A trip to Pantopia... But mostly Falcon's Fury

(Oh hey, and this is the 100th post on Amusement Park... Stuff!)

So after months and months of delay and a canceled media event along the way...  Falcon's Fury, the centerpiece for Busch Gardens Tampa's newly rethemed "Pantopia" has finally opened to the public!
Yaayyy!

Sweet, the entrance to Pantopia, formerly Timbuktu.
And Falcon's Fury (running!)
Having waited months and months to try it out I was super excited.

The backside of the entry way, now super colorful and stuff.
The whole area looks pretty fantastic now and I hope it leads to Busch touching up other dated areas around the park.

The midway game area has also been brightly repainted, some of the games have been removed and the area as a whole feels more open now.

The Painted Camel Bazaar gift shop.
On the roof the park has painted the Falcon's Fury logo... only visible to those who ride.

Beer and Pretzel area...but wait for it...

Lemur themed pretzels!

Theming... and such.
Kinda bummed the arcade is gone.. but whatever.

Fun chairs-as-art on the side of one of the buildings.

Lemurs Only!

Phoenix!
Newly painted and still maybe the best Intamin in Florida.
(Sorry Cheetah Hunt)

Bamboo Ferris Wheel... thing

Lemur... lemur.... leeee mur

Kettlecorn

Pantopia Theater

Busch Flyers also received new paint for its load area and queue although the ride itself kept its original colors.
(as did the kiddie train next to it)

Oooooh man! Falcon's Fury!!
"The tallest free-standing drop ride in America"
(even if there are two rides nearly 100 feet taller elsewhere in the US, the park is still using that slogan)

It looks great and its a nice fit for the park
(I just wish it was a little more fun?)

The unique seats for the ride.
(surprisingly roomy) 
The seat belts are magnet locked, unlike other Intamin drop towers and once the ride cycle ends, the restraints remain closed until all 4 belts have been un-clipped. 

Ah, the best trick on a drop tower in a while... Once at the top of the 335 foot tower, the seats are pulled inward toward the tower making the riders face a full 90*s down.... And while tilting seats have been done before, this is the first tower that really forces you to look down.

It's probably the best part of the ride.
And due to the vest style used to hold riders in place, there really isn't a way to hold on or brace yourself.
(Not that I need that.. I ride hands free <3)

Just hanging there, looking straight down and then you drop.
Sadly, the drop itself feels way to controlled and not at all like free fall. Its more like "rushing toward the ground" but there's no floating sensation. Its fun, don't get me wrong.. but its also pretty tame... well, tame for a +300 foot drop tower that tilts 90 degrees. 

Sweet, the ride looks great, the area looks great, and I look. I don't know.. Indifferent?

I've faced the fury six times so far and can't wait to ride it again. I just wish the ride gave a better free fall sensation but its still a fun ride. I'll still take Acrophobia, Lex Luthor, and of course... Hurakan Condor <3 over it, but Falcon's Fury is still fun. It could just have been better.
But its kind of strange.. Every time I've ridden it, the ride has pretty much been a walk-on or a single cycle wait. Everyone getting off the ride seemed to have loved it and come off with a sort of "self-accomplishment" but it seems almost as if a lot of people just won't get in line because of its looks. Its pretty intimidating to watch I guess, if you aren't one for rides and I almost wonder if people are just too scared to even try it.
(I rode with my friends girlfriend and she was pretty terrified but as soon as the ride was over she ran and got back in line. I kinda think most people who skip it would end up liking it if they just gave it a chance)

Oh, and here's a video the park released via YouTube.

Yup

Ugh, the *awful* Intamin ZacSpin - Green Lantern: First Flight

Ugghhh..... Six Flags Magic Mountian and Intamin have built one of the worst coasters I've ever ridden.... and they've named it....
 Green Lantern: First Flight.

So Six Flags, and Magic Mountain with its need to add coasters and stay ahead of the "coaster capital" record crap... plopped down one of the most pointless, violent, terrible coasters I've come across so far. The rare Intamin ZacSpin / Ball Coaster. The ride is a production model and sold for around 7mil. Its hard to think Six Flags put much effort into the ride and didn't get it just to add one more coaster over Cedar Point.

After my one and only ride on it... I can see why only four were ever built and didn't really care if I ever rode it again. That being said.. I was kinda looking forward to the ride at first and maybe a little more so seeing is how I missed being able to ride a smaller model of the same ride by a few days back in 2007..... But once the ride opened to the public, months late, the reviews started coming in saying it was crap. Oh well....

Yup.... Green Lantern: First Flight.

825 feet of pain

 Walking up to the ride.. it looks like it might be fun.. or at least it looks, uh unique?

And its a little strange that Six Flags built a green and black coaster right next to the parks only other green and black coaster.

Sadly, it beats the living crap out of you... and manages to slam your entire body forward and back with its free spinning car. Once was more than enough although I had originally wanted to ride it twice to try leaving the station both forward and backwards as well as trying the left and right sides of the arm. Jeff refused (I also got placed with some random other single rider...)
(but.. but... +1?)

And for a park as massive and busy as Magic Mountain it really is a capacity nightmare. With each car only holding 8 riders and only a single car cycling at once along with the horrifyingly slow load times... the line for it, while short... just doesn't move.

(I think it has 5 cars in all but four will be loading in the station while the fifth cycles...)

Here's the oddly shaped lifthill. You can also see the seats on the right are off-balanced. While loading in the station the staff try and keep this from happening but even my ride, this happened.

(I'm also kind of amused that all four ever built have chain lifts.. yet in RCT3 it can only be made as a launch coaster... I guess because when RCT3 came out only the concept was out but none had been built yet)

Ugh, don't worry. No one is having fun.

Along with the free spinning nature of the ride, the cars are able to flip 360 although it doesn't happen every time and it seems to only be able to happen in one spot (at the very end) our car did mange to do one full 360 flip but while watching I saw some cars not do it at all.

Um, but at least it looks cool?

I don't know.. I found two videos on youtube from CoasterForce that shows the ride in action. In the first video, an off-ride video from a few angles you can see cycles where the cars don't ever flip (the first full off ride video) and cycles where they do make at least one full rotation  (2nd, 3rd, and 4th)

Yeah, its awful... Also, Green Lantern is the only one of the four built that have those guards on the side of the restraints that prevent you from sticking your arms out/up. How odd.

Here's an on-ride video... ew.

In this video the car doesn't even make a full 360.

(you can see it invert at the end but then it rocks back without completing the roll)

Oh hey...

Here's a photo of me with it.

(I had wanted to do my 365 with Lex... but it was closed almost the whole day we were there...)

Yeah.. So I'd be fine without anymore being built. I guess I'd ride them (you know, for the credit) but I wouldn't really look forward to it. I kinda think that's how most Magic Mountain guests feel too. I didn't see anyone getting off and running to get back in line.. or even saying positive things about it! You'd here multiple people exiting the ride complaining about how bad it was.

Yup

VIP Party Crashers... Oh hey, and I rode Cheetah Hunt too.

So yeah, Cheetah Hunt media day... and stuff... Yeah...

First we had to get out 'Cheetah Hunt' wristbands, there let the staff know we were allowed into the ride/animal area. Didn't have one of these, didn't get past the fence....

 I wonder if they're gonna sell these now...

Look at me, look at me! Yeah.....

Bahaha, the first photo I happened to get of the coaster running... Had ROBB ALVEY on it. I guess he gets to complain about it before I can. :(

Yup, there he is...

During the media shoot the coaster only one train was running, although later in the night for the VIP party they ran three.

Uh,. sexy Intamin train with big-ass-camera mount...and big-ass-OTSRs

So here comes the part where there was massive downtime and lots of ACE'ers bitching and crying about not getting their ride... ZzZzz.. I enjoyed the time and looked at all the Cheetahs :D

Big pretty kitty's? I wish we could have had some EPT with them... But no petting was allowed.

Aww....

So yeah... Then we left the area and rode other things in the park. Who knew Montu and Phoenix were still here? From the bitching of the roller-losers you would have thought Cheetah Hunt was the ONLY thing the park had.... Anyways, rant over...I'll skip right back to the Hunt.

After flashing our stylish wristbands again... And walking past the public begging to get in... And being told off by guests who didn't think we were 'VIP', we had time to watch the 3o'clock parade. 

And there it goes....

So after a whole bunch of snacking on candy and hanging around watching Cheetahs being freaking-adorable for hours... Somehow we got some of these....

Yeah, Hi.

Wouldn't have been a coaster event without free food // a Buffet! But way to go Busch Gardens and make it ultra-classy

Eww, fruit.

Oh hey, yeah.. The Coasters open and it was ridden many times.

But back at the VIP party... They had many animals walking around to pet and touch and just get up close to without any cage,windows,screaming kids.....I had to make nice with the Rock Hyrax for a bit because it was so GD-Cute... But then the 6o'Clock parade happened.....

Apparently, I'm terrified of Flamingos.

Busch also had this kinda neat art group on hand... Splash! Animals. They'd kinda dance around and toss paint around and smudge it with their hands until it became a painting of a Cheetah.... or the promo-artwork for the ride itself. I wonder what they did with it all once they were done.. Cause they could have so given me one for free... you know, if they wanted... 

Yeah, pretty ballin' if I do say so myself... (I'll take the top half, thanks)

And now back to the coaster itself... Cheetah Hunt is pretty fantastic. Not a top 10 ride.. But its damn fun, amazingly smooth, has speed, turns, airtime, the roll... Just an all around good coaster and great addition to the amazing coaster line-up at Busch Gardens (well, not Gwazi... but that's a different rant all together) The canyon run is the highlight of the ride for me, although I wish the mid-course wasn't as hard (or on at all...). The only things I found myself not liking about the ride was the first launch being so short... You kinda lag in the banked turn and while that may be what they wanted the ride to do, it felt kinda awkward to me... And there's also this turn/dip at the very end of the ride that bugged me each lap.. But it may just be a tall person issue as Jeff didn't seem to have a problem with it.

Woo, the sun goes down... Almost time for night rides!

Ah, here we go.. Front row, in the dark, with lightning flashing all around... Amazing.

Such a perfect event... And to top it off, Jeff and I got the front row (second front row ride of the night) of the last train of the night....around 10.30pm. A good 4 hours after the park closed and Media Event ended. :D

And now I can say nah-nah-nahhh I rode it BEFORE YOU DID!!!! ALL OF YOU!.. Well, all of you but Robb Alvey.....

Yeaahhhh....

Oh hey! AND we got gift bags on the way out!

So yeah, big thanks to Busch Gardens Tampa for putting on an AMAZING event with great food, animals, rides on Cheetah Hunt, and everything else the park did all day long. Fantastic