Review of the New Penguin Trek Roller Coaster at SeaWorld Orlando

I found myself in Orlando for a quick business trip which gave me an evening to check out the New Penguin Trek at SeaWorld Orlando. Penguin Trek is a sit down launched family coaster by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M). It opened July 7, 2024 and is essentially a prototype, being the first B&M sit down family launch coaster. The ride is located in the Antarctica area of the park and replaces the Antarctica: Empire of the Penguins dark ride.

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Scorpion Roller Coaster at Busch Gardens to Close September 2, 2024

Instagram post from Busch Gardens

In a surprising development Busch Gardens announced the impending closure of Scorpion on September 2, 2024. This cam out of nowhere and gives fans only about 10 days to enjoy “the sting of the Scorpion” one more time before closing forever. Thankfully though the announcement came with a promise that “new attractions “future thrills” would be announced shortly to take its place (get ready for the Giga rumors). Here is what the park wrote:

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Korey Kiepert of The Gravity Group Does “Roller Coaster Support” for the WIRED Tech Support YouTube Video Series

Korey Kiepert WIRED YouTube video

I’m a big fan of the WIRED “Tech Support” video series. The essence of the series is that they get an expert in a particular field to answer viewer questions about their area of expertise. I’ve seen everything including a mortician, an FBI agent, Penn Jillette talking magic, John Cena talking wrestling and now Korey Kiepert of The Gravity Group talking roller coasters!

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Georgia Surfer Coming Opening Day 2025 to Six Flags Over Georgia

Georgia Surfer logo

Georgia Surfer has an opening day and it will be opening day of the 2025 season! During a Coaster Fest 2024 Six Flags Over Georgia General Manager Greg Fuller gave a great update on the construction of Georgia Surfer and the challenges it’s seen. He mentioned permitting was slow and they lost about 12 weeks there and then that there were “manufacturer challenges” with Intamin. Specifically that the gondola (train) just shipped ocean freight on August 14th from Europe. Maybe a little too much time worrying about Falcon’s Flights in Saudi Arabia? With all these delays, they just decided it was best to delay and do it right. He said they wanted to run the heck out of it and make sure it was 1000% right for next year. He also stressed numerous times that the ride was a prototype where some challenges are always anticipated.

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The Amazing Rudicoaster at Santa’s Land Fun Park & Zoo

Santa’s Land Fun Park & Zoo is a great affordable family amusement park on the southern side of the Great Smokey Mountains. Santa’s Land has only one roller coaster and that’s the Rudicoaster, a highly unique Zamperla powered coaster. This is a custom coaster was built in 1989 and features a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer theme to go along with the Christmas theme of the park. The Rudicoaster is from the Zamperla Powered Coaster line where the coaster train itself actually has a motor to propel it up the lift hills. Rudicoaster has trees all through and surrounding the course, adding to the atmosphere and really making it feel like a coaster in the woods.

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Could the Georgia Surfer Delay Give Six Flags Over Georgia the Opportunity to Fix a Potential Capacity Problem?

It was announced earlier in the week that the highly anticipated Georgia Surfer Intamin Launch Coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia was being delayed until 2025. Although this was disappointing, it’s also not uncommon in theme park world. However, this delay could represent an opportunity for the park to solve a potential issue with the new attraction, that being its low capacity. However, there is a solution to this and Six Flags Over Texas used a delay to add capacity to their new Aquaman: Power Wave water coaster just a couple of years ago.

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Georgia Surfer at Six Flags Over Georgia Delayed Until 2025

Georgia Surfer Logo from Six Flags Over Georgia
Georgia Surfer Logo from Six Flags Over Georgia

In sad, but not entirely unexpected news, Six Flags has bumped the Georgia Surfer, the new Intamin launched “surf” coaster, until 2025. The same day it was also announced that Six Flags Great Adventure was delaying The Flash Vertical Velocity, a Vekoma boomerang. Being already August with construction still ongoing the writing seemed to be on the wall although there was still hope after a Novermber 4th opening of Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster last year. The social media posts from the park read as follows:

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D23 Announces Suspended “Door” Roller Coaster for Monsters Inc. Land at Disney Studios!

Last night at the very end of the D23 Experiences Showcase a suspended coaster announced for Monsters Inc. Land at Disney Studios! This land was not something that was telegraphed or widely expected and was quite surprising. What was even more surprising was that construction is set to begin next year, so this isn’t “blue sky” stuff, this appears to be really happening. In fact it is supposed to being construction next year in 2025!

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D23 Concept Art Appears to Show a Roller Coaster for Villains Land at Disney’s Magic Kingdom!

Last night at the very end of the D23 Experiences Showcase the long anticipated Villains Land was announced for Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The details were VERY sparse with no opening date or specific attractions announced, just mention of 2 attractions, shopping and dining. However, if you zoom into the top left of the concept art shown last night it’s very obvious there is a coaster in the works!

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ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show Talks About the Racer at Kennywood Being Held Up By Cinder Blocks?

Pat McAfee, the popular and sometimes controversial ESPN host, spent nearly 20 minutes of his June 30, 2024 show talking Kennywood and its rides. The show was commenting on a tweet by a local news channel showing The Racer roller coaster apparently being held up by a cinder block. It was obvious Pat loved the park and talked about his childhood visits there that devolved into watching a POV of the ride and reviewing the park in general. The viral story started with a Facebook post by oneBURGH and resulted with the park briefly shutting down the ride, a state inspection and some non-structural repairs.

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