Photo TR: Boomers at Dania Beach

[Jumboshrmp]

I may ramble on and on in this trip report. Sorry about that. I was just so excited after riding one of the coolest rides ever and I had to tell everyone.

 

Scroll down through the post if you don't feel like reading it. I have a few pictures and a video waiting for you.

 

On the second week of class, my high school has a beginning of the year "Welcome week", where we go places or have special events or pep rallies.

My favorite event of the week is the trip to Boomers on Tuesday.

Boomers is more like a giant arcade than a park, with free admission, but you have to pay for everything. They have The Dania Beach Hurricane (check out this video if you haven't heard of it ), Laser Tag, A HUGE arcade, one of the best and longest Go Kart tracks, and an area with a few small flat rides, but also one HUGE flat ride that is absolutely CRAZY.

 

So anyway...

I got to school, and got to take a free "activity bus" to Boomers (about 15 minutes away...) and then I get to spend 2 1/2 hours there with the rest of the school. It wasn't an exclusive event, but Boomers isn't usually busy, so it was mostly my school there.

 

Anyway, on to the fun part. I got there, and immediately ran all the way to the back and got a $12 (it used to be $10) ride all day wristband for the Dania Beach Hurricane. One ride costs about $6 so you are still getting a really good deal. This was my 25th ride, so I did a little celebration at the top of the lift hill (okay, not really), and hen rode four more times. I decided it was starting to get dark, so I headed over towards the front of the "park" (if you can call it that) to go ride the ride I was most excited (and also rather nervous) about riding.

 

I had never been on a flat ride that goes upside down before. Heck, the scariest flat ride I've been on is the Pharoah's Fury (unless you count an S&S tower). So I really had no idea what to expect. Actually, I wasn't too afraid of the upside down (like I was before the first time I went on a coaster with inversions), I just wasn't sure what to expect. I thought a huge ride like this (I'll get to telling you what it is in a minute) would cost about $20 to ride, which was probably why I was pleased that it was only $8 a ride. The ride is called the blender. When I saw the name on the website, I thought this would just be another scrambler type of ride. But it's not. It's a hard ride to describe. Its like a giant ferris wheel that hold four people on a giant arm with two people on both sides. However, it spins so fast that you go upside down at the top. When the next group of riders are loading, the riders stay up at the top for about 10 minutes, because the restraint system is very slow and the ride has a very low capacity. However, the restraints are VERY good, it more than makes up for the slow loading time. Riders are strapped in like fighter pilots, with a bunch of connections and you feel VERY secure. They pull the straps so tight that you can't breathe in all the way, but you need it to be that tight.

Luckily, most people are scared off just by watching it. It's somewhere around 150 feet in the air I would guess, but I have no idea what the official height is.

I had heard of this ride before, but only by the name Skyscraper, and also the name Katanga. I don't think B;ender is a good name. It's just confusing.

When riding, you sometimes start moving forwards and you sometimes start out going backward. It all depends on which way the riders that are sitting at the top (they are up there while you're loading, remember) went the last time. You go the other direction, because you go both ways during the ride.

(I will now skip the part where I wait in a 20 person line for an hour in the hot humid florida weather while getting eaten by mosquitos. I figure that part would just bore you, so I'll skip that part).

So I got in. They made me take my shoes off, even though I wasnt wearing sandles. Little did I realize this was actually make me going to make me feel so much more exposed, and just make the ride feel a little bit scarier. I got strapped in, very tight. You can't move your upper body at ALL, but your arms and legs still can move anywhere. this tightness may be a little uncomfortable at first, but you'll get over it quickly. You can now flip any direction and not move around in the seat at all. It's really great!

Okay, so the ride starts. I had waited in line for so long, I was no longer even a little bit nervous, I just wanted to get on the darn thing.

It started spinning counter clockwise. Well, I guess I'll be going backwards first! For the next 20 feet of the ascent it's picking up speed. Then it starts going really fast and I immediately want OFF! Well after the first two times going around I got used to it, but this ride was so increcibly intense it was more like a ride of endurance. The only thing I could compare it to would be Sheikra's first drop. The only thing different is that it lasted about a minute and a half. 90 seconds of pure terror. It was fun, I'll give it that, but it was INCREDIBLY disorienting, and just crazy insane wow so scary I just wanna start saying random words really fast because theres no way to describe how awesomely terrifying it feels.

This is the ride that confirms that the people who don't ride roller coasters aren't the people who are messed up, it's really me that's the crazy person. I had a hard time finding someone I knew that wasn't afraid to ride.

After going around for a little while, I stopped at the top for about 10 minutes. It was dark by the time I got on the ride (but it was completely light when I got in line), so I was riding at night. Sitting up there and looking off to the distance, seeing the Dania Beach Hurricane lit up, seeing all the lights around was so cool. I thought, "this is so cool! But I'm going to be up here for a while so why don't I try and flip the seats over. I started rocking it back and forth, but once I started facing the ground, I decided to stop, because it was getting pretty scary, so I stopped before I could flip any more. Maybe next time I'll try again. When I started moving again, I was going clockwise, that is, going forward. This was just as scary as going backwards, it was just a little less intense. I got an awesome view of the world upside down from the top.

 

But, there are a few things I would like to know

 

What is the name of this type of ride? Like if Ripsaw = Top Spin, then Blender = what?

Also, I want to know how tall this ride really is, and who built it if anyone knows.

Also, has anyone else been on a ride like this, what did you think of it, and have you been on anything scarier?

 

Now here are the pictures!

So here's the blender

 

A close up of the loading procedure

 

This is the blender, an incredibly decieving name.

 

This is what it looks like when you get in line at 7:30 PM

 

This is what it looks like when you are finally about to get on the ride.

 

 

 

 

 

An angle you rarely see

 

Lots of train parts, and the old sign from back when the ride was cheaper. This was right below the station,

 

Here you can see how busy this ride is. No, that was everyone who got on that train. I also think there was a 14 year old ride op.

 

Cool lift hill shot

 

Check out the video!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tO2qTgDkMvk

[mcjaco]

Holy crap....size those pictures down, please.

[Jumboshrmp]

I did warn you. And you should have replied to the older one, so I could delete the newer thread. I accidentally posted twice and now I have to let a mod do it.

 

And I also added the video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tO2qTgDkMvk

 

If you don't like the large pictures, sorry, don't read my trip report. The main reason I don't host them on the forum is because after going through all that trouble of typing a trip report, I'm not going to only post it on one forum!

Plus, thumbnails aren't possible on every forum, but the main reason they are that large is because I didn't realize my camera takes larger pictures when set to 1 MP with my new memory stick.

[CoasterFanatic]

If you don't like the large pictures, sorry, don't read my trip report.

 

You should probably read the TOS again:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=137

 

10. Uploading images - When you upload images, please keep them under 100k and no bigger than 800x600.

 

... and remarks like "If you don't like it" aren't very and are not in the spirit of TPR.

 

Please Fix the photos. I recommend this plugin. It is quick and super easy!

Thank You

ASSistant

[Jumboshrmp]

I was planning on fixing the photos eventually anyway.

I'm have fixed them now. Sorry about that. I also put the video at the end of the post. The only reason they were that large was because I had made the entire post before I realized how big the pictures were.

 

Now hopefully I can get a few replies abut the actual trip report