Hersheypark 2018: a new water coaster...

...which they're counting as the park's 14th coaster. Does it count? Discuss :-)
http://www.hersheypark.com/2018/

Looks pretty cool...but I wonder what the purpose is of the flying saucer turns.

To look cool. Obviously it's working, too:

Looks pretty cool...

The new water coaster at Fiesta Texas also has flying saucer turns. Flicko showed a video at No Coaster and I thought, what's the point? To look cool is probably it.

So I did a little search for these flying saucer turns, and this popped up.

http://www.proslide.com/rides/flyingsaucer/

ProSlide is selling this feature as a ride in itself. Interestingly enough, the ride shown in the video from Spain appears to be a water coaster just like the one going to Hershey, which makes the claim that Breakers Edge is the "1st hydro magnetic coaster with flying saucer turns" seem to be inaccurate. Unless I am missing something about the Spanish ride, it looks like every other "hydro magnetic" water coaster I've seen, besides the turns.

As for the purpose of the flying saucer turn, a "drop-and-dive sensation" is created by the steep angle of the tube when it is in the saucer. They claim that this is exclusive technology, but I'm not convinced that it's anything more than a banked turn with a little extra fiberglass to the inside. They do look pretty cool though.

The Spanish ride and Fiesta Texas ride both use high pressure water for their propulsion. Hershey's press releases suggests this will be the first saucer coaster to use LSMs. I'm glad they went that direction because I loved the water coasters at Holiday World (LSM) but was extremely disappointed by the one at Fiesta Texas. The water launches are slow and when the raft crests a hill the riders are blasted with water fire hose-style from behind.

As for the saucers, they look substantially more exciting than they actually are.

maverick master said:

a banked turn with a little extra fiberglass to the inside.

Yeah, that's pretty much my assessment. But what do I know? Perhaps "maximum curving speed and centrifugal forces" are not achievable without the disc form.

Though it coasts, it does not roll. Not a coaster.

You mean it's a floating coaster?

With the exception of trailer mounted coasters, no coasters "roll"

Really? Awesome!
I'm gonna go back in and double-credit all my Dragon Wagons!

As Phantom Tails mentioned, the three existing FlyingSaucer water coaster use the "RocketBlast" technology. The idea is this: instead of a sheet of water on the bottom of the flume like on the MasterBlaster, the RocketBlast has jets of water on the sides of the raft and they go into special rubber pockets. That is what push the rafts up and Proslide came up with this idea as a lower budget alternative to the HydroMagnetic Rocket slides.

Their first foray into a cheaper alternative to the Rocket slide was the "Hornet" line of Hydromagnetic water coasters. The Hornet used the same LIM from Force Engineering, but paired them with small two person rafts. The layouts can be more aggressive, but operators quickly learned what Intamin had learned in the 80's: your "cheaper" alternative cost the same to run as the larger version. Intamin had built a single 4 person river rapid slide, but it failed as it was as expensive to run and maintain as the 6/9 person version. The Hornet only found two customers and it was installed at only three parks in Asia before Proslide quietly removed it from its marketing material. The first one was the "Riptide Rocket" at Adventure Cove in Singapore and Happy Valley bought two Dueling Hornets for two parks.

The RocketBlast prototype was installed at Siam Park in the Canary Islands in 2015. The owner was not very warm to the idea of an uphill waterslide, but Proslide managed to convince him and it was a rousing success. One waterpark owner in Canada was looking for a new slide and at Proslide's insistence, went to Tenerife to try "Singha". The result? After the first ride, he called Proslide and asked if it was possible to get one for the 2016 season! Tsunami opened to record crowds at Super Aqua Club near Montreal, QC in July 2016, I suspect that Six Flags also went to Tenerife and they also loved Singha, hence SFFT getting a new style this year.

I was quite skeptical of the FlyingSaucer element as well... but when I saw Tsunami under construction, I realised how banked those turns. When you're on, the turn steep angle was designed to keep the rafts up on the wall during the whole turn. For Volcano Bay, they paired new 60 feet wide FlyingSaucer elements with 6 passenger rafts.

Back to Hersheypark and the new water coaster, the most exciting feature for me is that it will be completely accessible. I know we're spoiled by the slides at Holiday World, SFFT and now Typhoon Lagoon, but it is a very rare thing in the water park world.

maverick master said:

As for the purpose of the flying saucer turn, a "drop-and-dive sensation" is created by the steep angle of the tube when it is in the saucer. They claim that this is exclusive technology, but I'm not convinced that it's anything more than a banked turn with a little extra fiberglass to the inside. They do look pretty cool though.

I don't get these turns. The POV video claims they are like a giant slalom ski race, I used to race giant slalom and it looks like nothing of the sort to me. Agreed that they just look like a regular banked turn with a bunch of extra fiberglass on the inside.

That's showbiz, folks. The spectacle is the greatest part of the show.

It's kind of like those funnel slides. The path of the tube itself actually touches so little of that monstrosity that the same thing could be accomplished with a lot less fiberglass and steel supports. But would it be as flashy? Would park goers walk up to it (or see it from the road) and envision rafts doing loop the loops around that thing? No.
The same with these saucers. It may be the exact same ride experience we're used to on a standard tube slide, but the visual of those saucers suspended in the air is probably everything. And riders get a sudden, open air, wide-track experience for a sec, so there's that.

I think in this day and age it would be tough to be a water slide designer. Let's see... water, gravity,... more gravity... um.....
By now it seems that it's all been covered in some way or form. Even uphill has had a variety of treatments. A different shape to the same thing is the re-invention, apparently.

Remember when Holiday World introduced Zinga, the first Tornado slide in the world? It was to be a standard half pipe shape, but then Proslide had the visionary idea to make it a huge 60 feet tall funnel and the rest is history... Things have gone full circle as Proslide introduced a few years ago a lower fiberglass not full Tornado, some of which can be seen at Volcano Bay.

One incredible innovation at Volcano Bay that flew under the radar was TornadoWall 60/TornadoWall 60 hybrid slide. The first TornadoWall slide was introduced at Aquatica in Texas and it was a great experience that provided a brief moment of zero g. This year, after dropping out of the first Wall, Proslide managed to get the calculation just right to make it safe to drop again into a second TornadoWall element. It may look simple, but today's slides require as much calculation as a roller coaster to get "right".