Traveling the Globe for the Best Coasters and Theme Parks
The internet has burst in the last week with what could be the biggest theme park news to hit the UK in decades. Enthusiasts all across the world are brainstorming ideas for what could be Universal’s most anticipated project yet. Let’s go over what we know and what we’d like to see in the park.
Continue reading “Universal UK Project – All we know!”
This week Hersheypark unveiled the park’s newest coaster, Wildcat’s Revenge. This Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) steel reimaging of the first Great Coasters International (GCI) woodie, Wildcat, has been rumored and anticipated for years. Does this hybrid coaster live up to expectations?
Continue reading “Wildcat’s Revenge Review”
As a child, I frequented Warner Bros. Movie World Germany, now known as Movie Park Germany, and it left a lasting impression on me. Six years after the opening of the German park, Six Flags and Warner Bros. continued their partnership with the opening of a new park in Madrid. This park has since been on my radar, also due to the fact that it’s home to a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang.
Continue reading “Why we love Parque Warner Madrid so much.”
Fantasiana is one of Austria’s leading theme parks including a whole variety of dark rides, a stunningly themed log flume and 2 family rollercoasters. The park is Austria’s second most well known theme park and is located only 30 minutes away from Salzburg- which makes it perfect to combine with a city break in one of Austria’s most famous and historical cities. Thanks very much to Fantasiana for letting us visit and let’s have a virtual explore through this park together!
Continue reading “Fantasiana- A World of Magic Awaits”
If you’ve been keeping up to date with us lately, you’ll know that we’ve been taking you on a tour of the major theme parks in Denmark and all of their latest developments. Not only has Denmark had the blessing of an epic development like a brand new Vekoma, called Fønix, just on the other coastline you can find a brand new development, called Dinosaurland, which has recently opened up its doors to the public. We checked out Dinosaurland on the opening weekend at Djurs Sommerland. We were also very lucky to have an exclusive meeting with the park’s CEO! So expect all the interesting updates in this article!
Continue reading “Roaring into a new world of Dinosaurs at Djurs Sommerland”
Tivoli Gardens is one of those parks which changes upon the seasons. The park can look completely different depending on whether you visit in spring, summer, autumn or winter. Tivoli has recently reopened for the 2022 season and the park couldn’t look more decked out for spring. There are beautiful flower beds all over the park and the cherry blossom is looking more vibrant than ever before. Fountains dance on the lakes and the crowds are out in full in the spring sunshine. Today we will take a look at the latest additions to the park and everything that caught my eye during my day at Tivoli.
After 2 years of cancellations due to the pandemic, the spring funfair and festival in Cologne has come back and the event couldn’t be more popular with the public. Not only is it a perfect location for meeting friends and getting together for a drink, it’s also filled with food stalls, game stalls- and most importantly for us- rides and attractions! There’s even a brand new ride which is making its world premiere as well as a rollercoaster! So join me as I take you through the details of the exciting event this year and if you’re feeling extra adventurous- why not visit yourself? You’ve got until 1st May!
There are many top places to visit in the UK with beautiful beaches and fantastic funfairs and plenty of doughnuts! Many of these places have a variety of rollercoasters, flat rides, dark rides and amongst these are hidden gems! Here we talk about my first ever trip to Skegness in the UK and take a look at what Fantasy Island has to offer.
Continue reading “Fantasy Island Park Report – Skegness, UK.”
2022 is so far proving to be a pretty strong year across Europe, with some major new hardware opening up in the coming months. Above all, Denmark is opening up a major new Vekoma coaster as well as a Mack family coaster, both of which we will we be heading to check out next month. Furthermore, UK has got plans for two major rollercoasters coming at Thorpe Park and Chessington over the coming years. However, for this year, a brand new family rollercoaster, called The Farmyard Flyer, will be opening on the 1st April at Paultons Park.
Continue reading “Flying into 2022 with the Farmyard Flyer”
This past summer Alex, Sean, and Sven recorded an episode of Coaster Kings Radio discussing attractions they consider the weakest link at many major theme parks. Inspired by this episode we’ve decided to expand the concept to more parks starting with the Cedar Fair chain. Do note that we’ve decided to exclude kiddie coasters/rides while they might not be the best attractions, they do serve an important role at most parks.
Continue reading “Weakest Links of The Cedar Fair Chain”
After a shorter day at Worlds of Fun, Pete and I had come to our final day and park of the Missouri Triangle. Six Flags St. Louis opened in 1971 as the third and final Six Flags park developed under the vision of Angus Wynne – before expansion switched from new park development to acquisition. It is apparent that the concept had been streamlined by the third try. While the six flag-themed areas remained, far less emphasis was placed on nation specific theming. By the 70s it was obvious rides are why people went to Six Flags and the park opened with multiple of what made the Six Flags concept work: two Arrow log flumes, two Arrow mine trains, and two Arrow car rides. While the park has undergone some dramatic changes through the years, it benefits from this simplified formula, and, despite the changes, the park feels cohesive. What was it about this “lower-tier” Six Flags park that made it a highlight of our trip?
Continue reading “The Missouri Triangle: Part 3 – Six Flags St. Louis”
In part one of this series my friend Pete and I started our Missouri trip with an amazing Thursday at Silver Dollar City. Friday’s park was one of Cedar Fair’s mid-tier parks, Worlds of Fun. Worlds of Fun opened in 1973 at the height of the regional park boom. Despite some dramatic changes since the park’s 1995 sale to Cedar Fair, Worlds of Fun still very much feels like a product of the 70s. Loosely themed to Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, the park is divided into various international regions such as Europa, Africa, and the Orient. These areas are more distinguished than I expected and are united by a streamlined 70s aesthetic. For coaster enthusiasts World of Fun features some impressive coasters including the tallest full-circuit coaster in the state, Mamba and the well regarded GCI woodie, Prowler. The biggest question for the two of us was how did this Cedar Fair property compare to it’s Ohio siblings.
Continue reading “The Missouri Triangle: Part 2 – Worlds of Fun”
For us enthusiasts living in areas affected by seasons the spring is always an exciting time to look forward to. This year I launched the coaster season with a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania to check out some of the worlds best coasters. Accompanied by my patient boyfriend Andrew and our friend Pete we embarked on a two day, one night trip from Columbus, Ohio to Knoebels in Elysburg, Pennsylvania and Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Make sure to check out part 1 of my trip report which looked at Knoebels.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Weekend: Part 2 Hersheypark”
For us enthusiasts living in areas affected by seasons, the spring is always an exciting time to look forward to. This year I launched the coaster season with a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania to check out some of the world’s best coasters. Accompanied by my patient boyfriend Andrew and our friend Pete, we embarked on a two day, one night trip from Columbus, Ohio to Knoebels in Elysburg, Pennsylvania and Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Weekend: Part 1 – Knoebels”
In this series of articles the Coaster Kings teams look to share some advice that will help our readers plan their travel. This week Ian outlines the steps to prepare for a trip to a theme park in the United States. This article is specifically geared towards American theme parks in general. Look for articles on the Disney and Universal resorts in the future!
Continue reading “How To – U.S.A. Parks”
In Part 9 of this series I briefly mentioned Six Flags ambitious expansion throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. A growing American economy made the expansion of the theme park market seem unstoppable. A series of park acquisitions and the acquisition of Six Flags by Premier Parks that was finalized in 1998 expanded the company’s portfolio to include European parks, movie themed parks, and animal parks. At the park level Six Flags unveiled park expansions and additions at a dizzying rate. From the years 1997-2003 Six Flags Magic Mountain received a brand new coaster every year. It is worth noting that with the exception of 1999 each one of these additions was a major, and in many cases record breaking coaster: 1997 saw the addition of the record breaking 400 ft tall Superman: The Escape. 1998’s Riddler’s Revenge remains the largest Stand-Up coaster in the world. 2000’s Goliath opened as the world’s tallest continuous circuit coaster. 2002’s X introduced the world to the 4th dimension coaster. And 2003’s B&M floorless Scream was built to be a reliable addition after X‘s problems. X was originally set to open in 2001 but was delayed significantly. Six Flags chose to open another major thrill machine from Vekoma. Unfortunately, this coaster would have its own set of problems. In August of 2001 Six Flags and Vekoma unveiled the world’s first “Giant Inverted Boomerang”, Deja Vu.
Continue reading “Lost Coasters of California – Part 10: Déjà Vu”
Paramount Park’s 13 year foray into the theme park business resulted in a significant number of successes and industry oddities. The application of Paramount theming in existing regional parks gave us two significant B&M Top Gun inverts and the world’s first major linear induction motor launch coaster, Flight of Fear. However their tendency to experiment and take additions in different directions also resulted in a string of failures and disappointments. Kings Dominion opened the late Volcano, The Blast Coaster in 1998, a prototype Intamin inverted catapult coaster that never seemed to run reliably throughout its 20 years at the park, and the ill-fated prototype air launch coaster Hypersonic XLC in 2001. Carowinds opened a Setpoint suspended water coaster in 2000 called Flying Super Saturator which lasted less than 10 years. Canada’s Wonderland still has an odd collection of mid-size coasters for the world’s most popular regional park including 1995’s SLC Top Gun and 2004’s Zamperla flyer Tomb Raider, The Ride. The chain’s flagship, Kings Island, received one of the most notorious failures of them all, 2000’s wooden hyper coaster, Son of Beast. That same year the chain would add a unique prototype to Great America, the world’s first major flying coaster, Stealth.
Continue reading “Lost Coasters of California – Part 9: Stealth”
Last week we focused on Windjammer Surf Racers and how it was a product of Knott’s Berry Farm’s attempt to navigate the space between the family and thrill market. It faced the problem of Magic Mountain dominating the thrill market with major coaster additions, many of which we’ve discussed here, and Disneyland’s hyper detailed themed experiences. Northern California in the late 90s had a far less competitive theme park market. After the construction and runaway success of Tidal Wave in 1977 Marriott’s Great America, eventually Great America in 1985 and then Paramount’s Great America in 1993, had remained consistent with coaster trends. In 1986 they opened the wooden Grizzly, 1991 saw the addition of the B&M standup Vortex, and 1993 saw the addition of the still-beloved B&M invert Top Gun. These consistent additions, despite changes in ownership, resulted in a solid coaster collection any regional park could be proud of.
Continue reading “Lost Coasters of California – Part 8: Invertigo”
Today’s roller coaster landscape is becoming increasingly international. With the rise of streaming video, social media, and even Google Translate the coaster enthusiast community and industry is more connected than it’s ever been. With the recent rise of Chinese theme parks and Chinese ride manufacturers it’s easy to forget a time when Japan seemed second only to the United States as a thrill ride destination. The undisputed king of the Japanese coaster manufacturers was “Toyo Goraku Ki Kabushiki Kaisha” or TOGO. TOGO opened their first roller coaster in 1953 at Hanayashiki park in Tokyo and soon began building rides all over Japan. In 1983 their stand-up coaster model was opening at Kings Island as King Cobra, bringing TOGO to North America. Over the next two decades TOGO would try to capitalize on this success and expand into the American and European market. They eventually opened a subsidiary named TOGO International headquartered in Middletown, Ohio. While there was some success an ill-fated 1997 project at Knott’s Berry Farm would mark the end of TOGO’s presence as a leader in the coaster world.
Continue reading “Lost Coasters of California – Part 7: Windjammer”
In Part 4 we looked at the construction and eventual transformation of California’s tallest wooden coaster, Colossus. Today’s lost coaster resided at the same park. This story includes a natural disaster, a young Swiss ride manufacturer, and the unfortunate death of a coaster design icon.
Continue reading “Lost Coasters of California – Part 5: Psyclone”