Sonic Boom at S&S Park/Celebration Centre 6/29

After our day at Lagoon we started our drive up to Logan. My wife’s twin sister still lives up there with her husband as he finishes school at Utah State. I graduated from Utah State University in 2002 and I think it has been three years since I was out there.

On Friday afternoon we headed out to the S&S park in Logan. It is officially called Celebration Centre and you can check out their website at www.LoganCelebrationCentre.net On their brochure for the park it says their web address is a .com but whenever I type it in it comes up .net. At any rate it has pricing, rides, hours, coupons, etc. for you all to look at.

The main reason I wanted to go to the park was to ride Sonic Boom, but we were also going to take a spin on their go-cart track. As you drive into Logan you can easily spot this park with all of the towers sticking up everywhere. It is right off the main highway right before you get into downtown Logan.

We got there around 4 p.m. and I went inside to buy tickets. They have a carousel inside plus a little snack bar/café. They also have a bouncy castle, climbing wall, kids play area, shooting gallery, and a frog hopper in there. They do not have a military discount but if you get on there website they do have some coupons and monthly promotions. They do have a pretty good deal going on for those of you over 45 inches. You pay $35 or $30 with a coupon and you get 5 hours of ride time on the Screamin Swing, Sky Sling, Miniature Golf, Go Karts, Bouncy Castle, Carousel, Rock Wall, Shooting Gallery, Snow Shot, and 1 ride on the Sonic Boom. We had the kids with us so we just paid for a round of Go Karts and I bought a Sonic Boom ride for me.

The Go Karts were fun like most Go Kart tracks. After that it was off to ride the Boom! As you walk up to this thing it looks enormously tall! It is 350ft to the top. I believe that the only drop ride that beats this is the Giant Drop out in Dreamworld, but the claim to fame in Logan is that this is the tallest drop ride in the world with no brakes. That’s right there are no brakes on this ride!

As I stepped up to the ride the operator opened this heavy metal door to reveal a small capsule inside with two seats. I sat down and put on my tiny seatbelt and that was it. The operator handed me some ear muffs to wear and told me once I got to the top there would be a ten second delay before the cart began to fall and if I wanted to go earlier than that then I could just hit the only red button in the cart. I felt like I was in the WonkaVater. He then closed the door and I was all alone. Before I started to move up I began to look around and noticed that the cart I was in had no ceiling, so if my seatbelt didn’t work then I could fly right out the top of this thing. Then I realized there was nothing to hold onto and for the first time since riding the original S&S Thrill Shot at Magic Mountain I started to get nervous on a ride.

This thing moves fairly quickly up to the top and gives a wonderful view of the Logan valley as you quickly find yourself inching towards 350ft. Soon enough I was at the top and I started to count silently to myself. As soon as I hit 10 the freefall began! The only thing holding me in was my seatbelt and my hands that were clenching the bottom of my seat! Before I knew it I hit the air tube and the capsule slowed steadily and stopped. There was some noise but I was too busy enjoying the freefall to remember how loud it was. This ride rocked! The metal door opened and the operator gave me a coin that said I had ridden the tallest freefall ride in the world with no brakes and that I could take it into the main building and trade it in to buy a t-shirt that said the same thing if I wanted. I kept the coin.

The Sonic Boom is awesome! Plus it is one of a kind. If you are any where close you need to take a trip to ride this. It is $10 per ride if you do not buy the package and I really think they should do a $5 re-ride because I would have done that in a heartbeat. I asked the operator if he knew if Stan was going to build any of their coasters out there. He said they would like to but they want to wait a couple of more years and see if the park continues to grow and generate a profit for them.

On another side note if you have ever wanted to ride the original thrill shot seat configuration they have that at this park. 4 of the seats are the more bulky seats but 2 of them are the original bicycle type seats and they run the 4 different programs on the seats as well. I highly recommend this if you have time because you could ride this multiple times if you buy the package deal. The operator also said they are in the process of building another contraption just south of the Sonic Boom and Sky Coaster. Sure enough you can see some metal rails on the ground. We’ll have to see what else is in store for this budding little park.

All in all they have some great rides here and I wish I had more time to try all the different ride programs on the Thrill Shot/Sky Sling, plus I wanted to try out the Snow Shot. I guess I have something to look forward to next time. This place seems to be a great place for a growing college town, but I would most definitely recommend buying a package deal and not paying per ride. You will easily get your moneys worth in 5 hours! Next up will be my report on one of the most unique coasters I have ever ridden and a new coaster to Utah’s line-up and no it is not Wicked. *** Edited 7/2/2007 11:44:45 PM UTC by S&SFAN***

Thanks for the TR. Hope to be heading there myself *sometime* this year...

I'd like to mention to Stan C. that there's been more than a couple of places that made it, or made it big, in large part because they built an attention-getting wooden coaster. One of those "small mom-and-pop FEC-type places" even built an S&S Power wooden coaster. Avalanche, baby!

Boomer's at Dania Beach wasn't exactly "the place to be" in the area....the arcade was huge, but mostly empty. You can ride the coaster until you drop from walking around, but you can't MOVE in the arcade on weekends....drawing power.

Come on, Stan, you know you want to... :)

*** Edited 7/3/2007 3:44:39 AM UTC by rollergator***

Bill, we are SO going to there this year!

I loved Sonic Boom. I gripped the seat on the first few falls too. It took until the 6th or so that I could do it hands up.

The fact that you can control when you drop is cool. I wonder how I would react to that on my first ride.

Fun times Moosh....sorry I wussed out on the Skycoaster! Those seats were totally wacked!

The Sonic lift motor is two-speed...press the button while you are still traveling upward at a good clip (just before the top cable). Your body is still traveling up and the car releases out from under you. Insane 5 seconds of float ensue.....

If you wait until the motor slows down and then stops, it's rather unnerving in a totally different way as the cable bounces the car for several oscillations before coming to rest. I think they have it programmed to auto-release if you're up there too long? *** Edited 8/1/2007 3:29:00 PM UTC by Coaster Joe***