Anaconda

[halfabee]

I'm 6'4" and I've been in street brawls more pleasurable than riding Anaconda.

I'm precisely the same height as you, and Anaconda is so bad I haven't ridden it even a single time since 1999. Zero rides this millennium.

When it originally opened I was probably 5'-10" or so, and I remember it being more tolerable then. Worse than Drachen Fire but better than the original Steel Phantom. Whether the changes in my Anaconda ride experience were due to my height/age or the ride's age/condition, I can't really say... but within that decade I had sworn it off forever. I crossed six feet and that was the end of it for me.

I do wonder how I would tolerate those other noted rides today, were they still around.

 

[UncleDuncan]

I'm precisely the same height as you, and Anaconda is so bad I haven't ridden it even a single time since 1999. Zero rides this millennium.

When it originally opened I was probably 5'-10" or so, and I remember it being more tolerable then. Worse than Drachen Fire but better than the original Steel Phantom. Whether the changes in my Anaconda ride experience were due to my height/age or the ride's age/condition, I can't really say... but within that decade I had sworn it off forever. I crossed six feet and that was the end of it for me.

I do wonder how I would tolerate those other noted rides today, were they still around.

I'm glad I'm not alone in swearing off this ride. I've kind of sworn off standard Arrow coasters, in general, really. The late stage series like Anaconda and Viper are spine crushing; and the tamer, less painful Arrows like LNM are boring while still mildly unpleasant.

It's always kind of weird to swear off a ride; like, you're missing out on the fun. This year I swore off Skyrush because its so painful on my thighs and hips. I was at HP last week and I debated renegotiating that deal with my self. But in the end, I skipped it. I just don't have it in me anymore to deal with rides that uncomfortable.

 

[Zachary]

I’m 6 feet tall and I don’t find Anaconda to be that bad personally. Less comfortable than LNM? Definitely. Give me Anaconda over Firebird (SFA) any day though.

I don’t ride Anaconda more than a couple times a year typically and truthfully, I only ride it that often because she’s definitely not long for this world. I guess I like to make sure my general disinterest in the coaster remains fresh in my mind so I don’t succumb to nostalgia when Kings Dominion shuts it down without any notice. ?

I just don't have it in me anymore to deal with rides that uncomfortable.

But think of all of the interesting forces!

 

[halfabee]

I'm glad I'm not alone in swearing off this ride. I've kind of sworn off standard Arrow coasters, in general, really. The late stage series like Anaconda and Viper are spine crushing; and the tamer, less painful Arrows like LNM are boring while still mildly unpleasant.

It's always kind of weird to swear off a ride; like, you're missing out on the fun. This year I swore off Skyrush because its so painful on my thighs and hips. I was at HP last week and I debated renegotiating that deal with my self. But in the end, I skipped it. I just don't have it in me anymore to deal with rides that uncomfortable.

I can't think of an Arrow looper I really look forward to riding much anymore. Maybe Canyon Blaster. They seemed to get a lot right with it. Lots of straight lines and basic elements they had done literally a hundred times. My second-most-recently ridden truly comfy Arrow looper probably was Double Loop at Geauga Lake, which of course stopped operating in 2007 (!).

Love Skyrush... somehow I manage to avoid the unpleasantness others experience. But too many people have noted their discomfort for it to be anything but real. Not sure how or why I'm spared, but I'll take it.

I liked the earlier suggestion of chopping out everything between Anaconda's second inversion and the corkscrews, replacing it with something -- anything -- else. Absolutely none of this will happen, but I'd enjoy rolling out of the second inversion and immediately into a bunch of airtime hills that finally dump into the existing corkscrews. Bizarre, but no less bizarre than the existing stretch, and a great deal more enjoyable.

Not usually my speed to indulge in fantasy-modification word salads. But it's Anaconda...

 

[Thomas]

Give me Anaconda over Firebird (SFA) any day though.

 

[Zimmy]

Nessie weeps... She loves everyone!

 

[halfabee]

"We love you and we aren't angry, sweetheart. We're just... disappointed."

 

[rswashdc]

I liked the earlier suggestion of chopping out everything between Anaconda's second inversion and the corkscrews, replacing it with something -- anything -- else. Absolutely none of this will happen, but I'd enjoy rolling out of the second inversion and immediately into a bunch of airtime hills that finally dump into the existing corkscrews. Bizarre, but no less bizarre than the existing stretch, and a great deal more enjoyable.

Not usually my speed to indulge in fantasy-modification word salads. But it's Anaconda...

Please don't add airtime hills with those cars and restraints. The less jarring transitions on Arrows the better.

 

[halfabee]

Please don't add airtime hills with those cars and restraints. The less jarring transitions on Arrows the better.

I've generally enjoyed the straight airtime hills/drops on Arrow loopers overall... LNM's drops, Demon (Great America), Canyon Blaster, Drachen Fire's slightly disappointing but nonetheless comfortable "zero G" hill, CP Corkscrew's speed hump, Double Loop which I will continue to insist is an overlooked little gem... even the Lightnin' Loops style shuttles had terrific airtime, and those drops were less than 50 feet! It's IMO the one thing Arrow consistently did with their loopers that still holds up fully against modern rides. Smooth and genuinely exciting.

There just can't be any turns, AT ALL, unless they are high and slow.

 

[Mushroom]

Get Morgan in, have them remove the MCBR to the end of the weird pretzel helix thing, and we're set

Did we ever figure out why Anaconda - which has only ever run two trains - even has a MCBR? It's a mystery that has always bothered me.

 

[Eric]

Maybe it was designed so that if the transfer track/brake run wasn't in the right position, then it would stop at the mcbr?

 

[Jonesta6]

I just figured it was a standard feature on older Arrow rides. However, was there ever a 3rd train?

 

[halfabee]

I thiiiiiiiiiink it always had two trains. I rode it a lot in its first handful of years, but honestly can’t quite remember a specific train count at the time. I’d be willing to believe it has always had two, and the midcourse brake largely serves to slow the train to 0.001 mph before it descends into complex-curve hell.

 

[Jonesta6]

So if they removed it and the pretzel helixes then there wouldn't be much issues. Not that that's going to happen on a ride that's probably close to the end of it's service life.

 

[bill s]

Anaconda is probably my most-ridden coaster including at least 50 laps just last year. However I'm down to 3 rows I'll sit in now.

The bad "the spot" looks to me because it changes from a left to right curve at the same time as reaching the peak speed for the second part of the course. It is exciting at that point but you have reason to be afraid. There are several ways that could be modified to seperate those 2 events, and the following right hand turn could be changed to reconnect the layout, in theory.

 

[Crunchewy]

The only Arrow looper I enjoy right now is Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood. I don't remember that being uncomfortable at all and it was fun. The g forces are pretty high on it at times, or it seemed that way to me, so I didn't ride it a lot, but I did enjoy it. Same can not be said at all about Anaconda.

 

[rswashdc]

Did we ever figure out why Anaconda - which has only ever run two trains - even has a MCBR? It's a mystery that has always bothered me.

It would literally snap your neck going through the helixes if they didn't slow it down.

 

[Jonesta6]

It would literally snap your neck going through the helixes if they didn't slow it down.

But why not a trim vs what appears to be a full block brake?

 

[halfabee]

Is there any reason why the ride system/operators would keep a train on the back brake for substantially longer than necessary after the other train is dispatched from station to lift?

If so, then it might be a benefit to have the block brake instead of a trim. Assume for a moment that a train reaches the top of the lift while the other train has not yet cleared the back brake. Without a block brake, the train on the lift must stop. From a rider comfort perspective, stopping a train at the top of the lift -- staring away from the entire park and therefore unable to see or understand anything about what's going on -- is less desirable than stopping the same train farther down the line at a lower elevation; on a nearly horizontal section of track; and looking back in the rough direction of the station, give or take, so many riders have the advantage (real or perceived) of seeing the park, people, and station while stopped. Also, the block brake stop occurs several seconds later than the lift-hill stop would, which gives the back-brake train more time to clear that block in the first place.

That all depends, however, on the existence of some reason why that back-brake train wouldn't have moved into the station as soon as the train ahead of it was fully on the lift.

The station + lift together don't comprise one single zone, do they? That wouldn't make much sense, and I don't recall waiting a curiously long time for another train to arrive at the boarding platform after a previous train left -- which would be the case if [station + lift] were zoned together.

Dunno.

 

[Gavin]

Anaconda has 4 blocks: load, lift, C block (MCBR), and waiting. Trains from waiting are advanced by the board operator manually. Anaconda has always had 2 trains, the MCBR allows for higher capacity and helps to keep the trains apart. Once a train clears C Block, the other train should be going out of the station.