Friday, August 31, 2012

California's Great America Strikes Gold

Better late than never. It took 3 years, but California's Great America is getting their long anticipated GCI woodie. Gold Striker, a 108 foot wooden coaster. The ride's 103 foot drop hugs the Sky Tower as it reaches 54 miles per hour, and races through it's 3,197 feet of track. Can't wait to see this bad boy run in Spring of 2013.
                                                              An overview of this ride.

Big Changes Coming to Six Flags Great Adventure

Six Flags Great Adventure has made Wild Safari an amusement park attraction. With this, Six Flags Great Adventure will be the largest amusement park in the world. Yes, you heard that right, the largest park in the world! I'm assuming that it's similar to the safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Coming off the success of King Cobra, Hurricane Harbor is at it again. Big Wave Racer, a much needed mat slide is being added to the water park.

Iron Rattler slithers into Fiesta Texas in 2013

Rattler is getting the Iron Horse treatment. Iron Rattler is headed to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The ride will start with a 170 foot drop along a 100 foot quarry. Not only that, the ride will feature 4 overbanked turns, and also, a barrel roll. The ride is claimed to be a hybrid coaster, steel track and wooden supports. The ride will have a very different layout than the old Rattler did when it opened in 1992.

Everything IS Bigger in Texas

Six Flags Over Texas announced Texas Sky Screamer. A 400 foot high Star Flyer. The tallest ever. This ride is similar to the other Sky Sceamer rides at Six Flags Great Adventure, St. Louis, Fiesta Texas, Discovery Kingdom, La Ronde, and soon to bee Over Georgia. Only double in size. The ride will dominate the park's already large skyline and will be visible from the entire Arlington Area.

Go Full Throttle at Six Flags Magic Mountain in 2013

Six Flags Magic Mountain is adding a much anticipated 18th roller coaster in 2013. Full Throttle, a Premier launched coaster is being added where Log Jammer used to be. The ride will feature three launches, one is backwards. Full Throttle will reach a top speed of 70 miles per hour. Not only that, the ride will have a 160 foot loop, the tallest in the world. There's also a first of it's kind element. The loop will be used as a top hat element as well. The ride will go through low, high speed turns, and a dive loop. Full Throttle will be located near the front of the park.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Six Flags St. Louis to add Boomerang

It seems like Six Flags St. Louis has leaked all the information needed for us to conclude that a new coaster will be added. Boomerang, a 125 foot roller coaster is being added in 2013. It's a standard Vekoma Boomerang model seen in many other parks around the world and 4 others in the chain. Six Flags Over Texas has one but, it's being removed in September along with neighboring ride, Texas Chute Out. Six Flags St. Louis is most likely getting that one. Boomerang will be opening in the spring in the Illinois section of the park. It's the park's ninth coaster.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Roller Soaker Hoax?

Coaster Crew reports that Rides4U accidently put Roller Soaker up on their website. Believe it? Some do, some don't. We will be watching this story closly to see if anything else comes out.

No Star Flyer for SFNE

There was a rumor going around that Six Flags New England was supposed to get a 385 foot Sky Screamer for 2013. It has been confirmed that they will not be getting one until at least 2014. Something totally different is planned. Stay tuned as we will be watching this and we will see what's in store for 2013.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Hershey to remove Roller Soaker

Screamscape reports that Hersheypark un-officially confirmed the removal of their Setpoint roller coaster, named Roller Soaker. The ride opened in 2002 , and constantly has 2 hour lines due to it's terrible capacity. With Hershey always being crowded, especially the Boardwalk where the coaster is located, you need to have better capacity. This will be the second of it's kind to be removed, as Flying Super Saturator was removed to make way for Carolina Cobra. The ride is currently listed on Rides4U, going at a price of $799,000. There is some speculation going on right now. I personally think that a mat racer or a speed slide complex would fit in the area. Anything can happen at this point though. Roller Soaker had a good 10 years going. It's time for a change.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Cedar Point to get a Wingrider

Cedar Point is getting a new Wingrider! Gatekeeper, a new record breaking B&M Wingrider is coming to America's Roller Coast. The ride will replace Disaster Transport and the aging Space Spiral. The ride has 6 inversions. An inverting drop, an immelman, a large corkscrew, a zero g roll going through the entrance, an inclined dive loop, and another roll. The ride will be visible from all the parking lot. The ride is right next to Wicked Twister, and Windseeker which was added in 2011. Gatekeeper is the first coaster to be added to The Point since Maverick was added back in 2007. It's another larger addition after taking a year off by adding Dinosaurs Alive! which is a walkthrough featuring many different dinosaurs with a small upcharge, in 2012.

Perilous Plunge to be removed

Perilous Plunge will be removed from Knott's Berry Farm on September 3rd. The ride was built by Intamin, and it's been plauged with problems since it opened in 2000. The ride boasts a near vertical drop heading into the splash pool. It is unclear if Cedar Fair will demolish the ride or will move it to another property. I can't see it being moved to another park but anything can happen. There is a rumor that Knott's will get a B&M Giga. With the removal of Perilous Plunge, there is more room for it.