10 & 11
including smaller flat rides for children The numbers are respectable: it’s
including the Children Coaster (mild and just under a mile long, features a height
for children as the name suggest) and of 213 feet, a drop of 210 feet and
the Jet Coaster (which will inflict medium during the 3 minutes that are needed
pain). All in all, there are 41 different to complete the ride, you’ll reach 74
rides to go on. miles per hour, faster than it’s legal to
You can either pay for rides individually – drive there.
the Steel Dragon 2000 is 1000 yen Other rides include Infusion which
(£6.50), and the other rides are much features a number of twists and turns
less, or you can buy an all inclusive pass above water; Steeple Chase where the
for 4800 yen (£31). ride sits astride a ‘horse’; and Bling
Unfortunately the website is mostly in where riders are lifted 100 feet skyward
Japanese apart from some download and then spun as if in a centrifuge.
pages at www.nagashima-onsen.co.jp/ But there is more to Blackpool
resort/download.html Pleasure Beach with the shows that are
Nagshima Spaland is near the City staged. These change during the year,
of Nagoya. but presently they include an ice
spectacular, a musical and variety.
Closer to Home The website should put off any timid
We’ve looked at rollercoasters that are rider as it features ‘point of view’ videos
the fastest, tallest, longest and which have of the rides. The site doesn’t make it easy
the longest drop. Unfortunately – they’re to calculate the cost of the rides though.
not in the UK. So where can thrillseekers The pricing structure for 2009 is not
go in the UK? (at the time of writing) yet known.
Rollercoasters are thought to have something for everyone. Typically However, as a guide, an adult would have
originated in Russia where in the 16th American, it’s big – around 4.5 square Thorpe Park paid £32 during the summer of 2008,
and 17th centuries wooden framed ice- miles – with 57 different rides from the Those close to Surrey and the M25 can and a child £25.
slides were used to send people down 70 mild Bugs Bunny Fun Factory to the test their metal at the new Stealth Ride www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com
feet slopes. The (primitive) rollercoaster moderate Runaway Mine Train and at Thorpe Park. This ride will propel you
as we know it came from American John other max rides such as the more than from 0 to 80 miles per hour in under Alton Towers
G Taylor in 1872 with a patent granted mile long Nitro. 1.9 seconds. The shape is simple – one Middle England doesn’t miss out as it
for a switchback railway – two parallel There are various options for buying huge inverted ‘U’ with 90 degree sides. can visit Alton Towers in Staffordshire
rails set up with one going out, making tickets to see the attractions at Six Apparently rider’s heartbeats have been to take in the Nemesis and experience
a switch to another that came back. Flags, but standard adults tickets are recorded as doubling to 170 beats per life at 4G. It doesn’t hold any world
But the first commercially successful $39.99 (£25) and Juniors (under 4’6”) minute on this ride as they experience records for speed or height, but don’t
rollercoaster came in 1885 from $29.99 (£19). the 4.5Gs this ride puts out. Although it’s let that deceive you as the Nemesis
LeMarcus A. Thompson with his But before you rush to book for Six not the world’s tallest rollercoaster, at features inversions, two corkscrews,
Switchback Railway in Coney Island. Flags New Jersey on the basis this is the 205 feet in height it’s more than enough a heartline roll and a vertical loop over
It was so successful that it made fastest rollercoaster of them all, it’s to concern those with a fear of heights. it’s half mile length. With a top speed of
$600 a day and drew huge crowds. worth mentioning that a new and faster Of course there is plenty more to see 50 miles per hour you’ll have a minute
Now, in 2009, there are around ride is opening a little closer to home. It’s at Thorpe Park including Loggers Leap and a half to work out why some like to
2190 rollercoasters globally, spread called the RingRacer and is based at the (log flume) and the Rumba Rapids (ride the defy gravity.
equally between Asia, Europe and famous race track, the Nurburgring in rapids in a tyre shaped boat). There are At with the other parks, above, there
North America with a few in Africa, Germany. It’ll take you to just under 135 33 different rides for people of all ages. is much more than the Nemesis to Alton
Australia and South America. miles per hour. It should be open by June It’s much cheaper to buy tickets online Towers. There are seven other thrill
With this number of rollercoasters it 2009. Nearer the time you’ll be able to and there are numerous options, but as rides including the Air where riders
shouldn’t take anyone mad enough too read more at: www.nuerburgring.de and a guide adults are £24, children are come close to flying and Oblivion which
long to find somewhere to put their body www.sixflags.com/greatAdventure/ £16 and those under a metre are free. is essentially a vertical drop into the
through some serious G-Forces. And index.aspx www.thorpepark.com countryside. There is also enough to keep
there are numerous designs to choose Sixflags is located between New York the saner and younger visitor happy too
from – floorless, bobsled, mine train, City and Philadelphia. Blackpool Pleasure Beach with such things as carousels, Old
pipeline, corkscrew, duelling, figure of The north of England doesn’t escape MacDonalds Tractor Ride and the
eight, launched, twister, Möbius Loop and Longest from the lure of rollercoasters as Peugeot 207 Driving School.
many more. So where are the biggest 2000 was an auspicious year for Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach features Prices also vary here too from
and best rollercoasters? Nagashima SpaLand, in Nagashima, several rides including the Pepsi Max £29 for an adult to £22 for a child.
Japan. Why? Because that’s when the Big One. www.altontowers.com
Fastest, Highest and Steel Dragon 2000 was opened. Named
Greatest Drop after the year of the dragon in 2000, the
Speed is, for some, of the essence and year it was opened, it’s presently the
the faster the better. Combine it with the longest ride in the world at just over a
world’s tallest and you also find the mile and a half long. Sure it’s not as fast
world’s fastest – Kingda Ka at the Six as the Kingda Ka – it travels at 95 miles
Flags Great Adventure Park, Jackson, an hour – but at 318 feet in height it will
New Jersey. This ride really is the daddy certainly thrill as it flings you through
of them all. numerous twists and turns. Now
The statistics will make a grown man whereas some rides will shoot you to the
cry: It’s 456 feet high with a 418 feet top and down quickly, the Steel Dragon
drop (which is the world’s longest) and in will take you to the top, let you admire
the 59 seconds that it takes to ride the the surroundings and then suddenly drop
more than half mile long Kingda Ka, you’ll you down a 68 degree 310 feet drop.
have reached a maximum of 128 miles There are several camelback peaks,
per hour. Or put another way, you’ll have U-turns and inclined helixs. All in all,
exceeded the terminal velocity of a enough to separate your stomach lining
skydiver in freefall. You’ll experience from its contents.
plenty of G-Forces (around 5) when you Nagashima Spaland also has other
hit the 90 degree quarter turn and attractions crammed into its relatively
camel hump as well as the feeling of small area. Some reports say that this
weightlessness as you drop into a valley. can make it seem a little crowded. That
Apart from Kingda Ka, Six Flags has said, there is plenty for all of the family
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