Coaster101

Read our excellent editorials written by Coaster101 members. Editorials should be released every other week. Have an idea for an editorial? Email us!

Mystery Mine
John Stevenson
Take a look at Dollywood's newest attraction. This editorial features a detailed account of the ride. But be warned, the account does contain spoilers so read at your own risk if you have not ridden the ride.



Revenge of the Mummy
Tyler Hopkins
Check out a review of one of the world's best indoor coasters. This highly-detailed review points out what makes Revenge of the Mummy one of the best themed attraction to date.




Maverick
Forum Member "PLCP"
What exactly is Maverick, Cedar Point's newest coaster? Is it a rocket? A looping coaster? Both? Or is it possibly a new hybrid from Intamin that we'll see more of in the future.




Libertyland - What Went Wrong
John Stevenson
Libertyland, the Tennesee amusement park that closed in 2005 - what went wrong? John Stevenson takes an extensive look at all of the factors that contributed to the park's closure.

Mystery Mine
John Stevenson

Dollywood's newest attraction, Mystery Mine, opened it's doors late March of 2007. The coaster, North America's first "euro-fighter" is the largest capital investment to date for the park. I recently spent two days in the park, in which I had the opportunity to ride Mystery Mine numerous times.

Spoilers Ahead

The ride begins with a sharp dip out of the station, which gives a good dose of whiplash as your head hits the headrest at the bottom of the drop. You then veer towards the left, making a unique outward-banked turn, going past hundreds of red eyes staring at you. Your mine car makes another turn before dipping below "the crusher", giving another headbasher. You quickly turn left before halting at the vertical lift. They do a great job at building the suspense as you get the chance to see what's ahead.

You begin the ascent up the lift hill. But that doesn't last long as you crest the vertical lift, and make a quick dip (a smoother one, I might add), before heading towards the trestle. You barely brake before plunging over the first vertical drop. In my opinion, this was the best drop of the whole ride. Your car then maneuvers through the horse-shoe curve and through an upwards helix. You stall briefly at a block brake, which eats away at some of the speed before heading into another helix. You head back under the trestle and soar towards the next large lift. You stop again as you embrace what's to come.

The sound effects are great as you climb the hill and watch the animation of the mine collapsing. After you crest that hill you stop at the top as you watch two fuses lights ignite a dynamite-fueled explosion which marks the drop. The drop in-itself is alright, not as surprising as the first one. You explode out of the ride building into the two inversions which are taken quickly and rather smoothly. You experience a good amount of hang-time at the top of the rollover, before falling back down into one more pop of airtime before slamming into the brake run.

Spoilers End Here

Overall, I did not like this attraction. While it was not the worst, I wouldn't wait more than 30 minutes for it. Both Thunderhead and Tennessee Tornado are much better attractions. I was somewhat disappointed in Dollywood for creating such a small attraction with the money they had to work with. While it is long, a bit of that time is spent stopped at the bottom of the lifts and at the top of the second drop.

The ride was also incredibly rough, and I rode in the front every time I rode. Towards the end I was beginning to learn how to work with the ride by holding my head in a certain position but even that didn't help that much. Even without the roughness, the ride still would've lacked in any intense features. Especially compared to Thunderhead and Tennessee Tornado.

Dollywood is still a great park and I commend them for the quality of theming throughout the ride. The presentation of the ride was very well done, even the overflow queue was themed appropriately.

Do I recommend this ride? Yes, maybe once, but for me, once was enough. If the lines had not have been as short as they were, I wouldn't have given the ride as many tries as I did. But that's me, you may ride the ride and find it to be a totally different experience. But for me, Mystery Mine was a very lackluster attraction.

 
Libertyland - What Went Wrong
John Stevenson

“In the end, it was really the city that did not support Libertyland,” spouted a Mid South fair official at the auction on June 21st, 2006. Wrong. Libertyland’s fall was not the fault of a city. It was just a chain of reactions that started with one group of people – Mid South Fair.

 Farther back, Libertyland was one of the first amusement parks that I had seen or been to. Today as an avid coaster enthusiast, I give Libertyland the thanks for getting me interested in the area of thrill-rides. Libertyland had something different about it that you couldn’t find at other parks. Sure, it wasn’t Disney World or Cedar Point, but it packed some good rides and had some history to it. It fit the city well. Even the fact that the Zippin Pippin was Elvis’s favorite coaster.

 Libertyland was a ticking time bomb to begin with. Being run by a non-profit organization isn’t usually a good thing. There’s no initiative, no motive to make a better park. This was not a corporation like Six Flags, with a main goal to make and sustain a great amusement park, no, for Mid South Fair, Libertyland was a “side-project”. It was obvious that the only reason that Libertyland survived for as long as it did was due to the Mid South Fair that operated during September and October.

 Ever noticed how Libertyland had maybe half as much advertising as the Mid South Fair? You can’t blame the failure of something on a people when you yourself have not fulfilled your job to get the word out.

Libertyland was often shot down by most people because either “it was in a bad location” or “the rides weren’t good”. Yet Libertyland officials made little effort to publicize the rides they already had. That is, until 2005 when the park invested in a firm to “redo the park’s image”. I remember walking in on opening day of 2005, it was very sad, about the only thing that had changed was some repainted buildings and a new logo. Unfortunately, it was too late for the park. 

November 4th, 2005 came as a shock to a lot of people in the city of Memphis. Newspapers flashed “Libertyland Not Opening for 2006”. It didn’t seem real, That was just a fact, Libertyland opened every year, and they even seemed as if they were turning around after the 2005 renovations. There was even talk about the park getting an extended lease or moving to the agricenter. But sadly, that would never come to materialize.  

Then I saw an article about Save Libertyland! a grass-roots effort to save the park. I immediately called the number given; I had to do everything in my power to save this park. 

In the end, Mid South Fair won, the auction took place on June 21st, and everything was sold except for the carousel, which was luckily saved. But they didn’t win; they just have created a “temporary solution”. That area will soon be redeveloped, and Mid South Fair will eventually have to find a new home. It’s funny, they stated one of the main reasons for closing the fair is so that they could extend and add more rides to the midway but, according to their website, there will be several less rides than there are usually. I sometimes would go to the park and stare at the Revolution and Pippin, and think to myself, “what will it be like without these two gems in our city?” 

As a result of poor management, another amusement park slips out of our hands, in a growing trend of closing small amusement parks for condos and shopping centers. But tell me, when all the amusement parks are closed, what will we do, sit in our condos all day?  

So, now as pieces of Libertyland sit around the country, we give thanks to Mid South Fair, for continuing the trend of closing amusement parks for not following one your agendas.

Maverick: Is it a rocket?
Forum Member "PLCP"

Is it a rocket coaster? Is it a traditional coaster? Is it a prototype coaster?

Revenge of the Mummy
Universal Studios Florida
Tyler Hopkins

Has anyone ever told you that you wouldn’t make it, that you wouldn’t be there at the end? Let me tell you right now, Imhotep isn’t the most optimistic person you’ll ever meet. So if you don’t want to be discouraged to the extent of death, you might want to stay away from Revenge of the Mummy.

But if you can deal with a little bit of discouragement, you’ll find yourself walking down the hallways of the Museum of Antiquities on your way into the Mummy’s tomb. Once you get there, you’ll board a four-row, four-across car that will serve as your ride vehicle.

After a left and a right turn, you’ll find yourself being warned by a mummified park guest: “Are you insane? Get out of here! The curse, it’s real! This whole place is a trap! He’s…” Imhoptep bursts out of his coffin lying against the wall next to the used-to-be-guest. “Silence! With your souls, I shall rule for all eternity!” He’s pretty enthusiastic about it too.

One more right and another left brings you to a long straight section through what looks to be the treasure room. You see a face materialize on the opposite end of the room; “Serve me, and savor vengeance beyond measure.” As you continue to move forward the lights dim, then turn blue as skeletons appear on both sides of the car. You speed up to make it under a lowering wall, make a sharp turn left, and come to an abrupt halt in front of a blue wall.

Once you stop, you hear numerous squeaks and scattering bugs. Scarabs start pouring out of a slot in the wall (they distract you from the flipping track behind you). You then get pushed backwards down a hill and come to a stop on a turntable. A skull appears on the wall, and as you turn in a half-circle he follows, saying something along the lines of  “Not even I could save you now. There’s no escape.” As you begin to move off the turntable, forwards again, you hear something like  “Your end shall be my beginning. Behold your great.”

Off the turntable, you begin to slope up. As you do so, the mummy appears before you, screaming to you “Your souls are mine!” That’s your cue to attempt a getaway. You launch to around 40 mph in just a few seconds and find yourself hurtling downwards before you even climb much upwards! It’s all a blur, but it’s pretty much a right turn, left turn, right turn, a low-to-the-floor trick track section, and a left turn into the block section.

You stop, and it appears that the ride is over. There’s a shadow of a ride op in the booth to the left, but all of the sudden lights below the window begin to flash, the glass of the booth breaks, and Imhotep appears yet again. “Prepare to forfeit your souls.” Now it’s time for the fire-and a lot of it! The room heats up as the mummy screams “Death is only the beginning!” and you’re sent down an extremely surprising drop into a misty pit where your picture is taken.

Another climb up, another fall down, and a right turn upwards brings you to the final brake run. You see a video projected in front of you where Brendan Fraser (the actor from the Mummy films) is welcoming you back. Like any start, he begins to scream for his cup of coffee. It’s brought to him, and he thanks them; then he realizes that he’s thanked a mummy. The screen goes dark and you hear many crashes and screams as you pull into the unload station.

Universal Studios needed-an amazing, high-tech coaster to bring in the enthusiast crowd as well as more guests as a whole, and they got it with Revenge of the Mummy. The ride is amazing and surprises even people who have seen the videos (myself included). If you’re planning on visiting the Orlando area any time soon, plan a day for a whole lot of fun-that is, if you can stand a little pessimism.