One of the last 'surprise' announcements that Six Flags made earlier this year that I haven't covered was for Six Flags America's new water roller coaster addition. Joining the park's Hurricane Harbor area, RipQurl Blaster is being billed as the largest part of the park's biggest investment in the water park in over a decade. The water coaster itself will be the "regions tallest master blaster water coaster" though I am not sure what is considered the region. The ride itself is a long way from one of the largest of its kind to be built, but still an exciting addition for the property.
RipQurl Blaster's layout is seen above, and it features "three powerful uphill rip currents" that rafts will encounter. There is a total of 550 feet of twist and turns, and there will be three separate drops. Special features in the layout also include "AquaLucent hairpin turns, a pitch-black wallhugging helix and of course a big splashdown" at the end of the ride.
“We are excited to debut RipQurl Blaster, which will be both a thrilling and refreshing experience for guests visiting this summer,” said General Manager Ramar Vaughan. “This is just one of many investments we’re making to be the DMV’s most convenient and enjoyable out-of-home experience for the whole family." The new attraction is expected to be built next to the park's wave pool and will replace the floor drop slides that were previously there.
Six Flags America has a new general manger who is committed to making a lot of changes to the park. The changes include more special events such a Viva La Fiesta, Pride Week, Thrill-A-Thon and more, plus a ton of cosmetic changes. This year the park will see updated restrooms, new shade structures, restored decorative fountains, new paint and theming all over, expanded seating areas, new midway games, additional landscaping and plenty more.
Six Flags Entertainment has announced that this fall many of their parks will feature Hallofest, a new version of their popular late-season scare fest that has been adjusted in light of COVID-19. The new event temporarily replaces Fright Fest, which traditionally takes place at the parks in the fall.
The company made it clear not long ago that they intended to have a Halloween celebration this year, however in order to acknowledge that many of the usual scare tactics are off limits right now the event has been rebranded as Hallofest.
None of the Hallowfest events will feature any indoor haunted houses, due to safety restrictions. Instead they will all feature a number of fully outdoor scare zones (also called terror trails at some parks) with actors staying a safe distance from guests. There will be live entertainment along with plenty of fun things to do during the day, such a trick or treating, hay bale mazes and special food and retail offerings. Each park's offerings vary slightly and fit with their local markets.
“Our annual Fright Fest celebration is one of the most anticipated Halloween events of the season. Given the current environment, we are taking special precautions this year and offering our guests a version that is still scary, provides lots of thrilling rides and Halloween fun, and most importantly, is safe for our guests and team members,” said Six Flags President and CEO Mike Spanos. “We will operate HALLOWFEST the same way we have operated our parks all summer, with daily temperature checks and face masks required for guests and team members prior to entry, social distancing, and enhanced sanitization measures.”
Reservations are required for a visit to Hallofest, and are expected to fill quickly. They will be available for each park soon, keep an eye out on Six Flags' reservation site for more information.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is not yet allowed to operate as a full amusement park, however local officials have allowed zoo attractions to reopen. The park is taking advantage of this fact to reopen at the Marine World Experience, a throwback to when the park opened as a zoological experience in 1986. The Marine World Experience will open to pass holders and member on July 2nd and 3rd, and then to all guests July 4th.
The park will offer their wide variety of animal exhibits and encounters but it is important to know that zero of their rides will be operating while the park is the Marine World Experience. If the state allows the park to open as an amusement park this year they will proceed with that.
The park will be following all other Six Flags properties in terms of COVID-19 response, including increasing cleaning standards, the use of face masks, a reservation system, social distancing and more.
Six Flags American has also announced that they will reopen soon. The park will welcome back pass holders and members on July 1st and 2nd, with all guests welcome starting July 3rd. The park's COVID-19 response is the same as all Six Flags parks, with full details of the plan available at this link. Important to know before you go, the park requires reservations for your visit.
New for 2020 at the park was scheduled to be Harley Quinn Spinsanity, which I believe was constructed at the park but is no longer listed anywhere on the website. The new for 2020 link gives a denied access warning, and the attraction is not listed among all the rides. I wouldn't expect the ride to open in 2020.
Pennsylvania's Knoebels has announced a July 1st reopening date. The park has been working hard to get the park ready and have enough staff hired, so for the first few weeks the park's hours will be noon until 8pm. Additionally, they will only use individual tickets for rides, they will not have all day wrist bands available.
Since the park has no gates they will manage capacity through the parking lot - if necessary as they put it. They are also doing more employee training, putting up barriers between employees and guests, increasing cleaning efforts and more. They just made the announcement, and promise more details on visiting the park will be posted next week.
Disneyland and Disney California Adventure previously announced that they would reopen starting July 17th, but the parks have now announced that those dates will not happen.
The state of California will not issue full details on how and when parks can open until after July 4th, which means there is not enough time to prepare the parks to open for the 17th Disney says. They have also had a lot of pressure from their unions to do better COVID-19 testing and prevention before opening as cases of the virus in California continue to spike.
They still plan to open Downtown Disney, which has shopping and dining, on July 8th. But for now the parks do not have a clear reopening date.
Cedar Point is still planning on opening on July 9th and 10th for season pass holders, then also for resort guests on July 11th. They have launched their full mini-site that gives details on visiting the park this year with regard to COVID-19. You can read through the very thorough amount of information here.
They also published a new blog post that gives some more granular details. The park will have no early entry this year - and also daily park hours of 11 am to 8 pm have been posted. Forbidden Frontier on Adventure Island, Snoopy Bounce and Snake River Falls will not operate in 2020. They have also decided not to open their water park, Cedar Point Shores, in 2020. They will also not sell any new Fast Lane wrist bands this year, however if you already purchased one it will be valid. Finally, smoking will be banned inside the park, can guests must exit the park to smoke - this is actually something we are hearing that will be true at all Cedar Fair parks in 2020.
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown, located in Texas, was supposed to open on June 29th but due to rising COVID-19 cases in Texas it no longer will. The reopening has been postponed indefinitely. The park is located in Harris County, which just recently put into place a brand new stay at home advisory to try to control the spread of the virus. I believe this is the first time we've seen a park plan to reopen but have to stay closed due to orders of their local officials.
We still have a lot of ground to cover with regard to Six Flags Theme Parks' new for 2020 announcements. We've posted about a couple of the largest attractions, now let's take a look at the other rides headed to the parks.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom will be adding a new roller coaster, the Sidewinder Safari, which also has an animal exhibit located in its queue. Riders will enter a safari themed queue that features rattlesnakes and other reptiles. The coaster itself appears to be a clone of Rajin' Cajun at Six Flags America. The ride is one of Zamperla's family spinning wild mouse coasters, standing 42 feet tall with 1,378 feet of track.
Six Flags Fiesta Texas will open a brand new type of thrill ride next year, named Daredevil Dive Flying Machines. Themed as a steampunk flying machine, the attraction will be one of Zamperla's new elevated Super Air Race rides. The ride has six plane themed cars (each one seats 4 riders) that soar and rotate as the attraction rises to five stories above the ground. Daredevil Dive Flying Machines will be located in the Crackaxle Canyon section of the park.
Two parks will be adding a Booster ride from Funtime, at The Great Escape it will be known as Adirondack Outlaw and at Six Flags St. Louis Catwoman Whip. The Booster ride is also commonly called a "salt and pepper shaker" and features sets seats on each end of a large ride arm. The arm rotates and sends rides up 160 feet in the air at 50 miles per hour - oh and the ride carriage is able to rotate freely as well allowing for inversions.
My description of the ride may not be perfect, but this animation of the Six Flags St. Louis version definitely makes the attraction clear. I believe that Catwoman Whip will have more seats - 16 per ride cycle - than at The Great Escape, which looks like it will have 8.
A pair of parks will add another recently popular ride, Zamperla's Endeavour. The ride is the modern version of a Huss Enterprise, and visitors to parks are eating them up. The ride will be named Supergirl Sky Flyer at Six Flags New England, and Catwoman Whip at Six Flags Over Georgia. Riders are seated with their legs hanging free below them and rotated in a giant circle to seven stories above the ground.
Six Flags Over Georgia will place their ride in a newly renovated Gotham City area, with new theming, food, and a second new ride, a traditional Scrambler named Poison Ivy Toxic Twister. Six Flags New England's ride will be placed in the DC Super Hero Adventure themed area.
Good things come in pairs at Six Flags, and the trend continues with two parks building massive spinning pendulum rides in 2020. Six Flags America is going to add Harley Quinn Spinsanity, one of the 147 foot tall, 70 mile per hour version of the ride. To be located within the park's Gotham City area, it is sure to breath a lot of new life into that part of the park.
Six Flags Mexico is also building a pendulum ride, CraZanity, which is one of the even larger versions of these rides which tie as the tallest in the world. Standing 170 feet tall at maximum swing, CraZanity will hit 75 miles per hour at its top speed.
Turns out the rumors of Six Flags Magic Mountain's Green Lantern being transported to La Ronde were totally true, as the park has announced the ride as Vipere. The coaster opened in California in 2011 but has a difficult time at the park since then. Hopefully the ride will be better suited for Canadian audiences. The ride is one of Intamin's Zac Spin coasters, standing 105 feet tall and featuring cars that can spin wildly on the multi-level track, should the park desire those operations.
Last but not least, Six Flags Over Texas is building North America's first Mack Rides Power Splash ride, named Aquaman: Power Wave. The ride has a 700 foot long track that uses LSM launches to send boats both forward and backward up 148 foot tall towers at 63 miles per hour. At the end of the last drop the boats soar through a splash pool creating a drenching finale to a thrilling ride.
It's great to see one of these rides come to a park in North America, as they look very exciting. It is rumored that this ride was fabricated for the cancelled Six Flags Dubai project - in this case much to the gain of Six Flags Over Texas!
Six Flags America's newly transformed roller coaster, Firebird, will be ready for all guests to soar on next weekend, starting May 17th. The ride is actually open this weekend as a special preview for certain levels of Six Flags pass holders, but the general public can get their first flight in on the 17th.
Firebird is now a floorless roller coaster, after undergoing an extensive renovation during the winter months that removed the ride's stand-up trains and station set up. The coaster was B&M's first back in 1990, a stand up roller coaster located at Six Flags Great America named Iron Wolf. The coaster operated at that park until it was moved to Six Flags America for the 2012 season and named Apocalypse.
Now with brand new floorless trains, the coaster has been renamed Firebird and given a fancy new paint job. The ride stands 100 feet tall, has a first drop of 90 feet, two inversions and a top speed of 55 miles per hour.
In anticipation of the grand Firebird opening, Six Flags America has released a point of view video of the ride experience - check it out below!
After Six Flags America announced the upcoming retirement of Apocalypse: The Last Stand (closing on September 8th), many began to wonder if the ride would be totally removed or if it would get a new lease on life via floorless trains. Today the park confirmed the latter, as the ride will open again next year as Firebird.
Offering a much more comfortable riding experience than as a stand-up coaster, Firebird will also receive a new paint job of what looks like black supports with a two-tone track of red and yellow.
The park released these drawings of the new trains, which will of course be manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, the original builders of the roller coaster. They will continue the color scheme seen in the concept art for the track and supports, adding orange into the mix as well. The new trains will take on the ride's 90 foot drop and two inversions, along with several twists and the figure-eight finale.
Those who still wish to ride Apocalypse have until September 8th to do so. Six Flags America plans to open Firebird in the spring of 2019.
The end is near for Apocalypse: The Last Stand at Six Flags America, as the theme park has announced that it will close for good on September 8th, 2018.
The stand-up roller coaster opened at Six Flags America in 2012 and has given more than 1.6 million rides since then, or about 228,000 rides per season.
“Our wheels are always turning when it comes to new and innovative thrills and attractions to bring to the park,” says Park President Rick Howarth. “The end is near but saying good-bye to Apocalypse will allow us to bring an all-new thrilling experience to our guests in 2019.”
At least we know that the ride is being removed in order to bring a new attraction to the park next year - we will hear more about that on August 30th when all Six Flags parks make their announcements.
Apocalypse got its start as Iron Wolf at Six Flags Great America where it opened in 1990. It is credited as Bolliger & Mabillard's first roller coaster created from the ground up, the start of what has become a prolific career for the company.
The coaster features two trains, each with 7 rows of 4 passengers. The first lift stands 100 feet tall, followed by a swooping 90 foot first drop. The 2,900 foot long layout features a vertical loop and a corkscrew along with numerous low to the ground twists and turns.
Apocalypse is not the first B&M coaster to meet its end, as we saw the very permanent removal of Dragon Challenge at Islands of Adventure just last year.
Six Flags America's water park, named Hurricane Harbor, has announced the addition of Wahoo River in 2018, a brand new lazy river attraction.
The park will totally demolish and remove their existing lazy river, named Castaway Creek, in order to bring the "action-packed" Wahoo River to life. The park has spent the better part of the last week teasing fans about what attraction would be removed, and now we know that the old lazy river will bite the dust, however a much more modern one will replace it.
The new Wahoo River will will feature a zero depth entry so that guests can comfortably board their tubes for their adventure. The physical river itself will be up to 18 feet wide, which is 33% wider than the old attraction, and Wahoo River will also be 40% longer as well.
The course will have "seven different water action zones with sprays, geysers, waves, waterfalls, leaky pipes, aqua arches and bucket dumps" among the interactive features. There will also be a wave generator that "pulses waves every few seconds propelling guests down the water channel," and other features such as "even more surprises behind the rock waterfall, leaky pipes and under the leaky bridge waterworks."
The addition will also include 2,500 square feet of new deck space with hundreds of new lounge chairs.
A new hybird water slide named Typhoon Twister has been announced for Six Flags St. Louis' water park, Hurricane Harbor, for their 2018 season. The mega-slide combines two different popular water slide styles into one attraction that visitors can take on in 4-seater rafts.
The slide will be similar to one that opened at another Six Flags park a few years ago, seen above. The ride starts with an enclosed 125 foot long slide through an enclosed tube into a giant vortex, where the rafts spin around and around.
Once they slow they are pulled down through the center an experience a 54 foot drop down into a 45 foot tall vertical wave that the rafts slide up until gravity pulls them back down, giving a weightless feeling. The rafts then slide through an exit shoot to the end of the ride.
"For 2018, Six Flags leads the way in innovation again as Typhoon Twister is unlike any other water attraction, giving riders two completely different thrill experiences in one very intense slide,” said Park President Pete Carmichael. “This one-of-a-kind experience is another big reason why our guests will want to enjoy both the water park and the theme park during their visits next year."
The most recent addition to the Six Flags family, Waterworld Concord, located not too far from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, will build Splashwater Island for 2018.
"The new Splashwater Island is a mammoth, multi-level play structure with tons of water features covering almost 8,000 square feet to keep families entertained all summer long. Guests will climb up ladders, splash down 600 feet of open and enclosed slides, and navigate a maze of varying platforms and net structures. Guests will stay cool by playing under waterfalls, spouting geysers and spraying fountains. A super-sized tipping bucket sits atop the huge play structure dumping water on everyone standing underneath."
Other changes to the park include incorporating the park's existing Tornado slide into the entrance area of Splashwater Island, adding new deck space, private cabanas and even new restrooms.
We're getting closer to the big reveal of all of Six Flags' new attractions for 2018, just two more days to wait! Six Flags America has been celebrating whatever news they have to share by posting several tweets about possible removals at the park. It started with the grim reaper showing up at the park, noting that both change is in the air and that when he appears something must disappear forever!
The next tweet, seen above, shows the grim reaper at the entrance to the Penguin's Blizzard River, a family style spinning raft ride that was added back in 2003. It is a part of the Gotham City themed area of the park.
Or... When the Grim Reaper appears, does that mean ALL of GOTHAM CITY will disappear? pic.twitter.com/iA6ttuUFKX
Then, in the next tweet, the park showed the grim reaper in front of the entrance sign to Gotham City itself, hinting that the entire land may go away? Since it contains some of the park's blockbuster attractions, obviously it won't be leveled... but could we see a total retheme? With rides themed to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Joker, perhaps a DC Comics themed area makes more sense?
When the Grim Reaper appears, that means something will be going, going GONE FOREVER. Will it be this??? pic.twitter.com/V1jHnf1CZk
Next up we saw the grim reaper moved into Hurricane Harbor, Six Flags America's water park. Aside from looking rather creepy, you'll notice that the entrance sign for ZoomAzon Falls can be seen in the background. These are some of the water park's oldest water slides, and have a slightly awkward location within the park, set off by themselves in the trees. Could they be removed next year?
So far 2 stops in the water park. 2 stops in the dry park. When the Grim Reaper appears something MUST disappear! Answers will come 8/31! pic.twitter.com/TzWCTz8Dhi
Finally, the park has completed the series of hints with this latest post, this time in front of Castaway Creek in Hurricane Harbor. Castaway Creek is the park's lazy river, which would be odd to remove however it does take up a considerable amount of space that could be redeveloped. With two possible removals in both the theme and water parks, there's plenty of questions still remaining.
Plus - with these removal hints we haven't seen any other hints about what will replace them... so we still have that to find out about as well! The park promises that all will be revealed on the 31st when they make their big announcement.
Riders on Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth board one of 16 swings, each holding two passengers, to start their adventure. The ride begins to lift upward the 240 foot tower while spinning the swings, which eventually move in a 98 foot circle at speeds of 40 miles per hour. From the top riders get unparalleled views of the metro D.C. area.
The attraction is one of Funtime's popular StarFlyers, which have opened at nearly all Six Flags parks within the past few years. This is the first to carry the Wonder Woman theme, however.
This wider view of the tower shows off the Wonder Woman-appropriate colors of the tower, along with a decorative topper with her logo. Due to its location in the park and towering height, it can't be missed! Wonder Woman Lasso officially opened at Six Flags America last week, so fans no longer need to wait to experience it!
Part of this past week's announcements from Six Flags parks was the addition of several new flat rides and slides, sure to offer plenty of spinning, soaring and splashing for park visitors. Here's a breakdown of what's opening where.
A new 242 foot tall Starflyer ride, named Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth, will be opening next season at Six Flags America. The towering ride will give riders a view of the park while they spin in a giant 98 foot circle at speeds of 40 miles per hour. The park notes that the new ride will be the tallest attraction at Six Flags America when it opens. No location for the ride in the park was specified in the announcements, just that the DC Comic theming will compliment the existing Joker, Superman and Batman themed attraction already there.
Spinning into Six Flags St. Louis next season is Spinsanity, a Zamperla Disk'O, that will be located in the Chouteau's Market area of the park across from Tsunami Soaker.
Spinsanity will seat 40 riders per cycle on motorcycle-style seats secured to a giant ring. The ring will rotate as it also moves up and down a five story tall "U" shaped track, creating a disorienting experience. Capable of completing 14 revolutions per minute, the ride will certainly be a draw for thrill seekers.
An imposing new pendulum ride named Titan will open at La Ronde, bringing pulse-pumping thrills to riders. Another Zamperla designed creation, Titan will be one of the company's Giant Discovery rides. These rides swing riders, seated on the end of a giant disk, up to 147 feet above the ground, taller than many roller coasters. The maximum swing angle means that riders are effectively upside down at that height - oh and it also hits speeds of 68 miles per hour!
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom will also open a Zamperla Giant Discovery, named Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth. While all of the statistics for the ride are the same as the one for La Ronde (and for that matter the Riddler themed one opened this year at Six Flags Over Texas), this instillation will have a color scheme that's fitting of the Wonder Woman Name. The park released the above concept art showing that the new thrill ride will be located next to the Superman Ultimate Flight and Joker roller coasters.
Rounding out the remaining Six Flags announcements is a pair of 30 foot tall twisting body slides named Bonzai Pipelines that will open at the Great Escape's water park, Splashwater Kingdom. Finally, Six Flags Mexico will add virtual reality headsets to the Medusa Steel Coaster, and celebrate with an all new Mardi Gras Festival. Hurricane Harbor Oaxtepec will also open in February of 2017 with a host of new slides and attractions.
Taking a final look at some of the smaller additions at Six Flags parks in 2016, we find a variety of new items, from water rides to returning super coaster themes.
Six Flags America will expand their Hurricane Harbor water park in 2016 with Splashwater Falls, an "interactive water playground" that will have seven water slides, nets, sprays, geysers and more spread out over multiple levels. As with most interactive water structures, Splashwater Falls will also have a giant bucket on top of it that will fill, then tip and dump tons of water on those below.
The expansion will also see the addition of new deck areas surrounding Splashwater Falls, perfect for parents to relax on new lounge chairs while their kids explore the attraction.
Six Flags White Water, outside Atlanta, will debut the Wahoo Racer in 2016, a giant multi lane mat racing water slide.
The attraction will start sixty feet above the ground and feature two distinct sections, a twisting enclosed tube section at the top, then a multi-hill racing section toward the bottom. The ride's bright colors and height will make it easily visible from outside the park, drawing visitors in to experience speeds of up to 40 feet per second as they race down.
Six Flags White Water plans to open Wahoo Racer in May of next year.
A classic roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Revolution, will see major upgrades to its trains next year, making a much more comfortable ride experience for visitors. The trains will no longer have over-the-shoulder restrains, instead new lap and calf bars will firmly hold passengers in place.
Revolution will also be repainted white and blue, and as seen in the concept art above the trains will be red, white and blue with a shimmering eagle on the front car. You can't get more patriotic than that!
The coaster originally opened in 1976, and will be celebrating 40 years in 2016. The ride will close after September 7th to begin its transformation.
Canada's La Ronde will see two new rides added in 2016, and one ride's trains turned around backwards. Let's start with that last one, as Vampire will receive the backwards Batman trains that have been moving around the parks the past two years. The park isn't specifically saying a length of time that the backwards trains will be on Vampire, so perhaps for the full season.
Two new rides will also open next year at La Ronde, starting with the Phoenix, a set of Larson Flying Scooters. The second is named Gravitor, and I'm not quite sure what kind of ride it is. The description says it has eight suspended, two-seater gondolas that have a joystick to allow for 360 degree rotation (horizontal, not vertical). A few shots of the ride can be seen in this promotional video. It looks very much like a ride you would see at a European fair.
Larson Giant Loops will be coming to four parks in total next year, with one already mentioned as part of Six Flags Fiesta Texas' expansion. At The Great Escape the ride will be named Greezed Lightnin' complete with a 1950's theme, and will be located across from Thunder Alley. At Six Flags St. Louis the ride will be named Fireball and replace the Rush Street Flyer in the Illinois section of the park. Also named Fireball, Six Flags New England will open one of the loopers in their Rockville section next year.
Last, but not least, Six Flags New England is kicking Bizarro out of the park and returning Superman to his rightful coaster. Now known as Superman The Ride, the hyper coaster that rates #1 on many lists will be repainted its former colors and once again honor Superman. Interesting that the ride won't return to its exact former name, which was Superman: Ride of Steel.
The theme park promises several improvements to the coaster when it reopens next year, including "super hero theming and music" throughout the ride experience.
Offering visitors a new way to see the theme park from upside down, the Bourbon Street Fireball has arrived at Six Flags America.
Seen above, the 70 foot tall looping ride has been constructed in the Mardi Gras section of the park, along with rides like the Ragin Cajun, Voodoo Drop and Zydeco Zinger. The new ride's train seats riders back-to-back so that passengers can see their fellow thrill seekers head on during the experience. The train heads up and around the loop, completing several inversions and moving both forward and backward.
As part of the grand opening ceremonies, Six Flags America made a donation of $10,000 worth of smoke detectors to Anne Arundel and Prince George's County Fire & EMS departments. The detectors will be placed into residents homes free of charge, helping save lives and prevent tragedies. “Being able to donate these smoke alarms to our local fire and EMS
departments is an honor and privilege for everyone at Six Flags
America,” said Rick Howarth, Six Flags America Park President.
Naturally since the event was a ride opening, the local officials were seated for a thrilling spin on the Bourbon Street Fireball. For more on the new attraction, click here.
Scott and Carol previously detailed the additions to Six Flags Great Adventure below, and their main new ride is the same that is going into three other parks in 2015. The team at Larson must have been pretty happy when this contract was signed!
The Giant Loop, as the manufacturer calls it, is a 72 foot tall circular ride that completes several full rotations both forward and backward during the experience. Riders sit facing back to back, which means that most of the 24 passengers look directly at other riders during the inverting.
The new attractions all have different names at the different parks - Six Flags Discovery Kingdom has named their Dare Devil Chaos Coaster, Six Flags America went with Bourbon Street Fireball, Six Flags Great Adventure the Looping Dragon, and Six Flags Over Georgia The Joker Chaos Coaster.
Six Flags Over Georgia is expanding
their Gotham City themed section to add the Joker Chaos Coaster. They
are also building a second ride, a classic Tilt-A-Whirl named Harley
Quinn Spinsanity. Overall the 2015 expansion will cost the park in the multi-million range.
At Six Flags America, the new attraction will be added to the brand new Mardi Gars themed area. The Bourbon Street Fireball will fit perfectly with the section's other new or refreshed attractions.
The Larson Giant Loop comes with an optional lightning package that will look great at night, hopefully the parks add that on. Elitch Gardens added a Giant Loop this season, named the Brain Drain - check out coverage of that ride here.
Thanks to one of our readers, Chris, who must also dabble as a private eye, we have a special Aerial Antics today.
After hearing that Two Face was shipped out of the country after being removed from Six Flags America, Chris went hunting through aerial images to see if he could track down the ride. Knowing it was shipped out of Wilmington, Delaware, he went searching, and...
See anything of interest in this shipping port?
Yes! He actually found aerial images of the pieces of Two Face sitting in a shipyard, waiting their journey across the sea. In my opinion Chris must be one of the most patient people on Earth to have found this, and for that I thank him.
Two Face, a Vekoma Invertigo (inverted boomerang) coaster was shipped to Italy, where it is scheduled to reopen at Movieland Park in 2015 as Diabolik Invertigo. Two Face: The Flip Side operated at Six Flags America in Maryland from 1999 until 2007. It spent the next seven or so years sitting around in pieces, until a buyer was finally found.
Thanks again to Chris for sharing his find, here's a link that should get you to the maps if you want to check it out!
NewsPlusNotes is a blog dedicated to the coverage of the amusement
industry. Our content runs the gamut from major industry headlines
to exclusive reports and items of historical significance. NewsPlusNotes
was founded in 2006, when Mike made the pivotal decision to share his
love of the industry with the world. Since then, what started out as
one enthusiast's hobby has grown to become one of the most widely known
and frequently updated sources of industry information. NewsPlusNotes--or
"NPN", as it is called by fans--now serves up content and commentary to
a global audience which continues to grow on a near daily basis, and its
reach has expanded to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
NPN remained a solo effort until October 2008, when Mike welcomed three
new full-time contributors (Sabrina, Scott, and Carol) to the blog and the
"NPN team" was officially born. The team was again expanded in March of 2011 Kevin joined as a writer. Simply stated, we are a group of writers
who love the industry and it is our honor and privilege to share that
passion with our loyal readers and fellow enthusiasts. In so doing, we
strive to promote the enjoyment, celebration, and preservation of the
industry. We hope you enjoy our blog and welcome your feedback!
NewsPlusNotes is not affiliated with nor do we purport to represent
the views, interests, intentions, or policies of any park, corporation,
or entity. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the
individual writers. While we strive to achieve 100% accuracy in our
news reporting, errors inevitably will occur from time to time and we
make no guarantees that the facts presented in any given post will
remain unchanged over time. For complete, up-to-the-minute information
on any park, please visit that park's web site or contact the park directly.
All original content found on NewsPlusNotes, including but not limited to
all original written content, the NewsPlusNotes logo and all other static
graphic and web design elements comprising the site, and all photos from
NewsPlusNotes writers' personal collections, is the exclusive property of
the NewsPlusNotes team and may not be used, reproduced, or distributed in
any manner without the express written consent of the individual author/creator.
All non-original content found on NewsPlusNotes, including but not limited
to park logos, press releases, and photo contributions received from parks,
corporations, and individual readers, remains the property of the original
author/creator and may be subject to additional copyright, trademark, and/or
intellectual property protection. The lack of an explicit copyright notice
does not imply ownership by NewsPlusNotes or any of its writers unless the
content in question has been produced by one of our team members as described
in the paragraph above. NewsPlusNotes occasionally features guest writers,
and these individuals retain ownership of all original written and/or graphic
content that they publish on NewsPlusNotes. By contributing written or graphic
material to NewsPlusNotes, you are implying that you are the owner of this
material or are submitting it with the express consent of the owner. If you
feel that we've made an error or omission in attributing proper credit to a
particular piece of content found on NewsPlusNotes, please contact us and we
will gladly investigate the matter and make any necessary corrections.
