MAKO Weightless at SeaWorld

Posted on 06/17/2016 | About Orlando, Florida

I was recently in Orlando to check out SeaWorld’s new steel hypercoaster ride - Mako. Billed as the tallest, longest and fastest roller coaster in Orlando, Mako opened to the public June 10. The ride mimics the movement of the Mako shark, known for its great speed and agility, cruising along at 56 kph (35 mph) but accelerating to speeds of 96.5 kph (60 mph) when pursuing its prey.

Mako reaches a height of (or a drop of) 60 meters (200 feet), covers almost 1.6 km (a mile), and reaches a speed of 117 kph (73 mph).
The queue starts in an area called Shark Wreck Reef, which appears to be under a pier, with a shipwreck as the loading station.
It was at that point that I experienced inertia, the tendency of an object (moi) to resist change in its state of motion.
I offered to hold people’s bags while they braved Mako.
Riders sit four-in-a-row in cars marked with the five gills characteristic of the Mako. There are no shoulder straps, rather individual lap belts to allow freedom of the upper body.
Once in position, the music changes, there’s an explosion of strobe lights, and passengers morph into an apex predator as Mako shoots forward.
Brian Morrow, creative director said, “This is an airtime monster with nine perfect moments of airtime.” Airtime is the experience of a negative gravity force - weightlessness.
There are no inversions and to that Morrow said, “You don’t have to be upside down to have fun. This is about fun.”
Mako sharks are known for their speed and ability to change direction or even jump out of the water. The Mako ride includes a series of hills and changes of speed as well as the experience of g force (measurement of acceleration of speed that causes weight).
Mike Denninger, senior director of design and engineering said that a hammerhead turn (a coaster component that ironically names a shark species) is also an element of the ride. That is a 180° turn followed by a twist in the opposite direction, after which the train exits the turn in a second 180° turn.
He described the Mako experience as ‘smooth’ and having just participated in an event for the Make a Wish Foundation, he referred to a six-year-old girl who was terrified for the first three hills. After that, she couldn’t stop smiling.
When the people from my group returned from the ride they were unanimous in their description that Mako was the smoothest ride they had ever been on.
One woman said, “I felt like I could focus on the thrill of the ride. It was the first ride where I had my arms up in the air the whole time.”
With regard to Morrow’s comment that the hills were fun, the people I spoke to were inclined to agree!