Merlin’s Mayhem is the newest roller coaster at Dutch Wonderland and arguably its star
attraction.
This family inverted coaster dominates the center of the park with its bright yellow
track and swooping turns.
And Dutch Wonderland went the extra mile to plus this attraction with some theming and
on-board audio.
So does this coaster make Dutch Wonderland worth visiting?
Find out in this review of Merlin’s Mayhem.
For over 2 decades, Kingdom Coaster was the star attraction at Dutch Wonderland.
The first CCI wood coaster runs along the perimeter of the park, attracting visitors
off Lincoln Highway.
But late in 2016, Dutch Wonderland began teasing a new addition and on November 1, 2016, the
park announced Merlin’s Mayhem, a family inverted coaster that looked similar to the
ones built by Vekoma.
Except this ride was from S&S Sansei instead.
To date, it is the only family inverted coaster S&S has built and it was originally supposed
to open for the summer of 2017.
But that never happened.
Like several of S&S’s most recent coaster installations, Merlin’s Mayhem was delayed.
And this was a long delay.
Like GaleForce, Merlin’s Mayhem was delayed a full year until 2018.
The rumored reason for the ride’s delays was the state taking a while to sign off on
the ride due to its interactions with the Sky Ride.
Merlin’s Mayhem passes both over and under the Sky Ride at several points over its 1300
feet or 400 meters of track.
The ride sits on the old home of the park’s Turnpike car ride, which was relocated in
2014 to Exploration Island in the back of the park.
This cleared a giant plot in the center of the park for Merlin’s Mayhem and the ride
has a commanding presence next to the midways.
The coaster cost $7.5 million, which seemed like a lot for a coaster of this scale, but
that figure likely included the theming this coaster received.
The ride is themed to Merlin’s pet dragon named Mayhem.
While Merlin loved his dragon, Mayhem was always getting into trouble and one day he
flew away.
So Merlin needs everyone’s help to catch his beloved pet.
It’s a simple premise, but it works for a park like Dutch Wonderland and the queue
line tells this story.
You have a goofy video plus a few banners showing Mayhem’s mishaps.
The ride has a castle themed entrance and the queue is designed to take place in a castle
courtyard.
The one criticism I have with this queue is that outside of the switchbacks, there is
no roof or netting to protect you from the blazing hot sun.
And there’s a decent chance you’ll have to wait a little bit.
The ride runs just one train and usually has dispatches approaching 5 minutes.
As a result, the ride has had roughly a half hour wait in my two visits since the coaster
opened.
Once you reach the end of the line, the grouper will admit just enough people to fill the
next train into the castle.
If you want to wait for a specific row, the park is more than happy to allow you to wait
an extra cycle.
The coaster is similar across all rows in terms of forces, but I slightly prefer the
front for the superior visuals.
The staging area is filled with all sorts of theming, but your view of the station itself
is blocked by these giant doors with your row number on them.
Once the station is completely clear of everyone from the prior train, the doors open revealing
the ride’s trains.
It’s a neat reveal that gives the ride a mysterious atmosphere.
And those trains have a lot of similarities to the rolling stock on the Vekoma family
suspended coasters.
These trains have 10 rows, seating a maximum of 20 riders and they are extremely open.
You just have a seatbelt with a minimalistic lap bar.
So your entire upper body is free.
The only thing I noticed with the trains is that the seats were rather narrow, but they
were otherwise quite comfortable.
But if that is what helped get the ride a super low 39 inch height requirement, I am
all for it.
That allows a lot of kids as young as age 4 to ride this coaster.
Once the ride begins, you climb up the lift and hear the ride’s on-board audio.
My one gripe with the audio- and it’s one other rides are guilty of too- is that it
was really difficult to hear for a majority of the ride.
I struggled to hear any of it over the wind, so I only heard it ascending the lift and
while on the brake run.
Once atop the 60 foot or 18 meter lift, you travel down this small pre-drop.
And if you’re in the back, this pre-drop delivers a surprising amount of whip despite
its small size.
That’s followed by the ride’s largest drop, which has been coined the reversing
horseshoe drop.
Basically it’s a 180 degree turn that morphs into a drop.
The turn itself is rather tight and offers some decent positive Gs for those towards
the front of the train and it includes an exciting near-miss as you pass over the Sky
Ride.
But the drop itself isn’t too thrilling as it’s rather shallow.
You then zip around a turn above a pond.
The turn isn’t very forceful, but it’s a visually pleasing element as you skim over
the water and dodge the supports.
The train then passes under the lift hill and navigates a 270 degree upwards helix.
And this element offers some good positive Gs regardless of where you’re sitting.
It’s easily the ride’s most forceful moment.
This is immediately followed by a graceful dive into a smoke-filled tunnel.
This drop is too shallow to offer any airtime, but the minimal clearance of the tunnel combined
with the smoke makes the element memorable.
You then rise out of the tunnel and are pretty much out of speed, so you meekly round one
last turn and hit the brakes, ending the ride.
Merlin’s Mayhem isn’t super long, but it’s about inline with other suspended or
inverted coasters like this from other manufacturers.
In terms of smoothness, Merlin’s Mayhem is quite smooth.
You feel a slight vibration on 2-3 turns, but it caused zero discomfort for me.
In terms of pacing, Merlin’s Mayhem feels comparable to the Vekoma suspended family
coasters.
The ride mixes in an occasional turn with some force, but the ride is mostly about the
visual of flying above the midway.
And Merlin’s Mayhem definitely succeeds in that regard.
So what would I rate Merlin’s Mayhem?
I would give this family invert a 7 out of 10.
For a family park like Dutch Wonderland, it is a very good ride.
The coaster has a low height requirement and offers the perfect amount of thrills to appeal
to young kids without boring older guests.
There are only 1-2 forceful turns, but the ride is more about the awesome visuals, smooth
ride, and feeling of flight.
Plus the theming is icing on the cake.
Compared to the Vekoma family suspended coasters out there, I think Merlin’s Mayhem isn’t
quite as forceful as Dollywood’s Dragonflier, but I do prefer it to the Freedom Flyer layout,
especially when you consider the theming.
While S&S has yet to build another family invert, I wouldn’t mind seeing more!
So those are my thoughts on Merlin’s Mayhem.
Have you been to Dutch Wonderland?
What are your thoughts on this inverted coaster?
I would love to hear your thoughts on the ride down in the comments.
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