A New "Scream Tease" for Aquatica Orlando 2014

They're still only saying that it will be the "tallest water thrill ride of its type in Orlando," but Aquatica has released the above new teaser.

It certainly gives us a big clue about what kind of slide may be coming - the girl in the video is definitely heading down a trap door start to the experience.  Several manufacturers now use this type of launch, so that means it could be a large AquaLoop or perhaps the flatter loop style used by Proslide.

The park promises to release more details on the new attraction soon, but in the meantime encourages everyone to discuss the ride using #nothingtaller.

Undertow Opens to Guests at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

© Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

What may be the last of the new for 2013 roller coasters to open, Undertow at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is now thrilling guests at the California seaside park.

The ride, which is a Maurer Sohne spinning coaster, was scheduled to open earlier this Summer.  Delays in the construction of the ride, which the park did not elaborate much on, kept the attraction from missing out on the Summer season.  However, the coaster was finally able to open for the final couple weekends of the park's 2013 run.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk does not appear to be advertising that Undertow is open, perhaps planning instead to make it the focus of the 2014 season.  The park's website does not reflect the opening, but it certainly was carrying passengers this past weekend.  You can see photos and a video of the ride operating at this link.

Undertow stands 50 feet tall at the maximum height, but its location atop a building makes it more imposing when viewed from the adjacent beach.  The individual, four passenger cars spin freely along the 1,410 feet of track and reach a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour.

From The Vault: Michigan's Adventure 1996 Brochure

I actually pulled out Michigan's Adventure's 1995 brochure to scan for this week's From The Vault, but realized that I had already featured that here on NPN - almost five years ago already! The next logical choice was the 1996 brochure, which looks an awful lot like the '95 version, but let's take a look anyway.

This brochure is extremely straightforward, and I like that.  The cover quickly explains that there is both an amusement and water park on the grounds.  The back cover, like a good back cover of the 1990s should, gave all the details you needed to plan a trip.  We have a nice grid calendar of operating days, admission prices, and a map!  Note that the admission fee was only $16 for an adult - looks like it's around $30 nowadays.

The next section of the brochure shows off all that is new to the park.  1995 was actually when Adventure Falls, a large shoot-the-chutes ride, was added - but a big ride like that deserved some space of its own the following year as well.

The actual new ride for 1996 was Chaos, a spinning and flipping flat ride that eventually caused quite a bit of chaos at the park... not the fun kind though.

The large fold out section in the center has a nice collage of different rides and slides that Michigan's Adventure offers visitors.  Naturally there are plenty of smiling and laughing faces in the shots!  This brochure is of course pre-Cedar Fair purchase, when it was still a family run park.  The water park - WildWater Adventure - even features "heated, clean, filtered water" thank goodness!  Hmm... not the type of thing you often see listed in a corporate park's advertising, now is it. 

The water park actually received a big addition the year after this one and remains one of the park's strongest draws - and I'm sure it still features clean water!

Maurer Sohne's Latest Design: Saturn V

"Your Mission: A thrill-packed voyage through deep space - your starcraft spinning, dodging and weaving among planets, asteroids, and other cosmic surprises as you take the ultimate trip to the magnificent and mysterious rings of Saturns!"

Maurer Sohne and Raven Sun Creative have teamed up to design a new spinning coaster / dark ride combo that is being marketed to regional parks around the globe.

Marketed as Saturn V, the experience is a "cost-effective dark ride attraction that delivers a high performance, high impact experience - one that will have guests coming back again and again."  The attraction is not just a roller coaster ride in the dark, instead Saturn V promises to be fully immersive and filled to the brim with thematic elements.

Raven Sun Creative worked to create a theme and storyline that involves guests, making them a part of the action instead of passive participants.  With experience in designing attractions for companies like Universal Studios, Raven Sun has the expertise needed to pull off a "powerful product at a modest price."

This concept art generally shows off the ride's path along with the elements that the coaster cars would encounter.  On the journey "guests are intrepid star pilots sent on the adventure of a lifetime: a thrilling journey across the cosmic frontier to Saturn.  The pre-show areas combine futuristic architecture, themed lighting, sound and music, multi-media imagery and effects that put guests inside a vivid and involving world."

While on the ride, the coaster, which utilizes single spinning cars, would provide the thrills necessary to keep guests coming back for repeat rides.  The spinning cars help with that as well as each experience will be different from the previous one.

The design looks pretty neat, I hope a park somewhere bites at the plan!  Maurer Sohne is known for their spinning rides, having created many of them in their Xtended SC series of coasters. 

Liseberg's Project Helix on the Rise

© Liseberg

It has been a while since we first heard the news of Liseberg's plans to build a massive coaster for the park's 2014 season.  In fact, it was just around a year ago that the park, which is located in Sweden, announced Project Helix.  The Mack designed launched coaster is set to feature a slew of inversions and be built on the same hilly terrain that one of the park's other coasters, Lisebergbanan, also uses.

Now, just over a year later, the park has started to put the first steel pieces of the coaster into place!

© Liseberg

The long lead-time between announcement and the ride starting to go up has a lot to do with the location of the ride.  The rocky hillside has required an extensive amount of earth moving in order to get the coaster's footings in place.  Plus, the ride path also interacts with several other attractions as well - making things even more difficult.

Now, with the light green supports and dark green track starting to be placed, we'll get to see this monster come to life.  The ride's track will stretch and impressive 4,500 feet - which is extremely long for a launched ride (no lift hill to add to track length).  I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this coaster go up, I have a feeling it will be a highlight of the Class of 2014 coasters.

The Newest B&M Coaster - In India

I'm man enough I think!  India's newest theme park, named Adlabs Imagica is also the home to the newest Bolliger and Mabillard instillation, a floorless coaster named Nitro.  The park just opened in April 2013 and is home to a selection of modern rides that are unusual when compared to existing attractions in the country.

The park is themed to different parts of the world including Europe, Asia, America, and Africa.  Each section, as you would expect, contains a selection of appropriately themed rides such as a splash boat ride, a handful of dark rides, simulators, kiddie areas and even a drop tower.  Several of the rides seem a bit like attempts at copying big North American rides, such as a Soarin' and Poseidon's Fury for instance. 

One of the park's ride's is Deep Space, a custom launched indoor coaster from Premier.  Looks pretty nice - you can see video of that here.  There's also a large Zamperla mine train-like coaster named the Gold Rush Express.

But as for the latest ride to open (it wasn't ready when the park opened in April) that's Nitro, which makes it the newest B&M on the books.  Nitro is a floorless ride with a layout that's quite similar to Batman The Dark Knight at Six Flags New England.  The ride stands 132 feet tall and features five inversions: a loop, dive loop, heartline roll and two corkscrews.

The video above shows the ride from start to finish, take note of the newer style of first drop that B&M is now using since the post-lift dip has been eliminated.  I like it!

This video, while pretty goofy, also shows off more of the ride and explains why they're asking if you're man enough!

To see more of the park you can explore their website here, and yes the Mr. India ride is for real!