May Vacay 2009
SeaWorld - Manta Media Day
From the other side, about to drop into the pretzel...
Lots of pretzel loop shots coming up. It felt WAY more intense than the
one
on Superman. In the back row, it felt like the launch portion of Mission
Space.
It was really overcast Thursday morning, so I apologize for some of these pictures.
Chris reports that row six is pretty intense too. Maybe more than the back
row.
He would know. He rode the damn thing 15 times that day.
Manta has a dual loading station, so Sea World opened up the other side
for the general public. That's why A. these peeps aren't wearing the Manta
shirts
and B. the camera rig/transmitter aren't loaded in the front row.
We tried not to brag that we were riding over and over while the GP waited in
line.
We try to keep it classy, y'know.
Karen's getting artsy again. I believe this is the turnaround that leads
into a
zero-g roll right before the MCBR.
Was it too much to ask for the sun to come out for at least a little while?
Still, we can't complain. The media event the day before only lasted
about two hours before the rain kicked in. We had a few short sprinkles
but they didn't even last five minutes at a time.
(yeah, I have no clue why this picture is here. It looks like it's
coming off the lift hill here and is about to go up into the pretzel loop.
Of course I don't notice this until I've finished the whole freaking TPS
Report, so it's going to stay right there and you're going to deal)
The zero-g rolls on this thing are perfectly placed.
It's hard
to explain, but the elements seem like they're all exactly
where they should be. This is the zero-g heading into the MCBR.
The manta theming makes the trains crazy long.
That probably has an effect on why the back row is so much more intense.
Holy shit! Who let the blue sky into the shot?
After the MCBR, the train dives down and takes a hard right,
skimming over the water feature. As you can see, there's no
actual contact with the water, but from some angles it
certainly looks like it. Riders on the right end may get a
slight spritzing, but that's it for now.
Closer shot of the water effect.
Here's a reverse shot on that water effect.
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