Tuesday, November 4, 2014

THEME PARKS: 2014 In Review


One of my favorite things in my life are amusement/theme parks. The 2014 season in the world of theme parks has been one of the most exciting in the industry's history. This post I will review the major attractions that opened and closed forever as well as my theme park experiences this year.

New Attractions/Events (Not a full list, but major highlights):



  • Busch Gardens Tampa: Falcon's Fury, the tallest free-standing drop tower and the first to tilt riders before dropping.
  • Canada's Wonderland: Wonder Mountain's Guardian
  • Kentucky Kingdom: Park reopening after a 4-year closure
  • Kings Dominion: 40th Anniversary Celebration (continues into 2015)
  • Kings Island: Banshee, the longest and fastest inverted roller coaster (1st USA invert since Worlds of Fun's Patriot) and renaming/repainting from Top Gun to The Bat suspended roller coaster
  • Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
  • Six Flags America: Rajun Cajun, relocated from Six Flags Great America at Gurnee, IL; same for Apocalypse (Iron Wolf from 2012)
  • Six Flags Great Adventure: Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom, with 415, its the tallest drop tower located on the tower of Kingda Ka, the tallest and one of the fastest coasters on earth.
  • Six Flags Great America: Goliath, a newly built inverted wooden coaster, with a few Guinness World Records on hand:
    • World tallest drop, fastest & steepest wooden coaster on earth
  • Universal Orlando Resort: Harry Potter's Diagon Alley, an expansion of the Wizarding World
  • Universal Studios Japan: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Closures (Same note as above):
  • Canada's Wonderland: SkyRider, a rare stand-up roller coaster, recently sold to a park in Sicily, Italy.
  • Cedar Point: Mantis, another rare stand-up coaster closed in October 2014, to be rethemed/repainted/redesigned to be a sit-down, floorless coaster named Rougarou
  • Epcot: Malestrom boat ride in the Norway section closed to be replaced with a "Frozen" movie-themed attraction
  • Disney's Hollywood Studios: Studio Backlot Tour, American Idol Experience, Sorcerer's Hat removal in early 2015. (Park may be rethemed/renamed in the future)
  • Six Flags Magic Mountain: Colossus, original wooden roller coaster to be retracked to Twisted Colossus, similar to Goliath Six Flags Great America (part of the ride caught on fire during reconstruction on my 23rd bday, September 8th, 2014; however no major damage)
  • Six Flags New England: Cyclone, similar wooden coaster also getting retracked and rethemed, similar to the previous note.
My personal visits:
Even though I live near Busch Gardens Williamsburg, I have actually been to Kings Dominion four times and twice for Busch Gardens. The dates are as follows:


Busch Gardens:
  • July 8th, 2014 (commuted by HRT and Williamsburg Transit buses, on top of recently added bus services from my home, which made it possible to return home by bus at night)
  • October 26th, 2014 (final day of regular operations/Howl-O-Scream). This is my recorded video of a ride of Griffon (from a observation area of course)
Kings Dominion:
  • April 12th, 2014
  • May 11th, 2014 (Mother's Day)
  • July 18th, 2014 (the day after my father died from cancer and would've been his 71st bday. My visit was in his honor)
  • August 16th, 2014

Coming in 2015:
  • Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Tempesto, a clone to Superman: Ultimate Flight at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. As of November 2014, the park STILL HAS NOT ANNOUNCED THE COASTER but site clearing is happening under the lift hill of Apollo's Chariot and coaster tracks were located at the employee parking lot as i saw when I rode Griffon (the famous 5-second tilt before the drop). The coaster has already received bad reviews because Busch Gardens never does clone coasters, capacity is rumored to be very low (smaller than Grover at the Sesame Street section of the park) and coaster size is too small for the park. IMO, the coaster would've been great at Kings Dominion or Six Flags America, but not Busch Gardens Williamsburg. 
  • Carowinds: Fury 325, the tallest giga-coaster, longest and fastest coaster (not launched) in North America. I WILL MAKE A VISIT TO CAROWINDS IN 2015 WITH MY PLATINUM PASS
  • Holiday World: Thunderhawk will be the first Launched wing flyer coaster at the Indiana theme park.
  • Six Flags: a video showing new attractions at all of their properties


WORKS CITED:
inparkmagazine.com