Theme Parks: Manta Opens for Soft Openings
by Lee on May.13, 2009, under Theme Parks
This post is for Saturday 9th May 2009
In the last week seaworld has started opening Manta for some of it’s theme park guests.
Feedback on the internet seems to be very positive on the ride on the whole, as well as the theming of the lagoon in the queue area (although not all the sealife is present in the pool yet).
The Manta Wing Dip
Feedback on the ride itself has suggested that (from Orlando Sentinel):
Row 8 — the back row — is a very intense ride, according to folks who have been front and back of the coaster. In fact, we’d say the back is best reserved for coaster buffs, not the lily-livered. It’s all about the G’s. One rider told me Row 7 was “bad” but that 8 was significantly more jarring. You’ve been warned.
Hopefully, when I’m over in July I’ll get a chance to try a few different rider positions and see if there is much difference.
One of the things I was worried about was the ride capacity, having seen these flying coasters take a lot longer to load than your standard coaster. Seaworld are saying that they could get up to 1500 people through, but as humans are involved, so will want to remove shoes etc. They’re hoping to get a throughput of 1000 people an hour which is similar to Kraken. I think this is largely being assisted by the fact they have 2 loading stations – but no complaints there!
Many videos of the ride are starting to appear over the internet. Before the date this post is for, I found the following interesting video on the construction of the ride from Orlando Attractions Magazine.
I can’t wait to ride this when I head over to Florida in July of this year. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit rollercoaster at universal is open!
Has anyone had an opportunity to ride Manta yet? Let me know what you thought of it and any row recommendations in the comments!
Loading ...Photos From Orlando Sentinel:
May 13th, 2009 on 10:46 am
Seaworld have also released this video previewing the coaster:
June 4th, 2009 on 2:43 pm
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