Retraction, I did speak too soon because the invites for the rescheduled date went out and it is a larger guest list than what was seemingly initially planned. That will take place late next week, to my surprise I'll be there representing an outlet so yay that's cool. Looking forwards to tomorrow's opening day because I want to gage guest reactions. Staff previews took place last night and as expected our man had terrific things to say about it. 24 hours now.
Attraction AlpenFury
- Thread starter cschnizer
- Start date
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source first review is out
Awright, I did opening day. Have a few things to say based on two laps, will likely copy pasta this elsewhere.
AlpenFury is great. Pacing is excellent and there is not a weak element on this ride, everything finds a way to keep you out of the seat. I was not blown away at first but liked it more on second ride, that opinion will grow more favorable with time. The shin restraints are an annoyance.
This does not feel finished. Dispatch sequences and programming are quite cumbersome, especially the front gates that swing out. The onside photo system needs a few more weeks and the queue really has no shade. Almost absolutely none.
Prepare yourself for lines when you ride. We clocked a six-hour queue today for standby, two hours each for FLP and single riders. They are prepared to accommodate huge queues. The standby cattlepen is hell on earth; it's extremely disorganized, hard to gage, surrounded by tall fences, and again has no shaded coverings of any kind and only one vending machine spot near the entrance. Today was stupid hot, 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The coaster is dispatching every 90 sec, about 700pph tops; each train seats 18, with 6-8 going to FLP and standby being left to fight the huge queue of exit passes and single riders for the remainder. So basically, that standby queue is capable of containing 3+ hours and the FLP around an hour. Demand is going to be high, this is absolutely a rope drop.
Opening day on the ground was handled as best as they could. Today was an extremely bad day to book a corporate buyout in the morning/evening, the former of which meant that the people who'd arrived hours early walked in on a 60 minute+ queue. Then the ride almost immediately faulted and was out of action for 40 minutes. Security however was strong around the ride, helping to stem queue jumping and calm some tensions. Crowds were well managed and a stampede was averted at rope drop.
This was the biggest ride opening we've had since Leviathan, CW hardly does scheduled dates and even Yukon was able to sidestep the demand due to a passholder preview and rough weather. I look forwards to more laps, but yeah it will be taxing.
AlpenFury is great. Pacing is excellent and there is not a weak element on this ride, everything finds a way to keep you out of the seat. I was not blown away at first but liked it more on second ride, that opinion will grow more favorable with time. The shin restraints are an annoyance.
This does not feel finished. Dispatch sequences and programming are quite cumbersome, especially the front gates that swing out. The onside photo system needs a few more weeks and the queue really has no shade. Almost absolutely none.
Prepare yourself for lines when you ride. We clocked a six-hour queue today for standby, two hours each for FLP and single riders. They are prepared to accommodate huge queues. The standby cattlepen is hell on earth; it's extremely disorganized, hard to gage, surrounded by tall fences, and again has no shaded coverings of any kind and only one vending machine spot near the entrance. Today was stupid hot, 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The coaster is dispatching every 90 sec, about 700pph tops; each train seats 18, with 6-8 going to FLP and standby being left to fight the huge queue of exit passes and single riders for the remainder. So basically, that standby queue is capable of containing 3+ hours and the FLP around an hour. Demand is going to be high, this is absolutely a rope drop.
Opening day on the ground was handled as best as they could. Today was an extremely bad day to book a corporate buyout in the morning/evening, the former of which meant that the people who'd arrived hours early walked in on a 60 minute+ queue. Then the ride almost immediately faulted and was out of action for 40 minutes. Security however was strong around the ride, helping to stem queue jumping and calm some tensions. Crowds were well managed and a stampede was averted at rope drop.
This was the biggest ride opening we've had since Leviathan, CW hardly does scheduled dates and even Yukon was able to sidestep the demand due to a passholder preview and rough weather. I look forwards to more laps, but yeah it will be taxing.
Is there upside down airtime in most of the inversions? Or is the sensation of being thrown out if the seat primarily caused by laterals?
No you are definitely being yeeted upwards and out of the seat on almost all instances. The only but where laterals are physically lifting your butt up is on that Skyflyer loop turnaround thingy, like everything else that element is wild.
FLP’s are too easily given out and should cause the line to be under 30 minutes.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
AlpenFury has been one of my most anticipated new coasters for the year. And even though wait times for it were crazy during my visit last week, I managed to get a couple of rides on it. Overall it did not disappoint, where here are some thoughts on it:
Overall, this one is definitely up there as one of my favorite coasters from Premier. And between the park's 3 B&M's, along with the beauty that is Vortex - where I personally never tire of the few remaining Arrow suspended coasters out there - AlpenFury really adds a very unique/different experience to what is one heck of a coaster lineup at the park.
- It's absolutely fascinating how they managed to integrate all the supports with the mountain itself and the neighboring coasters, especially there on the back-side of the mountain. (And with KD being my home park, I am so envious how CW continues to keep their mountain.)
- Speaking of KD, I love what I assume has to be an homage to Volcano, where after the launch through the mountain itself, you get shot out of the mountain vertically. But though AlpenFury's launch is 'okay', it lacks (just a bit) the intensity I fondly remember on Volcano.
- I've enjoyed the extra theming effort from SF/CF of late. However I was honestly disappointed with how little this one was themed.
Before entering the queue, the exterior facade is a themed a bit. Once in the queue, only the small covered portion had anything, in terms of a handful of posters on the wall. In the station itself, there's a couple of touches here and there.
Maybe I'm too used to Alpengeist at BGW, but I feel some extra alpine-inspired theming would have gone a long way for this one.
- The day before my visit to CW, I was at CP where I found the locker systems on Siren's Curse and Top Thrill 2, how should I say, "frustrating" -- where Siren's Curse system was 'okay-ish' I guess, but Top Thrill is just insanity... to the degree of nothing in pockets before entry into the queue, thus starting your one/two hour+ wait (where I'll avoid going into detail on a simple feminine hygiene product my wife was flagged for, in a fully zippered pocket).
But on AlpenFury it was a very welcome sight that none of that scrutiny seems to exists. Guests are allowed to bring (normal-sized) loose items throughout the queue. And upon entry into the station, there's a track-based bin system, just like on Yukon Striker across the way, which helps speed up load/dispatch times.
So again, big positive for AlpenFury, as for such a major new coaster, I was expecting full locker enforcement.
- Is there such a thing of too many inversions on a coaster. AlpenFury has quite a number, maybe too many in my opinion.
I believe AlpenFury ties Steel Curtain for the North America lead. And last week on my trip passing through Pittsburgh, I got my first rides on Steel Curtain, and honestly prefer how its inversions are more 'spaced out' in comparison.
AlpenFury is the more enjoyable and thrilling of the two coasters. But I think AlpenFury would have benefited with just a bit extra track length (thus matching Steel Curtain's length).
- And finally, I was much relieved to see no comfort collars on this one. But the same cramped - at least for rows 2 and 3 of each car - Sky Rocket trains is beyond tiring at this point.
Overall, this one is definitely up there as one of my favorite coasters from Premier. And between the park's 3 B&M's, along with the beauty that is Vortex - where I personally never tire of the few remaining Arrow suspended coasters out there - AlpenFury really adds a very unique/different experience to what is one heck of a coaster lineup at the park.
It turns out that with the right budget, Premier Rides is still capable of building a world class attraction. When the ride was announced, I was very disappointed. I thought they picked the wrong manufacture, and I thought there was too many inversions for less than a minute of ride time. I was shocked to find that I completely enjoyed the ride experience, and the ride has excellent pacing. The powerfull launch in the basement of the mountain followed by the sharp pull up into the first inversions is a great start to the ride. The icy rock work with the colored lighting in the main launch is a nice touch, I don't think any more detail is needed here as you are in the mountain for such a short period of time.
The ride was built very differently than I expected; I thought the station was going to be put into the mountain, with the launch being outside of the mountain. Unlike all the other recent coasters built by Six Flags (including legacy Cedar Fair), the maintenance area for the trains is completely hidden away in the basement of the mountain (beside the second launch).
The station is shoehorned in between the mountain and Fly (wild mouse), with most of the ride queue jammed in between the ride station and Fly. The design of the switchbacks was messed up, it is impossible to reduce the number of switch backs in use if the line were to shorten during the day. The queue is more than 80% shaded, but could use more fans. The emergency exits in the fence makes for easy line cutting, but fortunately there is a phone number predominantly posted to report line cutting and other issues to security by text message. A nice feature of this is pictures of the miscreants can be included with text messages, making security response very effective.
Unfortunately, on my three rides, the park was not hitting their target of 1000 riders per hour. They were doing some things right, one attendant counted out 20 riders, and a second one assigned the rows after the loose artical bin system. They have a dedicated attendant handling exit boarding. The single rider line is not really needed, I will save my rant on the uselessness of a single rider line for two across seating for another time. It helps there are no seatbelts. [Maybe Behemouth and Leviathan will be allowed to loose their added ones soon?] They only had two people checking restraints, which in theory should be enough, as they each only need to check nine seats, but they were failing to check the trains on time. To make a dispatch, the station dwell time needs to be kept under 45 seconds. They were averaging about 65 seconds. (Meaning about 80 seconds between dispatches, 45 dispatches a hour, or about 800 riders per hour.)
With the ride's relatively low (for the park) capacity, expect long waits on most days [over two hours, with Fast Lane+ exceeding an hour, and don't expect the single rider line to move any faster].
One of the weirdest quirks of the ride is this crossing bridge thing in front of the train. As neat as it is, a lot of time is wasted waiting for the bridge and railing to move in and out of position. I assume it was installed due to it bring impossible to cross the train with riders seated, however a over or under pass would have been a far better and simpler solution. The dropping floor is a great and welcome addition, with the lack of the bar to step over making boarding much easier and faster. The third rows of the cars is still not friendly to those of us will long legs. (The first two rows of the cars you can tuck your heals under the seat, reducing pressure on your shins. Short riders will not understand.)
The exit gift shop for the ride is beautiful.
The ride was built very differently than I expected; I thought the station was going to be put into the mountain, with the launch being outside of the mountain. Unlike all the other recent coasters built by Six Flags (including legacy Cedar Fair), the maintenance area for the trains is completely hidden away in the basement of the mountain (beside the second launch).
The station is shoehorned in between the mountain and Fly (wild mouse), with most of the ride queue jammed in between the ride station and Fly. The design of the switchbacks was messed up, it is impossible to reduce the number of switch backs in use if the line were to shorten during the day. The queue is more than 80% shaded, but could use more fans. The emergency exits in the fence makes for easy line cutting, but fortunately there is a phone number predominantly posted to report line cutting and other issues to security by text message. A nice feature of this is pictures of the miscreants can be included with text messages, making security response very effective.
Unfortunately, on my three rides, the park was not hitting their target of 1000 riders per hour. They were doing some things right, one attendant counted out 20 riders, and a second one assigned the rows after the loose artical bin system. They have a dedicated attendant handling exit boarding. The single rider line is not really needed, I will save my rant on the uselessness of a single rider line for two across seating for another time. It helps there are no seatbelts. [Maybe Behemouth and Leviathan will be allowed to loose their added ones soon?] They only had two people checking restraints, which in theory should be enough, as they each only need to check nine seats, but they were failing to check the trains on time. To make a dispatch, the station dwell time needs to be kept under 45 seconds. They were averaging about 65 seconds. (Meaning about 80 seconds between dispatches, 45 dispatches a hour, or about 800 riders per hour.)
With the ride's relatively low (for the park) capacity, expect long waits on most days [over two hours, with Fast Lane+ exceeding an hour, and don't expect the single rider line to move any faster].
One of the weirdest quirks of the ride is this crossing bridge thing in front of the train. As neat as it is, a lot of time is wasted waiting for the bridge and railing to move in and out of position. I assume it was installed due to it bring impossible to cross the train with riders seated, however a over or under pass would have been a far better and simpler solution. The dropping floor is a great and welcome addition, with the lack of the bar to step over making boarding much easier and faster. The third rows of the cars is still not friendly to those of us will long legs. (The first two rows of the cars you can tuck your heals under the seat, reducing pressure on your shins. Short riders will not understand.)
The exit gift shop for the ride is beautiful.
Just got back from a quick weekend trip. This thing is absolutely BONKERS.
It's a ridiculous full-force, punch you in the face, bat
crazy paced ride from start to finish, with ZERO breathing room until you hit the brakes. There's no faffing around at low speeds like the first half of Velocicoaster- no. this train is going, and it's going NOW.
The first hill gives a proper pop of airtime, leading into one of the craziest moments I've done in quite a while. That 2nd launch through and out of the mountain is flat out insane. It's effectively the same shape as Tempesto's third launch (read: slamming you with nearly 5Gs) and with a faster acceleration, while being enclosed by the mountain. The next element's twist-up, side-stall, and twist-down the first element is also insane, especially in the back rows. The inverted stall offers some airtime rolling into & out of it, but it's basically +1G while you're inverted (because it's that damn fast). The turnaround loop thing has great positive G's and a pop of airtime as it dives back down. Then comes the insane return run: 5 barrel rolls back to back, every single one shaped differently yet each throwing you out of your seat. The 'double' roll (inversions 7 & 8) may be my favorite of the bunch, the way it wraps perfectly around the previous overbank is insane visually and equally disorienting on-ride. One GREAT airtime hill leads to the final roll, which then sends you back to the brakes, laughing all the way.
With all that good, there is unfortunately some bad, too. There's no sugar coating it, the queue line is pretty horrific. Luckily it's now mostly shaded, but if the queue's full (which it will be), you're guaranteed to be there for 2-2.5 hours. I didn't even attempt the single rider line as it's effectively useless with the 2-across trains. Fast Lane was solidly occupied but I found it averaged around 40 minutes on Sunday.
Overall- I knew this ride would be good, but I'm still in shock of just how good it is. It's just a shame the capacity is what it is, especially at this park. Fast Lane Plus is worth the investment for AlpenFury alone (7 of my 8 laps were with this), but it also makes the rest of the park infinitely more enjoyable.
It's a ridiculous full-force, punch you in the face, bat
crazy paced ride from start to finish, with ZERO breathing room until you hit the brakes. There's no faffing around at low speeds like the first half of Velocicoaster- no. this train is going, and it's going NOW. The first hill gives a proper pop of airtime, leading into one of the craziest moments I've done in quite a while. That 2nd launch through and out of the mountain is flat out insane. It's effectively the same shape as Tempesto's third launch (read: slamming you with nearly 5Gs) and with a faster acceleration, while being enclosed by the mountain. The next element's twist-up, side-stall, and twist-down the first element is also insane, especially in the back rows. The inverted stall offers some airtime rolling into & out of it, but it's basically +1G while you're inverted (because it's that damn fast). The turnaround loop thing has great positive G's and a pop of airtime as it dives back down. Then comes the insane return run: 5 barrel rolls back to back, every single one shaped differently yet each throwing you out of your seat. The 'double' roll (inversions 7 & 8) may be my favorite of the bunch, the way it wraps perfectly around the previous overbank is insane visually and equally disorienting on-ride. One GREAT airtime hill leads to the final roll, which then sends you back to the brakes, laughing all the way.
With all that good, there is unfortunately some bad, too. There's no sugar coating it, the queue line is pretty horrific. Luckily it's now mostly shaded, but if the queue's full (which it will be), you're guaranteed to be there for 2-2.5 hours. I didn't even attempt the single rider line as it's effectively useless with the 2-across trains. Fast Lane was solidly occupied but I found it averaged around 40 minutes on Sunday.
Overall- I knew this ride would be good, but I'm still in shock of just how good it is. It's just a shame the capacity is what it is, especially at this park. Fast Lane Plus is worth the investment for AlpenFury alone (7 of my 8 laps were with this), but it also makes the rest of the park infinitely more enjoyable.
Thanks Mac this contributes to my hype for Thursday morning tremendously!
Enjoy! I hope I don't overhype it too much haha, but I think you'll be pleased.
Just a note: as you'd expect, everyone and their mother heads straight to Alpenfury at opening. People will be lined up at the park gates and those should open at 9:30. If you don't opt for Fast Lane Plus, planning to get an early morning ride would be my suggestion. The downside of that though is on both Sunday & Monday, Alpenfury had some issues opening & didn't get running until around 11am.
I did get Fast Lane Plus for both tomorrow and Friday. I saw Coaster Studios video and the lineup for it at opening looks insane.
Also, be ready to pick up your FL+ as early as possible. We showed up about 10 minutes late to the park back in July and ended up waiting over 20 minutes for the FastLane line just inside and to the right of the entry gate. Maybe someone else knows if there are other options to get the wristband.
I know the app shows another FastLane location back near Windseeker, but the staff member organizing the line at the front location told us that there was only one location to redeem the FL purchase. No idea if this was misinformation - we just waited it out.
I know the app shows another FastLane location back near Windseeker, but the staff member organizing the line at the front location told us that there was only one location to redeem the FL purchase. No idea if this was misinformation - we just waited it out.