Let’s start in New Jersey at Six Flags Great Adventure. Purple track pieces recently arrived at the park for what will be a “multi-record-breaking launch coaster” according to Six Flags. It will purportedly be from Mack Rides and may scale a tower in excess of 400 feet (filling the void left by the scrapped 456-foot-tall record-breaker, Kingda Ka). But that mystery ride is not scheduled to open until 2027.

Great Adventure recently announced that it will welcome Barrel O’ Fun, a modest spinning coaster, this year. Previously known as Rajin’ Cajun, the ride made the journey north from the shuttered Six Flags America in Maryland. But the coaster predates that park as well. Rajin’ Cajun originally debuted at Six Flags Great America near Chicago in 2004 and was transplanted to the Maryland park in 2014.

A Reverchon spinning Wild Mouse coaster, it features four-passenger cars that are dispatched one at a time. It rises 43 feet and hits a top speed of 29 mph. The hairpin turns, which are a staple of Wild Mouse coasters, combined with the free-spinning of the Reverchon rides have been known to make some passengers’ stomachs start rajin’ (if you know what I mean). The round cars will be designed to resemble wooden barrels. The relocated coaster will be part of the park’s refreshed Boardwalk area, which will be known as Shoreline Pier.

Barrel O’ Fun will be joined by three other reborn rides from the defunct Maryland park, two of which are classic midway staples: Flying Scooters, which equips passengers with a rudder to control the ride vehicles, and Wave Swinger, which spins suspended swing-like seats around and into the air. Hypno Twister, a Zamperla Nebulaz ride is also part of the package making the journey. Another classic flat ride, Super Roundup, will be moved from another location at Great Adventure. The reimagined land will take inspiration from the famed Jersey shore.

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There’s no word on what will become of the other rides at Six Flags America. It would be nice to think that coaster headliners such as Superman: Ride of Steel and Joker’s Jinx could find new homes. As I’ve previously written, it would be especially gratifying to me personally if the woodie, Wild One, extended its 109-year-old life. It started thrilling riders at Paragon Park in Massachusetts, a defunct park that I used to frequent. Although it’s likely a long shot, here’s hoping it’s not the end of the road for the vintage coaster.

Wild and wooly coaster coming to Nebraska

Fun-Plex Waterpark will welcome Mammoth, a new ride from Italian manufacturer Preston & Barbieri, to its modest midway this year. That will increase the number of thrill coasters in Nebraska to [quickly checks rcdb] one. (There are only three coasters, all of which are kiddie rides and one of which is also located at Fun-Plex in Omaha, in the state). The steel ride will rise 70 feet, top out at about 40 mph, and span 2,000 feet. Primarily a water park, Fun-Plex also includes a few dry rides including a Tilt-A-Whirl, go-karts, and a carousel.

Lookout Safari, a Zierer family coaster, will be added to the midway at Lake Winnepesaukah in Georgia this season. It will use a booster wheel lift hill to climb 20 feet and accelerate to 20 mph. It will join two other coasters, the wooden Cannon Ball and the Wacky Worm kiddie ride, at the small park, which is affectionately known as “Lake Winnie” and is located along the state line near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Lookout Safari is being relocated from the Indianapolis Zoo where it was known as Kombo.

Have you been on Rajin’ Cajun or similar Wild Mouse spinning coasters? Like me, would you want to see Wild One continue its long legacy of thrilling riders?

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4 (out of 5)

Six Flags knows coasters and thrill rides. Sophisticated, media-based, story-driven dark rides? That’s more the province of the destination Universal and Disney parks. Yet, Justice League: Battle for Metropolis brings a Universal-style attraction to Six Flags parks. The ride is a gas (courtesy of The Joker). Is it Universal-level quality? Almost.

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The queue will take guests through a Victorian greenhouse. After experiencing a pre-show, they will board six-passenger, trackless, MultiMover vehicles and be issued interactive “dew sprayer” devices. Taking a journey through seven lushly designed scenes, guests will try to uncover dozens of hidden butterflies by spraying embedded targets. Working collaboratively, they will be better able to unlock the prized creatures and boost their scores.

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“With this magical dew sprayer the ride truly comes to life,” says Stéphane Battaille of Alterface, one of the vendors that worked on the attraction. “We smartly blend physical interactives, media content, and projection mapping so the guests can interact with all their surroundings.”

In addition to digital media, The Enchanted Greenhouse will include 16 animatronic figures. According to Qiddiya, guests will encounter 6,200 plants, including 100 custom-designed flowers, throughout the attraction. One of the scenes (see the topmost image) will immerse passengers in a towering garden at night that’s filled with glowing, bioluminescent plants. The rendering gives off Pandora – The World of Avatar vibes. It would seem to be inspired by Na’vi River Journey, the mesmerizing attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

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The Enchanted Greenhouse will be the highlight of Twilight Gardens, one of Qiddiya’s six lands. It will be perpetually dark inside the attraction. But, like Disney’s Pandora, the entire land will pop at night with twinkling flora. For example, animated butterflies, ladybugs, and flowers that adorn Twilight Express, a family roller coaster, will sparkle after dusk.

Other lands will include the treasure-filled Valley of Fortune, the water-focused Discovery Springs, the retro Grand Exposition and Steam Town, and the self-evident City of Thrills. The latter will be the home of Falcon’s Flight, which, with a top speed of 156 mph, an almost absurd height of 640 feet, and a drop of 525 feet, will shatter records. Qiddiya will feature a total of 28 attractions when it opens next year. Among other notable rides will be the 476-foot-tall Sirocco Tower drop tower, which will also decimate records.

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A water park, Aquarabia, is also set to open at Qiddiya City next year. It will include Aquaticar, the world’s first underwater attraction. The massive entertainment district will welcome a second theme park, Dragon Ball, which is under development.

Six Flags Qiddiya City will be the first Six Flags park built from the ground up since Six Flags Over Mid-America (now Six Flags. St. Louis) opened its gates in 1971. While it will bear the Six Flags name, the Six Flags Entertainment Corporation will not own or operate it. Instead, the U.S. company is licensing the name to and consulting with Qiddiya Investment Company, part of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Do you enjoy interactive dark rides? Or do you prefer more passive attractions in which you can better focus on the set elements and the story?

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The new coaster is set to debut in 2026. The revelation was part of a larger announcement that Six Flags would spend over $1 billion on new rides and other projects over the next two years across all of its locations. And by “Six Flags,” I mean the merged company that includes the legacy Six Flags parks as well as the parks that previously fell under the Cedar Fair umbrella. The sprawling theme park empire now includes 42 properties.

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Details were sparse on the Ka replacement along with the chain’s other 2026 announcements. As far as breaking multiple records, it would be nice to think that the new coaster would be even taller and faster than Ka, but as I frequently point out (and often help deconstruct), nearly every new ride breaks records these days as parks’ breathless media releases invariably trumpet (even if the parks have to tie themselves up in pretzel logic to make the claims, and the “records” often strain credulity).

With Ka out of the picture and other ride developments, coaster records have been scrambled. When it debuted, the Great Adventure ride was the tallest and fastest coaster in the world. The 149-mph Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi then took the speed crown, but that ride has not been operating for nearly a year. Like Ka, Formula Rossa is a hydraulically launched Accelerator Coaster from Intamin. The rides have been notoriously finicky and costly to maintain. That likely was a major factor in Six Flag’s decision to pull the plug on Ka (and is probably why the United Arab Emirates’ ride sits idle in the desert).

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By the way, Ka was problem-prone from the start. Its opening was delayed multiple times as Intamin and Six Flags struggled to get the ride up and running. I planned a trek to the park when the coaster was first open for previews, but it was down for the count on the day that I visited. I returned a few weeks later only to find it closed again. The PR director summoned me to the ride when the coaster began cycling that afternoon. I stood in the loading station and watched empty trains make a few test runs. As a final test run commenced, I heard a violent boom and watched in horror as shards of metal flew in the air and rained down on an empty, disabled train. I was supposed to be aboard the next train.

Another coaster contender, Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point in Ohio, was also an Intamin Accelerator model. After the park shuttered the problem-plagued ride, Zamperla converted it into Top Thrill 2, but it too quickly exhibited issues that took it offline. I was one of the few lucky folks that got to experience the wild ride during the short window it was open earlier this year. That leaves the 112-mph, 367-foot-tall Red Force at Ferrari Land in Spain as the world’s fastest and tallest coaster that is currently operating. Intamin also built that European ride, but it uses a more reliable LSM launch system rather than hydraulics to get it up to speed. The record books will be rewritten when Intamin’s first Exa Coaster, Falcons Flight at Six Flags Qiddiya City in Saudi Arabia, opens, presumably in 2025. Now under construction, it will reportedly hit a top speed of 155 mph and feature a staggering 519-foot drop.

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Without any details, it’s impossible to know what Six Flags Great Adventure has planned. Might it be another Exa Coaster (which, I infer is Intamin’s designation for coasters that exceed 500 feet in height)? Or will it be something more modest? Whatever Six Flags has in store, the new ride will apparently be taking up a large footprint. In addition to removing Ka and the Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom ride that shared its tower, the park is also tearing down the Green Lantern coaster and The Twister and Parachutes rides, essentially bulldozing an entire land. While it doesn’t have anything to do with making room for the new coaster, Great Adventure also announced that it would be permanently closing The Sky Way, one of the few remaining gondola sky rides at theme parks.

Other announcements for the 2026 season include a “jaw-dropping, record-breaking dive coaster” at the original Six Flags park, Six Flags Over Texas. To make way for the ride, the park is removing La Vibora, a bobsled-like coaster, and El Diablo, a Larson Giga Loop. The world’s tallest (245 feet), longest (3,625 feet), and fastest (80 mph) dive coaster is Yukon Striker at Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto. Presumably, the new ride in Texas will break at least one of those records. (Then again, the record could be just for U.S.-based dive coasters.) Speaking of the Canadian park, it will be getting a record-breaking water attraction. Carowinds in North Carolina is slated to get a record-breaking water ride.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California will welcome its 20th thrill machine, a ”first-of-its-kind coaster in North America.” A family thrill boomerang coaster is on its way to Six Flags Mexico, while Kings Island in Ohio will be debuting a new family thrill attraction. The water park, Knott’s Soak City, located adjacent to Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California, will be getting a makeover. And in honor of Six Flags Great America’s 50th anniversary, the park near Chicago will welcome a new kids’ area and other enhancements. All told, the company will be allocating over $500 million in capital improvements in both 2025 and 2026.

It’s interesting to note which parks are conspicuously missing from the list of properties getting major investments over the next two years. They include chronically ignored locations such as Michigan’s Adventure and Frontier City in Oklahoma. Six Flags issued a quarterly earnings report earlier in November that indicated it was considering a “portfolio optimization,” corporate-speak for purging some of its parks. A company spokesperson subsequently said that it had no plans to close any locations. It would seem that the newly merged chain would eventually sell or close some of its underperforming parks, however.

What are your thoughts about what might be on the way to Six Flags Great Adventure? What is your reaction to some of the other announcements?

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The Savannah Sunset Resort planted its flag this year with glamping (glamorous camping) suites that are smack dab in the middle of the property’s Wild Safari park. Although it’s adjacent to a theme park filled with thrill machines such as El Toro and Kingda Ka and their screaming passengers, the hushed, tranquil resort feels a world away. As they wander past the verandas, animals of all stripes and sizes provide a nonstop show. It’s out of Africa and into New Jersey.

With 20 glamping tents that accommodate either two, four, or six guests, the resort is relatively small. There is a large, central tent that serves as a lobby as well as a dining area and lounge. A courtyard beyond the lobby offers outdoor tables, a gathering spot for daily small animal encounters, and a fire pit where complimentary s’mores and live entertainment are available nightly.

The units are nominally tents, although they are more upscale than many other glamping accommodations. I have stayed at a couple of resorts operated by Under Canvas, which are located near national parks. With tent amenities such as wood stoves and indoor plumbing in makeshift bathrooms, they strike a reasonable balance between glamorous and camping. The Savannah Sunset tents, however, include stall showers, sinks with vanities, kitchenettes with microwaves and mini fridges, televisions, and–get this–thermostat-controlled heating and air conditioning.

“It‘s not roughing it by any means,” says Brian Bacica, president of Six Flags Great Adventure.

Six Flags developed and is operating the resort in-house and sourced most of the furnishings, which are quite lovely, as well as the tents themselves in Africa. There are whimsical touches, such as night table lamps that feature golden monkeys grasping the lights. My “family glamping suite” included a comfy king-sized bed as well as a trundle bed with two twin mattresses. We had a deck that overlooked the savannah. But about half the units do not offer verandas nor their commanding view of the animals. In my estimation, that’s a design flaw of the resort. Communing with the animals is a major draw for the Savannah Sunset. Should you decide to book a stay, spring for a unit with a safari view.

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Unlike Under Canvas and other glamping sites, which feature temporary tents that are disassembled at the end of each season and rebuilt the next year, the Savannah Sunset tents are more permanent. They include faux wood vinyl floors, ceiling fans, the aforementioned HVAC units, and other elements that would be difficult to break down and cobble back together annually. Indeed, Six Flags says the plan is to leave the tents intact and see how they survive the New Jersey winter. The resort is open from early April through early December.

The rates to stay at Savannah Sunset befit Six Flags’ “modern luxury” characterization of the resort. But the included amenities offer a compelling value proposition. This fall, the nightly cost is just over $1,000 for the family glamping suite in which we stayed. (Note that there is a two-night minimum stay.) It accommodates four guests, and the package price bundles breakfast, dinner (which Six Flags says may not be part of the rate for 2025), a daily giraffe feeding encounter, an exclusive tour of the Wild Safari park, and tickets to both the theme park and Hurricane Harbor water park (when it is open). Since Fright Fest was taking place during our visit, our package also included admission to the separate-ticket Halloween event. That’s a lot of extras. And then there is the inherent value of the distinctive resort itself.

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“It’s very unique,” Bacica says. “It’s quite exclusive. There is no one else domestically that has an experience like we are offering here.”

Well, that’s not entirely true. There are obvious parallels to Disney World’s delightful Animal Kingdom Lodge, which surely provided inspiration for Six Flags.

As for the food, it’s considerably better than what’s served at the theme park. With dishes such as grilled chicken and vegetables served inside a halved pineapple and Teriyaki salmon and shrimp, the menu is a bit ambitious. But the meals, which are served on bamboo plates, are just okay. They can be ordered and eaten in the resort’s dining room or ordered in advance and delivered to the tent. I’d highly recommend the latter, especially for dinner. Guests can dine outside and take in the savannah, which is buzzing with activity in the early evening.

The giraffe experience provides a rare opportunity to interact with the gentle creatures. It’s quite a spectacle to see the parade of the majestic animals as they make their way to the feeding area at the resort. They are not prompted to make the trek; their internal clocks compel them to travel across the savannah at the appointed time each morning.

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The resort-exclusive safari tour, which lasts one hour and is twice the length of the experience that theme park day guests get, is wonderful. The guide we had was knowledgeable and personable as he pointed put the vast array of animals throughout the 350-acre savannah. There are a total of 1,200 creatures that call the park home, including ostriches, tigers, bears, and bison. It’s a bit odd to see Kingda Ka’s 456-foot tower intruding at one end of the safari park. I guess the baboons that live in that part of the savannah must be used to the coaster commotion by now. Fun fact: The monkey bars on which the baboons cavort was made using roller coaster track from the park’s defunct Great American Scream Machine.

Guests can book additional, optional experiences such as VIP tours for private encounters with elephants, rhinos, lions, and other animals. The resort also offers spa services.

This actually isn’t the first time that guests have stayed overnight inside the safari park. A few years back, Six Flags began inviting guests on select dates to bring their own tents and RVs to the same site where the resort now stands. The enthusiastic response to that limited-time opportunity prompted the theme park company to consider developing the Savannah Sunset Resort.

Now, the Savannah Sunset may prod Six Flags to consider expanding its accommodations. Based on the demand, it could add additional tents. Or there may be even bigger plans.

“We’d love to have a hotel down the road, but this is kind of our first step into looking at overnight accommodations,” says Bacica. Located about halfway between Philadelphia and New York City in a rural section of New Jersey, the rambling Six Flags Great Adventure Resort has a total of 510 acres, some of which is undeveloped. “We have plenty of room for expansion on our property,” he adds.

Are you surprised that Six Flags offers a luxury resort? Might you consider visiting the Savannah Sunset?

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3.75 (out of 5)

Attraction designers often draw on magic, sometimes taking inspiration from illusions that were first staged centuries ago. For example, the apparitions in the ballroom scene of Disney’s Haunted Mansion and the appearance of Wizarding World characters in the queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey are just two examples of the Pepper’s ghost effect that is frequently used in attractions and can be traced back to the 1500s. Similarly, the haunted swing, an attraction that first appeared in the late 1800s and was presented as an illusion to dumbfounded audiences, continues to inspire today’s designers.

Vekoma, the Dutch ride manufacturer, builds what it calls the Mad House–a modern-day version of the haunted swing. There are about 30 of the odd, intriguing attractions operating, including a handful of similar ones developed by rival manufacturer, Mack Rides. Most of the Mad Houses are located in Europe, but there are three in the U.S., including Houdini – The Great Escape at Six Flags New England in Massachusetts. It’s part mechanical ride and part show, with a heavy dose of illusion. Fittingly, the Six Flags attraction is themed to magic. If you’ve never experienced a Mad House, it’s unlike anything else on the midway. Let me try to explain.

The attraction is located in the suitably retro Opera House at Crackaxle Canyon, the Old West-themed land at Six Flags. The signage is quite unassuming; I’d imagine visitors often walk past the building without realizing what awaits within.

Guests who do wander in find themselves in the gothic lair of Harry Houdini, the legendary escape artist and magician who died in the 1920s. The pre-show takes place in his library (thankfully, despite its vintage, it is air conditioned), and houses props from his act, including the water tank from which he famously escaped. Old-timey black & white footage of a young Houdini is projected onto the library’s walls. At the conclusion of the newsreel, the room darkens. The candelabras begin flickering, the fireplace mysteriously glows, and maniacal, disembodied laughs ricochet in the chamber.

Houdini – The Great Escape is not exactly at the level of Disney or Universal, but the attraction is surprisingly well done and a welcome respite from the coasters and other thrill rides at Six Flags. Its effects and elements are also well maintained, considering it first opened in 1999.

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A voice summons Houdini’s spirit and implores him to perform his greatest feat, an escape from the great beyond. As the pre-show ends, the narrator intones, “What you think you see will not be what it appears.” With that foreshadowing of a warning, the doors to the parlor open, and guests shuffle in to participate in a spooky seance.

Two sets of two rows of benches face one another along the outer edges of the room. The wooden benches look like church pews. Except in this bizarro house of worship, there are also lap bars that pin worshipers into place. (Actual churches may want to consider trading out their seating for these Vekoma models and only release the lap bars of those congregants who fill the collection plate.)

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Once all passengers are secured, the ride begins. Guests feel an odd combination of mild positive and negative G-forces, although they appear to be perfectly still. The forces intensify, and then the room starts slowly rotating to and fro around the benches. Finally, the room flips upside down; or have the passengers flipped upside down? It is a mighty strange sight–and sensation–to appear to be motionless but to feel movement in an inverted room. The disconnect is disconcerting and kinda wild. So, what’s going on?

As the video from Dark Ride Database above shows, the illusion takes place inside a large, rotating drum. Both the drum and the gondola platform that serves as the ride vehicle revolve on the same pivot point but can do so independently. At first, the gondola and the drum swing back and forth in unison, thereby delivering G-forces, but appearing to be motionless from the passengers’ perspective. Later, the drum inverts and swings to and fro in tandem with the gondola giving guests the illusion that either they or the room around them has somehow flipped upside down.

Appearances by the spirit of Houdini in the topsy-turvy room complete the illusion. This is an old trick that holds up quite well.

Mad Houses can also be found at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey and Clark’s Bears in New Hampshire. The most recent one, Haunted House Monster Party, opened in 2019 at Legoland Windsor in England.

Have you ever experienced a Mad House? Were you aware of them? Would you like to try one?

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Welcome to ART Talks, an audio narration of one of my articles that is exclusively for paid subscribers like you. This month I have a review of one of the most unusual attractions in all of parkdom.

Here is the text version of this article: Do you believe in magic?

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According to Six Flags, the expanded Fright Fest Extreme will attempt to scare the hell out of guests with mazes themed to “Stranger Things,” “Annabelle,” “The Nun,” “Trick ‘r Treat,” and “Army of the Dead,” as well as the returning “The Conjuring” and “Saw.” The New Jersey park will also add “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” to the macabre lineup. At the Texas park, “Stranger Things,” “Saw,” “The Conjuring,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and “Trick ‘r Treat” will be featured.

It’s a major gamble, especially in the Southern California market where fans can visit Universal Studios Hollywood to get their brand-name horror fix (the park will be showcasing “Insidious,” “Ghostbusters,” “A Quiet Place,” and a yet-to-be-revealed intellectual property) as well as the granddaddy of theme park Halloween events, Knott’s Scary Farm at Knott’s Berry Farm. Farther south, SeaWorld San Diego will be presenting Howl-O-Scream. The G-rated Oogie Boogie Bash and other Halloween Time happenings at Disneyland don’t go for the jugular, but nonetheless celebrate the fall season in grand theme park style. Seeing Leatherface wielding a chainsaw or encountering the maniacal “Saw” ventriloquist dummy, Billy, on his squeaky tricycle will be more of a novelty–and potentially more of a draw–in New Jersey and Texas.

It’s likely that Six Flags had to cough up some major dough to get the licensing rights to properties such as Netflix’s “Army of the Dead” and “Stranger Things” (which had a multi-year run at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights). Will the chain provide the budget and lavish the considerable creative capital that Universal brings to its haunts? That seems doubtful. But how else would it compete with the well-established HHN?

Six Flags will be rounding out Fright Fest Extreme with houses and scare zones based on original content. It will also include shows, select coasters, and other rides at the nighttime events. A Six Flags spokesperson says that announcements will be made shortly about additional parks that will host Fright Fest Extreme and, presumably, feature clones of some of the high-profile haunts. There are plans to introduce the expanded event at about half of the chain’s parks in the U.S. The separate-ticket event cost $105 online for Great Adventure’s Fright Feat Extreme and includes all mazes. A $150 Express Pass grants front-of-the-line access to the mazes. Those are special advance-purchase prices. Tickets for Universal’s HHN start at $77 online.

The recent merger between Six Flags and Cedar Fair brings the Six Flags-branded parks under the same corporate umbrella as Knott’s Berry Farm. Might the So-Cal scaremeisters bring their haunt expertise to Fright Fest Extreme? It’s highly unlikely that there will be any cross-pollination this year as the former park chains continue to operate more or less as separate entities in the near-term. Moving forward, I’d expect the merged company to leverage its respective strengths for Halloween events and, more broadly, across all operations.

Have you been to Fright Fest? Did you visit Magic Mountain or Great Adventure last year and experience the “Saw” or “The Conjuring” mazes? Will you check out Fright Fest Extreme?

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As it has built and acquired parks through the years, Six Flags has strayed a bit from its roots. While the chain still nominally operates theme parks and some of its properties have lands and attractions that conform to the template that Disney established, I’d argue that Six Flags falls more in the amusement park camp. That is, its parks are largely a hodgepodge of roller coasters and other rides that do little to advance any kind of storytelling and generally have halfhearted themeing at best.

That’s why I’m intrigued by SteamTown, the reimagined land that will be debuting at Maryland’s Six Flags America in June. It will be introducing a new theme that will tie the attractions in that area of the park together with what appears to be whimsy and style.

A far corner of the park that was previously known as Coyote Creek, SteamTown will enhance the Western-themed land with steampunk overtones. With the subtitle, “Where the Past Meets the Future,” the land will now feature Professor Screamore, a wacky inventor bedecked in a tophat and goggles. As the storyline goes, the professor purchased the town as a proving grounds for the wacky contraptions he creates (otherwise known as rides).

The highlight of the land will be the roller coaster, Professor Screamore’s SkyWinder. Opened in 1995, the ride perviously went by the generic name, Mind Eraser. Like other Six Flags attractions that bear that name, it is a Vekoma SLC, or suspended looping coaster, which has the reputation of being notoriously rough. In addition to the new theme, the coaster will reopen with new track sections and new trains that will feature more accommodating restraints. The ride’s original over-the-shoulder restraints caused passengers’ heads to ricochet back and forth on them. Six Flags promises the reworked inverted coaster, which has ski lift-like seats that hang beneath the track, will offer a smoother ride experience.

The land will also feature a new addition, SteamWhirler, a Nebulaz flat ride from Italian manufacturer Zamperla. With its gears and cogs, the spinning ride is particularly well suited to the land’s new steampunk theme. The former Renegade Rapids, a whitewater raft ride, will now be known as QuantumCanyon Rapids. Six Flags says that passengers will be transported back to the Jurassic era and will encounter dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures as they get soaked riding the rapids. Rounding out the land’s ride collection will be ElectroDerby, a re-themed bumper cars. Based on the park’s preview video, it appears that the ride building will be darkened and include effects.

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Demonstrating Six Flags’ commitment to the theme, the land will also include SteamHeist, a stunt show that will star Professor Screamore. Amid the stunts, the presentation will tell the inventor’s story, including his quest to build SteamTown. Even the land’s eatery, Fillament’s SteamPub, will incorporate the land’s overarching steampunk theme.

“SteamTown is part of our team’s ambitious, multiyear plan to invest in our guest experience and park improvements,” says Ramar Vaughan, the park’s GM, adding that he is “excited to share our most detailed park realm to date.”

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This certainly wouldn’t be the first time a theme park has turned to steampunk for inspiration. Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City, for example, uses the motif to great effect. Six Flags itself has used the genre. When Magic Mountain introduced Twisted Colossus in 2015, it renamed that section of the California park the Screampunk District. But what Six Flags has created in Maryland appears to be qualitatively different.

This would seem to be a richly themed land that is attempting to immerse guests more deeply in its original storyline. I hope that this is a trend that will continue at Six Flags America as well as throughout the chain and at its sister Cedar Fair parks. Let’s put the themeing back in theme parks.

What’s your take on SteamTown? Have you visited Six Flags America. What do you think the reimagined land will bring to the park?

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For example, kiddos at Six Flags Over Texas will be able to ogle a T. rex and other Jurassic-era animals this summer when the park introduces Dino Off Road Adventure. The original Six Flags will be converting its Chaparral Antique Cars ride into the new-ish attraction. Opened in 1962, just one year after the park opened, the classic you-drive-‘em ride was manufactured by the legendary (and now defunct) Arrow Development Company.

The attraction will be a clone of sorts, replicating the Dino Off Road Adventure that debuted last year at Six Flags New England. The Massachusetts attraction also repurposed an Arrow antique cars ride that dated back to 1962. Like its New England counterpart, it is likely that the Texas makeover will refashion the antique cars into safari Jeeps as well. The Chaparral Antique Cars was a leisurely jaunt in jalopies that wound along a path with virtually no scenery. Now, drivers and passengers will be able to spy extinct animals as they make their way through the course.

Six Flags Over Texas, which debuted the world’s first log flume ride in 1963, had previously announced that it would be combining its two flume attractions into one super-duper-long ride for 2024. It has since abandoned those plans, however. In addition to Dino Off Road Adventure, the park will be welcoming Sylvester and Tweety Pounce and Bounce, a 41-foot-tall family drop tower ride, and reopening Daffy Duck Bucket Blasters, an interactive, spinning ride that arms passengers with water sprayers to douse guests in the other vehicles.

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Folks will also be able to ogle dinosaurs from the relative safety of boats for Explorer River Quest, one of three attractions that will be featured in the new Dino Valley land at Legoland California. Like nearly everything at the toy-centric park, the creatures will be fashioned out of Lego bricks. The dinos in Duplo Little Dino Trail will be made to look like Duplo blocks. Like the Six Flags attractions, guests will ride in Jeep-like vehicles and travel along an outdoor path. The park says that the cars will be outfitted with cameras for passengers to capture the dinosaurs on the interactive ride.

The third attraction in Dino Valley will be Coastersaurus. The steel junior coaster, which climbs 18 feet and and hits a top speed of 21 mph, has been operating at Legoland since 2004. The park sends the ride’s train through the short, 492-foot course twice. Passengers soar past a Parasaurolophus on the ride’s first drop. The land will also offer an interactive dig area with Lego bones and fossil remains for guests to build their own dino models. And dinosaur characters will be on hand to meet and greet visitors. Dino Valley Land is a makeover of the park’s Explorer Island.

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2024 will mark Legoland California’s 25th anniversary. In addition to the revamped land, the park will launch the Lego World Parade. Among the floats will be a pirate ship, a Lego City fire truck, and one themed to Lego Ninjago. The Southern California park was the first Legoland to open in the U.S.

Dinosaurs will also be roaring at Wild Adventures in Georgia as part of the park’s returning Dinosaur Explore exhibit. Guests will be able to see a brachiosaurus and other beasts as they walk along a trail. There will be a fossil dig as well.

Are your kids fascinated by dinosaurs? Might you be taking them to see the prehistoric animals at any parks?

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The guy knows a thing or two about dinosaurs–and theme parks. He’s been excavating and studying the creatures for decades, and he’s been writing books and hosting TV shows to share his fascination of the animals with others, mostly children. As a leading authority on dinosaurs, Lessem’s work led him to “Jurassic Park” author Micheal Chricton and subsequently to Steven Spielberg, whom he advised when the filmmaker turned the book into a blockbuster movie. When Universal was building its Jurassic Park ride at its Hollywood park, he consulted on the attraction and hosted the queue video. Likewise, Disney brought Lessem on board to help plan and develop DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Now, as president and CEO of Dino Don, he is using his prowess to design realistic dinosaur animatronics for zoos, theme parks, and other attractions. The company’s first park installation was at Six Flags New England, which opened Dino Off Road Adventure this year.

The attraction is actually a retrofitted, classic, antique car ride that dates back to 1962, when the pre-Six Flags Massachusetts amusement park was known as Riverside. Originally manufactured by Arrow Development, it is the second-oldest remaining ride in the park after Thunderbolt, a wooden coaster that opened in 1941. The car ride has had a variety of themes through the years and was most recently known as Wild Wheels. For that update, the park switched from antique cars to vehicles that looked like safari Jeeps. Six Flags re-themed the vehicles in house for Dino Off Road Adventure.

Kids still have the thrill of steering the cars and controlling their speeds. But now, they have compelling creatures to ogle as they make their way through the course. Handlers with headsets interact with the guests and impart facts about the animals. Dino Don installed a dozen figures, including a Stegosaurus, raptors, a Pterodactyl, and a mighty T. Rex. The Dilophosaurus is a spitter–no doubt compelling drivers to floor it as they pass the meat-eating behemoth.

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The dinos are the first animatronic figures at Six Flags New England. Pete Carmichael, the park’s president, says he is thrilled with the revitalized attraction and that it has become one of the most popular on the midway. He’s especially pleased with the lumbering beasts that delight guests.

“Don brought a lot of expertise about what dinosaurs should look like, how they should move, and a sense of realism,” Carmichael says about the work that Lessem and his team performed.

There are plenty of other prehistoric animals making the rounds out there, but to Lessem’s trained eye, they give him a sense of dino tsuris.

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“They look half-sized, they have jerky movements, and they’re noisy,” he says. “They just look dopey.” The would-be dinos’ lack of authenticity does a disservice, Lessem believes. “They deny kids the chance to see the most amazing things that ever walked the earth. It’s what makes them realize how amazing life can be.”

Lessem set out to make his animals more accurate in every detail. And I do mean every detail.

“Ours are the only robots that can fart and pee,” he says as a point of pride. Kids must especially love those features. As if that’s not enough, Lessem notes that he can even incorporate smell generators to add a multi-sensory tag to the bodily functions.

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Since introducing his first batch of spot-on dinos at the Bronx Zoo in 2020, Dino Don has brought his creatures to about 50 zoos in six countries, including exhibits in Chicago, Houston, London, and Copenhagen. Now, he wants to target theme parks.

With the success of Dino Off Road Adventure, the park chain has plans in the works to develop something similar at Six Flags Darien Lake in New York and Six Flags Over Texas. Now that Six Flags and Cedar Fair will likely be merging, perhaps a park near you will be featuring the creatures. It would certainly captivate your kids. You, however, may want to consider bringing nose plugs should the gaseous animals do their thing.

What do you think about the concept of Dino Off Road Adventure? In what other ways would you suggest dinosaurs be used at parks?

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Yesterday, Six Flags and Cedar Fair announced a “merger of equals” agreement to combine the two companies into a regional park leviathan or Goliath (choose the metaphor that best suits your brand allegiance).

The deal would yield a company worth upwards of $8 billion and a total portfolio of 27 theme parks located mostly in the U.S. along with a presence in Canada and Mexico. (Here is a map of the combined parks.) That would make it the biggest theme park operator, in terms of number of properties, in North America by far. It would also make the company one of the largest in the world–if not the largest.

The announcement seemingly came out of the blue. A merger had been floated in the past, but it seemed more like posturing than a serious deal. Now that it’s actually moving forward, what might a combined company look like?

The new entity would be named Six Flags. That’s not surprising, since most people know the brand, which is conspicuously featured at all of its parks. Other than those in the industry and diehard fans (like you?), most folks are not familiar with the Cedar Fair name (which is a combination of two of its parks, Cedar Point and Valleyfair). Save the Peanuts characters that populate its kids areas, there really isn’t much that connects the Cedar Fair parks to one another. For the most part, they forge their own paths. It’s unclear whether the new company would slap “Six Flags” onto all of the current Cedar Fair parks. (Six Flags Worlds of Fun anyone?)

According to the announcement, Richard Zimmerman, president and CEO of Cedar Fair, would assume the same role at the merged company. Six Flags CEO Selim Bassoul would be the executive chairman of the resulting company’s board of directors. That would seem to imply that Cedar Fair’s corporate culture and management principles would guide the new Six Flags. That’s probably a good thing as Cedar Fair has had a steadier hand managing its parks, and both casual and ardent fans generally giver it higher marks for operations. In fact, Six Flags’ brand recognition with Cedar Fair’s leadership–the best of both companies–could be a winning combination for the parks as well as guests. Especially if the new company works hard to burnish the Six Flags brand.

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Speaking of the Peanuts characters, it may not be long before Charlie Brown gets kicked to the midway curb. I’d imagine Six Flags’ more popular Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the other Looney Tunes toons would eventually wind up at the former Cedar Fair parks. Ditto for the DC superheroes.

Despite the many parks that both companies operate, there is relatively little overlap in markets, or what the merger announcement refers to in investor gobbledygook as a “complementary geographic footprint.” It’s unlikely, therefore, that any duplicative parks would close. The only place where it could be an issue is Southern California, home to both Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Those parks are far enough away from each other (about 60 miles, but good luck navigating the choked freeways between them) that it shouldn’t matter much. Plus the flagship parks each have a strong identity and devoted customer base. My guess is that management wouldn’t tinker too much with either one.

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The deal also includes 15 water parks, including some standalone properties such as Hurricane Harbor in Phoenix. Nine resort properties, including Six Flags Great Escape Lodge in New York and the Resorts at Schlitterbahn in Texas, would be under the expanded corporate umbrella as well. By the way, Six Flags Qiddiya, which is set to open next year in Saudi Arabia, likely won’t be affected by the merger. That’s because Six Flags doesn’t own the park; rather, its Saudi-based owners have a licensing deal with Six Flags. The deal is an example of the value of the Six Flags brand.

This certainly wouldn’t be the first time that parks have changed hands or companies have joined forces, albeit not at this eye-popping level. In 2006, Cedar Fair acquired the Paramount Parks, including Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto and Kings Dominion in Virginia, from CBS Corp. Interestingly, the Marriott Corporation operated two parks, one of which, California’s Great America, ended up in the Cedar Fair chain while the other became Six Flags Great America in Illinois.

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Will the merger actually happen? It’s not a done deal, only an agreement between the two companies to combine. Pending shareholder and regulatory approvals, the merger could close in the first half of 2024. The deal may run afoul of antitrust laws. Such an enormous company, with so many regional parks under its belt, could lead to predatory business practices or at least the appearance of unfair competition.

Whew! What do you make of this merger? Do you think it’s wise to go with the Six Flags brand? What would you like to see happen in a combined company?

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For this month’s “Rode It! Loved It!” review (which is exclusively for paid subscribers), we’re heading to one of my home parks, Six Flags New England. I’ll admit that there may be a wisp of hometown bias going on here, but I truly believe that Superman The Ride is among the best steel coaters on the planet (Earth and Krypton) and merits a 5 (out of 5) rating. Let me explain why. What’s that you say? You’re not a paid subscriber? Well, that’s easily remedied. Remember, paid subscriptions are my only source of income here at the ad-free About Theme Parks, so your support of quality journalism–and me!–would be greatly appreciated.

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Superman sits in the back of Six Flags New England, along the banks of the Connecticut River. Its imposing red-hued hill dominates the park’s skyline. Like a flame that lures moths, the coaster beckons riders even as it threatens to set their adrenaline ablaze and scare the kryptonite out of them. This ride of steel demands nerves of steel.

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Paid subscribers (if you are not a part of this wonderful group, see above), join the conversation tomorrow, Friday, September 1, for our monthly, exclusive What’s the Attraction? discussion thread. The topic: With the 2023 season winding down, what has been your favorite (or worst, craziest, wackiest–whatever) park experience thus far this year? Start pulling your thoughts together and hit us up tomorrow.

Also, paid subscribers can listen to my audio narration of this article. ART Talks audio: Six Flags’ flashy new coaster

One of Six Flags’, um, flagship parks, Great Adventure in New Jersey, will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024, and it just announced some, er, wild additions. Expanding the park’s impressive attraction lineup, it will debut The Flash: Vertical Velocity, a Super Boomerang shuttle coaster from Dutch ride manufacturer, Vekoma, next season.

“With our largest park investment in almost two decades, we are excited to offer guests of all ages compelling new experiences that make Six Flags Great Adventure the most popular theme park experience in the Northeast,” says Brian Bacica, SFGAdv president. “We will debut our 15^th roller coaster, the first-of-its-kind in the Western Hemisphere.”

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Following Cloud Shuttle, which opened in July at Fantawild in China, Flash will be Vekoma’s second Super Boomerang. Interestingly, with its yellow track and red tower, the Chinese ride also sports the DC superhero’s trademark colors.

Here’s the deal on the ride experience: A magnetic launch will blast the train out of the station and partially up a hill. It will roll back into the multi-pass launch for a second kaboom that will catapult it backwards up a 164-foot-tall vertical, dead-end tower where it will stall out. The train and its passengers will then free fall forward for a third launch that will accelerate to Flash’s top speed of 59 mph. That will be enough juice to nudge it over the hill and into what appears to resemble a zero-G stall (in which the train inverts and remains upside down for a giddy few seconds).

The train will meander through some elements, including a 180-degree twisted drop. Another magnetic jolt will help goose the train up the other side of the tower, where it will come to a momentary halt. It will then roll backwards, giving riders a second journey through the course, but this time in reverse. Experiencing that zero-G stall-ish section going backwards should be exhilarating.

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The first generation of Vekoma’s Boomerang coasters, such as The Bat, which opened at Canada’s Wonderland in 1987, were never all that smooth. The ubiquitous rides have generally not aged well and can often be fairly brutal. The company’s next iterations of shuttle coasters, including Flash and Family Boomerangs like Good Gravy! coming next year to Holiday World, appear to be considerably smoother.

With its multiple launches, two trips up a vertical spike, four inversions, and likely potent pops of positive Gs and airtime, the new Six Flags coaster will pack a lot into its 1,400 feet of track. If it follows the lead of Fantawild and only has one 24-passenger train, capacity and wait times could be an issue for Flash.

I’m not sure why, but the park is describing the fairly extreme ride (it’s not Kingda Ka, but still) as a “family” roller coaster. The minimum height is 48 inches, which could include children as young as six years old. I don’t know about your family, but most first graders would probably want to steer clear of a beast like this.

Here is a video of the Chinese coaster, which should be virtually identical to what guests can expect on the SFGAdv ride.

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The coaster sounds like it will be a wonderful addition to the midway. But what has me even more intrigued is Six Flags’ other major announcement for next year’s anniversary season: the Savannah Sunset Resort & Spa. Set inside the park’s 350-acre safari, it will include “ultra-luxurious glamping accommodations and fine dining” according to SFGAdv. I’ve experienced upscale glamping (glamorous camping) at Under Canvas, which has locations near many U.S. national parks, and it can be wonderful.

With Disney World’s delightful Animal Kingdom Lodge, this wouldn’t be the first time a theme park offered accommodations at which giraffes cavort just outside your room. With the Six Flags Great Escape Lodge and the Lodge at the Lake at Six Flags Darien Lake, both in New York, this also wouldn’t be the first time that the park chain offers lodging at its properties. But the resort and spa coming to New Jersey would seem to be a decided step up from the company’s other hotels, and the animal component adds a mighty compelling feature.

The safari itself, which has been a drive-through experience, will be transformed into an “off-road adventure” next year with guides offering narrated tours. The park did not reveal many details about the new resort. Stay tuned, ATPers. I’m on it.

What’s your take on the Super Boomerang? Have you been on Vekoma Boomerangs? Would you want to glamp among animals at SFGAdv?

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One of its marquee parks, Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, will soon be starting construction on a solar carport that will cover its sprawling guest parking lot with solar collection panels. When completed later this year or in early 2024, the 12-megawatt array will store and generate enough energy to power all 20 of its coasters (which is more thrill machines than any other park in the world)–and everything else in the huge complex. According to the park chain, it will be the world’s largest single-site renewable energy project designed for a for-profit company.

The solar canopy is designed to produce a daily output of 7,900 kilowatt hours, or 20.8 million kilowatt hours of energy annually, which will be enough to offset 100% of the park’s power usage. In addition, it will provide welcome shade for guests’ cars.

The company has also installed solar systems at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in the northern part of California as well as at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. Completed in 2019, the Great Adventure project includes both solar carports and ground-mounted solar panels. That park is almost completely powered by solar energy.

When its third system is operational at Magic Mountain, Six Flags says it will be generating a combined total of 42.37 megawatts at the three parks. That will give the company bragging rights as the U.S. organization with the largest volume of onsite solar power.

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I’m all for renewable energy, and I applaud Six Flags for its impressive solar projects as well as its larger commitment to sustainability and protecting the environment. However, I wish the company would pay as much attention to its core mission. For example, it could improve operations (getting all of the rides functioning and online, opening more eateries, and rolling out more than one train on all coasters would be a good start). Significantly, Six Flags should also be investing more capital in major new rides and attractions–something it used to do regularly but has largely abandoned more recently. Things have been a bit wobbly at the parks under the current regime, and the company’s attendance and revenue declines have been alarming.

In addition to the admirable carbon offsets that Six Flags will realize with its solar initiatives, perhaps it will also save the park chain a lot of money on its utility bills; money that could then be used to build some kickass coasters. That’s one of the ways it could help achieve sustainability–of its parks.

What are your thought about Six Flags’ solar projects? Have you visited a Six Flags park this season? If so, what was your experience like?

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With the 100-mph Superman: Escape from Krypton and the superb Full Throttle, Six Flags Magic Mountain includes launched coasters among its record-setting arsenal of 20 thrill machines. And with Twisted Colossus, which is among my very favorite coasters, the park also offers a racing/dueling ride. West Coast Racers, however, combines the two features into one coaster. It delivers four LSM magnetic launches/boosts that rev up its trains for a side-by-side racing face-off that is the coaster’s theme. It’s right there in the name.

While it is a fine attraction, West Coast Racers doesn’t match the sheer exhilaration of Full Throttle (or Superman, when it is running), nor the glorious airtime or elegance of the RMC masterpiece, Twisted Colossus. With a height of 67 feet and a top speed of 55 mph, it’s really more akin to a family coaster than a true extreme thrill ride (despite its four inversions).

Opened when the pandemic was still raging in 2020, the ride is the focal point of the park’s new land, The Underground. Posters hawking taco trucks, breakdance festivals, and the like along with pulsing music attempt to give the area an urban vibe. There are sweet-looking, tricked-out cars on display in front of a West Coast Customs storefront. Famous for its celebrity clients and its reality shows, the car customization shop serves as the inspiration for the coaster.

To get to the ride, passengers enter the faux shop and walk up to the dispatch station. The loading process, at least on the day that I visited, was painfully slow. The ride ops didn’t seem to be in any particular hurry, nor were they concerned about filling every available seat. (Grrr.) Each train only holds 12 passengers, so the line does not move quickly even with an efficient crew. There are three trains so that two can be racing, while one is loading in the station.

Three trains? You’re probably wondering why there aren’t four of them so that two could be loading, while two duke it out on the course. Like Twisted Colossus (and unlike its predecessor, the twin-tracked Colossus), West Coast Racers is a single-track, Mobius-style coaster. That is, while the two trains appear to be on largely parallel, separate tracks, they actually are on one long, continuous track. Some Mobius coasters, such as Racer at Kennywood, load two trains in the station, which each travel one half of the track and end up back on the opposite sides of the station. Others, such as Twisted Colossus and West Coast Racers, only load one train, which travels the entire length of the course. At 4,000 feet, it’s a fairly long course, and the ride’s generous three-minute duration is all the more notable considering the launched coaster doesn’t have a poky lift hill (or, in the case of Twisted Colossus, two poky lift hills).

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The train launches out of the station and almost immediately tilts to the left for a high-five element with the right-tilting train racing alongside it. Unlike Twisted Colossus (which is especially glorious when its trains duel), West Coast Racers always (at least to my knowledge) syncs up and races. It then enters a zero-G stall in which the train hangs upside down as it races forward. It’s a bit disconcerting to look to the side and see another trainload of passengers zero-G stalling in lockstep.

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After turning upright, the train drops down, ratchets up its speed with an LSM boost, and navigates a corkscrew. It meanders around before swooping down and into the loading station building where it crawls to a halt. Separated from the dispatch operations by a wall, the holding area is themed as a pit stop in the West Coast Racers garage. A brief video featuring personalities from the shop plays as passengers wait for the opposing train to complete the loading process and get into position. Depending on the efficiency of the ride ops, folks can spend a fair amount of time twiddling their thumbs here. When it’s finally time to roll, riders essentially repeat the course on the other side of the track.

The launches and boosts are fun, but don’t have the wild intensity of other, more extreme launched coasters. It’s great that Six Flags incorporated a West Coast Racers theme, but the storytelling is sparse, and the mid-course pit stop isn’t all that engaging. West Coast Racers is quite smooth, delivers a few, nice pops of airtime, and is a good addition to Magic Mountain’s formidable coaster lineup. But it’s not, in my estimation, among the park’s top-tier thrill machines.

If you’ve been on West Coast Racers, do you agree with my review? Have you tried any Mobius coasters? Do you think it’s odd that Six Flags decided to add a second racing/dueling coaster?

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Up until recently, all we knew about the company’s 2023 plans was that the long-delayed hybrid coaster/splashdown ride, Aquaman: Power Wave, would finally open at Six Flags Over Texas, and that two junior coasters, the first P’Sghetti Bowl models from Skyline Attractions, would be coming to Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags Over Georgia. With the season now upon us, the chain just announced some additional new attractions. It’s still nothing like years past, when fans could anticipate a slew of headlining coasters and rides, but at least there’s something new happening at a few parks.

The P’Sghetti Bowl rides now have a name: Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster. Named for the pint-sized version of the superhero, Flash, they will both be located in the DC Comics-themed lands at their respective parks. For attractions geared to young children, the Kid Flash rides look quite cool. The twin-track coasters will send two yellow and red, 12-passenger trains racing against one another on single-rail tracks. The rides will feature Skyline’s Aurora LED lighting package, which will illuminate and animate both the sides and the flat tops of the tracks. Based on the concept art (see above), it appears that Kid Flash’s lightning-bolt-like trail will pulse throughout the layout. The coaster should look especially sharp after dark.

Six Flags St. Louis will also be getting a junior coaster, but instead of a P’Sghetti Bowl its latest entry will be a more pedestrian ride from Vekoma. Rookie Racer will use a booster wheel lift to ascend a 41-foot hill and hit a top speed of 27 mph. The Formula 1-themed ride will include a mild, mid-course helix.

A kiddie you-drive-it car ride that dates back to 1962 will be re-themed as Dino Off Road Adventure at Six Flags New England in Massachusetts. Animated dinosaurs, including a T. rex, will line the path of the outdoor attraction.

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Six Flags may have kept a tight grip on its capital expenditure pursestrings this year, but Six Flags Fiesta Texas seems to have nabbed the biggest share of the outlay. In addition to Kid Flash, the park will also debut a 5,000-square-foot esports arena, ESIX Gaming, as well as 11 new slides geared for young splashers at White Water Bay, the water park that is included with admission. ESIX will mark the first time a U.S. amusement park will have a permanent, dedicated esports gaming center.

Hurricane Harbor, the water park that requires a separate ticket to enter at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure, will be unveiling Splash Island, a new area for young kids. It will include a tree house-themed interactive water play structure with a giant water bucket and 14 water slides. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California will introduce new animal exhibits, such as Shark Experience, a walk-through tunnel that will bring visitors face-to-fin with the creatures, and The Rainforest Trail, which will allow guests to encounter butterflies, a sloth, and other critters. Other Six Flags parks, including Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, Six Flags Great America in Illinois, Six Flags America in Maryland, and La Ronde in Montreal are apparently out of luck when it comes to new goodies this year.

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In an intriguing development, the chain is introducing Scream Break, a haunt-enhanced take on Spring Break at select parks including Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Along with the announcement that Universal would be establishing a year-round attraction inspired by Halloween Horror Nights in Las Vegas, it appears the industry is betting that there is an appetite for killer clowns and chainsaw-wielding zombies beyond the fall season. The nighttime event will include haunted mazes, scare zones, themed cocktails, and shows, as well as lights-out rides on the parks’ coasters.

Selim Bassoul, the company’s president and CEO, has had a checkered tenure. In addition to being stingy with new capital expenditures, he has aggressively raised prices on tickets, parking, and other offerings and done away with many of the discounts that fans had come to expect. That has led to attendance and revenue decreases steeper than the drop on Kingda Ka.

Combined with rumblings about shuttered rides (many of the coasters were not open at Six Flags Magic Mountain when I recently visited), long lines due to single-train operations on coasters, spotty customer service, and other woes, things are looking shaky at the park chain. It likely also hasn’t helped that Bassoul has dismissed many executives and other employees who had been with Six Flags for a long time. Here’s hoping the company, which hosts some of parkdom’s best thrill machines, can make some much-needed changes and find its equilibrium.

What do you think about Six Flags’ 2023 announcements? Have you visited a Six Flags park recently? What was your experience like? Are you planning to visit any Six Fags parks this year?

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After riding Rocky Mountain Construction’s original single-rail ride, Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, I was really looking forward to giving its bigger sister, also themed to the Amazonian warrior, a go. Taking the single-rail IBox coaster concept, with its exceptionally nimble maneuverability and its theoretical rock-solid smoothness, and making it taller, faster, and much longer seemed to hold great promise. Imagine my surprise then when Wonder Woman Flight of Courage, which opened last year as the 20th coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California, turned out to be less enthralling than its Texas counterpart.

It seems that bigger, even for mighty Amazonian warrior princesses, isn’t necessarily better.

What is a single-rail IBox coaster you ask? As the name implies, it features one, instead of the typical two tracks that are found on most coasters. And instead of the tubular pipe that most steel coasters use, IBox track, a truly groundbreaking RMC innovation, is flat and shaped like the letter “I.” Among its many attributes, IBox track is known for delivering remarkably smooth rides. For its single-rail coasters, the ride manufacturer refers to the IBox track as “Raptor” track. At a width of 15.5 inches, the track is extraordinarily thin. (RMC has also developed a considerably wider single-rail “T-Rex” track, although it has not produced any rides that use it to date.) The narrow trains have single-passenger cars that straddle the track, monorail-style.

When I sat down a few years back to speak with legendary ride engineer and coaster designer, Alan Schilke, who helped develop the idea for RMC’s single-rail coasters, he explained that when the two rails of a conventional steel coaster are misaligned, either during installation or over time due to wear and tear, it can cause rough rides. A single-rail coaster, however, eliminates that problem and should provide a smooth-as-glass ride experience.

That was more or less the case when I rode RMC’s prototype single-rail ride in Texas back in 2018. But that coaster’s layout, which is a nonstop jumble of inversions and elements compressed onto a mere 1,800 feet of track, had me so disoriented, I wasn’t really able to appreciate its smoothness. Everything happened so quickly, it was just a blur.

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Schilke also told me that the narrow, single-rail Raptor track allows the trains to adroitly and abruptly navigate the transitions between elements. That’s what made the bonkers layout of RMC’s first Wonder Woman coaster possible. The idea of having a taller lift hill (the Magic Mountain ride is 131 feet versus 113 feet for the Fiesta Texas coaster), a faster ride (58 mph compared to 52 mph), and a much longer track (nearly double the length) with much more breathing room between elements would provide an opportunity to really showcase the single-rail smoothness–or so I thought.

The queue for Wonder Woman Flight of Courage begins outside in the park’s DC Universe land. It’s the area where Magic Mountain’s godawful Green Lantern-themed Zac Spin coaster once stood. Passengers then move into the indoor Embassy of Themyscira where a modest attempt at Doric columns and other classic Greek architecture is on display. At the base of the stairs leading up to the loading platform are a bank of lockers to stow bags and other larger items since there are no bins in the station. The cars do have zippered pouches for phones and other small doodads.

It’s weird to make it to the top of the stairs and find ride attendants there to immediately usher you into a car on a train that slowly, but constantly moves through the station. There is no queueing in the station itself. The cars have odd over-the-shoulder restraint systems that are pulled down to tether passengers in place. Riders sit deep in the mostly open, low-slung cars.

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Leaving the station, the train picks up speed to climb the lift hill and quickly drops down at a steep angle. Soaring back up into a dive loop, there is a nice pop of airtime, which is something of an RMC specialty. There is then a fairly long run into an airtime hill, followed by a zero-G stall that flips passengers upside down for a prolonged period. Reaching the end of the long, thin layout, the train turns around, plunges, and climbs into a zero-G roll. It then hits a brake run and twists and turns its way back over the entrance plaza and returns to the station.

The ride was not violent by any means, but there were a few surprising shudders. I suspect that despite the fact there aren’t two rails to mess with the equilibrium, the thin track just can’t adeptly handle the additional forces created by the ride’s taller lift hill and faster speeds. That, and the fact that passengers sit over and a mere few inches above the track, may cause the rough patches. So much for silky smoothness.

And while the transitions into and out of elements are perhaps a bit more brisk than a typical coaster, they are nowhere near the intensity of the original WW single-railer. Which leaves me wondering: What is the purpose of the single-rail track on the taller, faster, longer Wonder Woman? It’s a bit of a novelty I suppose, but it otherwise doesn’t seem to add much. It probably would be smoother and more stable if it was a two-rail IBox ride.

Don’t get me wrong. Fight of Courage is a fine coaster and a solid addition to Magic Mountain. But in the end, I prefer the shambolic ferocity of Princess Diana’s original Golden Lasso ride. That, in my opinion, makes far better use of the single-rail Raptor track. I’m holding out hope that the much more robust T-Rex track, which reportedly would be able to accommodate coasters with crazy-tall heights of 300 feet and wicked-fast speeds, will be the next RMC breakthrough. And, I’m guessing that even with wild speeds and forces, a T-Rex coaster would truly be single-rail smooth.

Have you mustered the courage to ride Magic Mountain’s Wonder Woman coaster? Have you been on other RMC single-rail rides? Are you, like me, eagerly awaiting a T-Rex coaster?

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Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England: 4 out of 5

For this month’s “Rode it! Loved it!,” in which I share attractions I’ve experienced through the years exclusively for paid subscribers, let’s head to one of my home parks, Six Flags New England in Agawam, Massachusetts.

For over 30 years, Cyclone, a classic, major-league wooden coaster, thrilled visitors at Six Flags New England (which was known as Riverside from 1912 to 1999 until the park chain bought it). Before Six Flags introduced Superman the Ride in 2000, the woodie was the park’s headlining attraction. In its later years, Cyclone became excessively rough–a common problem for aging wooden coasters. In 2014, Six Flags announced that it would be putting the grizzled coaster out of its misery and closing it before the end of the season.

A few weeks later, the park pulled a switcheroo and announced that instead of bulldozing the behemoth, it would be transforming it into a hybrid wooden-steel coaster to be known as Wicked Cyclone. So how does the reborn ride stack up?

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There’s a certain authentic je ne sais quois at Six Flags Over Texas. Opened in 1961, the original Six Flags park still has some echoes of its early days. Inspired by Disneyland, it is hailed as the first regional theme park and is the home of the first log flume ride as well as the first mine train coaster (both of which are still operating).

With the 1964 opening of The Cave, it can also lay claim to one of the first modern-day dark rides. A dark ride, by the way, is an industry term for any attraction that moves passengers through an indoor show building in a vehicle. They are not necessarily dark in tone or light level. The bright, cheery “it’s a small world” attractions at the Disney parks are dark rides, for example. (And don’t start yelling at me about those lower-case title letters; they are intentional on the Mouse’s part.)

Like “it’s a small world,” The Cave used boat vehicles. Built in house, it featured “speelunkers,” goofy-looking alien creatures that dwelled in the cave and mined its gems. The attraction remained until 1991 when it was replaced by Gold River Adventure, which gave Yosemite Sam, Bugs Bunny, and other Looney Tunes characters the opportunity to bring their silliness to the park.

A couple of weeks ago, the attraction returned to its roots with yet another makeover. Pirates of Speelunker Cave, as it is now known, brings back the funky aliens, but gives them some contemporary love.

“We wanted to make sure [the new attraction] would pay homage to the original, but also brought it up to the 21st century,” says Brad Malone, spokesperson for the park. The animatronics are considerably more sophisticated, and the physical sets include projected media that depict roiling seas and other effects. “The projections and technology make it seem like the scenes are larger and more immersive,” Malone adds.

The facade of the attraction includes nautical touches that gives it a coastal, Galveston-like vibe, befitting its location in the Texas section of the park. The first part of the story introduces pirates that are trying to find and pillage the speelunkers’ treasure. There are also encounters with mermaids and sea monsters. Guests then enter the speelunkers’ cave for the second half of the ride experience. The attraction is a curious mix of buccaneers, aliens, and Lone Star State ambiance that is distinctly Six Flags Over Texas.

Also opening later this summer will be Aquaman: Power Wave, a multi-launch water coaster. (This is not like the water coasters found at water parks, which typically feature small raft-like vehicles that navigate water slides. Rather, it is an actual coaster with a splashdown water finale.) The first of its kind in North America, Aquaman will feature 20-passenger, single-car trains that will shuttle back and forth on a U-shaped track bookended with two 148-foot towers.

It will first launch backwards, rising partway up one of the towers. The train will drop down and rev up a second time heading forwards up the opposite tower. Each time it stalls on the towers, passengers will experience airtime. For the final launch, the train will hit its top speed of 63 mph and head backwards up the tower with enough momentum to make it to the top. While it hangs momentarily on the tower, the water level will quickly rise in the pool under the tracks so that the train will make a big splash when it drops into the water. It will create a huge plume of water, and it’s likely that passengers will get positively soaked.

“The most technically advanced thing about this ride is how much water will be pumped into the splashdown pool,” says Malone. “It will be a great way for guests to beat the heat this summer.”

Aquaman was supposed to open in 2020, but was delayed by the pandemic. In the intervening years, Six Flags decided to add a second train and install a turntable in the loading station. It will effectively double the capacity of the ride by allowing passengers to unload and load one train while the other one is on the tracks.

Might you be heading to Six Flags Over Texas this season? What are some of your favorite dark rides outside of the Disney and Universal parks? Would you want to see a similar water coaster at your home park?

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If you’ve ever considered a career designing parks and attractions, check out my Funworld article, “Mentoring the next generation of industry professionals.” It profiles mentoring programs presented by Skyline Attractions, Irvine Ondrey Engineering, and Vekoma Rides Manufacturing B.V. They could be your ticket into the exciting industry.

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