Santa’s Land Fun Park & Zoo is a great affordable family amusement park on the southern side of the Great Smokey Mountains. Santa’s Land has only one roller coaster and that’s the Rudicoaster, a highly unique Zamperla powered coaster. This is a custom coaster was built in 1989 and features a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer theme to go along with the Christmas theme of the park. The Rudicoaster is from the Zamperla Powered Coaster line where the coaster train itself actually has a motor to propel it up the lift hills. Rudicoaster has trees all through and surrounding the course, adding to the atmosphere and really making it feel like a coaster in the woods.

Zamperla calls this the “workhorse” of their coaster line and has a map showing 100 installs worldwide with 13 in the United States. Although the base mechanics are similar across the line, the theming is quite different with everything from locomotives to lions to reindeer like on Rudicoaster making up the trains. Zamperla is perhaps better known recently for its work on Top Thrill 2 at Cedar Point, but small coasters like this and flat rides have really been its bread and butter for years.

The first thing you’ll notice about Rudicoaster is the train. It’s basically Santa’s sleigh with a giant Rudolph head in the front. It’s kind of a weird, but cool experience to be up front and have this giant head in your way. It does make for a unique visual for people watching the coaster to see this giant reindeer head bobbing up and down as it navigates the course.

As you enter the station you come from the rear of the coaster. If you’re observant under the rear car you’ll see a tire and this is the workhorse of the coaster. Rudicoaster actually has three “rails” on its track. There’s the two standard side rails for the whee;s, but then there’s a rail/platform which this wheel sits on top of in order to drive the coaster. If you look closely on this center rail you’ll also notice some black rubber from this drive wheel. The operator of the ride was pretty chatty and did mention that the ride does have some wearable parts because of the unique drive system. She said that any replacements need to be sourced from Italy which can sometimes be slow and expensive.

Rudicoaster is one of the first things you’ll see as you enter the “Fun Land” area of the park and it adds a lot of kinetic energy to the area. There are just simple wooden fences along the course allowing guests to get quite close to the ride and the ride entrance is also right along the track. The park train also goes along the back of the course giving some unique views and parts of the ride are visible from the parking lot giving guests a preview of what’s ahead.

The course is pretty short, but you actually get two laps. You wind up a curved lift hill that sort of reminded me a little of the Whizzer at Great America and then down a gentle hill with an s-turn. Then you head up a second curved lift hill and enter a helix followed by some slightly hilly straight track. The first half of the course is pretty gentle, but the second half has some really good lateral forces. The ride secures you with just a simple lap bar and if you’re riding solo you’ll probably find yourself sliding all over the bench seat. There’s also a sharp little bend in the track just as you enter the station that can catch you by surprise, especially on the first lap when you go through the station at speed. Below is a great POV video from the people at In The Loop that’ll give you an idea of what its like to Ride Rudicoaster.

Rudicoaster is really a unique roller coaster. In the Smokey Mountain area you’ll find lots of mountain coasters and of course there’s Dollywood, but Rudicoaster has a personality to it that fits perfectly in Santa’s Land. If you find yourself in the Smokey Mountains its well worth the stop to take a few laps on the Rudicoaster.