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 Review of Sky Princess @ Dutch Wonderland
2 Rating Posted by: Canobie Coaster on 7/31/2005 4:50:00 PM
Custom Coasters International (CCI) will forever be renowned as one of the best wooden coaster manufacturers of all time. Their contributions to the coaster world will not be forgotten, as they’ve provided some truly world-class coasters such as the Raven, Boulder Dash, GhostRider, and Shivering Timbers, just to name a few. However, their success began at a small park in the middle of Amish Country in no other than Lancaster, Pennsylvania at Dutch Wonderland, and despite the ride’s smaller stature, it set the tone for CCIs larger, more intense coasters.

Sporting a kid-friendly, vibrant sky blue and purple paint job, I personally like how it looks since it really blends in with the overall feel of the park better than the ride’s older snow white paint job. That being said, I still prefer the attraction’s original name, the Sky Princess, over its newer one (Kingdom Coaster). One other thing of note, the ride’s station looks stunningly good and it really gives the attraction the feel of a classic woodie with its architecture and simple paint scheme.

Being the park’s most thrilling and star attraction, you’d expect long waits, right? Well, this simply never has a line. The worst line I’ve ever seen was a one-train wait, and that was on a rather busy Saturday. Despite a one-train operation, this attraction never seems to have a wait, making re-rides easy to attain. This probably can be attributed to the attraction being slightly too intense for some of the park’s younger clientele and lightning quick loading.

Now regarding the train itself, it looks great and is surprisingly comfortable with plenty of leg room unlike that on other junior woodies like Kings Dominion’s Scooby Doo. But what I really like about the trains is the usage of traditional buzz-bars over the newer, ratcheting lap bars. While it seems like a rather simple touch, it really makes my ride that much more enjoyable. Regarding seats, my personal favorite is the front thanks to the enhanced view, but really all seats provide a similar ride in my opinion.

Following the attraction’s modest-sized lift hill, there’s a swift turn and a small, little drop that isn’t all that intense, but it definitely establishes plenty of speed for the rest of the ride and gives a small pop of air in the very back. Immediately after is a tall hill and a sweet turnaround, there comes a brief tunnel that contains some decent laterals. While nothing special yet, the second half really ups the ante for the attraction.

While the first half builds the ride’s speed, the second half utilizes it to perfection with a series of small bunny hills which provide some nice pops of air. But my favorite part of the ride has to be the finale by far. Following a quick plunge, there’s a great bunny hill which gives some really good floater air all throughout the train and a speedy, upward helix that contains some gentle laterals. Really while the combination seems simple, it’s executed to perfection.

The Kingdom Coaster far and away is Dutch Wonderland’s best attraction, as it is one of the park’s lone thrill rides in a park meant almost exclusively for kids. But even looking outside of the park, this is a surprisingly good, little coaster that is actually better than plenty of the woodies I’ve been on despite its smaller stature simply because of the glass-smooth and just pure fun ride it has provided for me time and time again. If in the area, definitely give Dutch Wonderland a visit so you can learn that bigger isn’t always better.
 

Review Comments

no cars go on 6/10/2006 6:37:55 PM said:
I cannot believe they painted it blue and purple! When I went on it in 2004 it was white and personally I think the blue and purple looks horrible. I only figured out about the new colors when I passed Dutch Wonderland on the highway. I took pictures from the car . I know, Im such a geek...
Canobie Coaster on 7/28/2007 7:15:09 AM said:
I too was not the biggest fan of the paint job and certainly think that the white would look much better to myself, but the blue and purple fits in better with the park and is much more kid-friendly.
Canobie Coaster on 7/28/2007 7:15:15 AM said:
Also, taking photos of a coaster never is a bad thing.
Canobie Coaster on 7/28/2007 7:15:22 AM said:
Sorry about the 3 posts, my computer stalled for a second and I accidentally hit the submit button 3 times.
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