![]() ![]() When was the last time you saw a park debut a log flume ride? Or an indoor boat ride? The last I remember is Universal's Madagascar ride in Singapore, which remains the only indoor boat ride Universal's ever ordered. Which raises the question: If rides like the Log Ride are so popular, and so efficient in handling crowds, why don't parks build more of them? Why do regional amusement park chains such as Cedar Fair and Six Flags continue to spend millions a year to build roller coasters that put through hundreds of visitors per hour instead of investing in dark rides and log flumes that could serve thousands per hour? That Knott's Log Ride is leading the park in ridership speaks not just to its capacity, but its enduring appeal to visitors, as well. Flume-based dark rides often stand as their parks' capacity kings - Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World are crowd eaters, capable of putting through more than 2,000 riders per hour apiece.īut all the capacity in the world won't make an attraction a park's top dog for ridership if people don't want to go on it. Log flumes, with an ever-flowing supply of "logs" to fill, typically put through more riders per hour than roller coasters, which have a limited number of trains that must be kept far apart from one another on the track. The fewer people a ride can put through in an average hour, the longer everyone who wants to ride will have to wait. Popularity brings people into the lines, sure, but low capacity is what really drives wait times. You might think that coasters have such long lines because they're popular. One awful secret of the amusement business is that most roller coasters have terrible ride capacity. I suppose that makes sense, if you know about ride capacities. With all the money that Knott's (and its current owner, Cedar Fair) have invested in multi-million-dollar roller coasters over the years, it's still the Log Ride that's putting more people through day-in and day-out, more than forty years after its debut. The ride track was painted charcoal/nearly black and the ride supports silver.Wow. With two 32 passenger trains, the ride was the highest capacity roller coaster in the park when it opened and it was only surpassed when Skyrush opened in 2012. The ride ends its 2800 feet journey with two turns that bring the train up to the station level. The finale of the ride when it goes by SooperDooperLooper. The train goes under the SooperDooperLooper lift hill at that point. This turn is named as such since it goes very close to the loop and it feels like we could kick the neighboring ride. After rising and going under the Sooper Dooper Looper lift hill, we go through a Flat Spin and on the following turn, we “can kick the Sooper Dooper Looper”. What came out of it is rather amazing since you have foot and arm chopper visual effects from the supports that surround the train. ![]() This is where things go unique as the train does a banked turn over Spring Creek, but B&M had to design complicated supports since they could not go into the water. You can see the creekside location of the ride.Ĭomet Hollow was renamed to The Hollow later and the new entrance portal frame the Immelmann perfectly. ![]() The train about to crest the lift hill and the pre-drop spiral.įlex shot this great picture of the drop.įlex took this unique picture of the loop and Immelmann. An Immelmann follows and the exit is at a roughly 45 degrees angle toward the Comet and we then execute a perfect Zero G Roll over the Famous Famiglia Pizzeria. The train is now on the west side of Spring Creek and go through a 100 feet tall Vertical Loop and then roars through a section that hugs the ground. Instead, the ride executes a unique 360° spiral in the air before aligning with the first drop and drops 124 feet into the valley. ![]() The ride starts with a 90 feet lift hill, but doesn’t go into the first drop right away. The green trough is part of the Coal Cracker Arrow Hydro-Flume and you can see the Great Bear lift hill in the background. The end result is an Inverted Coaster that like Pyrenees is split in two distinct half’s and doesn’t just go through a parade of inversions before hitting the brake run. The ride layout also had to take into account the classic SooperDooperLooper Schwarzkopf Looping Racer and the fact the park was not allowed to install footers in Spring Creek. The station was built in Mine Town on the hill above Comet Hollow and it was shoehorned by the Coal Cracker log flume. The train going up into the station turnaround. Paul and Bond from head to Hersheypark in Hershey, PA to take in the park as well as it’s coasters like Skyrush, Storm Runner, Farenheit, The Comet, The Wildcat, Lightning Racer, Sooper Dooper Looper, The Great Bear and others. ![]()
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