Now, like all Theme Parks there are an awful lot of complicated rides available to serve a lot of tastes, X:\ for example is a backwards rollercoaster in the pitch dark, Nemesis is one where you hang down and twist and turn through several silly curves and Colossus apparently is the only one in Europe with 10 loops.
So why was my favourite ride in the park the relatively simple concept of Detonator, which does the following?
- It lifts you up about 50 feet.
- It drops you.
The other majorly impressive ride on show this time was called Stealth, which is ironic because it may well be the least subtle ride in history in that it's 205 feet tall! Why is this ride so tall?
Two reasons - one is that it is very very fast. It accelerates you to 80 mph in less than two seconds. It does this by being mag-lev based rather than simply being track and momentum based like many. The second reason is for this nature... you need a way to slow down from that first acceleration - the camera for this one is right at the start by the way - the fact that they do it in a giant arch is just good marketing. After this its back to momentum to come down from the arch.
That these were my favourites says a lot about me, but what about my readers? Are you a thrill seeker? DO you like your thrills simple or complex? Keep it as clean as possible please.
Incidentally, if you are planning going to a theme park, I really can recommend the late september/early october period between the start of term and half term. To show just how good this period is, just bear in mind that today me and Mrs Algo were unlucky enough to hit a school "incept day" (huh> what a weird term... they used to be called Baker Days in my youth) and the park was still 95% empty with queue times virtually nonexistent on the less famous rides and less than twenty minutes on the biggies (Colossus, Stealth and Nemesis).
Hopefully I will see a movie tomorrow and you'll get a review instead of the lame story of my life. Til Then...
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Roller coasters!. let me tell you about roller coasters.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge coaster-head. So when I got the opportunity to go to the worlds premiere coaster park, I jumped at it.
It's called 'Cedar Point' and it's in Sandusky, Ohio (USA).
Basically it is a huge spit of land spilling out into Lake Erie which is jam-packed with coasters. EVERY RIDE is a coaster of some description. They have the worlds tallest, the worlds second tallest, the fastest, the steepest, the one with the most lops, the one with the most negative 'G' and probably the highest clean up bill for vomit removal as well.
They even have one's that are in complete darkness, ones that don't run on rails(!), one's that you sit on, stand on and hang upside down underneath. It's fabulous.
The creme-de-la-creme of Cedar Point is the 'Top Thrill Dragster' it is basically the coaster that Stealth was based on. But being American they do it big. Whereas Stealth is 80mph, TTD is 123 mph (in 4 seconds). Whereas Stealth is 250 feet tall, TTD is 400 feet tall. You get the idea. I went on this once and let me tell you - Stealth is NOTHING compared to it. For a start the power needed to push a fully loaded car from 0-123mph in 4 seconds as so much that it literally stops you breathing. As the lights count down to start people scream, but as soon as th movement is initiated all screaming stops. Instantly. 4 seconds later as you come of the mag-lev you are able to breath again. But by then you are heading vertically up the loop. At the top - presuming you make it there - you will be almost 40 stories in the air, balanced on a piece of track which is actually substantially narrower than the carriage you are sitting in - which gives the impression that you have nothing underneath. Oh and did I say 'presuming you get there'? Well occasionally, they miscalculate the weight of the occupants and don't give it enough power to make it to the top. This results in a 'roll-back' where the carriages fall backwards down the track to the start. Then it starts again. It's actually a status symbol to get a 'roll-back' rather than just a normal run.
I timed the whole ride. From the moment the lights go to the moment the train stops it takes 24 seconds. On opening day the queues were six hours. I waited 20 minutes.
Oh, and in case you were wondering: During the opening season they found out 2 key things about this ride
1) If you hit a seagull at that speed it gets really messy, really quick
2) Females who are approaching menstruation should ideally not ride as the forces can induce the bleeding to start.
Now ask yourself how they found those two things out....
One day I'll tell you about 'The Millenium" - a roller coaster with an 84 degree vertical drop and only a lap belt to hold you in.
Oblivion. Best rollercoaster I've ever been on.
ReplyDeleteBut I still miss the wonky charm of Black Hole.