Looking Ahead to 2014: Six Flags

As the 2013 theme park season draws to a close, (unless you live in Central Florida or Southern California) it is time to look ahead to what next year holds for some of our favorite theme parks around the country.

We’ll start with the Six Flags Corporation, which owns 13 theme parks and 5 separate water parks in the North America.

Six Flags is bringing something new to all 13 of their theme parks and one of their Water Parks this off-season.

Six Flags Great America, near Chicago, IL, is introducing Goliath, which the park is touting as a “triple-record-breaking” wooden roller coaster. The coaster will feature an 85º degree first drop of 180 feet, reaching speeds upwards of 72 miles per hour. It will also feature two inversions, an inverted drop, and inverted zero G stall. It will open in the County Fair section of the park.

Six Flags Mexico, located in the Mexico’s Capital City will be unveiling the first “hybrid” (steel track on a wood frame) roller coaster in the country when Medusa Steel Coaster “reopens” next spring. After it’s conversion from a wooden coaster to a hybrid, Medusa will stand just under 100 feet high at it’s apex, and will take riders through “3,000 feet of non-stop action.” The ride originally opened on June 2, 2000.

Six Flags Over Georgia has demolished the old Southern Star Amphitheater to make way for the largest expansion in the park’s history. Hurricane Harbor Water Park will be the 7th “in-park” water park in the Six Flags Chain. The water park’s main attraction will be Hurricane Bay, a 38,000 square foot wave pool that produces waves up to four feet high. The water park will also feature several water slides and a Children’s Play area. It is expected to complement White Water, a Six Flags-owned water park about fifteen minutes from Six Flags Over Georgia.

Six Flags America, near Washington D.C., is also expanding. The park is adding a new “Mardi Gras” themed area for 2014, featuring the sights and sounds of New Orleans.  Inside this new area will be Ragin’ Cajun, the park’s ninth roller coaster, as well as a flying ride named French Quarter Flyers. Ragin’ Cajun is a spinning “Wild Mouse” style roller coaster manufactured by Zamperla, while French Quarter Flyers is a “Flying Scooter” ride manufactured by Larson International.

Six Flags New England is also breaking records this offseason. When it opens next summer, The New England SkyScreamer will be the tallest swinging ride in the world. Standing over 400 feet tall, The New England SkyScreamer will take 24 riders at a time up in the air for “beautiful panoramic views of the entire park and surrounding areas, including the Connecticut River and New England horizon.”

Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom are adding similar interactive water rides for 2014, both named Tsunami Soaker. Tsunami Soaker features nine six-passenger boats that spin and rotate like a “teacups” style ride. The catch is, each seat is armed with a water gun, giving riders the capability to soak other riders or even innocent bystanders. Six Flags assures that “This drenching water attraction will be a great way to cool off on a hot day and enjoy a fun family adventure.”

Six Flags Fiesta Texas, outside of San Antonio is expanding its water slide repertoire in it’s water park, White Water Bay. Bahama Blaster will feature four “trap-door” style enclosed water-slides that free fall over six stories. The programming of the trap doors may vary, so that riders may all free-fall at the same time, or at different intervals, to increase the anticipation.

Six Flags Great Adventure will introduce the Six Flags corporation’s third record-breaking attraction of the offseason with the opening of Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom. This drop ride will have three towers, and will be built under the crest of Kingda Ka, the tallest roller coaster in the world. Zumanjaro will drop riders 415 feet at speeds of over 90 miles per hour, breaking Six Flags’ own “tallest drop tower” record, held by Lex Luthor: Drop Of Doom at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

While not building another record-breaking coaster, Six Flags Magic Mountain will add a new show in the Carrot Club Theater and a small family roller coaster to the Bugs Bunny World kid’s section of the park. This will bring it’s total number of roller coasters in the park to 19, and roller coasters in Bugs Bunny World to four.  (Yes, both of those are records.) Also, for a limited time in 2014, Six Flags Magic Mountain will be running the Bolliger & Mabillard inverted Batman: The Ride and the classic Collossus backwards.

Next door to Six Flags Magic Mountain is Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, which will be unveiling the Bonzai Pipeline slides during the 2014 season. Hurricane Harbor will also bring “Dive-In” Movies to their Forgotten Sea Wave Pool.

Great Escape, located north of Albany, NY will open Extreme Supernova in Spring 2014. Similar to MaxAir at Cedar Point, Extreme Supernova is a pendulum-style ride that both swings and spins riders simultaneously. Riders will be taken up to 50 feet in the air, and Six Flags says “you won’t be able to tell which way is up.”

Six Flags’ first park,  Six Flags Over Texas, is expanding its kids area in 2014. While there are not many details yet, Six Flags says “The kid-friendly section will be the perfect place for thrill-seekers-in-training with tons of new features, including an interactive play area and brand new kids’ rides. The pint-sized rides in the area offer gentle thrills with miniature drops, easygoing turns, and mild speeds so the little ones can work up to the bigger thrills.”

Last but not least, La Ronde, Six Flags’ lone Canadian property, will open Demon in 2014. Demon is a gravitron-style ride with two independently-moving arms, that can rotate, pivot, swing and move randomly, resulting in a very unpredictable ride. The ride will also feature 16 water jets that spray up from the ride’s platform, randomly spraying riders. 

With so many to choose from, which Six Flags attraction are you most anticipating in 2014? Comment below and let us know!

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