CoasterLover

Thanks for all the work that everyone put into this! It would be interesting to try and use this data to extrapolate some more data points (for example, the park with the best collection of wooden/steel coasters based on the highest average rating or the park with the best overall collection of coasters [again, based on the highest average ranking, though for something like that, you may need to separate parks into groups based on the number of coasters they have])

Six Flags has already shown they are willing to invest in dark rides with the Justice League attractions they built. As such, they must feel that such attractions are a worthy enough investment, even at a park where the cost of a season pass can be <$100 per year. Further, similar to roller coasters, dark rides can be cloned and designed to fit in a minimal footprint accessible to multiple parks allowing the design costs and production costs to be spread over multiple parks/installations. I'm not expecting/asking for a completely original attraction with a crazy queue to rival Disney/Universal. All I'm saying is that if the Mall of America can build a flying theater type attraction, there's no reason Six Flags couldn't as well (especially if the plan was to put it in multiple parks). That's debatable. I find an attraction like DarKastle at BGE, Spiderman at IOA, or Flight of Passage at DAK to be exceptionally re-ridable. Further, with a screen based attraction, if you do feel there is an issue with attrition, you can simply change up the film/motions and have (essentially) a completely new experience. On top of that, SFA currently has VERY little you can do while it's raining and limited options for when it is cold. Having a dark ride would give guests at least SOMETHING to do under those conditions.

I'd love to see it replaced by SOME sort of dark ride. A Justice League clone would be welcome, but it seems like they are done with those. I'd love to see Six Flags build a flying theater style attraction (same style of attraction as Soarin' at Disney). There are LOTS of manufacturers now that have developed lots of different types of hardware to provide that sort of experience and I really think it would go over well at Six Flags. Nonetheless, I'm not holding my breath for a new dark ride at SAF anytime soon (though it would be nice if they proved me wrong!)

Two out of three... ?

Excited to see some new videos/images of this ride! Looks like it will be a lot of fun!

Wow! That is really, REALLY neat! Thanks for sharing!

Enjoy!

Here's some slightly zoomed in version of the Arendelle area. At least from this concept, appears that the mountain is all facade and any attraction would seem to be (at least mostly) indoors.

Looks like there are at least three expansion pads included in addition to these three new lands (if the art-work is accurate). Exciting times for the future of this park!

Originally, I wasn't a huge fan of the new art style for the cartoons, but after watching a few episodes, it's really grown on me. The new cartoons are genuinely funny and really enjoyable! I guess my only concern would be if they radically change the art style again in 10 years or so and then the style used in the ride may seem out of place... then again, I'm hearing that the ride will utilize a lot of projection mapping, so maybe updating the attraction as needed wouldn't be such an issue. Either way, really looking forward to riding this! I think it will just be an all out "fun" attraction (nothing "thrilling" or "wild"... just one of those rides that you find yourself laughing on and always come off with a smile).

I dunno, I smell a lot of marketing hype on this one.... First, the quote is "one of the world’s longest enclosed roller coasters". The "one of" portion leaves a LOT of room for wiggle. The fact that they don't specifically say "the world's longest" and instead say "one of the world's longest" implies that is is not the world's longest, but what does that mean? Top 2? Top 5? Top 10 longest? It really could fall into any of those categories. Next, they specifically say "enclosed" as opposed to "indoors". Again, this is all marketing, but to me, enclosed implies a coaster that is contained within one building specifically designed to contain that ride and only that ride and essentially nothing else. This would include coasters like Space Mountain, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Flight of Fear, etc. However, in my opinion, this would NOT include indoor roller coasters that are part of a larger covered area such as the coasters in the Mall of America or the West Edmonton Mall. Going to RCDB, if you specifically look for coasters classified as "enclosed" and sort by length, 9 of the top 10 enclosed coasters (by length) are Disney coasters (2. Space Mountain [DL], 3. Space Mountain [TDL], 4. Hyperspace Mountain [HKD], 5. & 6 the two Rock 'n' Roller Coasters, 7. Hyperspace Mountain [DLP], 8. & 9 . Space Mountain [WDW], 10. TRON). As such saying "one of the world’s longest enclosed roller coasters" could literally just mean "an enclosed coaster of similar length to all the other indoor coasters we have here on property and at Disney parks around the world"...

Why not both? SFA has a TON of land they will never use. Why not have some sort of City Walk/Disney Springs arrangement where Six Flags builds and leases space to some of these higher end bars/shops? Bars and shops would be unlikely to complain about any noise (unlike if they leased the land for condos) and it would be a year round source of income...

They likely got a "cheap" addition this year so they could pay for all of the other maintenance related things they are doing (new floor in the Wavepool, refurbishments/repainting of several other Hurricane Harbor attractions, biometric entry upgrades, new kitchen equipment, etc). If anything, the only thing else we MIGHT get could be an expanded HitP this year (open some/most of Gotham... Joker's Jinx, Wonder Woman, and MAYBE Superman), but given how much they had to cut short HitP this year, that might be off the tables.

Easier said than done. The supports for Mind Eraser are essentially directly next to Renegade Rapids. As such, you can't just go "between" Mind Eraser and Renegade Rapids. You would either have to reconfigure the end of Renegade Rapids to move the rapids further from Mind Eraser or the path would have to go under Mind Eraser. Unfortunately, going under Mind Eraser at that point is likely not an option because of how low the coaster is to the ground in that section (no way to build a path that would not interfere with the clearance envelope. The better option would be to go through the middle of the ride connecting the current Mind Eraser entrance/exit area to the maintenance road beneath Mind Eraser, but that would involve a pretty major change in elevation that would be difficult to do in an ADA compliant manner. Honestly, if you REALLY wanted to build a path out that way, the BEST option would be to remove either Mind Eraser (maybe replace it with an S&S FreeSpin?) or Renegade Rapids (let's face it, it's not the greatest Rapids... you rarely get that wet... maybe replace it with a splash battle or something?). But then you come to the bigger question... what next? It's 1/4 of a mile from there to Batwing... that's a LOT of real-estate to fill, otherwise, it's a long boring path. And much of the land in the area near Mind Eraser and Renegade Rapids is protected wetlands, so while you may be able to build a path in that section, you couldn't build much else. There are plenty of other places in the park to add new attractions before this would EVER need to come up as a necessity.

I think one of my biggest gripes is that they are getting rid of a decent quality attraction for kids in the 42" height category. It started when they got rid of Big Bad Wolf (42" height) and replaced it with Verboltin (48" height). Then the next "family coaster they added was InvadR (46" height requirement). Europe in the Air had a 42" height requirement and I would assume that Battle for Eire will have a similar height requirement, but the VR concerns me because I know (at least with all of the attractions that SF added VR to), there was an age restriction of 12 years. It doesn't seem like Battle for Eire will have a non-VR option, so if they do set a age requirement, I'm worried my 42" tall 4.5 yr old and my 49" tall 7 year old could miss this new attraction (in addition to not being able to ride DarKastle now that it's closing). It's funny because none of this would have mattered a few years ago when I didn't have any kids, but you really start to look at stuff like this when you do have kids. We were really anxious planning our last Disney trip because we knew our 4 yr old (at the time) would be right on the cusp of the 40" height mark and knew that if they didn't hit that mark before we went, there would be a pretty decent list of top priority attractions that they would have to miss. With the closure of DarKastle, if Battle for Eire has a age requirement that would keep my two oldest (who are currently both above 42") from riding, we may delay our next BGW trip by a year or two.

I truly believe that the ONLY reason SFA is there at all now is because of the parks origins and how it grew over time. You must remember that Six Flags America started as a Wild Animal safari. Over time, they added a few rides, got rid of the animals, added some more rides/coasters, got bought out, added more rides, etc. The park actually has a decently long history. If SFA would have been proposed to be built from nothing to what it is today in just a year or two, I don't think it ever would have happened. They have an extremely strict planning board which scrutinizes EVERY little detail of everything they do and they have strict limitations on what they can and cannot build. I don't think you'll every see a park of any significant size be built new anywhere in the Baltimore/Washington area. The top five wealthiest counties in the country (with regards to median household income) are all DC suburbs and those people have a serious case of the NAMBYs (not in my backyard). The major reason Disney's America failed was because of all of the wealthy locals putting up such a complaint (concerned that their quiet rural areas close enough to DC to be able to commute but far enough away to have the benefits of rural living would become crowded and overrun with tourists, cheep fast food locations/hotels, and noise). It should be noted that Disney's America was not the first major park that was proposed for the region. Back in the 70s when Marriott was building theme parks (think of what is now California's Great America and Six Flags Great America), they had plans to build a third park near DC, however, similar to Disney's America, the locals drove them out. The other big issue is that they just aren't building regional theme parks anymore (name the newest regional theme park in the United States that is still operating) and a lot of the bigger players get squeemish about the idea that the park would potentially need to be closed 4-5 months out of the year due to the weather. There's still hope that someday SOMETHING might break through (there were some pretty serious talks of a new full size Legoland being built south of DC off of I-95) and Disney came pretty close to building a hotel (think of something like Disney's Aulani) in National Harbor within recent memory. But I'm certainly not holding my breath. With regards to making Six Flags America a better park, the competition really hurts them in that regards. Six Flags America does see attendance increases when they add major new attractions, but the increase is typically limited to just a season or two as anytime SFA has an "off" year, it's likely that at least one of the three other big local parks (BGW, KD, or Hershey) will have added something major to get the attention of the region that year. SFA could likely see a nice return of guests if they added a $10+ attraction EVERY year, however, I'm sure that Six Flags figures they see a better return on investment if they would invest the same money in a park with less competition. Sure the one year attendance increase may not be as significant if you invest in another SF park, but the attendance increase would be longer lasting which ultimately makes the return on investment a better option. Honestly, I think the best option for SFA would be to be bought out...

Awesome! I thought so, but I wasn't sure. It's a great ride. Well... maybe... I dunno... but only on a technicality. Really, Wild One (as it currently stands) has about as much connection to Giant Coaster as Twister at Knoebles has to Mr. Twister (the former coaster at Elitch Gardens that Twister is based on). The layout has changed significantly, the trains are new(er), and when the ride was moved, little (if any) of the actual hardware from the ride moved from MA to MD. Besides, the ride has had too many modernization and just "feels" too new. There should be a clear designation between "oldest operating" (which I guess Wild One could claim) and (in my opinion), the more prestigious honor, "oldest continually operating" (which I believe would go to Kennywood's Jackrabbit and Seabreeze's Jackrabbit now). But of course, that's all just personal opinion...

I won't say "never", but the house is in REALLY bad shape... I'm PRETTY sure that the park has actually received permission to bulldoze/clear the property, but for whatever reason hasn't yet (possibly due to cost, possibly because they have no reason to [no plans to build in that area], possibly because the "ruins" make good backdrop for the Hall Manor trail.

Here's an image of the actual headstone as well as a few images of the house before it was in total disrepair. According to the text on the headstone, she died when she was 5 yrs, 9 months (not on her birthday)...

I enjoy the Halloween events (especially here in the North East) because it's a chance for me to enjoy the parks without the heat of summer. And (just as others have said) if you go during the day, lines are usually quite reasonable. I'm not into the idea of being scared, which makes Hershey's event especially appealing to me (especially as we now have younger kids who get scared just going down the wrong aisle at the local Halloween Stores). As such, my overall opinion of Halloween events are mostly positive.

Had my first (and last) rides on Dragon's Challenge back in 2010 when the Harry Potter section first opened. I really enjoyed the ride, especially because A) it still dueled back then and B) back then everyone was so busy with all the other Harry Potter stuff that the line for Dragon's Challenge was never more than about 5-10 minutes. It was a solid ride and the dueling added a lot (in my opinion). It's interesting that Harry Potter was the incentive that got me to finally get to IOA and try the ride for the first time and that Harry Potter will ultimately be the reason that the ride is leaving. I wonder (as some say the ride still had life in it), if Universal tried at all to look for a potential park to buy the ride or if they just scrapped it without a second thought.

Try this link (I think it's what you are looking for): https://www.sixflags.com/larondeen/attractions/newfor2018 This page shows "Tourbillon" as a standard scrambler.

There are no restrictions that would prevent the park from expanding into this area (and beyond) other than the expense of expanding the infrastructure into an area that was previously not used for park use (and possibly the cost to pave some of their western dirt parking lot to compensate for the lost parking spots.

It's the conflict of potential vs. outcome vs. locals. The area is jam packed with people (people with lots of money) so one would think that the potential for the area to have several VERY big (Orlando or LA magnitude) parks would be high, yet (and while I agree Busch Gardens is a very high caliber park adding high caliber attractions), Kings Dominion and SFA seem to be becoming second or third (or possibly even lower) tier parks in their respective chains. And when a big park chain does come along looking to build something amazing (which has happened a couple times now), the local "Not In My Back Yard" people come out in force to drive away any new builds (as you probably know, Disney has tried to build in the area before and even Marriott was looking to build a third park here around the time they were building the other two Great America parks [the ones that eventually became SFGAm and CGA]). It's quite frustrating...

SFA is in a tough market with Hershey and KD... a 15 million dollar addition at SFA probably doesn't get the same return in attendance at SFA as it might at a park with less competition like SFFT and I suspect any attendance boosts are much shorter lived as people will go to SFA the year the new attraction opens but head back to the other parks as they open new attractions in subsequent years. It may be that corporate is resigned to add just enough to SFA to maintain their current market share but not add anything to try and expand their market share. This may just be the reality that we need to face.