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Most Innovative Rides of 2004
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Most Innovative Rides of 2004 / By: Devin Olson, Saturday, May 01, 2004 -
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This year, from spring through winter, the radar screen of the thrill ride world is packed with upcoming debuts of new rides of all types, and this year a major emphasis is that size isn't everything when it comes to providing new thrills. To prove that point, in the United States, only three significantly-sized original coasters are making their debut for the first time this year. But throughout the world, a number of new family-geared rides are proving that you don't have to take your riders 200 feet in the air to have a new claim to fame at your park. In fact, our number one ride this year is not much more than a family coaster by definition.
One of the major factors in the slowdown of major coasters this year is the break that Six Flags is taking from the major coasters after a multi-year spending spree, and the bad timing of a number of parks having just had major seasons for new thrillrides last year. But we can enjoy the fact that still dozens of parks have rolled out new attractions, no matter their size, that will be thrilling in ways never seen before. And thus, onto the annual countdown of the most innovative new rides around the world for 2004!:
#10- Spinning Dragons, Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, MO / Timberland Twister, Camp Snoopy, Bloomington, MN, USA -
  Gerstlauer's first two family twister coasters may sound tame in categorization, but when all is taken into account, you have two rides that are about as crazy as you can get for their size. Timberland Twister, which opened in the Mall of America's Camp Snoopy and its clone of Spinning Dragons at Kansas City's Worlds of Fun. These two new coasters are wild mouse-like twister rides that add another element of excitement to their experiences: four-passenger cars freely spin during the course. And with plenty of hairpin curves, banked spirals, and curves that are both banked and unbanked, riders can count on some serious physics lessons during their experiences. Starting out at 54 feet above ground, Spinning Dragons and Timberland Twister hit a maximum of 31 miles an hour during the rides.
#9- Journey to Atlantis, SeaWorld San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA -
 Six years after SeaWorld Orlando introduced their revolutionary Journey to Atlantis themed hybrid coaster and water ride experience, the West Coast's SeaWorld theme park is rolling out their own version of Atlantis, but with some significant changes. The SeaWorld San Diego sister ride from Mack features less of a dark ride experience than its counterpart, but more coaster track and just as much of a water ride. 2004's Journey to Atlantis rises up to 95 feet tall, and uses a unique elevator-type lift system, the first of its kind for a water ride like this, to get passengers up to those heights. Theming is also very evident as the track makes its way through and around large themed structures of the fabled lost city. SeaWorld San Diego's Journey to Atlantis comes in at number nine on the list.
#8- Spinball Whizzer, Alton Towers, Alton, Staffordshire / Dragon's Fury, Chessington World of Adventures, Chessington, England, UK -
 Another family-sized coaster, or pair of coasters for that matter, that takes a top spot on the countdown this year are the new Spinball Whizzer and Dragon's Fury at the U.K.'s Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures, respectively. Maurer-Sohne, known for their compact spinning twister coasters in past years, has outdone themselves with these two new custom spinning coasters that appeal to thrill seekers as well as families. The random-seeming track layouts for Dragon's Fury and Spinball Whizzer take riders through crazy twists, zig-zags, flat turns, banked curves, helixes, and just about every other non-inverting element imaginable during the 1,476 and 1,771-foot rides, all while cars rotate in circles. The highlight elements of both of the coasters are their vertical hairpin sections, which are elements previously seen on Mauer-Sohne rides, but only taken to the extreme, by taking the rides vertical, making a U-turn, then plunging vertically once again.
#7- Typhoon, Bobbejaanland, Lichtaart, Belgium -
 One more concept from Gerstlauer that has seemed to take off already is their 'Euro-Fighter' steel coaster - a ride with a completely vertical lift and beyond-vertical first drop. We saw the first of these last year with Bon-Bon Land's Wild Boar (our number three coaster in 2003's countdown), and Belgium's Bobbejaanland has introduced their own version of this with Typhoon, our number seven ride this year. More compact, more inversion-packed, and larger than Wild Boar, Typhoon will lift you 84 feet straight into the sky before sending you down the 97-degree first drop and then up and around through a number of banked curves, and four inversions: a vertical loop, and four heartline rolls. The multi-inversion twister features 2,198 feet of track in all - a much longer course than Wild Boar - and speeds of up to 50 miles per hour.
#6- Silver Bullet, Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA, USA -
 Knott's Berry Farm has made a serious name for itself among thrill seekers in just the past few years with world-class and innovative rides such as GhostRider, Perilous Plunge, and Xcelerator, each two years apart, and following that same two-year pattern, 2004 will be the year that the Buena Park themer fires off its next shot in the thrill ride wars: Silver Bullet. This new inverted coaster from praised Swiss engineers Bolliger and Mabillard is set to hit this December when some 3,125 feet of steel track changes the skyline of the Berry Farm. The completely custom-designed and unique layout of Silver Bullet will take adventurers up to heights of 146 feet before sending them on their way through a two-minute, thirty-second course. Silver Bullet's layout features six inversions, but the uniqueness of this coaster lies in its second major element - an overbanked curve - something new to inverted coasters. Prepare for another winner to call Knott's Berry Farm home.
#5- Volcanic Impact, Fantasy Island, Skegness, England, UK -
 Our number five most innovative ride this year takes us to Skegness, England's where Fantasy Island has put a new type of twist on the traditional Space Shot launched freefall tower from S&S Power with the eruption of its Volcanic Impact onto the thrill ride scene. Although the actual tower isn't new to the park, Fantasy Island has had S&S modify the vehicle on its tower to incorporate a new surprise into the ride experience. Similar to the seating of S&S Power's Sky Sling attraction (one of which Fantasy Island has also begun operating this year), riders are blasted into the sky only to find themselves staring right back down at the ground as the four rows of seats suddenly tilt forward. And while other freefall towers from designers other than S&S have used the method of tilting to add to their tower experiences, this freefall experience takes the concept of tilting to the extreme. This new innovation may hold potential for other parks that want to spice up their Space Shot towers, and makes Volcanic Impact our fifth most innovative new ride on the countdown this year.
#4- Thunderhead, Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, TN, USA -
 Dollywood and Great Coasters have joined forces this year to bring forth a new wooden coaster experience, and the result is something to blow any wooden coaster lover away. Thunderhead has struck at the rustic Great Smoky Mountains-based theme park with an incredibly-twisted 3,230 feet of track hugging the terrain of Dollywood and meandering with speed through insane drops and twists built in the valley between two hillsides. The main innovation of this ride is an element of interaction between a high-speed midcourse portion of the ride and the loading station, where current riders fly underneath the station roof parallel to loading riders below, something never seen before on a modern wooden coaster. And the theming of the ride is another plus, following the storyline of a runaway logging train. Great Coasters' now-standard Millennium Flyer trains further enhance the feeling of speed during Thunderhead's swift 55-mile per hour action, with the wind rushing through the front of the train and tighter curves than ever made possible by the single-row cars. This new wooden terrain coaster claims our number four spot on the list.
#3- Booster Bike, Toverland, Sevenum, Limburg, Netherlands -
 Last year, Vekoma International unveiled their innovative design for a 'Motorbike Launch Coaster,' a steel coaster unique for its trains which would carry riders in an inclined lay-down position on their stomachs riding atop 'motorbikes' as they're propelled off to begin the ride. Luckily, that concept will be finding a home this year when the Netherlands' Toverland pulls the wraps off of the first of Vekoma's 'motorbike' rides - Booster Bike - our number three most innovative new ride this year for its completely unique riding position. After riders board the motorbikes and secure a very unique restraint system to secure them, this steel coaster launches its 16-passenger train off at 47 miles per hour in three seconds into a track layout consisting of three camelback hills and a twister section in an out and back / twister-type layout. All-in-all, the 1,969-foot long ride will last one minute and ten seconds.
#2- Storm Runner, Hersheypark, Hershey, PA, USA -
 Another storm will strike this year when Hersheypark unveils their new $10 million Storm Runner, our second -place ride this year and a new steel coaster not quite like anything seen before. The third custom-designed Rocket Coaster model from Intamin follows 2002's Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm and 2003's Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point (both of which claimed the number one spot for their respective years) in using hydraulic technology to blast passengers off to begin their rides. While Storm Runner is overshadowed in the statistics area by its two sister rides, the Hershey coaster brings two of its own advances to the Rocket Coaster design: the use of inversions, and also the use of terrain. Taking advantage of the park's terrain, SR dives down a straight, vertical plunge of 180 feet in a ravine to reach its top speed of 75mph only to take on a trio of inversions, all slightly unique: a modified sidewinder named a cobra loop, and then into a never-before-seen inversion comprised of two and a half rolls and a half corkscrew dubbed a flying snake dive before meandering back to the station.
#1- Revenge of the Mummy, Universal Studios Hollywood, Hollywood, CA / Universal Studios Orlando, Orlando, FL, USA -
 When polled on what the most innovative new ride this year is, it was a close race, but in the end COASTER-net viewers chose wisely with Universal's new 'psychological thrill ride' experience of Revenge of the Mummy. It isn't large, it isn't  too fast, but the combination of an extremely wide range of technologies and thrill elements that the Universal Studios team carefully put together for their first enclosed dark coaster theme experience promises to blow away anyone ready to take on the Mummy. The actual coaster, a Premier Rides steel creation, will take single cars of sixteen riders at a time through nearly four minutes of themed mayhem and features a course packed with surprises. The RotM ride will launch passengers three times, including once backwards and once upwards, spin them 180 degrees on a rotating track piece, and feature a dead end and transfer track section, all while fire, water, pyrotechnics, and animatronics help to set up the action. Revenge of the Mummy takes home our number one ranking this year, and will help to define a new generation of themed thrill rides.
Despite the handful of innovative thrill experiences we're seeing make their debuts this year, it's already looking like 2004 may very well be a lull before a major storm in the works for next year. We already have confirmation on some major storm clouds gathering across the park scene, and the major rides look like they're going to be back in full force on the countdown next year. 2005 Looks especially promising, so hang on...
Logos copyright respective parks; artwork copyright respective manufacturers
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