Six Flags News: New England's Thomas Town and Johnny Rockets

MassLive has an article today about Six Flags New England being granted approval to build their Thomas Town. The article states that the area will go on "an existing parking lot," and will be "adjacent to the park's main entrance." From this, I posted where I'm guessing the area will go in the picture above. I don't know for sure, but that is what makes sense to me. The article also lists the attraction as opening in June.

June!? Wow Mr. Shaprio - that's right when the season opens, right? Eh, anyway...

Six Flags has also put out another press release about a new "alliance" with Johnny Rockets restaurants. In addition to marketing programs, Six Flags will open Johnny Rockets restaurants in 26 of its parks over the next three years. 2007 will see the restaurants opening at Great America, Over Texas, Magic Mountain, Great Adventure, Fiesta Texas, and St. Louis.

I wonder how far Mark Shapiro will take marketing alliances and the parks. I don't see why the Six Flags parks do not have a bathroom sponsor yet. I'm serious, paper towels, toilet paper anyone? Just wait.

MGM Grand Adventures Aerial Pics

I intended a while back to post a picture of what's currently left of the MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park via Windows Live Local. And then I forgot. And then today I remembered and went to lookin' and found that if you move in on an area in Live Local from a certain direction you can get older pictures to pop up. I've done this before (Geauga Lake, for example) but it was a nice surprise today. Here's a composite of the whole park:



You'll have to click for the larger image to see everything. While I do not have a date of the photo, it must have been pretty shortly before they bulldozed everything and started the condo/hotel towers that are there now.

Regardless, as you can see the pool area is there along with the convention center. That's not new though, those were already going up when I was there in 1997. I put some outlines of the attractions that were located where these things are currently.

The rest of the park is somewhat intact. The hardware for the river ride, coaster, sky coaster, and log flume are gone though, but that's becuse they've been trying to sell them forever. I'll let the labels speak for themselves, but you can see all sorts of the parks' details still standing.


Here's a close up show of the river rapids, Grand Canyon Rapids, just because I really liked the ride. You can easily see all the theming that was along the course. You can also see some of the footers for the coaster when it was extended over the river ride. The long section that is enclosed was filled with scenes and animation, and ended with the mine 'exploding' around you just as you left.

This one I happened to stumble across as well. It's later on, when they had cleared more than half of what was left of the park to start on the condo towers. Sad looking, if you ask me.

And here's a shot of what is there in the most recent picture. You can see that the maintenance building is still there, along with the building and facade for the Haunted Mine and the bumper cars. Oh, and the building from one of the food locations is standing. That's about all though.

In press photos for the Signature towers that have recently opened they show what was left of the park as a nice area covered in trees. I can't tell if they trashed what was left or just photo shopped the image, so I'm not sure if these last bits are still around.

Well, that's all I found. If anyone has other images or knows of more, please by all means let me know!

Dorney Height Requirement Changes

Check out some new changes in rider height requirements for a few Dorney rides:

Dominator is now 48", down from 52".

Hang time is now 54", down from 56".

Wild Mouse is now 44" and an adult up from 42" and an adult, or 48" alone.

I know that Carowinds posted a whole list of ride height changes, but I just noticed these few for Dorney. I think some new seats are going on Dominator that caused the change in height requirement, but I have no idea about Hang Time or Wild Mouse's changes.

Perhaps the park plans to run Wild Mouse this season with an insurance inspector in the station at all times. That way, the ride's interesting operational procedures can be even more strictly observed.

Steel Force Construction Diary #8

So the park is open at they are rushing to get the ride done. Let's continue.

Here we are, still on May 10th, 1997. As I said in the last update, here is a better view of the station area. As you can see, the station still needed a roof on it. The entrance plaza was complete though, along with the ride's sign and queue.

Here's the other side of the plaza. You can see that the on-ride photo location is complete, and you can get an even better view of the station work going on.

Here's the mid-course brake run on May 16th, 1997. The supports were up, but the track was not placed on them yet.

The other side. They were placing track while the park was open. It looks like almost all of the supports were up, there were just a couple left to go up in that gap. This was actually taken two days later, on May 18th, 1997.

This was taken on May 23rd, 1997. As you can see, Steel Force's track was complete! It happened sometime between the 19th, and 22nd, but I don't have the exact date. Also take note that the supports in the background were painted white, a primer for their final gray color.

Now that the ride is complete, all that's left to do is open it! That'll be next time. I have the opening day stuff, along with a series of (I think) cool before and after photos of the park that really show the changes that Steel Force made. Stay tuned!

Valleyfair!'s Renegade

How sweet is Valleyfair!'s new GCII wooden coaster, Renegade, looking? I really love the location of the ride and how it winds out into an undeveloped area yet sits right on the midway. I'm sure it will be one heck of a ride as well.

Valleyfair! has been posting photo updates frequently lately, I thought it was time to give them and their new ride some love. Check it all out on Valleyfair!'s site.

Geauga's Head Spin Color Change

I contacted the park to find out if Head Spin would receive new colors during it's painting, and they confirmed that it indeed will. It was explained to me as "tropical coral with matching accent colors." You can take that as you will, but I take it to mean pretty much this:
As many have suspected since this sign went up, I take it that this is the color palette for the ride's paint job. It will certainly liven up the area!

The above photo is from Geauga Lake Today, one of the two leading Geauga Lake sites on the net. They just broke the news that Steel Venom is starting to come down! Check them out!