Texas Stingray to Open at SeaWorld San Antonio February 29th!

© SeaWorld San Antonio

Looks like everyone won't have to wait too long to experience the Texas Stingray at SeaWorld San Antonio, as the park has announced that the new wooden roller coaster will have its grand opening on February 29th!

However, the park is offering a special weekend of exclusive ride time for pass holders, starting on February 22nd where Platinum pass holders can take their very first rides on the Texas Stingray from 10 am through noon.  After that time both Silver and Gold pass holders can join along in the fun and ride until 8 pm.  On February 23rd the fun continues as all levels of pass holders can exclusively ride the coaster from 10 am through 5 pm.

The 23rd will also be Pass Member Appreciation Day where holders can get a free Texas Stingray beanie hat, free sweet treats, special discounts, animal experiences and more.

The Texas Stingray is a custom designed Great Coasters International wooden coaster that utilizes steel supports with a lift hill of 96 feet and a 100 foot first drop.  The 3,379 foot long coaster will hit a top speed of 55 miles per hour and give plenty of air-time, twists and turns.

If you missed it earlier, here is the point of view ride on the coaster to hold you over until later this month when it opens!

SeaWorld San Diego's Emperor Dive Coaster Track is Complete

© SeaWorld San Diego

Exciting news from SeaWorld San Diego, which just recently completed all track and support instillation for Emperor, the park's new B&M dive roller coaster.  Seen above in its completed status, Emperor is now another impressive addition to the theme park's skyline.

Emperor towers 153 feet over SeaWorld San Diego, and features a vertical, 143 foot first drop.  With a top speed of 60 miles per hour, the trains will encounter three inversions along the 2,411 feet of track.

© SeaWorld San Diego

As is common in the industry, members of the construction team got a chance to sign the final piece of track before it was lifted into place.  It's a nice way to let the crew who built the ride forever be a part of the attraction!

© SeaWorld San Diego

The final piece was located in what appears to be the ride's 3rd inversion, a corkscrew near the end of the ride.  You could easily argue that Emperor has four inversions, as the ride's second element is a very highly banked turn that is indeed counted as an inversion on other rides.  No matter the final number, all the elements will be a blast so who cares!

© SeaWorld San Diego

And just like that the final piece was bolted in place and the Emperor track was complete.  The coaster is the only B&M dive coaster in California and one of only a handful in North America.

© SeaWorld San Diego

Not long after the track was completed the park reached another milestone - they placed the first Emperor floorless coaster train on the track!  With how quickly the park is making progress on Emperor I wouldn't be at all surprised to see testing start soon.  Stay tuned!

Energylandia Continuing Coaster Building Streak with New Vekoma Coaster "Abyssus"

© Energylandia

Poland's Energylandia theme park has been on a crazy schedule of building new coaster after new coaster in recent years, and the trend isn't stopping.  In the past two years they have opened Hyperion, an Intamin hyper coaster and Zadra, an equally large Rocky Mountain Construction custom IBox Track design.

The park is currently working on one of Vekoma's "Shockwave" coasters, which will be named Abyssus when it opens.  The concept art up top shows the ride's layout, which will be heavily themed.  According to RCDB Abyss will be the park's 16th coaster and the main ride of a new Aqualantis themed section.

© Energylandia

The park has opened rides later in the season after starting construction during the winter before, and Abyss seems like it will follow that pattern and be a new for 2020, not 2021, ride.  This aerial shows progress from a few weeks ago, with even more track having been installed since.

© Energylandia

Abyss will be a launched ride, actually featuring two separate launches throughout the experience.  The first launch is somewhat gentle and leads the trains into a low to the ground (and water) section of curves and dips, several of which do go below grade.  The ride's second launch can be seen above, which hits a much higher top speed of 62 miles per hour and sends trains up into a top hat style turn around.

© Energylandia

Here is the same element from another angle, it almost looks like a totally different section of track but it is not!  The ride will do a steep downward plunge off the top of the element, the soar through a vertical loop and then into a batwing element, consisting of two separate inversions.

© Energylandia

The remainder of the track has a 4th inversion, a corkscrew, along with a lot of twists and turns and a couple more below grade dives for good measure.  Shown above is the vertical loop from earlier in the ride, the photo was too nice not to include even though it happens near the middle of the ride.

You can see an animated ride on the coaster on Energylandia's official website.  Check that out at this link.

Michigan's Adventure Working Through Winter Toward Camp Snoopy Grand Opening

Back in August Michigan's Adventure announced that Camp Snoopy would be coming to the park in 2020, an addition many of us have been waiting years for.  It seems a natural fit for the park to make this expansion, adding a cohesively themed area that's meant just for kids and their families.  And taking full advantage of the Peanuts licensing is a great move as well.

Camp Snoopy, opening May 22nd, will contain a total of five rides and the woodsy setting that Cedar Fair has created at other properties for Camp Snoopy.  Since the announcement the park has been hard at work on the expansion, let's check out what has been going on.

© Michigan's Adventure

Before the park's 2019 operating season was even over the park had cleared out a huge area for Camp Snoopy.  Happily, seen above the park has been careful to keep as many trees as they possibly can for the site.  Camp Snoopy will be replacing Be-Bop Blvd., a children's car ride.

© Michigan's Adventure

Moving further into the off-season, the park had already poured foundations for many of the new paths in Camp Snoopy and some of the ride foundation pads as well.  This general view into the area gives an idea of that, and you can see the pad for the Mud Buggies in the upper right of this photo.  The park had also already started to install the themed light poles for the area.

© Michigan's Adventure

Even more recently, the new rides for the area have begun to arrive at the park.  Above is the large center for Beagle Scout Lookout, which will take families up in hot air balloons for a view of the entire Camp Snoopy area.

© Michigan's Adventure

Also hiding inside away from the snow are the vehicles for Trail Blazers, a kiddie style whip ride that spin riders in a circular track.  The brightly colored vehicles, seen above, will simulate an off-road trip for kids.

Camp Snoopy will also contain a kiddie roller coaster, the Camp Bus and Mud Buggies along with a large play area, Beagle Scout Acres.  Below is the drawing originally released for the project.  Can't wait to watch the project move even further along!

© Michigan's Adventure

New Article Updates Plans for Six Flags Qiddiya + Falcon's Flight is Real?

© Six Flags Qiddiya

Six Flags Qiddiya, to be located in Saudi Arabia, is currently the only foreign licensed Six Flags that appears to have forward movement taking place.  While still several years out from the planned opening, the theme park is going to be one of the most themed Six Flags parks on the globe when complete (according to developers).  The park is not being built by Six Flags Entertainment, instead they actually receive revenue for allowing the park to use their name as well as helping to design and bring it into reality.

The plans for the park were announced at the end of last summer, and included some amazing attractions that seemed pretty fantastical.  A new story from BlooLoop on Six Flags Qiddiya answers some of the questions that many of us have had, and also sheds some light on who's behind the project.  I do not intend to steal BlooLoop's thunder so I suggest you read their story, but the two top guys for this project both have a ton of theme park experience, specifically from when Universal first expanded into a resort.

© Six Flags Qiddiya

The BlooLoop story details how the developers research has shown that a large millennial class of folks in Saudi Arabia are hungry for thrills, and that's led to some rather huge thrill rides planned for the park.  The largest is Falcon's Flight (video in this post) that is planned to be the world's tallest, longest and fastest coaster.  The video shows a ride that appears to defy gravity, at least without some big launch sections, and many wrote it off as marketing (along with the shown top speed of 156ish miles per hour).

However, according to the story that's not the case.  Developers say the plan for the coaster is not only real, but will be similar to the video and they've already done testing on the cliffs that the ride is shown going on top of.  One thing's for sure, if a ride of that size does get built it will cost an amazing amount of money and be one heck of a ride.

As we've seen with other international park developments, it's tough to actually see them get built and open.  But if Six Flags Qiddiya does, the plan is for a 2023 opening.

Busch Gardens Tampa Shows Off Impressive Iron Gwazi Progress

© Busch Gardens Tampa

Towering 206 feet over Busch Gardens Tampa, Iron Gwazi is a site to be seen... literally probably from miles around the theme park.  The track instillation is getting close to the final stages, and to celebrate the park is starting to show off more of the ride - but we're still missing an official point of view animation!

Regardless, the image up top showing the ride's massive layout and towering features comes from this video, which you should definitely check out if you haven't already.

© Busch Gardens Tampa

Not long ago the park started to add the Iron Gwazi trains to the track, aren't they good looking?  I love the color choices that the park has gone with for the coaster.  Anyone who's been on an RMC coaster before knows just how needed those lap restraints are once riders encounter all those forces!

These two photos are really just a taste of what the park showed off today, however.  They held a tour of the ride, which included the entrance, queue and station plus a ton of new details about the experience.  There's several great stories out there featuring pics from today, one of which can be found here over at Expedition Theme Park.