The Spider
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| Location: South Midway |
| Built By: Maurer Söhne |
| Model: Xtended SC-2000 |
| Built In: 2003 |
| Size: 78 feet x 146 feet |
| Ride Height: 53 feet |
| Track Length: 1,414 feet |
| Ride Capacity: 900 riders per hour |
| Number of Cars: 8 |
| Riders per Car: 4 |
| Speed: 38 mph |
| Cost: $2.97 million |
| Height Requirements: Riders under 46" in height may not ride. Riders 46" to 50" in height must be accompanied by a responsible person. |
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The Spider is Lagoon's spinning roller coaster located next to Fire Dragon and Wicked.
Ride Details
When Lagoon decided to bring it's coaster count to 6 they didn't want just any roller coaster. They wanted to put a spin on a classic ride and install a unique roller coaster. And so in 2003 Lagoon decided to add the Spider - the first spinning roller coaster in North America.
Guests are greeted by a large spider that stands over the entrance to the area surrounding the ride. Every so often the spider spits out water from it's mouth spraying unsuspecting guests passing underneath.
The entrance queue has a castle which houses stairs to take those waiting in line up to the loading station. Once at the station you get to choose whether you want to ride the lift hill forwards or backwards. Every car has four seats.
After the initial drop and first turn, the cars approach a release mechanism that releases the lock on the car preventing it from spinning. For the remainder of the ride, the cars spin freely based on the weight in the vehicle and the turns it makes. Each car is capable of spinning up to 20 times a minute with the right weight.
Elements to Spider include an 82 degree embankment, a 360 degree carousel turn, and a slalom track. Every ride on Spider is unique because the position of the seats are never in the same spot while traveling through the ride.
Interesting Facts
The name originally picked for Spider was the Spider and the Fly. The cars, representing flies, would spin around large spiders inside of the ride's enclosure, but the longer name was dropped and the name of the ride simply became Spider. One fascinating thing about this though is that the paint job for the Spider cars was completed before the decision to shorten the name. Therefore, you can still see the original logo created for the ride with the full name painted on each car.
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