Trains Arrive for Twisted Colossus + Scream! Gets a New Look

© Six Flags Magic Mountain

While track instillation continues on Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain, the theme park recently received an exciting delivery - the front section of one of the new coaster's trains.   The park quickly released a photo of the new train on site, showing off the impressive and colorful theming details that have been applied.  The front plate is especially interesting, almost bearing a medieval look, though the sides reflect the steam punk theme well.  This same train was first revealed at this past year's IAAPA convention, but it's great to see it at its new home!

For recent photos of the track instillation progressing, check out this gallery from Our Mountain.  Track has finally reached the top of the coaster's second hill.

© Six Flags Magic Mountain

Located adjacent to Twisted Colossus, Scream! - a 2003 B&M floorless coaster - is receiving a bright new look.  The ride's track is being painted a bright blue, with the supports an equally bright orange.  This bold new look will be appreciated by most fans of the park, who were never big cheerleaders for the ride's old look.

Kings Dominion Rebrands Water Park + Name the New Slide Tower

It was rumored last July that Kings Dominion would be renaming their water park from Water Works to Soak City, like many of the other Cedar Fair parks.  They even did a bit of a sneak preview of the logo for a brief time in that month, but then removed the image.

When the water park expansion was announced in August, however, the name transformation was no where to be found.  Granted some exciting new attractions would be coming to the park but no name change.

I guess they finally made a firm decision, and Kings Dominion's water park will be named Soak City, after all!  The park put out a press release today reiterating the fun additions planned, and also announcing the name change, a new entrance to the water park, and a full theme and landscaping makeover.

As part of the re-naming fun, park fans are being asked to help name Soak City's new 65 foot tall slide tower.  The tower will contain three separate slide types, a total of six slides in all.  The first choice...

Is Hurricane Heights, which is fitting since the new tower is a pretty tall addition to the park.  The second choice...

Is Tsunami Summit.  This one also sounds pretty nice for a slide tower, especially since there's so many options as far as slide choices go!

Readers are able to vote for their favorite name, and the name/logo with the most votes will be the permanent name of the attraction.  You can vote for your favorite at this link through Monday, February 9th.

Take a Peek Inside Shanghai Disney's Pirates Attraction

The Disney Parks Blog has offered readers an existing first peek at Shanghai Disney's new Pirates themed ride, named Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure.  The ride will be the staple attraction of the Treasure Cove themed area of the park.  Disney previously released some details and concept art of the entire Treasure Cove area, but left us guessing as to what the inside of the Pirates ride may be like.

© Disney

Not any longer, however, as now they have given us some great concept art of one of the attraction's major scenes.  The above image shows this scene, a major battle between two ships taking place with another ghostly ship in ruins in the background.  The Blog notes that the ride "will feature a combination of new technology and innovation and will take guests on a pirate adventure with Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Davy Jones, providing an experience unlike anything else in the world."  The press release for the new photos mentions that crews "are using advanced technologies and construction techniques to complete Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, an all-new high-technology boat ride attraction."

© Disney

For comparison purposes they also released this image of the ride under construction, taken from the same perspective as the concept art above.  It's exciting to see the major set pieces already in place!  The cavernous building will look spectacular under show lighting - with such high ceilings riders are certain to feel as if they're really out on the stormy open sea.  Also worth noting is the not fully installed ride track, assumed to go in the path between the two ships.

Also released along with these images are aerial construction photos of Shanghai Disney's two resorts, both now topped out and looking great.  Be sure to check those out at this link!

NewsPlusNotes January 2015 Poll Results

This winter can't pass by fast enough if you ask me! Enough of the blowing snow and freezing temperatures... bring on the sun and the new for 2015 coasters! This past month we asked our readers which of the year's new coasters was their most anticipated. And the winner was...

By a landslide.  Just under 46% of all the votes cast in this month's poll went to Fury 325 at Carowinds.  The world's tallest giga coaster now has its track complete, and we're all anxious waiting to see the testing begin!  The park is quickly finishing up the new entrance plaza, which Fury 325 will speed over multiple times - making a gigantic impression on visitors as they start their day.

Our second most anticipated ride goes to Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which gathered 13% of the total vote.  A new Rocky Mountain creation, the new steel version of the classic wooden coaster features several inversions and two trips around the structure.

In third place (just over 9%) was Thunderbird at Holiday World, North America's first launched wing coaster.  Finished just a few votes behind Thunderbird was Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England, another twisted Rocky Mountain ride.

As you can gather from the full results, there's plenty of other great new rides opening in 2015!  Though Fury 325 absolutely dominated this poll, others like Lagoon's Cannibal and Six Flags Fiesta Texas' Batman The Ride received some love, too.

This month's poll is now live over on the left!

Baron 1898 Vertical Construction Now Underway

One aspect of Baron 1898 at Efteling that I love is the very unique lift supports that it will use.  The B&M dive coaster will not utilize the company's standard supports, instead it will have a highly themed structure reminiscent of something found in mining operations.  Not many B&M coasters have really unique supports like this, especially just for the sake of theming.  But that's Efteling's way, and I love it.

I admit that after the initial concept art was released (above), I wondered if the actual ride would use these unique supports, and I'm happy to say that the will indeed.  The park has just started to put the main support tower in place, and it's just as gorgeous in real life as in this art.  Check out some fresh new photos at this link.

Efteling has also released a new video in their making-of series, embedded here.  This one gives a look at the ride's construction along with the park's visit to experience Krake at Heide Park.  Of note is that the tunnel that is after Baron's first drop is a bit deeper than I expected!  I will be interested to see if they released a final drop length, since it should be significantly larger than the lift height.

It seems that the park will continue to focus on building the rest of the ride's layout - so soon we will finally know what other elements the coaster will have!

Universal Studios Hollywood Shows Off Fast & Furious in New TV Spot

Happy "Big Game" day to you all!  I've used that moniker in fear of committing any trademark violations!

Anyway, I'm not a big sports fan so I'm part of the set of folks who love the commercials more than anything else - and this year Universal Studios Hollywood is showing off their latest creation during the game.

© Universal Studios Hollywood

Fast & Furious Supercharged will be a spectacular new ending to the park's famous Studio Tour, with the attraction taking place as guests are seated on the tram.  King Kong once ended the tour until he burned down, and now this much more modern franchise will leave visitors' hearts pounding.

Watch the video up top, which clearly calls it a new "ride" - and then ponder with me if the park's isn't over hyping a new tram tour ending a bit much.  Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that the new ending will be full of modern film technology, multi-media special effects, and overall great times.  It's just that... well do the tram cars even have handle bars like the people in the video are using?  I think you get my drift.

If you want to see more of Fast & Furious Supercharged, check out this recent update from Inside Universal.  There's photos of the nearly completed building(s), along with other looks at both Simpsons and Potter work.