How we’ve rolled: 5 Orlando coaster tales
Central Florida is on a roll with its coasters. Epcot’s new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind ride marks the fifth addition to the local lineup in the past year, and according to the online Roller Coaster DataBase, the Interstate 4 corridor is now home to 45 roller coasters, stretching from Orlando to Tampa.
If you combine its figures for Orlando, Lake Buena Vista and Kissimmee, you land at 29 up-and-down options. I’ve been on all 29 at least once, although it’s been a long time since I’ve made the rounds on Pteranodon Flyers at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, a ride that, to my amateur mind, barely counts in a coaster list.
I thought I had a good story to share about each coaster, but I haven’t hit some new rides, such as SeaWorld Orlando’s Ice Breaker, enough to have an unusual experience. Instead, here are five of my standard coaster tales, presented in the order they occurred.
Space Mountain, Magic Kingdom
Picture it, high school band trip, Tomorrowland. While gliding around via the PeopleMover, we arrive in the Space Mountain stretch and the lights are on. Minds blown. Back in the day, the darkness was a big part of the Mountain mystique, so this was a rare treat. It also made it a little scarier, as I recall, and it looked like a big steel knot.
I have no photographic evidence of this. We were living in the moment and cameras were not yet an
extension of our bodies. But I am always ready with unlocked iPhone on PeopleMover trips now.
Dueling Dragons, Islands of Adventure
Ah, the late great Dragons. The two tracked
attraction, which stood where Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure now operates, was a big draw to me, particularly during the soft opening/passholder preview phase of IOA. Although not everything was open then, the crowds were thin for several weekends before official opening day in 1999.
That’s when I rode in the front row of Fire, the reddish rail, then cut through the empty queue/ loading platform to ride on the front row of bluish Ice. It started to rain midway through the second ride, but I didn’t care. The backto-Dragons action was unlikely to happen again.
(Sidenote: In a feature in the Sentinel’s Calendar section called “Letters to Cal,” a 1999 question was asked: Could you be “too tall” to ride Dragons because of the nearmiss design with the feet on passing trains? The answer: The “thrillmeisters at Universal may not want you to know this, but the coasters do not pass quite as closely as it appears. So even if you had, say, Shaq on Ice and Gheorghe Muresan on Fire, everybody would be OK.” Muresan, at 7-foot-7, was the tallest NBA player in history. Shaquille O’Neal was a “mere” 7-foot-1.)
Incredible Hulk Coaster, Islands of Adventure
The Hulk ate my cellphone. It was my own fault, ignoring the provided lockers. I can’t pinpoint the year, but I have two clues: it was before metal detectors at the ride, and I was wearing cargo shorts.
I had put my phone in the side pocket, which was buttoned down. Yet halfway through the ride, I thought “Wow, this was a bad idea,” but I could feel with my hand that the phone was still there.
When I stood up at the end, the phone was not there. Shockingly, I was shocked by this. We did peer over into the grassy area under the rail as if it could magically land without shattering. Then it started raining. Lesson learned.
Manta, SeaWorld Orlando
The coaster was still new and a co-worker was eager to try it out. After we were seated in the suspended ride vehicles, they turned to me and said “Oh, you should know, sometimes I pass out on these things. Don’t worry.”
Then, as if on queue, the Manta sound effect went off and the seats tilted into the super-manta position and took off. I tried not to worry and consoled myself with the notion that if you’re going to lose consciousness that Manta’s seats are best designed to hold you upright, sort of papoose style.
Happy ending: No smelling salts were needed after we pulled back into station.
Mako, SeaWorld Orlando
Yet another co-worker joined me on a preview ride of Mako. We were seated on the front row for a video shoot. There was a delay and we sat there looking at the high hill and also at Kraken, which (falsely) appears to be tangled with Mako.
Tension builds, but we finally are on our way. My co-worker screams bloody murder, and not in the “this is so fun” way. As we pull back into the station, one of the tech people says the camera didn’t work and we would have to go again.
My co-worker said, and I’ll paraphrase: “Oh, heck no!”
Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Want more theme park news? Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters or the Theme Park Rangers podcast at orlandosentinel. com/travel/attractions/ theme-park-rangers-podcast