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Back at the end of January, officials at California’s Great America announced that Invertigo would be leaving the park and would be moved to another Cedar Fair park in the future. After a month of speculation, it looks very likely that the rumor of the coaster making its way to Dorney Park are true, as News Plus Notes has pictures of the coasters track arriving at the park.
After an incident during the 2009 season, in which a malfunction of the chain lift left riders stranded for four hours, the ride was closed down for the second half of the season. This was not the only problem with the ride however, as the ride has experienced significant amounts of downtime in its day-to-day operation both before and since that particular incident, and has been a “maintenance nightmare” for the park. In fact, the parks Public Relations personnel are already putting a “positive spin” on the rides removal for these reasons. Just this past week, it was reported that South Whitehall planners recommended the township approval of Dorney Park’s new coaster for 2012, a coaster which would be 138 feet tall, the same height Invertigo was long advertised as. At the town Planning Commission meeting, park representatives described the ride as an “inverted boomerang” coaster. The park has also put three of its kiddie rides up for sale on Ital International along with the Steel First kiddie coaster, which is said to be moving to Valleyfair. All of these rides are located in the same general area and clear up space for a future development. The addition of Invertigo would put the coasters inverted coaster count at an astonishing three, joining the Intamin Impulse Possessed, and the B&M Inverted Talon. While Dorney Park has not yet made any official announcements to confirm or deny this move, most evidence seems to point to the coaster making its way to Allentown, PA.
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 Over the past year or so, Thorpe has been slowly revealing many of its future development plans for the next several years, one of which mentioned new coasters for 2012 and 2015 as part of its “Medium Term Development Plan” released in July 2010. Well, the plans for 2012 are now known! Thorpe Park has finally revealed the full details of its new planned roller coaster coming to the park in 2012, which will be a B&M Wing Walker/Rider featuring a “crash site” theme.
Code named “LC12,” the ride will be located north of Stealth on an Island near the man-made lake, and will be connected to the rest of the park via a bridge, and is located next to the area which the 2015 coaster is rumored to go. Referred to as a “Wing Coaster four times the width of standard roller coaster trains,” it seems almost certain this will be B&M’s second foray into the Wing Walker/Rider concept following this year’s future opening of X-Raptor at Gardaland. The new coaster will be the centerpiece and focal point of the entire island, which will mostly contain ride theming, photo booths, retail outlets, and food/beverage locations. There are also rumors that the seats could rotate, making this B&M’s first “4th Dimension” coaster, but this is purely rumor at this point. The artwork released by the park detailing the rides layout shows that it will include a 126-foot-tall lift hill that will roll riders upside down at the top and curl under itself as it drops to the ground (putting riders back in the upright position), before rising into a tall “heartline” roll. The layout also appears to include a tall, swooping, overbanked helix and flat spin/corkscrew element, and possibly another inversion. While the exact length is not known, from the Medium Term Development Plan, it will not exceed 2,788 ft (850 meters). Along with images of the coaster, the park has included a number of renderings of the theming, including a station that looks like a crumbled and destroyed church, a crashed airplane, sinking rescue helicopter, burnt firetruck, a rolled over tractor trailer, tv/radio station van, dumpsters, and a variety of “crumbling” and “destroyed” scenery. The track will sport grey trackage along with grey-brown supports as it flies through the crash/disaster scene. In fact, the entire theme of the island will be disaster themed, with booths designed to look like destroyed vehicles, damaged shipping containers, or collapsing buildings. Stay tuned for more details as they are released!  Just about a month ago, a series of alleged blueprints and images had been leaked for a potential “Manta” roller coaster going to SeaWorld San Diego, with construction bids online for a “SeaWorld Manta Exhibit & Ride Attraction 2012.” Nearly a month after those details surfaced, the park has now confirmed (according to Theme Park Tourist) it will be receiving its own $10 million Manta attraction for the 2012 season, which will “combine a traditional roller coaster with elements of a water ride.”
Unlike its sister park in Orlando, who received a B&M Flying coaster for their version of Manta, the one in San Diego will be a launched sit-down coaster from Mack Rides. With a tight 30-foot height limit set by the California Coastal Commission, the parks biggest drop of 54-feet, will go 24-feet down into the Earth so as not to exceed the height limit. From the previously leaked details, the ride will include two launch sections and numerous twists and turns, and some “water elements” over the 2,800-foot-long course. The ride will also utilize 20-passenger Manta-themed trains and giant projection screens, likely for the first launch, to immerse riders in manta rays. Reaching a top speed of 43 mph and a maximum of 4 Gs, the ride will be more of a family-launched coaster, featuring no inversions. Along with the new coaster, the Forbidden Reef exhibit will be revamped into the rides Manta ray exhibit, which will feature at least 65 bat rays, 10 guitar fish, and over 400 other sea creatures. The exhibit will be built surrounded by the ray tanks with giant portholes for viewing, as well as informational touch screens and displays. The park originally planned to open a new roller coaster for the 2010 season, but the project was put on hold when the SeaWorld and Busch parks were bought by the Blackstone Group, following InBev’s takeover in 2009. That coaster was apparently supposed to be a roller coaster similar in design to the pair of Revenge of the Mummy roller coasters seen at the Universal parks in Hollywood and Florida. |
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