Steel Eel Review, SeaWorld San Antonio Morgan Mega Coaster | Airtime So Good, It Hurts!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 20 авг 2024
- Steel Eel is the tallest, fastest, and longest roller coaster at SeaWorld San Antonio. This Morgan mega coaster may be under 200 feet tall, it rides like a hyper coaster with its giant camelbacks and bunny hills. The trio of Cedar Fair Morgan hypers do not have the best reputation, but Steel Eel is an airtime machine. But could the airtime be too strong? Find out in this review!
Video Credits
Mamba POV (Worlds of Fun)- • Mamba POV - Rollercoas...
Steel Eel POV (coastercrutchfield)- • Steel Eel Front Row (H...
Background Music
Inspiring Emotional Corporate by Infraction [No Copyright Music] / Dreamy- • Inspiring Emotional Co...
I remember back in the 2000s that mid course didn’t slow you down at all to the point where I think the ride was ripping it’s self apart
The return run would be crazy.
Oh man I would love to have experienced that.. dare to dream.
Yep! Your subtitle of "Airtime So Good, It Hurts!" is DEFINITELY appropriate. It is a shame, too, as that is the ONLY detractor of what is an otherwise amazing ride. Especially given its age, it is impressive just how smooth and airtime-filled the coaster is.
I love it.
Just went on this today, and that airtime is unreal. The fact that it hurts make it even better and funnier imo
Glad you enjoyed it!
I rode it for the first time in 2020. I thought it was the best coaster at Sea World San Antonio by a good bit. The airtime was great and the slamming down in the seat didn't bother me. It was the third best coaster in San Antonio behind only Iron Rattler and Wonder Woman. I give it a 9/10.
It's still my favorite at the park.
I still have fond memories of marathoning this when I was in high school. People are seriously sleeping on this coaster.
It's a powerful ride.
Last year, Mamba ran trimless. OMG! The bunny hops made Magnum's seem tame.
That sounds amazing.
I'm glad this ride gets praise sometimes. I know Morgan coasters can be a mixed bag, but I've actually heard more good things about Steel Eel and even Superman: El Ultimo Escape. I've heard that those two are the best Morgan mega coasters (excluding The Phantom's Revenge), and I can see why. Morgan track is profiled so interestingly, and it delivers insane ejector airtime, and I'd say more extreme than most coasters. That feeling of slamming back down in the seat demonstrates just how strong the airtime is. The length of the trains do help as well, so back row is heaven. I still prefer B&M hypers, and B&M hypers are my favourite hyper coasters, but B&M is my favourite manufacturer, so I am biased.
The airtime isn't really ejector for me. It's very sustained floater on Steel Eel.
@@CanobieCoaster Yeah I know that Superman provides more of an ejector airtime experience, since the midcourse is never engaged because of the quick operations the team at Six Flags Mexico has to achieve.
My flaw for this roller coaster is the slamming break at the end. The ride finishes with a very brutal abrupt stop. The speed it goes into the break makes it hurt more. I went on this ride later in the year and the airtime was spot on, the line was surprisingly short, it was a hot day. Everything was going to plan until the end of the ride. The train comes to a complete stop full speed into the break. My neck lunged forward and backwards into the seat which hurt. Other than the break at the end, it’s a great ride! 7.5/10
The deceleration didn't bother me much.
@@CanobieCoaster hey I originally criticized the breaks at the end of the ride but seeing footage of the breaks and experiencing it now vs 2 years ago I understand why it’s not bad. When I rode it I remember it always being the hard brake that would jerk my head forward and backwards really hard but I now realize it’s smoother than I remembered it. Now I could be wrong about the brake being rough but it sure felt like it was. Anyway merry Christmas and happy new year. Just wanted to clear things up
Just visited today. Dispatches are still very slow. They were using two trains and it was rough to wait in the sun after riding waiting for the next dispatch. Maybe I left too much room on my lap bar, but my back row ride was brutal and headache inducing. The slams back into the seat was painful. But my front row ride was so good! Appreciate all the content!
I wish the seats had more padding.
Although the slam down hurts, I think its because the airtime hills take a long time to bottom out. Although no pain would be nice the only solution is to make the hills bottom out sooner and that would make the airtimes weaker and less unique.
I'd just love a better/more padded seat cushion.
I like the support columns because it doesn't look like a busy mess of scaffolding. Looks like a nice clean roller-coaster.
Always my first thought when I see it. It's gorgeous.
It's a stark contrast to minimalistic supports we see now on Intamins and such.
When Magnum opened back in the day, hyper was defined as “a coaster above 200 feet” but now I think the generally agreed upon definition is “a steel, non-inverting coaster that emulates a wooden coaster (generally airtime focused)”. I think we can comfortably call the Under-200 rides like this and Goliath at La Ronde and Walibi as hypers. Heck, I’m fine calling the megalites and Lightning Run hypers.
I call those types of rides mega coasters.
@@CanobieCoaster Intamin is full of shit, They call theirs Mega Coasters models instead of hyper Coaster Models. A Mega Coaster is a type of a hyper Coaster Model that are below 200 ft However, Hyper Coaster Models that are 200 ft and over should be called, Double Hypers.
Does that mean SV, IG, and Zadra are not hypers?
@@dasher3532 it's called a disambiguation , Coasters that are 200ft and over are called Hyper Coasters and There are steel out and back Coaster Models that focuses on more airtime called Hyper Coasters
Have I ridden this coaster. The ops talk of a legend of this 7 to 8 year old girl who rode that thing 70 times in just one day on a cold April Saturday in 2003. That legend is still talked about today. I would know. I've heard this legend and it's TRUE! Because it was me. :3 This was my first LEGIT marathon. NO ONE can compete. :3
Nice!
@@CanobieCoaster Man I was crazy when I was young... :P
Ok you've convinced me. It's on the list.
The airtime is so good it hurts.
Steel Eel was my first big roller coaster! Since I’m a 12 year old roller coaster fan this one is my favorite. My dad said I needed to ride Steel Eel first. And well…… there’s so much airtime it really does hurt
Nice!
@@CanobieCoaster thank you! Only thing is my dad forced me on it
I still prefer Mamba. Steel Eel is good, but Mamba has great ejector air on its second hill, which it crests with good speed. I can also feel the reduced height of Steel Eel. Though we know height isn't directly corelated with airtime, I can appreciate the extra 55 and 34 feet the first and second hills Mamba provides (the falling sensation lasts longer). Also, provided the MCBRs are light on Mamba, the little bunny hills are fun. Mamba also has that fantastic 200-foot diameter helix which is taken between 65 to 75 mph, pressing you into your seat.
The one thing I really like about Steel Eel is its hump between the second and third hills. I wish Mamba had this. I think someone described it as akin to a Bactrian camel's humps.
Mamba's second half had no airtime for me due to the trimming.
@@CanobieCoaster I believe Mamba's trims weren't used when the ride opened. I haven't ridden Mamba in three years, but I heard the trims are lighter now. Those little hills aren't fun anyway; there are roads around here more exciting than bunny hills on any coaster (even a playground swing set).
Now, Steel Eel was my first Morgan coaster. I rode it when I was 11, and thoroughly enjoyed it. That was 17 years ago and I need to go back to San Antonio this summer.
Mamba gets a lot of hate from these review channels. I ride it a lot because worlds of fun is very close to me and its one of my favorite coasters ever. Very disrespectful comparing it to "Mild thing". Lol respect ur opinion and ik the trims can run hard some days but Mamba at least imo, really runs fast thru its layout. Also I like Mamba's head choppers which steel force didn't have when i rode it.
Both Mamba and Wild Thing have solid first halves, but both are trimmed so harshly for the return run that you get nothing on the bunny hills.
I just visited Sea World earlier tonight and immediately had to find a review video. I’m a San Antonio native, and I seriously cannot ever remember Steel Eel having this issue like I experienced tonight of being slammed down into the seats after the wild airtime! My last visit to the park was in 2019 and I don’t recall this happening. Would of course ride again. (Tonight’s ride was in the first row of the last section of the train.)
I definitely wish the seats had better padding.
This coaster was my first experience on airtime ever and it quite surprised me specially the part that i didn’t know the definition of airtime at the moment I rode this coaster.
This ride has plenty of airtime.
Mamba the king of morgan hypers now that the brakes have little to no effect
I still prefer Phantom and Superman.
I first rode this 10 years ago and I loved it. I don't remember it being uncomfortable and I loved the airtime. I rode it again a few years later and the painful landings suddenly stuck out quite dramatically. I'm not sure why I hadn't noticed this on my earlier trip. I was in my 20s the first time I rode it so it's not like I had gotten taller or heavier in any meaningful way. But now I'm not as big of a fan because I have to brace myself during the entirety of the drops which ruins the airtime and enjoyment.
I totally agree that this ride would shoot up on my rankings if the seats were adequately padded. The layout is quite good, especially the first half.
Maybe it had padding that wore out?
@@CanobieCoaster just rode it yesterday, no padding and definitely messed up my entire upper body lol
Can we have a moment of silence for people’s butts that slam the seat on every airtime hill?
Lol
I love that it's a floater airtime machine, but getting slammed into the troughs is something that only happens for me if I keep my hands up at the wrong place (admittedly on some other coasters; not Steel Eel since I've never ridden it.) Most importantly: The fact that you picked this over Mamba but under Steel Force only goes to show how nuanced your opinions are, even for someone like me who's never ridden a Morgan hyper coaster. I'm happy to place it where it belongs. It seems to me to be just perfect.
Steel Force has always given me great rides, but I know others who've been trimmed to death like on Mamba or Wild Thing.
the landings at the bottom of thr hills are brutal. the first drop in the back was suprisingly intense.
Most of the drops were.
Ejector airtime, when it’s so good that it’s bad, it’s somehow good.
Lol
it's crazy that a roller coaster 50 ft. smaller than the Cedar Fair morgans manages to have better airtime! Just goes to show that stats aren't everything.
Absolutely!
I do prefer Texas Stingray by a good margin, as my rides on it have been great. But I'll take Steel Eel over all 3 Cedar Fair Morgan hypers. The slamming back down in my seat used to bother me more. Now, I have learned how to brace for it. (Guys need to watch out; there's a raised notch in the seat in a bad spot.) I'm able to just let myself feel the airtime freely, like I do with the Larson Arm drop towers, while keeping my body in the right position for the violent landing. It is crazy how the ride ops have to check seatbelts, then the restraints are locked, then the ride ops go through a 2nd time to check the lap bar. The process is almost as long as Grizzly at CGA.
Grizzly at CGA is awful at restraint checks too.
I love how this mini hyper is better then all the other morgans (not counting phantoms revenge because that's a conversion from arrow). Steal Eel gives great airtime and its bueatful towering over the park. I also like steel force but tahts off schedule. Steel eal is a great ride and worth going to sea world san Antonio just to do steal eal and Texas Stingray.
I prefer Superman too.
@@CanobieCoaster oh yea the one in Mexico I haven't rode that one yet looks awesome tho.
I rode this in 2014. I was a rather thin child but i was tall. I met the hight requirements. I was sitting on the front seat. While on the first drop i sliped under the lap bar. If it wasent for mt grandfather pulling me up i could have goten seriously hurt becouse steel eel throws its passengers into the seat. It gave me my fear of rollercoasters. Recently today i got over that fear by riding time machine at silver doller city! I will make my way back to san antonio to take on this giant once again.
Oh no!
Just went on it today holy that airtime felt crazy. I almost passed out it was my first roller coaster
It's a sneaky powerful ride.
3:38 yes the view isn't great but in the back row pov in that vid the only time you can see the front half of the train is at the bottom of the hills you are still rising up (from the airtime I think) but the front of the train is curving back up, it really shows the power of the airtime lol
True!
WoF must of watched this video because Mamba has been running much better the 2nd half of the ride this season.
I heard!
I'll probably be riding this soon. Really interested to see how it stacks up to Steel Force!
Enjoy!
My 2nd favorite Morgan, next to my 1st, Phantom's Revenge
It's way better than Mamba and Wild Thing.
I'm looking forward to visiting this park & Fiesta Texas next year. I was planning on it this year but it didn't work out.
I love Fiesta Texas.
Took my girls there over Christmas 2020 and the back had crazy airtime but the bottoming out was quite painful. I got a ride later in the day with one of my daughters in the front and while the airtime wasn’t as good the smoothness more than made up for the difference.
That's fair.
@@CanobieCoaster maybe you could petition Seaworld to soften up the seats so Steel Eel could be a standout coaster in Texas
All Morgan’s are great just for the infamous pre drops
Definitely!
I just rode this, and I don't know if this is normal or not, but the mid course did not trim. The rest of the ride after is insane. Row 3, like Magnum (as I've heard) is the magic seat, and I got airtime sustained for multiple seconds over every hill
Nice! Was it a cooler day?
@@CanobieCoaster mostly in the 70s
My first real coaster. Good memories
What a first coaster!
What a great ride, this looks to be the 4th best Morgan coaster with just Phantoms Revenge, Superman, and Lightning Run in front of it if you count that as a Morgan. This ride fixes the airtime problems the 3 Cedar Fair Morgan Hypers have. And that second half is way better cause the mid course is up high instead of low to the ground like the others so you get much better airtime in that second half. The only downside with this is when it slams you down into your seat and the terrible operations. I think there is a program where the train on the brakes won't dispatch into the station till the train in front of it clears the lift. Is this true?
Don't forget Steel Dragon 2000. I'm not sure how it's programmed since it has run one train in my recent visits.
@@CanobieCoaster Is Steel Dragon better? It looks great for it's size, speed, and of course length, but is the airtime as good, I don't know cause I haven't ridden it.
Imagine going again to ride:
Steel Eel at SeaWorld San Antonio
Steel Force at Dorney Park
Intimidator at Carowinds
Shambhala at PortAventura
What do you think about each? What do you think about each in smooth and airtime?
I like all 4. All are smooth and have lots of floater airtime.
Steel Force is now smooth? When I rode it years back it was the shakiest hyper coaster I every went on. I rode Steel Eel the year after it opened. I remember it being a fun but tame ride.
I rode it last year and found it smooth.
I found it very smooth. If you're looking for a rough hyper, it's Magnum.
This ride traumatized me badly when I was 11. I was riding near the back too. I highly do not recommend this ride to people with fear of heights and falling out the ride.
It's safe, but the airtime is wild.
Shoot we have one of those at six flags Mexico it's named Super man El último escape !
That one is even better.
They should give it B&M hyper trains like Steel Dragon 2000 got
I'd be in favor of that.
I've heard from some this is better than superman at my homepark (SFMX) I'm super curious about it!
I think Steel Eel has a larger quantity of airtime, but I prefer Superman's comfort and layout (and it has good airtime too).
I got to go sea world and fiesta Texas but Wonder Woman and this were closed for the entire day
This tends to be closed in any amount of wind.
Morgan hypers are so underrated. They provide great floater like you're riding waves. Really amazing rides. It's funny to me how people praise Magnum even though the lap bars are so uncomfortable and the airtime is painful and the hills are so poorly profiled that it's an uncomfortable ride start to finish, but then they'll criticize Morgan rides despite their being an improvement in almost every single way unless you're looking for elector-only.
Mamba and Wild Thing have awful second halves, but the other Morgans are great.
Steel Eel is a mini hyper
Yes
For me it didn't even hurt when my butt slammed into the seat in the back row on every airtime hill
Lucky!
What does that mean "landing" or "landings"?
When you come down on the seat.
this was a ball slammer ride alright... lol
It's more a butt slammer for me.
Ain't my butt I'm worried about. It's my spine on the back of the seat that always fucks rides up for me. I just don't know how you could engineer and design a coaster then forget there's no suspension on coasters and you should probably pad your seats.
That's a fair concern.
@@CanobieCoaster Yeah, I'm too damn skinny man. Been waiting for my metabolism to give out on me for years. Ha
it's cute.
It's fun.
@@CanobieCoaster It's Kenner, it's fun!
If you go back to seaworld SA, 3rd car, first row. All the Airtime of the back without your ass bouncing off the seat lol.
I prefer the back for the drops.
@@CanobieCoaster those drops are pretty crazy; definitely caught me off guard
Airtime quality-
Lots of negative Gs.
The ride that should be illegal. You land so hard!
Lol
couldn’t ride, down for “winds” that didn’t exist
Oh no! I had that happen one day too.
@@CanobieCoaster aaand I’m going to storyland for roar-o-saurus and park closed for rain before I went
Do you seriously get airtime in the back seat of steel shit? I honestly got ZERO.. nothing whatsoever - very back car on right side.
Yes