Special Features: Beyond Vertical - Wes goes over the edge

Posted at 4:25 PM EDT (2025 GMT)

Jul. 23rd, 2007 -- We are officially only a month into the summer season (in the Northern Hemisphere) but for myself, my coaster season started way back in March when Carowinds opened for the year (some of us aren’t as lucky as you guys in Florida).

When I was looking ahead to 2007, I had no idea that I would be riding not one of the most anticipated coasters of the year, but three!

What is even stranger is that all three of my new coasters conquered this year have something in common – they all have a drop of 90 degrees or more!

In April I took on Dollywood’s Mystery Mine, in June, Maverick at Cedar Point and Griffon at Busch Gardens Europe.

Each coaster is unique and has its own strengths and features:

Mystery Mine

Mystery Mine was my first encounter with the Euro-Fighter model from Gerstlauer, that I had been hearing about all last year.

The coaster features two vertical lifts, a 95-degree second drop, two insane inversions and some of the best theming ever to come out of the hills of Tennessee.

Theming is key in the story of this coaster and I was really impressed with how well the park put together the coaster.  To look at the building itself, you would imagine that it could have been built in the late 1800s, not late-2006.  Inside the mine you’ll see all sorts of animatronics and touches that make for a unique coaster experience.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the coaster, and despite a bit of head-banging due to the restraints, the ride is an overall smooth experience with a wicked and quite literally explosive finale.

My visit in April saw huge lines for the ride, so this one should entertain families for many years to come.

Maverick

Like many enthusiasts on the net, last year I viewed the concept video that Cedar Point released mid-2006 when the park announced their 17th coaster – Maverick.

What I wasn’t prepared for was my first ride.

The coaster literally throws you over the first drop, off its lift/launch.  Maverick works well with its theme of a bucking bronco gone wild.

Maverick really never lets up and makes every attempt it can to buck you off its back, whether you’re getting amazing airtime, or being thrown for an inversion (or two), the action doesn’t let up until the end.

The Intamin-built coaster loves the ground and hugs it all the way.  There are few times you pop up and when you do it’s probably going to be for a nice little airtime hill!  

There are quick changes throughout the ride and you really never know which way you will go next.  Even after three rides on Maverick, I still had no idea what was coming next.
 
The tunnel was a very nice touch and is quite intense.  The tunnel also varies by ride.  Depending on how the trains are on the course, you might be completely stopped in the tunnel, then launched or you might not even slow down at all and accelerate immediately.

Almost as nice as the ride, is the setting for the coaster.  The coaster is no more than several hundred yards from the shore of Lake Erie and both days I was at the park, we had gorgeous weather.

Maverick also can be a bit of head-banger, and probably depending on how tall you are, may be more or less of a problem. 

Overall, Maverick is a very fun ride and good for families that aren’t quite ready for Millennium Force or the bigger coasters in the park.

Griffon

Griffon debuted in late spring (at my favorite theme park), Busch Gardens Europe after much anticipation.

The Bolliger & Mabillard-built diving coaster, or as many simply call them “dive coasters”, is the tallest coaster of its kind in the World and was the first to offer a floorless ride experience.

The trains and track are mind blowing in scale, as the trains seat 10-persons-per-row.  I used to think Apollo’s Chariot was huge, that was until I saw Griffon up close.

Griffon is a short ride, with only two vertical drops, two Immelmann loops and a water element but a ride on an outside seat on this beast is an experience like none I’ve had before.  I felt totally vulnerable with nothing below me and nothing above!

After the massive floor and gates move out of the way, riders dip out of the station and quickly pick up speed and take a quick turn to the right.  Up the lift we go on this monster of a coaster.

Anticipation builds as we inch around the top of the ride and the coaster brakes us before engaging the hold-chain.  Slowly we ease over the edge (the front of course is the best place to experience this).  We are held for only seconds, but it seems forever.

Without so much as a click, the chain lets go and we are off, picking up tons of speed before leveling out and flying under the footbridge.

The first Immelmann is smooth and fun as you get a bit of hang-time at the top. 

I found the mid-course to be varied each time I rode the coaster.  Sometimes it would come on hard and we almost came to a stop and sometimes it would barely tap the train and we would careen over the edge of Griffon’s second vertical drop.

After the second Immelmann, you engage the water element, but don’t really get wet at all except on the return trip to the final brakes.  You get a nice little mist coming off the track above.

Griffon will always hold a special place for me, as it was my 150th coaster ridden to date.  It’s an exciting coaster and the fact that there is only one other similar coaster in the United States, SheiKra at sister-park Busch Gardens Africa, will make it even more exciting for the public.

So what does the future hold for enthusiasts and the general public?  As we’ve seen in the past, builders and engineers are going to try and push the envelope even farther and quite literally, take us even farther over the edge.

I would imagine that drops will go even farther than 95 degrees, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the great minds of builders like: B&M, Intamin, Gerstlauer and many others have up their sleeves in the comings years.

One thing is for certain, nothing is for certain in the coaster business and everything is always changing.  This is a good thing of course, and I for one look forward to going beyond vertical, many more times in the future.

For more information on Mystery Mine, visit Dollywood.
For more information on Maverick, visit Cedar Point.
For more information on Griffon, visit Busch Gardens Europe.

For a more in-depth ride review of Mystery Mine, visit ThrillNetwork.