Skyrush: Ride the Edge

                Every year for about 5 or 6 years, my family and I took a trip to Hersheypark each summer.  In 2011, I remember their being an advertisement for a new coaster that would become Hershey’s tallest rollercoaster.  Once I saw this ad, I knew I had to return to Hershey the following year when the coaster was completed.  Sure enough, the next year we returned to Hershey to ride their new attraction.  Skyrush quickly became one of Hershey’s biggest attractions, and it is clear to see why. 

              This 212-foot monster is situated in the Comet Hollow section of the park, one of the closest sections of the park to the main entrance.  What is so special about this ride is that it is now the tallest and fastest ride in the park.  Also, Skyrush’s trains are the first of its kind.  The train contains 8 rows of 4 seats.  The two middle seats are located on the train while the two outside seats are winged, so the rider’s feet dangle with nothing below them.  Each train weighs approximately 13 tons!  Skyrush was built by Intamin, a highly prestigious ride manufacturer that has created several of the world’s top attractions.  The ride was purposed on August 17th, 2010 and completed on May 26th, 2012.  The ride was officially announced to the public on August 2nd, 2011 in the section of the park where it was planned to be built.  The ride reaches a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour and a maximum height of 212 feet.  The ride is 3600 feet of track; nearly three quarters of a mile!  Skyrush’s bright yellow track can be seen from all over the park, as it kisses the sky far above any other ride in the park.  After its completion, the park saw an incredible increase in park guests like nothing they have ever experienced before.

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            Skyrush begins with a 17.8 mile per hour cable lift to the top of the first hill.  After plummeting 200 feet, riders reach a top speed of 75 miles per hour.  It is at this point that riders experience a 5G force.  This means riders feel five times heavier than their actual weight.  The second airtime hill provides riders with a large negative g-force of -2G.  This means riders feel two times lighter than their actual weight.  The ride is a classic out and back with several airtime hills with many unexpected twists and turns that will constantly keep its riders on their toes.  An out and back rollercoaster is simply classified by the fact that it goes out of the station and returns without much crossing of the tracks.

            Anyone who has been on this ride knows that it is without a doubt one of the best in the park, and on a busy day it will never fail to have one of the longest waits in the park.  It is the fastest and tallest ride in the park, and the g-force experience is incredible.  I get tunnel vision after the drop almost every time I ride Skyrush.  The only complaint I have about this ride is that the lap bar tightens at the ride goes on, so by the end, your thighs have gone through the ringer.  They certainly accounted for this, because when waiting for the train to pull back into the station, the lap bar loosens once the train passes a certain point.  Overall, it is a great ride, and because of that I will have to give it a 8 out of 10.

Boulder Dash: The Mountain Ride

                I remember this day like it was yesterday.  The first roller coaster I ever went on.  I was about 8 or 9 years old; barely scraping four feet tall by the ends of my buzzcut.  My cousin told me to stand on his feet when they went to check my height; thank god I was just tall enough and didn’t need to do that.  I distinctly remember the butterflies in my stomach getting stronger and stronger as we got closer to the ride.  Getting into the car, I was quaking with excitement and fear, as I looked ahead at the wooden behemoth that climbed up the hill and into the tree line out of view.  This is Boulder Dash; one of the best wooden coasters ever made.

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            Located at Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut, this mountain coaster brings thousands to the park every year.  The park is rather small; it only has three roller coasters and several small attractions.  Because I’m from Long Island, this park is the perfect place to go on the fourth of July just for the day, spend all day in the park, watch a firework display, and head home late that night.  Boulder Dash was completed in May 2000 by a not so well-known company, Custom Coasters International.  The company used Southern Yellow Pine wood to build the ride.  Boulder Dash was the number one wooden coaster in the world by the Golden Ticket Awards in the years 2004, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.  This track spans almost an entire mile as it zips in and out of trees on the side of a mountain.  The ride boasts a ton of hills that give riders the best airtime they will ever experience.

            The ride experience is rather simple yet thrilling.  It starts with a 110-foot climb to the top of the hill.  Once it gets to the top, it turns right and picks up a little speed before dropping 115 feet and reaching a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour.  The first half of the rest of the ride is flying through the tree line with airtime hill after airtime hill.  Once it nears the end of this series, it turns down the mountain and goes back towards the station doing the same thing, with a view of the lake and the rest of the park on the right and the uphill to the left.  After another series of airtime hills, it hits a brake run and pulls into the station.

            My rating is going to be highly biased because this is the first ever coaster I ever went on, so it holds a near and dear place in my heart.  Nevertheless, you cannot argue with statistics.  This ride won best wooden roller coaster in the world 5 times since its completion and it has remained a legendary ride in the roller coaster community ever since.  I will give this ride a 9 out of 10 because it is so highly regarded, but one point off because as technology improves more and more rides are being made that are simply more impressive than rides like this.

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Goliath: Six Flags Great America

            If you ever got around to reading my first ever blog about Steel Vengeance, you’ll know after reading this blog that these two rides are like cousins.  Goliath has a wooden frame with a steel track, giving it the ability to twist and turn like any other steel coaster.  In fact, Goliath includes two inversions and two banked turns.  The coaster was made by Rocky Mountain construction and designed by Alan Schilke, well known for designing X in Six Flags Magic Mountain.  The ride is located just about an hour north of Chicago in Gurnee, Illinois.  Gurnee is home to Six Flags Great America, which is where Goliath and several other rollercoaster behemoths are located.  The roller coaster managed to break three wooden roller coaster records:  It has the longest drop at 180 feet, steepest drop angle at 85 degrees, and the fastest speed at 72 miles per hour.  I know in the last blog I said El Toro has the second steepest at 76 degrees, only passed by T Express, but because Goliath is a hybrid coaster, it has its own category.

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            Goliath opened on June 19th, 2014 and was officially announced on August 29th, 2013.  Goliath replaced a rollercoaster known as Iron Wolf, which was repurposed and built elsewhere.  Iron Wolf was rebuilt in Six Flags America and is now known as Apocalypse: The Last Stand.  The ride name comes from its incredible size.  With a total of 3,100 feet of track, it is without a doubt one of the longest track’s in the park.  The track itself is made of six layers of laminated wood and a steel cover as the topmost layer.  The purpose of the steel layer is to reduce maintenance required and to create a smoother ride experience.  Rocky Mountain Construction Engineers spent 4 years developing the technology to bend wood, giving the coaster the ability to include elements that normal wooden coasters don’t have. 

            The ride begins with a 45 degree climb to the top of the first hill.  After dropping 180 feet and reaching a maximum speed of 72 miles per hour, the coaster soars to an elevation of 125 feet to perform an overbanked turn around.  After completing the turn, the train descends and hits a small airtime hill.  This is immediately followed by the ride’s first inversion, known as a dive loop.  A dive loop twists upward and then dives toward the ground.  This next attraction is its second inversion, a zero-gravity stall, where the train is held upside down while cresting over a hill.  The last element is a second overbanked turn before hitting a final brake run.

            Figuring out a rating for this ride is certainly difficult.  The ride does hold three world records, the fastest, tallest and steepest wooden roller coaster in the world.  Based on that criteria, I would give the ride a 10 out of 10, but since I’ve never actually been on it, I don’t know if that would be an accurate representation of the ride.  Even though I cannot represent it accurately, several professional critics have said this one of the most intense roller coasters they’ve been on, and for that, I would say this ride deserves a 10 out of 10.

El Toro: Welcome to the Rodeo

            Located in Jackson New Jersey at Six Flags Great Adventure is one of the best wooden coasters to ever be created.  Completed in June of 2006, El Toro has been bringing thousands of roller coaster fanatics to this amusement park.  The ride was designed by Intamin and built by Rocky Mountain Construction.  At the time of its completion, it had the steepest drop for a wooden coaster.  The drop is 176 feet at an angle of 76 degrees.  There are several steel coasters that would make this drop angle seem unimpressive, but as far as wooden coasters go, it is the second steepest drop in the world, only surpassed by T Express in 2008.  It also boasts an incredible max speed of 70 miles per hour, the fourth fastest of its kind.  Additionally, it is the first wooden coaster to feature a cable lift rather than a chain.

            El Toro replaced Viper which was shut down in 2004, two years prior to El Toro’s opening.  In order to save money, Viper’s station was repurposed for El Toro.  The whole inside of the station was gutted, and a new platform was constructed for El Toro.  El Toro means “The Bull” in Spanish.  The ride is situated in the Mexican themed section of the park, where many of the concession stands are selling quesadillas and burritos, and there are other Mexican themed rides like El Diablo, a simple loop that spins its riders in a gut-wrenching loop for the entire ride.  El Diablo means “The Devil” in Spanish, so to say this ride’s name is accurate would simply be an understatement.  Anyway, El Toro features trains with bull horns on the front to simulate the train as being a bull.  Like the way a bull jerks its rider around in a rodeo, El Toro certainly simulates that to a great extent.

            The ride begins with a 20 second climb to the first hill.  Once reaching the top, the ride does a full 180 degree turn and hurls its riders down one of the steepest wooden roller coaster drops ever created.  Once reaching a maximum speed of 70 miles per hour at the bottom of the hill, riders coast through the scaffolding of the ride, creating a headchopper-effect.  This is a common effect created by roller coasters, when the train comes relatively close to a bar overhead, making it seem as though the riders could get hit by it.  This is used a lot on rides to add to the mental effect.  It then coasts onward to back to back camelback hills followed by a 180-degree banked turn to the right and then immediately to the left, creating some powerful G-forces.  The ride then coasts through another small hill that passes by the station followed by an ejector airtime hill with a -2 G-force.  This means at the peak of the hill, riders feel two times lighter!  The ride finally calms to several twists and turns before hitting its final break run.

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            This is another one of those rides where if I could give it an 11 out of 10 I would.  I have been on this ride more than I can count on all my fingers and toes, and when I say it gives you that same exhilarating every time, I mean it.  For its speed, the ride gets a 10 out of 10; I mean, it’s the fourth fastest wooden rollercoaster ever built.  For drop quality, the ride gets a 10 out of 10 here as well; dropping 176 feet at a 76-degree angle, immediately followed by a headchopper-effect will never fail to get the adrenaline flowing through the veins.  For its final quality I decided to change things up a bit.  I will be answering the all too important question: Is it worth the wait?  If this was the only good ride in the park, I would wait on a line that stretches to the park exits, but that isn’t the case.  In all honesty, this is one of the best rides ever made, and I would probably be willing to wait 3 hours if it was the shortest wait in the park (which is highly unlikely because of the amount of quality rides at this park).  If this blog doesn’t convince you to get to Six Flags Great Adventure ASAP, I don’t know what will.

Volcano: The Blast Coaster

                One of Kings Dominion’s greatest attractions, this ride is certainly unlike any other.  Kings Dominion is located just outside of Virginia’s capital, Richmond.  Located on the eastern most side of the park is a man-made “volcano” with track twisting and turning all around it and through the top.  This is Volcano: The Blast Coaster.  Known as Volcano for short, this ride was completed in 1998 and built by ride manufacturer Intamin.  This ride was designed by legendary roller coaster designer and engineer, Werner Stengel.  Stengel is also responsible for erecting roller coaster beasts such as Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force, both of which were covered in previous blogs.

            The ride was built around this man-made mountain which was already previously there.  Prior to Volcano, the mountain was used for a different attraction called Smurf Mountain.  The mountain was then repurposed and transformed into Volcano.  Additionally, Volcano just so happens to be the first inverted coaster to contain a Linear Induction Motor (LIM).  LIMs are used to produce linear motion.  LIMs use a levitation effect as a result of magnetic forces to propel objects in straight-line paths.  LIMs are highly practical for roller coasters because, in general, they are very low maintenance and relatively easy to install.

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Volcano’s layout is intended to imitate the likely path an eruption would take.  The LIM is used on the “blast” portion of the coaster, in which riders are accelerated to a speed of 70 miles per hour and launched upward out of the top of the volcano, reaching a maximum height of 155 feet.  At the top, riders experience a roll-out feature in which the train performs a quarter-roll and corkscrews until the riders are right side up.  This inversion is unique to Volcano, as well as the tallest inversion in the park.  The rest of the ride consists of three heartline rolls as the train revolves around the mountain before returning the station at the base of the volcano.  Heartline rolls are inversions that keep the track as straight as possible while rotating rides 360 degrees around a pivot point, the pivot point being the track.

To say this ride is one of a kind would certainly be an understatement, but apart from its visual appeal, the thrill of the ride only really lies in the launch and inversions.  For the inversion rating, I would give it is a 10 out of 10, uniqueness is a 10 out of 10 as well.  As for a thrill rating, I would give it a 7 out of 10; it simply doesn’t have enough apart from the launch and inversions.  For the last criteria, I’d give its design a 7 out of 10 as well; there’s so much more that could have been done apart from simply having the track revolve around the mountain.  This gives the ride an appropriate final rating of 8.5 out of 10.

X2

                As if a 215-foot drop and a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour wasn’t enough, this roller coaster is certainly one of the most unique rides in the world.  The seats rest on an axle that randomly rotates throughout the ride, leaving riders guessing which way they’re going the entire time.  X2, located in Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California is the world’s first fourth dimension roller coaster. Fourth dimension roller coaster are classified by their ability to rotate about a horizontal axis which is perpendicular to the train’s path of motion.  This was the last roller coaster created by ride manufacturer Arrow Dynamics, which became defunct in 2002.

            Considering this was the first of its kind, engineers ran into many problems when constructing it.  In fact, the original X ride was planned for opening in Summer 2001, but engineers experienced several issues, particularly with the trains. The coaster then initially opened in January 2002 but was then closed in late 2007 to transform it into X2.  It later reopened in mid-2008 with several upgrades such as new generation vehicles, flame throwers, increased maximum speed, and a sound system.  Although these features are nice, it doesn’t even compare to the ride’s rotation feature.  The rotation is possible due to the presence of four different rails on the track.  Two of the rails are for the motion of the train itself while the other two are for controlling rotation.  The two that control rotation move up and down and spin using a rack and pinion gear mechanism.  This mechanism translates rotational motion into linear motion.  In layman’s terms, the seats rotate based on the linear motion of the train.

            The ride begins with a high anticipation climb to the top of the hill.  After climbing 175 feet, there is a teaser drop before climbing an additional 15 feet to an altitude of 190 feet.  The 215-foot drop immediately follows, in which riders are rotated 180 degrees so they’re facing the ground.  The ride then enters a raven loop, also known as a raven turn, is unique to 4D coasters only.  It features half of a loop followed by a drop which ends at the same level from which it entered.  During the feature, riders transfer from laying on their backs to a “superman” position.  This transition is also called “lie-to-fly.” After the loop, the seats rotate 360 degrees backwards.  This is followed by a “fly-to-lie” twist.  While this is going on riders can see flame throwing effects overhead.  The ride continues through a outside raven loop followed immediately by a half-twist.  The ride then hits a brake run and comes to a stop.

            For the rating, I would take four factors into consideration: uniqueness, speed, G-forces, and height.  For uniqueness, this ride gets a much deserved 10 out of 10.  Not only is it the first of its kind, but there is only one other that has been built since X2.  For speed, I would give it an 8 out of 10.  This ride is not known for its speed, but considering the speed was improved from X to X2, it gets a pretty good rating for that.  As for G-forces, this gets a 9 out of 10.  There aren’t any features in the ride that would create an overwhelming amount of G-forces, but the rotating throughout the ride certainly does.  And lastly, height gets a 9 out of 10 as well.  Height is not a huge selling point of this ride, but the simple fact that its 4D and it is in the hypercoaster category gives it a 9 out of 10.  After averaging all these together, it gets an overall rating of 9 out of 10 which is very reasonable for a ride like this one.  It is certainly thrilling, and if you are ever on the west coast in the LA area, you should not hesitate to check it out.

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Roller Coasters America Volume 2 Intro

                Hello fellow blog readers!  I would like to give everyone a warm welcome back to Penn State! I hope everyone is excited for the new semester.  For my passion blog, I will be continuing my topic from last semester, with some small changes here and there.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with my blog, I basically discuss a different roller coaster every week, and at the end of the blog I give it a list of credentials and rate each on scale from 1 to 10.  It then gets an overall rating by averaging the credential scores together.  Last semester, I focused on one amusement park which is a personal favorite of my mine, Cedar Point.  After covering all the major coasters in that park, I figured it is time to move on to other coasters.  Rather than staying in one park, I am going to review different coasters from different parks.  In this blog, I will outline what coasters I will be covering throughout the semester.

            In the next blog, I will be discussing one of my favorite rollercoasters I have ever been on.  X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California is by far one of the most invigorating rides I have ever been on.  There is no ride like it in the world.  If you’re a rollercoaster junkie like me and you’re ever in the LA area, Six Flags Magic Mountain is a must simply because of this ride.

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            In blog three I will be moving across the country to King’s Dominion in Richmond, Virginia.  One of the most unique rides I have ever been on, Volcano: The Blast Coaster is a sure way to get the adrenaline pumping through your veins.  The ride sends thrill seekers through the heart of a volcano in a twisting and turning adventure.

            Blog four is set in Jackson, New Jersey where I will examine what is considered the best wooden coaster to ever be made.  El Toro in Six Flags Great Adventure is one of the park’s greatest attractions along with King Da Ka, Nitro, the Superman Ride, and many more.  There aren’t many wooden roller coasters around that compare to this one.  Wooden coasters get a bad rap because they are uncomfortable and rough.  That’s where El Toro separates itself from the rest.

            Next, we’ll be traveling to the capital of the Midwest.  Located just north of Chicago, Illinois, Goliath at Six Flags Great America is a steel track on a wooden frame, very similar to Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point which was discussed in one of my previous blogs.  This unique ride boasts a plethora of inversions and g-force turns that will leave riders exhilarated.

            The sixth blog will cover Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce in Bristol Connecticut.  This small amusement park is home to one of the most unique wooden coasters in the country.  Fun fact, this was the first rollercoaster I’ve ever been on!  It is a basic out and back coaster that sends riders on an adventure through the trees.

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            The final blog will discuss Skyrush in Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  This is one of the newest additions to the Hersheypark family.  This ride is appropriately named, as its drop climbs to a height of 200 feet.  The ride reaches a maximum speed of 72 miles per hour, whipping its riders around turns with extreme g-forces.

            Let me know in the comments if you would like to have a different rollercoaster reviewed, if not these will be the ones for the semester!

Raptor: Conquer the Sky

                If you want to simulate the feeling of flight, Raptor is a must ride.  This classic inverted coaster has graced the center of the park for over 20 years.  Apart from being the only inverted coaster in the park, Raptor is also by far the loudest.  If you’re with friends and you’re within a 100-yard radius of the ride, having a conversation might be a difficult task.  This Bollinger & Mabillard classic was completed in May of 1994.  Along with breaking several inverted coaster records, it also set several firsts.  It was the longest, tallest, and fastest of its kind when it opened.  It features 3790 feet of track, a 119-foot drop, and six inversions.  Amongst those six inversions is a cobra roll, the first time ever implemented into an inverted coaster.  Riders traverse forward through an upwards half-vertical loop, corkscrew perpendicular to the first direction, enter another corkscrew that merges into a downward half-vertical loop that exits in the parallel but opposite direction of the entrance. It takes riders upside-down twice.   Raptor’s construction was announced on September 1st, 1993.  When asked about the design of the construction, Cedar Point Management said, “Raptor will be the most exciting and ambitious project ever … a project that will challenge the boundaries of imagination and change the Sandusky, Ohio amusement park/resort like nothing before it.”

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                The ride begins with a tension building 137-foot climb.  The ride begins with a pre-drop to get the blood pumping before turning 90 degrees and dropping 119-feet, accelerating to a top speed of 65 miles per hour.  At the bottom of the drop the ride immediately climbs into a 100-foot vertical loop.  The ride doesn’t stop its series of inversions here, as it is then immediately followed by a zero-g roll and the cobra roll which is the staple of this attraction.  The ride then enters the mid-course break run, which is a stretch of brakes that slows the coaster down.  The train then dives down, transitioning into a short straight section of track.  This straight section is followed by a double corkscrew rotating riders 360 degrees to the left.  The track straightens yet again, before sending riders hurling through a second corkscrew.  The ride ends with a 1.5 revolution flat helix in which riders feel strong G-forces before the ride comes to an end.  The total ride time is 2 minutes and 15 seconds.

                This week’s ratings will be a little different, considering this is the first inverted coaster I am covering.  The components of my rating will be ride experience, inversion quality, G-forces, and comparison to others of its kind.  If you’ve been on this ride, you know it’s incredibly smooth and it leaves most riders running back to the entrance, therefore, it gets a 10 out of 10 in this respect.  The inversion quality is also a 10 out of 10, considering it features an inversion that most other inverted coasters don’t have.  The G-forces aren’t incredibly strong until the very end, but the end experience does give it a pretty strong rating at a 7 out of 10.  And in comparison to rides of its kind, it definitely ranks as one of the best (although personally, I prefer Great Bear at Hersheypark) giving it a 9 out of 10 and a final rating of 9 out of 10.

 

Valravn

                Valravn is the tallest, longest, and fastest dive coaster in the world.  A dive coaster is a steel roller coaster model developed and manufactured by Bollinger & Mabillard. The design features one or more near-vertical drops that are approximately 90 degrees, which provide a moment of free-falling for passengers.  Valravn was opened in May of 2016; Cedar Point’s newest roller coaster.  Valravn was manufactured by B&M, as any coaster of its kind is.  Valravn marked B&M’s 100th coaster even built since their founding in 1988.  Valravn gets its name from Danish folklore.  Valravn is a based on a mythological bird; it directly translates to “raven of the slain.”  The valravn in Danish folklore is a bird who feasts on the dead bodies of those who die in battle.  Site preparation for the ride began in late 2014; a year and a half before opening.  They began by knocking down a theatre, a kiddy ride, and relocating several other attractions.  Each train consists of three cars holding eight passengers across.  This unorthodox train is typical for dive coasters.

                After leaving the station, the train turns 180-degrees and climbs the 223-foot hill.  Once at the top, it makes a slight turn just to build anticipation even more as riders approach the 90-degree free fall towards the earth.  Just as the train crests the top of the drop, it stops.  “What happened?  Oh no, did it malfunction?  How long am I going to be up here? I got places to be!”  many first-time riders think to themselves.  After this 4 second pause which feels like an eternity, the brake disengages and it hurls the riders towards the earth reaching a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour; the fastest of its kind.  The ride then climbs into an Immelmann loop which is very common for B&M coasters (if you happened to read my last blog, there is also one on GateKeeper).  The train then hits a series of brakes and goes into a second, smaller drop just like the first except it’s only 131 feet.  Right after the drop, the train dives into a dive loop, which climbs upward and then twists at the peak, inverting the train and bringing it back down.  It then leads into one last inversion which is a 270-degree zero-g roll.

                To simply regard this roller coaster as one of a kind is a mere understatement.  The overall rating will be based on uniqueness, speed, height, and ride experience.  The ride is the fastest, tallest and longest of its kind, and for that, it gets a 10 out of 10 for uniqueness, 9 out of 10 for speed (the speed isn’t its greatest attraction), 9 out of 10 for height (knock one point because there are plenty of taller rides in the park), and 10 out of 10 ride experience.  The ride overall is very smooth and invigorating, certainly worth whatever wait it may have.  Based on my sub-ratings, the final rating of the coaster is a 9.5 out of 10.

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GateKeeper: Thrill Starts at the Gate

Imagine you’re going to Cedar Point for the first time.  You’re on the expressway taking you out to the park, and in the distance, you see it.  The skyscraping, bloodcurdling, gut wrenching heights of giga and strata coasters like Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster.  The adrenaline is already beginning to course through your veins.  Then you get to the main entrance and what do you see?  The record breaking blue beast that twists and turns ever-so smoothly over the entrance to the park.  Thrill truly starts at the gate: this is GateKeeper.

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Designed by Bollinger & Mabillard (B&M), GateKeeper became the fifth Wing Coaster ever created.  GateKeeper became the third ride at Cedar Point to be created by B&M, following Cedar Point’s inverted coaster, Raptor, completed in 1994, and Cedar Point’s stand-up coaster, Mantis, completed in 1996 (Fun Fact: Mantis was recently renovated and changed from a stand-up coaster to a floorless coaster.  It was also renamed Rougarou).   A Wing Coaster is a type of steel roller coaster where pairs of riders sit on either side of a roller coaster track in which nothing is above or below the riders.  Construction began in September of 2012 and took eight months to complete.  In order to create the ride, Cedar Point had to get ride of two older coasters, bringing the number of rollercoasters in the park down to 16 (Now 17 with the addition of Valravn, which will be covered in the next blog).  The ride opened on May 11, 2013, on the most successful opening weekend to date in the park’s history.  GateKeeper has broken several records. Among Wing Coasters, it became the longest and fastest, featured the longest drop, and contained the most inversions.  It also set a new record for having the highest inversion of any roller coaster in the world, surpassing Volcano, The Blast Coaster (one of my personal favorites) at Cedar Point’s sister park, Kings Dominion.

The ride begins by climbing a 170 foot hill, and then dropping riders to a mere 6 feet above the ground at a 164 foot drop.  The drop puts the rider immediately into its first of 6 inversions, twisting and turning it back towards the lift hill.  At the bottom of the hill, GateKeeper reaches its maximum speed of 67 miles per hour, the fastest of its kind of coaster.  The rider experiences a G-force of about 4 at the bottom of the hill, in which riders feel about 4 times heavier!  Immediately after the drop the ride is brought into an Immelmann Loop, which is half of a complete loop and brought back into upright position by a twist.  Shortly after this loop is the camelback hill which gives the rider a similar feeling of weightlessness, or the closest thing to it.  The train then goes through a tall barrel roll followed by the most impressive inversions of the whole ride.  The ride snakes its way through two keyholes while performing a zero-g roll, which literally just twists the track 360 degrees.  The ride is then brought to the ground and sent into an inclined dive loop, in which the ride climbs a hill and twists back into the upright position at the point of inversion.   The train then performs an inline twist which is attached to the keyhole towers, before hitting a series of breaks and returning to the station.

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The ratings of this ride will be based on speed, height, uniqueness, and ride experience.  Its not a lightning fast coaster, but it is the fastest of its kind so for speed it receives an 8 out of 10.  The drop could be higher, but it catches riders by surprise with an unorthodox drop, 7 out of 10.  As for uniqueness, there’s only 5 other rides like it to exist.  If it was the only and/or first of its kind, I would give it a 10 out of 10, but it isn’t, therefore it receives a 9 out of 10.  As for ride experience, it is one of the smoothest rides I have ever been on.  It doesn’t rattle you around, you feel very comfortable the entire way through, therefore it receives a 10 out of 10.  After factoring together all of these ratings, the final rating of this ride is 8.5 out of 10.