Manta
Janis and I got to ride Manta this past Sunday and Monday multiple times. We had been on all the Vekoma versions in the US and on the two Superman B&M flyers (SFoG and Great Adv). Manta really is the best of the bunch, the forces are greater and the ride is much more interesting. The flips are all designed over the sidewalks and the dip to the water is interesting. But we thought it was going to be a scoop on the side of the train like on Griffon and Sheikra, but the train never makes contact with the water, its fountains that are timed to go off in sequence when the train skims above the water, very good affect and the timing is good. The duel loading station makes the wait time a lot less, it runs three trains, the two Superman ones seem to take forever to load, but this seems to have helped speed things up. The Vekoma's for some reason never figured out how to get the duel stations working (at least when I have been to the various parks).
Manta was up and down like a yo yo, I guess that can be expected from a brand new ride, the bugs should be worked out by mid summer.
We also got a chance to ride the Daniah Beach Hurricane in Fort Lauderdale, we had not been on it before, nice little "forgotten" wood coaster. The three bench trains kind of fight the fan turns a little. We rode in the pouring rain which made for some good rides.
Also on this trip we rode a new Mountain coaster in Ohco Rios, Jamaica while on a cruise, you can read about that in another post under general buzz.
Danny Biggerstaff
CoAsTeRDaN