
“The dead have risen, and they’re voting Republican!” - Bart Simpson
Another rumor is that Six Flags Magic Mountain may build an even bigger coaster next year, bigger than the Goliath that just opened. Next year, MM turns 30 and it’s the REAL beginning of the new millennium and century, so they may build one even taller than Millennium Force.
Would you believe… four hundred feet tall?!?!
Superman: The Escape is already that tall, but since it goes back-and-forth on a straight track, it’s considered a special case. This new monster, said to be already on the drawing boards, would be a standard, complete circuit coaster. Read about Goliath here: www.thrillride.com/goliath/goliath.html Note that at the bottom of the page, Del Holland, vice president and general manager of SFMM, is quoted as saying: “There’s another monster on the drawing boards.” And a poster over at www.rollercoaster.com , who claims to be a share-holder in Premier Parks, the owners of the Six Flags chain, says 400’ is the target height.
I think I’ll go to GQ and ask any physicists or engineers just how high a roller coaster can be. Surely 500 feet is the practical limit!
