Cypress Gardens Prepares Starliner for 2007 Season
JohnnyUpsideDown has posted construction photos of Cypress Gardens’ new wooden roller coaster, the Starliner. In its previous life it was located at the Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Panama City, FL. It was located at the Miracle Strip from 1963 to 2004. Starliner will be the park’s sixth coaster.
Starliner joins a collection of family and kiddie attractions like wild mouse coasters and junior steel and wooden coasters. This is probably a smart business model when you’re located smack dab between Tampa (Busch Gardens Africa) and Orlando (Islands of Adventure, Sea World, Disney). They might as well leave the thrills to the larger parks. See the photos here.
Thanks to bobg for finding this onride video of Starliner:
June 7, 2007 at 14:54
Starliner, while not a modern Coaster, certainly isn't tame. Its good for some nice thrills due to the airtime, a very steep initial drop and the respectable amount of speed the coaster is capable of. Plus the fact that wooden coasters in general have a feeling of "rickityness" that gives the illusion that the thing might just fly off the rails( though the structure in reality is quite sound)
June 8, 2007 at 03:32
It sounds like fun. So I guess the Starliner is open? The next time I'm in the area I'll have to check out Cypress Gardens. Thanks for stopping by.
July 5, 2007 at 14:58
Its not open yet, though it should be in the next week or so. I was talking about my experience on it at Miracle Strip.
July 14, 2007 at 05:39
It's open and you can ride it via video right here: http://blog.winterhavenfl.com/
July 15, 2007 at 11:57
Nice find bobg. I embedded the video above.It looks like fun. I'll be in Florida this fall maybe I can swing by Cypress Gardens while I'm in the area.