robbalvey

Part of me has to ask the question "Why ask a manufacturer to build a dueling coaster with some signature dueling features if they aren't going to duel them a good amount of the time", but then part of me at least things that even without the dueling that it still must be a pretty kick-ass ride. I guess looking at the positive side of things - even of Twisted Colossus duels 1/4 of the time that's still more often than classic colossus raced in the last decade?

...and to actually add some advice for future polls, try questions like "Which of these Giga's looks most interesting to you?" because that's a question that can be answered without having to ride each one. When you say "Which of these five are the best" the only way to get good data is if everyone responding has ridden all five. Do you understand where I'm coming from? Create polls where the outcome could be REAL information that could be interesting to your reader, not a poll that creates a lopsided outcome.

Sorry, but I'm just not a fan of polls like this. In order for this to be a fair poll, everyone voting in them would have needed to be on ALL of the options, and I doubt that is the case for a lot of people, so then it just becomes a pointless poll with usually the one with the most riders winning. Not good data at all, IMO. Locked.

^ I thought I already addressed this type of question. Like I said, this isn't the type of attraction where any additional fail safe is needed because there isn't anything really wrong with it currently. If you try to make it more idiot proof I'm sure that humanity will produce a bigger idiot. What this woman did was a freak accident caused by her own doing. If an attraction like this was really unsafe people would be falling left and right because after all it's a "natural human reaction" right? And that isn't happening so I'm not sure you can really fault the ride.

I'm going to make the assumptions that NONE of you have ever been on this attraction. And if so, I think it completely sucks that you all would base your ideas on pure "speculation" and lack of any sort of real knowledge instead of actually listening to those who have not only been on this attraction, several times, including several different variations of it, but has also worked with rides and ride manufacturers most of their lives. And that's fine. You can continue to be wrong. And I will continue to roll my eyes at you.

Yes, you can come in at anytime. If you want to show up at 5am when the park closes at 6am, you can. But it will still cost you a day on your ticket. Mostly at that time, it's going to be locals with AP's anyway. The park closes at 6am and then re-opens again at 8am. They DO shut down some rides early or will close rides for a couple of hours during the event so they can do their regularly scheduled preventative maintenance. It's a fair trade off for the park being open as long as it is.

I find it VERY interesting that all the SFMM fanboys keep saying how it's dueling all the time, but everyone I've heard from who has traveled from outside of the area to ride haven't seen the ride duel. Hmm.....

I have a much lower tolerance level for enthusiast behavior, trust me!

That's because roller coaster enthusiasts are ENTITLED to have The Voyage run the way THEY want it to, and if that doesn't happen then they BOO the park then, of course! This is why I don't go to events filled with obnoxious coaster nerds anymore. That's because we do a very good job of weeding them out of our group! If any Club TPR people were doing something as obnoxious and booing the ride after the park puts on a kick-ass event, they would find themselves no longer a Club TPR member the next morning. ACE can have 'em!

Sure. I guess. I mean, you can make anything as "idiot proof" as possible, but then natural selection tells us that the world will just create a bigger idiot. And that's the sad reality of why we can't have nice things.

And this is exactly why you have no business even responding because everything you said after this statement is pure garbage. If you have NO CLUE AT ALL what you are talking about, please spare the rest of us and don't talk. Thank you.

What's sad about this accident is IMO is falls more on "user error." This is one of those rides that in order to participate you HAVE to not be afraid of heights and be willing to basically "jump off a building." I've been on this attraction many times before at IAAPA and I'm guessing this is exactly what happened here... The woman freaked out while running off the platform, grabbed the metal bar where you see the arrow, and instead of falling into the bag, she probably fell to the ground because as she grabbed the bar, it caused her to lose enough momentum to where she just looped around the bar falling straight down. I really hope the company can pull through this, because I'm not sure there is anything wrong with the ride itself. There is no real failsafe to someone "freaking out at the last minute and doing something that would cause their own death." Don't mean to sound harsh in this incident, but I'm not exactly sure I'd put blame on the attraction itself because operated like it should be, and with the riders following the directions, it's completely safe.

^ You have to remember that, they pretty much designed a ride system from scratch there. And not only is it a drop tower, but it's also a dark ride, too. And when you figure that the ride is pretty much the icon for the park, and is probably the #1 reason people spend money to go to Hollywood Studios, it probably has paid for itself many times over!

End of the day, the "most expensive coasters" are going to be your heavily themed rides like Expedition Everest, Big Grizzly Mountain, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Escape from Gringotts (if you count that), etc. I'm not sure it's fair to say "Oh it's rides without any theming" because then where do you draw the line? Does Forumla Rossa not count because the trains are shaped like race cars? If you're going to create all sorts of parameters to tailor the answer to what you're looking for, IMO, that's kind of silly. But to actually answer the original question, I'd place my bets on one of the rides I listed above.

Thanks! I reported all of them!

It could just be that I've been on a lot of Mack coasters (Blue Fire, Helix, Euro Mir, Sierra Sidewinder, Space Fantasy, etc) that it looks very "Mack" to me.

This exactly. If there is one thing that Disney has proven for water parks in Orlando (at least their parks) is that they still PACK them in every single day without having a single new ride. And if I had to guess, I'd say that 99% of the people visiting those parks on a daily basis have visited less than twice in their life, the majority visiting for their first time ever, so even though the park hasn't gotten anything new, they don't need to because to most of their guests, even a decade old is still "new" to them.

Here's a couple of frame grabs from the video which I think show off some quite interesting stuff! This is not your average spinning coaster layout AT ALL!!!

Just got back from the Cobra's Curse announcement event. All I can say is... WOW! I think this ride looks AWESOME!!! While Mako will make a huge statement in Orlando, it's sister park in Tampa is building something that will make a statement across the theme park world. Lots of B&M hypercoasters out there have been built, and Mako will have reasons to stand alone, but I have not seen a ride like Cobra's Curse...EVER! It sort of reminds me of part Euro Mir, part Sierra Sidewinder, part Cheetah Hunt. It's got a little bit for everyone AND it's family accessible. I really think this ride will end up being the bar that is set for many other family coasters and most certainly spinning coasters in the future. Here's the press release, and some photos & video from today... Tampa, Fla. (May 28, 2015) – Busch Gardens® Tampa puts a spin on family thrills in 2016 with a brand new family thrill ride – Cobra’s Curse. This spin coaster is the only one of its kind in the world, featuring a vertical lift and taking riders on a whirlwind adventure of exciting explorations. Located in the Egypt area of the park, explorers will come face-to-face with an 80-foot snake icon, trek over the park’s Serengeti Plain® and discover the mysteries of an Egyptian archeological excavation. “This isn’t your ordinary spin coaster. In true Busch Gardens style, we’re putting a twist on this attraction and taking riders on an unforgettable and exciting journey,” said Busch Gardens Park President Jim Dean. “ “The addition of a family spin coaster complements the selection of thrill rides Busch Gardens offers, and we know it’s an attraction that guests from across the globe will enjoy,” Dean added. “We continue to find new and exciting ways to offer thrills for the entire family, and we know Cobra’s Curse will even further solidify Busch Gardens as Florida’s Thrill Leader.” Cobra's Curse Fact Sheet: Height: 70 Feet Length: 2,100+ feet of track Speed: 40+ MPH Ride Vehicles: 8 trains operating at one time, 8 riders per train. Capacity: 1,000+ PPH Ride Length: 3 1/2 minutes Height Restriction: 42" Teaser Video: Concept Art: I love coming to events at Busch Gardens! They do such a nice job with their credentials and media packets! We were invited into the excavation site but this archeologist. Oooh! We got to go... "behind the walls!" (We see you Montu) Photo by Jack Crouse You have been warned... We are told this area will also be used as the queue for the ride. So if you remember the old "Tut's Tomb" attractions, it will still be utilized. Noted! Here you can see the construction site. They have quite a bit done. Some footers have even gone in already. (Photo by Jack Crouse) Park President Jim Dean takes the stage to tell us about Cobra's Curse. (Photo by Jack Crouse) The ride will feature TWO lifts. One of them being a 7-story vertical lift. Something of which we don't have here in the US on a traditional roller coaster. There will be themed elements all over the ride. They didn't mention any "dark ride" type sections, so I'm not expecting that. They did mention that there would be a non-spinning section, a backwards section, and a spinning section. It all sounds AWESOME! A track length of 2,100 feet is quite long for this type of ride! For example, Sand Serpent is only 1,400 feet of track and Scorpion is 1,800. This should feel like a pretty significantly long ride. Overall, everything about this ride sounds amazing! When the park could have just built your standard spinning coaster, they went WELL outside of the box and are going to create something totally unique! I love it! Of course we had to take a lap around the park as I feel that Busch Gardens Tampa has the best "Quality over Quantity" coaster collections in the world! Kumba is no exception. It still remains my favorite B&M and today it ran incredible!!! Scorpion still kicking around and it's GREAT! Love this ride. This really is the *perfect* "first big coaster" for kids. I also feel that Falcon's Fury is the best drop ride in the world. When you hit the top and do the 90 degree thing... WOW! And IMO, Cheetah Hunt is about a perfect as a coaster as you can get. It has something for everyone. It's family-friendly, has airtime, inversions, some totally cool twisty parts over the water, the launches, etc. Cobras Curse is going to totally round out an already amazing selection of coasters at Busch Gardens. Now all they need to do is get those Rocky Mountain guys in to take a close look at Gwazi! Photo by Jack Crouse

I haven't actually ridden many GCi's lately, but last time I rode Apocalypse, Wildcat, and Thunderhead, they really were not running up to what they were in previous years, that's for sure.

There will not be a water feature. Brian Marrow told me himself today that they didn't want the ride to look just like Manta. Instead, he said the ride will be "Crashing through" that shipwrecked boat you see in the concept art. I'm guessing there will be some sort of sound or visual effect attached to that to pull it off. I personally think it would be completely silly if they had a "water splash" element with two coasters that are around the corner from each other in the same park. It would be like having two coasters in the same park with a fire element... Oh, wait... *cough* sfmm *cough*

I have just added a ton more info and photos from the announcement this morning: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1591054#p1591054

ORLANDO’S TALLEST, FASTEST AND LONGEST COASTER WILL SOON BEGIN ITS ASCENT AT SEAWORLD ORLANDO SeaWorld Orlando’s Mako ™ quick facts: • Opening summer 2016, Mako will be the tallest, fastest and longest coaster in Orlando • Mako will be a hypercoaster, designed for speed and relentless “air time” • SeaWorld Orlando will now have a portfolio of five thrill rides: three distinctly different coasters, plus two family coasters. • The 2-acre realm of the park will now be fully themed around sharks: including Mako, Shark Encounter®, Sharks Underwater Grill®, themed gift shops, shark and shipwreck theming and educational experiences. ORLANDO, Fla. (May 27, 2015) – Surfacing summer 2016 at SeaWorld Orlando will be Mako, a 200-foot-tall hypercoaster that will reach 73 mph along 4,760 feet of steel track — nearly a mile long — and leave riders feeling both breathless and weightless. Named for one of the ocean’s fastest known sharks, Mako will be Orlando’s tallest, fastest and longest roller coaster. “On Mako, you’ll experience what it’s like to be this apex predator, surging through the water at top speed and chasing prey throughout a massive reef,” said Brian Morrow, SeaWorld’s attraction creative director. “It will be a wild mix of fear, thrills and fun.” Mako’s tight turns and speed are inspired by reality. Mako sharks — also called “blue pointers” — are known for their top speed, making extreme jumps and the ability to quickly change course as they pursue their prey. The new coaster will become one of the world’s few true hypercoasters, a group of roller coasters known for high speeds and steep drops and hills that create a feeling of weightlessness or “air time.” As the sleek coaster cars crest each hill, riders float, nearly weightless. Mako is manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, a company renowned among coaster enthusiasts. B&M has built many of the world’s top roller coasters, including SeaWorld’s Manta and Kraken, and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s SheiKra. SeaWorld’s new hypercoaster will be the centerpiece of the newly themed surrounding realm. The two-acre plaza now will be fully shark themed including Mako, Shark Encounter, Sharks Underwater Grill, shops, shark and shipwreck theming and educational experiences featuring sharks. The entire realm is created to make guests feel they’re underwater, part of the group of sharks and toothy animals that have taken over a shipwrecked reef. In the plaza, guests will learn about the impact humans are having on sharks and why these animals are critical to the environment. Sharks are hunted for their fins — considered a delicacy in certain countries — and thousands are caught accidentally in nets. Several species of sharks are on the verge of extinction. “It’s this blend of education and thrills, immersing guests in an underwater world, that sets a SeaWorld ride apart from others,” said Morrow. “Our fans will love how Mako complements our other rides. Kraken is big, monstrous and twisty. Manta is massive and glides smoothly, taking you on a flight like a huge ray. Mako is entirely different. It’s streamlined and fast, just like a mako shark. There’s no wasted motion, it’s all speed and dives.” Mako uses a unique sound system to enhance the experience, and not just for those on the ride. The full score of Mako can be heard and follows riders out of the station and up the lift hill. Custom surround effects and musical scores fill the realm, changing as the coaster dives through the area. At night, specialty lights will accent the coaster trains, realm and track, flickering and shimmering, simulating fish being scattered by a mako on the hunt. MAKO FACT SHEET Name Mako™ Location SeaWorld Orlando Opening date Summer 2016 Theme Surge through a shipwreck reef as the shark and experience the ocean as an apex predator on SeaWorld’s all-new hypercoaster, Mako, Orlando’s tallest, fastest and longest roller coaster. Type Hypercoaster This class of roller coasters is known for multiple, tall hills and high speeds, providing near weightless “air time.” Some coaster enthusiasts say that hypercoasters are the essence of the extreme coaster experience. Manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, Switzerland With a portfolio that includes nearly 100 coasters throughout the world, B&M is renowned for the quality of their design. Inspiration The ride is inspired by one of the ocean’s fastest sharks, the mako. Queue line As guests anticipate boarding the coaster, even the queue brings them into an undersea theme. Riders feel as though they are floating under a pier, winding through shipwrecks and shadows. Height: 200 feet Max Speed: 73 mph Length: 4,760 feet (nearly a mile) Number of Nine air-time hills Rider height: 54 inches Track over water: 1,864 feet G-forces Mako provides plenty of negative Gs, giving riders the hypercoaster’s fun, out-of-your-seat feeling. • Negative g-forces cause the weightless feeling when you come over the crest of a hill. • Positive g-forces create the “push-you-in-your-seat” feeling riders feel at the bottom of a hill or in tight turns. Sound system: A 48,000-watt, intelligent surround-sound system envelops the realm. Sounds follow the coaster trains as they dive through and around the area … and just over guests’ heads. Coaster trains: Custom-designed, inspired by the mako, in steel origami form. The realm: Seven acres (including Mako footprint and shark realm) The new pathway through this area will be reminiscent of a giant shipwreck, with shark theming throughout. Existing “fin favorites” in the area include: • Shark Encounter – Come face-to-face with real sharks on a fascinating journey through one of the world’s largest acrylic underwater viewing tunnels. Sharks swim above and around you. • Sharks Underwater Grill – Cross over the entry bridge over a pool of graceful sharks and rays. Diners enjoy a stunning underwater view of sharks in SeaWorld’s signature full-service restaurant. SeaWorld Orlando’s SeaWorld now will have five coasters, each distinctly different: Thrill ride portfolio  Mako™ – a hypercoaster with high speeds, twists and turns. • Kraken® – a twisting, floorless coaster; inversions and loops. • Manta® – a flying roller coaster with loops and inversions. • Shamu Express ®– the perfect first coaster ride for the kids. • Journey to Atlantis® – a family water coaster that transports guests to the mythical city of Atlantis Just got back from the SeaWorld media event for the Mako Announcement. Here's some of the photos from that.... SeaWorld always seems to put on some fairly elaborate announcements. This was no exception. Brain Marrow, Creative Director for SeaWorld talks us through "Mako." Mako is a new B&M Hyper Coaster for SeaWorld Orlando. It will stand 200 feet tall, race through 4,760 feet of track, and reach speeds of 73 MPH. While not the tallest or fastest in the world by any means, it is the tallest and fastest in Orlando. Which really says something if you think about some of the high quality rides we have here! Mako's entrance will be located in the "Sharks" area of the park, and then head back towards International Drive, make a left hand turn, always parallel to Kraken, and then come on back. Like other SeaWorld attractions, the area will feature some incredible theming. Brian says the ride will have nine moments of airitme. The front entrance of the ride will have an iconic flyby moment similar to that of Manta. Brian says "Everyone LOVES the wing-dip in the water from Manta and we want to do something equally as visually stunning with Mako." You can always count on SeaWorld to put on a great event... And I love all the shark-themed treats! Here you can see some concept art sitting in front of Kraken! Brian Marrow explains that a ride going 73 MPH is actually quite a milestone for Orlando. It will be the first coaster in the area to break 70 MPH. Take a look at the entrance area now compared to the concept art above. This is the area where the coaster track will eventually fly overhead! As a special treat today, we are being taken up in a bucket to the height of Mako! Up, up we go! 200 feet in the air! From the lift of Mako, you'll be able to get AWESOME views of Kraken, just like this one! The view from Mako will be fantastic! Mako will pretty much follow the tree-line. Go out to I-Drive, turn left, and then come back. I kept taking photos of Kraken because this was such an awesome view! Figured I might as well get some other shots of the park from this vantage point! Mako's Lift hill will be just to the left of that pond. Mako, Manta, and Kraken! These three coasters will give Universal down the road some competition for best thrills in Orlando! The latest expansion, Antarctica, as seen from the newest expansion, Mako! And one last pic of Kraken...just because! Below are some higher-res versions of the concept art...

By all means you should ride it!

This park seemed abandoned when we visited in 2007. There wasn't anyone else in the amusement section of the park, although most everything was open. The "worlds fair" part was downright creepy. It felt like walking through an abandoned Epcot. Although I vaguely remember a story at some point where they got the monorail back up and running. Not sure why, but I think they did. Wonder if that's still the case. The coaster was not bad, for a Vekoma, but it also isn't something I'm sad to see go. Shame they couldn't make the park work post the worlds fair.