Cedar Fair’s Recipe: A Hyper-Giga One Two Punch
Hyper coasters and giga coasters represent two of the more popular steel roller coasters over the past few decades. Hyper coasters reach a height or have a drop of 200 to 299 feet and giga coasters reach a height of or have a drop of 300 to 399 feet.
Way back when I reported on the announcement of giga coaster Leviathan at Canada’s Wonderland, I thought it was an odd addition considering the park already had a hyper coaster in Behemoth.
Since then, we’ve seen Intimidator and Fury 325 rise above Carowinds and now Kings Island with its own pair of massive steel coasters in Diamondback and recently the announced Orion. So clearly, this is a recipe for the amusement park chain’s larger parks. While their layouts and experiences do differ, to the general public I would think that they both appear to be just two “really tall steel coasters” and my theory was that parks look to add more varied experiences they can market. For more, check out my comparison of Intimidator and Fury 325. They definitely aren’t the same ride.
Of course Cedar Fair’s flagship park, Cedar Point, was the first with their record-setting Magnum XL-200 and Millennium Force, but I would have never looked at those landmark record-setters as the beginning of any kind of trend.
Lastly in terms of large Cedar Fair parks, I’m not sure if they’d go backwards and add a hyper coaster to Kings Dominion, but I’d be happy if they did. Intimidator 305 is one really intense giga coaster and they could really balance out their offerings with an air-time heavy, but still tall ride in a new hyper coaster.
My Take: If It Ain’t Broke…
You can’t argue with success. Fury 325 won yet another Golden Ticket Award this year and its wildly popular down here in the Carolinas. These six hyper and giga coasters are designed by B&M, a company with a remarkable track record for smooth, crowd-pleasing and reliable rides. So why wouldn’t Cedar Fair continue to order more of these?
The alternative could be a new ride with downtime issues (sometimes seen on launch coasters) or something new and original, but with a chance of being less popular or having a shorter lifespan.
What’s Your Take?
What do you think? Do you like seeing hypers and gigas added to the same theme park or would you prefer more variety? Let us know by leaving a comment.