Kracken: What's she like?

I'm going down to FL in a couple of weeks and I'll be stopping by Sea World to take in the marine life and Journey to the Atlantis.  Kracken intrigues me though as I have never been on a floorless coaster.  I've heard that the only thing that sets floorless coasters apart is if you sit in the front.  The only sit down looping coasters I've been on are Corkscrew (VF) and Dragon (Adventureland, IA) I've been on B&M stand ups and inverts but never a sit down. 

I'm trying to envision this beast, what's it like?

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Just wait till next year!

I'd never been on a floorless either, until back in October.  I heard everybody saying that the whole floorless thing wasn't all that great unless you had the front seat.  Kraken is great (in my opinion) in every seat, but the front is always the best.  Thanks to Kraken, floorless is now my favorite type, now surpassing inverteds.

Kraken is one of my favorite coasters. Forget the floorless thing, it adds very little to the ride. However the ride itself is great. It has the best zero-G roll of any coaster I've been on - You actually get airtime through it! I recommend the back for the best ride; you'll get air on the first drop, the zero-G roll, and the drop after the midcourse block. Some complain that it's too forceless and smooth but I don't mind it one bit. I've bought exactly one roller coaster T-shirt in my entire life - a Kraken shirt.

I can't say enough good things about Kraken.

I was a little bummed out on the day I rode it because it was running really rough. It's like it had square wheels. I could feel how bad they were rolling out of the station.

And I do believe that the best sensations on floorless coasters is the front. From there, Kraken really delivers.

I'd add that the front two rows of one train had virgin wheels on it. Unfortunately, those two rows were on the trade show floor at IAAPA. :(

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I like the floorless design, but I must say that they are a little too forceless, that's something B & M could work on...

That is really strange Jeff that you got a rough ride.  I came away from that ride feeling that it was the smoothest coaster I had ever riden, even smoother than Raging Bull.  I can believe it though, because when I first rode B:KF I thought "cool, this is gonna rock like Kraken did" and I was highly disappointed.  I could actually hear a clack clack sound on that one though, something very uncharacteristic of a B&M so it must of had a really bad wheel or something. 

 

Cheers,

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Bob Hansen

"Excuse me while I kick the sky!"
kickthesky@hotmail.com

I'm looking forward to riding it in a couple of months, because I've never been on a floorless either.  How does it compare to Kumba or Hulk, for those of you that have been on all three?
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I've been on all three. Keep in mind these are just my experiences/opinions - your mileage may vary.

Out of the three I'd say Kraken is far and away the best. Then again, I'm an airtime person, not an intensity person (see that thread for more info)

Hulk is an intensity ride. It's far from a bad ride but to me it was one of the few coasters I've been on that didn't live up to the hype. I first rode in Dec 1999 and came off feeling sort of neutral - it didn't blow me away but it wasn't bad by any means. The first half of the ride is rather good - the back half is less thrilling. Subsequent visits to IOA never changed that opinion.

Kumba was a bit of a disappointment. Again, not a bad ride but it was (and I've had many people argue this one with great passion) the headbangingest B&M I've ever experienced. Not even close to as bad as and SLC or old Arrow's with OSTR's but for a B&M it seemed pretty rough. Perhaps I just had a bad ride like Jeff with Kraken, who knows?

Out of the three I'd say Kraken and Hulk are about equal and your favorite will depend on the type of experience you prefer. Kumba lags behind these two but is still a top quality ride.

Let me say it again: These are just my opinions, other's opinions will certainly differ.

.

*** This post was edited by Lord Gonchar on 12/7/2001. ***

Kraken is my 5th favorite coaster.  The ones ahead of it are(in order), DD, Hulk, Montu, and Kumba.  That really says a statement right there.  It's definitely worth doing and an unforgettable ride.  Jeff, I don't know how you ended up with square wheels, but I thought it was the smoothest B&M I had ever been on.
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Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

I guess I was lucky? :)

I'm sure it can be a good ride, but at the same time I think the front seat is critical. I rode Batman at SFWoA in the front this year for the first time since media day the year before, and was blown away, despite a lot of mediocrity in other seats in between.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Kraken is awesome. It is my favorite floorless coaster, above B:KF and Medusa west. I like that it isn't too smooth, like some B&M's, but it is just barely rough enough to feel anything. I love the corkscrew and tunnel at the end. Front row is the best.

Thoughts on crack-en/cray-ken/crah-ken (pronunce as you like):

Kraken was the most flawless coaster I've ridden. There was nothing *wrong* about it. It may not be very intense, but looking at the target audience, I do not this that was a design flaw, but rather a design parameter (see HersheyPak's Great Beat and Lightning Racer). Everything felt just in place to me and Kraken is my 3rd favorite B&M behind Raging Bull and Montu.

How does it compare to Kumba and Hulk. Well, I'm not really a good person to ask about Hulk because I like ulk about as much as I like Raptor and I dont think we need to go down that road again. but as for Kumba, Kumba and Kraken are almost identical layout/pacing wise, but Kumba is about 50 times more intense. The camelback inversion on Kubma is FIERCE! I like them both very much (Kumba is right behind Kraken on the B&M list). They do the same thing, but very differently: one with the grace of a ballerina (Kraken) and the other with the brute force of a hockey player (Kumba).

"Yeah, like foreplay"- The Cutting Edge (a quote from a movie worse than 'Batman Forever'.
jeremy
--"Tonight, in this very[/] ring.." Vince McMahon