Busch Gardens Tampa to Open Cobra's Curse Friday June 17th + New Photos

© Busch Gardens Tampa

The wait will soon be over, as visitors to Busch Gardens Tampa will be able to experience the theme park's all-new "family thrill coaster," Cobra's Curse, this Friday, June 17th.  The above photo is of the entrance to the new ride, with the elevator-style lift seen in the background.  No doubt that the park has made the ride fit in well with its Egypt-themed surroundings.

© Busch Gardens Tampa

As part of the ride's opening date announcement, the park has also released some beautiful new photos of the queue for Cobra's Curse.  The waiting area for the coaster will be much more than uncovered switchbacks, instead visitors will find "an immersive themed experience and a state-of-the-art snake exhibit featuring four exotic snake species including some of the world’s most feared and often misunderstood vipers."

© Busch Gardens Tampa

Along with the actual snake exhibit, the area is beautifully themed and contains all sorts of homage to a wide variety of slithery snakes.  This appears to be a decorative water fountain located inside the main section of the queue.

© Busch Gardens Tampa

Pulling back a bit, we see a wider look at the area.  Not only is there plenty to look at to keep riders distracted while they wait, the entire queue is indoors and air-conditioned.  That's especially nice in the Tampa sun!

© Busch Gardens Tampa

After riders make it through the queue they board the ride's cars in the station, seen above.  The station is mostly covered but still has some open air sections to allow light in.  The ride uses a conveyor belt loading system that will help keep a guaranteed capacity for the ride.

© Busch Gardens Tampa

Here's one last photo that Busch Gardens Tampa released of their new ride.  Cobra's Curse has turned out to be a very easy-on-the-eye ride, that's for sure!  Read more at the official Cobra's Curse website.

New High-Quality Virtual Ride on Dollywood's Lightning Rod Now Available

Dollywood is still keeping Lightning Rod, the park's new and world's fastest wooden roller coaster, partially under wraps and holding only limited technical rehearsal rides with the public.  That means for the time being it can be a bit difficult to get on the record breaking ride, but luckily Upstop Media has released a super high definition point of view film of the ride:

Lightning Rod is the world's fastest wooden roller coaster at 73 miles per hour, beating the former holder, Six Flags Great America's Goliath, by one mile per hour.  The coaster uses a launch up the first hill to get the train to 45 miles per hour, which is followed by two air-time hills and a 165 foot drop at 73 degrees.

News from those who have experienced the ride's 3,800 foot long course place it easily in most top-ten lists, citing the raw speed and intense forces experienced on the ride.  The park advertised 20 seconds of combined air-time on Lightning-Rod when they announced it, and it sounds like they've made very good on that promise.

Watch for more news on the full opening of the ride, along with more coverage in the future!

June 10th is Now "Amusement Park Day" in Pennsylvania

There is a special celebration for pretty much every day of the year at this point, but now June 10th will be one that many of our readers will happily go out of their way to celebrate.  Recently members from various amusement and water parks in the state of Pennsylvania headed to the House of Representatives to help Representative Ryan Mackenzie declare the date as "Amusement Park Day."

The full introduction of House Resolution No. 877 officially created the special day, and was originally introduced by Representative John D. Payne of Dauphin County.  According to Dorney Park, the intent of the declaration is to honor "amusement and family-themed parks in Pennsylvania and encourages residents to take the opportunity to visit the many amusement parks in the Commonwealth."

Dorney Park's Mike Fehnel and Ryan Mackenzie © Dorney Park

According to Representative Payne, “tourism should be celebrated as it injects nearly $40 billion annually into our economy and supports 304,000 Pennsylvania jobs”, adding specifically that “it is important to celebrate our amusement and water parks specifically for the role they play in bringing families to the Keystone State.”

Pennsylvania is rich in amusement parks, offering a wide selection for residents and visitors throughout the state.  The state's parks are also of great historical value, with many having operated for many decades - for instance Dorney Park just started their 133rd season.  They also contribute to the local economy, provide jobs and are great charitable partners.  The park's General Manager, Mike Fehnel, noted that Dorney Park has worked with many non-profit organizations, including Make-A-Wish Foundation, Give Kids the World Passport Program, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, Arthritis Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association, and Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

Other parks mentioned as part of the resolution include Camelback Lodge and Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark, Conneaut Lake Park, DelGrosso’s Amusement Park, Dutch Wonderland, Great Wolf Lodge, Hersheypark, Kalahari Resort and Convention Center, Kennywood, Knoebles Amusement Resort, Lakemont Park and The Island Waterpark, Sesame Place, Split Rock Resort Indoor Waterpark, and Waldameer Park and Water World.  You can learn more about the state's parks from the Pennsylvania Amusement Park Association (PAPA).

Grona Lund Building 312 Foot Face-First Free Fall in 2017

What Sweden's Grona Lund lacks in park size it already more than makes up with towering thrill rides, and that's going to get even more intense in 2017 with the addition of Ikaros.  The park has announced that they will build a 95 meter (312 feet) free fall tower next season, to be built by Intamin and feature rotating seats that will point riders face-down before they drop.

This is the same trick that we first saw used on Busch Gardens Tampa's 335 foot drop ride, Falcon's Fury.  Grona Lund's Ikaros will have two carriages, each seating 8 riders at a time.

© Grona Lund

The attraction is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who used homemade wings to escape capture but flew too close to the sun, melting the wax holding the wings together and sending him plummeting toward the ground.  As a nod to the story, the ride will have a sun at the very top of the tower.  During the free fall riders will experience 3.5 gs and hit speeds of more than 55 miles per hour.

Grona Lund is already home to a 400 foot tall swing ride, an older Intamin free fall with both regular and tilting seats, and a S&S tower ride. 

Time to Face The Monster at Adventureland

© Adventureland

The Monster, a brand new custom-designed Gerstlauer "infinity coaster" has opened at Adventureland, located in Altoona, Iowa.  Complete with a scary looking front car design, the Monster has already started terrorizing visitors to the park - but in a good way, of course.

Standing 133 feet tall with bright green track and silver supports, the coaster utilizes a vertical lift hill and a first drop that goes beyond straight down at 101 degrees.  As noted in earlier construction posts about the ride, Adventureland has their sky ride going straight through he middle of the coaster, with it looping around it.

And speaking of looping, the Monster inverts riders 5 times through its 2,500 foot long course, including dive loops, an immelmann and corkscrew.  There's also a vertical loop that has the track where the train is totally upside down stretched out a bit, giving maximum hang-time to passengers.

Ride Entertainment just uploaded this montage of footage of the Monster in operation:

Make sure that you watch all the way to the end where it shows the stunning light package that the park has placed on the new coaster.  Not only is it capable of an assortment of colors but it does an amazing effect where the lights chase the movement of the car, turning the track a bright red/orange as it moves then cooling to blue on the completed sections.  Definitely a night ride coaster!

The Joker Brings 'Spinsanity' to Six Flags Great Adventure's 2016 Season

This summer visitors to New Jersey's Six Flags Great Adventure will find a major new thrilling coaster that delivers a new level of twistedness to the park's already world-class line up of rides, all compliments of The Joker.  The roller coaster has been built along the side of the lake that is adjacent to the theme park in a refreshed area that has an open and inviting vibe.

The Joker stands at an imposing 120 feet above the Lakefront themed area, next to a recently renamed family coaster - now called Harley Quinn Crazy Train.  The two DC Comics villains make nice neighbors for obvious reasons!

The Joker has been created for the park by S&S Worldwide, and is only the second ride of its kind to open - the first was Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas.  There's a bit of irony in there when you consider the characters both rides are named after!

Known as a 4D Free-Fly coaster, The Joker takes individual cars around a multi-layered vertical course made up of green and purple track, using "onboard magnetic technology" to cause riders' seats to flip during the ride.  Best explained by seeing it, check out these clips:

As you can see, there is a considerable amount of flipping, wild curves and steep plunges that are encountered while on The Joker.

Riders enter the attraction by passing through this massive entrance sign and into the nicely done - and covered from the sun - funhouse type of structure.  The Lakefront area is known for having many fully grown trees, and those extend to the back part of the queue that is outside of this structure.  Riders are eventually split into lines that are for either the green or purple track, and there is also a single rider line as well.

The Joker's individual cars seat eight riders at a time, and the seats face both forward and backwards to add yet another twist to the ride.  There are a total of five trains, so that while one car is finishing up the course another can start up the lift hill.  That can be seen in the above image.  That also means that at the same time there are two additional cars in the load/unload area of the station.

Once the cars move out of the station the seats are no longer held in a locked position, so riders are instantly able to feel them rock slightly due to weight distribution.  This photo shows the train heading up the 120 foot tall vertical lift hill, and since they have not started flipping yet it's noticeable that one row is facing forward while the other is backward.

After the cars crest the top of the lift hill a row of magnets (seen in the upper right of this photo) engage with the train and the flipping begins.  If you look closely here you'll note that the front row is totally upside down, while the back is well on its way.  The Joker utilizes very comfortable vest restraints with additional grab bars that do not block the riders view.

The magnets that are embedded along the track create at least six flips for each rider, according to the theme park.  The cars are also able to flip on their own, however, adding an unpredictable nature to every dispatch.  This is one of those coasters where it is 100% true that no two riders are exactly the same!

Along with a multitude of different styles of bunny hills, The Joker also has two 90 degree "raven" drops that feature a vertical plunge - one of them is seen in the beautiful photo above.  While the magnets influence it some, gravity makes the position of the rider's seat hard to guess when these free-fall moments take place.  The ride experience is not one that builds after the lift, instead it is all out 'spinsanity' as the park calls it from that first flip to the final brakes.

Six Flags Great Adventure already has an amazing collection of roller coasters, including the 128 mile per hour launch of Kingda Ka, crazy air-time of El Toro and Nitro and family rides like Skull Mountain, but The Joker gives an experience unlike of of them.  This further rounds out the park's offerings, and gives guests another reason to visit the park this year!

Many thanks to the park for having us out for The Joker's opening and to Scott and Carol for the wonderful photos.

So true Joker... so true!