Canada's Wonderland announced Leviathan, a 306-foot B&M roller coaster

^ Yeah, I think two years maybe a good guess. I don't really know enough about the process to speculate further.

Well, me neither. I'm just out here stirrin it up with wild speculation trying to make sense of what I consider to be a weird move. Yes, it'll make money, people will come to the park and love it, it will help with capacity and traffic flow, all that - but I still can't help thinking that it's strange and something smells.

RCMAC said:
it'll make money, people will come to the park and love it, it will help with capacity and traffic flow, all that

Seems like a pretty sound decision to me.

RCMAC said:
Yes, it'll make money, people will come to the park and love it, it will help with capacity and traffic flow, all that.

Isn't that the name of the game for an amusement park (or any business for that matter)?

***Vater beat me to it.

:)

My post would have been first but I was double checking it for spelling and grammar. ;)

*would of

Ha!

+1 to Vater.

Rick_UK said:
^ While I think there's some logic there, you've got to wonder what the lead time is on one of these. I'm not sure how much the time period typically is between a chain approaching a manufacturer and opening day.

During the visit to Cedar Point last year Walter Bollinger stated the project from start to finish takes approximately 2 years.

Seems I'm going from 2 or 3 threads about the same thing, trying to follow.

I'm very, very, very excited about this addition. I last visited the park in '05 and my complaint was the lack of high capacity rides. Cedar Fair recognizes that and are putting in people eater rides. I'm making plans for a visit next year.

And for those complaining about two B&M hypers in one park, consider this.. Cedar Point has *three* Mine Train coasters (four if you count Magnum as a "super mine train").

As for the record broken, I think I know what it is... world's longest continuous chain lift. Which makes me curious if weight is being conserved on the trains. This would make sense since the first gen hypers were all 9 car trains and Leviathan will have 8 car trains. I would imagine the 2nd gen cars are a little heavier since they are a larger footprint and use more steel. Any thoughts?

~Rob

I am a bit surprised by this. I didn't think they would put in another hyper (giga) coaster so shortly after the previous one. For my personal preference, I think this is a good thing. I generally prefer a hyper coaster to a looping coaster.

Thrilled that B & M went big. While I liked both Diamondback and Intimidator, I couldn't help think at the time that they just weren't all that much better than Apollo which had been 10 years ago. A 300 foot one of these, now that's some serious potential.

Seems a little odd to put it at Canada though. Guinea pig for somewhere else who knows?

If capacity calls for it, I don't see why the park can't have two fo the same kind of coaster. A lot of parks have similar wooden coasters.

But, it would have been nice to see the park get creative in the new attraction planning.

Wasn't it a fact some time ago that B&M stated that they were not comfortable with designing a coaster much higher than 230 or so? A 300ft tall B&M sounds exciting.

The video makes the ride look fun. That's a heck of a fast chain lift. Edit - No it isn't. The video skips a portion of the lift section.

Great. After 10 years of seasons passes at this park, I was going to give it up. Now I will have to go back to try out this new ride. In my opinion, Behemoth is rather boring and it actually makes me sick. This new ride looks exciting but it looks so similar to Behemoth that it will probably be just a bit more exciting. I think this is a smart business move as it will increase the crowds even more.

HeyIsntThatRob? said:

And for those complaining about two B&M hypers in one park, consider this.. Cedar Point has *three* Mine Train coasters (four if you count Magnum as a "super mine train").

Well ... 4 mine trains at CP (Gemini is/are 2 separate rides).

SteveWoA said:
I think the last "trouble-free" ride CF bought from Intamin was Millennium Force...

My God, what was trouble free about that the first year? Three-train operation was rare, wheel problems were practically constant, I believe they reprogrammed the ride a few times, getting the overlapping blocks to move right was a pain, I believe they made mods to the lift drive (I might be wrong, or it was in a later year)... there was plenty of down time.

I agree with the post (I think in the other thread) that this really is B&M's take on Millennium Force, going with the overbanked turns and lots of low speed. It really is to Behemoth what Millennium Force is to Magnum. And with the elegance of B&M's engineering, I suspect it will be far more reliable. No electrical tower lift, cable lift, overlapping station blocks, etc.

I'm surprised no one mentioned the total lack of a mid-course block.

I really feel as though I need to step in here too. There is plenty of room to criticize Intamin over their mechanical and electrical problems. However Intamin has also taken their administrative design team in a new direction over recent years with great success: Fahrenheit (2008), Maverick (2007), Cheetah Hunt (2011), Ispeed (2009). Im not entirely defending or exempting Intamin from their mistakes. They clearly have made a few! However IMO millennium force and Bizzaro are still in the top ten best coasters in the world, and that is one hell of a statement. B&M is finally breaking 300, almost 12 years after Intamin has. Lets not crap on the head of the company that has brought so much to the table. Like I said before, Intamin pushes the envelope. They have made mistakes, but I will never impede them of doing so.

However Intamin has also taken their administrative design team in a new direction over recent years with great success...

This sounds made up.

Maverick doesn't belong on your list of problem-free rides either (a chunk of its track had to be taken out, redesigned, and replaced, remember?). Plus, in that same time frame, you also have I305 being riddled with problems that a $25 mill investment/second-gen giga shouldn't have had, the Shoot the Rapids debacle, Dragster and Xcelerator shedding launch cable all over guests... and that's just at Cedar Fair parks in the last few years. Go back farther and you have TTD's "growing pains" and the MF issues that Jeff mentioned above (though his list left out the support on the big overbank that was too close to the track, necessitating that a chunk get cut out of it), to name a few. The list just gets longer if you look outside Cedar Fair too.

Don't get me wrong, as an enthusiast I love the crap out of Intamin's limit-pushing coaster designing, but they don't exactly have a spot-free reliability / maintenance reputation. There isn't a bone in my body that's surprised that CW didn't go with them.

Not to mention the KK incidents and downtime...for a ride that's pretty much an exact clone of an existing ride.

Jeff, I did find it fascinating that Leviathan doesn't have a mid course. Interesting in how it affects perception of ride length and interesting in that the other hypers that don't have an MCBR are oG's Goliath, La Ronde's Goliath, and Hollywood Dream - all pretty small for hypers.