The Great Dipper (also known as The Old Dipper) is a wooden roller coaster located at Paradoxpark amusement park in Central Robloxia, United States. The Great Dipper is the most current wooden roller coaster in the United States to open to the public, having been built by Oscar Simmons and designed by Zachary Berry, Abhaydatta Carter, and Salerio Ramos. It had its public debut on August 12, 2022 as part of the 2022–23 season. The ride was formerly the world's quickest, longest, and smoothest wooden roller coaster, although it had some rough sections on some of the tracks. The roller coaster, unlike other wooden coasters, used all of the elements that are typically present in a regular wooden roller coaster, including small turns, small bumps, rough parts, numerous of air time, and even features several overbanked turns. This makes the roller coaster the only wooden roller coaster and the only roller coaster to feature all of the elements that are featured in a regular roller coaster.
The Great Dipper's development started concurrently with the building of the new theme park Paradoxpark, and plans for a wooden roller coaster date back to 2017. However, the idea didn't start to take shape until early 2020, not long after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a halt to theme park construction. The ride was originally intended to be longer than the longest roller coaster at the time, but plans were shelved owing to a lack of available space. Designers Abhaydatta Carter and Salerio Ramos were brought on board to assist with the roller coaster in order to help address the issue with the space and the design of the ride itself. By January 2021, work on the coaster had begun, and it was finally finished in time for the park's opening day.
Just three months after the park opened, on August 11, 2022, The Great Dipper debuted. The next day, the ride was opened to the public. The ride's grand inauguration turned into Paradoxpark's inaugural significant occasion. The ride received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with many praising its turns, respect for traditional wooden roller coasters, and track design. Most of the praise was reserved for the smooth parts of the ride, which most critics, including The Theme Park Reviewer critic Arthur O'Moore dubbed the "smoothest ride in the world" despite the fact that it had some rough spots. The Great Dipper has been one of the most well-liked rides in the theme park since it opened, and on May 2, 2023, as a result of its enormous popularity and great acclaim, the attraction officially became the hallmark of the theme park because of its size and height.
Development
Ride experience
The ride starts off with an instant slow drop to a cave below, where the train passes through smoke and does a full circle while descending. It then slows down and arrives at the first chain lift hill. After climbing the 161-foot (49-meter) hill for more than 45 seconds, the train turns around and heads back in the same direction before making a complete 180-degree turn to the right and accelerating 156 feet (47 meters) downward before entering a tunnel and ascending to the top before returning through another tunnel. The train then ascends a very steep slope before making a jerky right bend and ascending until it passes through a short but lengthy wooden tunnel to reach its first block of brakes. Rarely, the train may pause so that the others can board before reversing direction and speeding back down the tracks. However, the train will often continue on its course, moving down, before turning repeatedly to the right and left, making a nearly 160-degree circle, before returning to its normal course, making a short dip, and reaching the top of a steep hill.
In order to get to the next drop, which went into the third and final tunnel, the trains had to make a number of twists after ascending the hill, the last of which was a sharp 240-degree turn to the left. The ride's toughest section happened when the train made a large left turn while descending a hill, passing an on-board camera. This is when the train gently turned to the right at the slope. The track gradually returns to a straight line as it rises up a little after the bend. The train then makes a little right bend, travels over a short dip, and then ascends a hill with four bumps, all of which cause the train to go slowly. It turns left and descends after reaching the peak. It then ascends, makes a hard left turn, then swings to the right before turning into a straight line. Before halting in front of the second chain lift hill, the train makes another 180-degree turn. The train ultimately ascends the hill after a long wait, reaching a height of 139 feet, before slowly completing a second 180-degree turn and subsequently down the rails by more than 137 feet.
The train then turns one last 180 degrees and ascends a hill before descending it. The same element is repeated once more before the trip comes to a finish with a left turn and a halt.