Kennywood's ferris wheel

Brett - if someone added a launched Ferris Wheel I bet you'd be excited ;)

^ Interesting. Would that be a wheel that would actually roll along a track?

Heh.. that'd be an interesting thought: A "Ferris Wheel Coaster"...

I don't think that there's no room in the future for the wheels. I just think in a landlocked park like Kennywood, it's a big waste o' dough.

In a nice, big park like Hershey, it looks great set up next to Lightning Racer. It gives a great, old-time feel to the area. They've got the room to screw around with attractions that don't draw, though.

Personally, I'd just rather ride the Racers again. Then again, I still use my Technics SL1200-MK2, too, so what do I know? ;)

What is so unusal about no ferris wheel? From what I have seen, none of the Paramount parks have them. Then again, maybe they couldn't come up with a crappy Paramount movie to theme it to. ;)

Well at least one person saw my analogy with the record players :)

Yes Moosh, if they made a launched ferris wheel, I would consider riding it, although I'd have to get over my deathly fear of ferris wheels first ;). Then again, if it's launched, I'd probably be up around and back down again before I knew it, so that would probably help the fear of being 100' in the air held up by a little pin.

from what I have seen, none of the Paramount parks have them.

The new Paramount park proposed for Asia [Japan?] is supposed to have one, according to the artwork.

I would consider riding it, although I'd have to get over my deathly fear of ferris wheels first

Well no wonder you on the "anti-wheel" side of the argument!

Personally I allways get my biggest jolt of agoraphobia from Ferris Wheels (when you are stuck at the top with your car swaying back and forth). Drop rides which wrench up slowly give a twinge of it, space shots dont and roller coasters (so long as there isnt a lift stop) dont either for me.

Ferris Wheels are great for two reasons, taking pictures (when parks allow you to do so of course) and they are great midday/right after lunch rides.

As for the Ferris coaster I say bring it on, that ride sounds great!

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the #1 reason for a ferris wheel:

"You'll never know how great a kiss can feel 'till you're stopped at the top of a ferris wheel..."

Somebody mentioned a ferris wheel coaster. I don't remember where but I've seen a picture of such a thing. It was a very old picture and I doubt it was ever built.

And capacity. If only they could make a wheel that would tilt into a horizontal position so all the tubs could be loaded at once. Or maybe a double wheel so that one wheel could be turning while another one loads. Hmmmmm ;)

millrace, I mean a rollercoaster that has a ferris wheel as a car/train, not a ferris wheel that has a roller coaster (of sorts) on it.

Intamin/Ride Thrill (not exactly sure if they're related companies, but they share a website) has something they claim is a ferris wheel coaster, but no where near what is in my mind.

My rather ambitious (and probably too insane to be practical) idea is a roller coaster similar to Millenium Force, except that the train is a 75-foot tall ferris wheel. The G forces on the tiny components alone would make it an engineering nightmare, to say nothing of the safety issues on such a beast.

I guess I can put that right next to my 720' double-rocket coaster on ideas of too-intense-and-expensive-to-be-practical ideas. :)

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millrace said:
Somebody mentioned a ferris wheel coaster. I don't remember where but I've seen a picture of such a thing.

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I had the same thought. It only took a second to remember where - Page 20 of "The American Roller Coaster" by Scott Rutherford.

It was called the Whirlfly and was set to debut at Coney Island. It is apparently unknown whether it was ever built.

Take a look!

Another thing about Ferris Wheels is one of their main purposes: Scenery and high-viewing.

Many parks that have tower rides (observation, etc.) feel that they don't really have the need for a wheel as well (Cedar Point is an exception)

I don't think the Ferris wheel will ever disappear, but there will be many improvements to them over the next century.

However, the days of single-seat loading is over, to make a profit, you really need to carry a wheel that can load 3 or more tubs at a time and fit six to eight people in each tub

..you mean like the Chance model that Dorney got in 1989 and Hershey got in 1997? (not sure on the Hershey date, but I think I remember reading somewhere.. maybe even page 1 of this thread.. that it was 1997)

Depending on support structure at the loading station, you can load up to 4 tubs at once, and I think max capacity is either 6 or 8 (I don't remember offhand)

Most of the big Dutch Wheels, as well as the Schwarzkopf wheels loaded six cabins at a time. The one at the Point is a 45 meter wheel with 36 cabins, each seating six adults, giving it a capacity of 216. The book said we should have a RPH of 2160. Realistically, it was closer to 1500-1700, as the actual ride (2 revs) lasted two minutes. As I recall we could load each section in about a minute, sometimes a little less, giving you a cycle of eight minutes. That would be seven, maybe eight cycles an hour. It's a respectable RPH. *** Edited 1/29/2005 4:41:15 AM UTC by Dutchman***

In defense of the lowly ferris wheel---

Believe it or not, in this MTV-quick editing- kind of world, not everyone wants to be ultra-stimulated during every waking moment. Not every single blessed item in a park has to provide "excitement."

And besides, very often your two minutes (or less) of excitement is preceded by a 60-minute (or longer) wait. On the other hand, a ferris wheel ride can last 6-8 minutes or longer, and doesn't require so long a wait. What's so bad about that?

Not everyone who'd like to see the scenery is 48" inches tall, and even for those who are, there are a multitude of valid reasons for them not to ride a roller coaster to sightsee.

I'd like to see some tangible proof that a ferris wheel is so much more expensive to construct and maintain than an observation tower. Towers have their own issues to resolve before they can be built too.

I'm also not seeing these "huge tracts of land" (and some of you probably know what hand gesture I was making while typing that) that ferris wheels take up. What's the footprint of a ferris wheel structure-- 100 x 30 or so? Not much larger than that. How much more space does it take up compared to a typical pirate ship or frisbee-type ride?

You get to sit and relax awhile, have a conversation you're pretty certain no one will be listening in on. Call me old-fashioned, but I think there really is a place for them in just about every park.

I'm taking most of my info. from this thread but here goes anyway. One of the arguments is that if you have an observation tower there's no need for an FW....but yet one of my top three parks has a Giant Wheel, Giant Wheel, AND the Hershey Kiss.

I personally rode each on evry visit to Hershey but im just strange like that. I loved that from each one of the rides i could get a different view of the park and the town. Whether i was looking into the park, at the factories, into downtown Hershey or at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy (pround son of a PSP officer)

I made sure that one of the wheels was in the last four rides followed by Wildcat, Lightning Racer on both sides and then Great Bear and the wheel gave great perspective to all of their elements i overlook when just coaster hopping

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but I think there really is a place for them in just about every park.

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No one (well, other than Brett, but he dosen't count;)) here is saying that all parks should get rid of Ferris Wheels, we're just saying that the reason they're being removed is because of low ridership. Which, apparently, means that not many people think there is a reason to have them in every park.

Kennywood thought so, and they got rid of theirs. Ferris Wheels aren't totally 'dead', but when you have a smaller park with limited space, why keep something that isn't popular when you can get rid of it (and in most cases with flats, sell it to someone), and then buy a new attraction that will attract more people to the park.

I liked the way the ferris wheel for the proposed Paramount Park in Japan looked. I like the way the london eye looks, and that one @ LaQua. But if a park gets rid of a ferris wheel that isn't popular for something more popular, I say more power to them.

Heck, CP apparently thinks theirs is popular enough to have moved it, what, 3 times so that they could add other things?

It all depends on the park, the clients, and the popularity shared.

psst, falcon89, in case you haven't heard - Hershey removed their Giant Wheel this offseason. (the 2-sided one built by Intamin near the front of the park)

Hey I never said they should all be removed, I said that I didn't see any way that in 25 years (now, not within 25 years, this is for rides debuting in the 2030 season ... heck I'll even give ya 2029 and 2028) there would be brand spanking new installations of ferris wheels at what I would consider "mid to major" parks, i.e. - those that bring in at the very least, a regional attraction, the Holiday Worlds, Kennywoods, Compounces, Cypruss Garderns of the world. I guess I should have clarified that better.

Now surely I hate the things, I'm scared to death of them, and would be happy to see them all go (for some sort of launched ride perhaps? ;) ) but I do realize their value as long as they're already present. My argument is that there's really no reason for parks to build new ones. Smaller parks can get more profit from that "tract of land" (singular ... perferrably the left one ... ) with something else, and larger parks wouldn't be able to market it as a new star attraction, nor would they really want to spend the multi-millions on a giant ferris wheel that *could* be a star attraction when that money could be spent on a Giant HUSS flat, or a nice mid-sized coaster. If you're building a new park from the ground up, like that new Paramount one, or you're a crazy Japanese park ( ;) ) then yea, you won't find me anywhere near it, but it might be worth the investment. But not for an existing park ...

Of course, Cypress Gardens did just build a brand new ferris wheel...and they already had a large observation tower.

-Nate

And in that type of park, I could see a Ferris Wheel being more popular. Parks Like Dollywood, Cypress Gardens, and smaller parks often have Ferris Wheels because they are more of a Family Park, and not a high thrills park.

If I'm not mistaken, the only reason the Pavilion Dosen't have a ferris wheel is because they ended up taking it out after a fatal accident, and it went down the street to the Fun Spot action park beside the Family Kingdom for a few years. Family Kingdom has a ferris wheel, and ridership is fairly good, you get to see the city and the ocean.

There is a place for them, but to me, Kennywood is more of a Traditional Thrill park, while places like Cypress, Family Kingdom, Dollywood and others are more Traditional Family Parks, where a Ferris Wheel would work.