Opened: 3 Jul 2000
Location: North Midway
Manufactured By: Mondial Amusements – Heerenveen, Netherlands
Ride Model: Top Scan
Footprint: 49 x 49 ft
Max Speed: 31 mph
Max Height: 65 ft
Ride Capacity: 30 (6 rows of 5)
Samurai was the second of two new rides added to Lagoon in 2000. Almost three months after Double Thunder Raceway opened in April, Samurai opened as a replacement to the Flying Carpet, which was removed after the 1999 season.
The ride included with a considerable amount of decoration and special landscaping compared to previous flat rides at Lagoon up to that time. Along with the Japanese-style signage and a pagoda-inspired control booth, there was also a garden with a miniature bridge, a gong and a bamboo sōzu water feature.
The ride also had its own audio. At the beginning of the ride cycle, as riders were lifted up off of the platform, the sound of taiko drumming would play. For many years, this was also accompanied by fog rising through the holes in the metal platform.
Samurai is a transportable Mondial Top Scan and it was the first of its kind to be installed in an amusement park in North America.
Like Cliffhanger, another Mondial ride at Lagoon, Samurai’s first decade was riddled with closures and often had a sign out front noting that it was waiting for parts from Europe. It was also down for part of 2016 and the entire 2017 season, but after an electrical overhaul, it reopened in April 2018.
In 2015, the garden was scaled back to accommodate a new walkway to Cannibal, between Samurai and Sky Scraper.
GALLERY
MORE LAGOON HISTORY
REFERENCES
Arave, Lynn. Double Thunder Raceway go-carts premiere April 15 at Lagoon. Deseret News, 10 Mar 2000.
Top Scan. MondialRides.com, accessed 6 Apr 2020.