The Bay Beach Zippin Pippin has been running smoothly for about two months, it's been all about the ride and not about construction so I haven't been updating the construction blog. I'm happy to report things have been going very smoothly. There were a few initial start up issues, a balky circuit breaker that caused the electrical system to need a break a couple of times during the day early on to avoid overheating. That has since been fixed and the coaster now runs smoothly all day long without interruption. The really big news was the first years attendance projections were easily achieved about half way into the season.
I've been visiting the Pippin roughly once a week or so to get a few rides in. My total ride count is at 48 as of today. I typically stick to the back of the train, the drops are much better in the back. I will occasionally ride in the front, there is actually better airtime in the front but the drops are noticeably slower and less exciting. It's great to see people enjoying the coaster, young and old alike, first timers and coaster veterans all come together and it's a great time.
The big news over the last week is Orion Energy Systems has donated lighting for the Pippin. Up until this point the coaster has been closing at 8:30pm due to lack of lighting. Starting Monday August 8th (the anniversary of Elvis's last ride on the original Pippin) the Zippin Pippin will be lit and stay open until 10pm, one hour later than the rest of Bay Beach. There will be a ceremonial lighting on August 8th and I'll try to attend and get some pictures to post. Yesterday during a visit I took some pictures of the beginning of the light installation. At first I assumed the lights would be up on the structure but after my visit yesterday it's pretty clear the lights will actually be ground mounted spotlights shining up on the structure. This should provide some great dramatic views of the structure at night. At this point in time the concrete bases for the lights are installed along the southern length of the coaster, it appears they will continue all the way around the coaster. The snapshots below show these bases.
I also noticed during this trip that a small mulch and flower area has been added inside of turn 1 and 3, basically right at the base of the stairs as you head up to the loading platform.
Today was the public opening for the Bay Beach Zippin Pippin Roller Coaster in Green Bay Wisconsin. The first ride was reserved for 15 people who entered a contest and had their names drawn along with one guest each. I was at the event along with three of my children. The first official ride with the winners took place right around 9am. Prior to 9:00am a line formed with the first paying customers, we were about tenth in this line. The mayor of Green Bay, Jim Schmitt, the man largely responsible for bringing the Pippin to Green Bay, gave a short talk to the winners about the history of the coaster and it's designer John Miller.
An official from Memphis, the home of the original Zippin Pippin also said a few words, thanked Green Bay for keeping the Zippin Pippin alive and told them to cherish the roller coaster and Bay Beach. The city of Memphis used to have a family friendly amusement park named Libertyland that was closed in 2005.
From our vantage point in line I was able to capture some footage of the first ride, click on the embedded video below to see it.
The first ride was followed by a second train full of special guests, I'm assuming they were some of the donors to the project but I don't know for sure. I snapped this picture as the train was heading to the out and back just above the entrance and the rides sign.
While waiting in line our local ABC affiliate briefly interviewed my son Ryan and he was on the local news, you can see his quote here. It was great to see all of the people young and old enjoying the coaster this morning. I spoke to some small children barely tall enough to ride who loved the ride and also saw a couple probably in their sixties riding with their arms up. This truly is a perfect coaster for Bay Beach and anyone who meets the requirements and wants to ride it can.
About 9:30am they opened the ride to the first paying customers. We were among the 30 people to be on the first train full of paying customers. Lines stayed reasonable through the first couple hours of the morning so we rode the coaster 5 times. Twice in the middle (early in the day they were filling the trains front to back), once in the front seat, and twice in the back car. I'm happy to report all areas of the train give a great ride and good airtime, although the back is the most fun in my opinion.
This coaster really is all about the air time, every hill on the out and back in any section of the train lifts you up out of your seat and against the seat belt and lap bar. If you look at the panorama below you can see after the drop off of turn 3 the hills are quite a bit shorter than that first drop after turn three which creates a lot of momentum and speed as you crest these camel back hills. For reference the drop after turn three is on the far right of the picture with the camel backs following it as you move from right to left.
As we were entering the loading platform for our final ride of the morning I asked the person taking tickets and counting riders with a clicker what the counter was at, she said 720, this is after approximately two hours of riding. Obviously this is the first day and crowds may have been larger than average but 200,000 paying riders doesn't seem out of the question with approximately 100 operating days a season.
We finished off our visit with some turns on some of Bay Beach's classic rides include the swings, the Scrambler, the Tilt-A-Whirls and the giant slide. As we got back in our car and rolled down the windows the roar of the coaster along with the screams of excitement poured into the car. My daughter Karlie commented that it was unbelievable that this was happening in Green Bay and I have to say it does seem too good to be true. Thank you Mayor Schmitt for having the vision to bring this gem to the citizens of Green Bay and any people visiting from out of town. As the Mayor said this morning, this ride will outlive all of us!
Today was my final visit to the Zippin Pippin construction site prior to it's grand opening in less than 2 days. Many final details are being completed at this time. Overall it looks like the Pippin is ready for it's 5/21/11 debut. I plan to be there for the grand opening this Saturday. To see the finishing touches keep reading below. If you want to see the complete photo albums from all of the construction check out the links below, there are now over 1,000 pictures in the albums.
As you move into the queue area you can see posts and chains have been added to create the dreaded out and back lines so more people can be packed into the space. While waiting for the Pippin you are inside the main oval and have a good view of trains moving up the lift hill, coming down the first drop, and exiting to the out and back. It should help build anticipation for riders.
Along the queue area are some signs that I assume will be mounted prior to Saturday. The first sign spells out the rules of the ride, the second is a sign from the original Zippin Pippin in Memphis proclaiming the ride as Elvis's favorite ride.
Here is a close up of the train seats, it is a relatively tight seat, each seat has it's own individual seat belt and lap bar. As you can see there are two locations you can hold on; however, I recommend getting those hands in the air to really enjoy the ride.
