Sunday, April 19, 2015

Darien Lake Ready to Rock with Rolling Thunder


© Darien Lake
Darien Lake will open for its 2015 season on May 9th, and has already completed one of its new attractions.  Rolling Thunder, seen above, was installed very quickly and began testing right away.  I would think the largest part of the project was the foundation - at least in terms of construction time.

The new ride will be joined by a pair of new trap-door drop water slides, called Brain Drain, which will open later this season.

© Darien Lake
This aerial view gives us a great idea of just where Rolling Thunder is located inside the amusement park.  The ride, which stands 73 feet tall, is a Giant Loop manufactured by Larson International.  It replaced Darien Lake's older UFO spinning ride.

© Darien Lake
Here is another way we know that Darien Lake has the ride pretty much ready to go - they released this on-ride photo of Rolling Thunder testing!  The ride will send the train through several full rotations, fully inverting riders as it does.  It will also perform the same tricks backwards, so that all riders (who are seated face-to-face) will experience both directions of travel.

This season is an exciting one for the park, with two new attractions opening.  The park is advertising them under the slogan "One Wet One Wild," fitting for the additions!


3 comments:

James said...

I love how you can see Ranger in the second photo...pretty much across the midway and featuring the same ride motion.

John Brooks said...

Yeah James, I agree that is kind of odd having the same kind of rides in the area because they have similar motions. I guess it's a Darien Lake thing! ;-)

WNY retail history said...

Now if only Darien Lake would get rid of the SBNO mini golf course under Viper!