Hello, all. I am from the States and discovered your wonderful site courtesy of the discussion board at JimHillMedia.com (
http://http://p088.ezboard.com/fmediabingefrm14.showMessage?topicID=259.topic).
Crush's Turtle Twister looks like a great ride. Upon close examination of the layout posted by Baloo...
(source: ericlovestztot, Disney Central Plaza)
Notice anything cool in the plans? Tell us! :wink:
I noticed something about the plans. Based on some of the car design plans and the layout, it looks just like the cars and layout of a coaster here in Salt Lake City. It is at a park called
Lagoon, and the ride here is called "The Spider."
With the exception of the load area on an angle and the first part of the track, the rest looks exactly like the layout of The Spider.
Here is a description from their website,
http://http://www.lagoonpark.com (You can only get to this from the interactive park map, so I posted it here for convenience).
This is a really fun ride. My 7-year old just loves it. We typically go on it about 3 or 4 times in a row--he loves it that much. I can only imagine how great it would be to have that ride enclosed in a building, with sets, props, and projection effects. This will be a first-class, fun, repeatable ride. It is not too intense, but just a LOT of fun!
My only concern is where they will put the overflow queue area. The Spider opened up here about two years ago--yet the line, when we went to Lagoon just this past October, was about a 45-minute wait. And that is for a ride with very little theming! But then it appears that 'Turtle Twister' will have a few more cars, due to the extended track length. Hopefully they can also boost the THC with additional enhancements, sensors, and the like, to enable more cars on the track at a time.
According to the Lagoon press kit (
http://http://www.lagoonpark.com/pdf/mediarelations/LagoonPressKit05.pdf), the Spider was "manufactured by the Maurer Sohne, Germany" and has these specifications:
• Footprint: 78 feet x 146 feet
• Highest Height: 53 feet high
• Length of Track: 1,414 feet long
• Top Speed: 38 miles per hour
• Capacity: 900 passengers per hour
• Number of Cars: Eight [8] four-passenger cars
• Maximum Banking: 82 degrees
• Minimum Slope: 50 degrees
• Height Requirements: 46-50 inches must be accompanied by an individual over 50 inches in height. Riders over 50 inches may ride alone. Under 46 inches may not ride.
• Approximate Cost: $3 million
• Year Installed: 2003
The picture, below, of the car is from
http://http://www.funworldmagazine.com/2003/Jul03/Departments/Jul03FrontRowNews.html, where they state that, "The Spider cost Lagoon Park $4 million to build, about $1 million of which went into spider and castle theming and landscaping. Lagoon added a Maurer Söhne wild mouse seven years ago; its success was one of the main reasons it went with The Spider."
You can see that two people sit one one side, then two more sit behind them, back to back. On the Spider, (a little contrary to what their website says,) you are stationary (two people forward, two people backward) through the lift, the first drop
and ascent and straghtaway. Then after a U-turn, your car is released and starts spinning throughout the rest of the ride. This is the one deviation from the layout Baloo posted. It appears to me that on the first drop, they indicate a car that is already spinning.
There are a few more small pictures on a Lagoon fan site,
http://http://groups.msn.com/LagoonNerds/yourwebpage.msnw. You may need to click on
The Spider on the left side of the page.
I hope this gives you some good additional information and gets some of you even more excited for this great ride. I will need to bring my son and come to DLP to experience it!
