Brand new this year, Fun Spot America in Orlando opened one extremely unique coaster, made by Great Coasters International. Fun Spot is certainly a one-of-a-kind park. It’s made up of an arcade, go karts, a 250 foot tall Sky Coaster, and two roller coasters.
White Lightning has a completely different attitude from other coasters. It has a short 2,032 foot
course and doesn’t even reach 50 miles per hour; which is very slow compared to your average wooden coaster. Yet, it completely takes you by surprise and delivers one of the most action packed layouts I have ever experienced on a wooden coaster.
The theming was very simplistic, but not shallow by any means. It had a boardwalk woodie type of feel even though no such boardwalk could be found. The trains are cleverly designed to resemble a freight train. And finally, there was a large GCI sign at the base of the station which made me feel right at home.
One of the major pluses to White Lightning is its atmosphere. Fun Spot is a budget-based attraction that is open all the time which means it isn’t very busy during the middle of the day. With that in mind, I walked onto White Lightning three times, and I could have just sat on the coaster never exiting due to the fact that the queue line consisted of about two other people.
Now, the ride itself is very fast paced and leaves no time to breathe between the lift hill and the brake run. The modest 70 foot tall first hill is sharp and banked. At IAAPA last year, GCI stated that they purposefully made the trains on White Lightning a little shorter than usual in order to give a quick and snappy sensation. This really paid off.
There’s a small hill and curve followed by a double dip up and a double dip down. It’s a really unique hill and it provided a very satisfying pop of airtime going back down. White Lightning continues to thrill with an upward hill that banks 90 degrees before barreling back down. Then, there are several airtime hills that are paced in rapid succession. The ride finishes by whipping right, maneuvering through one more airtime hill, and hitting the brake run.
White Lightning is a successful ride with its zippy attitude and lightning fast direction changes. And, with it being a sort of, petite coaster, it can really take you by surprise. But what really stands out is its location. You could ride White Lightning over and over again throughout an entire afternoon. You would never wait longer than 5 minutes (on an average day), and you would never get bored of its simplistic yet never boring thrills. Final Rating: 4.25 out of 5
This was a guest review from Dillon who runs Theme Park Rides. Check out his review of Fun Spot’s SkyCoaster including video footage of his ride.
Have you ridden White Lightning? What’d you think? Leave a comment below.