Odd rollercoaster facts

[Emmett]

Pleasurewood Hills can only send a train out on Wipeout every 7 and half minutes due to a restriction placed upon them by the local council. This was put in force to bring the ride's noise levels down to a more reasonable occurance rate.

Ah, I thought it was odd that the ride ops were standing around for a while even they had loaded the whole train and everyone was waiting. They seemed to be really taking their time even when releasing the restaints when the train got back to the station. I guess with the train noise and screams it could annoy locals.

 

[Anonymous]

Balder isn't named after the Norse God, with the same name, as many believe (well only indirectly). It's actually named after where it is built. That area had in the early 19:th hundreds a ball/sports court called "Balders Hage" (Balder's Meadows) at that location and it's from that Balder got it's name. The connection between the coaster and the meadows don't stop there, the colours of the trains (red and blue) comes from the match colours of the football club Örgryte IS (aka ÖIS) which were founded there in 1887.

Uppskjutet (the S&S Space Shot) was given to the park in 1996 as a compensation from Vekoma, due to that they were unable to get the LSM drive running on the Invertigo prototype "Hang Over" which delayed it's opening a year, due to replacing the LSM's with a system that is today found on the GIB's.

 

[Kebab]

All of the rollercoasters (minus El Diablo) at PortAventura follow it's logo's colour scheme (Red, blue and yellow). Examples of this is Stampida with red and blue trains followed by Tomahawks yellow train; or Dragon Khans red track and blue supports and trains that have yellow OTSR's.

You get the pattern?

 

[Ben]

Unfortunately the imagineers made one rather large boo boo when designing the ride, as can be seen from the location of the Hollywood Tower sign. The sign should have been located much higher, as it is in the way of where the destroyed wings would have been. In the paintings and in the preview videos the sign is actually located higher up the building.

That isn't true.

The sign is located where it is because of the design of the tower.

Disney uses forced perspective, and ToT is no exception. In placing the sign where they did, they avoid the confusion that would occur when you see the elevators at the top of the shaft, and the people inside - right next to windows and stairs that are mis-proportioned.

Well, yes, it is true that it would have been destroyed by the lightning and is positioning is thus a bit bollocks. Whether or not it was designed to be there is partially irrelevant ("boo boo" is wrong... that's it). The more polite and proper way to go about this would have been "you are right, but this is why...". Because, he IS right... There's a reason? So what? He's still right.

 

[Uncle Arly]

Wow, I love these Disney facts. I never realised they put so much thought into it!

 

[Homer]

There is a half-sized basketball court inside Matterhorn in Disney California.

To add to that, the reason why there is a basketball court inside was so that Matterhorn's mountain could be classed as a "Sports Arena" and loophole around height restrictions.

Time for some BGA facts.

Tanganyika Tidal Waves theming and ride layout originate from the defunct African Queen boat ride. The drop was added in 1989 and became Tidal Wave.

Montu originally had Nile Crocodiles below the pre-lift turnaround. They were removed in 2000, forgot why, I think because of unsafe habitat.

Akbar's Adventure Tours was closed because of a lack of parts since the manufacturer went bankrupt years ago. The park originally planned on using parts from Wild Arctic, which was made by another manufacturer. But because of some Florida law that bans using parts from different manufacturers, the plan was shot down. Akbar's has been removed and its building now houses a Busch 50th Anniversary exhibit and a house for Howl-O-Scream.

Kumba's tunnel is called "Kumba's Den."

That's all I can think of.

 

[RCF]

Mr. Freeze at SFOT was supposed to open in 1997, and was to have the stars of Batman (which was absolutely suckish) Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney, but due to the technical problems it faced, it's opening was delayed until 1998, without the Batman stars. As Clooney was working on another movie, he wasn't able to make the opening of the ride in '98, and Schwarzenegger didn't go because Clooney didn't go.