Six Flags recently announced all (or at least most) of their major new attractions coming in the 2017 season, so we gathered up a few of the Coaster101 writers to discuss our thoughts on what’s coming down the pike. If you missed any of the Six Flags announcements, you can find the whole collection of articles here. Additionally, in case you missed it, we discussed the Cedar Fair announcements that came a few weeks earlier.
Overall Feelings
Eric: OK, so now we’ve gotten the Six Flags announcements out there, and that means most major US parks have revealed their big 2017 plans. What was the overall feeling on what Six Flags gave us? Our thoughts on the Cedar Fair announcements were kind of mixed, happy everyone was improving, but not really inspired or excited by anything. Similar feelings here?
Andrew: I’m somewhat “meh” about all of the Six Flags announcements for 2017. There wasn’t much announced that would make me say “I need to visit that Six Flags park next year because of [insert new ride name here.]” Like Cedar Fair, it’s great that every park announced something new, because it means the parks are constantly improving. But, “cookie cutter” off-the-shelf flat rides and small coasters just aren’t my favorite kinds of improvements.
John: I’m happy to see Six Flags investing in their parks (even some of the smaller ones), but they’ve contributed to the overall blandness of the 2017 announcements across the U.S. amusement industry. I’m excited that my home-away-from-home park of Great America is receiving a new coaster, but the fact that four other Six Flags parks will have the exact same coaster by the end of 2017 makes the addition seem a little less special. But overall, comparing the Six Flags’ slew of new-for-2017 rides to Cedar Fair’s, I’d have to give a slight edge to Six Flags’.
Flat rides (even big ones) don’t tend to bring out the masses. Kind of a “meh” year for roller coaster lovers.
Surprises
Eric: Anything that we weren’t expecting get announced? Or something we thought might happen but didn’t get revealed?
For me personally, I was a little surprised by the Discovery Kingdom (my home Six Flags) announcement, and positively. I had a hint that some more DC related stuff was coming to the corner of the park that now had both Joker and Superman, but I didn’t really expect a flat ride in the location of Wonder Woman. It’s using a nice unused section of that area (a dead end path) which was nice to hear, and helps further fill out the DC corner.
On the other side of things, Six Flags had at least one major Rocky Mountain project every year since 2013, and none this year. I sort of just assumed something somewhere would get an RMC treatment. Maybe they’re taking a break?
Andrew: I thought it was interesting that Six Flags Mexico chose to add VR to Medusa Steel Coaster. I’m surprised because 1) it’s an RMC, and their elements usually speak for themselves without needing the gimmick of VR and 2) Medusa Steel Coaster is technically the newest coaster at the park, and according to a comment we received on our post, has one of the longest lines in the park at all times. The addition of VR could add even more waiting to this attraction.
Looking at Six Flags Mexico’s coaster line-up, it seems to me that there were only 2 options for VR — Medusa and Superman el Ultimo Escape. All of the other coasters, save for Batman, are too short, and you probably don’t want to put VR on an SLC. I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have gone with Superman for the VR treatment.
John: I was surprised that not a single Larson “Giant Loop” model will open at a Six Flags park this year. I figured each park would get one before all was said and done. But 2017 may just be a break before the remaining parks get their share in 2018 and beyond. But aside from that, there were no huge surprises in my eyes. Several parks’ additions had been leaked or accurately predicted.
Medusa at Six Flags Mexico is getting VR, kind of unexpected since it’s already their signature coaster.
Most Exciting
Eric: So did any of these announcements excite you? Or, at least, excite you more than the other ones? What is the highlight of Six Flags 2017?
Andrew: I got to ride Joker at Six Flags Great Adventure earlier this year, and while it was a fun and unique ride, it wasn’t even close to my favorite in the park. (Nitro, El Toro, and Bizarro ran away with those honors.) But in a year where we’ve seen very few major coaster announcements in the United States, it’s exciting to me that Six Flags Great America, Six Flags New England and Six Flags Over Texas are each adding new coasters for 2017.
John: Like Andrew, I have to say the three Free Fly/Spin coasters are the most exciting additions. However, I won’t be rushing to any of those parks to ride them. They don’t excite me, but I have no doubt that they’ll garner a significant amount of attention in each park’s respective regional market. And if it brings business to the parks, I support that.
Eric: I’m going to throw a vote out there for the Justice League expansions. After your reviews of Battle for Metropolis at Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags Great America, John, I’m happy to see one coming to the West Coast. Now I wish they weren’t exact clones (and maybe they won’t be), but it’s still a non-coaster addition that gets me pretty excited.
Maybe not the most exciting additions ever, the addition of three new Joker coasters is still pretty good.
Most Disappointing
Eric: Did anything disappoint you, like a park not getting something that was hoped for/expected?
Andrew: Technically my “home” Six Flags park (“home” being a relative term, but it’s where I picked up my pass this year), Six Flags America adding a Star Flyer was pretty disappointing to me. They haven’t added a roller coaster that wasn’t a hand-me-down from Six Flags Great America (Iron Wolf/Apocalypse in 2012, and Ragin’ Cajun in 2014) since 2001 (the last year of 4 straight years with a new coaster every year at the park) and when I visited back in June, it was clear to me that the park needed a major addition. The Star Flyer is not that.
John: Six Flags Great America has historically received some unique-to-the-chain coaster installations: Iron Wolf in 1990 was B&M’s first coaster; the first inverted coaster, Batman: The Ride, opened in 1992; the chain’s only wing coaster (X-Flight) debuted in 2012 and one of RMC’s first custom wooden coasters, Goliath, opened in 2014. While I’m happy the park is receiving a new coaster, I’m disappointed that it wasn’t more unique.
Eric: Yeah, I mean, the flipside of liking the Free Flys, is that while there are three new coasters, they’re all the same. It makes them less of a draw for me as someone who doesn’t live near any of these parks, since I could experience it anywhere (and I’m hoping that one comes to Discovery Kingdom in my neighborhood someday). I guess the only other disappointment is the fact that the design and names for everything announced is basically the same. They’re going hard with the DC tie-ins, which I understand, and is maybe related to the increasing number of DC movies coming out, but it still feels a little uncreative. I particularly get bothered when rides have the same name, but are different rides. I think there will now be at least three or four different “Wonder Woman” types of ride, and we’ve got multiple different “Joker” roller coasters. C’mon guys, at least pick a few different DC names if you want to stick to it.
Six Flags America could probably use more than a medium sized Star Flyer…
Looking Ahead
Eric: OK, so with the big round of announcements complete, any thoughts on whether we’ll get any more from Six Flags in 2017, or guesses on what might be coming in 2018?
Six Flags sort of broke the regular annual cycle by with their VR coaster projects. Last March they announced sort of unexpectedly that they’d be adding VR to nine rides that Spring (which I was a fan of), and then just last month announced they were updating the VR on a bunch of rides and adding it to a few parks that didn’t have a VR coaster. So I’m sort of expecting that they might continue updating the VR with new experiences and we could get some more next Spring.
Andrew: Doubt we’ll hear anything else about 2017 from Six Flags. But if I had to guess what’s coming for 2018, I’d guess 2-3 more Justice League dark rides, 1-2 more S&S Freefly coasters, a Larsen loop or two, a handful of assorted flat rides, maybe an RMC conversion and maybe 1-2 major coasters west of the Mississippi River that will be just far enough away to make a trip really inconvenient for me.
Eric: C’mon Andrew, Magic Mountain’s already got nineteen coasters, isn’t that enough? I am sort of expecting an S&S free fly to come to Discovery Kingdom in the near future, since they’re such good coasters for space limited parks, and with SFDK making such a push for the DC branded rides in the last couple years.
John: While I’m not a fan of the park’s current trend of adding copycat flats and coasters, I’m sure these are cost-effective additions. And whatever it takes for the chain to avoid another bankruptcy debacle (and the subsequent closure of parks), I can understand and support. I predict we’ll see this trend continue in 2018, but I really hope the Free Fly/Spin coaster trend dies down goes the way of the Larson Loop.
Eric: OK folks, that’s all we’ve got. Share your thoughts on the Six Flags announcements (and whether you agree or disagree with us) in the comments, or hit us up on Facebook and Twitter. You can also discuss things with your fellow readers in the new(ish) Coaster101 reader group on Facebook. And of course, stay tuned to Coaster101 for more updates on what’s coming in 2017!
“probably don’t want to put VR on an SLC”
Isn’t Kong at Discovery Kingdom getting the VR treatment?
Kong is already bad enough. It doesn’t need vr. They should have gave it to medusa. The theme fits better.