After eight years in the making, Primordial opens at Lagoon

AT: Tim Baldwin

tbaldwin@amusementtoday.com

FARMINGTON, Utah — Delays in attractions are far from uncommon nowadays, particularly with a global crisis still visible in the rear-view mirror. Lagoon might have bragging rights to one of the longest. The park opened its latest — and most ambitious — ride, Primordial, in September.

“The irritating thing about those eight years is that you have to take out about two and a half of those for COVID,” admitted Terry Capener, vice president and general manager. “Eight years — finally — it’s now open.”

To understand the scope of this attraction requires a knowledge of what the ride actually does. To call it a roller coaster sells it short, as it blends a coaster with an interactive dark ride experience.

For a third time, Lagoon has designed a ride in-house and partnered with ART Engineering to create the track.

“This is really something unique. ART Engineering was founded 20 years ago. Since the beginning, Lagoon and Art Engineering have worked together,” said Georg Behringer, managing director, ART Engineering. “We started with engineering service. The Bombora coaster (2011) was our first complete project with Lagoon. We have worked on a lot of rides to improve components. Cannibal (2015) was the next big project.”

“The day after we opened Cannibal, we started working on Primordial,” said Capener. “We knew we wanted a family coaster.”

“We started discussions about a new interactive dark ride coaster after our first dark ride coaster project had opened at Canada’s Wonderland,” said Behringer. “After brainstorming with the Freed Family and the Lagoon team, ideas came together. We created a great dark ride coaster with new elements. For the slide drop, we made a feasibility study and then developed this feature.”

To discuss the elements too in-depth reduces a level of surprise, as the park strives to keep the experience shrouded in mystery. The slide-drop maneuver is one possible ending.

Capener says the multiple endings were in the plans from the beginning. “We wanted people to want to come back several times to experience each of the endings.”

“Lagoon and ART culture and ambitions are similar,” Behringer told Amusement Today. “This is the highest quality in customized solutions that have unique elements and features. We work in close collaboration and partnership with mutual trust. I am personally very proud about that.”

The dark ride portion of Primordial involves interactive gameplay with media content. Triotech was a principal partner on the project.

“Primordial is pushing the boundaries of the dark coaster concept,” said Ernest Yale, president and CEO of Triotech. “We’ve included interactivity, pushed the immersion to an astonishing level and most importantly, we’ve included alternate paths as well as multiple different story twists. These different endings will keep guests guessing, and of course, keep them coming back to the ride to experience all its variants.”

“Absolutely, agreed Behringer. “When the second element was integrated with the purpose that the riders don`t know which final ride element they will get, it was clearly a cool moment in its design.”

“Lagoon takes great pride in having unique, one-of-a-kind attractions not found at any other amusement park,” said Adam Leishman, media relations, Lagoon. “Lagoon is also proud to create these attractions in collaboration with local fabricators, contractors and vendors.” 

“One hundred percent of the steel is from here [Utah],” said Capener. “We try very hard to always use local businesses.”

Intermountain Lift supplied the fabrication of the track.

Guests begin their adventure in a themed queue. While waiting, a pre-show room sets the stage. An animatronic character, a lynx named Queen Azdra, provides the story.

“Instead of ‘getting the bad guys,’ we wanted to have a storyline where the riders ‘free the good guys,’ the Dragon and Owl characters,” said Leishman.

Before entering the station, riders can place all loose articles in double-sided lockers provided by LocketGo. Lagoon has a reputation for some of the best ride operations in the country.

“The introduction of LocketGo's Smart Ride Lockers aligns with Lagoon Park's commitment to providing an exceptional and convenient experience for its visitors. These lockers are strategically placed on rides where personal belongings are most vulnerable, thus ensuring safety for all,” said Gabrielle LaRue, CEO of LocketGo. "Our mission is to enhance the overall visitor experience, and these lockers offer a secure and convenient solution for safeguarding personal belongings while enjoying the park's attractions."

Free of objects, riders step into the ride vehicles in the station with the use of a conveyor belt while loading.

“The conveyor loading in combination with the car seating arrangement has required additional engineering,” said Behringer. “I think the result is a great solution for operation.”

Once dispatched, two-car trains approach the lift, and vehicles turn to create a train. The climb up the sculpted, mountainous exterior places riders into the attraction’s first act, a coaster portion. Then trains dart inside past scenes, special lighting and fog. After turning to engage with the media content, the cars turn into a backward position for more coaster track. Additional gameplay and scenes take place until riders enter the mysterious “unknown” ending.

“It’s really fun to ride it with someone who hasn’t ridden it before to see their reaction to it,” said Leishman. “It has been challenging and rewarding and challenging and challenging again. But that’s kind of the weird stuff that Lagoon does that other parks don’t, and I’m really proud of that.”

Naming this ride was quite fun, according to Julie Freed, director of special events (and part of the Freed family who owns the park). “As per usual, we were all sitting in Dave’s office — the Freed family and our Lagoon family — going over three pages of mysterious names. We are ALL very opinionated by the way! It runs deep in the Freed genes apparently.”

Dave Freed, Julie’s father, resolved the issue.

“We had a number of exciting names from the list that we all liked, but we just couldn’t agree on one name. We had been going over names for months. Then, out of nowhere, Dave says, ‘I’ve got it. How about Primordial?’ a name that was not on the list. And at first, we all said the same thing, ‘I like it, but what does it mean?’ To which Dave replied, “Existing at the beginning of time…’ For the first time we agreed — we ALL loved it. The name of the ride was important, similar to the storyline of the ride, in that we did not want it to be menacing or sinister.”

The project involved numerous companies. Dustin Allen, director of engineering, Lagoon, stated: “Stengel did the engineering and fabrication drawings for the ride track and columns. The trains were a combination of Lagoon and ART Engineering for general arrangement. ART Engineering provided the mechanical, Actemium did the electrical and control system, and Triotech handled the show elements (including the pointing device or "blaster") and gameplay. The theming of the ride was designed and fabricated by ThemRise. We designed the mountain in collaboration with Cemrock Landscapes. We designed the ride loading structures and queue in collaboration with a local architect.”

“Working with media on a roller coaster is a challenge,” said Christian Martin, vice president, communications and alliances, Triotech. “On top of that, working with interactive media is an even bigger challenge. Interactive media requires that you know where every rider is at all times, as well as where each and every rider is aiming and interacting. This is done through sophisticated proprietary Triotech software that we have developed over years of deploying interactive attractions all over the world.”

Triotech supplied the animatronic as well.

“Triotech has experience with animatronics, mostly through our Europe-based team which we acquired (formerly CL Corporation). They have a long-standing know-how with animatronics,” said Martin.

Primordial has a special loading area out of sight built for ADA accessibility.

“We have a whole setup inside in a separate room. When they are ready to go, we can move that car on,” Capener told Amusement Today. “When it comes back around, it gets taken off the track, because it takes some time to get them unloaded, and we don’t want that to become an issue.”

The park opted to open the ride without the ADA component. That portion will be commissioned off-season and be ready for 2024. In addition, the park is eager to continue enhancing various details on the ride.

Lagoon owns 11 trains; nine in use will reach maximum capacity. The goal is 900 people per hour. While tweaks lie ahead, the park is beyond excited to have the ride open.

“It’s the best feeling,” said Julie Freed. “We’ve been working on this for eight years and the enthusiasm has been overwhelmingly positive.” 

“The best day of my whole year was the day we opened it,” said Capener. “I waited to hear everyone as they came out, just to hear those comments. Every comment was fabulous. To me, that’s what makes it worth doing these things.”