Remember when I said all we’re going to talk about on dispatch for the next
few years is Thorpe Park’s new roller coaster, well boi was I right. Welcome
to your weekly round-up of theme park news (about Thorpe Park’s new coaster).
In a completely expected turn of events, Thorpe Park revealed their plans for a new roller
coaster last Friday. The ride, currently called project Exodus, is slated to become the UK’s
tallest roller coaster, standing 72m 236ft tall. To many this might be an unremarkable number.
However, the current tallest roller coaster in the UK is the Big One, which measures 65m 213ft high,
but Blackpool Pleasure Beach claims the ride is 71.6m 235ft from sea-level. So Thorpe Park are
building their new roller coaster 1 foot taller - classy. But what else can we expect from this
soon-to-be hyper coaster? Rumours currently point towards MACK rides building the new attraction.
Layout wise, it’s weird? But in a fantastic way. The ride starts with a vertical drop,
which twists 180 degrees in the process. Then a super quick immelman, an outward back turnaround,
zero-g stall into a dive loop thing, a splashdown, outward banked airtime hill, and a traditional
hill - then the breaks. It’s short but I imagine it’ll pack a decent punch. Make sure you watch
the full version of that POV by clicking the link in the description. The big question is when will
it open? Currently Thorpe Park are holding consultations with the public to hear their
thoughts about the new attraction. They hope to get planning permission in late spring/summer,
and start construction in late 2022. We don’t know the exact opening date, it could be anywhere from
Summer 2023 to Spring 2024. That feels ages away but I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait!
Speaking about new roller coasters, one has recently popped up in Vietnam.
VHCoasters on twitter showed some photos of the new Great Coasters International
wooden roller coaster that’s just opened at Sun World Hon Thom Nature Park! The
ride heavily utilises the incredible terrain, cascading down the hillside whilst weaving in
and out of its own structure. I can’t wait to hear some of the reviews from this one!
Speaking of reviews, the results to the 2021 Vote Coasters poll were released
last Saturday (by some great people I might add). Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point managed
to maintain its title of the world’s best roller coaster this year. However, things
changed drastically in the top 25. VelociCoaster, the new for 2021 Intamin multi-launch coaster,
ranked 4th in the world! Kondaa at Walibi Belgium and Ride to Happiness at Plopsaland de Panne,
also new for 2021 rides, rank 12th and 13th respectively! Vote Coasters increased in size
by 30% between 2020 and 2021, leading to even more roller coasters being ranked this year.
To check out the full results, visit the links in the description.
Also RIP my favourite roller coaster, Karnan at Hansa Park, which fell 9 places, so sad :(
Anyway, in other news, BGWFans have leaked a roller coaster supposedly planned for SeaWorld
Orlando pre-pandemic. Project Penguin as it’s known is a B&M launch coaster that was said
to be in the planning stages right up until covid struck. We don’t know whether this ride will ever
be built, or whether SeaWorld Orlando even plan to build a new large-scale addition. Ice Breaker,
the park’s newest ride, is still yet to open! We have seen the proposed layout for Project
Penguin though - it looks interesting. The ride was planned to reside alongside the festival
pathway area of the park, adjacent to the park’s entrance area. The roller coaster starts off
with an airtime hill launched, followed by a very twisty layout with one or two inversions.
It’s slated, or *was* slated, to feature longer 12 row B&M trains, perhaps similar to the staggered
seating found on some of the company’s hyper coasters. Will project penguin be built?
Who knows. Is having more launched B&M roller coasters a bad thing, of course not, it’s awesome!
Exciting news for all fans of Merlin Entertainments: the company is potentially
planning to acquire theme parks in the future. Merlin Entertainments is currently the world’s
2nd biggest amusements operator. The company owns the multitude of Legoland theme parks, as well as
Alton Towers, Heide Park and Gardaland just to name a few. Merlin’s chief executive Nick Varney
said that the company would like to own more resort theme parks but don’t plan to build any,
other than for the 500 legoland parks already under construction - I’m paraphrasing. He
stated that expansion would “largely be an acquisition play” in the future.
Could we see Merlin buy up and expand smaller scale theme parks in the future? Time will tell…
And finally, Qiddiya, the entertainment megaproject in Riyadh, has awarded construction
contracts for Six Flags Qiddiya. That means that ground has officially been broken, marking the
construction of the six flags attraction. The park itself is set to be filled to the brim
with impressive rides. If all goes to plan, Six Flags Qiddiya will be home to Falcons Flight,
the world’s tallest, fastest and longest roller coaster;
Spitfire the world’s tallest inverted top hat coaster, and Iron Rattler, the world’s tallest
tilt coaster. Classic Six Flags reusing names, huh? Still, it could all be very impressive!
And that’s it for another episode of dispatch! It seems like we’ve got a lot
to look forward to in the future, from a new UK’s tallest roller coaster at Thorpe Park,
to a new world’s tallest, and fastest, and longest, roller coaster at Six Flags Qiddiya.
It’s not the size that counts though, it’s how you use it, or so I’m told.