Florida will see the return of a historic wooden roller coaster in 2015. Sorta.
Construction crews are in the process of building a new, 14-acre Mirale Strip at Pier Park only 200 feet from the first revival of Miracle Strip. It opened in March 2010 as a tribute to the original Miracle Strip Amusement Park, which operated from 1963 until 2004.
The Starliner operated at Cypress Gardens (now Legoland Florida) from 2006 until 2008. It has been in storage ever since.
The park uploaded the below video from Great Coasters International which shows a wooden roller coaster which is very similar to the original Starliner, which suggests that this will be a new coaster.
Park officials have widely marketed the coaster’s 2015 return, but the specifics of what will be built are not known. To compare the new Starliner to the original, watch the below 2001 on-ride video:
Perhaps GCI is building a replica of the Starliner (think Zippin Pippin at Bay Beach Amusement Park).
On a related note, Miracle Strip recently revealed a draft of the new park map:
Notice the grey rectangle at the bottom of the map that designates Starliner’s future spot.
The new Miracle Strip at Pier Park is expected to open next month. Until then, you can follow the progress on the park’s Facebook page.
What are your thoughts on this potential sequel coaster to the original Starliner? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
My theory is that they’re modifying the layout to fit the site, it wouldn’t be right to build a new one despite their claims, and according to RCDB it’s the same ride.
Plus this wouldn’t be the first time that a roller coaster was modified for the new park, the Fairyland Park Wildcat was modified to fit in Frontier City. sure the turn may be different but for saving a ride from being scrapped you can’t argue with that.
Who cares now… They chose an inferior modern turd over the original… I hope it fails miserably