Steel Taipan is the signature coaster at Dreamworld in Australia.
At first glance, this ride looks like a clone of Europa Park’s Blue Fire, but it has some
key differences.
First, it features a swing launch and a twisted spike.
Second and more importantly, it features a spinning row in back.
Do these enhance the ride experience?
Find out in this review of Steel Taipan.
Dreamworld was devastated by a 2016 accident on their Thunder River Rapids Ride.
After the investigation concluded, the park removed the ill-fated water ride and in 2019,
the park announced that a major new steel coaster would take its place.
This would be a near-clone of Blue Fire at Europa Park.
Blue Fire opened in 2009 and it signaled a new era for Mack Rides.
This was a diverse coaster featuring a launch, 4 inversions, and some airtime hills.
Add in a super smooth ride and it’s no surprise why the ride has been a hit.
It’s not only one of the premier rides at Europa Park, but the exact layout has been
cloned 8 times worldwide.
Four of these clones can be found in China.
A fifth was ordered for an unspecified park in China, but the deal fell through.
This is where Dreamworld comes in.
They purchased this coaster, which allowed them to get the ride on a reduced timeline.
But there would be some changes to the base layout as I noted at the start.
Blue Fire features a single launch that accelerates riders to 62 mph or 100 kph.
Steel Taipan would have a swing launch with 3 smaller launches- 2 forwards and 1 backwards.
And the ride’s top speed was increased to 65 mph or 105 kph.
After that backwards launch, there would be a twisted spike.
This element specifically would increase the ride’s max height from 125 feet or 38 meters
to 128 feet or 39 meters.
More interestingly, one train received a spinning car.
I’m unsure whether this feature was originally requested by the Chinese park or Dreamworld,
but I am guessing it was requested by the latter.
The Gold Coast theme parks have developed a reputation for gimmicky back rows on their
most recent coasters.
These seats add a different, but highly marketable experience that has been made into an upcharge.
DC Rivals Hypercoaster at Warner Bros. Movie World started the trend with a backwards row
in 2017.
Then Sea World’s Leviathan was also announced to feature a backwards row.
So I suspect Dreamworld saw the trend and hopped on it with their newest coaster.
The ride was always going to be themed to a snake.
The park trademarked two names Hiss-teria and Steel Taipan.
And thank goodness they picked the latter.
It’s a far better name!
Taipans are the world’s most venomous snake, so it’s a fitting name for a big coaster
like this.
One thing that did change from the initial renderings was the landscaping around the
area.
The announcement video showed a lot of trees and rockwork in the ride’s area.
This was scaled back.
The area under the course looks a bit unfinished.
It’s a lot of dirt.
Only a few trees were planted and they’re quite small as of this recording.
Then, only two valleys got small rock tunnels, but these do look very nice.
One cool addition was the midway approaching the attraction.
It is this covered walkway.
The roof is designed to look like a snake’s vertebrate.
Then landscaping aside, the coaster looks great.
I love the shade of orange.
This coaster really catches your eye as you pull into Dreamworld’s parking lot.
It’s the closest coaster to the main entrance and many people understandably make this ride
their first stop.
I visited Dreamworld on a pretty quiet day.
Steel Taipan was running just one train.
Despite this, the coaster was no more than a 1-2 train wait for most of the day.
The coaster did have a half hour wait for the first two hours, so this is one to return
to in the afternoon.
There are a few additional ways to beat the crowds though.
First, this coaster features a single rider line.
You can access it from the start of the line and few people were using it, so it seems
like a great timesaver when the ride is busy.
Second, this ride accepts the park’s Ride Express skip-the-line service.
This is a paid system and should get you on the ride in 2-3 cycles maximum.
Third, you can pay for the spinning seat.
You reserve a half hour window, but from what I saw, they were not strictly enforcing the
time as long as you had one.
From what I saw, people didn’t have to wait more than a cycle or two for this experience.
This is an extra fee and will cost you $25 per person per ride.
But I think it’s a must experience.
I saw more people doing it than the backwards rows at the other Gold Coast parks.
A few notes on the process to actually try it.
First, the spinning seats are only on one of the two trains.
So you need to make sure you are not visiting Dreamworld when that particular train is undergoing
its annual refurbishment.
From what I’ve seen, this seems to take place around Q1.
For us, the maintenance was actually extended a week and we had to shift a few activities
around to get to Dreamworld on a day when it was available.
Second, you can either purchase your time at the park’s main gift shop or online.
If you buy it at the gift shop, you are given a wristband.
The operators mark it after you’ve been on the attraction.
If you buy your ticket online, you need to stop at the Fairytale Treasures gift shop
to get your wristband.
This is off the entry plaza adjacent to the pathway to Steel Taipan.
Each train has 5 cars.
On the standard train, each car has 2 rows of 2 to accommodate a max of 20 guests.
The train with the spinning car can accommodate just 18 passengers.
The first four cars have 2 rows of 2, but the back car has just two spinning seats.
This is to accommodate the increased clearance needed for the rotation.
When you reach the load platform, the attendant will assign you a seat.
They would have 2-3 train’s worth of people batched on the load platform.
The attendants are happy to accommodate row requests.
Excluding the spinning car, I have a slight preference for row 1.
But every seat on this coaster is a winner.
Once it’s your turn to board, everything must go in the bins off to the side.
This includes bags, anything in your pockets, and even glasses with a strap.
This is standard protocol for Australian thrill rides.
You then board your familiar Mack trains.
These are the same ones seen on their launch and mega coasters.
You have a raised seat with a snug, but comfortable lap bar.
Then for redundancy, this ride has RFID seatbelts.
Do not buckle these yourself.
They must be done by staff members and they have to tap the backside of the vehicle to
confirm it’s engaged.
I’m now going to outline the ride experience.
I will start with my standard element by element breakdown, assuming you’re in the forward-facing
seats.
I will return to the spinning aspect afterwards.
Once checked, you turn out of the station and pause on the launch track.
The switch track behind you moves into place.
The operators will then come over the speaker and give you a countdown.
This leads to launch 1.
The single launch on Blue Fire is quite good.
It has some rare oomph for a Mack launch.
The initial launch on Steel Taipan builds up decent speed, but it only has a slight
kick to it.
But it’s still better than something like the launches on Copperhead Strike or Capitol
Bullet Train.
You then stall out on the ride’s giant turnaround.
I figured this would give some weightlessness, but it didn’t do too much.
It feels like a spike on a Vekoma family boomerang.
You then awkwardly coast backwards for what seems like an eternity.
There’s a lot of straight track before you re-engage with the LSM fins.
Those are pretty close to the station.
The second launch has a solid kick to it.
You can’t quite see when it will start, so it sort of jerks your body over the lap
bar.
Then comes the twisted spike.
It only gave a pinch of weightlessness.
The spike is fairly gradual.
Compare that to a vertical spike where you get a considerable amount of float.
What I liked best about this element was the pullout.
It delivered a very strong surge of positive Gs on both passes.
This will cause your lap bar to tighten if you had any room, but the operators usually
had it firmly against my lap anyway.
The third launch honestly feels like nothing.
The speed boost is pretty minimal.
Now comes the usual Blue Fire layout.
You have this giant turnaround.
You slow down mightily at the apex, resulting in some lateral hangtime.
You get more of this up front.
In back, you get some whip on the descent to compensate.
The pullout heads through a rock tunnel, much like Blue Fire, and you get some solid Gs.
This is immediately followed by the ride’s largest inversion, a big vertical loop.
You get some hangtime over the top, particularly in the front half of the train.
It feels similar to the second loop on Copperhead Strike at Carowinds.
This is followed by a fast and snappy right-hand turn.
It has some decent whip.
You then get a fine blast of positive Gs and rise upwards into a mid-course brake run.
You get some nice floater airtime if you’re up front.
The train cruises through the brake run without slowing down.
Then you have a sharp drop to kick off the second half.
This gives good floater for those in the back row.
You then have a twisted horseshoe roll.
You have two corkscrews broken up by a low turn.
Each inversion offers good hangtime up front.
Those in back get a bit less hangtime, but the element is whippier as a tradeoff.
You then have an s-hill that pierces through the vertical loop.
It offers some fun floater airtime in any row.
You then head around a turn and experience the ride’s best element by far, the inline
twist.
This element is spectacular.
It is one of the world’s best inversions.
It is a super tight and whippy element.
It offers wild laterals and airtime simultaneously.
It reminds me of the mosasaurus roll on Velocicoaster.
You then have one last turn and hit the brakes.
You return to the station ending the 3900 foot or 1200 meter long course, which is a
bit more track than the standard Blue Fire layout.
How does the ride change with the spinning row?
If you’re unfamiliar with the Mack Xtreme spinners, those coasters can have a controlled
spin.
The spin is random, but the controlled part limits the speed.
Meaning they won’t spin like a top like their smaller spinning coasters.
The prototype version of this model in Silver Dollar City’s Time Traveler feels like a
slow rotation.
This was ramped up for Plopsaland’s Ride to Happiness.
On Steel Taipan, the spin is even more gradual than that of Time Traveler if you ride in
pairs.
I maybe made 6 full spins over the course of the ride.
I’ve heard you can get more of a spin if you ride solo, but I was riding with my wife
each time.
What the rotation does is it changes your point of reference.
You still experience some elements forwards, but you take many of them sideways or backwards.
Now I want to highlight some elements that improved notably.
One of the biggest beneficiaries was the twisted spike.
This was the one part where you’d reliably rotate and it made the twist extra disorienting.
Another element where you routinely spun was the top of the big turnaround.
It makes the lateral hangtime even cooler when you’re possibly dangling towards the
ground.
The airtime moments get notably better if you take them backwards.
They’ll give you a bit of a falling sensation.
Then the last 3 inversions improve as well.
The two corkscrews feel like an acrobatic flip.
Then that final inversion is godly.
Taking that inline twist sideways or backwards took my breath away.
It feels totally out-of-control.
That was especially the case on my final ride when we spun through it.
Getting those laterals and centripetal force simultaneously is one-of-a-kind.
It truly feels like you’ll be ejected from the train.
This spin also helps with the pacing.
There are a few points where the ride lets its foot off the gas for an instant, namely
the mid-course and turns.
But overall, this coaster keeps you engaged start to finish.
Then in terms of smoothness, every single row on this coaster is glossy smooth.
There wasn’t a hint of a rattle or discomfort.
So what would I rate Steel Taipan?
I would give this coaster a 9 out of 10.
This is a very good multi-launch coaster.
I love how varied the layout is.
You get a little of everything- launches, airtime hills, and inversions.
This results in you getting pretty much any coaster sensation you could want- positives,
negative Gs, hangtime, laterals, and lateral hangtime.
Then the spinning car elevates the experience to that excellent tier.
It adds so much reridability and it adds an out-of-control element.
As I noted, it’s not the spinning that does it.
It’s the different orientation- whether it be sideways or backwards.
So how is the experience compared to Mack’s other coasters.
I would take Steel Taipan’s forwards row over Blue Fire by a slim margin.
I like the backwards launch and spike a bit more than the single launch, but it’s darn
close.
As for the spinning seats, this ride does not come close to matching the insanity of
Ride to Happiness.
However, I think the experience is a bit better than Time Traveler.
While you don’t have that awesome vertical drop of a hillside setting, I think the Steel
Taipan’s layout has more to it.
That spinning car makes it a borderline top 50 steel coaster for me and one of the best
coasters in all of Australia.
So those are my thoughts on Steel Taipan at Dreamworld.
What are your thoughts on this coaster?
And if you’ve ridden this coaster, let me know if you’ve been able to experience the
spinning car.
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