Stratford Fair
By ToonTowner
Added on Saturday, 16 June 2007
A park about Shakespeare? Normally, that wouldn't sound quite that exciting.
But when the park comes from the masterful touch of Toon(Towner), you're bound
to find some unexpected surprises quite pleasing to the eye.
First on
our epic tour is Birnam Wood, home to Toil and Trouble, an intensely thrilling
B&M floorless coaster with a unique vertical drop through a fountain
followed by a huge vertical loop, a similarly towering dive loop, cobra roll,
zero-G-roll, and a corkscrew to round things out--all without the hindering
qualities of a mid-course brake run. Chaotic and harrowing, it's a great
analogy for the turbulence that is Macbeth, and the surrounding ambiance of the
area certainly marks out the tragic qualities of the play for which this area is
modelled.
Brighter pastures, however, can be found in Caesar's Rome,
home to Iago, a compact B&M inverted coaster that flies by the many
buildings of classical antiquity. It's the setting that places this ride apart
from many other "compact style" inverteds. Beautiful vegetation and theming
boldly portray the grandeur of this mighty land, and Toon certainly does a great
job of capturing this grand environment.
A lovely theater lies near the
front of the park for those less interested in rides. Shakespearean comedies
and tragedies alternate each day, and it's a fun way of incorporating education
with entertainment.
Jumping back to Rome, we get a closeup of the
statues, shrubbery, and architecture that make this an absolutely blissful place
to stroll through, relax, or just admire the views.
A sojourn to the
Denmark wilderness brings us to Rosencranz and Guildenstern, the hapless,
bumbling duo featured in Hamlet. This pair of dueling modified fishhook
coasters offers a unique thrill and somehow aptly symbolizes the fate that is to
befall both former friends of Hamlet.
Finally, Prospero's Island brings
us to the headquarters of The Tempest, an Arrow out-and-back hyper coaster that
sprawls all the way past the Caesar's Rome section. In contrast to some of the
other areas of the park, this area exudes an almost odd peace and serenity, but
of course, the action-packed, airtime-laden Tempest coaster quickly puts to rest
any expectations of that.
Overall, this is certainly a fine piece of
work. And in RCT LL, no less--something most people do not connect Toon with.
Needless to say, though, Toon is more than just an RCT 2 messiah. With
Stratford Fair, he shows he can certainly rock it without the luxuries of custom
scenery objects as well!