Latest news with #AmericanCoasterEnthusiasts
CBS News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Kennywood's Steel Curtain welcomes coaster enthusiasts for early rides ahead of reopening
Out of commission for a year, Kennywood says the Steel Curtain will be ready to return to action just in time for Memorial Day weekend. A group of coaster enthusiasts got some preview rides on Thursday as the first of the Steel Curtain's cars climbed the track, launching riders at speeds faster than Fast Willie Parker. "Yeah, it was pretty fast. It was pretty scary," said coaster enthusiast Tim Buck. Out of the Kennywood coaster lineup for a year, the park says the downtime was to make the Steel Curtain stronger and more rider-friendly. Despite that, officials already say it's got a Hall of Fame resume. Lynsey Winters with Kennywood Park listed all the records the coaster holds: "Highest inversion in Pennsylvania, highest inversion in North America, tallest roller coaster in Pennsylvania, and the most inversions in North America." "Of all the steel coasters I've ridden all over the world, I can honestly say, there is none, anything like this one," said Bill Linkenheimer of the American Coaster Enthusiasts of Western Pennsylvania. And Linkenheimer would know what makes a good coaster. "I have ridden almost 1,100 roller coasters around the world at this point," he said. Linkenheimer sounds like a QB calling out a play when it comes to the Steel Curtain's stats. "To have 4,000 feet of track, nine inversions, 220 feet tall — all in this small compact footprint where the track is literally on top of itself, is unique," Linkenheimer said. Tim Buck came in from Muncy, Pennsylvania, to take a few rides. He's got 200 coasters on his ride resume. "My favorite part was the dive loop at the beginning, down to the drop," Buck said. Come this weekend, it will be ready, set, here we go for the general public. The coaster will officially reopen to riders at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 24.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Six Flags America to permanently close Maryland park
(NewsNation) — Six Flags will permanently close one of its East Coast parks in a reshaping of the company's park portfolio. The amusement park in Bowie, Maryland, will close at the end of the 2025 season, Six Flags Entertainment announced Thursday. It said the park is 'not a strategic fit with the company's long-term growth plan.' 'This was a difficult decision, and we recognize the impact it will have on our Six Flags America and Hurricane Harbor park associates and guests,' Six Flags President and CEO Richard A. Zimmerman said in a statement. 'We are grateful to our park associates who work hard to create lifelong memories for our guests, and Six Flags is committed to supporting all impacted associates through the closure process at the end of this year.' Can you make money off AI-written children's books? The property, which sits on 500 acres of land, will be sold as a redevelopment opportunity. Zimmerman said it should be redeveloped to reach its highest value and has signed commercial real estate firm CBRE to manage its sale. Season tickets and passes for 2025 will be honored through the park's final season, Six Flags said. The company did not detail the fate of the attractions but said severance will be paid to the park's 70 full-time staffers. Tim Cook: Trump tariffs may cost Apple $900M The park's final day is scheduled for Nov. 2. The park was rebranded and opened as a Six Flags location in 1999. The park is known for 'Wild One,' a wooden roller coaster that first opened in Paragon Park in Massachusetts in 1917, before it was sold to Wild World in Bowie in the 1980s, according to American Coaster Enthusiasts. It is the oldest roller coaster across all Six Flags locations. Other main attractions include 'Roar,' 'Superman: Ride of Steel,' and the region's tallest water coaster, 'RipQurl Blaster.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Is Six Flags America closing? Theme park sets deadline, marking end of an era
Six Flags America will be permanently closing its doors at the end of the 2025 season. This would mark the end of over five decades of the amusement park history on the site. Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, in their statement, said that the park will last operate on November 2, 2025. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack Pakistan reopens Attari-Wagah border to allow stranded citizens in India to return Key Jammu & Kashmir reservoirs' flushing to begin soon Air India sees Pakistan airspace ban costing it $600 mn over 12 months The company said the decision was made after a strategic review of its portfolio. It concluded that the park was no longer aligned with its long-term growth plan. Richard A Zimmerman, President and CEO of Six Flags, said that after reviewing multiple options, they believe that redeveloping the property will generate the highest value and return on investment. GIF89a����!�,D; 5 5 Next Stay Playback speed 1x Normal Back 0.25x 0.5x 1x Normal 1.5x 2x 5 5 / Skip Ads by by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now A Rich History and a Legendary Coaster The park was first opened as a wildlife preserve in 1974. It underwent a series of ownership and rebranding before getting rebranded by Six Flags in 1999. The park now has nine roller coasters, including the classic Wild One—a wooden roller coaster which originally started in 1917 at Massachusetts' Paragon Park before being transferred to Maryland in the 1980s. The Wild One is 98-feet-tall and has an 88-foot drop. This was acclaimed by the American Coaster Enthusiasts for enduring through the years and still thrilling visitors even after a century, stated a Fox News report. Live Events Also Read : Great white shark rescue: Father-son duo's heroic act, with help from locals, saves shark on Australian coast Economic and community impact Six Flags America has approximately 70 full-time employees, who will be offered severance and other compensation upon closure. Season passes and admission tickets will be honoured through the last operating season, the news reports stated. Prince George's County officials had mixed reactions to the shutdown. County Council member Krystal Oriadha referred to the closure as the 'end of an era' and said it was a destination for family entertainment, youth activity, tourism, and summer employment. However, Oriadha also cited the "incredible opportunity" to remake the 500-acre property with aggressive, environmentally friendly development that addresses the community's changing needs. County Council Chairman Edward Burroughs similarly emphasised the need to make sure that redevelopment serves the county's residents. Competitive pressures and future uncertain The recent shutdown is coming after the 2024 merger between Cedar Fair and Six Flags, which expanded the company's collection of parks and ramped up competition. It has been over 20 years since Six Flags America introduced a new roller coaster which has certainly impacted their declining popularity. Also Read : Jill Sobule's final cryptic Instagram post haunts fans after tragic house fire fatality As for the fate of Wild One and the other attractions in the park, it is still up in the air since the company has not revealed whether they will be dismantled, sold, or relocated. FAQs Q: What is Six Flags America's closing date? A: The closing date for the park is November 2, 2025. Q: What will become of Wild One and the rest of the rides? A: Plans for the park's rides after closure have not been announced by Six Flags.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
See the 13 new roller coasters thrill seekers are excited about in 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?' Watch: Kingda Ka, the world's tallest coaster, imploded 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
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
R.I.P. Kingda Ka, 2005 to 2025. Long live the king!
JACKSON, N.J. – The king is dead. Long live the king. Kingda Ka, the tallest and second-fastest roller coaster in the world, died Friday in a controlled implosion, crumbling into a pile of steel just before 7 a.m. Kingda Ka survived routine mechanical failures that precipitated months-long closures, occasional lawsuits from injured riders and even a lightning strike. But two months shy of its 20th birthday, the self-proclaimed "King of Coasters" succumbed after a brief and valiant struggle with what its owner, Six Flags Great Adventure, called 'growth and dedication to delivering exceptional new experiences.' Free sailings for gambling? What to know about cruise casino rewards programs. The roller coaster opened to great fanfare at the theme park in 2005, shooting riders up a 456-foot tall "top hat" hill at speeds of up to 128 mph – making Kingda Ka, at the time, the fastest roller coaster in the world. Since the final piece of track was laid in January 2005, Kingda Ka's top hat was the closest thing to a skyline Ocean County had to offer, with its highlighter-green track and bright orange shoulder harnesses visible for miles on a clear day. "It's one of the first things you can see when you drive in. Before you even get to the park, you can see it," American Coaster Enthusiasts regional representative Matt Kaiser said. "It brings in people from all over the world. It's iconic." To countless millions of guests at Six Flags Great Adventure, Kingda Ka offered a trade: If you were willing to wait on the longest lines in the park, sometimes upwards of two hours, Kingda Ka would give you perhaps the most thrilling 30 seconds of your life. (Unless you were one of the lucky ones to experience the rare 'rollback,' when a train couldn't make it all the way up the hill. The train would simply roll backward and launch again, giving riders a ride-and-a-half.) After strapping into the shoulder harness, riders would anxiously murmur as the Kingda Ka train left the station. First-timers often sat in the middle of the train, holding on for dear life as they realized that they'd officially missed their last opportunity to chicken out. Veteran thrill seekers knew the front row was worth the wait, so the only thing between them and blue skies a few thousand feet of coaster track and a small signpost warning to keep their 'arms down, head back, hold on.' After what seemed like an eternity (but was only about 10 seconds), the train would slowly creep back a few feet. Then, a telltale hiss would let riders know that Kingda Ka's hydraulic launch system was ready. For a second, there was nothing. And then – everything. Every face muscle would ripple from the force. Tears – not of joy or sorrow, but wind – would pool at the corner of your eyes, if you were courageous enough to keep them open. All 18 riders, from front to back, erupted into the anthem of Kingda Ka: 'AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!.' Within five seconds, the train would barrel up the top hat, spinning around until cresting over the top, a split second vista showing countless acres of Pinelands and suburban New Jersey. 'The launch felt like it was forever,' Brick resident Christine Shenkman said. 'But when the train hit full speed and headed up, my mind wondered, 'where is the top of this thing? Are we going to space?'' And then, of course, riders would look down – just in time to see the ground to come corkscrewing back at them as the train plummeted back to earth. There was one last 129-foot hill before another hiss – the hydraulic brakes – signaled that the ride was over. 'And just like that, we were back at the station and unloading – but forever changed,' Shenkman said. Kingda Ka's birth served as the climax of the decades-long roller coaster wars, as theme parks across the country battled to build the next big thing in thrill rides, breaking speed and height records and engineering gravity-defying designs to pull visitors away from the competition. The wars hit a fever pitch after the 9/11 attacks, as theme parks built coaster after coaster to attract nervous, rattled Americans back to crowded places. "That was the age of the giant rides. They were trying to go bigger, better and faster," said Dave Hahner, historian with American Coaster Enthusiasts, a nonprofit club of more than 7,000 roller coaster lovers around the world. "There were no limits to the records they would try to break, and Kingda Ka was the pinnacle of that." Six Flags Great Adventure was no exception. For a time in the mid-2000s, it was something of a roller coaster nirvana, with eight 'extreme' coasters operating at once. Story continues below. 'Overnight, Great Adventure became a worldwide destination. New Jersey was at the center of the amusement park of the world,' Glen Ridge resident John Wiley said. 'Most coaster fans would agree it was a flawed ride and, clearly, the economics weren't working. But its launch was unlike anything else. 'More than that, it represented a level of ambition in engineering and scale that few parks in this part of the world can stomach anymore. I hope whatever replaces it lives up to that legacy.' Over its 20-year run, Kingda Ka faced a myriad of mechanical issues, including routinely closing for weeks or months at a time as the hydraulic launch system that was its calling card became unreliable and increasingly expensive to maintain, Hahner said. When Six Flags and Cedar Fair merged last year, its executives likely saw Kingda Ka at the top of a list of problematic rides that were too expensive to maintain, Hahner said. "They wanted to push the envelope. They wanted a record-breaker at Great Adventure," Hahner said. "But there are a lot of technical problems, a lot of repairs and, of course, they have to make it safe. And unfortunately, there were a couple of incidents involving these types of rides." In 2023, a guest at Cedar Point theme park in Ohio filed a lawsuit against Cedar Fair after she was struck in the head by a metal bracket that fell off Top Thrill Dragster, a similarly designed roller coaster to Kingda Ka also manufactured by Liechtenstein-based Intamin. The woman suffered a traumatic brain injury, requiring $10 million in lifelong care, and the case was settled out of court last year, according to That might have been the final blow for Kingda Ka, Hahner said. The coaster was simply guilty by association. Story continues below. Kingda Ka is survived by seven siblings – including Nitro, El Toro, Medusa and Batman: The Ride – and predeceased by three more: the Great American Scream Machine, Rolling Thunder, and Batman & Robin: The Chiller. The Chiller closed in 2007 after a decade of operational issues and, in 2010, when the Great American Scream Machine was dismantled after a 21-year run. The wooden Rolling Thunder was demolished after the 2013 season, the last major coaster at the park to close until now. In November, Six Flags announced that Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro (the world's tallest drop ride, a separate attraction built right into Kingda Ka's steel structure), and the Green Lantern roller coaster (a poor replacement for the Scream Machine, in the opinion of anyone who rode both) would all be retired. Unlike Rolling Thunder and the Scream Machine, there was no advance notice. Theme park news websites and roller coaster insiders reported rumors of the closure for months, giving aficionados the chance to get one last ride on Kingda Ka. The park made no formal notice until after the season was over, but the signs were there. After sunset on Nov. 10, as the last Kingda Ka trains made the 30-second trip to the heavens and back, guests walking away from the King of Coasters for the last time could hear Anna Kendrick's 'Cups' song playing from the public address system: When I'm gone, when I'm gone, you're gonna miss me when I'm gone… 'It's hard to overstate how much this ride meant to me as a kid growing up in New Jersey,' Wiley said. 'I was 11 years old when Kingda Ka first opened, and 30 when I rode it one last time on its final day.' Three months later, on Feb. 28, a horn blared loud enough to be heard from the Adventure Crossing parking lot on Route 537. All along the highway, gawkers sat up from their lawn chairs and got out of their cars to pull out their cell phones and start recording. One onlooker had an LED sign flashing a tribute to the King of Coasters. They craned their necks to see the towering green arch of Kingda Ka reflecting the sunlight as it had for the last 7,351 days. One last time, they gulped with anticipation. For a second, there was everything. And then, with a thunderous boom — nothing. Mike Davis has spent the last decade covering New Jersey local news, marijuana legalization, transportation and a little bit of everything else. He's won a few awards, which make his parents very proud. Contact him at mdavis@ or @byMikeDavis on Twitter. This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Six Flags New Jersey: Kingda Ka implosion in Jackson Township
