Lagoon Park April 23rd, 2011

I visited my first amusement park of the year on Saturday, April 23rd. Instead of going to a nearby, local park, I ended up being able to visit one 1700 miles from my home. Lagoon Park is located in Farmington, Utah just north of Salt Lake City. Here are my thoughts about the park:

Lagoon is a very interesting park. The front end of the park is a bit lacking in terms of theme and looks like rides were just plopped down wherever there was room for them without really thinking about it. The back of the park, however, is wonderfully themed.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are two classic dark rides in the park- Frankenstein’s Castle and Terror Ride.

Lagoon is home to one of the best looking raft rides ever, Rattlesnake Rapids. It also has one of the best backdrops for a ride with the mountains in the background. The park did a great job by including lots of little theme elements all over the area that the ride occupies in the back of the park. Too bad it was a little cold to ride for me, but props to the park for having it open and the few braves souls who thought getting soaked on a forty-something degree day was a good idea.

There is a section in the back of the park called Pioneer Village which I had never heard about before visiting the park. Surprisingly, it turned out to be my favorite area of the part (and also the least crowded). Lots of nice charm! Felt like I was at Disneyland or something comparable. There are lots of quiet little nooks and crannies to explore.

One complaint I have is about the few animals the park has. I don’t think they add any value to the park. No one is visiting specifically to see the tiger, peacock or kangaroo, so why not hand them over to a zoo where they will have a larger enclosure? Lagoon’s exhibits (more like pens) just look sad.

Lagoon is home to nine coasters and I rode seven of them. You can see my BomBora video. The Bat is a Vekoma family suspended coaster (which could really use some spring loaded side friction wheels instead of the fixed ones). Colossus the Fire Dragon is a classic Schwarzkopf double looping coaster which used to be a German fair coaster.

Jet Star 2 is another Schwarzkopf featuring a single inline row of riders with no lapbars. In 1998 Setpoint built and installed a new control system for the spiral lift coaster.

Roller Coaster is a John Miller designed ride built in 1921. One of the turns has had a new foundation added with adjustable mounts able to compensate for the sifting soil which much of the park is built on. The ride could use some Timberliners in my opinion.

Spider is a Maurer Sohne spinning coaster and has a capacity of 930 riders per hour. The Wild Mouse is also designed by Maurer and replaced an older wild mouse ride. Saw a Mauer customer service employee at the park during media day for BomBora.

One thing I didn’t understand was their weird policy about having no single riders in the first or last row of any of their roller coasters. I’ve ridden single on the exact same ride at others parks so I am not sure why their policy is different.

The star attraction of the park is Wicked, the LSM tower launch coaster. Wicked was manufactured by Zierer. The ride cost ten million to build and nearly 1.5 million of that was just for the sixty foot deep pilings and foundations. The LSM’s in the launch tunnel use a refrigeration system to help keep the heat down. Wicked features a unique observation window into the control system room from the queue line. The trains are 7,000 pounds unloaded and the side and bottom wheels are spring loaded to help keep wear down. There are six cars and five of them can operate at a time.

Wicked has a great track layout but the experience is nearly ruined by a horrible restraint design. Yes, it does what it is supposed to do by keeping riders secure in the car but it is one of the most uncomfortable designs I’ve ever experienced. The front row wasn’t as bad as the back but each time, mid-ride, the restraint would clamp down even tighter than before and I thought I was going to be cut in two pieces. Maybe if the end were a little more rounded it would be better. Nevertheless, Wicked was my favorite ride in the park, closely followed by BomBora.

Video of some of the rides in action coming soon!

Great review - Lagoon is one my most sought after parks. Mainly due to the 2 classic Anton coasters :)

Too bad about those Wicked restraints - I had heard bad things about them.

Note: Our trip to Lagoon was about 3 years ago...so grain of salt time. Bombora didn't exist when we went...but it looks like a lot of fun.

Colossus was *amazing* to me. Sort of a Dorney Laser meets SFoT's Shockwave....compact yumminess! The Jet Star 2 was a challenge due to the "full car rule" being in effect on an empty day at the park...but it was roughly on par with IB's pre-mod.

I was a little saddened by the condition of Roller Coaster, and it looked worse than it rode. I did love Spider, snapped the daylights out of their flyers, and the 2 classic dark rides were a real treat, reminding me a little of Rye...

I visited last summer for the first time and really enjoyed it. I also loved Wicked.

Where is the new coaster located?

Colossus didn't do much for me. Jet Star was also a challenge for me being a single rider. I almost skipped it because I didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of little girls and look like a perv but luckily I ended up riding with an older man.

One of the turns of Roller Coaster has been completely re-built. I am assuming that they plan on rebuilding a portion of the ride ever year until it is essentially a new ride again.

BomBora is located in the middle of the park, right next to the Lagoon-a-beach water park entrance but before the picnic shelters. It's straight back from the main entrance.

Yeah, Wicked has a great layout but most of my time on the ride was spent worrying about the restraints causing me physical pain. Not fun.

Is there any word on who built Bombora? I've read all sorts of speculation including Zierer, Mack, & Premier.

Amnesiac said:
I almost skipped it because I didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of little girls and look like a perv but luckily I ended up riding with an older man.

Good call. Always better for someone else to look like the perv.

BomBora was designed in-house by their park engineer, Dal Freeman, who previously worked for Arrow Dynamics. They brought in a few other companies to do the electrical and such. I think the track was manufactured in Utah somewhere but I don't remember exactly (Rocky Mountain something maybe?).

^Rocky Mountain Construction? They're HQ'd in Idaho, and were responsible for the New Texas Giant transformation.
http://www.rockymtnconstruction.com/about.html

Here is a video I took of some of the coasters and other rides at Lagoon Park.