Welcome back to dispatch - it’s time for another jam-packed episode full of theme park news:
First up, construction of the brand new roller coaster coming to Six Flags Fiesta Texas is well
underway. Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger is a new B&M dive coaster coming to the park
this year. Construction of the ride’s 46m 150ft lift hill,
and 95 degree drop are complete - the rest of the track work is all downhill from there,
literally. During the rest of the layout, riders will encounter an immelmann, a 270 degree
zero-g roll, another steep drop, and an extreme airtime hill. Currently, fans are absolutely
loving the ride’s awesome dark grey and red colour scheme, combined with its steampunk-esque theme.
Over at Six Flags Great Adventure, lots of improvement work is taking place.
The park has promised the “largest array of improvements in the park’s nearly 50 year
history”. This includes new dining areas, new rides, new events, and new animal experiences.
People are seemingly excited to see the ride’s B&M floorless roller coaster, Bizarro, return
back to its original name, Medusa. The purple and blue ride is set to be completely repainted,
featuring green track with copper coloured supports. Medusa will also feature a new
backstory to better fit into the nearby frontier theme. Great Adventure also plans to build a shiny
new entrance sign, bigger and bolder than the last, to greet guests into the park.
The new sign will be 30ft tall - in this case proving that bigger is indeed better.
Disney have released a short clip revealing the station of their brand new roller coaster,
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The video shows the trains entering and leaving the station,
as well as some of the surrounding theming. Unsurprisingly, it looks awesome - futuristic
and spacey, but not in a tacky kinda way. The ride, set to open at Epcot at Walt Disney World in
Florida, will be one of the world’s longest indoor roller coasters once it does debut this summer!
Hold onto your hats Holiday Park fans, because something is happening! A few days ago the park
announced that their well-loved former water-ski stunt show will be making way for a brand new
attraction set to open in 2024. The new ride is set to cost an estimated 15 million euros,
and will feature a themed area designed with the help of the Tomorrowland Festival.
The owners of the park also own another park that recently opened a ride themed to the Tomorrowland,
Plopsaland de Panne and their Ride to Happiness.
Perhaps we could see a similar roller coaster debut at Holiday Park in 2024? Time will tell…
In other news, a little while ago Blackpool Pleasure Beach confirmed that they will be adding
a spinning car onto Icon, their multi-launched MACK Rides roller coaster, in late Spring 2022.
More recently, they’ve revealed more information about this transformation.
The spinning seats will only be available on the back of one of the park’s three
trains - and a single ride will cost £15 each - £25 if you want to fast track the
queue. Will people pay £15 after forking out £40 for entry? We’ll see *shakes head*
Exciting news now! Universal Studios Hollywood will debut Super Nintendo World in 2023!
The new land follows the debut of Super Nintendo World at Universal's Japanese theme
park in 2021 - which opened to rave reviews. The land is expected to feature similar,
if not the same rides as its Japanese counterpart, including Mario Kart Koopa’s
Challenge, an interactive dark ride; and Yoshi’s Adventure, an omnimover ride.
Sadly, over in Japan, Fuji-Q Highland have announced that they plan to postpone the debut
of their new roller coaster by a year. Instead of opening in July 2022, the ride will open in
July of 2023. Unsurprisingly, the delay is said to be partially due to the ongoing pandemic.
We still don’t know what type of roller coaster the park plans to build,
but it will set them back 4.5 billion yen, about 38 million USD - now that’s a big price tag.
Back in America, the new S&S 4D Free Spin at Kings Dominion has just opened - yay! The ride,
named Tumbili, has become part of the revamped area of the park, Jungle X-Pedition.
It replaced a former Kings Dominion ride, the Crypt, a HUSS top-spin. Exciting, Tumbili features
some interesting theming, helping to immerse guests within the jungle-esque themed area.
Only thing is, for a 4D roller coaster, it doesn’t seem to spin much. Can’t win them all I guess…
And finally, Coaster Express, the wooden roller coaster at Parque Warner in Spain,
has officially reopened! The ride has been closed since January of 2020 for track repairs. Like
with many other things, COVID got in the way. But the ride is back! Though, I’m not sure that many
people will be thrilled. Coaster Express had a bad reputation, mainly for the incredibly
uncomfortable ride it gave. Perhaps the retrack will have improved things - fingers crossed!
So there you go, another week or so of theme park news done and dusted. It sounds like there’s a
lot to look forward to this year - including a big dive coaster, a 4D coaster that doesn’t spin, and
a launch coaster that does spin, only if you’re willing to spend £400 that day - how magical.