Wow, here we are, the final dispatch episode of 2021.
Let’s see what exciting theme park news we have to round off the year.
Steel Taipan, the new triple launch coaster at Dreamworld in Australia
has officially opened to the public. The ride debuted on 15th December at the cost of 32
million Australian dollars, marking it the theme park’s biggest roller coaster to date.
The ride is a triple-launch version of MACK Ride’s well known Blue Fire launch coaster.
However, unlike Blue Fire, the final car of each train features spinning seats.
As you navigate the course the seats spin freely, adding another layer to the experience.
Though, these aren’t free - you’ll have to pay a hefty premium of 25 australian dollars per seat,
yikes. Though, I’d pay almost anything to make Blue Fire a thrilling ride experience…
Talking of new roller coasters, Pantheon, you know that roller coaster that’s been built at Busch
Gardens Williamsburg for what feels like years? Yeah, the park released a POV of it the other day!
The ride looks awesome. It features two independent launches, the second
of which propels guests forwards, backwards and forwards against - though it could probably get
away with just one launch, anything to boost the ride time I guess. Aside from launches,
the ride has a 54m 178ft high top hat, an outward banked airtime hill, a zero g stall, and some
other cool elements. Sadly you can’t ride Pantheon quite yet, it opens in March of 2022 (hopefully).
Some good news from Phantasialand now. For years the park has been battling to get new land to
expand on. While they’ve waited, Phantasialand has often removed older rides to build new
immersive themed lands, such as Klugheim and Rookburgh. However, recently,
the state government finally agreed to sell some land to the park for their expansion. But,
it’s now down to the local council to approve any planning for the new site, which seems unlikely
right now. So, at some point in the future, Phantasialand will hopefully have some more land,
possibly meaning more awesome roller coasters. One small step at a time though I guess.
Other parks have too much land, so much so that they begin building football league themed rides.
That’s exactly what PortAventura in Spain is doing. The park announced that they plan to build
a LaLiga themed ride for 2023. For those oblivious to football, and that’s the real type of football,
LaLiga is Spain’s top football league. The new ride is actually the second phase of PortAventura
and LaLigas ‘alliance’ as they put it. Together, they debuted a new restaurant within the park,
and a new app that guests can use throughout their stay at the resort. We have no idea what the new
attraction coming in 2023 is currently, but I’d safely say expect it to be football themed.
In other news, Toverland is going back and retheming a bare part of the park.
This winter they plan to massively upgrade their log flume,
introducing a new storyline whilst simultaneously improving the ride’s landscaping and theming.
Talking about the changes, the General Manager of Toverland said “The quality standard of Toverland
is getting higher and higher and we think it is very important that our older theme areas
are also included in this”. It’s fantastic when parks do go back and
update their older attractions - you’ll be able to experience the new area in Spring of 2022.
Gardaland have also been showcasing their new for 2022 ride recently.
The park has shown behind the scenes snippets of the dark ride
set to open at the park next year. The video shows a huge animatronic head of a rock-like creature,
which I imagine will be integral to the ride’s storyline. Hopefully this
is indicative of the scale of Gardaland’s new attraction - that would be awesome!
Speaking of rides under construction, supports have been spotted onsite at Fuji-Q Highland in
Japan. The park plans to debut a new roller coaster next year - so it makes sense to see
supports at the park. Though, we currently have no idea of what the ride will be. Some speculate that
it could be a Intamin family coaster, similar to the likes of Juvelen at Djurs Sommerland.
Though others speculate it could be a motorbike coaster from a different manufacturer. I’m sure
as the new roller coaster begins to take shape we’ll learn more about what it actually is.
We do know what new rides Liseberg is getting though, because
they announced them. Liseberg plans to construct a brand new area of the park, named ‘Luna Park’,
with three new rides. The whole area features a 1920s theme park vibe, paying homage to the
Liseberg of yesteryear. 2022 will see the debut of two flat rides, Tempus, a Zamperla Nebulaz;
and Turbo, a sidecar ride by Technical park. 2023 will see the area completed with the construction
of a new roller coaster name Luna. The ride will become the world’s tallest and fastest family
boomerang coaster built by Vekoma. It’ll weave in and out of existing attractions at the park, atop
of the hillside, near the log flume and Aerospin rides. As always, Liseberg continues to enhance
their ride offering whilst enhancing the theming and design of the park itself. What a great park…
And finally, Drayton Manor has begun teasing something. The park debuted a video to their
twitter page showing a V symbol cracking the ground, followed by some other symbols.
Apparently these translate to 2022 in runes used by Vikings back in the day. We have absolutely no
idea what this means right now though - perhaps a new ride for the 2022 season? We have seen
construction markers and other hints appear at the park over the past few weeks. Time will tell!
There we go, that’s all the theme park news from this week,
and the last piece of news you’ll hear from us this year. We hope you have a fantastic
Christmas and new year - enjoy yourselves. We’ll be waiting for you in January!