Carnival Cruise Line has released a new video highlighting a shoreside test run of BOLT, the first roller coaster at sea, that will debut on its new Carnival Mardi Gras in February 2021.
The video was released to mark National Rollercoaster Day, August 16, which commemorates the first vertical loop roller coaster, patented by Edwin Prescott in 1898.
The video, shot in Munich, Germany, at Mauer Rides, the manufacturer of the groundbreaking attraction, where guests will ride across nearly 800 feet of suspended track achieving speeds of up to 40 miles per hour on two seat vehicles where they can control the speed. The vehicle comes with an inbuilt camera that will film the ride.
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The video illustrates how BOLT was designed and assembled in the Munich factory for initial unmanned test runs and how it will be reassembled and installed aboard Mardi Gras at the Meyer Turku Shipyard in Finland where the ship is being built.
Computer-generated footage shows BOLT’s colorful custom-made cars encircling the track past Mardi Gras’ iconic funnel at 180 feet above sea-level with the sprawling Ultimate Playground water park below..
The new Carnival Mardi Gras had been scheduled to debut in September 2020, but in July Carnival Cruise Line pushed back the launch of what is to be its largest-ever ship due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mardi Gras, the first LNG-powered ship to operate in the Western Hemisphere and featuring the first roller coaster at sea, will now enter into service from Port Canaveral, February 6, 2021.
The XL-class Mardi Gras is named after the first Carnival Cruise ship that entered service in 1972. It will be the largest Carnival Cruise ship ever constructed and the first in North America to be powered by Liquefied Natural Gas. At 180,000 tons, the new Mardi Gras will be more than six times the size of its namesake. The original 27,000-ton TSS Mardi Gras was a converted trans-Atlantic ocean liner purchased by entrepreneur and Carnival founder Ted Arison.
The Mardi Gras Carnival is currently under construction at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland.
Carnival Mardi Gras fact sheet
- Gross tonnage: 180,000
- Length: 1130
- Beam: 137 feet
- Maximum Draft: 28 feet
- Cruising Speed: 17 knots
- Full guest occupancy: 6630
- Normal occupancy: 5282 (based on 2 per cabin)
- Passenger decks: 17
- Total officers and crew: 1745
