When roller coasters made their way from Russia to France nearly 200 years ago, they quickly outshone the more routine amusements at park promenades. They are no less central to modern American theme parks, which by definition seek to unify the thrills under a setting or idea (or commercial brand). But do roller coasters ever stick to an actual theme?
Yes, you may see a comic-book character’s statue at a ride’s entrance. But when the safety harness lifts up afterward, you’re left with an adrenaline rush instead of an experience that evokes the spirit or energy of that character. Other coasters incorporate some element of science fiction or fantasy. But they don’t always pull you into that space as you scream your head off on the way down a steep hill. After all, it can be tricky to program a giant structure of steel and wood into a story that makes any sense.
As I travel the country visiting theme parks, I think about how true a ride stays to its mission of telling you a story while making your heart leap, and whether it even matters if it does. For some of my favorite coasters, the only point is the thrill.
But there is something memorable about a roller coaster with a story. These rides, done right, have equal commitment to theme and thrills. They’re not so much character-driven coasters, more like coasters with character. They’re often technically ambitious, immersive and some combination of thrilling and cinematic. Below, a guided tour to four standouts.
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Credit Video by BUSCH GARDENS TAMPA BAY on Publish Date June 14, 2016 Busch Gardens Tampa BayCheetah HuntIn a world where cheetahs hunt things, you are a cheetah on a hunt. The twist comes when you make a speedy vertical jump for your prey.Want to feel what it’s like to be a predator racing across the Serengeti? The thrilling coaster Cheetah Hunt does a bang-up job of getting you pretty close to it. Using a launch system that propels the train with motors, the coaster sends you speeding right out of the gate without a traditional lift hill.
Before you’ve had a chance to catch your breath, the second launch arrives, a 60 m.p.h. push up a hill 100 feet above ground, then into a pretzel-style piece of track before plunging you underground.
Cheetah Hunt leaps high and crouches low, exhibiting some of its predatory skills. The ride is smart about the way it slows down before another launch sends you speeding along again. And its detailed landscapes really do make you feel as if you’re racing through the grasslands of Africa. A section of the track that moves just above and along a river, as well as through caverns, is inspired. Just when you think your hunt is nearly done, you get one more launch up a hill and down through a dale.
This ride seems as much a stand-in for a safari chase as any I’ve been on, mainly because of the element of surprise. You can’t see what the entire ride looks like while waiting in line so you can’t anticipate the hunt it takes you on. And with more than three-quarters of a mile of track, that hunt seems to go everywhere.
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Credit Video by THEME PARK REVIEW on Publish Date June 14, 2016 Universal Studios HollywoodRevenge of the Mummy – The RideFrom the director of the film “The Mummy” comes a ride in which nothing less than your soul is at stake.Yes, this roller coaster opened 12 years ago when “The Mummy” film franchise was still a phenomenon. And yes, it is still one of the most impressive and exciting themed coastersthat has ever been built.
This ride comes from a theme park that has plenty of characters to draw from: Universal has rides tied to Jurassic Park, the Hulk, King Kong and Harry Potter.
But Universal’s best wholly immersive coaster experience is this extension of the “Mummy” franchise.
Here, theatrics and studio-quality visuals start in the indoor queue — there’s mood lighting, ominous sound effects and hieroglyphics. The ride itself includes design concepts byStephen Sommers, “The Mummy” film’s screenwriter and director, and a score by its composer, Alan Silvestri.
It takes you into tombs where you are subject to a mummy’s curse that claims your soul.Prepare for many mummy and warrior animatronics, visual effects and a high-speed launch into a tense, pitch-black coaster tunnel. One segment sends you backward through the track for even more disorienting fun. A different version at Universal Orlando has an alternate track layout and additional mummies and elaborate pyrotechnics, like a fire-drenched ceiling.
The Revenge of the Mummy coaster, in the less than two minutes it takes to ride it, manages to be more exciting, more spirited and more creative than any of the films in the franchise.
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Credit Video by WALT DISNEY WORLD on Publish Date June 14, 2016 Disney’s Animal KingdomExpedition EverestA heart-pounding ride through the Himalayas coasts on tracks that are seemingly torn apart – by a monstrous yeti.Ready to see a yeti? Expedition Everest at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom is the park’s most elaborate, and most entertaining, themed coaster in a park chain with many winning options. (The park itself is open for business after the attacks in Orlando and a tragedy involving a young visitor.)
It takes the runaway mine train concept that was popularized decades ago in several theme parks and, well, runs away with it. The ride is inside and around a giant Himalayan mountain that has a slightly more authentic look than other rides, and the peak, at 200 feet, marks the tallest of the 18 mountains in the Disney parks. The train is patterned after an aging steam engine tea train and carries 34 riders.
The entry to the line for the ride is made to look like a weathered Himalayan Escapes booking office in a village at the base of a mountain. Made with unevenly stacked stones and a distinct attention to detail, the building and those around it just might make you think you’re in Kathmandu. (Disney designers traveled to Nepal to research the region’s architecture.)
As the train climbs its first small lift, you get a peek at the gorgeous waterfall extending from the mountain. That diverts your attention from the first small drop that takes you to a wooded area and to the next, larger climb. That’s when the fun really begins.
The train track at the end of the lift weaves between two tall spots on the mountain pass before taking you through a mountain tunnel and out to a dead end, where the tracks in front of you are completely busted up (presumably by a certain angry creature). While you puzzle just how you’ll get out of this scenario, the track switches behind you and sends the train backward, plunging deeper inside the mountain and into darkness. You see a silhouette of the feared yeti before the coaster continues forward again and back outside, down a steep hill. It’s an exhilarating lurch in and out of the mountain with a more detailed view of the monster before ride’s end. While it isn’t the most intense roller coaster in the world, its attachment to its theme makes it one of the most interesting.
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Credit Video by BUSCH GARDENS WILLIAMSBURG on Publish Date June 14, 2016 Busch Gardens WilliamsburgVerboltenOn a trip to the Black Forest in Germany, the Big Bad Wolf is nothing compared with the dead end you’ll hit.Europe is the overarching theme of the Busch Gardens park in Williamsburg, Va. Inside the Oktoberfest Village section sits an amusing little roller coaster with an element surprising enough to frighten this hard-to-shock enthusiast.
Verbolten aims to replicate the experience of a scenic drive through the Black Forest in Germany, with a number of environmental elements along the way. You ride on a train that looks like a car (with a camera in each row to record you during your experience). It takes you on a leisurely journey outdoors through a wooded area before you’re launched into the indoor elements of the forest. Various lighting effects and designs change with each ride, so you may encounter one of three scenarios: the big bad wolf in the forest, a lightning storm or the spirit of the forest.
But a moment that truly floored me is a sequence in the ride where the track hits a dead end. Based on my experience with the Mummy and Expedition Everest coasters, I expected the ride to go backward to get us out of it. What I did not expect was for the entire track, train and all, to free-fall 18 feet, connecting it with a track below. It’s an exhilarating, if harrowing,piece of coaster technology I had never experienced before, and can’t wait to again.
