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Fuji-Q Highland


JoshC.

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Kind of surprised we didn't have a Fuji-Q thread to be honest. 

 

Not sure if anyone on the forums has been (maybe @Benin or @BenC ?), but of course, it's a park well known for breaking records and just general being a bit over the top insane.   

 

One of their most well known coasters is Dodonpa, a S&S launch coaster with a launch of 0-107mph in 1.8 seconds.  The park have recently announced, however, that they are going to be retracking Dodonpa, with rumours circulating they they'll be adding a loop.  And given Fuji's fetish for records, the world's tallest loop doesn't seem out of the question!  The ride will close next month and reopen next summer.

 

Source:  http://www.fujiq.jp/special/oyasumi-dodonpa/

Important translation:

 Of the current course layout 


last chance to ride in the "Dodonpa"!

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I've had a bit of a thing for this park since I first heard about it a few years ago. 

 

I don't think it does theming or atmosphere very well, but that seems to be made up by its selection of coasters.

 

All of them seem bizarre - but very enjoyable!  Especially Dodonpa, that's been very high up on my bucket list for years - as has Eejanaika and Fujiyama and Takabisha!

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  • 5 months later...
54 minutes ago, BaronC. said:

Whilst Dodonpa is out of action, the park have decided to offer a VR experience recreating the coaster to compensate...

 

C34FLVtVMAQKmco.jpg

 

And, because Japan, desk fans are provided to help simulate the launch.  Just wow.

That is just sad...

 

And those poor people have probably waited at least 2hrs for that (as Fuji Q apparently have some of the worst operations ever known, they make PA look like Europa).

 

EDIT: it just dawned on me that there are no lap bars, so my sentence about them waiting probably isn't true.

Edited by 'Airtime Falcon'
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  • 2 months later...

So, details about new Dodonpa have been revealed...

 

-Firstly, the park have decided to rename the ride Do Dodonpa, because why not?

 

-The airtime hill has indeed been replaced by a vertical loop, with the following stats:

1)  49m / 160ft tall, making it the second tallest inverting loop on a roller coaster.

2)  39.7m in diameter, making it the largest diameter of any loop on a roller coaster.  Previous record was 38.8m apparently.

 

So we now have parks competing for the 'World's tallest loop', 'World's tallest inverting loop' and 'World's largest diameter loop' records.  What is the industry coming to ey...

 

Oh, and Do Dodonpa now goes a tiny bit fastest, with an acceleration of 0-111mph in 1.8 seconds, rather than 107mph.  Yay!

 

And here's a testing video, featuring weirdly awesome launch noise:

 

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  • 1 month later...

Makes sense though.

 

Adding a stupid loop with trims before it and a kicker wheel mid inversion is one thing.

 

Imagine how much money and effort you'd have to spend in order to put wider or longer trains on Dodonpa.

 

1) Completely rebuild the launch system to be able to handle the increased weight, that's even if air powered launches could perform the insanity Dodonpa's launch offers with more weight involved.

2) Redesign the braking and blocking systems.

3) Wider or longer trains would mean redesigning the station, maintenance area and transfer tracks.

 

Probably be easier to just build a whole new ride!

 

As for the restraints however, WHY?!

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  • 10 months later...

I’ve just read through this thread, I’m guessing nobody on here has been before? 

I plan to go during my trip to Japan in November as we are staying close by.

Interestingly they’ve decided to make the park free entry (from June onwards) and then pay for individual rides instead. Suits me! However likely to make the park itself busier.

And they also have one of the longest (the longest?) scare mazes in existence, I think it’s nearly 1km! Wonder what the guest actor ratio is like....

I have heard about the horrendously slow operations from a few people, so will certainly buy fastpass for everything.

Will report back my thoughts on the rides

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I've honestly no idea if they have a Fastpass tbh, if they do it's probably worth it's weight in gold...

 

They do some form of ERT, but not sure if it's exclusive for hotel guests though, might be worth an investigation...

 

Though if they've gone for the pay-per-ride model all of that might well mean nothing anymore... So good luck...

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Ive recently visited and it waa AMAZING there absolutely loved it and was lucky enough to have great views of mt fuji for most of the day.

 

Yes they sell fast passes we went to a ticket booth there each ¥1000 for the roller coaster and you enter through prioty pass lines some are kind of like exits some randomly join up at a later point in the general queue.

 

I would highly recommend the fast passes and buy them as soon as possible they sell out quick because we didnt buy them up earlier we missed out on takabisha due to not buying fast passes earlier.

 

I agree the operations are slow we waited 45 minutes for the rapids! And longer for roller coasters.

 

The merchandise is great and the rides are just immense, makes me wish the UK theme parks would step up there game.

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  • 6 months later...

I went to Fuji-Q highland in late November this year on a weekday, here are my thoughts.

 

We got the priority (fast pass) tickets for the main coasters, despite arriving at the park at midday and leaving at around 3/4pm we had no issues getting them for the times we wanted. Their website is hideously complicated and you need a Japanese credit card to buy fast pass online, so just buy them on the day or as an add on through one of the popular tour websites (I got my ticket through voyagin).

 

You don’t go to this park for theming. It’s quite like a fairground in that way, there aren’t themed ‘lands’ from what I could see. It’s essentially the opposite of Disneysea in that it has no theming and it’s all about the rides. On to those...

 

Do-Dodonpa - great ride, the launch is so fast you can barely react and wow you’re outside already. Aged well considering it’s 17 or so years old. Would defo like to ride again!

Fujiyama - god this ride made Colossus look smooth. It’s an old coaster and it felt like it. It’s quite a long coaster which is good but it was very uncomfortable to ride. They were running one car and the loading times were super slow, I can see why the queues take forever.

Takabisha- not a fan of the sequencing on the steep part, it actually seemed like it wasn’t as exciting as e.g. obvlivion at Alton Towers. Nice little launch near the start. The ride itself is very similar to Saw, definitely it’s long lost twin, just with no theming. 

Eejanaika was sadly down for maintenance.

 

So in summary it was a fun way to spend a few hours. It’s not a ‘pretty’ park by any means, though the view to Mt Fuji was spectacular. I would recommend the priority passes if you do go! If you’ve been to eg six flags and/or europapark maybe this isn’t a must do park but it’s worth the trip if you’re in the area.

 

 

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