The DoD3

Video: Orbiter 2009

Posted by DoD3Brian on July 31, 2009 | 2 comments

Orbiter is a common flatride manufactured by Tivoli. I remember when these rides weren’t seen too often in NJ but as of late just about every large fair has one. If it’s run on a slow cycle, the ride is pretty much a tilted Scrambler; it’s fun but not too thrilling. When run on a fast cycle however, this ride is truely one of the most forceful flats around. This video shows the Orbiter at the 2009 State Fair Meadowlands, and this one certainly hauls some ass!

Orbiter @ State Fair Meadowlands 2009 from The DoD3 on Vimeo.

Ride Review: Fahrenheit

Posted by DoD3Brian on July 28, 2009 | Add a Comment

Fahrenheit is what us Yanks use to measure temperature; the rest of the world of course uses Celsius. Fahrinheght is also one of the more commonly misspelled words in the English language…possibly why everyone else uses Celsius…err, yeah. A high Fahrenheit is also great at melting chocolate bars, which is why I think it’s appropriate that Hersheypark in Hershey, PA named their newest ride (as of 2008) after the one thing that could destroy their own products.

In 2007 Hersheypark launched an obscure viral marketing campaign to hype a new coaster. The campaign involved anagrams, fake companies, made up employees, subliminal messages, anonymous e-mails, blogs, usernames and passwords. I mean, I was waiting for body to turn up at one point with a clue tattooed on its arm. In the end, nobody found out anything about the ride until Hershey actually announced it after the game was over. The new, state of the art ride would be called Fahrenheit.

Fast forward to 2008 when Fahrenheit was finally opened, generating ubiquitous fanfare from the general public as well as coaster enthusiasts everywhere. Hershey classifies Fahrenheit as a “vertical lift inverted loop coaster,” completely disregarding the 97 degree drop which is probably the big draw of this ride. The steepness of the drop is also where the name comes from…I’ll admit, it took me a while to figure that out. Themeing for Fahrenheit would consist of a station, concrete and netting, obviously taking notes from the Cedar Fair Guide to Theming.

Upon approaching Fahrenheit, the first element anyone will notice is undoubtedly the large, 121 foot lift and drop. The rest of the ride simply looks like a knot of fat Intamin track with common inversions, not so common inversions and tight turns. The line for Fahrenheit travels around the infield of the coaster and is an excruciatingly long wait when at full capacity, about 2 hours from start to finish. The line uses misting devices instead of a conventional canopy to keep guests cool.

Once in the station, riders get to choose from six rows over three cars. That’s right, Fahrenheit sends out a measly 12 riders per train. No wonder the wait is long! But, I guess having a seven car train wouldn’t be so great for back seat riders. The trains are boxy ‘Intamin specials’ with a gray and orange color scheme. The restraints are standard over the shoulder lapbars with an added shoulder harness portion.

The Ride

The train makes a right out of the station and enters a straight portion of track with a weird side mounted tire drive. The train slows down and is eventually caught by the lift system which hoists riders up a 90 degree lift. The lift lasts for maybe 7 seconds before leveling out and immediately dropping down a 97 degree drop. The drop produces massive airtime but it doesn’t last long as the drop levels out quickly. Only the most hardened of theme park lovers will not feel a stomach dropping sensation on this drop.

Next the train enters an interesting inversion called the Norwegian loop; it’s pretty much a ‘pretzel inversion’ only more metal. The Norwegian loop flips riders upsidedown twice as well as providing some brutal positive Gs at the bottom of the element…not even Gorgoroth can compare to the brutal-ness of the Norwegian loop. After the element, riders are dumped down a curving hill and into a cobra roll element. The cobra roll is kind of slanted, much like the one of Hydra: the Revenge over at Dorney. Not the best cobra roll on Earth, but it’s better than the one on Sidewinder, Hershey’s Vekoma Boomerang. I didn’t even go on Sidewinder but, hey, everyone likes to crap on Boomerangs!

After exiting the cobra roll, riders are immediately thrust into back to back corkscrews. Both corkscrews provide a bit of snap over the top and are pretty intense. Following the corkscrews is a tight right turn that dips under a headchopper; it’s a very forceful turn that sends the train completely sideways. After the turn and subsequent low clearance is a small bunny hop that the train rockets over, launching riders up into the harness. The bunny hop is followed by a tight left turn which curves up and into the magnetic brakes. The entire ride from the drop takes about one minute to complete.

Conclusion

Fahrenheit is certainly a formidable addition to Hershey. The ride has a great drop, some nice inversions and some forceful minor elements such as the tight turns and that one damn bunny hop. On the flip side, the ride is somewhat short and the line is painfully slow on busy days.

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, I’ll give it a solid 8. How do you all like the ride? Does it live up to the hype? How does it compare to Maverick at Cedar Point? Would the ride be named Celsius if it were in Europe?

Trip Report: State Fair Meadowlands 2009

Posted by DoD3Brian on July 19, 2009 | 8 comments

The state Fair Meadowlands is a long, two week or so fair that occurs at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in Northern, NJ each year. It’s one of the largest fairs around and due to it’s location probably one of the most visited as well. Since I first went in 1997 or so, I don’t think I’ve missed a year yet.

It’s worth noting that I went to the fair on two separate days: once on the first day (which was ‘dollar night’) and once on ‘Carload Night.’ I figured on going to dollar night just to get video and photos so that I didn’t have to pay the $3 parking and $7 admission and not really do anything else. The first night was absolutely packed, like it was hard to move due to the amount of people around. Certainly it wouldn’t be this crowded when a couple of my cousins and I headed over there for carload night the following Thursday…

Well…it was. Before I go off into a tangent about crowds and line jumpers, here’s a list of rides and attractions:

Space Roller

Crazy Mouse

Crazy Mouse
Avalanche (older Pinfari Zyklon model coaster)
Fireball (KMG version)
Extreme Orbiter (a Tivoli Techno Power)
Orbiter
Bonsai
Wave Swinger
Rock n’ Roll (Bertazzon Matterhorn ride)
Rok n’ Roll (older Chance ride)
Gravitron
Cliffhanger
Tornado
Sky Ride

Giant Wheel

Bumper Cars x2
Giant Wheel
At least 5 funhouses
Dark Rides x2
Bumper Boats (upcharge)
Flight Simulator (upcharge)
A myriad of kiddie rides
A ton of carnival games
2x dunk the clown booths
A crapload of food vendors
Several non-food vendors
A bunch of freak shows
A tiger show, racing pigs, petting zoo, and other shows.

Not a bad lineup, however past years have had many more rides including lots of filler rides like Tilt-a-Whirl, Scrambler, Flying Bobs, etc. Extreme Orbiter, one of the new additions this year, didn’t run for the entire fair due to the NJ ride inspectors not being able to inspect it properly due to lack of paperwork or something.

On carload night, my cousins and I got to the fair at around 7:30pm. We paid the carload night price of $69 for 3 people which included admission and wristbands for each person as well as parking. The savings came out to about $8 bucks in total. At first it didn’t seem like there was a lot of people there, but as we made our way to the rides it was evident that the place was mobbed. Each ride commanded a large line that extended in random directions down the midways…nope, no logistical considerations here!

We decided to hop on one ride first and then head back to see the tiger show before going back to the rides. The first ride of the night was Rock n’ Roll, one of the Bertazzon manufactured Matterhorn rides. We waited about two cycles before boarding, adding up to about 15 minutes. The ride itself was a standard 2 minute cycle and like good deviants my cousin and I attempted to swing the car a bit resulting in some completely sideways swings while going over the hills.

Next up was the tiger show which featured several Bengal tigers in various colors doing tricks along with a steady flow of tiger facts from the emcee. One of the highlights was a tiger doing the moonwalk (or just walking backwards on its hind legs) to Billie Jean; nice touch I think! Along with tricks, one tiger also showed off its ability to take a one minute long piss…that was pleasant.

After the show we headed over to Orbiter to take a spin. We waited about 15 minutes to get on and just barely got on one cycle with all the damned line cutters (technically it was the ‘one person saving a spot for five others’ bullshit.) The ride itself was short, I guess to keep the line moving. The ride did look really nice though with a multicolored light scheme, strobes, and fog.

Next we walked around the midway, or rather shuffled around as there were queue lines scattered all over the place. Eventually we came to Crazy Mouse, a spinning wild mouse coaster, which had a gigantic line. We decided to just wait as it wasn’t going to die down anytime soon. I speculated that it would take 25 minutes to get through the line as I know that lines are deceiving sometimes…

…Fifty-five minutes later we were on the ride…damn! At least it was fun and it didn’t break down or anything. Of course, once again I saw a bunch of kids jump the line and once again there was a bunch of people doing the same ‘save a spot’ crap.

Next we headed over to Space Roller, which obviously had a long line as well. This particular line actually wrapped around a food stand, down one of the midways and nearly merged with the line for the Giant Wheel. All in all it was a 35 minute wait for a short cycle of maybe four revolutions, but at least we got outer seats which are the place to be for an intense ride on Space Roller. However I’ll admit that I sort of pushed my way through the crowd and then jogged around the loading platform to an unoccupied set of seats in order to snag a pair of outer seats. Kind of a jerk move but after waiting 35 minutes and being line jumped all night, I didn’t really care at that point!

I posted a video of the Space Roller in a previous update if you want to check it out.

After Space Roller, we headed over to a dark ride called Mouse Trap. To be expected it was kind of crappy but at least all the props worked and there were sound effects to go along with them. The wait was again 35 minutes…I can get on Kingda Ka in 35 minutes sometimes…

Amazingly, after only 5 rides and a show, it was already nearing closing time! The final ride of the night was Rok n’ Roll which had a two cycle wait. Rok n’ Roll is this odd little ride with 10 or so circular tubs; each tub can hold (barely) 4 riders and uses a simple strap to keep you in. All it does is revolve around the center, however the tubs can roll upsidedown at the will of the ride. When the ride started, my cousin and I attempted to roll it ourselves only to have the tub suddenly kick into a forward, 1 ½ roll before stopping upsidedown and rolling back to it’s normal position. The tub did this same flipping configuration for the entire ride and it was absolutely insane. Rok n’ Roll was certainly a sleeper attraction if I’ve ever seen one; it looks like a kiddie ride for crying out loud!

We left that fair close to the 12am closing time that night. So, I don’t know if it was crowded like this every day of the fair or if it was just because both nights I went were promotion nights. Did anyone else go to the Meadowlands Fair on any non-promotion night?

New Video: Space Roller 2009

Posted by DoD3Brian on July 16, 2009 | 1 comment

Hmm…it’s been sort of quiet around here in terms of updates. During this little hiatus I went to two fairs, State Fair Meadowlands and a smaller one called the Feast of Mount Carmel Fair in Berkeley Heights, NJ (which will have a ridiculously large fireworks display tonight at around 10:30-11pm for anyone nearby.)

I’ll have trip reports for both fairs soon, but for now here’s one of four videos from the State Fair Meadowlands; the video is of a Mondial manufactured Space Roller (or Top Scan.) I also have a slightly higher quality version here…you know, tucked away to save bandwidth! Hope you all enjoy it!

Space Roller 2009 (Top Scan) from The DoD3 on Vimeo.

Laser Spotted in Germany

Posted by DoD3Brian on July 6, 2009 | Add a Comment

Photo by pinon @ Freizeitparkweb

Dorney Park’s old Laser roller coaster has turned up for the first time since being sold to showman Rosenzweig and Meyer this past off-season. According to a forum post over at Freizeitparkweb (in German) Laser, now known as ‘Test Track,’ is being set up in Hamburg, Germany for an upcoming festival.

Among other things, the post features many photos of the racked coaster (if you can really call it ‘racked’) awaiting setup. Looks like Laser now sports a blue support with yellow track color scheme which is a very nice upgrade from the then fading electric green supports and purple track scheme. You can check out the photos at the link above, which also include some more recent building up shots.

However, there’s also a YouTube video by user lunalandclips showing all of the racked parts awaiting setup; this thing takes a lot of trucks to move. Here’s the video:

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