KarlaKoaster

Don't worry, I'm not worried in the slightest, this coaster looks perfect in every way!

Ah thanks for explaining A.J! I think I prefer my legs in the air (ooh err) regardless of whether I can put them out in front or not but I totally get what you mean and I guess it is all down to personal choice

I'm not a massive fan of Gerstlauer (sorry gerstlaueringvar!) so am happy they went for Mack. As for why, if it's a prototype, they probably got it for a good price, plus like coaster1000 says, they would have got a good deal on buying two rides. Also it's a free market so manufacturers will always try and reinvent the wheel and parks will decide which manufacturer offers the best option for them. This decision would be based on so many things including capacity, reliability, their relationship with the manufacturer, the price, whether they have other rides from the same manufacturer in the park (or chain), how easy it is to maintain etc etc I think the ride is looking really curious! I love the look of so many of the elements like the first drop, the twisty tongue turn and the airtime hill(s), but it does all look bizarrely disjointed and I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing

Glad to have the train revealed! A wing rider style train would have been incredible but the realist in me always discounted it on account of the rocks being so close. The theming is incredible, of course, and I would have been surprised if it was anything less. Why's that? (genuinely interested as opposed to debating!)

That train must be such a nightmare to maintain. With everything cantilevered out to the side there's a lot of forces even if it were the smoothest coaster in the world, but I guess every vibration is amplified and it's alarming how the train is basically zig-zagging along the track there! I seem to have a lot higher pain tolerance than a lot of members here (maybe it's my size, I'm tiny?) but FB was such a weird sensation and really uncomfortable to the point my vision went really weird on the brake run.

That's such a great picture.... love the angle. Hope your roving reporter is having a good day, will look forward to catching up on the coverage

Me too, but maybe only the once. I do normally stay on site though, so hope that this would be included in the cost of the hotel.

Oh no arguments from me, it could be really good, I'm just giving it a bit of the side-eye treatment at the moment because or Merlin's recent track record. The press release hasn't really got me very excited because it's the same kind of stuff they always come out with, but like you say the proof is in the pudding.

I like the mix of traditional Italian architecture and the ultra modern F1 style buildings. I'm fascinated to know what the price is and whether it is included with the hotels and you can park hop between the two like you'd do at Disneyland Paris. I guess this is my polite way of saying it looks pretty small (even in the concept art, which should surely flatter the size) and that I don't think I'd pay more than €15-20 for it.

Sorry, I meant it's overdue a good, new dark ride (I didn't mean to say it doesn't have any)

Sub Terra was my first thought too actually, and for me it all seems a bit too much like style over substance for my tastes. The press release is full of the usual rhetoric about playing with your mind, it being a psychological experience etc, but it all feels very familiar and I'm sort of bored of the whole schtick. The UK is overdue a really good dark ride, and I am not convinced that Derren Brown's Ghost Train is going to remedy this.

Despite your modesty there's some amazing photos and I loved your commentary. Thanks so much for the pics, the Emirates are my second home so I love following people's trip reports from there

I think with Hulk the figure is distorted by the incline. Remember that even on a normal lift hill you can feel the force of gravity which is why it's harder to lean forward when you are going up the lift.

Maybe an artists' impression? That would be great to see

I guess so, although David Blaine is at least known worldwide, whereas by the sounds of it, Derren Brown isn't To be honest I don't think he's huge in the UK either. He's well known and most people know who he is, but I'm not sure how many people actually follow him.

Between Cedar Fair and the Busch/Seaworld Parks, you guys in the States get such beautifully coloured coasters.

Great video and really informative! Thanks for posting. It's crazy to think the entire thing (including the very intricate track) is done by hand.

Yes, I really don't like that feature on Google. There doesn't seem to be an option to say 'Closed', just 'Permanently Closed'. Winter Wonderland was 'Permanently Closed' for most of December despite the event obviously being open and I believe Islands of Adventure's Hulk is also classed as 'permanently' closed too. I'm pretty sure that feature is from Wikipedia, not Google. There's not an article on Winter Wonderland on Wikipedia though. I think the excerpt of text is from Wikipedia, but not sure where it gets the open/closed status from. But it can be misleading, which why I mentioned it

This is the layout as interpreted by the talented Tobi on Freizeitparknews which looks like it will be very accurate. Phantasialand's is the biggest junior Boomerang so far

Yes, I really don't like that feature on Google. There doesn't seem to be an option to say 'Closed', just 'Permanently Closed'. Winter Wonderland was 'Permanently Closed' for most of December despite the event obviously being open and I believe Islands of Adventure's Hulk is also classed as 'permanently' closed too.

I've still not quite got used to just how big this ride is. I chuckle to myself almost daily when I look at how it towers over the hotel (?) to the right of the lift and it's mad to think the the pull-out from the first drop is basically the entire width of Raptor.

Thanks for the pic. Glad to see RCS building it.... should be finished this time next week

It's 131ft tall according to the Cedar Point site, and it's described as a "near" 90-degree drop, so I suspect it will be the normal 87-degree angle

You're probably right in that case, and they either worded it poorly at the press event, or it was misunderstood. Hopefully not hats will need to be eaten.

The straps they're talking about are the OSTR's, and they're talking about positional movement, not rotational. The GearVR (the headset they're using) can't track positional movement (like walking, or leaning side-to-side) but it can track rotational movement (moving your head&neck to look around). Because of this, a ride with OSTR's is the ideal environment for this type of headset. So you'll be able to look with the same amount of freedom you can on any flying coaster. They have the same system on the VR coasters at CW and Europa on a ride without OSTR's, and the system can't track your leaning in the car, but I haven't heard anyone complain about that anyways, actually. At the press event they said the technology is from Figment Productions, and specifically said that you will be able to look up and down but there will be straps to make it harder to look to the sides "to reduce the need for the VR headsets to track the body's movements as well as the coasters", so it's different to the one at Europa Park.