Florida Guide > Other Activities
Sky Coaster at Old Town
Ok, so you have tried all the thrill rides, in all the Parks in and around Orlando. Prepare to experience the ultimate thrill ride at Old Town on Highway 192.
For miles around you cannot miss the sight of the two huge struts that make up part of the Sky Coaster. At night particularly, when they are all lit up they are hard to miss.
Once you have parked the car and walked into Old Town the sheer size of the Sky Coaster hits you. At this point I’m pretty sure that a lot of brave souls suddenly “remember” ailments such as vertigo, agoraphobia, claustrophobia or indeed any other complaint that they can get away with that will save face from having to ahead and ride this monster.
For those undaunted by the sight of it, prepare to be scared witless and have an adrenalin rush like nothing else in Orlando.
Sky Coaster is set at the back of Old Town and well out of the way of anything else. You go over to the small wooden hut to pay your money and join the queue, which should read “mentally unstable riders this way”…….
You walk towards the shack where you will put on your harness and await your lift up to the platform. Each harness is sized and you are helped in to it by the staff. The safety instructions are then rigorously explained to you.
You walk out of the suiting up shack and onto something akin to a cherry picker, which raises you up to the wires that will suspend you 300ft up in the air.
The harness you then climb into is like a big sleeping bag, but not a single one. The ride can take up to 3 people at a time, so with your fellow riders you are strapped in and everything is checked again, and the safety instructions are given again.
You can choose to ride alone, and I’m not sure if that is more or less exhilarating. With multiple riders the weight when you drop increases the speed exponentially, but alone you only have yourself to scream with.
The ground begins to disappear from beneath you as you are hoisted skywards towards your release point. The view, if you are inclined to look, is breathtaking, and totally different at night to during the day. You can see for miles on a clear day, and at night the lights of the 192 and surrounding area twinkle beneath you.
When you reach the pinnacle, you are suspended 300ft above the ground and there is only one way down from here….. This is where it becomes a real test of character as you have to press the release button yourself. It is a pretty tense time, and seconds feel like hours.
The button pressed and you immediately feel the rush of wind and the G forces as you plummet earthbound head first. As the small pond beneath rushes towards you, and you’re convinced you are going to meet a watery end, the Coaster swings out and away from the water. Only then can you draw breath and feel what it must be like to jump from an airplane.
Exhilarating doesn’t cover the feelings you experience, this is a rush like no other.
Once you have slowed down you are pulled back on to the cherry picker and lowered to the ground. Back to the shack to remove the harness and then you can feel terra firma beneath your feet again (assuming of course that you have recovered the feeling to any part of your body yet)
As if all that wasn’t enough, the folks here have kindly filmed the whole thing with camera’s set up at strategic places, including one looking close up at your face the whole time. The DVD or video you can purchase to commemorate your adventure also has sound but all the ones we saw either needed a bleeper or a mute button as the screams and language were much as expected.
Well there you have a very brief insight to this thrill ride that really lives up to its name….
And now a confession. I have written this report based on our son’s experience of Sky Coaster, do you think I am completely off my trolley? It was scary enough watching your youngest child ride it, I have no intention of experiencing that kind of terror for myself.
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