#mine blower

[tacoma-narrows]

Tac Talks Coasters - Post 134: #36

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Mine Blower at Fun Spot Kissimmee!

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Opened: 2017 Manufacturer: Gravity Group Height: 83 ft (25 m) Speed: 48.5 mph (78.1 kph) Length: 2,290 ft (700 m) My most recent ride: 2021

If there is one word I would use to describe Mine Blower at Fun Spot Kissimmee, it would be aggressive. This is easily one of the most fast-paced and aggressive rides I've ever done, especially for a wooden coaster. That is both a good thing and a bad thing, for reasons I'll get into, but Mine Blower is non-stop from start to finish.

Mine Blower is not that big in the grand scheme of things, at only just over 80 feet tall and about 2,300 ft long, but this thing is relentless. It's a pretty compact layout all piled on top of itself, and is also one of only eight wooden coasters in the world to go upside down. That's right, a wooden coaster with an inversion! In this case, it's a corkscrew that is perfectly placed over the ride's station.

Now, I've only been to Fun Spot Kissimmee once, and as you can tell by the pictures above, that was at night. I think the fact that it was at night actually worked to the ride's benefit, making it feel even more out of control and crazy with it being dark out. But with Mine Blower's layout, it's full of very fast paced and sharp airtime hills, crazy overbanked turns and of course that iconic corkscrew, along with a lot of sections that weave through the ride's structure. Like for a lot of wooden coasters, sections that take place within the structure offer some great moments with an increased sense of speed along with lots of great head/handchopper moments.

I got two rides on Mine Blower during my visit in November of 2021, and when I got off of it, I thought it immediately reminded me of two other wooden coasters. One was El Toro, with it's crazy airtime, super fast paced layout and banked turns. But what Mine Blower reminded me even more of was Boardwalk Bullet at Kemah Boardwalk in Texas. Both rides are super compact, fast paced, relentless and feel super out of control. We'll be getting to Boardwalk Bullet in a few days here, but I immediately thought of that ride when I got off Mine Blower for the first time.

You know how I said at the start of the post that how aggressive the ride is acts as both a pro and a con? Well, unfortunately, Mine Blower does have a rather significant downside, and that's the roughness. From what I've heard, this thing can be absolutely BRUTAL in terms of roughness. It wasn't the roughest wooden coaster I had ever done, but I don't know if I could have done much more than the two laps I got. It was definitely a grind. From what I've heard, Mine Blower had a roughness problem from the day it opened, which is definitely unusual. But then I imagine running this thing every day in the Florida heat didn't do it any favors either.

Recently, parts of the ride have gotten RMC's 208-ReTrak, which is meant to keep the essence of the wooden coaster, but improve ride maintenance and rider comfort. I of course haven't gotten the chance to try it with the new track myself, and I actually really haven't heard anyone talk about whether or not it improved the ride experience at all. Hopefully it has made an impact, but if the ride is still really rough or if the 208-ReTrak doesn't help it, maybe the Gravity Group can come in and install their pre-cut track on it, which I've heard is really good on other rides they've put it on.

But anyways, if you can get past the roughness, Mine Blower is a fantastic ride. There are only six other wooden coasters I have ranked above it in my list, so that layout and how crazy the ride is really goes a long way in my ranks lol. If this is any indication of what the Gravity Group can do (since the only two other Gravity Group coasters I've done are Switchback and Boardwalk Bullet), I am very eager to try more of them haha. Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Hades 360, Zippin Pippin, I will get to u all someday mark my worms

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

[rushthehollow]

FUNSPOT KISSIME

[ taken february 2021 ]

[rollercoasterquotes]

Mine Blower: I. FUCKING. HATE. FLORIDA.

Mine Blower: SheiKra, Mako, Montu, and Rockit make me do the Fortnite dance and shout go white boy go

[aportraitoffantasies]

[midgetman82]

Mine Blower inverting wooden roller coaster at Fun Spot Kissimmee.

[alpenguyst]

Mine Blower barrel roll

[midgetman82]

Mine Blower roller coaster train at Fun Spot Kissimmee.

[heartsoulrocknroll]

Fun Spot Kissimmee, Fun Spot Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa Trip Report 3/16/24

This was such a stupid trip. Four parks and an 18-hour roundtrip drive in two and a half days, let's go!!!!

Coaster Rankings

1) Iron Gwazi (x 2 night rides)

This isn't a new credit for me, so I probably shouldn't include it in the rankings, but I never want to shut up about it, so here I go. This whole trip was inspired by how badly I wanted to get back on this ride, and it did not disappoint. The absolutely terrible ops and the stupidly long wait times were 100% worth it just for two transcendent, otherworldly, ridiculous night rides in row 11 and 12. It has the best RMC drop by far. It crushes you with positive Gs in the valleys. The outerbank is psychotic, similar to ArieForce One and Steel Vengeance in the pure power and crazy duration of the ejector airtime. The death roll is the greatest inversion ever created, like the Twisted Timbers and Storm Chaser drops on steroids, with how you are already flying before going into it -- the whip is truly nuts. The wave turn is one of the most powerful ejector airtime moments on any coaster. The stall is pure fun. Then the ride continues to deliver airtime pops, followed by a massive drop right at the end that causes the train to pick up speed again and absolutely slam into the brakes. It is so aggressive at night. It was absolutely RIPPING. I don't even know what to say. It's the best steel coaster I've ever ridden. It's a perfect ride.

2) Mine Blower (x 4 rides)

I LOVE this ride. It is pure chaos. The drop is one of the best I've experienced on a coaster of this size, giving shockingly good, strong, borderline ejector airtime. The corkscrew is a great element, and the novelty of an inversion on what was originally a traditional wooden coaster is always going to be cool. But the rest of the layout is fantastic, with several more strong airtime moments, including the double down after the corkscrew and all the hills going under the ride structure. This coaster also has excellent pacing and is filled with aggressive transitions and tight turns. The fact that it only reaches a max speed of 49 mph is amazing to me, because it is so aggressive and maintains its speed so well. My first rides are coming after the partial RMC 208 retrack, and I will say, the ride is still significantly rougher than most other wooden coasters I've done. The transitions between the new steel track and the old wood track are violent, especially going into the corkscrew and into the double down. But that roughness, along with the screaming of the wheels on the 208 track, just makes the ride even more chaotic and hilarious to me. With a full Gravity Group retrack instead of the RMC steel track, this would be a truly elite coaster. It's a shame.

3) White Lightning (x 4 rides)

This ride proves that stats don't define a family coaster vs. a thrill coaster. This is clear when you compare White Lightning to Invadr at BGW. I was shocked to look on RCDB and see that White Lightning has a slightly smaller drop and a slightly slower max speed than Invadr. I would never have even compared them in my mind otherwise. White Lightning's layout and profiling put it in the same conversation as some of the larger GCIs. It has a nice, twisting drop, as well as fantastic pacing, maintaining speed throughout the whole ride. The second hill of the double up is the most sustained airtime moment on any GCI I've done, giving at least 2 seconds of floater. The return run continues to deliver the negatives, as each of the small hills gives solid floater. It's amazing how smooth this ride is still running, being four years older than Mine Blower. I didn't even notice the Titan Track, because almost the whole ride is smooth (with the exception of a little spot on the turnaround). To conclude, this is an awesome ride that blew my expectations away. I just wanted to keep riding over and over.

4) Hurricane (x 1 ride)

This ride is way more fun than it should be. With the larger height, faster speed, and longer track length, this one surpasses the Atlanta one by a good bit. I really like the janky laterals on the turns, and the series of small hills at the end gives some abrupt, awkward airtime. Hilarious ride.

5) Galaxy Spin (x 1 ride)

This park is full of hilarious rides. I've always found Zamperla spinning wild mouse coasters funny, and this is no exception. It doesn't have the crazy laterals of a Mack wild mouse, but the spinning is kind of fun.

Trip Details

This was such a stupid trip. Four parks and an 18-hour roundtrip drive in two and a half days. We left home after I got off work at like 8:00 PM on Friday evening, drove almost five hours to a hotel in Darien, GA, then made the last four hours of the drive the next morning to Fun Spot Kissimmee. We got there at about 2:00 PM and stayed until about 4:00 PM. We got two rides on Mine Blower first, then we did Galaxy Spin. They had some sort of car show going on there, so we walked around to see the cars for a few minutes. It took us forever to find it, but we finally rode Hurricane next. Then I ended with two more solo rides on Mine Blower. After that, we drove to Fun Spot Orlando. We got there around 5:00 PM and only stayed until about 6:00 PM, because I was in a rush to get on Iron Gwazi. Freedom Flyer was closed, so I didn't get that credit. But we spent our hour getting four rides on White Lightning. I could see Velocicoaster and Hulk running from the queue of White Lightning, and that was torture, because I didn't have the time or money to get to Universal on this trip. Will I ever ride Velocicoaster?? Who knows?? Lol. Anyway, it was about 8:00 PM by the time we made it into BGT. So we had two hours on a Saturday night to try to get in as many rides as possible on Iron Gwazi. And with the absolutely abysmal ops causing a 55-60 minute wait, that turned out to be two rides. I'm just glad we got to do it more than once at all, with how these ops were running. The train was parked in the station for five minutes at a time on multiple occasions. I don't even know how that's possible. We didn't even get to do anything else at BGT. But it was sooooo worth it.