It tricks you into thinking you're heading one way but the ride sends you another, through trees, around a dinosaur exhibit and through another tunnel. Once you've landed - that's what it really feels like - a bundle of tracks you see ahead is something of a feint. Next is a dark tunnel during which you can contemplate your existence before emerging to go up, then down, a 182-foot hill that provides one of the most thrilling moments of airtime on the ride. The drop is an intense plunge and then, just after the descent, the track veers sharply right at speeds of up to 93 mph. Although you won't know exactly where you're going, you can be assured you'll be getting there fast. They won't dissipate at the peak, when you realize that you can't see the path of the coaster. There's less time to anticipate what's coming, but just enough to give you butterflies. Cables are lighter, faster and quieter, making the ride up Millennium Force a smooth and speedy experience. The first giga coaster ever built, Millennium Force was a game-changer in terms of what was possible with height in a ride.Īs this roller coaster climbs to 310 feet, to your left are stunning views of Lake Erie, and to the right is an equally inviting overview of the park.Ī cable lift pulls the train up to this height rather than the traditional chain lift. It's a nice long journey (3 minutes, 25 seconds), and it delivers an experience both smooth and exhilarating. The standout is the dive under the pedestrian bridge that you've already hovered above sideways. Moments of airtime, when you feel weightless, are sprinkled liberally throughout the ride. The coaster maintains the breakneck pace throughout the considerable ground it covers. If you're OK with that plunge, then you're probably fine with going 95 mph, the speed you'll reach when you come out of it. You gain speed at a rapid clip before you head back up into a sharp barrel turn that leads to a 190-foot drop. The first drop, at an 81-degree angle, is steep and assured. That means that while you're making sense of the park map, you may be interrupted by a roaring coaster flying underneath you.īut enough about the way it looks. The first lift takes you high above everything around it, affording you 360-degree views of the park and the nearby forest, and then the track does the unthinkable: It goes over the park's main entry walkway, which happens to straddle the North Carolina-South Carolina line, and then goes under it. It traverses a walkway and the state line.įrom the moment you enter Carowinds, you can't ignore the Fury 325. Great element: a dive under a pedestrian bridgeįury 325 is the newest addition to the giga coaster family and is the tallest of the group. Location: Carowinds Charlotte, North Carolina A guide to what to expect when you ride each (that's your plan, right?) is below. "We want the biggest ball of twine," said Rob Decker, senior vice president for planning and design at Cedar Fair Entertainment.īeing hurtled down a dramatic descent may seem like the same experience regardless of the ride, but each of these four giga coasters has its own appeal. (Anything beyond 400 feet and you're in strata coaster terrain.) Four of the five giga coasters in the world are in North America, at theme parks all owned by the same chain, Cedar Fair Entertainment (the fifth is in Japan). Altitude rather than velocity has become such a defining characteristic that rides that take advantage of their soaring heights have been given a name befitting a mammoth frame: the giga coaster.Įnthusiasts use the term to apply to a roller coaster with a drop of 300 to 399 feet, meaning that its riders fall the length of a football field. Theme parks have engaged in a dizzying quest for height in recent years that has spawned a number of roller coasters as tall as skyscrapers. This is not a rhetorical question these days.
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