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3. Elevator lift system

Cobra's Curse artwork

Image: SeaWorld

Finding novel ways to eke out a few more miles per hour and a bit more g-force during the journey is the holy grail of roller coaster design. In recent years, a popular idea is to latch together unconnected parts of track in order to overcome difficult physics and land-based hurdles. When a design firm cannot build the coaster lift system they want, they have identified ways to split the lift system and track then implement each one separately. During the ride, the lift system slots into place with the previously unconnected track.

Mack Rides, a German coaster design company, has enjoyed a great deal of success with this strategy. Their water park roller coaster, Journey to Atlantis, is so well-liked that it’s duplicated at three different SeaWorld parks. During the journey on this boat, an elevator lift system raises the entire vehicle several stories to a new part of roller coaster track. It’s one of the high points of the ride, even if its subtlety is lost on many people still savoring the attraction’s prior thrills.

In 2016, Mack Rides will translate this premise to a steel roller coaster, Cobra’s Curse at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The attraction will include a 70-foot elevator lift that takes the rider within inches of the fangs of the titular cobra. Then, the mechanical system will place the entire coaster cart on the tracks, giving the rider a quick burst of downward velocity almost immediately afterward. In the process, it’ll remove the ordinary type of coaster anticipation. Guests won’t wait impatiently as the cart slows crawls uphill. Instead, the elevator lift will directly take them to the correct spot, adding a new type of anticipation as a by-product of the novel lift design.

Oh, and the rider will control how their cart spins, which isn’t all that surprising given that Mack Rides has designed a Disneyland attraction. It’s called Goofy’s Ski School. There’s a non-Mack version of the same premise at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom called Primeval Whirl. Both of them are functional vomit comets, so a true roller coaster version with elevator lift-enhanced speed should prove…memorable. Cobra’s Curse embodies the clever, innovative uses of space that park planners must consider in building new attractions.

4. The new and improved rainbow

Rivers of Light artwork

Image: Disney

Don’t laugh at this one. It’s true. LED digital light technology has rapidly advanced during the HDTV era. Park planners now have more colors available to them than ever before, and they’re expanding at an exponential rate. The impressive Christmas lights you’ve seen on display at Disney theme parks deliver a much deeper, more dramatic hue, and the company was almost ready to emphasize this point.

Rivers of Light, the impending new nighttime exhibition at Animal Kingdom, is basically a celebration of the dramatic breakthroughs in LED display since the debut of Disney’s last permanent show, Paint the Night, which is amazing since that show is only two years old. UHD wasn’t an affordable technology then, but it’s already become viable in the interim.

Disney execs are championing Rivers of Light as if it’s going to match or surpass the opening ceremony of The Olympics a few months later, which speaks volumes about how confident they are in their latest innovation. Nobody lights up the night like Disney, and they’re poised to prove it yet again with their first entirely new Walt Disney World nightly show in over 15 years.

Every year, new technologies emerge that change the way theme park tourists view their next visit. Over the next 12 months, new forms of interactivity will welcome your arrival and lament your departure. They’ll also provide you with exponentially more ride opportunities from a single space. They’ll help you feel like you’re more involved in playing games against the other people nearby. They’ll squeeze out a few more twists and turns than ever thanks to brilliant new coaster designs. And they’ll accomplish all of this while dazzling your eyes with lustrous new color displays.

Whether you’re most interested in Cobra’s Curse, Rivers of Lights, Ninjago the Ride, or the virtual reality of Unlimited Attractions™, the next few months will redefine what you expect as a theme park tourist. Which of these ideas is your favorite/least favorite? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

 
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