Striking debut for Sea Viper at Palace Playland

Palace Playland, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, has introduced Sea Viper, a new Anaconda model 2.0 from Preston & Barbieri – the first model of its kind in the United States. Sea Viper reaches a top speed of 42 mph, heights of up to 70ft, over a 470m track, with riders arranged two across in two rows of six cars for a total of 24 guests.

We have been getting an overwhelmingly positive response to the new Sea Viper coaster,” reports Palace Playland’s vice president Paul Golder. “Many people comment that it is faster than it looks. We are getting a lot of repeat riders as well. We feel that it is a perfect fit for the size of our park and have been very happy so far. We consider it a ‘Family Plus’ coaster since it is more thrilling than a typical family coaster.

“Preston & Barbieri has been great to work with – they have been very responsive dealing with any questions or issues that have arisen. We could have gone out and spent a lot of money, and still not come away with a better ride for our customers. What impressed us about the Preston Barbieri coaster was the amount of elements in the relatively small footprint.

“For our park, the ride height is very impressive to our guests. That’s almost double the height of our old Galaxi, for comparison. The ride was designed by Andrea Mezzerenghi with P&B, who has an excellent reputation and lengthy career designing coasters.”

Sea Viper has replaced the park’s S.D.C. Galaxi roller coaster, which operated since 1994.