A coaster star is born
Review of Stardust Racers at Universal Epic Universe
Universal Epic Universe, the first major Universal or Disney theme park to open in the U.S. since 2001, officially welcomed its first guests last week, and I was in Orlando for a media preview of the brand-spanking-new park. You can read my first impressions of Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, and the classic monsters-themed Dark Universe as well as my initial take on Celestial Park and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. For today’s article let’s take a deeper dive in Celestial Park with a review of the superb coaster, Stardust Racers. In future weeks, I’ll be sharing more about Epic Universe.
5 (out of 5)
With the introduction of Universal Orlando’s new park, four more roller coasters have joined Florida’s considerable arsenal of thrill machines. The (shooting) star of the bunch is Stardust Racers. How good is it? It’s one of the rare coasters that merits a five-star rating from me. Let’s explore why.
Complementing the land in which it is located, Celestial Park, the trains on the elegant ride are themed as comets tearing across the sky. Stardust Racers is not as invested with story elements as Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and other more themed coasters, but it nonetheless tells a simple story of racing among the celestial stars.
“The Celestians, the residents of Celestial Park, have figured out a way to harness the comets in the night sky, jump on them, and ride them,” explains Jonathan “JC” Cloward, assistant director and executive producer at Universal Creative.
The station has an agreeable Victorian vibe with hints of Jules Verne. Mixing periods and sci-fi influences, there are flux capacitors mounted to the backs of the trains. It’s great to see Universal give a nod to the beloved Back to the Future series with the not-so-subtle Easter egg.
To prevent loose articles (or heaven forbid, intentional objects) from becoming projectiles, passengers are required to empty their pockets and pass through security detectors before boarding to certify they are missile-free. Universal offers complimentary lockers that work quite well using a nifty face recognition system. (No need to fumble with passes or remember pesky codes. If you forget the bank of lockers in which you stowed your stuff, the system will even direct you to the right station.)
I said that Epic Universe brings four additional coasters to the theme park capital of the world, but really it’s five. That’s because Stardust Racers, as its name implies, is a dueling coaster with two similar, but separate tracks. As guests snake through the queue, they can choose to make their way to either the yellow “Photon” track on the left side of the loading station or the green “Pulsar” track on the right. The Photon track has has an ever-so-slight edge on the thrill-o-meter. But the Pulsar track has a great element that makes it just as compelling. More on that in a moment.
Speaking of the thrill-o-meter, Universal has never been shy about pushing some of its rides well beyond the “family” category (unlike its, er, more timid-as-a-mouse crosstown rival). Stardust Racers is an unapologetically extreme thrill coaster that wouldn’t be out of place at an iron park such as Six Flags. In fact, it punches well above its weight delivering a ride experience that is filled with freaky airtime and other powerful forces that seem impossible given its stats.
Rolling out of the station, the trains take a turn and hit the first set of magnetic motors for an initial straightaway launch that’s satisfying, but not crazy-fast. Just before they hit the first hill however, the LSM launch motors deliver a second burst of magnetic oomph that rocket the trains up and into a bout of ejector air that would catapult my toupee into the adjacent How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk land (if I wore a toupee). Yowsa, the negative-G forces are just wild.
Stardust Racers’ top speed is 62 mph. That’s fast, but not as fast as more potent launch coasters such as another Universal Orlando marquee ride, the 70-mph VelociCoaster. That Islands of Adventure coaster races up a 155-foot-tall top hat tower, compared to Stardust Racers’ more pipsqueak-sized 133-foot-tall hill. Nonetheless, the forces on the Epic Universe ride somehow feel more intense. Stardust Racers is less than 3 mph faster than TRON Lightcycle Run at the Magic Kingdom, but has far more zip-a-dee in its doo-dah. The inexplicable airtime is probably due to some combination of the second launch sendoff up the hill, the length of the hill, and the angle at which the trains crest the hill and go down the other side. Or, maybe Mack Rides, the coaster’s German manufacturer, used some kind of voodoo design and engineering. (Mack is just killing it lately, by the way.)
The trains then navigate a series of smaller hills, all of which send passengers’ tushies flying out of the seats for what amounts to a glorious cavalcade of sweet, sweet airtime. For the ride’s second act, another set of magnetic motors goose the trains down another straightaway, after which they climb up, deliver a single inversion, and twist and dive through more airtime hills, over-banked turns, and other elements before landing back in the station.
If it was a single-track coaster, I’d give Stardust Racers a great review. But what really sends it into the five-star stratosphere is its twin-track dueling. I’ve been on a number of racing coasters; Stardust Racers is, hands down, the best I’ve experienced. Every time I rode it–and I got to board it many times–it launched and synced perfectly. Another coaster I greatly admire, Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain, promises a similar dueling adventure, but often launches haphazardly and misses the mark. Passengers on Stardust Racers, however, engage in a pas de deux that is simply sublime.
Weaving and dancing back and forth, it’s a giddy two track trek through the cosmos. The highlight of the interplay is what Universal refers to as the “Celestial Spin.” It’s a stunning do-si-do in which the Photon train performs a barrel roll downdrop while the Pulsar train flips over for a brief zero-G roll. For the Pulsar inversion, passengers are racing forward while they are upside down and hanging just above their right-side-up, space trucking mates in the other train. It’s an extraordinary sight for the riders in both trains.
To review: Freaky and abundant airtime? Check. Unparalleled two-train dueling interactions? Check. There is one more thing Stardust Racers offers that helps make it a five-star coaster: nighttime rides.
Rather than flooding the course in lights, it is semi-dark. It’s therefore hard for passengers to anticipate what’s coming next and makes the twists, turns, drops, and especially the airtime hills all the more suspenseful. Onboard LED lights on the fronts and sides of the cars, however, shift color and shimmer as they hightail it through the course. From the ground, they look like shooting stars arcing through the night sky and are lovely to behold. But for Stardust Racers’ night riders, the opposing illuminated train, dashing in and out of view as it sprints in tandem, is mesmerizing. Hopping aboard the coaster after dark is a near-religious experience.
How much are you looking forward to riding Stardust Racers? What are your favorite racing coasters?
Great review Arthur! I've heard nothing but great things about this one, and I can't wait to ride it on our planned family trip to Epic Universe next year! I wonder if the synchronized dueling will stay intact, or like a lot of other dueling coasters will they eventually stop bothering?