I n c r e d i b l e H u l k
Coaster Statistics
Location: Islands of Adventure, Orlando, Florida
Layout: Steel Freeform
Features: Multielement , Catapult Launch
Type: Sit-Down
Year Opened: 1999
Track Length: 3800 feet (1140 meters)
Top Speed: 60 mph (96.6 kph)
Inversions: 7
Number of Trains : 3
Designed By: Werner Stengel
Manufactured By: Bolliger and Mabillard
Note: The Incredible Hulk opened in 1999 as the world-reknowned Bolliger and Mabillard's first launched roller coaster. As a result, the ride is also the most visible ride in the park and glows green at night.
Looming high above the park and easily one of the most recognizeable structures on the Islands Of Adventure horizon, The Incredible Hulk stands beckoning the brave in a luscious layout that ranks as one of the most aesthetically pleasing for a rollercoaster. By day, its graceful curves and powerful lines are a magnet for thrillseekers. By night, the tracks and trains glow and spark with eerie light. According to Marvel Super Hero Island director/designer Mark Watson, the Hulk was "brought out on stage" for even non-riders to enjoy.
Once you mince under the throbbing tracks and into the lab of Bruce Banner, you're assaulted in various shades and variations of green. You're pretty sure that some of that equipment is oozing goo and as the queue spirals higher and higher, Banner's voice can be heard as he conducts experiments that somehow or another, you know are going to end up bad. Attempting to purge himself of his primal altar-ego The Hulk, Dr. Banner is testing out gamma-ray acceleration (using us as guinea pigs) to see if his days of duality are over. Why do those nice guy scientists always have to pull us into things?
Watching shiny green vehicles disappear into the Gamma Force Accelerator and then, accompanied by shrill screams and silent, sickening whooosh, the tube is cleared and another 32-passenger train pulls into the station. This is a highly curious thing to experience, if you don't know what's going on inside that tube, but it doesn't take long to find out. Only the purely oblivious could miss
Once settled into the seat, it's a slow crawl into the accelerator and then up the steep incline studded with dozens of pinch-roller tire combinations. What those little guys are doing is grabbing the metal brake fins on the bottom of the trains and at the appropriate moment, they will torque into high gear and send the train shooting up and forward at a rate of 0 to 40 m.p.h. in two seconds. You'll know when it's about to happen. It's usually when someone says, "when are we gonna gooOOOOO?!" and suddenly, that booster thrust is on you--launching you with the force of an Air Force F-16 fighter attack jet. Spitting you out into bright sunlight and flipping you over like a hamburger some 100 feet above the ground in a heartline inversion that is unfairly placed at the end of the world's largest pea-shooter. Then, if that's not enough to have you clutching your heart, you plunge down 105 feet and reach a speed of 60 m.p.h. before strafing the lake, sending up a fine sheet of spray before hurtling up into a mammoth boomerang element.
The Hulk throws you through so many huge elements in a row that you can't help but gasp as you enter a loop and then plunge beneath the surface of the footbridge into the area, but you're not even halfway done yet. Utilizing imaginative landscaping, the B&M team is able to milk yet even more stomach-fluttering air-time (especially a sudden drop off the mid-course brake that's completely out-of-control) and tear-inducing G-forces.
Finally, having expended all of that excess adrenaline left over from the hair-raising launch into Inyer Face, the sleek green beast tromps back into the station and wimps out again, allowing you to step out and escape to the primary-colored streets of Marvel Super Hero Island, where green is just another shade.
The Incredible Hulk is simply incredible, the ride never lets up. Islands of Adventure opened their 1999 theme park with the most important attention to detail, this roller coaster is a prime example of that expertise.
