Coaster reviews

Instant migraine. Oakwood were looking for something impressive within their budget, which I guess the ride ticks that box, but absolutely no desire to go back on this. Gerstlauers I like are very rare indeed, and this is definitely not one of them.

Good layout in a half interesting setting if it's not overran with rubbish and graffitti. Frequent power cuts in the park mean frequent downtime, and the ride has poor capacity at the best of times. Routinely fitted with 50-pence piece shaped wheels, and the restraints aren't far short of requiring a yoga instructor to get in an out. Can't help but think it was intended to have TTD-style lap bars; but insurers got nervous after some unfortunate events elsewhere.

Capacity Pace Disappointing! Dead spots

Dominator is a well-crafted coaster, but as with most of its floorless kin (that are not named Kraken) it doesn’t deliver much of the intensity from classic B&M creations. I don’t remember much of my experience on Dominator, but the first loop did deliver some good hangtime and the whole ride had a consistent pace to it.

Discomfort

Aside from its awesome location, it's a pretty terrible coaster. Just hurts too much to ever want to ride again.

Airtimes Comfort Fun

Mako is one of the best B&M hyper coasters ever built. It’s my 2nd favorite, just behind Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia.

Theming Rattle Too short Disappointing!

I was told the Mummy was a great coaster, with a thrilling experience and spectacular theming merged into one. The latter was absolutely true, but the former... not so much. The darkride segment in the beginning of the Mummy is a great introduction to what I expected to be an even greater ride. Unfortunately, after the turntable segment and uphill launch, I felt a noticeable rattle on Revenge of the Mummy’s circuit — right up until the actual ending brakes. The abrupt coaster sections made the ride feel incomplete, and when we hit the brake run I couldn’t believe that the Mummy had ended its terror on me — and I’m not talking about the fake ending either, as creative as it was. Revenge of the Mummy may have amazing theming, but at the end of the day it is merely a family coaster in the dark.

First Drop Theming Dead spots

The theming is really what makes Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts such a good ride. In terms of a coaster, it’s a very unique but forceless ride; but in terms of a darkride, it is one of the best in the world! The short tilt track segment is the only one of its kind in America and starts this coaster off with a bang, although the rest of Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts feels hardly like a coaster and more-so like a darkride with rotating seats. I used to be a huge fan of Harry Potter around 5 years ago, so I’m glad to having recognized who and what was going on at the Gringotts bank during my ride. Overall, this is my 2nd favorite ride at Universal Orlando Resort (just behind Harry Potter and Forbidden Journey) and absolutely worth an hour’s wait!

Comfort Intensity Rattle Capacity

Scorpion was my 150th coaster credit, chosen by me for my love of Schwarzkopf’s classic coasters and this model’s rareness. It did somewhat deliver that hallmark Schwarzkopf intensity in the vertical loop and bizarre but awesome 900° helix, however, there was a very prevalent rattle throughout the entire ride. The train seemed to be frantically shuffling about as soon as it hit that loop, resulting in some awkward jolts and bounces from side to side. Putting this con aside, Scorpion is a solid family looping coaster that delivers a reasonably fun introduction to going upside down for coasterfans in training.

Location

The interactions with Runaway Mine Train and the park railroad made this a bit more interesting than your usual kids coaster.

Airtimes Comfort Pace Intensity

New Texas Giant was the first RMC, and it’s not half bad! I really enjoyed the first half — the awesome first drop, step up into the series of enjoyable high-flying overbanked turns combined with the mental bunny hill before the mid-course brake run just keeps getting better and better. Unfortunately, after the mid-course New Texas Giant feels much less like an RMC and a lot more like a family ride with airtimeless hill after airtimeless hill. Only the last three or four hills just before the final brake run give airtime, and it’s floater at that. Still, New Texas Giant is very long when compared to the other two RMC’s I’ve ridden — Twisted Cyclone and Lightning Rod — but everything before the mid-course is awesome, yet everything after it... not so much.