New for 2004 at Worlds of Fun family amusement park in Kansas City, Missouri is Spinning Dragons, located in the Orient section of the park. This new roller coaster will be taking over the location previously held by the unique Orient Express, an Arrow loopscrew with many interesting elements including interlocking loops. It is the fifth of five roller coasters after Boomerang's and Mamba's inception. The cost for Spinning Dragons was only 4 million US Dollars which is more than the last roller coaster added to the park. The station for has been moved a little more south and more out of reach than Orient Express' station. Spinning Dragons was built by Gerstlauer of Germany who also built Timberland Twister of Knott's Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Spinning Dragons is a curious addition to the park as it is clearly a family roller coaster (due to height restrictions) yet it replaces an intense thrilling roller coaster. This may show that Worlds of Fun is moving toward a more family oriented atmosphere. This contrasts the moves made back when Cedar Fair bought the park, such as adding Dominator a double space shot tower and Mamba and Boomerang two intense roller coasters. Nonetheless, this new roller coaster still leaves a sour taste much like every other move Cedar Fair has done with the park because so much theming and classic rides have been removed to yield way to all the new additions.

Spinning Dragons interacts with the landscaping of the Orient continent and uses height for added thrills to the ride. The spinning cars for the ride allow four people sitting across from each other in pairs, which when the weight is not distributed evenly will provide higher lateral Gs on turns. Spinning Dragons is not a spinning wild mouse ride as it does not have the wild mouse's signature hairpin turns. It also has an incredible logo which matches nicely with the other well-drawn logos of the other thrill rides.

Statistics:

  • Length of Track: 1345 ft.
  • Length of Ride: ~1:30
  • Top Speed: 30 mph
  • Capacity: 720 persons per hour
  • Height: 54 ft
  • Trains: 6 trains with 1 car per train. 2 rows of 2 persons per car.

Sources: www.worldsoffun.com and www.rcdb.com

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