New aquarium-themed ride?

[DrCalman42]

I mentioned in an earlier post about AT running out of World Firsts, perhaps the World's First Inversion in a Water Ride.
That water ride part got me thinking, does anyone remember or still play Mario Kart, where some of the races take place in an underground pipe? Could it be possible to put a roller coaster in the same sort of pipe under the water, diving in and out of the water. The space for this could be available if The Flume should fall into permanent disrepair anytime, which is being anticipated by others on this forum.

[TheOutpatient]

do you mean like having a coaster that goes through something like those glass tubes at the sea life center?

I have thought about using these in a ride and having some props floating in the water (rather than fish) but it seems like that's a very expensive way to float things! Infact, it only seems worthwhile to have actual fish/sharks in there.

I actually had a bunch of water coaster ideas on a thread round here but well.. stuff happened and it was removed. I did save a copy of it though, somewhere.

Anyway - I'm glad you seem to be someone who is engaging their imagination.

[schmatt]

Although essentially possible the vibrations caused from the car passing through at a decent speed would distress any fish in the tank greatly, it also may weaken the glass creating huge health and safety issues. However if the car was to pass through the tank slowly as a dark ride esque start or finale then I can't see anything wrong with that, although it wouldn't give a greatly different experience to the already sharkbait reef. I'd love to see it happen but sadly, its very unlikely. That doesn't mean we can't have a queue line similar to Manta at Seaworld FL though [-o<

[TheOutpatient]

well I think it would have to be slow. Any kind of Hybrid coaster with a visual/dark section - it has to be slowed to a crawl otherwise its completely wasted.

and yeah I think maybe the bigger more intelligent fish might get used to it - i dont know.
Vibrations - I'm still not sure how well glass is supposed to handle them. I used to worry a bit about the glass floor section on the Smiler but I remembered that my CAR has glass and experiences quite a lot of vibrations so I don't know.

Overall I guess it would be sort of interesting with the whole "Oooh the coaster is submerged [in a sense] and I can see the mirror surface" but I don't think having fish in their is interesting enough, you would have to do something else with it aswell. How about a boat/floating section where you are essentially punting down an underwater stream (think Spongebob) through the tunnel? - still feels wasteful and sounds like that clear flume in america that comes down the pyramid and goes through a shark pool.

[cookiee_munster]

id love for the park to do something like that

[DrCalman42]

id love for the park to do something like that

Yeah, that's the sort of thing I mean. However, to truly make that work, you may have to make the ride without any fish there. I do also realise that this would take away greatly from the atmosphere though.

[DrCalman42]

Although essentially possible the vibrations caused from the car passing through at a decent speed would distress any fish in the tank greatly, it also may weaken the glass creating huge health and safety issues.

Maybe then, it may be beneficial to construct the tunnel out of something stronger than glass. Any ideas, anyone?

[TheOutpatient]

Tempered glass seems to be the number one material for high strength applications. They make glass floors in high buildings so you can see the city below - and of course at the sea life center I think that's glass - in some of the tanks the glass is about 10 cm thick - At that kind of thickness its pretty strong - I don't think coaster vibrations will be a problem. You can also laminate the glass so if it breaks, it doesn't shatter into a thousand pieces. They basically heat the glass up and cool it down fast to strengthen this glass.

The next option is Plexiglass but on its own atleast it weathers quite badly. Like glass, it becomes very strong when you increase the thickness and is in use in aquariums and you can get bullet proof Plexiglass also. The problem is the way it scratches and I think (but not sure) internal damage shows aswell sometimes. Mabye if you laminate it with something it will help. I don't think I've ever seen a scratch on a lighting gel but then they are well out of the way.

There was news about a plastic that uses nano-particles to become strong as steel but the problem with some nano particles is they are harmful to humans....If we can get round these problems nano-particles will give us the strongest materials we've ever known and hopefully some of that will be a new kind of glass!

[Dom]

i'll be honest. if they did this, it would, to me, be the scariest ride in the world. i hate fish. there scary and horrible.

but i do also think that it would be really funky but highly doubtful considering AT don't really have the space to do something like this on a roller coaster scale.

[Maseyg123]

I went to an Aquarium in Cheshire Oaks not long ago- the huge window into the tank (which was used as a theatre showing divers and sharks etc...) was made of plastic! I can't see thick plastic breaking from vibrations? Surely the fish can survive vibrations? I mean, there are earthquakes and volcanoes under the sea all the time, right?

[Danny]

They should partly re make sonic, re paint it blue and include various block brakes throuout and have the tanks around the block brakes, like crush's coaster but where they are looking at the amazing theming, sonic spinball you'll be looking at real fish and sharks. If the ride is lengthened slightly and certain parts changed it could work!

[Georgie]

I had an idea like this as well, with the ride themed around a sea creature with water effects to make it look like the creature is attempting to brake through.  I have some drawings at home which I'll probably post on the creative ideas thread when I get back tomorrow after my week away.  (Including my first trip to the Towers)

[SpecyBeast]

So essentially it's this type of ride, however a Coaster instead of a Flume, it would work but i think the current space will only currently be able to situate a family coaster.