Do you know what time it is? Well it’s actually 3.15pm on Tuesday 14th September 2021 for me,
but for you, it’s theme park news time!
Once a year we get to look forward to harshly judging the results of the Golden Ticket Awards,
a poll which aims to shine a spotlight on the amusement park industry by recognizing the “Best
of the Best.” If you’ve never heard of the Golden Ticket Awards it doesn’t take long to realise that
“Best of the Best” often means “Best of the USA”, at least when it comes to roller coasters. So what
fantastic rides and theme parks won awards this year? VelociCoaster deservingly won the best new
roller coaster of the year, while Rise of the Resistance took the best new dark ride of the
year too. Like normal, Europa Park was once again awarded the world’s best theme park,
and Valhalla at Blackpool Pleasure Beach grabbed the award for the best water ride of 2021,
despite being closed since the end of 2019 - fantastic. Enough about that though,
you want to know what the world’s best roller coasters are right? Well, feast your eyes on
this. Millennium Force is the world’s 2nd best roller coaster? Sure I definitely can’t
think of anything better than it, definitely not Steel Vengeance one place below it. New for 2021
Candymonium at Hersheypark took the 5th position in its first year, whilst VelociCoaster took
18th position, despite the latter being voted the best new coaster of the year?
That makes sense. I recommend checking out the results for yourself, it’s always an
interesting read. We have links to all of the news articles covered in the description below.
On to the real news now. Steel Taipan at Dreamworld in Australia has begun
testing! The park revealed a POV of their new triple-launch roller coaster a few days ago,
which is set to debut in late 2021. The majority of the rides layout is a clone
of MACK Rides’ Blue Fire layout. However, some changes have been made to the layout,
namely the introduction of a backwards spike, to allow for the triple launch
mechanism. Unlike Blue Fire, you’ll also be able to experience the ride whilst spinning,
as each train comes with two spinning seats located in the final car - pretty neat!
Skyline Attractions have recently revealed their new line of children’s roller coasters named the
“P’sghetti bowl coaster” - sure. The company is claiming their new model to be the world’s first
‘single-rail children’s roller coaster’. Similar to their other products, Skyline is using RMC’s
single rail raptor track as the track for their ride. They say this reduces costs and maintenance,
whilst also enabling customization opportunities previously unseen on this type of roller coaster.
They’re also able to theme both the trains and track to better suit the story of the ride,
for example, by making the whole thing look like a giant snake. Will we see one of these
coasters pop up anytime soon? Who knows, but it would definitely be interesting...
Golden Horse, now named Jinma Rides, the chinese company known for making knock-off versions of
other companies rides and roller coasters, has debuted a Europe subsidiary. Noble Rides is a
brand new amusement rides company operated from Switzerland but very much part of the
Jinma Rides family. The company plans to offer ride development and production services to
the European market, enabling them to move away from their old Golden Horse brand. The rides are
said to be designed using European engineering, European components, and European control systems,
but will ultimately be manufactured in China, most likely where Jinma Rides already produce their own
attractions. So there you go, perhaps you’ll see a Golden Horse roller coaster near you very soon!
Work has begun on a new Nerf themed land coming to Beto Carrero World in Brazil. The theme park
is the largest in Latin America, and is currently divided into 7 themed areas. However, this number
is set to increase with the addition of the new “NERF Island”. The full details of the area aren’t
currently known. However, construction of a Disk’O coaster, which will become the entrance portal to
the new land, has recently begun. Speculation surrounding the project states the inclusion of
other new flat rides, a restaurant, a NERF shop, and perhaps even a NERF dark ride? Time will tell!
And finally, some very good news. Walibi Belgium will reopen to guests on the 2nd October 2021
after the park was severely flooded. Park staff have worked tirelessly to get the park
ready for the Halloween season. The timing of the floods was extremely unfortunate,
as just two months prior, the park had opened their brand new Mega coaster, Kondaa,
at the cost of 25 million Euros. Then on the 16th July they were hit hard by a flood,
which damaged a large amount of their technical infrastructure. So if you’re able to visit
Walibi Belgium, go and support the park by paying them a visit and riding Konda in early October!
Wowie, lots of different bits of news today,
including the debut of another Golden Ticket Awards. It does make you think though.
Wouldn’t it be great if someone created a much better roller coaster poll,
one that more accurately depicted the world’s top roller coasters. Oh wait, we did just that, it’s
called Vote Coasters, and it’s so much better, but of course I’d say that. (It’s true though).