Interactive dark ride roller coaster at Lagoon
Primordial is a 4D, interactive dark ride roller coaster located at Lagoon amusement park in Farmington, Utah, United States. Designed in-house by the park and various engineering teams, the coaster was developed and constructed over a period of eight years.[1]
History
Development
ART Engineering had assisted the park in the design of recent roller coaster projects, namely BomBora (2011) and Cannibal (2015). In 2014, the manufacturer supplied Wonder Mountain's Guardian to Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, an attraction that combined a roller coaster experience with an interactive dark ride.[2] Intrigued by the concept, Lagoon officials began discussing the attraction's merits with ART Engineering as their next major project.[3]
Development began the day after Cannibal opened in July 2015.[4] Per their ongoing partnership with ART and previous experience working on Wonder Mountain's Guardian, Triotech was immediately tapped to supply the media-based elements. Primordial was first trademarked to the United States Patent and Trademark Office as early as August 2017.[5]
Lagoon's team aimed to create a family-friendly roller coaster, avoiding any sinister or menacing overtones.[4] In addition, the park sought to abandon the cliché of chasing enemies. According to park director Julie Freed, "We didn’t want to shoot the bad guy... We wanted to be freeing the good guy.”[1]
Construction
Work began to the north of the park in October 2018, occupying part of their employee parking lot.[6] Over the following year, crews focused on pouring the concrete foundation as well as the central towers that would form the core of the artificial mountain, housing the drop track and slide track. The first track pieces began arriving from Intermountain Lift in 2019.[7] Much of the outdoor descent and helix were set up in October 2022 while the ride's station and buildings outside of the mountain were constructed that winter.[8] Primordial began making test laps in May 2023.[9]
Lagoon lost a year of progress on the attraction due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Representatives also attributed the coaster's long delay to the novelty of the entire system.[10]
Opening
Lagoon officially announced in November 2022 that Primordial would be ready for the 2023 season.[11] With only six weeks left of the season, Primordial officially opened on September 15, 2023.[12] During the remainder of the season, Lagoon passholders were allowed to make reservations to experience Primordial on select afternoons.[13]
Ride Experience
Primordial's storyline takes place in a fantastical kingdom whose day/night cycle is perpetuated by the mystical dragon Dragnor and owl Astradir. When evil forces capture and imprison the two beasts in the Dolomite Mountains, lynx Queen Azdra implores riders to free them in order to restore peace to the realm.[14] Guests are informed of the story through a preshow animatronic of the Queen, and supplied with 3D glasses for the ride.
Disengaging from the loading conveyor, riders make a 165° right hand turn and climb the chain lift hill past a waterfall to a peak height of 85.3 feet (26.0 m). The track leads into the main coaster section, with the train descending through a left-hand turnaround and an upwards clockwise helix. Entering the mountain, the train navigates another turnaround around the drop tower before entering the first gameplay section. The cars then rotate riders to face backwards during the next coaster section, consisting of an S-bend track leading down to the second level of gameplay.
During the next scene the train is directed towards one of two physical endings; a drop track or a sliding track, both of which descend back to ground level. On the slide track, riders can be sent down facing either forwards or backwards.[* 1] Regardless of which path they take, riders are presented with one of two final battle scenes; rescue either Dragnor or Astradir. With four physical endings and two finales, a total combination of six possible endings are available on Primordial.[* 2][12]
- ^ Direction is irrelevant on the drop track, riders only face the right side of the screen during the drop.
- ^ Park director Julie Freed, assuming that the drop track's different directions result in four endings, has attributed the total to eight. Nol van Genuchten of Triotech, however, has referred to the total as six.[3]
Characteristics
Statistics
Primordial is 85.3 feet (26.0 m) tall, 1,985 feet (605 m) long, and reaches a top speed of 40.4 mph (65.0 km/h) throughout the ride. The coaster occupies a 229.7-by-328.1 ft site and sits within a 70,000-square-metre artificial mountain, a footprint 30% larger than that of Cannibal.[15] Over 5,000 square feet of projection screens are used to display the eight interactive scenes.[16]
Trains
Although Lagoon owns ten trains for the coaster, Primordial can operate with nine eight-passenger trains, each of which contains two cars seating four riders in a single row. A joint design between Lagoon and ART, riders board from the front of the car by means of a continuously moving conveyor belt. The cars are able to rotate in order to interact with show scenes, coaster segments, and the station platform.
Each rider's restraint is equipped with a blaster gun, allowing them to engage with gameplay and shoot at targets for points. Triotech engineered a new type of blaster to handle the sudden movements of the coaster, where the gun would have a flexible range of motion during the dark ride sequences but not a safety hazard to its riders.[3]
Contractors
Lagoon worked with more than 50 Utah contractors and suppliers, who contributed to at least 75% of the project.[12] Overall, 65 vendors were involved in the making of Primordial.[1] While Lagoon designed the coaster in-house, ART Engineering was also the primary manufacturer of the ride's hardware. The entire attraction was fabricated in Utah, with the track produced by Intermountain Lift and support columns from Petersen, Inc. Triotech delivered the ride's interactive media, screen-based components, audio, and theming elements, as well as supplying the Queen Azdra lynx animatronic.[4]
In addition, a wide variety of vendors contributed to various technical aspects of Primordial, including;
- Actemium; Supplied the attraction's electrical hardware and control system, including cart rotation.
- Cemrock Landscapes; Aided in designing the artificial mountain.
- LocketGo; Provided double-sided lockers to store loose articles.
- Stengel; Responsible for engineering and fabrication drawings of the coaster hardware.
- Themrise; Manufactured its thematic elements and set pieces.
