Star Voyager is the newest thrill ride at Marineland in Canada. This is North
America’s only Zierer star shape, which is a visually stunning flat ride. But does it offer
a wild and out-of-control ride experience? Find out in this review of Star Voyager.
Marineland hadn’t added a new ride since Ocean Odyssey in 2010. This decade long drought was
broken by Star Voyager in 2021. A few of these Zierer star shapes had been built in Europe,
most notably Mechanica at Liseberg. But this was the first to make its way to North America.
Star Voyager is located towards the back of Marineland across from Dragon Mountain.
This nearly 100 foot or 30 meter tall pendulum ride looks imposing as it
rotates adjacent to the midway. While the bright red, orange, and yellow paint scheme is flashy,
its vibrance seems to contrast with the rest of the park. The ride’s sign and queue
line have the park’s usual architecture that reminds me of a traditional European village.
This ride doesn’t open with Marineland. It typically opens 30-60 minutes after the park.
I visited on a holiday weekend and this ride was a complete walk-on like almost
every attraction at this park. I’ve never heard of this park getting busy, but even if it does,
this ride does seat up to 25 riders per cycle. 5 vehicles are arranged in a star pattern at the
edge of the arm; hence this ride’s name. The restraints consist of just an
over-the-shoulder harness. It’s snug yet comfortable. The one thing to note is the
upper section comes close to your ears, which can cause some headbanging that I’ll touch on later.
Once the floor lowers, the vehicles start to rotate backwards.
At the same time, the giant pendulum slowly starts to rock back-and-forth twice.
Both these motions are slow at the start. But there is also a 3rd dimension of motion.
The arms can also rock. The second half swing usually results in a violent snap downwards.
Now things get interesting. The arm starts to rotate a full 360 degrees.
You get 3 rotations going forwards. Most of the thrills come when you’re thrown towards
the ground. This motion offered the scary visual diving towards pavement combined with sustained
floater airtime. It reminded me of the diving sensation you get on a booster style attraction.
More often than not, I would remain upright for this motion. So on the pullout, I would
often snap backwards. This aggressive rock had some tenacity to it, but it could lead to a
little headbanging from the abruptness. If you inverted during the revolution,
you’d typically start to rotate slowly, getting some hangtime, before snapping back upright.
I never experienced any rapid flips like you can get on a ride like a top scan.
After the 3rd full revolution, the pendulum arm pauses at the top.
But the star arms continue to spin for 30 seconds. This motion isn’t the least bit wild and it offers
a reprieve from the intensity, but it allows you to appreciate the awesome view of the park.
These visuals were present during the full revolutions,
but you struggled to appreciate them flipping and spinning in every which direction.
The main arm then starts revolving in the opposite direction. You again have 3 full revolutions. They
didn’t seem quite as fast and had less airtime, but they otherwise offered similar forces and
visuals. So they were still mighty disorienting. You then slowly lower back down, ending the nearly
2.5 minute long experience. Like many flats at Marineland, this one has a fairly long cycle.
Two forces surprisingly missing from this attraction were positive Gs and laterals.
I was surprised the pullouts didn’t have the positive forces you experience on most
pendulum rides of this scale. But you don’t rotate fast enough. Then the spinning isn’t
fast enough to induce laterals like a top scan. It’s more there to make the ride feel random.
So what would I rate Star Voyager? I would give this thrill ride an 8 out of 10. This
is a really nice attraction. This ride feels like a slower booster crossed with a frisbee.
Between the awesome visuals and disorienting motion, this ride delivers a unique experience
few flats can match. While the ride may not be quite as intense as it looks, it is the park’s
most intense attraction and it certainly throws you around enough between the airtime, occasional
hangtime, and long cycle. I had previously ridden one other star shape in Mechanica at Liseberg,
but Star Voyager had a stronger and faster ride experience start to finish.
I’m glad Marineland finally got a new attraction and I hope they continue to get more.
So those are my thoughts on Star Voyager, the only Zierer star shape in North America.
What are your thoughts on this flat or any of the other star shapes out there?
Let me know in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you gave
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more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!