This blog is for all new thrills to be expected in the 2019 season. Updates will come regularly on all the newest and most exciting coasters and thrill rides around the world including construction updates, park statements and much more!! Leave comments of what you’d like to see more of, and enjoy your ride!!
Six Flags Great America has posted multiple pictures on its social media accounts confirming that the brand-new Maxx Force trains are on-site and have been installed on to the tracks.
Those who are anticipating Maxx Force will be pleased to hear that there will be four cars per train, instead of only four as seen in the animations. This extra car of four rides will increase the capacity of the ride from 12 to 16 riders. While this may not seem like a dramatic improvement, it will certainly help with loading in the station and overall wait times for this record breaking ride.
The park has still yet to announce an opening date for the ride, but with the layout completed and trains installed, this coaster should be ready to ride by the end of June. The other 2019 installations Great America has announced are well under way, including the new Six Flags Member lounge which is open and a great space to cool off and relax. The in-park WiFi system is soon to be up and running.
Six Flags Great America is now open daily, and Hurricane Harbor will be open daily beginning June 8th.
This Memorial Day weekend, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA has opened its very anticipated 2019 coaster, Batman: The Ride, to the public. The park was right on schedule with its opening and reviews are more than positive.
These S&S Worldwide manufactured coasters are very popular among guests as well as cost effective and spacious for the parks themselves. The Six Flags chain of amusement parks has purchased seven of the eight models currently in operation, the eighth belonging to Nagashima Spa Land in Japan.
In a press release provided by Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, the ride invites guests to “Experience a sensory-overload as riders flip and soar on a tumbling journey with unexpected drops and vertical free-falls.” These models of coasters provide loads of thrills, standing 12 stories tall as rotating seats flip and spin riders with each bunny-hop type hill. These seats flip by weight alone, allowing a different experience with every ride. The ride has two Raven-turn elements which plummet riders in a free-fall while allowing the coaster to go the opposite direction. With the help of magnets placed strategically along the track, each ride is guaranteed one flip for a true head-over-heels experience.
A full animated POV of the new ride can be found Here.
Eight months after its initial announcement, Six Flags Magic Mountain’s newest launched dueling coaster, West Coast Racers, officially has track in place. Two sections of yellow and white track have been secured to the supports placed not too long ago, officially beginning track work on this highly anticipated coaster.
Many have been wondering when track work would start, as the plot of land that once held Magic Mountain’s towering SkyCoaster has been plowed and ready for construction for the past five months. Up until now, only concrete footers for supports and small plastic flags was the scene, now there are pieces of track and launch sections on site. This is a big step forward for the park as construction begins after what seemed like a long hiatus. The park has not made any statements on why construction was halted for so long, but the previous outbreak of California wildfires may be to blame.
Six Flags Magic Mountain has a world-class lineup of roller coasters in their collection, and is no stranger to launched or dueling coasters. With West Coast Racers, the park hit both categories in one shot. Inspired by the famous West Coast Customs auto body shop in Burbank, CA, the ride will feature sports car themed trains and street racing theming. The ride itself is a Mobius loop, meaning the ride is one continuous layout, but will race another car along its track. This same type of ride mechanic can also be found on Twisted Colossus, another roller coaster in Magic Mountain’s lineup.
West Coast Racers will be the worlds first ‘launched racing coaster’ and feature four separate launches, multiple inversions, and a “pit-stop” element to ensure two coasters will always duel.
A full animated POV of the coaster can be found Here.
In park shots of Maxx Force and information regarding the 2019 season!!
On April 19, 2019, Six Flags Great America opened its gates to the public for the 2019 season and had plenty to display. The parks new record breaking ride, Maxx Force, could be seen all the way from the I-94 Interstate, and becomes a more impressive sight upon entering the park. The double-inversion structure is the tallest point on the ride at 175 feet tall, and can be seen from almost anywhere in the park. The jungle of black steel supports compliments the brand new white track and fits perfectly within the skyline of coasters.
I was able to visit Six Flags Great America on Saturday, April 20, and get pictures and information on the new ride and the all new and updated areas of the park. I would confidently say 65 percent of the track is in place for Maxx Force, and should be totally completed by the end of the month. Near the front gate, Maxx Force’s final brake run stands tall, unfinished, but still impressive. Great America has still yet to provide an opening date for the ride, but as with previous years and new rides, the goal is to be open by Memorial Day Weekend.
Six Flags Great America also does its best to update the park each year with new areas for guests as well as new systems to improve each guest’s experience. At the front gate, the park has done away with Biometric fingerprint scanners for Membership and Season Pass holders, and have changed to facial recognition software provided by Samsung smartphones.
Another change that I noted was the park had updated all of their registers from analog systems to purely digital. This is in relation to the addition of Mobile Ordering for food stands and restaurants which the park has confirmed to launch later this summer. Other smaller changes and updates include free in-park WiFi, updated maps and information centers and a new restaurant named Firehouse Snacks in the Hometown Square section of the park, which will feature spicy nachos and the popular Coca-Cola Freestyle machines.
Six Flags Great America will begin daily operation on May 21.
Polish theme park Energylandia is pulling out all the stops when it comes to non-stop thrills. After just recently opening Hyperion, Europes first ever coaster to exceed 200 feet in height, the park swiftly announced its newest addition named Zadra. Zadra is a 200 foot tall hybrid coaster designed and built by Rocky Mountain Construction, the company best known for its wood/steel hybrid coasters such as the 13 world record breaking Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point in Ohio, and Goliath at Six Flags Great America in Illinois. Construction has begun on Zadra, and the park has kept relatively quiet, except for earlier today.
In a surprise announcement, Energylandia revealed that the park will be adding a yet-to-be-named Vekoma Shockwave model that was announced by the Vekoma company at the annual International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions convention last year. The Shockwave model will feature 63 mph launch section, and multiple inversions.
An animated POV of the Vekoma Shockwave model can be found here:
Exciting news out of ‘Washington DC’s Thrill Capital’ as Six Flags America shares that Firebird’s trains are now on the track and fitted with weighted water dummies. The dummies are used to simulate the weight of a full train of riders, with each dummy weighing about 170 pounds each. They are used to create more realistic test runs in order to achieve better results before the official opening. The park jokingly captioned the picture “First riders are taking flight on Firebird! Odd thing, everyone was speechless.” As with most new coasters, the park will release a point-of-view video from the front seat of the new coaster not long after the initial test-runs have begun.
Firebird was announced in the fall of 2018 as a conversion of Apocalypse: The Last Stand from a Stand-Up coaster to a Floorless coaster. This type of coaster conversion consists of a repaint and re-theme of the ride’s layout, and converting the trains from where riders are in a standing position to a sitting position . This conversion is becoming more popular as Stand-Up coasters are losing the attraction and comfort they once provided. Other examples of this conversion can be found on Rougarou at Cedar Point, Ohio, which was once known as Mantis, and Patriot at California’s Great America which was converted from the Stand-Up coaster called Vortex.
However, this is not the first time this coaster has been through a conversion. Before its days as Apocalypse: The Last Stand, this coaster was found at Six Flags Great America as Iron Wolf, the world’s first Stand-Up coaster. Six Flags America is the sister park of Six Flags Great America and in 2011, bought the coaster from the midwestern park to be dismantled, re-constructed, and re-themed to Apocalypse: The Last Stand which opened in 2012.
A full POV of the completed Firebird coaster can be found Here.
On April 8, Six Flags Great America posted the picture above to their Instagram Story. The picture indicates the connection of the two towers that will support the double inversion that will flip riders 175 feet from the ground. Seeing that this structure of the ride is now complete, all that is left for construction on this highly anticipated new ride is laying the rest of the track to complete the circuit.
Maxx Force is the seventeenth coaster and newest addition to the northern Illinois theme park. The aptly named ride will propel riders at speeds up to 78 mph in just under two seconds, which crowns this ride with the fastest acceleration in North America. Maxx Force will claim two other records when it opens this summer with the Tallest double inversion at 175 feet tall and the Fastest ‘zero-g roll’ inversion at 60 mph.
A full animated POV of Maxx Force can be found Here.
Zero-G Coaster Updates 