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Sea World launches Vortex thrill ride as first part of The New Atlantis


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I really think the fencing let’s it down (as said in the article). It’s such a shame they couldn’t integrate the curvature of the walls in a way that meant fencing wasn’t required. Obviously some form of fence along the front is needed, but the integration of the exit is also a let down. Seems strange to have the exit point right next to the start of the queue, that could become a real bottle neck 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 28/01/2021 at 7:22 PM, pin142 said:

Went on it yesterday. Wasn't bad but seemed a bit tame compared to what it feels like it could be.

Went on it last night and can't agree with this more.

 

People seemed scared of it, there was 0 queue the whole night and hearing people be concerned of how scary it is, but walking off it, people were talking about how it "wasn't bad at all". Also it was just way too short. It needs at least 2 more spins, including 1 high speed spin and maybe 1 more flip, hopefully the opposite direction.

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  • 1 year later...

It was a very busy day at SW and for the first time ever, I saw the Vortex operating with full cycles consistently. At one point, the wait time was 2 cycles. Amazing. Watching the ride cycle from near by was entertaining with the riders screaming and cheering. But unfortunately the cycle they are operating is still too short, harsh and does a trick and stops again to prepare for the next trick. 

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On 20/3/2022 at 7:48 PM, themagician said:

Watching the ride cycle from near by was entertaining with the riders screaming and cheering. But unfortunately the cycle they are operating is still too short, harsh and does a trick and stops again to prepare for the next trick. 

I enjoyed the ride experience but I agree that the cycle isn't very good. It's very intense being flung and spun, but it's not particularly fun if that makes sense? 

Random tangent but something that blew my mind is that Vortex doesn't have any guest staging with numbers to stand on that allocates you to a numbered seat and instead the operators need a headset to communicate how many guests they need and where people need to go. It seemed wildly inefficient and increases staff overhead by a lot. Is this standard for this ride model? 

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I mean there's just not that many people going on Vortex that it's a thing. Even during peak peak season, maybe 100 people are wanting to ride in an hour. You literally only need to run a cycle every 20mins to keep up with demand. With those sort of numbers, the whole 'stand on this number, remember the number, find the number' is just unnecessary bullshit.

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54 minutes ago, joz said:

I mean there's just not that many people going on Vortex that it's a thing. Even during peak peak season, maybe 100 people are wanting to ride in an hour. You literally only need to run a cycle every 20mins to keep up with demand. With those sort of numbers, the whole 'stand on this number, remember the number, find the number' is just unnecessary bullshit.

It's not like they had a more efficient system that was taken out due to a lack of popularity so did they construct this ride with an inefficient setup knowing that it'd be unpopular? That seems like a huge waste of money and land for a park that notoriously needs more attractions.

I'm just kind of baffled. Shouldn't you design the ride for the optimal throughput and then tone it back if it's unpopular? That you've got the option to accomodate for a higher capacity even if it is rare. Otherwise if the park suddenly becomes a smash hit and is drawing tons of people thanks to New Atlantis, you've essentially got a lemon that can only do 798 guests on a regular operational day that is the first attraction you see on a major thoroughfare towards your premier coaster.

I just can't imagine a scenario where from the top down everybody working on the attraction would agree that 114 riders per hour is a reasonable investment. 

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Changing gears for a minute - a family member (who is also an engineer) remarked to me about the 'wipeout' at Sea World the other day (eye roll). They pointed out that Vortex should be doing the cycles it used to do at Dreamworld (another eye roll) - but - and here's the question for the big ride design nuts...

Why does one of the arms have a hinge, if both arms are always operated parallel?

201106-1-Sea_Worlds_Vortex_thrill.jpeg

(*Note - the lower section of the right side is hinged onto the central pivot point, the left side is a 'single' piece.)

A few theories were floated including:

  • The arm can hinge outwards to permit the removal of the gondola
  • Thermal expansion of the gondola is accommodated by the hinge
  • The design is a remnant from a travelling model design.

 

I'm not advocating or arguing for any specific point here, but for those who are heavily into ride design and engineering I hoped someone could shed some light on the technical reasoning as (and I quote the engineer) - you don't install a joint where you don't need one because it increases cost, complexity and load.

So - engineering gurus - have at it.

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7 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

 

  • The arm can hinge outwards to permit the removal of the gondola
  • Thermal expansion of the gondola is accommodated by the hinge
  • The design is a remnant from a travelling model design.

Going by how the Rampage is designed yes it does similar moves to wipeout with the arms rotating independently but it has 1 hinged arm. They use the hinge to make it easier to remove the Gondola for maintenance which I would say could be the same for vortex. 

 

maxresdefault.thumb.jpg.f02db7f5d6276b939c6eb7208b582487.jpg

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