Disclaimer: This a review of the blue side
American Eagle can be separated into two parts, an airtime filled section and a slow boring section. Now with that being said let's begin the review, norm...
Disclaimer: This a review of the blue side
American Eagle can be separated into two parts, an airtime filled section and a slow boring section. Now with that being said let's begin the review, normally I would start with the off ride experience but there really isn't one. American Eagle is very hidden from the rest on the park as all you can really see is the massive lift structure and similarly massive helix. Now arguably the most famous parts of American Eagle is it's obnoxiously long queue and it really is long, there is absolutely no theming but since there's almost never a line that doesn't make a difference. Now with that all said let's get into the actual coaster review. The ride starts with an unbanked turn out of station that provides weak laterals and then proceeds into straight track before another unbanked turn leading into the lift hill. Now this lift is absolutely massive and in turn takes forever, thankfully there are amazing views of the park on the right. Now leading up to the drop the slow crawl of the lift builds anticipation looking down the rides 147ft drops at 55 degrees which looks a lot larger when you actually up there. This drop provides virtually no airtime but you do feel like your falling forever, especially in the front. This drop actually is larger then the lift hill of the ride so you actually level out in a trench. This pull out of the drop provides little positives however the sense of speed is absolutely unreal, after all the ride is the 8th fastest wooden coaster in the world and is only one mile an hour slower then the Voyage. Unlike the Voyage American Eagle goes into two low to the ground airtime hills continuing with the insane pacing and giving surprisingly strong airtime that borders from strong floater to flojector airtime. This whole portion of the ride is rather bumpy and may not be enjoyable if you dislike rougher rides. Following these hills American Eagle climbs up a large hill killing much of the speed. Once the ride reaches the peak of this hill it runs into... trim breaks slowing the train down to a crawl. Now the first section of this ride is over leading into the second most famous part of this ride, the helix. This helix drags on for quite awhile slowly building up speed, it provides little forces at all and really feels like it's just there to add track length. Now I probably should say that American eagle is a racing coaster that as of this review is only running one sides as it has been for at least 3 years, this helix would have likely been better if the racing mechanic was still a feature however that is not currently the case. Once the massive helix is completed the ride has built up some decent speed, which is immediately lost as you hit trims killing a portion of your speed. Now this is the first portion of the ride where the two sides of the ride really differ both having sides having completely different layouts. As I haven't ridden the red side in quite a while I'll just be commenting on blue side. The ride steps down from the helix which surprisingly gives no airtime throughout the entire train, a theme that will be carried throughout the rest of the ride. The ride rises up into a rather large airtime hill that of course gives no airtime. Then the ride goes into a small portion of straight track and then goes into a very drawn out slightly banked turn that somehow doesn't give any laterals. The ride rises again into another airtime hill that again gives no forces. After this hill it rises again into a midcourse break run which slows your train to a complete crawl which is rather unfortunate as the ride goes into another helix. The lack of speed going into the element just makes it a slow and surprisingly bumpy helix, while much of the ride is somewhat rough in my experience this is the worst offender as it is just slowly crawling through the helix. After the helix you rise up again and hit the breaks concluding the ride. One last note is that a night ride is absolutely fantastic and I strongly recommended you ride it then as the final few hills can even give some airtime. Overall the ride gets a 7/10 primarily for it's incredible first half but also for being a genuinely fun ride.
