I recently had the opportunity and privilege of participating in a panel about roller coaster design at Minefaire, a massive Minecraft inspired fan experience. Held at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA, Minefaire included entertainment, gameplay, and educational content to inspire the next generation. What does this have to do with roller coasters? We’ll get to the details of our presentation, but first I want to show you around Minefaire and all the fun experiences that can be had.
A Walk Around Minefaire
If you’re a fan of Legos or Star Wars, then Minefaire is right up your alley. Despite being a Minecraft event, these two popular franchises had a large presence at the convention, including photo ops with characters and interactive displays.
A Kylo Ren sighting:
You could help build this Lego display:
Massive queue for a coaster? No, it’s to meet some Minecraft YouTube celebrities.
Two things that really surprised me: the average age of the Minecraft fans was younger than I expected. And I didn’t realize the educational opportunities that Minecraft can provide. Educators around the world are using Minecraft as a tool to help make learning fun. I especially liked all the booths and stage presentations that taught computer programming concepts to kids, a highly important skill in our digital world.
14 New Coaster Credits
In between doing our Minecraft roller coaster panel on Saturday and Sunday, I was able to make my first ever visits to Six Flags Great Adventure and Dorney Park. Here’s a short video on the weekend’s highlights, followed by my quick thoughts on each amusement park.
Six Flags Great Adventure
Upon entering I immediately rushed to El Toro and was delighted to see only one other person in the station, resulting in back to back rides, once in the front and once in the back. While the ride was outstanding, I have to say I was a tad bit disappointed after all the hype I had heard. Some of the hills have absolutely insane airtime, but then there were a few hills with basically no airtime. Maybe because it was cold and the train was 95% empty?
The most surprising coaster of the weekend was Bizarro. Going in, it really was kind of an afterthought but I ended up being very surprised. The fire and fog effects were great and I loved the layout. The ride crew on the other hand was the worst I’ve seen in a long time.
Sadly, I missed out on Joker, Skull Mountain VR, and Superman. While pulling into the parking lot I noticed a crew of mechanics working on the lift hill for Superman, and I had heard the ride was down, so I went in with the mind set I wasn’t going to get on my first B&M flying coaster. Halfway through the night, I found out the ride was actually up and running. I immediately got in line but as soon as I made it to the station stairs the ride closed and they ushered everyone out. As I was leaving the park at the end of the night I saw the ride start to cycle again. Figures.
This is one of the best views in any amusement park:
The impressive skyline of Six Flags Great Adventure:
Dorney Park
After talking about roller coasters at the Minefiare panel on Saturday, it was time to go ride a few, starting with the very good Talon!
Steel Force was probably the tamest hyper I’ve been on.
Not sure why Hydra gets a bad rap on internet forums, I thought it was a good ride.
It has a nice, custom layout that uses the terrain.
It was good to see Demon Drop operating in-person again (shameless plug for my K’nex recreation).
Does Possessed count as a new credit if I’d already ridden it at Geauga Lake?
Overall, I thought Dorney was a very nice park and would love to make it back when I have more time to fully explore it.
Trip By The Numbers
- Miles driven: 1,180
- States Drove Through: 4
- Steps Walked: 65,320
- New to me roller coasters: 14
- Presentations given: 2
- Toll Fees Paid: felt like about a million dollars worth
Despite all this, I also visited Valley Forge National Park and I even managed a quick stop at Hershey to check out the updated version of Hershey’s Chocolate Factory Tour ride, which you can see in the POV video I took:
What does Minefaire have to do with roller coasters? What was our presentation about? Stay tuned for Part 2 which will be all about what makes a good Minecraft roller coaster and how the same ideas are applied on real life theme park rides.
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