Universal has been mum on exactly what maintenance was being performed. The coaster’s German manufacturer – Maurer Sohne – issued a memo on Sept. 2, advising that all coasters similar to the Rip Ride Rockit be shut down immediately because of a flaw in the coupling bar that holds the two trains in the ride cars together.
At the time of the ride’s closure, Universal said that they had already dealt with the manufacturer’s advisory.
The Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster boasts the tallest lift hill in Orlando, at 167 feet. It has a number of unusual design features, including a vertical loop that rolls the ride cars around so that riders are not upside down at the top of it. The coaster officially opened on Aug. 19, 2009.
The ride features individual speakers in each seat and the ability to “choose your own soundtrack,” from a list of 30 songs by artists such as the Black-Eyed Peas, No Doubt, Beastie Boys and Evanescence. There are also a number of hidden tracks for the Rip Ride Rockit that aren’t on the official song list.
Six Flags Magic Mountain will add two roller coasters and alter an existing coaster in 2011, bringing the park’s total to 18. That gives the Valencia, California, theme park the most roller coasters of any theme park in the world, dethroning Ohio’s Cedar Point, which has 17.
The first addition is the Green Lantern, is a spinning coaster on a vertical track. It’s the first of its kind in the United States, though the builder, Intamin, has a similar model called the Comet Express at Lotte World in Seoul, South Korea.
The Green Lantern’s cars can spin on a vertical axis. The ride starts with a 107-foot lifthill, after which riders will zig-zag through more than 800 feet of track on the way back down. Check out the video at the bottom of this post to see a rendering of the Green Lantern in action. Six Flags says the new roller coaster will debut in the spring.
The second 2011 coaster addition at Six Flags Magic Mountain is an as-yet-unnamed kid’s coaster that will be adjacent to the theme park’s Bugs Bunny World children’s area. It will be 679 feet long with a 28-foot lifthill and top speeds of 21 miles per hour.
Finally, the theme park’s Superman: The Escape roller coaster will get its name changed to Superman: Escape from Krypton, along with a pretty major makeover. New cars will allow riders to shoot up the 41-story tower at 100 miles per hour backwards.
The Superman coaster has two tracks. Six Flags says following the ride’s alterations, both tracks will operate with the backward-facing cars at first. After a few months, one of the cars will be turned around, allowing riders to choose whether they want to ride forwards or backwards.
Superman’s new ride cars will also have lower sides for a more exposed feeling, and new over-the-shoulder harness restraints. Six Flags says the Superman alterations will be completed early next year.
Two roller coaster cars collided Thursday night on the Pony Express ride at Knott’s Berry Farm, sending 10 riders to the hospital.
According to KTLA-TV, a ride car leaving the boarding station “rolled back,” slamming a second car car inside the station that was boarding other guests.
The crash happened during Knott’s “Halloween Haunt” event about 8:15 p.m. on Thursday. Authorities said the injuries were minor.
The Pony Express was built at Knott’s Berry Farm in 2008. It launches from zero to 38 miles per hour in 3 seconds and reaches a top speed of 40 miles per hour, relatively tame by today’s roller coaster standards.
Rollbacks, while not common, are a regular occurrence on roller coasters. They happen when a ride car is not launched fast enough to make it to the top of the first lift. This can be caused by a number of factors, including wind gusts, cold weather and ride cars that don’t have enough passengers and therefore they don’t have enough momentum.
Most coasters have a chain lift or other device to prevent rollbacks, as well as a braking system to stop a car if it does roll back.
There’s no word yet as to the cause of the Pony Express roller coaster rollback.
Another roller coaster at Knott’s Berry Farm, the hydraulically launched Xcelerator, is known for having rollbacks. On the Xcelerator, a car that rolls back is stopped by magnetic fins before it re-enters the boarding station.
Two other U.S. roller coasters based on the Xcelerator’s design – Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure and Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point – are also known to have more frequent rollbacks.
A 1960s-era, wooden roller coaster known as the Starliner will be pulled out of the mothballs and brought back to its original home: Panama City Beach, Florida.
Teddy and Jenny Meeks announced last week that they have bought the Starliner, which has been in storage in Tampa since 2008. The couple and two other partners are spending $2 million to acquire the coaster, refurbish it and relocate it to a site on Panama City Beach near Pier Park.
The Starliner was born in 1963 at the Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Panama City Beach, where it was ridden by countless vacationing families for more than four decades, until the park closed in 2004.
The 70-foot-tall coaster was then relocated to Cypress Gardens near Winter Haven, Florida. But in 2008, Cypress Gardens shut down its rides and the Starliner was put in storage. Earlier this year, Legoland bought the Cypress Gardens property and announced that the Starliner would not be included in the plans for Legoland Florida.
Enter the Meeks, who had previously purchased a balloon ride and a biplane ride from the Miracle Strip and installed them at Pier Park. Teddy Meeks told the Panama City News Herald that the Starliner will keep its wooden structure, but will get a new magnetic braking structure and other safety improvements.
The ride is expected to open no later than the spring of 2012.
Summer season is winding down, and that means it’s the time of year when theme parks start announcing their new attractions for the 2011 season. Here’s a look at the latest news and rumors about new attractions at U.S. theme parks:
Dollywood to open the Barnstormer
Dolly Parton’s theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, will add a $5.5 million ride called the Barnstormer. It’s designed to simulate stunt flying with the use of two pendulum arms. The ride will rise 81 feet in the air. Dollywood is also building a new barnyard-themed children’s play area around the Barnstormer.
The new ride will have a height requirement of 48 inches. It’s expected to open in March 2011.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay launches teaser Web site
Construction of a new attraction has been going on for months at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, but the park has made no official announcements as to what the new ride will be. It is widely believed that the new attraction will be a roller coaster. Park officials have only said that there will be thrils and animal encounters.The Tampa, Florida, theme park has launched a teaser web site, BuschGardens2011.com, with videos of park officials talking about their big secret. The latest video is with design and engineering VP Mark Rose, who does reveal that the 2011 project will have the largest footprint of any attraction at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.
Cedar Point releases new ride clues on Facebook
Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, is giving fans of its Facebook page clues about a new 2011 attraction. So far, pictures of a windmill and a dinosaur have been posted.
The windmill picture links instructions for a class project on windy weather, and the dino image links to a site on dinosaurs for kids.
The theme park is promising that all will be revealed next week, on Aug. 24.
Hersheypark looking ahead to 2012
Often the first place that news about new theme park attractions emerges is through city and county construction permits that have to be obtained, and hearings that have to be held, when theme parks plan to build anything.
That’s exactly what happened this week in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, where Hersheypark theme park is building a new attraction for 2012.
At a municipal zoning meeting, Hersheypark officials revealed that new “marquee” attraction will be built in the park’s Comet Hollow area, and it will open in 2012. No word on what it will be, but the theme park is seeking permission for the new ride to have a maximum height of more than 212 feet.