Coastersaurus is set to reopen August 16 on all new timber, keeping Florida's last coaster on a wooden structure alive

Legoland Florida has had Coastersaurus closed since January 5 while crews tore down and rebuilt the 2004 coaster's entire wooden structure. The 40 foot family ride is set to reopen on August 16, and Laughing Place reports the work is meant to buy the coaster another 20 to 30 years.

The rebuilt Coastersaurus structure in fresh, unweathered lumber. (Photo: Legoland Florida Resort via Laughing Place)

The date, and where it comes from: Laughing Place reported the August 16 reopening on July 22. It is worth being straight about the sourcing here: Legoland's own Temporary Closures page still lists Coastersaurus simply as "Closure starting January 5th" with no return date, and the official ride page carries no reopening notice either. Laughing Place presents the date as a Legoland announcement, so it is well sourced, but it has not reached Legoland's own website yet.

Why that date: August 16 is National Roller Coaster Day, which is a tidy bit of scheduling. It is also the closing day of LEGO Festival, the summer event that has been running at the park since July 20, so the coaster returns just as the festival wraps.

What actually got rebuilt: Per Laughing Place, this was not a touch up. The work covered a complete replacement of the wooden structure, upgraded operational and electrical systems, a new braking system, refreshed infrastructure and enhanced safety monitoring.

Bracing and track bed on the rebuilt Coastersaurus. (Photo: Legoland Florida Resort via Laughing Place)

Florida's only coaster still standing on wood: Coastersaurus is the only wooden coaster in the state whose support structure is itself wood. Florida's other two wooden coasters, White Lightning at Fun Spot America Orlando and Mine Blower at Fun Spot America Kissimmee, both run on steel supports, which puts Coastersaurus in a category of one. Like other wooden coasters it still runs on steel rails laid over wooden track, so the distinction is about the structure holding the ride up.

It used to be called Triple Hurricane: The ride opened in 2004 at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park under the name Triple Hurricane, a nod to Charley, Frances and Jeanne, the three 2004 hurricanes that hit while the park was being readied and pushed its reopening back from the planned September date. Merlin Entertainments bought the property in January 2010 and reopened it as Legoland Florida on October 15, 2011, at which point the coaster picked up a dinosaur theme and its current name.

Riders on Coastersaurus before the rebuild, when the structure was a darker brown. (Photo: Legoland Florida Resort)

The numbers: Per the Roller Coaster DataBase, Coastersaurus was built by Martin & Vleminckx as a 40 foot Junior Coaster. It runs 1,365 feet of track, tops out at 32 miles per hour, has no inversions and pulls a maximum of 2.5 Gs. Laughing Place offered the more Legoland friendly version of the height figure: at 40 feet, the coaster is taller than two T-Rexes stacked on top of each other.

Who can ride: The official Legoland Florida page lists a minimum rider height of 42 inches. The coaster sits in the Land of Adventure and, in Legoland's own description, curves and dips in and around a prehistoric jungle of life sized LEGO brick dinosaurs.

Sources

• Laughing Place: Coastersaurus Reopening at LEGOLAND Florida on August 16
• Legoland Florida Resort: Temporary Closures
• Legoland Florida Resort: Coastersaurus
• Roller Coaster DataBase: Coastersaurus
• Wikipedia: Cypress Gardens

Image credits: Photos by Legoland Florida Resort, the first two via Laughing Place.