ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s theme parks are plunging into a record year for roller coasters. At least four of the rides will debut in 2022, the most active period in almost two decades.
The Interstate 4 corridor will see a diverse set of new coasters, from the intense Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay to the gentle, kiddie-inspired Daddy Pig Roller Coaster at Winter Haven’s Peppa Pig Theme Park, which opens next month.
SeaWorld Orlando’s Ice Breaker officially debuts Feb. 18, although previews for select annual passholders have started already. And at Walt Disney World, an indoor coaster called Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, is set to open at Epcot sometime this summer.
The coronavirus pandemic caused construction delays and helped create this year’s coaster glut. But new thrill rides have long been seen as a big draw for theme parks, said Dennis Speigel, CEO of International Theme Park Services.
“Coaster is king,” he said. “It’s the go-to attraction when parks and attractions want a pop at the front gate.”
But roller coasters are major investments, and planners must weigh expansion choices that will prompt repeat visits, he said.
“It’s important that we that we spend properly against the demographics that can grow our business,” Speigel said.
For Ice Breaker, SeaWorld went with an approachable-intensity category that it calls “family thrill.”
“We have found in our experience and running attractions with guests that 48-inch rider height is, like, the perfect spot,” said Jonathan Smith, vice president of rides and engineering for Orlando-based SeaWorld Parks, which has 12 attractions in the U.S.
“You get a lot of families riding together … sons and daughters and aunts and uncles and grandparents,” he said. “The dynamics are thrilling, but it’s not too much, not too intense, where some of those younger riders or older adults wouldn’t necessarily want to be on it.”
That expands the audience for Ice Breaker, part of the park’s coaster lineup that includes Kraken, Manta and Mako.
“Our other three major coasters are all 54 inches (height requirement), so we’ve lowered it by 6 inches, which is just huge,” said Rob McNicholas, SeaWorld Orlando’s vice president for Operations. “It’s great for family youngsters, first-time coaster riders or is great for someone who just loves to ride rides.”
The company has new coasters opening this year at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia and SeaWorld San Diego as well as Tampa’s Iron Gwazi, which will max out at 78 mph and includes a 206-foot drop. It also will have a 48-inch height requirement.
The multi-park approach appeals to Chris Kraftchick, regional director for American Coaster enthusiasts.
“It creates cross-country excitement,” he said.
Peppa Pig Theme Park and its centerpiece coaster are geared to preschoolers.
“We’ve created what we anticipate to be many, many children’s first-ever roller coaster,” Nick Miller, director of operations for Legoland Florida Resorts, which includes the Peppa park, which opens Feb. 24.
“It’s a gentle, gentle ride. It only lasts a minute. It’s about 15 feet tall. It only goes 16 miles an hour. And most importantly, it has a very, very low height requirement of just 36 inches,” he said. The ride’s trains are headed up by a Daddy Pig figure from the British animated series that inspired the park’s rides, shows and attractions.
The coaster’s cars were designed to be “nice and tall, so people feel really secure when they’re in the attraction,” Miller said. “It’s got a nice, snug lap bar. … Parents will feel safe with their kids on it as well.”
Watchers could point to Jurassic Park VelociCoaster, which opened last summer at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, as the leader of the current coaster pack. Universal Orlando said a million riders got on VelociCoaster, which includes inversions, dramatic launches and a top speed of 70 mph, within two months of its opening.
“Universal smartly continued construction through COVID. Everybody else stopped,” Kraftchick said. “They got to be in the spotlight by themselves.”
The trend will also continue with the opening of Tron Lightcycle/Run, under construction at Magic Kingdom. Disney has not said when the coaster, first built at Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, will start operating next door to Space Mountain, the park’s first coaster, which opened in 1975.
But Disney recently has shown off signs of progress for Cosmic Rewind. It’s currently assembling a 51-foot-tall structure — dubbed a Nova Corps Starblaster ship — near the entrance. The coaster is listed in the “family thrill” category and feature the first reverse launch for a Disney coaster.
Jeff Vahle, president of Disney World, posted on Instagram that he had taken “an early test ride” on Cosmic Rewind last month and that finishing touches would occur over the next several months.
Once the quartet of 2022 debuts, the new coaster count for Florida for the past decade will be at 16 rides.
Parks can expect an attendance boost of 2-3% with a new thrill ride, Speigel said (”If you get 5%, that’s a home run.”). Other options should be explored, he said.
“We go through the spurts of coaster, coaster, coaster, coaster, coaster, when we should be doing dark rides and shows and family attractions,” he said. “But parks are sometimes afraid to get off the coaster, literally, and go a different direction.”
But Legoland’s Miller notes that roller coasters, generally, have high hourly capacity and long wait times.
“They are genuinely still the things that people want to do,” he said.
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