American Eagle (roller Coaster) - Ride Experience

Ride Experience

Guests enter the queue area to the right of the KIDZOPOLIS section (originally Wiggles World (see The Wiggles). Prior to KIDZOPOLIS being built, guests entered the queue through the large "Eagle Tent," which had been used for a circus between 1976 and 1980 and now occupied by KIDZOPOLIS. Approaching the station, the queue line splits, allowing guests to choose between riding the “Red Side” and the “Blue Side.” Both sides offer similar ride experiences, although in 1991, 1996, 2002–2005, and 2011 (from August 5 until September 17) the Blue Side ran its trains facing backward. Guests then enter the ride platform from their track's side of the station.

Upon boarding the train, riders fasten their seat belts and lower their individual lap bar into place. Both red and blue trains are dispatched simultaneously and make a 200-degree turn opposite each other and proceed toward the lift hill. The trains meet up again behind the station where they turn back 20 degrees and begin their ascent side by side. At the top of the lift hill, the trains slowly make their way toward the edge before careening down the first drop, reaching speeds of over 66 mph (106 km/h). Riders race over two small, yet powerful air-time-filled hills before traveling upward and leveling out into a set of trim brakes at the far end of the out-and-back layout. Here, trains are slowed and riders enter a massive 560-degree helix where they circle downward over a small marsh, gradually picking up speed along the way. The helix circles to the left, allowing the red train to pull away, being on the inside of the track. Riders fly out of the helix before the tracks finally separate. The blue train drops low to the earth in an attempt to gain back some of the ground it lost in the helix, while the red train rises up and passes over the blue. Both trains turn right 20 degrees until they are running parallel with each other but separated by the outbound track. The red train drops down after passing over the blue and flies over two more airtime hills while the blue train only leaps over one hill after turning its way through the wooden supports. Both trains then rise into the massive wooden structure of the lift hill and are slowed by a final set of trim brakes. Each train then dives opposite each other into a final 360-degree helix, often accompanied by much squealing from the wheels skidding on the metal rails as they negotiate the turn. The blue train circles at a significantly smaller radius in a final attempt at making up the ground it lost in the big helix. The two trains then emerge and rise into the brake run to determine the winner.