Zadra at Energylandia is the world’s tallest hybrid roller coaster.
Built by Rocky Mountain Construction, Zadra is the company’s first hybrid coaster that
didn’t reuse a former coaster’s support structure.
While the ride has the company’s trademark smoothness and incredible elements, Zadra’s
pacing blew me out of the water.
This ride feels completely unhinged in the best way possible.
In this review, I will discuss Zadra and explain why it should make us excited for more fully
custom RMC layouts in the future.
Energylandia is an infant in the amusement industry.
The park opened just 7 years ago in the summer of 2014.
Yet the park already boasts 18 different roller coasters.
Most of the park’s early coasters were clones, but the park made waves in 2018 when they
installed Hyperion, a massive Intamin hyper coaster.
But Energylandia wasn’t done.
In 2019, they opened Zadra, a year earlier than expected.
And this feat was even more remarkable given the fact that Zadra’s structure partially
collapsed in March of that year.
Zadra has a commanding presence on Energylandia’s skyline.
The ride looks like a supersized version of Six Flags Great America’s Goliath.
How tall Zadra stands is debated.
Rocky Mountain Construction has stated that Zadra is 206 feet or 63 meters tall, which
is 1 foot taller than Steel Vengeance.
However, after Iron Gwazi was announced to also be 206 feet tall, Energylandia started
claiming the coaster was 209 feet or 64 meters tall, presumably so it could maintain its
status as the world’s tallest hybrid coaster.
Although the park doesn’t even consider Zadra a steel coaster.
They consider this ride a wood coaster and the merchandise for the ride comically shows
traditional wood coaster track instead of RMC’s distinctive I-box track, but I digress.
Zadra anchors the Smoczy Grod or Dragon Zone section of Energylandia.
And it is an absolute trek to ride Zadra.
Not only is it towards the back of this massive theme park, but Zadra boasts one of the longest
and most frustrating queue lines in the amusement industry.
The entrance is towards the back of Smoczy Grod, but the entire queue takes 7 minutes
to navigate even if there is no one ahead of you in line.
And that was me moving at a brisk pace!
I understand when rides have long queue lines out of necessity.
Take the Bat at Kings Island for example.
That ride’s queue is long, but it’s a straight shot since the ride is all alone
on a dead end.
Zadra’s queue line is unnecessarily complex.
After passing through the entrance sign, you go up and down 3 different flights of stairs.
The purpose of these stairs are to crossover a pathway that Energylandia created that circles
around Zadra.
While that pathway is cool for photographers, it’s puzzling since there are no attractions,
shops, or stands on it.
At the end of these stairs is a second plaza.
You have the Fastpass machines- and to answer your question- yes you have to navigate half
the queue line just to access the machines to get a Fastpass.
And then you have two separate queues.
One to redeem a Fastpass that is a straightforward, 30 second shot the station and another that
is the main standby line.
And this standby line winds its way through Zadra’s structure.
There are some long switchbacks with super tall fences that make it impossible to cut
through if the line is short.
Even when the coaster had a 60 minute wait, the line only filled the final switchback.
I seriously think Zadra’s queue line has enough space to accommodate every single guest
in the park.
Right before the station, there are lockers to store any belongings you cannot take with
you.
Along with the sheer length of the queue line, there are two other aspects about it that
I dislike.
First, the queue line is super wide.
While that sounds awesome at first, it was a line cutter’s dream.
People would effortlessly walk past you since there was no way to block them like a traditional
line.
Second, I do not like the loading system used on Zadra.
Just outside the station are four turnstiles.
These turnstiles are automatic and unmanned.
After each cycle, a monitor above the turnstile displays how many riders can go through.
The left one is for the front row.
This one lets in 2 riders each cycle.
That one makes sense and if it was completely filled, it took roughly an extra half hour
to board.
The second from the left is for single riders.
On paper, that sounds like a great idea to ensure every seat is filled.
But this line lets in 6 riders each time regardless of how many people are from the other rows.
And then once the doors to the station open, this single rider line has access to all rows.
More or less, the single rider line was for rows towards the front of the train.
The two on the right are for listed as all other rows.
The one weird thing is that the rightmost line allows 8 riders through while the second
from the right only allows 6 riders.
And if you’re doing the math, that means Zadra only lets 22 riders through instead
of the 24 that it can accommodate.
Typically the right turnstile will reactivate to then allow 2 extra riders through to fill
the final seats.
So the rightmost line is usually the fastest.
This is a similar system used on Hyperion.
When the doors opened, it was a scramble to get the row you wanted.
The back was my favorite row on Zadra, so I typically would wait at the turnstile so
I was the first one through and first one at the door.
This maximized my odds of getting that row.
I thought the back was the best for forces, but the front was great to experience a few
times as well for the superior sense of speed.
While the load procedure is chaos, the restraint check process is like a well-oiled machine.
If you’ve ever ridden an RMC, you know these trains are a pain to check.
Stacking is almost guaranteed because of how heavy the lap bars are to lift and how the
employees need to check both the seat belts and lap bars.
I’m shocked and proud to say that I never saw Zadra’s crew stack once over the course
of three days, which is downright remarkable.
Zadra usually had a 5-6 person crew and they wasted no time loading those trains.
They would quickly check your seatbelt and lower your restraint for you.
They would push the restraints down pretty hard because of how quickly they were moving,
but don’t worry, Zadra’s airtime is so strong you’ll have no trouble feeling it.
Zadra begins with a slow turn out of the station and then you ascend the massive lift hill.
This lift faces away from the park, so the only view you get is of the new Aqualantis
area and the surrounding village.
Once atop the lift, you plunge down the 90 degree drop.
And this drop is incredible.
This drop offers fantastic airtime.
Those in the back get the standard great RMC ejector airtime on the drop, but it’s more
sustained than usual due to the drop’s added height.
And the drop even offers some floater airtime towards the front of the train for a change.
Not only is the drop massive, but it also has an incredible headchopper at the bottom
with the coaster’s dense wood support structure.
You can’t see the bottom of the drop from the top, which makes the drop even crazier.
And it hides the speed hill at the bottom.
Like many other RMCs, Zadra has a speed hill that delivers an abrupt pop of airtime.
But this one is different since it twists to the right.
Since this hill has barely any banking, you get a strong lateral jolt in addition to that
airtime.
While the speed hill on most RMCs feels like a bonus element, it’s a memorable moment
on Zadra.
It’s the wildest RMC speed hill without a doubt.
You then ascend Zadra’s unique and forceful turnaround.
It start with this tight, massive upwards twist, which pulls some uncharacteristically
strong Gs for an RMC.
I would greyout on this element each ride.
At the apex, you straighten out and traverse a super tight peak.
This surprisingly only offered floater airtime up front, albeit strong and sustained floater
airtime.
But those in the back got the powerful and sustained ejector airtime that I expected.
Zadra then traverses a gigantic stall below the lift hill, similar to the aforementioned
Goliath.
This inversion offers a few seconds of weak and sustained hangtime.
But what’s more notable about this element to me are the transitions into and out of
it.
You are really whipped into and out of the stall, which induces some wild laterals.
Zadra then flies through the second turnaround, which is a twist and shout similar to the
far turn on Lightning Rod.
This element offers a beautiful concoction of laterals and sideways ejector airtime in
every seat.
And it doesn’t feel like you slow down one bit on this element which makes it feel even
more extreme.
Zadra then twists back down to the ground and rapidly twists to the right.
This fast turn offers some decent positive Gs and they continue on the sharp rise into
the next camelback.
I would start to see some grey on a few of my rides.
This camelback is one of the largest airtime hills RMC has ever made and it offers several
seconds of sustained airtime.
It feels like a weaker version of Storm Chaser’s second hill.
Those towards the front get several seconds of good sustained ejector airtime consistently.
Those towards the back need Zadra to warm up to get that type of airtime.
In the early morning, it’s weaker but just as sustained ejector airtime.
Then comes another neat turnaround.
This one feels like the step-up underflip on Joker at Discovery Kingdom.
You enter this zero-G roll which twists 180 degrees on the descent.
The start of this inversion offers some laterals up front and hangtime in all.
Then when you twist downwards, you get good positive Gs.
You then rise up into a double down.
The front offers decent ejector pops while the back delivers the prototypically strong
RMC ejector pops.
But what I found notable about this element were the surprise laterals.
The first hump twists to the right and the second subtly twists to the left.
So you are thrown side-to-side along with that airtime.
That’s followed by my favorite part of Zadra, this extreme twisted speed hill.
You haul through all of Zadra’s layout, but it’s especially noticeable here.
It essentially rides like one of those famous Intimidator 305 transitions that fling you
side to side except you get a powerful RMC ejector pop in between.
The element feels completely out-of-control.
You then zip through the ride’s final inversion, a zero-G roll.
You have so much speed into this element that it only offers a brief moment of weak hangtime.
Instead, the element is more about laterals.
You then charge into the brake run with enough speed to probably go another 1000 or 2000
feet.
So you get smoothly flung forwards from how quickly you need to decelerate.
Zadra navigates 4318 feet or 1316 meters about as quickly as a coaster can.
And when paired with a glass smooth ride, you have a recipe for a truly world class
coaster.
So what would I rate Zadra?
If it wasn’t apparently obvious, this coaster is getting a perfect 10 out of 10.
Zadra is one of the best RMCs.
This coaster has several excellent airtime and hangtime moments, but it differentiates
itself from the other RMCs with stronger laterals and perfect pacing.
The pacing on this coaster is insane.
Zadra does not give you a single moment to catch your breath.
The way Zadra quickly threw elements at riders and maintained its speed reminded me of the
two RMCs at the Herschend parks in Lightning Rod and Outlaw Run, both of which also are
ground-up layouts.
While the RMC conversions are fantastic rides as well, these ground-up ones feel distinctly
different and that’s a good thing.
I can’t wait to see more!
So those are my thoughts on Zadra, the best roller coaster at Energylandia.
Have you been on Zadra?
How do you think it compares to other RMCs?
I would love to hear your thoughts about this incredible coaster down in the comments.
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