Name: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (4K) POV - Disneyland @FRONTSEATPOV
Uploaded: 2026-09-23T08:17:00-05:00
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (4K) POV - Disneyland

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (4K) POV - Disneyland

FRONT SEAT POV 2026-09-23 | Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (4K) POV - Disneyland

NEW Primordial Opening Weekend Experience Ride POV - Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-09-17 | Front Seat POV©
Construction started on Primordial in 2018, with leaked rumors of its name from a trademarked filed from Lagoon. In September 2019, the park revealed this ride would have a footprint 30% larger than that of Cannibal.
The ride opened to the public on September 15, 2023.

Primordial has 2 cars per train, each seating a max of 8 riders. Each car features onboard audio, as well as a controlled rotation, facing towards the screens in its dark-ride portions, and backwards during its second coaster portion.

The finale of the ride consists of three possible endings, a vertical drop track, and a backwards or forwards drop. This version you're watching contains the vertical drop track ending.

Ahead of the grand opening, Julie Freed — director of special events for Lagoon — led a press conference detailing the new ride, saying many of Primordial’s features haven’t been seen anywhere else in the amusement park industry.

“This one-of-a-kind, interactive coaster has been in development since 2015,” she said. “We’ve named it Primordial, which means, ‘from the beginning of time.’ In the Primordial setting, the storyline that you will follow as you journey through this ride is completely custom, unlike anything you have seen before.”

She said the ride is nearly five-minutes long and even briefly detailed the ride experience.

“(Each train) seats eight riders — four riders or adventurers per cart,” she said. “Each seat is fitted with a blaster. These are used to interact with enormous gameplay screens throughout the ride. There are over 5,000-square-feet of projection screens used to make the gameplay come to life. Individual screens inside the train show color-coordinated scores for each rider. As the train comes back into the station, the final score of all riders will be displayed so that you can compare your score with the other riders in your group. If you are a top player, your score will be displayed in the hall of fame monitors for all to see as you exit the ride.”

As a result of its interactive nature, she said, each ride of Primordial is unique. The roller coaster has a maximum speed of 40 mph.

Primordial may mean “from the beginning of time,” but to some, it seemed like a lot of time to get to the moment of its opening.

Freed said a lot came down to the unique nature of the ride itself, along with global events.

“Everything is new,” she said. “The trains are new. This is all the most current technology. … We also lost an entire year due to COVID, and that changed the landscape for our industry as well as every other industry. So we’re happy to open it today.”

As a result of Primordial’s arrival late in the year, Freed said the park is doing something it has never done in the past to reward this year’s season pass holders, many of which may have bought their passes for this specific ride.

“We are offering our 2023 season passport holders exclusive ride time,” she said. “They can come to the park or make a reservation — we just sent out an email this morning — Monday through Thursday until the end of the season. With the exception of UEA weekend (Oct. 19) because we’re open on Thursday, we’re opening the ride from 4-8 p.m. The rest of the park will be closed just so they can come and get their ride time.”

Freed said the 70,000-square-foot mountain that houses the vast majority of the ride contains 10,000 pieces of steel.

“One hundred percent of the structural steel was fabricated here in Utah,” she said. “This includes the mountain steel, the nearly 2,000 feet of ride track and the 94 track columns.”

She added that local material and construction made up the bulk of the ride, even beyond steel.

“We are pleased to say this project has been developed using local Utah suppliers for 75% of the ride,” she said. “We have also worked with the best in the amusement industry for the design of the roller coaster and interactive elements.

Freed said as long as guests meet the 36-inch height minimum for safe riding, it’s for everyone.

“This is a family ride,” she said. “Unlike Cannibal, we wanted this ride to be available for almost everybody.”

Jurassic Park River Adventure (5K) POV - Universal Studios Florida 2023

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-08-10 | Front Seat POV©
Jurassic Park: The Ride is a water-based amusement ride based on the Steven Spielberg 1993 film Jurassic Park and Michael Crichton's 1990 novel of the same name which the film is based on located at Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. It was formerly located at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California, where it was turned into Jurassic World: The Ride.

The ride was researched and built as the film was still in production and opened at Universal Studios Hollywood on June 21, 1996. Duplicates of the ride have since been built at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Japan as Jurassic Park River Adventure. A river rapids ride version, Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, opened at Universal Studios Singapore in 2010.

Jurassic Park: The Ride opened to the public at Universal Studios Hollywood on June 21, 1996. Among the guests in attendance at the ride's grand opening celebration were film cast members Jeff Goldblum, Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello. Steven Spielberg also attended the opening, but requested that he be let off of the attraction before the 85-foot (26 m) drop. On August 12, 1996, Universal launched an online game, Jurassic Park – The Ride Online Adventure, to promote the ride. The ride was also the primary sponsor of the infamous "T-Rex" car that was driven by Jeff Gordon in the 1997 The Winston that was banned by NASCAR immediately following the race.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios Florida was looking to build their own version of Jurassic Park: The Ride. It would be placed in their brand new second theme park Universal Islands of Adventure. The park would feature islands themed to Marvel superheroes, Dr. Seuss books, fairy tales, cartoons and dinosaurs. Jurassic Park: The Ride would be slightly different from the Hollywood location. The ride would be named Jurassic Park: River Adventure and feature some significant changes. On March 27, 1999, Islands of Adventure opened for technical rehearsals, with Jurassic Park: River Adventure being one of its debut attractions. On May 28, 1999, the attraction officially opened to the public.

During the development, Universal Studios Japan was planning to add Jurassic Park: River Adventure. It would be a mirror version of the Islands of Adventure location. Jurassic Park: River Adventure opened on March 31, 2001, along with the park.

On May 10, 2018, it was announced that the Hollywood location would be receiving a Jurassic World remodel. The attraction was becoming outdated due to the film's huge success in 2015. Jurassic Park: The Ride would have its last operating day on September 3, 2018; the ride then closed September 4. After being closed for 10 months, it reopened on July 12, 2019, as Jurassic World: The Ride. The ride includes all new animatronics and special effects.

Lagoons secret tunnel/shortcut!? #lagoon #lagoonamusementpark #frontseatpov

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-08-02 | ...

Skull Island: Reign of Kong (5K) POV - Universal Studios Orlando 2023

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-08-02 | Front Seat POV©
Skull Island: Reign of Kong is a trackless dark ride located at Islands of Adventure theme park within Universal Orlando Resort. Universal Creative based its design on various films in the King Kong franchise and consulted with Peter Jackson, who directed the 2005 film King Kong, during the initial phase of the project. The ride officially opened to the public on July 13, 2016, which was preceded by a series of soft openings held the previous month.
Construction on a brand new King Kong attraction began in March 2014. It was going to be built between the Jurassic Park and Toon Lagoon areas, as an expansion for Islands of Adventure.

On May 6, 2015, Islands of Adventure revealed that the new ride would be called Skull Island: Reign of Kong. It was originally planned to soft open in late 2015, but this was eventually delayed to June 9, 2016. The ride opened to the public the following month.

Guests enter under a giant sculpture of King Kong. Guests start to proceed into a line outside of the temple where they can hear radio broadcast advertising the expedition group and playing music. They then proceed into the temple of the natives, where many skulls line the walls and figures of their beliefs lie. Guests then enter into a chamber where a shamaness is performing a ritual and possibly warning guests that they are in sacred lands and are not safe. As guests proceed through the temple, they encounter bodies of the dead and possibly natives that may scare oblivious guests. After leaving the temple area, guests proceed into the base camp where many supplies are stacked and ready to be taken on the trucks. Guests also encounter an animatronic worm that moves around but does not attack. After this line, guests pick up their 3D glasses and are sent to the boarding area to wait for their truck to arrive. The guests then board a truck, with a driver played by an animatronic person styled to look like a Universal team member; the driver character varies from one truck to the next.

Guests enter an expedition truck with one of five different drivers, each one containing their own backstory and dialog for the ride. They are warned of the island's dangers as they enter the 80-foot (24 m) tall temple, as natives from Skull Island chant King Kong's name. The ride slows down and passes by the bones of a giant ape, as well as a few bat-like Terapusmordax animatronics. Guests then turn and meet the other expedition group, who are getting ready to set up a camp. However, guests are attacked by a swarm of Terapusmordax, one of which snatches up Kate, one of the few named explorers. She is taken over the truck and out of view of the riders. Both trucks speed off, following Kate to rescue her. In the back of the cave, a shadow of Kong can be seen.

The expedition trucks move on to a swamp, where they encounter giant invertebrates such as worm-like Carnictis, cricket-like Decarnocimex, and Arachno-Claws. Kate manages to escape the Terapusmordax that took her and fights off the creatures that threaten her and the riders. After defending the truck for a few moments, she tells them to leave without her, though the driver refuses to do so. Right before she is able to jump onto the truck, a Deplector reaches out, grabs her, and drags her into a cave with its claw as she struggles to escape. The vehicle moves on to the jungle, where the riders are ordered to return to base camp. They later encounter small carnivorous dinosaurs, Venatosaurus, who chase the truck as it speeds away in an attempt to escape. The truck, however, crashes and wakes up a group of larger dinosaurs, Vastatosaurus rex, which kill a few of the Venatosaurus, causing the smaller predators to scatter. The V. rexes begin attacking the truck; before the dinosaurs can badly damage it, Kong leaps from behind a temple and begins to fight them. Kong and the dinosaurs continue to fight when the truck from earlier shows up to help the riders.

Unfortunately, both trucks end up falling into a pit because of the weakening walkway around it. They swing from vines while Kong faces the last V. rex and causes both the other truck and the dinosaur to fall. Kong, however, saves the truck, allowing its crew to survive the fall. The riders’ truck also plummets but is saved as well by Kong, who roars and climbs away. The driver sends out a report that the truck had found Kong. The truck then drives and meets Kong in an animatronic form, who sniffs at the riders and stares but then roars, causing the driver to quickly speed away. The ride vehicle returns to base camp where Kate radioes that she and the others are safe.

During optimal weather, the trucks travel outside and up through the massive gates leading to Skull Island at the start of the ride. During inclement weather, the trucks take a bypass route indoors, cutting out the outdoor portion of the ride, so it can remain open during inclement weather. This is seen in this video above.

The Seas with Nemo & Friends (5K) POV - Disney World 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-03-31 | Front Seat POV©
The Seas with Nemo & Friends (formerly The Living Seas) is a pavilion located in the World Nature section of Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The pavilion is themed as an oceanic exploration base called SeaBase Alpha, with several exhibits devoted to oceanic study. The building includes an aquarium and its attached dark ride attraction, a talk show-type attraction called Turtle Talk with Crush, and the Coral Reef Restaurant. With 5.7 million US gallons of tank volume, the pavilion is also the second largest aquarium in the U.S. and the sixth largest in the world.

The Living Seas opened in 1986, but had been planned as part of the park since its opening in 1982. The pavilion was re-themed in 2006 as The Seas with Nemo & Friends after the film Finding Nemo.

In December 2003, Disney began to re-theme The Living Seas into a new pavilion based on the recently released Pixar film Finding Nemo. The majority of the transformation began with exterior elements, but in January 2004, the interior began to change as well. On November 16, 2004, Turtle Talk with Crush opened in what was once Module 1C, or the Earth Systems exhibit. The show's unexpected success overwhelmed the pavilion, causing the development of plans to move Turtle Talk with Crush to a larger area in the pavilion.

Turtle Talk with Crush was only the beginning of changes to The Living Seas. On August 21, 2005, The Living Seas closed for its transformation into The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Parts of the pavilion reopened in late November 2005. Outside the pavilion, the facade and mural were changed and depictions of sea life seen in Finding Nemo were added. The exit Hydrolators had been removed, and were replaced with glass doors that served as an exit and temporary entrance. Sea Base Alpha had been re-themed to Finding Nemo and the entire original preshow area was in the process of being rebuilt. Decor and signage was replaced and scientific displays were replaced by ones themed to Finding Nemo. Turtle Talk with Crush remained as popular as it was before the transformation.

Throughout 2006, construction walls hid the preshow area which was undergoing reconstruction. With the former Sea Base Alpha open, work progressed on the new queue areas and the Seacabs were being rebuilt as a new "Clamobile" attraction. The remaining Living Seas preshow theater, entrance Hydrolators, holding areas, and Seacabs queue were all completely removed and replaced by a new themed queue area. Hydrolator Three and Theater 1 were replaced by a number of new dark ride sets. The former Seacabs ride was lengthened by 280 feet (85 m) through the space formerly used by the preshow theatre, but the final section still took place inside the tank. A new projection technology was added to the tank and the new show scenes. The existing Seacabs were given a clamshell shape and renamed "Clamobiles". Three Audio-Animatronic seagulls were also added to the entrance. They periodically flap their wings and say "Mine! Mine! Mine!", just like the seagulls do in Finding Nemo.

On October 10, 2006, the construction walls in front of the entrance to The Living Seas, now The Seas with Nemo & Friends, were removed. The temporary entrance was removed from the exit. Turtle Talk With Crush was removed from Module 1C, and relocated to the second preshow theater, which had been unused since 1999 when it had been broken up by the bypass corridor following United Technologies' discontinuation of sponsorship. Module 1A was turned into a pre-show space for the expanded Turtle Talk With Crush, with its exhibits moving to 1C, while a new queue line corridor was built from the module into the existing theater space using a backstage fire exit. The Seas with Nemo & Friends was rededicated on January 24, 2007.

It was the first Epcot Pavilion to be based on a Disney animated movie property and only the second Epcot attraction to do so (The Lion King-based Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable at The Land Pavilion was the first, opening in 1995 replacing Symbiosis).

In late 2019, new directory signage was installed in Seabase Alpha, restoring the former Living Seas logo, as the pavilions are now renamed The Seas Pavilion.

Lagoon impressed all of us with Cannibal. Who’s ready for primordial? #lagoon #lagoonamusementpark

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-03-26 | ...

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (5K) POV - Disney World 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-03-18 | Front Seat POV©
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is an enclosed roller coaster at Epcot at Walt Disney World, manufactured by Dutch company Vekoma. Based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Guardians of the Galaxy films, the attraction is the first at Walt Disney World to feature characters from the Marvel Universe. Opened on May 27, 2022, it is Epcot's first roller coaster and Disney's first backwards-launched roller coaster. It replaced the Universe of Energy pavilion, which closed on August 13, 2017.

Originally set to open in 2021, the attraction was delayed to summer 2022 as part of Epcot's 40th anniversary celebration, which is part of Walt Disney World's 50th Anniversary celebration. The opening was postponed when Walt Disney World closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The attraction was announced as part of an overhaul of Epcot at the 2017 D23 Expo. Ellen's Energy Adventure closed on August 13, 2017 and construction of the roller coaster began later in the same month. The show building that housed Universe of Energy was reused and retrofitted for the new attraction. The roller coaster itself is housed in a new, massive show building situated backstage behind the Universe of Energy building and the PLAY! pavilion, which utilized 960 truckloads of concrete for its foundation. The first track piece of the ride was installed November 2018.

At D23 Japan in 2018, it was confirmed that the ride would be one of the world's longest enclosed roller coasters, set to open during the 50th anniversary celebration of Walt Disney World, late 2021.

The name of the ride, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, was announced on August 25, 2019, at the D23 Expo 2019. Much like its sister attraction Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! at Disney's California Adventure, the attraction cannot use the Marvel brand in its title or in advertising due to the 1994 contract with Universal Parks & Resorts, which pre-dates Disney's 2009 purchase of Marvel Entertainment.

Filming for the ride commenced in October 2021. Guardians of the Galaxy film series cast members Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, and Glenn Close reprised their roles from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as Peter Quill / Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, and Nova Prime Irani Rael, respectively. The first footage from the ride was released in March 2022. Disney Parks, through social media, also revealed on April 25, 2022, that actor Terry Crews would be part of the pre-show experience, playing Centurion Tal Marik, a new character created specifically for the attraction.

As the shuttles depart, Terrans begin making their way out of the Nova ship to enter the jumppoint in their evacuation shuttles. Peter Quill / Star-Lord and Gamora assure them that they're tracking the shuttles to meet them, while Drax and Rocket instead make pessimistic remarks about the situation. The Guardians wish the Terrans luck as they set off, and after crossing the jumppoint the Terrans arrive at Eson's location, where it holds the Cosmic Generator. Shortly after, the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive in their ship as Eson prepares to throw the Cosmic Generator towards Terra, who disregards Quill's music from the Guardians' ship as "noise". The Guardians then blast the Cosmic Generator from the Celestial's hands, opening another jumppoint which proceeds to suck everything in, taking them all the way back in time to the Big Bang and eventually fading into complete darkness. Suddenly, the evacuation shuttles are launched backwards in an explosion, and it is at this point that the vehicles begin their spinning profiles on their axis to achieve a sensation of "space travel" while the story develops around them with a randomized song selection out of six.

As the evacuation shuttles travel through multiple jumpholes along the way, the Guardians of the Galaxy engage in combat with Eson around the Terrans as they also cross multiple jumppoints. The Guardians finally lead a fleet of Nova Corp Starblasters to Eson, who manage to contain the Celestial and recover the Cosmic Generator. As the Guardians of the Galaxy travel far from the scene, they lead the Terrans to a final series of jumpholes that takes them to the Milky Way, then around the Moon before locking the coordinates for EPCOT and sending them back to Terra. As they arrive, Peter Quill welcomes the Terrans to the Guardians of the Galaxy, the rest of the team remarking amongst themselves as they disembark.

Whatever you do, dont go in the shed! #kingsisland #rollercoasterpov #mysticTimbers #pov

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-03-11 | ...

Who remembers the Mini Cooper trains? #kingsisland #rollercoaster #frontseatpov

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-03-08 | ...

The Racer (5K) Red POV at Golden Hour - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-03-07 | Front Seat POV©
The Racer is a wooden, racing roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. It was designed by John C. Allen, well-known for his contributions to roller coasters during the mid-twentieth century, and debuted at the park's grand opening in 1972. It was thrust into the national spotlight after being featured in an episode of the popular TV sitcom The Brady Bunch in 1973 and is often recognized for playing a vital role in the roller coaster renaissance of the 1970s. The Racer inspired similar designs in other roller coasters, such as Racer 75 (formerly Rebel Yell) at Kings Dominion and the now-defunct Thunder Road at Carowinds. The Racer is also one of the few original Kings Island attractions still in operation today.

Following a very successful decade, the first major era of roller coasters in the United States would come to an end in the 1930s as the economy struggled during the Great Depression. Although new roller coasters were still being built, the demand wouldn't be the same for decades to come. By the 1960s, the industry was at an all-time low. Traditional amusement park rides, such as carousels, mill chutes, and even wooden roller coasters were losing popularity with newer generations. This led president of Philadelphia Toboggan Company and well-known coaster designer, John C. Allen, to decide in 1968 that it was time to retire. Allen was one of the last remaining designers with experience from the first golden age of roller coasters having studied under legendary designer Herbert Schmeck.

The Wachs' family owned and operated Cincinnati's Coney Island before selling to Taft Broadcasting in 1969, but they remained in control of park operations and made many decisions during the construction of Kings Island. Determined to recapture some of Coney Island's traditional themes at the new park, Gary Wachs and his father met Allen in 1970 at an IAAPA convention in Chicago. They convinced Allen to officially come out of retirement and design a roller coaster that would be as popular as Shooting Star at Coney Island, but also unique at the same time.

Construction of the attraction began in 1970. The first test runs were conducted in September 1971. The Racer opened officially to the public at Kings Island's grand opening on April 28, 1972. It is located in Coney Mall, a section of the park originally known as Coney Island. The roller coaster appeared on national television in 1973, when it was featured in an episode of The Brady Bunch called "The Cincinnati Kids". The ride ignited interest in roller coasters following decades of decline, and the attention it received eventually led to a revival of the industry around the world, typically referred to as the industry's second golden age.

Both sides of the track raced forward until May 28, 1982, when the trains on one side of the track were reversed to ride backwards. The Racer became the first racing roller coaster in the world to do so.[4] It is thought that this move was to accommodate guests who were frustrated over the frequent closure of The Bat, a recently added attraction. Though only intended for the remainder of the 1982 operating season, the change lasted twenty-six years due to its popularity. It wasn't until 2008 that Cedar Fair restored The Racer to its original form by changing the right track to ride forward again. In addition, each side was assigned a color—red and blue—with the red trains on the right and the blue trains on the left.

As part of a routine, annual maintenance program common with wooden coasters, sections of The Racer are occasionally retracked over the years as needed. For the 2019 season, the back turns and several other small sections of The Racer were retracked by Great Coasters International, the company behind Kings Island's Mystic Timbers in 2017. The Racer's first drop and turns out of the station were refurbished previously several years earlier. Then in 2021, by The Gravity Group, more than 500 feet (150 m) of track that stretched from the base of the first drop to the fourth airtime hill was replaced to allow for a smoother ride experience. That year, the original entrance sign and train logos were restored. During the 2021-2022 off season the ride got repainted for the park's 50th anniversary celebration.

The Racer features an out and back roller coaster layout with two identical tracks that run parallel to one another. Unlike earlier racing coasters, Allen took the unique approach of splitting both tracks apart into separate structures prior to the first turn. The design allows for two trains to race in similar fashion from start to finish, making similar turns and traversing the same length. Previously, racing designs would keep both tracks side-by-side throughout the entire course of the ride.

The Beast held many world records! Have you ridden? #kingsisland #coaster #rollercoaster #pov

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-03-01 | ...

The Racer at Kings Island is a classic! #kingsisland #theracer #rollercoasterpov #pov

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-02-26 | ...

The Racer (5K) Blue POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-02-24 | Front Seat POV©
The Racer is a wooden, racing roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. It was designed by John C. Allen, well-known for his contributions to roller coasters during the mid-twentieth century, and debuted at the park's grand opening in 1972. It was thrust into the national spotlight after being featured in an episode of the popular TV sitcom The Brady Bunch in 1973 and is often recognized for playing a vital role in the roller coaster renaissance of the 1970s. The Racer inspired similar designs in other roller coasters, such as Racer 75 (formerly Rebel Yell) at Kings Dominion and the now-defunct Thunder Road at Carowinds. The Racer is also one of the few original Kings Island attractions still in operation today.

Following a very successful decade, the first major era of roller coasters in the United States would come to an end in the 1930s as the economy struggled during the Great Depression. Although new roller coasters were still being built, the demand wouldn't be the same for decades to come. By the 1960s, the industry was at an all-time low. Traditional amusement park rides, such as carousels, mill chutes, and even wooden roller coasters were losing popularity with newer generations. This led president of Philadelphia Toboggan Company and well-known coaster designer, John C. Allen, to decide in 1968 that it was time to retire. Allen was one of the last remaining designers with experience from the first golden age of roller coasters having studied under legendary designer Herbert Schmeck.

The Wachs' family owned and operated Cincinnati's Coney Island before selling to Taft Broadcasting in 1969, but they remained in control of park operations and made many decisions during the construction of Kings Island. Determined to recapture some of Coney Island's traditional themes at the new park, Gary Wachs and his father met Allen in 1970 at an IAAPA convention in Chicago. They convinced Allen to officially come out of retirement and design a roller coaster that would be as popular as Shooting Star at Coney Island, but also unique at the same time.

Construction of the attraction began in 1970. The first test runs were conducted in September 1971. The Racer opened officially to the public at Kings Island's grand opening on April 28, 1972. It is located in Coney Mall, a section of the park originally known as Coney Island. The roller coaster appeared on national television in 1973, when it was featured in an episode of The Brady Bunch called "The Cincinnati Kids". The ride ignited interest in roller coasters following decades of decline, and the attention it received eventually led to a revival of the industry around the world, typically referred to as the industry's second golden age.

Both sides of the track raced forward until May 28, 1982, when the trains on one side of the track were reversed to ride backwards. The Racer became the first racing roller coaster in the world to do so.[4] It is thought that this move was to accommodate guests who were frustrated over the frequent closure of The Bat, a recently added attraction. Though only intended for the remainder of the 1982 operating season, the change lasted twenty-six years due to its popularity. It wasn't until 2008 that Cedar Fair restored The Racer to its original form by changing the right track to ride forward again. In addition, each side was assigned a color—red and blue—with the red trains on the right and the blue trains on the left.

As part of a routine, annual maintenance program common with wooden coasters, sections of The Racer are occasionally retracked over the years as needed. For the 2019 season, the back turns and several other small sections of The Racer were retracked by Great Coasters International, the company behind Kings Island's Mystic Timbers in 2017. The Racer's first drop and turns out of the station were refurbished previously several years earlier. Then in 2021, by The Gravity Group, more than 500 feet (150 m) of track that stretched from the base of the first drop to the fourth airtime hill was replaced to allow for a smoother ride experience. That year, the original entrance sign and train logos were restored. During the 2021-2022 off season the ride got repainted for the park's 50th anniversary celebration.

The Racer features an out and back roller coaster layout with two identical tracks that run parallel to one another. Unlike earlier racing coasters, Allen took the unique approach of splitting both tracks apart into separate structures prior to the first turn. The design allows for two trains to race in similar fashion from start to finish, making similar turns and traversing the same length. Previously, racing designs would keep both tracks side-by-side throughout the entire course of the ride.

The Beast in the FOG (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-02-11 | Front Seat POV©
The Beast is a wooden roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Designed and manufactured in-house for approximately $3 million, the ride opened in 1979 as the tallest, fastest, and longest wooden roller coaster in the world. Decades later, it is still the longest, spanning 7,361 feet (2,244 m) across 35 acres (14 ha) of hilly terrain. Two lift hills contribute to the ride's duration of more than four minutes, which also ranks as one of the longest among roller coasters. A refurbishment in 2022 increased the angle of the first drop and lengthened the ride by 2 feet (0.61 m).

The Beast was designed over the course of two years without assistance from scientific calculators and computers. Lead engineers Al Collins and Jeff Gramke consulted with well-known coaster architect John C. Allen, who shared design formulas and strategies to assist during development. Issues discovered during early testing delayed plans to build an enclosure over the helix finale until 1980. Ruth Voss, the park's public relations manager who would often overhear construction crews calling it "a beast of a project", is credited with coming up with the ride's name in early 1979.

The record-breaking coaster was well-received at a press event preview held on April 13, 1979. Since its opening, The Beast has consistently ranked in the top ten among wooden coasters in the annual Golden Ticket Awards publication from Amusement Today. It has also earned a favorable reputation across the industry, including praise from American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE), which held one of its first official events at Kings Island in 1979. ACE awarded the ride its Roller Coaster Landmark designation in 2004. After more than 40 years, it also remains one of the most popular rides at Kings Island, having accommodated over 54 million riders.

History
Ruth Voss, public relations manager for Kings Island, issued a press release on July 10, 1978, announcing plans for a new roller coaster. The statement read, "Kings Island Family Entertainment Center will open America’s champion roller coaster in the spring of 1979." It was the first official announcement from the park, who had been secretly planning the new ride for three years. Looking to replicate the national exposure received from popular rides such as The Racer and record-breaking events including Evel Knievel's nationally televised bus jump in 1975, Kings Island sought to keep the momentum going by introducing another record-breaking attraction.

Original plans focused on building a replica of the iconic Shooting Star, a popular roller coaster which once stood at Coney Island in Cincinnati. Charles Dinn – director of the Kings Island's construction, maintenance and engineering division – had recorded measurements of the Shooting Star's layout and dimensions prior to its demolition in 1971.The park later selected an area near The Racer where the replica would be built. Management eventually determined it was in their best interest to shelve the idea and instead push forward with a bigger design. The Shooting Star would later be resurrected in the layout design of Mighty Canadian Minebuster at Canada's Wonderland, which opened in 1981. For the 1979 coaster, Kings Island set its sights on an attraction that would transcend the Shooting Star's nostalgia and appeal to a wider audience.

Design and construction
A wooded area in the southeast corner of the park spanning 35 acres (14 ha) was selected as the site for the new project. The area's naturally-occurring, rugged terrain consisted of cliffs, hills and ravines. Utilizing the landscape as opposed to leveling it saved money and allowed for more investment in the layout itself. Beginning in 1976, chief engineer and surveyor Al Collins and his assistant Jeff Gramke spent two years researching and designing the new roller coaster with the help of Dinn and his team, who surveyed major roller coasters across the country. Collins and Gramke would progress through tens of thousands of formulas needed to produce record-breaking results without the assistance of scientific calculators or computers. "Everything had to be calculated by hand", recalled Gramke in 2014. John C. Allen, world-renowned coaster designer behind The Racer, was asked to lead the design but declined due to pending retirement. He shared design formulas, however, and acted as a consultant throughout development. Among his important contributions were the design of several components, including a tire-driven launch system that increased capacity above 1,000 riders per hour.

Backlot Stunt Coaster (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2023-02-03 | Front Seat POV©
Backlot Stunt Coaster is a launched roller coaster located at three Cedar Fair amusement parks. The first two installations opened at Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland in 2005 under the name Italian Job: Stunt Track, while the third opened at Kings Dominion in 2006 as Italian Job: Turbo Coaster. All three were themed to the climactic chase scene at the end of the 2003 film The Italian Job. Special effects were incorporated throughout the ride to reproduce the scene, although some of the effects were removed in later years. The Italian Job theme was also dropped in 2008 following Cedar Fair's acquisition of the amusement parks from Paramount.

The Italian Job: Stunt Track was announced by Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland on August 12, 2004. It replaced the Lex Taxis antique car ride at Kings Island. The ride opened at Kings Island for previews on April 29, 2005, followed by its grand opening several weeks later on May 20. It opened at Canada's Wonderland on May 1, 2005. On October 12, 2005, Kings Dominion announced they would be adding a clone of Italian Job: Stunt Coaster but with a slightly different name, Italian Job: Turbo Coaster. It opened on May 27, 2006. The ride at Kings Dominion replaced the Diamond Falls shoot-the-chute ride.

At the end of the 2007 season, all three Italian Job coasters were renamed to Backlot Stunt Coaster for the start of the 2008 season. The name change was part of a wider effort by Cedar Fair to remove Paramount themes from the chain of parks the company acquired in 2006 from Paramount Parks. Special effects throughout the ride were modified to remove references to the movie, generalizing the overall theme.

After accelerating from 0–40 miles per hour (0–64 km/h) in three seconds, out of the station, the train enters into a three-story "parking garage" shell, passing through two upwards helixes meant to mirror the ascension of a car through a true parking garage. The train then drops from the top of the helixes into a "street" lined with highway signs and three police cars, with sirens and lights flashing. Riders then swerve between the police cars. Riders then go through an overbanked turn at 88 degrees, followed by a dip and then traveling down a set of "subway stairs". The train then comes to a halt in front of a tunnel. A helicopter rises to the train's left, shooting simulated gunfire. Under Paramount's operation, the gunfire cracked pipes and barrels, which sprayed "gasoline" (truly, water) all around riders. Though that effect has since been removed, the second round of gunfire still ignites where the gasoline would've splashed, catching two barrels on fire before a gas tank explodes. The train is then launched again into a tunnel, twisting and dropping before coming out of the "broken billboard", splashing down in an L.A. Aqueduct, and turning left into the ride's station.

Backlot Stunt Coaster has three trains, each with three cars. Each car can sit four people in two rows of two. Under its original name and theme, the ride featured unique cars which resembled ¾ scale MINI Coopers. Paramount worked closely with BMW to design the cars. The cars had headlight stickers on the front and working doors on the side. Sound effects were also built into the cars. Each train was arranged the same, with the first car being painted blue, the second car being painted red, and the third car being painted white.

Before the 2010 season, the trains were simplified and removed of any resemblance to the MINI Cooper as Cedar Fair no longer holds the license to use MINI Coopers on Backlot Stunt Coaster. They have also changed the arrangement of the car colors on the trains: One train is all blue, the second is all red and the third is all white.

All three had similar themes revolving around the climatic chase scene at the end of the 2003 film, The Italian Job. Special effects were incorporated throughout the ride such as a helicopter that attacks riders with a simulated machine gun sound, pyrotechnics and water effects. Sound recordings of "Action!" and "Cut!" were also heard during launch and final brake run, respectively. The last drop portraying the Mini Coopers jumping out of a sewer featured spraying water jets to simulate a splashdown effect.

Mystic Timbers (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-11-17 | Front Seat POV©
Mystic Timbers is a wooden roller coaster located at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. Constructed by Great Coasters International and designed by Skyline Design, the roller coaster opened in the park's Rivertown section on April 15, 2017. Mystic Timbers is the park's fourth wooden coaster, and its opening allowed Kings Island to reclaim the title of having the most wooden roller coaster track of any amusement park in the world with 18,804 feet (5,731 m). During its marketing campaign, the ride's finale element in an enclosed shed was kept secret until the ride's debut. In the annual Golden Ticket Awards by Amusement Today, it was awarded "Best New Ride" in 2017.
Kings Island officials began dropping hints during the 2016 operating season, which teased the possibility of a new, future attraction. In the park's Rivertown section, a construction wall was built displaying signs that stated, "Caution - Watch For Falling Trees". In June 2016, a set of plans labeled "Kings Island Project 2017" was submitted to the Mason planning board with designs for a new roller coaster. Until then, early speculation from enthusiasts believed that another possibility was a larger log flume to complement the nearby Race For Your Life Charlie Brown attraction. Later that month, media outlets in the area received a toy axe with an attached note hinting about activity in Rivertown. The following month, another clue surfaced, consisting of a blue toy pickup truck with a bundle of logs in the back. It contained a note stating that an official announcement would occur in the park on the evening of July 28, 2016.

On the night of the announcement, more than 1,000 park guests lined up two hours in advance to attend the evening event inside the park. It was revealed that the new attraction would be a roller coaster named Mystic Timbers. The new ride would mark the park's sixteenth roller coaster and fourth wooden roller coaster overall. Upon completion, Kings Island would reclaim the title of having the longest collection of wooden roller coaster track in the world at 18,804 feet (5,731 m), when combined with the other three wooden coasters in the park – The Beast, both tracks on The Racer, and Woodstock Express. This surpassed the current record, Six Flags Great America, which measured the length of Goliath, Viper, American Eagle and Little Dipper at 16,558 feet (5,047 m).

The entrance to Mystic Timbers
The ride's logo was unveiled as well, along with a simulated POV video of the ride. However, the simulation stopped short of revealing what happens when the train enters an enclosed shed near the end of the ride. Park officials indicated that the finale's details would not be revealed until opening day. The level of anticipation surrounding its debut put Mystic Timbers on USA Today's top nine list for most anticipated roller coasters of 2017.
Vertical construction of Mystic Timbers began in August 2016. On March 20, 2017, the ride performed its first test runs. The attraction opened for the press on April 13, 2017, allowing roller coaster enthusiasts and members of the media to ride early.

Characteristics
Mystic Timbers is themed around a fictional logging company, Miami River Lumber, that purchased the surrounding land for its timber The company planned to use the adjacent Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad – the park's steam locomotive attraction – for shipping the timber out. However, an unexplained series of events led to the shutdown of the company, as the land was taken over by rampant natural growth.

The attraction was designed and built by Great Coasters International, a Pennsylvania-based company that specializes in the construction and restoration of wooden roller coasters. The 109-foot-tall (33 m) Mystic Timbers is 3,265 feet (995 m) in length and reaches a maximum speed of 53 miles per hour (85 km/h). It features a 98-foot-long (30 m) drop and sixteen airtime hills. Its three trains each carry 24 passengers, resulting in a total capacity of approximately 1200 riders per hour.The roller coaster's track layout utilizes the terrain and interacts with both the Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad and White Water Canyon attractions during its roughly two-minute ride cycle.

Adventure Express Roller Coaster Rear View (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-11-10 | Front Seat POV©
Adventure Express is a mine train roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Designed and built by Arrow Dynamics, the ride opened to the public on April 13, 1991. It is located in the Adventure Port section of the park near Enrique's. Like many traditional mine trains, the Adventure Express features a lap bar restraint and does not contain any inversions.

History
Kings Island approached Arrow Dynamics and one of its lead designers, Ron Toomer, in 1990 to build a traditional mine train roller coaster with a unique twist. Unlike previous Arrow installations, this one would be heavily-themed and produce an "out-of-control feeling" inspired by scenes from the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Construction began later that year, and the total cost to build the family ride was estimated at $4 million.The ride was marketed as a jungle adventure mine train that plunges "through steamy volcanic tunnels, across rickety bridges, and into a deserted mine shaft inhabited by snakes and spiders". The roller coaster opened on April 13, 1991. During the 2021-2022 offseason, the ride got repainted for the park's 50th anniversary celebration. In October 2022, Kings Island announced that the ride would receive enhanced theming as part of the retheming of the Oktoberfest area to Adventure Port in 2023.

Ride description
Adventure Express Station (Panorama)
As the train leaves the station, it makes a small turn right followed by a small turn left. The train then dips into a slightly-banked turn to the right through a jungle-themed tunnel labeled with a large sign reading "Track Closed". After exiting, the train moves over a brake run that slows the train on its way through a second tunnel, where the train makes a sharp, 90-degree turn to the left into the roller coaster's first lift hill. It exits the tunnel at the beginning of the ascent, where a skeleton wearing a safari outfit is seen perched to the right with a spear through the chest and a snake wrapped around its neck. Riders pass under several wooden beams, each featuring a tiki-themed face mounted at the center.

After reaching the top, the train makes a short dip before descending quickly down a winding 270-degree turn to the right. The turn ends with a short dip followed by an ascending 90-degree turn to the left. At the crest of the turn, the train descends again through a slightly-banked turn to the right. After leveling out, riders experience another slightly-banked turn to the left into the coaster's third tunnel. As the train exits, the turn switches to the right and is followed by two ascending left turns that lead into the final tunnel. A second brake run slows the train inside as it enters the second lift hill which is completely enclosed. Large stone warrior statues in several rows with glowing eyes can be seen lining both sides during the ascent. Their arms move in sync rhythmically with clenched fists that are seemingly pounding down towards riders. At the top of the hill is a centrally-mounted stone warrior with sharply-lit eyes appearing to pour a vat of lava – a stationary lit object – on riders as they pass underneath. The train takes a short dip, exits the tunnel in a turn to the right and enters the final brake run before returning to the station.

Theme
Adventure Express is themed to a treasure hunting adventure reminiscent of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark from the Indiana Jones franchise. During the years the park was owned by Paramount Parks, the film's theme music could be heard in the line queue with the voice of a station master welcoming "archaeologists and explorers". Throughout the course of the ride, a variety of sounds imitating the setting of a rainforest are projected around riders as they pass through different areas on the ride.[6] In the final tunnel during the train's ascent, an ominous voice speaks over a haunting musical track stating, "You have disturbed the forbidden temple. Now you will pay!"

Some special effects have since been removed. The Indiana Jones theme music with commentary no longer plays in the line queue and the voice along with some lighting effects in the final tunnel are no longer present as of August 20, 2015.

Dedication
Adventure Express - Kings Island Dedication
The construction of the Adventure Express is dedicated to Robert G. Rinckel, who served as construction manager at Kings Island from 1974 to 1990. He died prior to its opening, and a dedication plaque dated April 12, 1991, was placed on a stone near the entrance to the ride.

Adventure Express Roller Coaster (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-11-01 | Front Seat POV©
Adventure Express is a mine train roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Designed and built by Arrow Dynamics, the ride opened to the public on April 13, 1991. It is located in the Adventure Port section of the park near Enrique's. Like many traditional mine trains, the Adventure Express features a lap bar restraint and does not contain any inversions.

History
Kings Island approached Arrow Dynamics and one of its lead designers, Ron Toomer, in 1990 to build a traditional mine train roller coaster with a unique twist. Unlike previous Arrow installations, this one would be heavily-themed and produce an "out-of-control feeling" inspired by scenes from the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Construction began later that year, and the total cost to build the family ride was estimated at $4 million.The ride was marketed as a jungle adventure mine train that plunges "through steamy volcanic tunnels, across rickety bridges, and into a deserted mine shaft inhabited by snakes and spiders". The roller coaster opened on April 13, 1991. During the 2021-2022 offseason, the ride got repainted for the park's 50th anniversary celebration. In October 2022, Kings Island announced that the ride would receive enhanced theming as part of the retheming of the Oktoberfest area to Adventure Port in 2023.

Ride description
Adventure Express Station (Panorama)
As the train leaves the station, it makes a small turn right followed by a small turn left. The train then dips into a slightly-banked turn to the right through a jungle-themed tunnel labeled with a large sign reading "Track Closed". After exiting, the train moves over a brake run that slows the train on its way through a second tunnel, where the train makes a sharp, 90-degree turn to the left into the roller coaster's first lift hill. It exits the tunnel at the beginning of the ascent, where a skeleton wearing a safari outfit is seen perched to the right with a spear through the chest and a snake wrapped around its neck. Riders pass under several wooden beams, each featuring a tiki-themed face mounted at the center.

After reaching the top, the train makes a short dip before descending quickly down a winding 270-degree turn to the right. The turn ends with a short dip followed by an ascending 90-degree turn to the left. At the crest of the turn, the train descends again through a slightly-banked turn to the right. After leveling out, riders experience another slightly-banked turn to the left into the coaster's third tunnel. As the train exits, the turn switches to the right and is followed by two ascending left turns that lead into the final tunnel. A second brake run slows the train inside as it enters the second lift hill which is completely enclosed. Large stone warrior statues in several rows with glowing eyes can be seen lining both sides during the ascent. Their arms move in sync rhythmically with clenched fists that are seemingly pounding down towards riders. At the top of the hill is a centrally-mounted stone warrior with sharply-lit eyes appearing to pour a vat of lava – a stationary lit object – on riders as they pass underneath. The train takes a short dip, exits the tunnel in a turn to the right and enters the final brake run before returning to the station.

Theme
Adventure Express is themed to a treasure hunting adventure reminiscent of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark from the Indiana Jones franchise. During the years the park was owned by Paramount Parks, the film's theme music could be heard in the line queue with the voice of a station master welcoming "archaeologists and explorers". Throughout the course of the ride, a variety of sounds imitating the setting of a rainforest are projected around riders as they pass through different areas on the ride.[6] In the final tunnel during the train's ascent, an ominous voice speaks over a haunting musical track stating, "You have disturbed the forbidden temple. Now you will pay!"

Some special effects have since been removed. The Indiana Jones theme music with commentary no longer plays in the line queue and the voice along with some lighting effects in the final tunnel are no longer present as of August 20, 2015.

Dedication
Adventure Express - Kings Island Dedication
The construction of the Adventure Express is dedicated to Robert G. Rinckel, who served as construction manager at Kings Island from 1974 to 1990. He died prior to its opening, and a dedication plaque dated April 12, 1991, was placed on a stone near the entrance to the ride.

Boo Blasters on Boo Hill (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-10-28 | Front Seat POV©
Boo Blasters on Boo Hill is an interactive family dark ride designed and manufactured by Sally Corporation. The ride is located at four Cedar Fair amusement parks — Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and Kings Island. The ride was previously themed to Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, but Cedar Fair rebranded the rides shortly after purchasing the parks from Paramount. Each ride's new theme debuted in 2010 at all four parks.
History
In 2006, Cedar Fair purchased Paramount Parks from CBS.[2] Several of the parks attained in the purchase – Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and Kings Island – had a dark ride from Sally Corporation themed to the company's Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion attraction model. During the 2009-2010 off-season, Cedar Fair began the process of removing Nickelodeon and Hanna-Barbera themes from their recently acquired amusement parks. For the Haunted Mansion rides, Sally Corporation was contracted to remove the Scooby-Doo theme and replace it with a new one. The new theme was called Boo Blasters on Boo Hill, which debuted at all four parks for the 2010 season.

Ride experience
Boo Blasters on Boo Hill is a dark ride with individual ride vehicles on a track at Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, and Kings Dominion, and a continuous Omnimover-style ride system at Kings Island. Guests use mounted laser guns to fire at lighted targets throughout the ride. Hitting a target enables additional animation, sounds, and special effects, as well as earns each rider points that are tallied and displayed inside the vehicle. The ride layout and special effects varies at each park location. Initially, each park sold disposable ChromaDepth 3-D glasses at the ride's entrance to enhance the blacklight paint effects throughout the ride.

Kings Island
Guests enter the attraction through the front gates of an old Gothic castle. The queue takes guests through the foyer into the first room, which features large chandeliers, cob webs, and a haunting music track playing in the background. Before boarding the ride, guests walk through a corridor with boarded-up windows on both sides. Once in the vehicle, riders travel through a haunted cemetery and mansion, filled with skeletons and ghosts. The final encounter is with Boocifer, the primary antagonist. The ride ends with a display that shows riders how well their score ranks before exiting the vehicle.

Although Kings Island's version of Boo Blasters was previously Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle, the ride system was originally used for Phantom Theater. Phantom Theater maintained the same ride system as its successors, but featured 55 ride vehicles and no interactive elements. The attraction ceased operation in 2002 and became transformed into Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle for the 2003 season.

Diamondback Roller Coaster (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-10-25 | Front Seat POV©
Diamondback is a steel roller coaster located at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, United States. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), the ride opened in 2009 as the first hypercoaster to feature a splashdown effect and the first B&M roller coaster at Kings Island. It is located in Rivertown just behind International Street and the Eiffel Tower. Diamondback was the biggest investment in Kings Island’s history at the time, costing $22 million to build, but that figure was surpassed in 2014 by Banshee. The coaster features a 230-foot (70 m) lift hill with a 215-foot (66 m) drop and a maximum speed of 80 mph (130 km/h). It is similar to Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland in statistics, layout, and seating.

Construction of Diamondback began on October 11, 2007, with the removal of a tree. Swan Lake was drained and filled with concrete before opening day in 2008; this would become the location of Diamondback's splashdown element. Kings Island started teasing visitors during the Fourth of July weekend in 2008 with signs saying, "Ride Sally ride" and "Steep incline ahead." Diamondback was announced on August 6, 2008 as the largest investment in Kings Island history. The ride was topped off with the 230 foot (70 m) lift hill on October 30. The last piece of track was installed on January 26, 2009.[6] Testing began the following month. Diamondback officially opened on April 18, 2009. Diamondback reached a milestone of one million riders in July 2009, and another milestone of ten million riders in July 2014.

On February 3, 2009, Kings Island announced they would hold an auction for the first riders on Diamondback. The winners of the auction would be given a commemorative first rider ticket, a special gift from the park, and an admission ticket. All proceeds from the auction would go to A Kid Again non-profit organization, formerly known as Adventures for Wish Kids. The first rider auction raised $102,000. The first eight trains, or the first 256 seats were auctioned off. The average bid was $398 per seat.

After the train leaves the station, it begins its ascent up the 230 foot (70 m) chain lift hill. Once reaching the top of the hill, the coaster drops 215 feet (66 m) at 74° over the Rivertown midway reaching speeds up to 80 miles per hour (130 km/h). It then curves to the right up a 193 foot (59 m) hill, past Mystic Timbers' first drop, and then dives into the ravine, curving again to the left. The ride then ascends a 131 foot (40 m) camelback hill and drops, curving left into the hammerhead turn. After dropping out of the hammerhead, the train travels up a 129 foot (39 m) hill (which has a trim brake). After the fourth hill, the train turns down into a 287° counter-clockwise helix, containing the on-ride photo camera, and into the mid-course brake run. After the short brake run the train drops down into the ravine, raising into a pair of bunny hop hills before entering the final clockwise helix of 323°. After the final helix, the train passes over the Rivertown midway a second time and drops into the splashdown finale, slowing the train down before going up another hill into the final brake run. After braking, the train takes a left U-turn and heads back into the station. One cycle of the ride lasts about 3 minutes.

A train in the splashdown element.
Diamondback is the first hyper coaster to feature a splashdown. Scoops positioned at the back sides of the last car on each train send water soaring at heights of 50 ft (15 m) as the train passes. Splashdowns generally do not cause riders to get wet; they are used for a visual effect as well as to slow the train down. The splashdown is located in the former Swan Boat pond.

Diamondback operates with three open-air stadium style steel and fiberglass trains. The trains are the same prototype trains seen on Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland, Intimidator at Carowinds and Shambhala: Expedición al Himalaya at PortAventura Park. Diamondback was the first roller coaster in the United States to feature the new trains. Each car seats four passengers, with two front seats set near the middle of the car and two rear seats set closer to the sides of the car, forming a "V" shape. The front car of each train features a yellow/orange snake head with long fangs, while the inside of the trains are black, red, and orange. Riders are restrained by a single T-shaped lap bar. There are three trains total, each train featuring a different fin color: green, red, or brown. Under the sides of the last car on each train are the scoops for the splashdown at the end. For the 2018 season, the original red seats were replaced with new black ones.

Banshee Roller Coaster (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-10-20 | Front Seat POV©
Banshee is an inverted roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Designed and manufactured by Swiss company Bolliger & Mabillard, the roller coaster opened on April 18, 2014. Banshee cost $24 million to build, the largest project in Kings Island's history at the time. With 4,124 feet (1,257 m) of track, Banshee was the longest inverted roller coaster in the world when it opened.[1] The ride includes seven inversions and travels at up to 68 miles per hour (109 km/h). Banshee operates with three trains, each with eight cars, giving it an hourly capacity of 1,650 riders.

Banshee was built at the former location of a wooden roller coaster named Son of Beast, as well as the Thunder Alley go-kart attraction. The ride was officially announced on August 8, 2013, although the "Banshee" name had been trademarked that April. The first track pieces were installed on August 27, 2013, and work continued through the following January. When Banshee opened, it was well-received, accommodating one million riders in less than three months. Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards has consistently ranked Banshee among the top 50 steel roller coasters in the world.

Banshee was built at the former location of Son of Beast, a wooden roller coaster plagued with issues and demolished in 2012, and the Thunder Alley go-kart attraction that was removed the same year. A memorial for Son of Beast is in the queue line of Banshee. Following their removal, it was not immediately clear what would replace the attractions.

Construction
Construction on a new attraction began on April 22, 2013, and a trademark for the name "Banshee" was filed the next day. Owner Cedar Fair had previously considered using the name for a roller coaster at Cedar Point, though Cedar Point's coaster was ultimately named Mantis. Kings Island began teasing the new attraction on the first day of the 2013 season. Along the perimeter of the former Thunder Alley go-kart track, a fence was set up with a sign that read, "Due to the increasing occurrence of mysterious and bone-chilling screams, it has become necessary to close this section of the park until the cause of this evil phenomenon can be identified." During the course of the summer, several clues about the attraction were set up around the construction site. On June 10, 2013, the park launched their social media campaign by posting a photo showing the construction site with the caption, "Field of Dreams". The campaign continued with five scarecrows around the construction site and several Twitter posts about the future attraction. Then, at the beginning of July 2013, recordings of someone screaming could be heard by park guests near the construction area. Two weeks later, farm owls were placed in nearby trees.

On July 31, 2013, Kings Island detailed plans to reveal a new world record-breaking attraction at 10 p.m. on August 8. Media packages containing a silver comb, artificial hair and a tag were sent out to media outlets to notify them of the upcoming announcement. A limited number of tickets were also made available to the public giving access to a tour of the construction site prior to the revealing and reserved seats at the event, with net proceeds being donated to breast cancer research.Blueprints for the project were leaked to the public on August 1, 2013. One week later, on August 8, Kings Island officially announced that it was constructing Banshee, the world's longest inverted roller coaster. Banshee would feature seven inversions, including a pretzel knot inversion and a vertical loop around the lift hill. Banshee would be the second coaster constructed at Kings Island by Swiss company Bolliger & Mabillard (after Diamondback, which opened in 2009), as well as the park's 14th operating roller coaster.

The foundation work for the supports was done by R.E. Middleton, and the rest of the ride's construction was performed by Adena Corporation. The first pieces of track and supports were delivered to the park from Clermont Steel Fabricators on August 16, 2013; the first track piece was erected on August 27, 2013. The lift hill was completed on September 29, 2013, and by the end of October, other elements such as the first drop, dive loop, and vertical loop were installed. Work on the station commenced that November, and the ride was 40 percent complete by the next month. The final piece of track was installed on January 23, 2014.Workers began installing the ride's trains that February, and testing began on March 15.

Filmed during Kings island 50th Anniversary

Roller Coaster at @lagoonamusementpark is such a classic! #shorts

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-10-19 | Front Seat POV©
Roller Coaster, often nicknamed the White Roller Coaster due to the previously white color, at Lagoon Amusement Park in Farmington, Utah, United States, is the oldest roller coaster at the park. It is a wooden roller coaster owned by Lagoon. Built-in 1921 and operating ever since the Roller Coaster is the seventh oldest roller coaster in the world and the fourth oldest in the United States.
The Roller Coaster was designed by John A. Miller and opened in 1921. In 1953, a fire damaged the coaster and burnt down the rest of the park, meaning the station and lift hill had to be rebuilt.[2] Over the years it has had computer upgrades and new trains installed. In 2005, it became an ACE Roller Coaster Landmark for being a classic coaster. In October 2012, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The ride has no real official name other than "Roller Coaster", so the locals often call it the White Roller Coaster. The park has recently stopped painting the ride, so it will gradually move from white to natural brown as Lagoon rebuilds a section of the ride per off-season, to help preserve the Roller Coaster. However, the nickname stuck, and people continue calling it the White Roller Coaster despite it now being brown.

In early 2018 the ride opened with new Great Coasters International trains, instead of the original 4x3x2 Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters trains. The entrance was moved to where the original exit was and has a wall explaining the history of the coaster. The ride experience was not changed.
The Roller Coaster starts with a turn out of the station and over to the lift hill where it rises 60 feet (18 m). The train then plunges down the first hill and up the next and down again around the west turn and into a several more series of hills gradually getting smaller around two more turns before returning to the station.
A number of accidents have occurred on the Roller Coaster since its opening, though all were related to the persons' own misconduct. In 1989, a 13-year-old girl stood up and fell 35 feet to her death. She died at the scene. At least two more deaths have occurred over the years. In 1934, Henry Howe, 20, of Ogden, Utah fell to his death as he attempted to stand up when the train was on its highest hill. Howe hit a number of support trestles on the way down. In 1946, James Young Hess was struck by the train as he was working on scaffolding on the ride. Hess suffered skull, leg and arm fractures and internal injuries before dying on September 1, 1946.

ORION Roller Coaster (5K) POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-10-17 | Front Seat POV©
Orion /ɒrˈaɪˈɪn/ is a steel roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, Orion became the seventh giga coaster in the world when it opened to the public on July 2, 2020. It is the largest investment in Kings Island's history, costing an estimated $30 million. The coaster stands 287 feet (87 m), features a 300-foot drop (91 m), and reaches a maximum speed of 91 mph (146 km/h). It is situated in the Area 72 section of the park on a site formerly occupied by Firehawk.

In early 2019, Kings Island submitted construction blueprints to the City of Mason for approval. Dennis Speigel, a former park executive who helped with the transition from Coney Island to Kings Island in the early 1970s, speculated that the blueprints revealed a likely height estimate of at least 300 feet (91 m), qualifying it as a giga coaster. The plans were approved on April 24, 2019. Cedar Fair also applied for national trademarks for the names Orion and Polaris as a marketing teaser tactic to keep enthusiasts guessing between the two. On August 15, 2019, Kings Island held an evening event open to both the media and public that officially announced the new coaster as Orion. It was confirmed to have a 300-foot drop (91 m), making it the seventh giga coaster in the world. The announcement also stated that the unofficial X-Base section of the park would be revamped and renamed Area 72 for the 2020 season.

In November 2019, Orion's train design was revealed at the annual International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Amusement Expo in Orlando. Unlike previous train configurations from B&M that feature staggered, two-seat rows, Orion's trains were designed to seat four across in a straight line.
In February 2020, Orion successfully completed its first test run. It was originally scheduled to open on April 11, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening was postponed to July 2, 2020.A media preview event was held the previous day on July 1, 2020.
On December 30, 2020, it was announced that Orion won the 2020 "Best New Amusement Park Attraction" in the USA TODAY 10Best National Readers' Poll.

Queue
Guests enter the Fort Mason Research Compound by walking through the entrance building, which was originally the Firehawk photo booth. The line starts with a zig-zag portion followed by a staircase. This leads to a large area with switchbacks and winding paths. There are some posters that are shown on a fence. A blue concrete pylon can be spotted in the area with a stamp that reads Radium XL-200, a reference to Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point. The same pylons are seen near the Meteor Canteen restaurant. The stamps on these pylons read Metamorphic-VTBC, a reference to Volcano: The Blast Coaster at Kings Dominion, Igneous-12E, a reference to Disaster Transport at Cedar Point and Sedimentary-325, a reference to Fury 325 at Carowinds. Two buildings are seen in the queue that are labeled Outpost 87 and Outpost 07. Guests enter a research office, where a video is played on the screens. The area contains several lockers and office desks. A bulletin board can be found with references to other attractions, including Zodiac, Skylab, Vortex and Invertigo. Guests exit the research office and head into the station, where they board the ride.

Layout
Upon leaving the station, the train climbs a 287-foot (87 m) chain lift hill. Upon reaching the peak, it drops 300 feet (91 m), reaching 91 mph (146 km/h). The train speeds through a 174-foot (53 m) banked airtime hill and a 202-foot (62 m) horseshoe. It makes its way through a 56-foot (17 m) airtime hill. This is followed by a 147-foot (45 m) airtime hill with a trim brake. The train zooms through a 125-foot (38 m) spiral before passing the on-ride camera. Then, the train goes through a left turn into two more airtime hills measuring 90 feet (27 m) and 83 feet (25 m). Following this, the train slows down on the brake run, makes a left turn and returns to the station.

Transformers: The Ride 3D (4K) POV Malfunction w/ lights on backwards - Universal Studios Hollywood

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-10-11 | Front Seat POV©
We got stuck for about 15 minutes towards the end of the ride. The lights popped on and mechanics began to manually spin our ride vehicle 180 degrees backwards. Once the ride began moving again, the lights stayed on and we kept in one direction, revealing a large portion of the elevator shaft and ride trickery.
Installation of Transformers: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, required the removal of two attractions. On 11 April 2010, Backdraft and Special Effects Stages closed. The Special Effects Stages were relocated to the Upper Lot and renamed the Special Effects Stage on 26 June 2010. Work began almost immediately on the construction of the ride. After a period of construction spanning close to two years, the ride and its gift store, the Transformers Supply Vault, soft opened to the public in late April 2012. Transformers: The Ride officially opened to the public on 24 May 2012.

Ride system and experience
The ride vehicles, developed by Oceaneering International, are mounted to a track-roaming platform that provides the forward motion to move the vehicle through each show scene.[5][25] The yaw motor and a stewart platform with six degrees of freedom attaching it to the platform allows the vehicle to move 360 degrees at different angles along the 2,000-foot-long (610 m) track. Each vehicle is fitted with a motor that controls the right side door through which guests board and leave. These vehicles are modeled after an Autobot named Evac and each vehicle accommodates twelve riders. Each row of four riders is restrained by a single lap bar.

AllSpark in the queue for the ride
The ride begins with Evac (voiced by Dustin James Leighton) moving out of the loading station and making a turn. The vehicle approaches the first of thirteen 3D high-definition video screens which depicts Ravage grabbing a canister containing the AllSpark. Evac spins 180° to face the second screen on which Bumblebee is fighting Sideways for the AllSpark, which ends up in Evac's possession.
Evac reverses into one of two elevator shafts which ascend to the second level of the attraction. During the ascent Optimus Prime battles Megatron and Grindor chases Evac who is furiously heading in reverse until Grindor's arm is broken off by a train. Megatron grabs Evac and the two struggle until Megatron breaks a water pipe, which sprays riders with water. Evac enters a dead end pathway before reversing and turning to face another 3D screen, which shows Megatron firing a missile at Evac while continuing to fight Optimus.

Hot air and fog generate the illusion of an explosion. Evac then heads through the hole in a building which was caused by the explosion. Inside lies Devastator, who is trying to suck everything out of the building. Ratchet and Ironhide open fire at Devastator while Evac reverses to escape the suction and continues moving when Devastator stops. Here the Autobot Sideswipe helps in the battle against the Decepticon Bonecrusher. Devastator returns to the scene with the vortex opened. Evac activates his "battle shields" and pulls himself through it. Once ejected from Devastator's "behind", Evac is caught by Starscream from his grappling hook-like tool. Starscream then throws him across several city blocks before landing on a construction site and smashing into some drums which release clouds of fog resulting in Evac asking if the riders are okay. Optimus Prime and Megatron continue their battle in the construction site as Evac reverses away in an attempt to protect the AllSpark. Starscream appears for a second time but is chased away by two NEST helicopters.

Evac then rotates to another section where Megatron then appears, reaching out for Evac. He is then foiled by Optimus who jumps from out of view, tackling Megatron and holding him on the edge of a building, and that's when Evac charges towards Megatron and forces the AllSpark into Megatron's chest causing both to freefall to the ground when Megatron grabs Evac. Bumblebee then saves Evac from destruction while playing James Brown's "I Feel Good" at the verse 'I got you.' Optimus Prime then reports Evac in and acknowledges him on the success of the mission.[35] The last thing guests see before disembarking is the twisted wreckage of Megatron stuck in the ceiling near the exit.
Exit and Transformers Supply Vault

Roller Coaster (built in 1921) 5K POV - Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-10-10 | Front Seat POV©
Roller Coaster, often nicknamed the White Roller Coaster due to the previously white color, at Lagoon Amusement Park in Farmington, Utah, United States, is the oldest roller coaster at the park. It is a wooden roller coaster owned by Lagoon. Built-in 1921 and operating ever since the Roller Coaster is the seventh oldest roller coaster in the world and the fourth oldest in the United States.
The Roller Coaster was designed by John A. Miller and opened in 1921. In 1953, a fire damaged the coaster and burnt down the rest of the park, meaning the station and lift hill had to be rebuilt.[2] Over the years it has had computer upgrades and new trains installed. In 2005, it became an ACE Roller Coaster Landmark for being a classic coaster. In October 2012, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The ride has no real official name other than "Roller Coaster", so the locals often call it the White Roller Coaster. The park has recently stopped painting the ride, so it will gradually move from white to natural brown as Lagoon rebuilds a section of the ride per off-season, to help preserve the Roller Coaster. However, the nickname stuck, and people continue calling it the White Roller Coaster despite it now being brown.

In early 2018 the ride opened with new Great Coasters International trains, instead of the original 4x3x2 Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters trains. The entrance was moved to where the original exit was and has a wall explaining the history of the coaster. The ride experience was not changed.
The Roller Coaster starts with a turn out of the station and over to the lift hill where it rises 60 feet (18 m). The train then plunges down the first hill and up the next and down again around the west turn and into a several more series of hills gradually getting smaller around two more turns before returning to the station.
A number of accidents have occurred on the Roller Coaster since its opening, though all were related to the persons' own misconduct. In 1989, a 13-year-old girl stood up and fell 35 feet to her death. She died at the scene. At least two more deaths have occurred over the years. In 1934, Henry Howe, 20, of Ogden, Utah fell to his death as he attempted to stand up when the train was on its highest hill. Howe hit a number of support trestles on the way down. In 1946, James Young Hess was struck by the train as he was working on scaffolding on the ride. Hess suffered skull, leg and arm fractures and internal injuries before dying on September 1, 1946.

Cannibal Roller Coaster (5K) POV - Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-09-29 | Front Seat POV©
Cannibal is a steel roller coaster at Lagoon amusement park in Farmington, Utah, United States. Opened on July 2, 2015, the $22-million ride was built and designed mostly in-house – a rare move for an amusement park. It features the steepest drop in North America, fourth-steepest in the world, and holds the world record for the tallest beyond-vertical drop on a roller coaster.
Nearly seventy-five percent of Cannibal was designed, engineered, and manufactured in-house by Lagoon amusement park with the help of multiple firms located in Utah. The lead designer was Lagoon's Dal Freeman. In an era when most amusement parks outsource the work to companies in Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, the decision to build in-house is rare and bold move in the industry. The roller coaster features a 208-foot-tall (63 m) enclosed tower, a beyond-vertical drop of 116 degrees, a themed underground tunnel, and a 360-degree helix situated above a man-made waterfall. It also features four inversions that include a 140-foot-tall (43 m) Immelman loop, a dive loop, and a unique inversion the park calls the "Lagoon roll," which consists of a counter-clockwise heartline roll immediately followed by a clockwise heartline roll. Lap bar-only restraints are used on the trains which travel up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) and pull as much as 4.2 G's.

The ride had been in the planning stages for more than five years and required more than two years to build. Prior to its planned opening in the spring of 2015, Lagoon announced that the roller coaster's debut would be postponed for additional testing and inspections. The ride officially opened on July 2, 2015.
The roller coaster features a 208 feet (63 m) elevator lift, enclosed in a huge tower structure, a 116° beyond vertical drop, inversions including an Immelman-like loop as well as an inversion unique to the park, a water feature, and a tunnel 20 feet (6.1 m) underground. It is the tallest roller coaster in the state and the longest ride in the park. The ride cars accommodate 12 passengers (3 rows of 4), and the duration of the ride lasts approximately two and a half minutes.

Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts (5K) POV - Universal Studios Orlando 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-09-15 | Front Seat POV©
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts is an indoor steel roller coaster designed by Universal Creative and built by Intamin at Universal Studios Florida, a theme park located within the Universal Orlando Resort. Similar to dark rides, the roller coaster utilizes special effects in a controlled-lighting environment and also employs motion-based 3-D projection of both animation and live-action sequences to enhance the experience. The ride, which is themed to the Gringotts Wizarding Bank, became the flagship attraction for the expanded Wizarding World of Harry Potter when it opened on July 8, 2014.
Universal Parks & Resorts, in partnership with Warner Bros., officially announced the addition of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Islands of Adventure on May 31, 2007. The area officially opened in the Islands of Adventure theme park on June 18, 2010. The Harry Potter-themed area saw attendance at Islands of Adventure rise by as much as 36% in 2010. According to Jason Garcia of the Orlando Sentinel, this led to resort executives pondering "when to expand Wizarding World and how to keep business balanced between Islands and Universal Studios Florida". In April 2011, Brady MacDonald of the Los Angeles Times speculated that an area expansion would include the addition of Diagon Alley and a Gringotts-themed dark ride in place of the Lost Continent themed area in the park.

On December 6, 2011, Universal park officials confirmed that an expansion would take place and described it as "significant". The announcement was made four days after the park confirmed the removal of Jaws, a ride scheduled to close permanently on January 2, 2012.Demolition of the Jaws ride and the surrounding Amity area began soon after its closure. After the site was leveled, work began on land reclamation as well as the construction of a series of buildings, including a large show building for the Gringotts ride.

Further details about the expansion were announced on May 8, 2013, confirming new feature attractions themed after Diagon Alley and London. On January 23, 2014, the name of the area's flagship attraction was revealed to be Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. It was later described as a "virtual reality roller coaster" by Entertainment Weekly as additional details were released in May 2014.[24][25] The new ride opened on July 8, 2014, alongside other attractions in the new Diagon Alley section of the park.The building housing the attraction features a 60-foot (18 m) dragon statue perched over the entrance that utilizes special effects to simulate the breathing of fire. Upon opening, the wait times would reach up to seven hours long.

After guests board their cart, the vehicle races along the tracks, just before security alarms go off as a security breach is detected and the bank goes on lockdown. Bellatrix Lestrange appears, after being notified of an impostor infiltration, and decides to torture the guests by cutting off the track and tilting it. This sends the cart speeding toward the vaults as stalagmites can be seen to give an impression of being deep underground. Bill Weasley casts Arresto Momentum to stop the cart just before Harry, Ron, Hermione and Griphook emerge from the Thief's Downfall, which has washed away the Polyjuice Potion's effect off Hermione. Their cart drops them from a high altitude as security trolls climb up, pushing Bill and Blordak off their cart.

A security troll pushes the guests' cart further, past the Thief's Downfall and stops in front of more security trolls. One of them is hit by a mace but hangs on to the guests' cart and sends them falling. Bill casts Arresto Momentum again to stop the cart from falling, followed by Aguamenti to stop the Ukrainian Ironbelly from breathing fire on the guests (the audience gets sprayed with water at this point) and Wingardium Leviosa, sending guests' through the vaults. Meanwhile, Harry, Ron and Hermione are attempting to escape the vaults on the Ukrainian Ironbelly. Blordak urges guests to seek shelter inside one of the vaults.

After entering the vault, the walls come crashing down and Nagini appears in an attempt to attack guests. Bellatrix reappears, this time with Lord Voldemort, who confronts guests, questioning them on their knowledge of Harry Potter's whereabouts. He blames Bellatrix for the vault infiltration, who again decides to torture guests sending them to a lava-filled chamber deep in the vaults. To further torture guests into revealing Harry Potter's whereabouts, Voldemort decides to administer "a little dose of pain to help you remember" and conjures a ball of fire. The Ukrainian Ironbelly crashes in from the opposite side, and Harry casts a counterspell, while the dragon spits fire towards Voldemort, who shields himself and Bellatrix and both later furiously retreat.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (5K) POV - Universal Studios Orlando 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-08-18 | Front Seat POV©
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a motion-based dark ride located in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter-themed areas of Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida; Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California, Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, Japan and Universal Studios Beijing in Beijing, China. The ride takes guests through scenes and environments in and around Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter series of books and films. Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative, described the ride as an in-depth look at the world of Harry Potter, which utilizes never-before-seen technology which transforms "the theme park experience as you know it". The ride first opened at Islands of Adventure with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter on June 18, 2010; subsequent versions opened at Universal Studios Japan on July 15, 2014, at Universal Studios Hollywood on April 7, 2016, and at Universal Studios Beijing on September 20, 2021.
The ride begins with a dousing of Floo Powder from Hermione Granger, who asks the guests to say, "Observatory" in order to transport them to their desired location, and the enchanted bench flies off through the Floo Network to the Astronomy Tower. The guests leave the room of requirement through its fireplace and enter the Observatory, where they look out through the open arches to the hills and lake outside Hogwarts' boundary. As the guests fly out of one of the Observatory's arches, the ride smoothly switches to a wrap-around projection screen and they follow Harry Potter and Ron Weasley around Hogwarts' buildings and towers to a Quidditch match. As Harry and Ron travel under a bridge, Hagrid hails the riders and asks them if they have seen a dragon. As Harry redirects the riders' attentions back to their journey, Hagrid's pet Hungarian Horntail dragon begins to chase the riders. The bench flies out of the projection screen and into a set of the uneven bridge that crosses the valley behind Hogwarts and, after falling out of a hole in the floor of the bridge, they encounter an animatronic dragon, which breathes pressurized water mist with red lighting pointed to it to make it resemble fire.

The riders descend into a set of the Forbidden Forest where they encounter a figure of Aragog, a large, sentient spider who spits water at them. As Hermione tries to help the riders away from Aragog and towards the castle, encountering many spiders on the way, they encounter an animatronic Whomping Willow which swipes at them, knocking them into the Quidditch pitch. The ride returns to a projection screen as the riders become caught up in Harry's and Ron's game of Quidditch. As Slytherin scores into Gryffindor's goal, Dementors arrive at the Quidditch pitch and Harry attempts to lead the riders away through the structure of the pitch and back to the school, but their bench falls into the long-abandoned Chamber of Secrets through a cave entrance in a cliff which Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fawkes, and Gilderoy Lockhart departed through from the Chamber in the second Harry Potter installment. The riders return to a real set as the Dementors appear from the pipelines and chase them. The skeleton of the long-deceased Basilisk lies on the floor of the Chamber, and expels Lord Voldemort's Dark Mark into the air as the benches are drawn into the mouth of Salazar Slytherin's statue.

Dozens of Dementors emerge from the darkness while one descends and attempts to suck out the riders' souls. This effect is achieved by projecting the riders' faces onto a cloud of fog in front of the Dementor, blasting cold air towards the riders, and using a heartbeat-like sound played through the sub-woofers built into the benches. After shaking the riders out of the trance, Harry causes the Dementors to flee with a protective Patronus Charm. After the final Dementor, and while Harry uses his Patronus, the riders enter the final video dome segment, where the cliffs outside the Chamber of Secrets cave in. They fly over the Black Lake, back into Hogwarts and through the Main Hall and Grand Staircase, where they are shouting wildly on by a series of onscreen characters from the movies who appear three-dimensional. Professor Dumbledore sends everyone back through the Floo Network to the Room of Requirement, where they exit their bench.

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (5K) POV - Universal Studios Orlando 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-07-22 | Front Seat POV©
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is a multiple-launch steel motorbike roller coaster located at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade section of Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park. The attraction opened on June 13, 2019 and was manufactured by Intamin, and features both indoor and outdoor characteristics. It is the sixth Harry Potter-themed attraction created for the resort, which Universal described it as "a highly-themed roller coaster that will take us into a different corner of the wizarding world, where guests will encounter some of their favorite characters and creatures". The attraction replaced the Dragon Challenge roller coasters, which closed on September 4, 2017. At $300 million, it is also the most expensive roller coaster ever built, surpassing the previous record of $100 million by Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is the longest roller coaster in Florida at 5,053 feet (1,540 m) and holds a record-breaking seven launches.

Construction for Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure began early January 2018, after land clearing was completed on the site that Dragon Challenge occupied previously.[8] According to Alan Gilmore, art director of the Potter films and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, over a thousand trees were planted to create the woodland that would set the theme of the Forbidden Forest.

The vertical spike began to rise in May 2018 and was completed a few weeks later. By August 2018, the castle structure was being built, while portions of the track were covered in white plastic wrap. In October 2018, the structure for Hagrid's Hut was being swiftly constructed, several trees were then planted in the surrounding area and later on, the track layout was completed. On December 17, 2018, the first 7-car train, which was completely covered, was installed on the track in anticipation of the testing phase.

On February 21, 2019, Universal Orlando announced more details about the coaster, including the name, Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, the ride vehicle design and an opening date for June 13, 2019. Ride testing began shortly after, on February 26, 2019. The Fluffy animatronic was completed early April 2019, around the same time final touches were made to the ride. It was confirmed that over twenty 13-inch cornish pixies would be found throughout the experience. Then, the unicorn animatronics were installed the following month. The attraction is one of the only coasters in the United States to feature a free-fall vertical drop.

The grand opening ceremony took place on June 11, 2019 with actors Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, Tom Felton, Rupert Grint and James and Oliver Phelps in attendance. Robbie Coltrane, who portrayed Rubeus Hagrid, was unable to attend due to health reasons; however, he recorded video messages for the occasion. After opening, the queue line stretched all the way to Port of Entry, with ten hour wait times.

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure didn't have an Express queue line when it first opened, but it had a single rider entrance. The single rider queue line allowed guests to bypass the pre-show to access the station. Just a day after opening, Universal asked guests to reserve a ride time through the official smartphone app. A wait time specifically for the Virtual Line queue was displayed at the Hogsmeade entrance. The Express entrance will be added to the ride in the near future. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and its spread to Florida, the single rider line was made unavailable upon the resort's June 2020 reopening, but was reopened on June 15, 2021.

Described as a "story coaster" by Universal,[22] the attraction takes Muggles on a journey through the Forbidden Forest, coming face to face with magical creatures of the Wizarding World on Rubeus Hagrid's motorcycle[23][24] such as Fluffy the three-headed dog, Cornish Pixies, Devil's Snare, a Centaur and a Blast-Ended Skrewt, a creature that was never featured in any of the Harry Potter films.[25]

The attraction's vehicle is modeled after Hagrid's motorcycle, originally owned by Sirius Black in the book series, which appeared in the first and seventh films. There are seven rows on each train. Each row seats two passengers, one on the motorcycle itself and one in the sidecar.[26] Each motorbike has speakers that provide theming to the attraction, much like The Incredible Hulk Coaster and the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, with a score inspired by the compositions of the Harry Potter films, especially those of John Williams.

Rattlesnake Rapids 25th Anniversary (5K) POV - Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-07-20 | Front Seat POV©
The citizens of Pioneer Village celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Rattlesnake Rapids on July 14th, 2022. Here's a quick recap and POV of the evening.

Rattlesnake Rapids is a river rapid ride where riders board rafts and float down a mock river encountering rapids, waves, and waterfalls designed to get the rider wet and simulate white-water rafting. Ride vehicles consist of yellow, circular rafts that can hold up to nine riders at a time. The rafts are made of fiberglass with a rubber ring that surrounds the raft to create buoyancy and provide a bumper as the raft encounters other rafts or obstacles throughout the ride. The station of Rattlesnake Rapids is at the highest point of the ride. Riders load and unload using a circular platform that is constantly moving and then enter the river, which flows downhill to large lift that brings the rafts back to the station.

Phantom Theater Encore Experience POV (4k) - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-07-12 | Front Seat POV©
Want to read the fine print? Wait until the end!
Phantom Theater was a dark ride located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. The ride was manufactured by Morgan Manufacturing and was similar to Disney's Omnimover ride system, with a continuously moving chain of vehicles. The attraction took guests through a haunted, abandoned theater and was furnished with sets and characters created by R&R Creative Amusement Designs, Inc. The ride replaced Smurf's Enchanted Voyage (1984-1991), which in turn was a re-skin of the original Enchanted Voyage (1972-1983). The ride was re-themed to Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle in 2003, and again to Boo Blasters on Boo Hill in 2010. The ride system remains in place, albeit with modifications.

Taft Broadcasting, interested in finding a way to promote its recently-acquired Hanna-Barbera division, purchased Cincinnati's Coney Island in 1969 with the intent of expanding and moving the park. Construction of Kings Island began in 1970, and the most expensive attraction erected for the park's inaugural year was a dark ride called Enchanted Voyage, which cost approximately $2 million to construct. The ride was manufactured by Arrow Development and opened with the park in 1972.

Enchanted Voyage was located in a building shaped like a giant TV set, taking guests through several rooms featuring animatronic versions of new and old Hanna-Barbera characters. Its theme song was composed by well-known Hanna-Barbera music producer Paul De Korte, and the lyrics were written by William Hanna and former Coney Island executive Dennis Speigel. It played throughout the ride, reciting themes from familiar characters such as Fred Flintstone, Scooby-Doo, and Yogi Bear. Less common shows such as Wacky Races and The Banana Splits were also alluded to. The first room introduced the song while the second room changed to a western accent, the third utilized a Caribbean flavor and the fourth had a "spooky" theme. The fifth and final room reverted to the original music with a circus-like ambiance. The rides final exit was at the "mouth" of a giant clown as each boat would travel a few feet up an inclined lift hill before splashing down the drop into the water on the other side.

At the end of the 1991 season, the building housing the attraction was gutted and the water transportation system was removed. Installed in its place was an Omnimover-type dark ride similar in style to The Haunted Mansion attractions at various Disney parks around the world. The original loading area for the boats entering and exiting the ride was converted a line queue area for a children's kiddie roller coaster originally named Scooby Zoom and later known as Great Pumpkin Coaster. A new entrance was constructed for Phantom Theater at the opposite corner of the building. A small, unused section of the building was converted into a children's theater called "Enchanted Theater."

Phantom Theater was themed to a behind-the-scenes tour of a theater haunted by the dead. The exterior of the building was stylized as a dilapidated and crumbling opera theater. The queue area featured low lighting and walls that were decorated with busts and portraits of some of the ghosts that would be seen during the ride, with eyes that would seem to follow the riders as they walked past them. The ride itself featured seventeen separate scenes which the Omnimover-like vehicles slowly traversed through. The ride notably featured a Pepper's ghost trick, a famous and widely used dark ride trick, for its stage production scene.

Kings Island previously displayed a number of the Phantom Theater vehicles that were removed in 2002 as Halloween displays during the park's Halloween Haunt. They were removed from storage each year and placed on the International Bandstand at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

Phantom Theater closed in July 2002. Almost all thematic elements were removed and replaced with new scenes created by Sally Dark Rides. 28 of the 55 ride vehicles were also removed, while the remaining were retrofitted with laser light guns that riders would use to point and shoot at various targets throughout the ride. The attraction reopened in 2003 as Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle.

Following Kings Island's purchase by Cedar Fair in 2006, the ride dropped its Scooby-Doo theming and was renamed Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. The transformation included some updates and was done in collaboration with Sally Dark Rides, the company that helped design it originally.

Following Phantom Theater's removal, leftover ride components have served as props during the park's annual Halloween Haunt event. The furnace from the ride appears in Slaughterhouse, and the sarcophagus and cannon appear in Madame Fatale's Cavern of Terror. Ride vehicles and characters have occasionally been displayed as well in various areas across the park.

The Boring Companys LVCC Loop West Hall to Central Hall Front Seat Ride POV

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-07-07 | Front Seat POV©
Take a ride from the West Hall to Central Hall on the LVCC!
www.frontseatpov.com
In March 2019, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recommended The Boring Company for a system to shuttle visitors in a loop underneath the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), to be completed by 2021, with the potential for future expansion along the Las Vegas Strip and to Allegiant Stadium and McCarran International Airport. In May 2019, the company won a $48.7 million project to do so. In September, on-site preparations for the tunnel project were reported, and construction started in October. The project in the end used two Prufrock machines. The second was assembled and brought online in August 2021.

Boring of the first tunnel, 4,475 feet (1,364 m) long, began on November 15 and completed 91 days later on February 14, 2020, for an average speed of 49 feet (15 m) per day. For comparison, the Second Avenue tunnel in New York City, which was completed in 2017, averaged between 40 and 50 feet per day. In May 2020, the boring of the second tunnel was completed, for a total of 1.7 miles (2.7 km) of tunnels.

The tunnel was unveiled in mid-April 2021 with regular Tesla Model 3 and Model X cars used for shuttling, running at about 35 miles per hour (56 km/h). The service was described as "embarrassing"and "lame",due to comparisons with earlier promises of "electric autonomous vehicles with alignment wheels".

Testing with a large number of volunteers in late May 2021 showed the system could transport 4,400 passengers per hour, though the highest traffic the LVCC Loop has transported in an uncontrolled setting was reached in July 2021 at 1,355 passengers per hour. The system started transporting attendees of a convention center exhibition on June 8, 2021. The target for the project was to reduce a 25-minute walk to a 2-minute ride, but additional data revealed in November 2021 demonstrated that the average trip time in any day has never reached below 3 minutes. In January 2022, video taken during CES 2022 captured a traffic jam at the LVCC.

Private tunnels to convention center
This section needs expansion with: addition of the Caesars Loop project after late fall 2020. You can help by adding to it. (December 2020)
Following the completion of the two tunnel bores for the LVCC in May 2020, two Las Vegas strip hotels, Encore and Resorts World Las Vegas, applied to regulators in June to obtain permits for The Boring Company to dig private tunnels to allow direct access between each resort hotel and the LVCC.

As of December 2020, plans for a 2-mile tunnel to Flamingo, Paris Las Vegas, the High Roller, Planet Hollywood and Bally's called the "Caesars loop" were submitted

As of May 2021, the tunnel to Resorts World had broken ground, and the tunnel to Encore had been approved.

As of February 2022, the tunnel surfaced in Resorts World.

Resort corridor
In October 2021, the Clark County Commissioners approved a 50-year franchise agreement for the construction of a much-larger mostly-underground system in the Las Vegas area, a "15-mile dual loop system. ...operating mainly in the Resort Corridor with stations at various resorts and connections to Allegiant Stadium and the UNLV [University of Nevada, Las Vegas]." The county approved the alignment for the proposed route, but separate land use permits for the 51 planned stops, and City of Las Vegas approval for the part of the system that runs underground in the city, are required. As permitting is completed, TBC planned to build out five to ten stations during the first year, and then add approximately 15 stations per year thereafter. The Boring Company would be responsible for funding tunnel construction, with station costs funded by the resort properties and location owners.

Longer-term plans of The Boring Company and some developers include linking the Las Vegas Strip and McCarran International Airport.

Company History
The Boring Company (TBC) is an American infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk. Its ongoing and proposed projects are designed for intra-city ("loop") transit systems.

TBC has completed two tunnels in Las Vegas for loop travel. It has also completed one tunnel for testing loop travel in Los Angeles County. Other tunnels are in various stages of discussion and planning.

Musk cited difficulty with Los Angeles traffic, and what he sees as limitations of its two-dimensional transportation network, as his early inspiration for the project. The Boring Company was formed as a subsidiary of SpaceX, becoming a separate and fully independent company in 2018. As of December 2018, 90% of the equity was owned by Musk, with 6% held by SpaceX in return for the use of SpaceX resources during the startup of the company. Outside investments during 2019 have changed the equity split.

The Boring Companys LVCC Loop Central Hall to West Hall Front Seat Ride POV

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-06-30 | Front Seat POV©
Take a ride from the Central Hall to the West Hall on the LVCC!
www.frontseatpov.com
In March 2019, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recommended The Boring Company for a system to shuttle visitors in a loop underneath the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), to be completed by 2021, with the potential for future expansion along the Las Vegas Strip and to Allegiant Stadium and McCarran International Airport. In May 2019, the company won a $48.7 million project to do so. In September, on-site preparations for the tunnel project were reported, and construction started in October. The project in the end used two Prufrock machines. The second was assembled and brought online in August 2021.

Boring of the first tunnel, 4,475 feet (1,364 m) long, began on November 15 and completed 91 days later on February 14, 2020, for an average speed of 49 feet (15 m) per day. For comparison, the Second Avenue tunnel in New York City, which was completed in 2017, averaged between 40 and 50 feet per day. In May 2020, the boring of the second tunnel was completed, for a total of 1.7 miles (2.7 km) of tunnels.

The tunnel was unveiled in mid-April 2021 with regular Tesla Model 3 and Model X cars used for shuttling, running at about 35 miles per hour (56 km/h). The service was described as "embarrassing"and "lame",due to comparisons with earlier promises of "electric autonomous vehicles with alignment wheels".

Testing with a large number of volunteers in late May 2021 showed the system could transport 4,400 passengers per hour, though the highest traffic the LVCC Loop has transported in an uncontrolled setting was reached in July 2021 at 1,355 passengers per hour. The system started transporting attendees of a convention center exhibition on June 8, 2021. The target for the project was to reduce a 25-minute walk to a 2-minute ride, but additional data revealed in November 2021 demonstrated that the average trip time in any day has never reached below 3 minutes. In January 2022, video taken during CES 2022 captured a traffic jam at the LVCC.

Private tunnels to convention center
This section needs expansion with: addition of the Caesars Loop project after late fall 2020. You can help by adding to it. (December 2020)
Following the completion of the two tunnel bores for the LVCC in May 2020, two Las Vegas strip hotels, Encore and Resorts World Las Vegas, applied to regulators in June to obtain permits for The Boring Company to dig private tunnels to allow direct access between each resort hotel and the LVCC.

As of December 2020, plans for a 2-mile tunnel to Flamingo, Paris Las Vegas, the High Roller, Planet Hollywood and Bally's called the "Caesars loop" were submitted

As of May 2021, the tunnel to Resorts World had broken ground, and the tunnel to Encore had been approved.

As of February 2022, the tunnel surfaced in Resorts World.

Resort corridor
In October 2021, the Clark County Commissioners approved a 50-year franchise agreement for the construction of a much-larger mostly-underground system in the Las Vegas area, a "15-mile dual loop system. ...operating mainly in the Resort Corridor with stations at various resorts and connections to Allegiant Stadium and the UNLV [University of Nevada, Las Vegas]." The county approved the alignment for the proposed route, but separate land use permits for the 51 planned stops, and City of Las Vegas approval for the part of the system that runs underground in the city, are required. As permitting is completed, TBC planned to build out five to ten stations during the first year, and then add approximately 15 stations per year thereafter. The Boring Company would be responsible for funding tunnel construction, with station costs funded by the resort properties and location owners.

Longer-term plans of The Boring Company and some developers include linking the Las Vegas Strip and McCarran International Airport.

Company History
The Boring Company (TBC) is an American infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk. Its ongoing and proposed projects are designed for intra-city ("loop") transit systems.

TBC has completed two tunnels in Las Vegas for loop travel. It has also completed one tunnel for testing loop travel in Los Angeles County. Other tunnels are in various stages of discussion and planning.

Musk cited difficulty with Los Angeles traffic, and what he sees as limitations of its two-dimensional transportation network, as his early inspiration for the project. The Boring Company was formed as a subsidiary of SpaceX, becoming a separate and fully independent company in 2018. As of December 2018, 90% of the equity was owned by Musk, with 6% held by SpaceX in return for the use of SpaceX resources during the startup of the company. Outside investments during 2019 have changed the equity split.

Centennial Screamer (5K) POV - Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-06-14 | Front Seat POV©
Although Schwarzkopf is probably better known as a roller coaster manufacturer, the company also made a variety of flat rides. One of these was the Enterprise, introduced in the early 1970s. Soon after, Huss (another German ride manufacturer) started making its own Enterprise that became very popular.

The Enterprise is like a fast-moving Ferris Wheel that loads riders while on its side. As it begins spinning horizontally, the gondolas swing outward and a hydraulic arm raises the wheel to a near-vertical position. In the late ’70s, Huss developed the concept further with the UFO. On this model, riders stood facing the center of the wheel in gondolas that didn’t swing. Lagoon had a Huss UFO east of Jet Star 2 for a single season in 1982. A larger, higher capacity Enterprise called Sky Lab was designed by Huss in the ’80s.

A Huss Enterprise was the sixth and final Huss ride¹ to open at Lagoon. It arrived in 1987 when the park celebrated its centennial year.² In honor of that milestone, the ride was dubbed the Centennial Screamer. A Zierer Wave Swinger named Turn Of The Century also opened later that season. The Screamer took a spot next to Musik Express which had been occupied by the Space Scrambler from 1982 to 1986. It was at that point that the Scrambler was moved to its present location north of Game Time.

Centennial Screamer in 2007. Photo: B. Miskin
The Centennial Screamer has remained basically the same in appearance since it opened. The image at the top of this page shows the arm in different colors than the solid blue it’s painted in now. Aside from that, the colors are the same. The gondolas still feature the ’80s Lagoon logo and is one of the few places in the park it can still be seen. The full name was used in the safety spiel and on the ticket sign at the entrance, but only the “Screamer” portion was on the large electrical sign. In 2007, the backdrop, painted with an outer space scene of stars and planets, was taken down mid-season along with the “Screamer” sign above it. The backdrop returned in 2008 completely repainted with brighter colors, a cartoon-like spaceship and planets, and the full name of the ride. The electric sign never returned, but four metal posts where the sign was mounted could still be seen sticking up until they were finally removed in the middle of the 2016 season.

Centennial Screamer in the middle of being dismantled. Photo: B. Miskin
In the middle of October 2017, the ride was closed and dismantled to make room for a new restroom on the South Midway. The following spring, a new concrete platform was poured for Screamer north of Sky Scraper, near the entrance to Cannibal. The ride was repainted in the same colors and the old 1980s Lagoon logo was added back to each gondola. It reopened in its new location on 15 June 2018.

Zoofari Express Train (4K) POV - Utahs Hogle Zoo 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-05-25 | Front Seat POV©
In 1907, The Emigration Canyon Railroad was incorporated to transport red and white sandstone from the quarries in Emigration Canyon to Salt Lake City. Its city terminus and yards were located near Rice Eccles Stadium. The route paralleled Sunnyside Avenue and up, what is now, State Highway 65 to the Killyon’s Canyon turnoff.

EmigrationRRThe freighting line was short-lived. Within a decade concrete had surpassed building stone as the preferred foundation material. Today, all that can be seen of the line is an occasional stretch of rail bed used by hikers and mountain bikers, and the upper station.

However, this was not the last railroad operation Emigration Canyon would see. Utah’s Hogle Zoo was established at the mouth of Emigration Canyon in 1931. By 1968, some 50 years since the last engine used the ECR line, the canyon once again echoed the sounds of a train whistle.

The train station at Utah’s Hogle Zoo stands within 100 yards of the historic route of the Emigration Canyon Railroad. A 1/3 scale replica of an 1863 C.P. Huntington locomotive takes guests on a ½ mile journey through the African Savanna and across a trestle bridge spanning Emigration Creek. The train leaves the depot every 5 minutes and the wait is fairly short, so hop on aboard!

Big Apple Coaster (5K) POV - New York, New York Hotel & Casino

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-05-18 | Front Seat POV©
The Big Apple Coaster (formerly Manhattan Express and The Roller Coaster) is a steel TOGO hyper roller coaster at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The ride's trains are themed to New York City taxicabs. It is the only roller coaster by TOGO still operating in North America.

The ride, originally called the Manhattan Express, was built by TOGO, and was one of only two roller coasters in the world to feature a heartline roll and dive. The ride was conceived by Gary Primm, owner of Primadonna Resorts, which co-developed New York-New York.

The ride cost $18 million to build. It opened along with New York-New York on January 3, 1997. Within two months, 500,000 people had ridden it. In March 1997, Clark County building officials shut down the Manhattan Express over safety issues, which the resort failed to report to the county. The ride contained 250 steel tension rods. Approximately 40 of the rods had snapped, and the resort was cited for continuing to operate the ride despite the breakages. Repairs were made, and the ride reopened and closed several times that month, as more rods broke. The initial 40 broken rods had been replaced using stronger material, which strained the weaker rods and caused them to snap. The strain also created fine cracks in the coaster track.

The Manhattan Express reopened in April 1997, after two weeks of repairs and safety improvements. Further rod breakages occurred on several occasions later in the year. The rods were repaired as they broke, and the county deemed the ride safe despite the frequent breakages.

The coaster had its one-millionth rider in July 1997.

It had a reputation in the past for being a rough roller coaster. Some riders have gotten bruised on the shoulders from the old trains due to the roughness of the ride and negative G-forces. In 2004 Premier Rides installed magnetic brakes on the ride. In August 2006, Premier also installed new trains to replace the original TOGO trains. Since the Premier train installation, the ride has been noticeably smoother, as opposed to when the TOGO trains were in use.

The ride was renamed as The Roller Coaster in 2007, and as the Big Apple Coaster in 2013.

In February 2018, the ride introduced a virtual reality coaster option.

For the 2021 season, the ride received another set of new trains from Premier Rides; a more modern variant that were first seen on the Sky Rocket II models. These consist of more open-air seating and can hold up to 18 riders, thus increasing the coaster's capacity. Testing began in December 2020, with the ride slated to reopen in February 2021. However, an accident occurred in mid-December, where the middle car of one of the new trains derailed on the lift hill, causing severe damage to part of the catwalk. The ride reopened on January 30th, 2021.

The ride travels on a 4,777 ft (1,456 m) track. The ride begins with a 180-foot (55 m) lift and a 76-foot (23 m) drop, followed by a hill and a 144-foot (44 m) drop. The train then traverses two inversions, a standard vertical loop and a dive loop (twist and dive element), where the train performs a 180-degree spiral and then performs a half-loop maneuver. This element is found on another coaster: the "Mega Coaster" at Hamanako Pal Pal Park in Japan. The rest of the ride is executed on the roof of the casino, and features small hills and a helix into the brakes. The ride's station is themed to a New York City Subway station.

Currently, the ride costs $19 per individual ticket and $10 for a re-ride. An all-day pass can be bought for $35. Las Vegas residents with valid ID, and military personnel also receive discounts.

Disneyland Railroad Full Ride (4K) POV - Disneyland 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-05-11 | Front Seat POV©
The Disneyland Railroad (DRR), formerly known as the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, is a 3-foot (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad and attraction in the Disneyland theme park of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, in the United States. Its route is 1.2 miles (1.9 km) long and encircles the majority of the park, with train stations in four different park areas. The rail line, which was constructed by WED Enterprises, operates with two steam locomotives built by WED and three historic steam locomotives originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The ride takes roughly 18 minutes to complete a round trip on its main line when three trains are running, and 20 minutes when four trains are running. Two to four trains can be in operation at any time, three on average.
The attraction was conceived by Walt Disney, who drew inspiration from the ridable miniature Carolwood Pacific Railroad built in his backyard. The Disneyland Railroad opened to the public at Disneyland's grand opening on July 17, 1955. Since that time, multiple alterations have been made to its route, including the addition of two large dioramas in the late 1950s and mid-1960s. Several changes have been made to its rolling stock, including the conversion of one of its train cars into a parlor car in the mid-1970s, and the switch from diesel oil to biodiesel to fuel its locomotives in the late 2000s.
The railroad has been consistently billed as one of Disneyland's top attractions, requiring a C ticket to ride when A, B, and C tickets were introduced in 1955, a D ticket to ride when those were introduced in 1956, and an E ticket to ride when those were introduced in 1959. The use of E tickets stood until a pay-one-price admission system was introduced in 1982. With an estimated 6.6 million passengers each year, the DRR has become one of the world's most popular steam-powered railroads.
Walt Disney, the creator of the concepts for Disneyland and the Disneyland Railroad, always had a strong fondness for trains. As a young boy, he wanted to become a train engineer like his father's cousin, Mike Martin, who told him stories about his experiences driving main-line trains on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. As a teenager, he obtained a news butcher job on the Missouri Pacific Railway, selling various products to train passengers, including newspapers, candy, and cigars. Many years later, after co-founding the Walt Disney Company with his older brother Roy O. Disney, he started playing polo. Fractured vertebrae and other injuries led him to abandon the sport on the advice of his doctor, who recommended a calmer recreational activity. Starting in late 1947, he developed an interest in model trains after purchasing several Lionel train sets.
By 1948, Walt Disney's interest in model trains was evolving into an interest in larger, ridable miniature trains after observing the trains and backyard railroad layouts of several hobbyists, including Disney animator Ollie Johnston. In 1949, after purchasing 5 acres (2.0 ha) of vacant land in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, he started construction on a new residence for himself and his family, and on the elaborate 7+1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge ridable miniature Carolwood Pacific Railroad behind it. The railroad featured a set of freight cars pulled by the Lilly Belle, a 1:8-scale live steam locomotive named after Disney's wife Lillian and built by the Walt Disney Studios' machine shop team led by Roger E. Broggie. The locomotive's design, chosen by Walt Disney after seeing a smaller locomotive model with the same design at the home of rail historian Gerald M. Best, was based directly on copies of the blueprints for the Central Pacific No. 173, a steam locomotive rebuilt by the Central Pacific Railroad in 1872. The Lilly Belle first ran on the Carolwood Pacific Railroad on May 7, 1950. Walt Disney's backyard railroad attracted visitors interested in riding his miniature steam train, and on weekends, when the railroad was operating, he allowed them to do so, even allowing some to become "guest engineers" and drive the train.[14] In early 1953, after a visitor drove the Lilly Belle too fast along a curve, causing it to derail and injure a five-year-old girl, Walt Disney, fearing the possibility of future accidents, closed down the Carolwood Pacific Railroad and placed the locomotive in storage.

Read more -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Railroad roller coaster

Sleeping Beauty Castle (4K Extreme Low-Light) POV - Disneyland 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-04-20 | Front Seat POV©
Opened July 17, 1955, the castle is the oldest of all Disney castles. Though it reaches a height of 77 feet (23 m), it was designed by Roland E. Hill to appear taller through a process known as forced perspective; design elements are larger at the foundation and smaller at the turrets. The castle initially featured an empty upper level that was never intended to house an attraction, but Walt Disney was not satisfied with what he viewed as wasted space, and challenged his Imagineers to find some use for the space.

Beginning on April 29, 1957, the visitors were able to walk through the castle and view several dioramas depicting the story of Sleeping Beauty. The voice of Jiminy Cricket from Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940) singing "When You Wish Upon a Star" is piped into the castle. The original dioramas were designed in the style of Eyvind Earle, production designer for Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty, and were then redone in 1977 to resemble the window displays on Main Street, U.S.A. The walkthrough was closed for unspecified reasons on October 7, 2001; popular belief claims the September 11th attacks and the potential danger that ensued played a major factor in the closing. Disney spokesman John McClintock said that the 9-11 attacks rumors weren't true. “I am aware of those rumors,” he said. “But in 2001, it really wasn’t resonating with guests. In the late 90s, early 2000s, arguably the most popular thing about Sleeping Beauty was that you could always get in because nobody went to it.”

On July 17, 2008, Disney announced that the Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough would reopen in the style of the original Earle dioramas, enhanced with new technology not available in 1957. The walkthrough reopened on November 27, 2008 at 5:00 p.m., drawing long lines going as far back as the Hub at the center of the park. Unlike previous incarnations, visitors who are unable to climb stairs or navigate the passageways of the Castle can still experience the walkthrough "virtually" in a special room on the Castle's ground floor. This room is lavishly themed, and presents the closed-captioned CGI walkthrough recreation on a high-definition TV. This same virtual recreation is included on the Sleeping Beauty 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD.

The castle walkthrough entrance is on the west side of the building inside Fantasyland. Guests first see a large medieval-themed story book open to a page that announces the birth of the princess Aurora. After climbing the stairs inside, a scene depicts Aurora as a baby, being blessed with magic gifts by her fairy godmothers. Behind a glass window, there is an animation of the castle courtyard, and the king and queen watching as a large fire burns all the spinning wheels in the kingdom. At the top of the stairs, as guests reach the center of the castle's top level, another window looks out on the castle's great hall, where everyone in the kingdom is asleep, including servants and the cat and dog. The second half of the walkthrough becomes darker, featuring appearances by Maleficent, her crow, and several gargoyles which fly out of her nearby castle. At the end, the prince fights against Maleficent's incarnation as a dragon, amid a forest of thorny brambles, and then a field of roses appears with doves flying above, as he kisses Aurora and breaks the spell. As guests exit the walkthrough at the bottom of the stairs on the east side of the castle, another medieval-themed oversized book depicts an image of the prince and princess dancing together, as her dress changes colors from pink to blue and back again.

The Disney family coat of arms hangs above the archway to the castle.[5] It is composed of three lions passant in pale. It is known that the coat of arms was not originally on the castle, but was placed there sometime between June 1965 and July 1965.

At the rear of the castle, shaded by the archways and driven into the ground is a gold spike that is widely, but wrongly, believed to mark the geographical center of Disneyland. In reality, the spike is a surveyor's mark that was used to ensure that the castle bridge and entrance lined up with Main Street USA when the park was first constructed. The original geographical center of the Magic Kingdom was in the middle of the round park, where the "Partners" statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse stands. The addition of Mickey's Toontown in 1993 moved the actual center of the park a few yards northward, but still on the hub side of the castle drawbridge.
In January 2019, renovations on Sleeping Beauty Castle began in Disneyland. The entrance to Fantasyland was blocked through the archway of the castle during this refurbishment.

Pinocchios Daring Journey (4K Extreme Low-Light) POV - Disneyland 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-04-13 | Front Seat POV©
Pinocchio's Daring Journey is a dark ride at Disneyland in California, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Park in Paris. Located in the Fantasyland section of each park, this ride is based on Disney's 1940 animated film version of the classic story, which was the studio's second animated feature film.The attraction tells an abbreviated version of the film, with Pinocchio escaping from Stromboli's circus and visiting Pleasure Island, ignoring Jiminy Cricket's advice. Monstro the whale makes an appearance, and Pinocchio is finally reunited with Geppetto and turned into a real boy.
The attraction was built in 1983, as part of Disneyland's "New Fantasyland" expansion.
In 1976, Disney Imagineers decided to remove the Mickey Mouse Club Theater in Disneyland and insert a Pinocchio-themed dark ride into the space. It was originally intended for the guests to ride in cars designed to resemble Geppetto's wood-carved toys. However, the idea was put on hold for a while before it was revived for the opening of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983. The attraction came to Disneyland a month and a half later as part of the complete overhaul of Fantasyland.

The Disneyland ride is placed in the Fantasyland courtyard, where the Mickey Mouse Club Theater originally stood. The building is topped with three decorative weathervanes which look like a school of eight fish, a stork with a baby, and a whale.The exterior of the building is based on concept art of Stromboli's theater drawn by Gustaf Tenggren.

The Disneyland version of the ride was the first Disney parks attraction to use holographic material, which appears on a handheld mirror in the scene where the boys turn into donkeys on Pleasure Island. The Pepper's ghost illusion (used extensively in the Haunted Mansion) is used when the Blue Fairy disappears, leaving a pile of fiber-optic fairy dust on the floor.
Guests board the ride vehicle, designed to look like a wooden cart, in a station themed to a street in Pinocchio's village. The vehicles are carved with the faces of Figaro, Cleo and Jiminy Cricket.
The ride travels through Stromboli's puppet theater, featuring Pinocchio dancing and singing with a pair of marionettes, then travels backstage where Pinocchio is being kept prisoner in a birdcage. Stromboli tries to catch the guests in a cage, but Jiminy Cricket warns riders of the trap and leads the car down an alley to safety. The ride then goes to Pleasure Island, which is filled with boys enjoying carnival rides, and inside a pool hall, where Lampwick is turning into a donkey. Outside, behind Pleasure Island, the Coachman and his henchmen are caging the other boys who have become donkeys. The Coachman tries to trap the guests in a crate and send them to the salt mines, but Jiminy Cricket leads them past the docks, where Monstro the whale appears, and back to Pinocchio's village. Inside Geppetto's workshop, the Blue Fairy appears and disappears beside Geppetto and Pinocchio, and the ride vehicle travels through Geppetto's workshop, filled with animated clocks, toys and automatons, back to the station.
There's a "Hidden Mickey" in the final scene as the vehicle goes through the workshop; the top of a carved wooden display case holding a ship has a familiar pair of mouse ears.
When the ride was built in 1983, it was paired with a souvenir shop located next to the attraction's exit. Geppetto's Arts & Crafts was a toy shop designed to look like the movie setting, selling wooden marionettes, old-fashioned figurines and cuckoo clocks. Over the years, the shop's merchandise shifted to more conventional plush toys, and in the mid-90s, the store's name was changed to Geppetto's Toys & Gifts. The shop closed in 2004, replaced briefly by a store called Names Unraveled. It reopened in late 2006 as Geppetto's Holiday Workshop, closed in 2007 and then reopened again in spring 2010 as Geppetto's Candy Shoppe.

In fall 2010, the space became a meet and greet for the characters of Tangled, and then became the "Frozen Royal Reception" from 2013 to 2014. The space was occupied by a face-painting service for a few years, and then became the "Royal Reception" shop in 2017, selling Beauty and the Beast merchandise.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (4K) POV - Disneyland 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-04-06 | Front Seat POV©
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a mine train roller coaster located in Frontierland at several Disneyland-style Disney Parks worldwide. The ride exists at Disneyland Park (California) and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park (Paris) as Big Thunder Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is also the name of the fictional rail line the roller coaster depicts.
Although the details of the backstory vary from park to park, all follow the same general story arc. Sometime in the late 1800s, gold was discovered on Big Thunder Mountain in the American Southwest. Overnight, a small mining town became a thriving one (the name of the town varies from ride to ride. In the California ride, the town is known as Rainbow Ridge. In the Florida version, the town is known as Tumbleweed, and in Paris, the town is known as Thunder Mesa). Mining was prosperous, and an extensive line of mine trains was set up to transport the ore. Unknown to the settlers, the Mountain was a sacred spot to local Native Americans and was cursed.

Before long, the settlers' desecration of the mountain caused a great tragedy, which, depending on the park, is usually depicted to be an earthquake (in the Paris and California versions of the ride), a tsunami (in the Tokyo version of the ride), a flash flood (in the Florida version of the ride), which befell the mines and town, and the town was abandoned. Sometime later, the locomotives were found to be racing around the mountain on their own, without engineers or a crew. The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was founded in the old mining camp to allow wanderers to take rides on the possessed trains. The detailed backstory, while present in park literature and training materials, is not communicated to park guests directly. The station buildings on all four versions of the ride are themed to the appearance of a mining company office from the mid to late 19th century. In the Disneyland, CA park, there is music and laughing in one of the saloons, and a typewriter is heard from a newspaper office. The mountains themselves are themed to the red rock formations of the American Southwest. The rock work designs in the California version are based on the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. In the Florida, Tokyo and Paris versions of the ride, the rockwork designs are based on the rising buttes that are located in Arizona and Utah's Monument Valley. Special care was taken by the Imagineers to make it appear that the rocks were there originally, and the track was built around the rocks, unlike a number of earlier mine rides, which were built the other way around (by sculpting the rocks around the tracks). There is also a dinosaur skeleton that the train passes by, built into the side of the mountain. A cracked eggshell is nearby, and there is a pleasant lake with water that is shot up while the train passes on the warmer days. Sound effects of a typical locomotive operation are piped into the surrounding scenery to add realism to guests viewing the ride from observation platforms, including the steam whistle sounding, even though there is no whistle displayed on the locomotives.

Leaving the outdoor station, trains enter a bat-infested tunnel, make a right-hand turn, then a left-hand turn before climbing the first lift hill, which takes trains through a cavern full of stalactites. Leaving the lift hill, the train drops away to the right, then levels out and makes a left-hand turn. The track then crosses under the second lift hill drop before making a right-hand turn. The sounds of coyotes can be heard howling at the train as it dives into a cave. At the end of the tunnel, the train hits a trim brake, exits the tunnel, and climbs the second lift hill. At the top of the lift, an animatronic goat bleats at passing guests as the train drops away to the right, cross under the lift hill, and rises up into a downward spiraling clockwise helix. Leaving the helix, the train shoots through a small canyon, then drops down into a mining camp, where it hits another trim brake. The train then makes a left-hand turn, enters another tunnel, and climbs the third lift hill. As the train climbs the lift, the tunnel is dynamited, and artificial smoke is blasted in guests' faces as the train crests the lift and exits the tunnel. The train then drops to the right, towards the river, then makes a right-hand turn and passes through a short tunnel. After crossing over the drop, the trains make a left hand turn as they pass through the ribcage of a T-rex skeleton, hit a trim brake, then make a right hand turn into the final brakes. The train then travels by the buildings of Rainbow Ridge as it returns to the station.

Matterhorn Bobsleds Tomorrowland Track (4K) POV - Disneyland 2022

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-03-31 | Front Seat POV©
The Matterhorn Bobsleds are a pair of intertwined steel roller coasters at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It is modeled after the Matterhorn, a mountain in the Alps on the border with Switzerland and Italy. It is the first known tubular steel continuous track roller coaster. Located on the border between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, it employs a forced perspective to seem larger.
The ride consists of two separate tracks that run roughly parallel to each other for much of the ride, intertwining and eventually deviating from each other at the loading areas. They are the Fantasyland track and Tomorrowland track, named for the side of the mountain their associated loading line begins in. The vehicles originally held up to four passengers each, seated single-file. After the 1978 upgrade, the individual vehicles were joined into pairs with lap seating increasing the capacity per train to eight. In 2012, the cars were replaced with new vehicles as part of the six month ride closure, and it currently features two cars paired together with three single-file seats per car. The safety restraints consist of a car seatbelt. There are hand grips inside the cars, but there are no longer hand grips on the outside of the bobsled.

There is one lift hill on each track. Bobsleds ascend parallel to each other at the start of the ride, climbing past walls featuring snow-like special effects. The top of this lift hill constitutes the highest point of the ride itself, though the mountain continues upward for another couple of stories. The rest of the ride is a mostly unpowered coast through the Matterhorn's many caverns and passageways.

The splash-down pools at the end of each track serve dual purposes. They not only cool off the braking pads mounted on the underside of the bobsleds, but the impact into the water itself acts as a braking mechanism. Because of their constant exposure to water, the fiberglass bodies are regularly waxed.

For many years, a basketball half-court existed inside the structure above the coaster, near the top of the mountain, where the mountain climbers could play between climbs. As internal access to the mountain was locked for safety reasons, the court was accessible only to the climbers. The court was relocated slightly during the installation of the Tinkerbell flight equipment prior to the 50th anniversary celebration; the hoop and playing area remain intact. There is a cast member break room inside the mountain at the base. The court is said to still be there today by many cast members and the mountain's climbers.

At the end of the attraction, guests hear the now-famous "Remain seated please; Permanecer sentados por favor" safety announcement; it is one of many recordings by the former "Voice of Disneyland," Jack Wagner. The recording was changed in 2005 to say "Remain seated with your seatbelt fastened; Permanecer sentados por favor." The changed English dialogue is still Jack Wagner, as it was borrowed from the attraction's breakdown announcement. This recording also introduces the Tomorrowland segment of the Remember ... Dreams Come True fireworks show. The safety announcement was featured on the title track of the 1995 No Doubt album Tragic Kingdom, and the line was spoken by Barbie in the film Toy Story 2. The ride's safety spiel is

"For your safety, remain seated with your seat belts fastened, keeping your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the bobsled. And be sure to watch your children. Auf Wiedersehen!"

Another variant goes,

"For your safety, remain seated with your seat belt fastened, keeping your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the bobsled. And please, watch your kids. Thank you!"

After this saying, riders enter the cavern and climb the lift hill, the shadow of the Abominable Snowman peering onto guests. Once it has disengaged from the chain, riders pass through a dark tunnel. The glowing red eyes of the Abominable Snowman appear, accentuated by his roar, and the trains emerge into a cavern filled with ruined bobsleds and sleighs. A crate with "Wells Expedition" stamped on it can also be seen. Both tracks take a left-hand turn, then split off before they can crash into the first animatronic. The cars swirl around the mountain, dipping under tunnels and by the waterfalls. Each track then passes another animatronic of the Snowman. Soon after the second encounter riders plunge into the alpine lake and return to the station. No on-ride picture is available for this ride.

The Italian Job: Stunt Track Original Concept Rendering HD POV - Kings Island

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-03-23 | Backlot Stunt Coaster is a launched roller coaster located at three Cedar Fair amusement parks. The first two installations opened at Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland in 2005 under the name Italian Job: Stunt Track, while the third opened at Kings Dominion in 2006 as Italian Job: Turbo Coaster. All three were themed to the climactic chase scene at the end of the 2003 film The Italian Job. Special effects were incorporated throughout the ride to reproduce the scene, although some of the effects were removed in later years. The Italian Job theme was also dropped in 2008 following Cedar Fair's acquisition of the amusement parks from Paramount.

The Italian Job: Stunt Track was announced by Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland on August 12, 2004. It replaced the Lex Taxis antique car ride at Kings Island. The ride opened at Kings Island for previews on April 29, 2005, followed by its grand opening several weeks later on May 20. It opened at Canada's Wonderland on May 1, 2005. On October 12, 2005, Kings Dominion announced they would be adding a clone of Italian Job: Stunt Coaster but with a slightly different name, Italian Job: Turbo Coaster. It opened on May 27, 2006. The ride at Kings Dominion replaced the Diamond Falls shoot-the-chute ride.

At the end of the 2007 season, all three Italian Job coasters were renamed to Backlot Stunt Coaster for the start of the 2008 season. The name change was part of a wider effort by Cedar Fair to remove Paramount themes from the chain of parks the company acquired in 2006 from Paramount Parks. Special effects throughout the ride were modified to remove references to the movie, generalizing the overall theme.

After accelerating from 0–40 miles per hour (0–64 km/h) in three seconds,[9] out of the station, the train enters into a three-story "parking garage" shell, passing through two upwards helixes meant to mirror the ascension of a car through a true parking garage. The train then drops from the top of the helixes into a "street" lined with highway signs and three police cars, with sirens and lights flashing. Riders then swerve between the police cars. Riders then go through an overbanked turn at 88 degrees, followed by a dip and then traveling down a set of "subway stairs". The train then comes to a halt in front of a tunnel. A helicopter rises to the train's left, shooting simulated gunfire. Under Paramount's operation, the gunfire cracked pipes and barrels, which sprayed "gasoline" (truly, water) all around riders. Though that effect has since been removed, the second round of gunfire still ignites where the gasoline would've splashed, catching two barrels on fire before a gas tank explodes. The train is then launched again into a tunnel, twisting and dropping before coming out of the "broken billboard", splashing down in an L.A. Aqueduct, and turning left into the ride's station.

Backlot Stunt Coaster has three trains, each with three cars. Each car can sit four people in two rows of two. Under its original name and theme, the ride featured unique cars which resembled ¾ scale MINI Coopers. Paramount worked closely with BMW to design the cars. The cars had headlight stickers on the front and working doors on the side. Sound effects were also built into the cars. Each train was arranged the same, with the first car being painted blue, the second car being painted red, and the third car being painted white.

Before the 2010 season, the trains were simplified and removed of any resemblance to the MINI Cooper as Cedar Fair no longer holds the license to use MINI Coopers on Backlot Stunt Coaster. They have also changed the arrangement of the car colors on the trains: One train is all blue, the second is all red and the third is all white.

All three had similar themes revolving around the climatic chase scene at the end of the 2003 film, The Italian Job. Special effects were incorporated throughout the ride such as a helicopter that attacks riders with a simulated machine gun sound, pyrotechnics and water effects. Sound recordings of "Action!" and "Cut!" were also heard during launch and final brake run, respectively. The last drop portraying the Mini Coopers jumping out of a sewer featured spraying water jets to simulate a splashdown effect.

Nightmare Midway (5K) | Frightmares 2021 | Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-03-16 | Front Seat POV©
As you watch your nightmares come alive, you may start to wonder if you will survive. In this house of illusion your eyes will deceive. Prepare for the fright you’ll undoubtedly receive.The Nightmare Midway! Those who have been going to Frightmares for some time now may remember the name. Nightmare Midway was the name of the original haunted located in the Davis Pavilion. Interestingly enough, the entrance to this Nightmare Midway uses the exact same entrance location as the original with a much different facade. It is unlcear if this is a reimaging of the old Nightmare Midway or just recycling of a previously used name.
Frightmares is the name of Lagoon's Halloween event that occurs at the end of the park's operating season. This event lasts for about 5 weeks and includes haunted houses, live entertainment, a couple of children's attractions, ghouls wandering the midway, and the usual lineup of rides. On top of that, Lagoon dresses up the park with plenty of decorations, has haunting music, and places fog machines throughout the park. The transformation from the normal Lagoon midway to the Frightmares midway is something to behold and enjoy.
In 1995, Lagoon introduced park guests to "the dark side of Lagoon" with the introduction of Frightmares, their yearly end of the season Halloween event. During its first year, Frightmares featured just one haunted house, the Nightmare Midway, which was designed by Drew Hunter, aka Dr. Blood and President of Vorta, a company that specialized in Halloween and haunt design. The original Nightmare Midway was a wonderful haunt with the theme of a demented traveling carnival featuring oddities such as a fat lady, a funeral fun house, and a knife thrower, as well as carnival games that participants could play. The Nightmare Midway was placed in the Davis Pavilion, which still houses two of Lagoon's haunted attractions today. A large carnival-like faÃ§ade was placed over the front of the pavilion, which served as the entrance and exit to the haunted house.

In addition to the Nightmare Midway, Lagoon also transformed the Speedway Sr. Ride, now removed, into the Utah Troll Road. The troll road featured ride operators in troll costumes operating the ride as well as scaring participants as they drove their car around the Speedway track. The Carousel Theatre was also transformed into an attraction as well featuring periodic live Halloween music as well as spooky story telling for the kids. After the stories, kids could follow a "pied piper" character around the area to go trick-or-treating. Finally, Lagoon featured a parade of ghouls and zombies that walked around the park interacting and entertaining guests, but at the same time being careful not to scare little kids. To help add to the transformation of the Halloween haunt, Lagoon also created a "Legend of Frightmares" story that was printed in the flyer given to guests as they entered the park. Sadly, no copies of the Legend of Frightmares have surfaced on the internet that we are aware of.

Frightening Frisco POV (5K) | Frightmares 2021 | Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-03-02 | Front Seat POV©
Frightening Frisco is Lagoon's only haunted house based on a real ghost town in Utah name Frisco. According to Lagoon's website, something sinister has taken ahold of this ghost town. Beware the lingering evil of Frisco, where the outlaws have taken control! The house is located in the Pioneer Pavilion next to Rattlesnake Rapids.
Frightmares is the name of Lagoon's Halloween event that occurs at the end of the park's operating season. This event lasts for about 5 weeks and includes haunted houses, live entertainment, a couple of children's attractions, ghouls wandering the midway, and the usual lineup of rides. On top of that, Lagoon dresses up the park with plenty of decorations, has haunting music, and places fog machines throughout the park. The transformation from the normal Lagoon midway to the Frightmares midway is something to behold and enjoy.
In 1995, Lagoon introduced park guests to "the dark side of Lagoon" with the introduction of Frightmares, their yearly end of the season Halloween event. During its first year, Frightmares featured just one haunted house, the Nightmare Midway, which was designed by Drew Hunter, aka Dr. Blood and President of Vorta, a company that specialized in Halloween and haunt design. The original Nightmare Midway was a wonderful haunt with the theme of a demented traveling carnival featuring oddities such as a fat lady, a funeral fun house, and a knife thrower, as well as carnival games that participants could play. The Nightmare Midway was placed in the Davis Pavilion, which still houses two of Lagoon's haunted attractions today. A large carnival-like faÃ§ade was placed over the front of the pavilion, which served as the entrance and exit to the haunted house.

In addition to the Nightmare Midway, Lagoon also transformed the Speedway Sr. Ride, now removed, into the Utah Troll Road. The troll road featured ride operators in troll costumes operating the ride as well as scaring participants as they drove their car around the Speedway track. The Carousel Theatre was also transformed into an attraction as well featuring periodic live Halloween music as well as spooky story telling for the kids. After the stories, kids could follow a "pied piper" character around the area to go trick-or-treating. Finally, Lagoon featured a parade of ghouls and zombies that walked around the park interacting and entertaining guests, but at the same time being careful not to scare little kids. To help add to the transformation of the Halloween haunt, Lagoon also created a "Legend of Frightmares" story that was printed in the flyer given to guests as they entered the park. Sadly, no copies of the Legend of Frightmares have surfaced on the internet that we are aware of.

Malevolent Mansion POV (5K) | Frightmares 2021 | Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-02-23 | Front Seat POV©
Malevolent Mansion debuted in 2017 and is returning for another year. The theme of this house is a large mansion that you get to tour with a bunch of malevolent spirits on the inside. Malevolent Mansion is located in the Oak Terrace right behind The Bat.
Frightmares is the name of Lagoon's Halloween event that occurs at the end of the park's operating season. This event lasts for about 5 weeks and includes haunted houses, live entertainment, a couple of children's attractions, ghouls wandering the midway, and the usual lineup of rides. On top of that, Lagoon dresses up the park with plenty of decorations, has haunting music, and places fog machines throughout the park. The transformation from the normal Lagoon midway to the Frightmares midway is something to behold and enjoy.
In 1995, Lagoon introduced park guests to "the dark side of Lagoon" with the introduction of Frightmares, their yearly end of the season Halloween event. During its first year, Frightmares featured just one haunted house, the Nightmare Midway, which was designed by Drew Hunter, aka Dr. Blood and President of Vorta, a company that specialized in Halloween and haunt design. The original Nightmare Midway was a wonderful haunt with the theme of a demented traveling carnival featuring oddities such as a fat lady, a funeral fun house, and a knife thrower, as well as carnival games that participants could play. The Nightmare Midway was placed in the Davis Pavilion, which still houses two of Lagoon's haunted attractions today. A large carnival-like faÃ§ade was placed over the front of the pavilion, which served as the entrance and exit to the haunted house.

In addition to the Nightmare Midway, Lagoon also transformed the Speedway Sr. Ride, now removed, into the Utah Troll Road. The troll road featured ride operators in troll costumes operating the ride as well as scaring participants as they drove their car around the Speedway track. The Carousel Theatre was also transformed into an attraction as well featuring periodic live Halloween music as well as spooky story telling for the kids. After the stories, kids could follow a "pied piper" character around the area to go trick-or-treating. Finally, Lagoon featured a parade of ghouls and zombies that walked around the park interacting and entertaining guests, but at the same time being careful not to scare little kids. To help add to the transformation of the Halloween haunt, Lagoon also created a "Legend of Frightmares" story that was printed in the flyer given to guests as they entered the park. Sadly, no copies of the Legend of Frightmares have surfaced on the internet that we are aware of.

Nightwalk POV (5K) | Frightmares 2021 | Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-02-16 | Front Seat POV©
Nightwalk is a haunted walk-thru located in the Maple and Pine Terraces during Frightmares.
Nightwalk debuted during the Frightmares 2011 season, and its debut brought the number of haunted houses up to four. Since its debut, Nightwalk has been largely considered the scariest haunted walk-thru Lagoon has created. Nightwalk is still the only attraction that uses two picnic terraces with a small outdoor area that connects them. The attraction begins and ends in the Maple Terrace was designed where the outdoor and Pine Terrace area can be sealed off and skipped entirely if needed. This seems to be utilized only during the nights where the weather is sour and having guests go through the outdoor part would not be desirable.

Nightwalk uses a consistent theme of vampires and demons throughout the attraction. The line consists of a large metal gate with the word Nightwalk on it, a handful of roaming vampires, and a hallway with some elaborate pictures hanging on the wall. Many of the rooms are considerably darker than the other attractions. Those who experience Nightwalk while the sun is still up will find the first part of the house difficult to navigate, but the scare factor increases some when you can't tell what is going on.
Nightwalk is considered one of the scariest haunted houses Lagoon has ever created, and it is a favorite of many park guests. Nightwalk usually has the longest lines of the five haunted houses. Located in the Maple Terrace next to BomBora, Nightwalk is the place for all the vampires and demons Lagoon has to offer.
Frightmares is the name of Lagoon's Halloween event that occurs at the end of the park's operating season. This event lasts for about 5 weeks and includes haunted houses, live entertainment, a couple of children's attractions, ghouls wandering the midway, and the usual lineup of rides. On top of that, Lagoon dresses up the park with plenty of decorations, has haunting music, and places fog machines throughout the park. The transformation from the normal Lagoon midway to the Frightmares midway is something to behold and enjoy.
In 1995, Lagoon introduced park guests to "the dark side of Lagoon" with the introduction of Frightmares, their yearly end of the season Halloween event. During its first year, Frightmares featured just one haunted house, the Nightmare Midway, which was designed by Drew Hunter, aka Dr. Blood and President of Vorta, a company that specialized in Halloween and haunt design. The original Nightmare Midway was a wonderful haunt with the theme of a demented traveling carnival featuring oddities such as a fat lady, a funeral fun house, and a knife thrower, as well as carnival games that participants could play. The Nightmare Midway was placed in the Davis Pavilion, which still houses two of Lagoon's haunted attractions today. A large carnival-like faÃ§ade was placed over the front of the pavilion, which served as the entrance and exit to the haunted house.

In addition to the Nightmare Midway, Lagoon also transformed the Speedway Sr. Ride, now removed, into the Utah Troll Road. The troll road featured ride operators in troll costumes operating the ride as well as scaring participants as they drove their car around the Speedway track. The Carousel Theatre was also transformed into an attraction as well featuring periodic live Halloween music as well as spooky story telling for the kids. After the stories, kids could follow a "pied piper" character around the area to go trick-or-treating. Finally, Lagoon featured a parade of ghouls and zombies that walked around the park interacting and entertaining guests, but at the same time being careful not to scare little kids. To help add to the transformation of the Halloween haunt, Lagoon also created a "Legend of Frightmares" story that was printed in the flyer given to guests as they entered the park. Sadly, no copies of the Legend of Frightmares have surfaced on the internet that we are aware of.

Fun House of Fear POV (5K) | Frightmares 2021 | Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-02-09 | Front Seat POV©
The Fun House of Fear is the longest running haunted house at Lagoon and has become a common part Frightmares. It was created when Lagoon took the original Nightmare Midway and cut it in half creating a second haunted house in the Davis Pavilion. The Fun House of Fear has been in the same location since its creation. It is also the only haunted house that used 3D paint, and guests are given 3D glasses upon entering to use while enjoying the house.
Frightmares is the name of Lagoon's Halloween event that occurs at the end of the park's operating season. This event lasts for about 5 weeks and includes haunted houses, live entertainment, a couple of children's attractions, ghouls wandering the midway, and the usual lineup of rides. On top of that, Lagoon dresses up the park with plenty of decorations, has haunting music, and places fog machines throughout the park. The transformation from the normal Lagoon midway to the Frightmares midway is something to behold and enjoy.
The main focus of Frightmares is, of course, the haunted houses. Every year, Lagoon converts some of their pavilions and terraces into haunted houses. Most of these houses can be found next to Air Race and behind The Bat. Lagoon also converts the Pioneer Pavilion in Pioneer Village into a haunted house. Additionally, Lagoon converts the north end of Pioneer Village into the Pioneer Village Scare Zone.
In 1995, Lagoon introduced park guests to "the dark side of Lagoon" with the introduction of Frightmares, their yearly end of the season Halloween event. During its first year, Frightmares featured just one haunted house, the Nightmare Midway, which was designed by Drew Hunter, aka Dr. Blood and President of Vorta, a company that specialized in Halloween and haunt design. The original Nightmare Midway was a wonderful haunt with the theme of a demented traveling carnival featuring oddities such as a fat lady, a funeral fun house, and a knife thrower, as well as carnival games that participants could play. The Nightmare Midway was placed in the Davis Pavilion, which still houses two of Lagoon's haunted attractions today. A large carnival-like faÃ§ade was placed over the front of the pavilion, which served as the entrance and exit to the haunted house.

In addition to the Nightmare Midway, Lagoon also transformed the Speedway Sr. Ride, now removed, into the Utah Troll Road. The troll road featured ride operators in troll costumes operating the ride as well as scaring participants as they drove their car around the Speedway track. The Carousel Theatre was also transformed into an attraction as well featuring periodic live Halloween music as well as spooky story telling for the kids. After the stories, kids could follow a "pied piper" character around the area to go trick-or-treating. Finally, Lagoon featured a parade of ghouls and zombies that walked around the park interacting and entertaining guests, but at the same time being careful not to scare little kids. To help add to the transformation of the Halloween haunt, Lagoon also created a "Legend of Frightmares" story that was printed in the flyer given to guests as they entered the park. Sadly, no copies of the Legend of Frightmares have surfaced on the internet that we are aware of.
The lines for the haunted houses can be long and slow moving during Frightmares. For those who are willing to pay extra, Lagoon offers the Time Warp Fast Pass that allows pass holders to skip the lines to the haunted houses. It costs $17 to buy a Time Warp pass or $16 for those with season passes. Guests can purchase a pass at the Time Warp booth located between the Nightmare Midway and Malevolent Mansion, at Guest Services, or any one of the Lagoon merchandise shops.

Jumpin Jacks Pumpkin Patch POV (5K) | Frightmares 2021 | Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-02-03 | Front Seat POV©
Jumpin' Jack's Pumpkin Patch is new for the 2021 Frightmares Season. Located at the entrance to Pioneer Village. Which Pumpkin is your favorite?

Frightmares is the name of Lagoon's Halloween event that occurs at the end of the park's operating season. This event lasts for about 5 weeks and includes haunted houses, live entertainment, a couple of children's attractions, ghouls wandering the midway, and the usual lineup of rides. On top of that, Lagoon dresses up the park with plenty of decorations, has haunting music, and places fog machines throughout the park. The transformation from the normal Lagoon midway to the Frightmares midway is something to behold and enjoy.
The main focus of Frightmares is, of course, the haunted houses. Every year, Lagoon converts some of their pavilions and terraces into haunted houses. Most of these houses can be found next to Air Race and behind The Bat. Lagoon also converts the Pioneer Pavilion in Pioneer Village into a haunted house. Additionally, Lagoon converts the north end of Pioneer Village into the Pioneer Village Scare Zone.
In 1995, Lagoon introduced park guests to "the dark side of Lagoon" with the introduction of Frightmares, their yearly end of the season Halloween event. During its first year, Frightmares featured just one haunted house, the Nightmare Midway, which was designed by Drew Hunter, aka Dr. Blood and President of Vorta, a company that specialized in Halloween and haunt design. The original Nightmare Midway was a wonderful haunt with the theme of a demented traveling carnival featuring oddities such as a fat lady, a funeral fun house, and a knife thrower, as well as carnival games that participants could play. The Nightmare Midway was placed in the Davis Pavilion, which still houses two of Lagoon's haunted attractions today. A large carnival-like faÃ§ade was placed over the front of the pavilion, which served as the entrance and exit to the haunted house.

In addition to the Nightmare Midway, Lagoon also transformed the Speedway Sr. Ride, now removed, into the Utah Troll Road. The troll road featured ride operators in troll costumes operating the ride as well as scaring participants as they drove their car around the Speedway track. The Carousel Theatre was also transformed into an attraction as well featuring periodic live Halloween music as well as spooky story telling for the kids. After the stories, kids could follow a "pied piper" character around the area to go trick-or-treating. Finally, Lagoon featured a parade of ghouls and zombies that walked around the park interacting and entertaining guests, but at the same time being careful not to scare little kids. To help add to the transformation of the Halloween haunt, Lagoon also created a "Legend of Frightmares" story that was printed in the flyer given to guests as they entered the park. Sadly, no copies of the Legend of Frightmares have surfaced on the internet that we are aware of.
The lines for the haunted houses can be long and slow moving during Frightmares. For those who are willing to pay extra, Lagoon offers the Time Warp Fast Pass that allows pass holders to skip the lines to the haunted houses. It costs $17 to buy a Time Warp pass or $16 for those with season passes. Guests can purchase a pass at the Time Warp booth located between the Nightmare Midway and Malevolent Mansion, at Guest Services, or any one of the Lagoon merchandise shops.

Wild Mouse Roller Coaster Low Light (5K) POV - Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2022-01-28 | Front Seat POV©
In 1998, Wild Mouse returned as a steel roller coaster. This version featured a similar layout to the original and was built in the same location as the 1973 version but is an all-new ride built by Maurer Söhne. In the ride's first two seasons, there was no themed tunnel (decorated to look like a house) on the ride. This element was added beginning with the 2000 season.

Like many other Wild Mouse roller coasters manufactured by Maurer Söhne, the Wild Mouse features a layout that weaves in and out of itself with several hairpin turns and stiff brakes until you reach the station again to complete the circuit.

The original paint scheme was purple and yellow when the ride opened but it was repainted green and yellow for the 2013 season. Cars are painted to look like cats or mice to fit the theme of the ride.

Wild Mouse opened as a wooden roller coaster in 1965 after being relocated from the Seattle World's Fair. After operating in its location in Lagoon's North Midway, it was eventually retired in 1971.

In 1973, the Wild Mouse roller coaster returned to Lagoon as "The New Wilder Wild Mouse." The new version of the ride was located at the South Midway, in the same location where the current Wild Mouse operates. Since this ride featured the same layout and look of the previous Wild Mouse, it's assumed this is the same ride installed in 1965. This version of the ride operated until 1989 when Lagoon decided to retire the Wild Mouse again.

Cannibal Roller Coaster Low Light (5K) POV - Lagoon Amusement Park

FRONT SEAT POV 2021-12-04 | Front Seat POV©
Cannibal is a steel roller coaster at Lagoon amusement park in Farmington, Utah, United States. Opened on July 2, 2015, the $22-million ride was built and designed mostly in-house – a rare move for an amusement park. It features the steepest drop in North America, fourth-steepest in the world, and holds the world record for the tallest beyond-vertical drop on a roller coaster.
Nearly seventy-five percent of Cannibal was designed, engineered, and manufactured in-house by Lagoon amusement park with the help of multiple firms located in Utah. The lead designer was Lagoon's Dal Freeman. In an era when most amusement parks outsource the work to companies in Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, the decision to build in-house is rare and bold move in the industry. The roller coaster features a 208-foot-tall (63 m) enclosed tower, a beyond-vertical drop of 116 degrees, a themed underground tunnel, and a 360-degree helix situated above a man-made waterfall. It also features four inversions that include a 140-foot-tall (43 m) Immelman loop, a dive loop, and a unique inversion the park calls the "Lagoon roll," which consists of a counter-clockwise heartline roll immediately followed by a clockwise heartline roll. Lap bar-only restraints are used on the trains which travel up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) and pull as much as 4.2 G's.

The ride had been in the planning stages for more than five years and required more than two years to build. Prior to its planned opening in the spring of 2015, Lagoon announced that the roller coaster's debut would be postponed for additional testing and inspections. The ride officially opened on July 2, 2015.
The roller coaster features a 208 feet (63 m) elevator lift, enclosed in a huge tower structure, a 116° beyond vertical drop, inversions including an Immelman-like loop as well as an inversion unique to the park, a water feature, and a tunnel 20 feet (6.1 m) underground. It is the tallest roller coaster in the state and the longest ride in the park. The ride cars accommodate 12 passengers (3 rows of 4), and the duration of the ride lasts approximately two and a half minutes.