2010: http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=577911
2008: http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=512244

For this 2012 edition, we have one of the more exciting years in a while for new rides.

Verbolten - Busch Gardens - Williamsburg, Virginia






This is the replacement for Big Bad Wolf. It will have multiple launches, at least one section where the track drops, and follows the same basic footprint of Big Bad Wolf including the drop over the river. It is themed to an out of control car ride into the Black Forest.


Wild Eagle - Dollywood - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee





Next year is the debut of the first "Wing Rider" coaster in the United States. Seats are attached to the side of the car so that there is nothing above or below the rider. There are three of these rides being built next year, and Dollywood is building one on the mountainside in the woods.

ANIMATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9aOWcSsK8U


X-Flight - Six Flags Great America - Chicago, Illinois





Six Flags near Chicago is building the other U.S. Wing Rider.

ANIMATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gjh0_YwX0g


Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland - Toronto, Ontario





Canada's Wonderland's announcement of Leviathan is a bit bizarre in that just in just 2008 they built a 230 foot tall B&M hyper coaster. Now, 4 years later, they are building a 306 foot tall B&M giga coaster (the first ever by the manufacturer). It will be the 5th tallest continuous circuit coaster in the world.

ANIMATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx0BZKwTZMc


Skyrush - Hersheypark - Hershey, Pennsylvania





Hersheypark is building its biggest coaster ever. Skyrush will be a 200 foot tall, 3,600 foot long Intamin hyper coaster, featuring new trains where some of the seats hang over the edge of the track.

ANIMATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufRbnqifrqE


Manta - Sea World - San Diego, California




Sea World in San Diego is building a launched family coaster.


Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom - Lake Buena Vista, Florida




As part of a major Fantasyland expansion, the Magic Kingdom is building a family mine train coaster that will feature cars that can tilt freely in turns.

ANIMATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvLExG8CAQE


Flying Turns - Knoebels - Elysburg, Pennsylvania



Included mainly as a joke at this point. They've been trying to make it work for six years. Maybe next year...



Across the pond...

Mythos - Europapark - Rust, Germany







There is a very sad lack of new wooden coasters going in next year, but Europapark, quite possibly the best park in the world, is construction an incredible looking new wooden coaster by Great Coasters International. It will be 114 feet tall and 3,444 feet long.


Shambhala - Port Aventura - Salou, Catalonia



Spain's Port Aventura is building a 249 foot tall B&M hyper coaster.


Swarm - Thorpe Park, Chertsey, England




Thorpe Park is building the third new Wing Rider of 2012.


Unknown (11 Inversion Coaster) - Jinling Happy World - Lu'an, China

A park in China is breaking the world inversion record with the first 11 looping coaster.



[Edited on November 12, 2011 at 1:48 PM. Reason : .]

11/12/2011 1:47:49 PM

11/12/2011 1:52:58 PM

Added to my topics

11/12/2011 2:06:33 PM

love this thread.

11/12/2011 2:21:56 PM

Xflight looks cool

11/12/2011 2:26:06 PM

Not coasters, but local, Carowinds and Kings Dominion are both adding 301 foot tall WindSeekers, which is basically the classic Wave Swinger on a big pole.

11/12/2011 3:13:15 PM

That pass-through on X-Flight looks pretty nuts.

Can't they just write up some death waivers for Flying Turns and have at it?

11/12/2011 3:49:52 PM

That new Busch Gardens ride is a little disappointing. It seems similar to the Italian Job ride they have at Kings Dominion, which isn't that great. I guess this one might be aimed at younger riders kind of like BBW was.

11/12/2011 3:55:30 PM

You could be right, but it is going to be significantly longer, taller and faster than the Italian Job one.

Verbolten:
2,835 feet long
88 foot highest drop
53 MPH max speed

Back Lot Stunt Coaster:
1,960 feet long
31 foot highest drop
40 MPH max speed

11/12/2011 4:10:02 PM

I would probably get frightened on WindSeeker

I'll ride pretty much anything but for whatever reason the swinging chairs make me uneasy

11/12/2011 4:14:40 PM

I'm disappointed in Verbolten only because of the ride that had to be demolished to make way for it to be built. It's on my list this summer though.

I am glad B&M is branching out, but they are such an unimaginative company. The wing riders are pretty cool, but it's not like Arrow didn't come up with something similar over a decade ago. And I'm happy they're finally going to be building a giga, but it just makes no sense for CW (I know that's not B&M's fault, but it's weird). What they do, the do well though so I'm sure they'll all be fun as hell.

It's also surprising that Cedar Fair is putting in more Windseekers after all the troubles they were having with them last year. And seriously, a clone of the same ride with the same name in all your parks? What are you now, Six Flags? I rode one of them last year, and it was alright I guess, but I was hoping Carowinds would do something else with that land in front of Intimidator.

And Europa Park looks so fucking awesome. A couple years ago, I made it a life goal to get there. Some day maybe.

[Edited on November 13, 2011 at 9:48 AM. Reason : flying turns gets finished this year, I'm calling it ]

11/13/2011 9:47:08 AM

^^ single point of failure? That bugs me out too.

11/13/2011 11:23:01 AM

Swarm's theming looks pretty badass.

12/2/2011 12:57:27 PM

will Raleigh/Durham ever grow enough to have its own theme park? Or does the proximity to Carowinds and Kings Dominion always stop this from happening no matter what the population growth is in the area?

12/2/2011 4:34:30 PM

A couple years ago I started thinking about that after reading some comments on a post on gogoraleigh.com. Here is what I wrote:

Quote :

"So, this thread got me thinking. I looked at the top 50 metro areas in the country by population to see which ones had a significant amusement park within a 1.5 hour drive (using Google Maps). "Significant amsuement park" is subjective, but essentially my requirement was that it needed to have at least one roller coaster that was more than a cookie cutter children's coaster. 45 of the top 50 metro areas have an amusement park within around an hour and a half. The ones that do not are: -DETROIT: closest park is Michigan's Adventure (3 hours) -NASHVILLE: closest park is Dollywood (3.5 hours), but Nashville did have Opryland, a major park which closed in 1997 -JACKSONVILLE: closest parks are the millions in Orlando (2.25 hours) -MEMPHIS: closest park is Magic Springs, but Memphis had Libertyland which closed in 2005 -RALEIGH: closest parks are Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and Busch Gardens, all around 3 hours away "

I definitely think there is a gap that could be filled. There is certainly an opportunity for a smaller family owned park to succeed IMO.

12/2/2011 4:37:54 PM

Greensboro has Emerald Pointe (never been there, dont know the landscape around it) .. since busch gardens and wet n wild are close to one another, maybe Greensboro has some space

12/2/2011 5:16:09 PM

Big news from Universal: They confirmed today that they are building the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood to open in 2015.

But, even bigger perhaps, this rumor (which I understand to be quite accurate):

Quote :

"In case you missed the late breaking announcement on Friday afternoon, but Universal Orlando announced that the Jaws attraction and the entire Amity themed area around it will be closing down forever after January 2nd to make way for a new attraction. While they were not ready to disclose what is in the works yet… I’ve done a good bit of digging since then and have come up with an amazing proposal that is going to both shock and likely amaze you at the same time. If my various sources are correct, the Amity / Jaws area will be replaced by the proposed Phase 2 expansion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Now, before you flip out… lets go over it all, because for starters this really isn’t going to be the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at all. Instead, from what I’ve been able to gather, the new land to be build in Universal Studios Florida will actually represent the “London” side of the PotterVerse… including an entrance to the infamous Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley, as seen in the movies, is home to infamous locations such as The Leaky Cauldron, Gringott’s Wizarding Bank and the true Ollivanders wand shop location, as seen in the films. The London location is also said to be home to King’s Cross station, where students would board the Hogwarts Express train from Platform 9 ¾. Many of these locations have been mentioned in the rumored development plans for Phase 2 of the Wizarding World for months now, including an innovative indoor dark coaster ride said to take place inside Gringott’s Wizarding Bank. It’s no secret that the Wizarding World has been popular…so much so that it needed to be expanded to spread out the crowds, and come up with a way to provide new locations for guests to buy Butterbeer, Ollivanders wands and more. But it seems that Universal Creative really decided to try a new idea… and think really outside the box this time. Literally… because this new expansion is going to allow for guests in both parks to get a taste of the PotterVerse… but to get the ENTIRE experience, you’d going to have to have a 2-park ticket. Speaking of having access to both parks… connecting the dots is said to be a true recreation of the Hogwarts Express, allowing guests with two park passes (and Universal Resort guests) to recreate the true journey from the Muggle world of London and actually board travel to the train station and board the train for a trip over to Hogwarts and the rest of the Wizarding World at Islands of Adventure. Now if all that wasn’t enough, I’ve heard some rumors about another possible new attraction likely to go into this Phase 2 project, that may attempt to take advantage of the new 3D projection tunnel technology Universal created for King Kong 3D 360 at the Hollywood park earlier this year. I don’t know if this may be put to use during your train ride on the Hogwarts Express, or if this will be an entirely separate ride experience. (One source suggested it could be a trip on the 3-decker Knight Bus, but I’ve heard that this isn’t likely to happen). Either way this is huge… and apparently it all has a rather aggressive construction timeline as Universal is said to be shooting to have it all up and running by 2014. I’ve also heard that an official announcement or teaser could be released very soon, so stay tuned!"

12/6/2011 1:43:36 PM

Super pumped if it turns out to be like the rumors. Is the hogwarts express at IOA functional or just a show piece?

12/7/2011 2:23:59 PM

Verbolten coming along nicely. I added some pics of the same area with/without Big Bad Wolf for reference.





[Edited on January 4, 2012 at 6:55 PM. Reason : asdl]

1/4/2012 6:54:09 PM

Good to see them paying tribute to the Charlotte Hornets with the track colors.

1/5/2012 2:26:44 AM

Making my first park trip of the season on Sunday. I'll be going to Busch Gardens. I think it's going to be a pretty busy summer after a couple relatively slow ones. I'm making a SoCal trip in July. Hoping to get to Disneyland, Knotts, Magic Mountain, and SeaWorld. Also planning on going to Cedar Point for Gate Keeper, King's Dominion, Carowinds, Kennywood, Dollywood, and ideally Silver Dollar City to check out Outlaw Run. It looks pretty fucking badass:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ015rF7WRU

4/24/2013 9:02:23 AM

Do fucking want.

Also, IRON RATTLER:

4/24/2013 10:29:15 AM

^That is going to be unbelievably awesome. It's going to be the centerpiece of a Texas trip for me sometime in the next year or so.

Rocky Mountain Construction is kicking so much ass right now.

[Edited on April 24, 2013 at 10:38 AM. Reason : ]

4/24/2013 10:35:16 AM

[Edited on April 24, 2013 at 1:07 PM. Reason : .]

4/24/2013 1:06:29 PM

Transformers 3D opens up at Universal Studios Orlando in July. So can't wait, picked up my season pass just a few weeks ago when i was last there, for summer trips & halloween horror nights.

4/24/2013 1:15:47 PM

I probably rode the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit 15 times when I went to Universal in December. such a fun roller coaster. the secret song codes you can get from wikipedia don't hurt either.

4/24/2013 1:16:03 PM

Quote :

"-DETROIT: closest park is Michigan's Adventure (3 hours)"

Sandusky, OH has to be closer than 3 hours..

4/24/2013 1:20:22 PM

^Good point. Kind of dumb that I missed that since I actually worked at Cedar Point for a summer. So that makes the list even shorter.

^^When I rode that I used the secret codes to play Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog. It was pretty hilarious.

4/24/2013 1:56:10 PM

Rode Wild Eagle at Dollywood Monday (in addition to all the other coasters at the park.) Probably the smoothest coaster I have ever been on, and the added enhancement of being on the side of the rail instead of riding on top of the rail made the experience that much better. If all wing riders are like this, they will be showing up everywhere. The twists are more intense than traditional steel coasters, especially if you sit on on the ends. Great ride, except for the old man that got sick and puked "towards" the trash can at the picture view!

4/24/2013 2:49:29 PM

The best thing about the wing riders are the restraints. So comfortable with so much more freedom. So far I have only been on Swarm at Thorpe Park, but I was really surprised at how much I liked it.



Probably gonna ride Gatekeeper next month, which should be even better.

4/24/2013 2:51:30 PM

Quote :

"Transformers 3D opens up at Universal Studios Orlando in July. So can't wait, picked up my season pass just a few weeks ago when i was last there, for summer trips & halloween horror nights."

Hope you're saving up if you plan on renewing next year. No doubt there will be a decent price increase once the second phase of Harry Potter opens.

4/24/2013 2:56:34 PM

The restraint system IS great. Good fit, and not binding like an over-the-shoulder bar system that locks in place. Can't wait to try a few more wing riders!

4/24/2013 3:00:51 PM

Amaaaazzziiiiinnggg

5/21/2013 10:44:18 AM

So Gatekeeper kinda sucks

5/28/2013 12:10:24 AM

What didn't you like about it?

5/28/2013 1:05:22 AM

It's extremely slow and forceless going through the elements. I think the wing riders in general are not as powerful as the other styles, but The Swarm was much better than Gatekeeper despite being much smaller. The other problem is that the coolest looking part of the ride, the keyhole element, was pretty disappointing. The person I was with had been on X-Flight at Great America and he much preferred that ride. Haven't talked to anyone yet who can compare it with Wild Eagle.

5/28/2013 10:30:27 AM

I read similar reviews elsewhere. Said the keyholes don't give a proper head chop effect and the inline roll doesn't have a lot of punch since it seems like they dragged it out to keep symmetry with the new towers. I'll wait to ride it myself, but even if the only good aspect of the ride is how nice it looks, then it's already doing a hell of a lot better than what was there before.

5/28/2013 12:18:08 PM

The front of the park does look really nice, though, however, the ride area is kind of generic. I kept thinking that it could easily be Dorney Park, Valleyfair, Carowinds, or whatever. Nothing about it really says Cedar Point.

5/28/2013 12:59:19 PM

Hoooooo leeee fuck. Guess I'm visiting Chicago next summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOt908jElEs&feature=youtu.be

8/29/2013 2:06:14 PM

No no we must make a 2013 thread! I'm working on it

8/29/2013 2:18:35 PM

Might as well make it a 2014 thread since this season is almost over. It actually looks like Flying Turns is going to open too haha

8/29/2013 2:29:44 PM

Oh yeah that's what I meant

8/29/2013 2:31:02 PM

Oh we back http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=638677

8/30/2013 9:49:06 AM