Panorama Wheel

[GAcoaster]

Click here to view the whole

Spotlight!

Here are a couple of previews:

[JetsDevs4Lyf]

I know I never rode this ride, as I wasn't a big Ferris Wheel person when I was young enough to want to go on smaller attractions. Looked like a nice little ride, especially in contrast to the Giant Wheel it would be so rare today to see a park with two wheels, especially that matched each other, so this was sure a treat I would have to imagine for anyone who really liked them and the views they provided to passengers. I only have one question regarding the spotlight and that is if you guys intentionally left off the in the park timeline that normally seems to be atached on top of the park attraction spotlights that come out. Minor I know ut I was just curious Very nice spotlight though as always from you guys

[GAcoaster]

Oops, you're right! I'll have to add that in before anyone else notices.

[JetsDevs4Lyf]

Well happy to be of service. I dunno why but for some reason on the spotlights that's the thing I usually look for which helps me remember whether or not I would have ridden the attraction based on when it was around. Sorry to make more work for you though

[GAcoaster]

I only remember riding the Little Wheel twice...once with the old open cars and once after the cages were added. My cousin Bill was a ride op on it occasionally, and I would ride when he was operating. I still remember how those cars would shake when it would start and stop because of the inertia of all that weight.

[Railer]

Yeah, you do miss the Timeline if it's not there. Great Spotlight again guys. I can remember when it only had the little chain and the open cars. Funny though, since it was the Little Wheel in the park, it seemed O.K. That was also when the cages weren't on the Big Wheel. The Good Ol Days. One thing, how tall was it? You don't have the "stats" on it.

Edited July 22, 2008 by Railer

[Guest warnerleroy]

The Little Wheel was a cute ride and should have been saved. It should have been placed where Nitro is or could have been moved to the boardwalk and become a "boardwalk wheel"!!!Or it could became a "GREAT ADVENTURE BALLOON FERRIS WHEEL".

[J4Sing]

We used to spin those cars really fast. Rode it only once after the cages were installed. The cages ruined it.

[The Master]

I remember riding the Little Wheel with the cages, but I just don't remember much about it for some reason. My family never rode it much, probably because it was closed often when we would vist in the off peak seasons. Since the park was having trouble with the Little Wheel it is probably why it was closed often during non peak days, back then the park usually had alot of rides closed on non crowded days.

[darkridedan]

Cool little ride. I rode this every time I went to the park. It went really fast and seemed like a thrill ride.

 

I always remember the cages. I must have blocked out the cars before the modification. Like all the things the park was doing at the park at that time, I see it didn't work out well. I think the ride would have made a nice fit for Frontier Adventures/ Plaza del Carnival, minus the cages.

 

Thanks for the spotlight guys. The pictres are great!

[Guest warnerleroy]

Come to think of it, Zamperla sells monorail rides. A monorail ride with Balloon cars would make a killer Around the World in 80 Day ride in Movietown!!!!!!(HINT, HINT SIX FLAGS)

[gafreak]

I can still remember hearing the screech of the little wheel starting up, it was a boring ride thougho

[29yrswithaGApass]

We used to spin those cars really fast. Rode it only once after the cages were installed. The cages ruined it.

 

You bring up a good point... did the cars ever spin? I know from 1980 on they did not but I wasn't sure about the 1970s. I remember the cars had a black steering wheel like handle around the center pole that looked like the wheel on a teacup. The seats in the cars (when they didn't have the cages) were very shallow unlike the high seatbacks of a teacup ride which would have made spinning really dangerous. When I gathered the photos for the Spotlight I couldn't find any pictures where the doors weren't perfectly aligned to the sides which makes me think they were in a fixed position.

[The Master]

I don't remember the cars spinning.

[Railer]

Those cars never spinned from what I remember. Those cars were so low you could not even rest your back against them. If you were "adult" size they came up to a little bit above the small of your back.

[GAcoaster]

Here's its twin at a defunct Florida theme park:

 

[Railer]

Still nothing on how tall it was? I looks about 100ft. tall, but I'm not sure.

[29yrswithaGApass]

We'll need to add this to the Spotlight. A view from the top of the Little Wheel in 1979:

 

[RobertDavid]

Wow, look at all the trees! Sure do miss them.

[GAcoaster]

Yeah, the Forest of the Enchanted Forest has slowly but surely disappeared over the years.

[29yrswithaGApass]

After doing a bunch of searching I found that the manufacturer of Great Adventure's Panorama Wheel was SOLI. Hopefully more information soon.

[29yrswithaGApass]

The cars on this wheel below did spin. The door openings are at various positions. Maybe GA's cars did spin during its earliest years?

 

Here's its twin at a defunct Florida theme park:

 

 

[GAcoaster]

Good catch! I never noticed that before!

 

GA's must have spun at one time. I do remember the center handle in the cars looked like the center handle on a teacup. It kind of makes sense if they did spin as another variation to make the ride unique in a park that already had a ferris wheel.

[Railer]

I can see why they did not spin long at GA. With cars that low, that would of been very dangerous, for even back in the day.

[29yrswithaGApass]

In the late 70s/early 80s it was sort of cute that the park named the Giant Wheel "The Big Wheel", the Panorama Wheel "The Little Wheel", and the kiddie ferris wheel "The Little Big Wheel".

 

Here's a photo from 1975 of the Panorama Wheel but it's hard to tell if the cars are all oriented the same way especially since half of them aren't in the shot.