See the 13 new roller coasters thrill seekers are excited about in 2025

Yahoo

04-03-2025

Get ready for your heart to leap into your throat.
A new wave of record-setting roller coasters opens this year at theme parks across the U.S.
'I'm thrilled about the lineup,' said Derek Perry, communications director for American Coaster Enthusiasts, the world's largest club for fans of amusement rides. He and his twin brother have each ridden over 1,300 coasters. 'There are definitely many attractions that I want to get on, some we've been anticipating for a while, too.'
Several of the rides were slated to open last year, but got pushed back.
Here's what thrill seekers can look forward to in 2025.
'Top of the list, number one, Epic Universe Stardust Racers,' proclaimed Martina 'Prime' Moore, a self-described adrenaline junkie and founder CEO of Melanin Coaster Network, a club created for coaster enthusiasts of color but open to everyone. 'You get to duel with your friends.'
Like its beloved predecessor, Dueling Dragons at Universal Islands of Adventure, Stardust Racers will be a dueling coaster with separate, intertwining tracks, allowing guests to race against each other.
At night, the illuminated cars are designed to look like comets zipping through the sky, on tracks without external lighting.
'It looks like an awesome ride,' Moore said. 'Lots of air time.'
Stardust Racers is one of several new coasters coming to Universal's new theme park.
Opening: May 22
Location: Orlando, Florida
Top speed: 62 miles per hour
Track length: 5,000 feet
Ride's height: 133 feet
Minimum height to ride: 48 inches
Siren's Curse will be one of the first tilt coasters in the U.S., and Cedar Point is billing it as the tallest, longest and fastest tilt coaster in North America.
'I've never experienced a roller coaster like that, so I'm anticipating that I'll be scared of it,' Perry admitted. 'But I also want to ride it over and over ... I think it's going to be like unlike anything else that people have experienced before.'
Point-of-view video released by Cedar Point shows the ride vehicle ascending a long lift hill, then appearing to run out of track before tilting forward like a seesaw, 'forcing you to peer straight down with the hope your train will connect to the twisted track below,' according to the park's website.
'I don't even know how engineering people come up with this stuff,' Moore said.
Opening: Early summer
Location: Sandusky, Ohio
Top speed: 58 miles per hour
Track length: 2,966 feet
Ride's height: 160 feet
Minimum height to ride: 48 inches
Cedar Point fans are also looking forward to the reopening of Top Thrill 2, which closed for a mechanical modification not long after debuting last year. (Vertical photo – 73452519007)
A towering 420 feet tall, it's billed as 'the world's tallest and fastest triple-launch strata coaster."
'That ride experience is awesome,' Moore said, adding that he was among the first to ride it. 'It launches you forward and back 120 miles per hour.'
It was among Perry's favorites last year. When Top Thrill 2 reopens, he said, 'It'll be like two brand new coasters for many people, which, you know, when does that ever happen at a park?'
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Kings Dominion describes Rapterra as 'the world's tallest and longest launched wing coaster.'
'We only have two in America: one at Holiday World and one that they're building at Kings Dominion,' Moore said.
On a winged coaster, the seats extend out from both sides of the track like wings.
'And then you have a launch. You're not going up a traditional lift hill,' Moore said. 'Coaster fans, we love launches.'
The park says the coaster will go from 0 to 65 miles per hour in 4 seconds.
Opening: 2025
Location: Doswell, Virginia
Top speed: 65 miles per hour
Track length: 3,086 feet
Ride's height: 145 feet
Minimum height to ride: Not listed
Fire Runner will be 'Iowa's first single rail coaster,' according to The Lost Island Themepark.
The Iowa park may not be as well-known as some others, but Perry said, 'The theming is incredible, especially for a family park ... They have this dark ride Volkanu that's like almost to like a Universal, Disney level with the theming, and it's fantastic.'
He's visited the park every year since it opened in 2022 and is already looking forward to going back for Fire Runner, which the park says is 'inspired by the thrill of fire and speed.'
Opening: 2025
Location: Waterloo, Iowa
Top speed: 52 miles per hour
Track length: 1,950 feet
Ride's height: 92 feet
Minimum height to ride: 48 inches
Wrath of Rakshasa will be the 'the steepest and most inverted dive coaster in the world,' according to Six Flags Great America. It will feature five inversions and 'a cliffhanger hold, which suspends riders as they face straight down a 96-degree, beyond-vertical drop,' according to a park press release.
'We love a good dive coaster,' Moore said. 'It's like you're diving into the earth from the clouds.'
Opening: 2025
Location: Gurnee, Illinois
Top speed: Nearly 67 miles per hour
Track length: 3,239 feet
Ride's height: 180 feet
Minimum height to ride: Not listed
Quantum Accelerator will be 'New England's first dual-launch straddle coaster,' according to Six Flags New England. Perry said it will also be Six Flags' first to feature this particular style of seating.
"You're going to ride on a motorbike-type thing, kind of like Hagrid's at Islands of Adventure, but it's from Intamin so it's the same style as DarKoaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Arctic Rescue at SeaWorld San Diego,' he said.
He called Quantum Accelerator a family thrill coaster. Unlike smaller kiddie coasters, family coasters are designed to be enjoyed by multiple generations, together.
Opening: 2025
Location: Agawam, Massachusetts
Top speed: 45 miles per hour
Track length: 2,604 feet
Ride's height: Not listed
Minimum height to ride: 48 inches
The Big Bad Wolf is coming back to Busch Gardens Williamsburg as The Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf's Revenge.
The original Big Bad Wolf was a beloved suspended coaster that closed in 2009. The park says the new coaster will be 'North America's longest family inverted coaster.'
With more than 2,500 feet of track. Moore said, 'Coaster fans can enjoy a long family ride with our legs and feet blowing in the wind! Very excited for the rethemed and revamped attraction.'
Opening: Spring
Location: Williamsburg, Virginia
Top speed: 40 miles per hour
Track length: More than 2,500 feet
Ride's height: Not listed
Minimum height to ride: 42 inches with a supervising companion, 48 inches solo
Carowinds' Camp Snoopy is expanding with a new family coaster and new raft ride. On Snoopy's Racing Railway, Snoopy races to resupply Camp Snoopy's mess hall, when it runs out of root beer and pizza, according to the park.
'It's a family launch coaster, which is fun because you don't get too many launch coasters on family-size rides,' Perry said. The park says the ride will go from 0 to 31 miles per hour within seconds.
Opening: Late spring targeted
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Top speed: 31 miles per hour
Track length: 804 feet
Ride's height: Not listed
Minimum height to ride: Not listed
SeaWorld San Antonio is also opening a new family coaster. Beach Rescue Racer will be part of the park's new kid-centered play area, Rescue Jr.
'They rethemed from Sesame Street to Rescue Jr., so all about conservation and inspiring kids to want to save the environment, save the oceans,' Perry said.
Kids will board a beach Jeep to rush to the aid of stranded beach creatures on the ride.
Opening: 2025
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Top speed: Not listed
Track length: 1,300 feet
Ride's height: Not listed
Minimum height to ride: 38 inches
Coaster lovers are also looking forward to the opening of several rides that were supposed to open last year, including Palindrome and Circuit Breaker at the new Circuit of the Americas theme park, COTALand, in Austin, Texas.
Like Siren's Curse, Circuit Breaker will be a tilt coaster, while Palindrome will shuttle guests forward and backward.
According to ACE, Palindrome will feature 1,230 feet of track, a height of 95 feet and top speed of 51 miles per hour. Few details have been released on Circuit Breaker.
The Flash: Vertical Velocity is also opening later than previously expected. When it debuts, it will be the first super boomerang coaster in North America and only second worldwide, according to Six Flags Great Adventure.
Like a boomerang, it will launch guests both forward and backward for two unique ride experiences.
'Can't wait to experience the Zero-G roll inversion on this coaster,' Moore said.
Opening: Spring
Location: Jackson, New Jersey
Top speed: 59 miles per hour
Track length: 1,430 feet
Ride's height: 172 feet
Minimum height to ride: 48 inches
Georgia Gold Rusher was also supposed to open last year as the Georgia Surfer at Six Flags Over Georgia.
A regional spokesperson for Six Flags Entertainment Corporation told USA TODAY they didn't want to rush construction and pivoted to the new name as part of the company's renewed investment in theming. When Six Flags merged with Cedar Fair last summer, the company said it would focus on investing and innovating in its parks.
The new coaster features a 'first of its kind free-spinning gondola riding experience," according to Six Flags Over Georgia's website.
Opening: 2025
Location: Austell, Georgia
Top speed: 60 miles per hour
Track length: 590 feet
Ride's height: 144 feet
Minimum height to ride: 52 inches
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roller coaster fans are ready to ride these new record breakers