Update April 2025: So the construction walls ended up being for a new area of the park called Wild Oasis. It is sort of a reincarnation or Jungala complete with a new version of Wild Surge called Tree Top Drop. Is the Giga still coming? Maybe. The future of Kumba is still uncertain and there’s also the area of Scorpion that could be used as a station to have a Giga sprawl all over the park like Goliath does at Six Flags Over Georgia. We’ll have to stay tuned.
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Busch Gardens has released a first person rendering of what it’ll be like to ride their new Phoenix Rising family roller coaster later this year. It looks like a fun little ride by B&M in the spirit of similar family inverts like Dragonflier at Dollywood, Freedom Flyer at Fun Spot Orlando and Swamp Thing at Wild Adventures. It’ll also feature onboard audio which can be awesome if you’ve ever ridden something like Big Bear Mountain.
Continue readingI saw the above video where YouTube star Mark Rober tested the fastest seat on a coaster, but subsequently got kicked out of a park for having his cell phone out on a ride. As a big fan with a 7 year old son who loves him too it was honestly disappointing to see. The parks though have good reason to take this seriously though as there have been a number of major injuries caused by foreign objects on rides with lawsuits looking to hold the parks responsible.
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There are a lot of coaster clones out there from the numerous iterations of “Batman” at the Six Flags parks to the Sky Rocket II rides across Busch Gardens and SeaWorld. However, the one that may be the most numerous is “Spinning Coaster” by Italian manufacturer SBF-Visa. This simple figure 8 spinning coaster seems to be everywhere from family entertainment centers to small amusement parks. By my count on Caosterpedia there are at least 66 installs of the several different variants of this ride all in just 10 years from its 2014 debut.
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The title of this article may have you confused, an iconic roller coaster and a kid coaster are similar? However, when I found myself trying to describe the forces some new riders might experience on Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom with something they already knew. It turned out the best comparison I could come up with in terms of drop and speed was Air Grover and I was surprised with how similar they really were.
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Six Flags Over Georgia has announced its new for 2024 Intamin Ultra Surf will be known as Georgia Surfer. This was the result of a contest with 2,500 suggestions and 27,000 votes. The new coaster is going in the spot of the former Splash water Falls and incorporates water features, giving visitors another way to get wet on hot Georgia summer days.
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The SkyRide at Busch Gardens reopens tomorrow (2/2/24) after a long hiatus. It’ll be great to have it back with some of the amazing views of the Serengeti, the coasters and an easy way to get from one side of the park to the other. However, unless you have a season pass, it’s now going to cost you $5 for each ride you take.
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The Phoenix is rising at Busch Gardens and it’ll be great to have a new coaster at the park. My only concern with this ride is capacity. If you’ve ridden the very similar Dragonflier at Dollywood, Swamp Thing at Wild Adventures or Freedom Flyer at Fun Spot Orlando you know these rides only have one train. These rides have very similar lengths, layouts and specs to what is proposed for Phoenix Rising. I’ve timed the Dragonflier at Dollywood several times and with a 60 second ride cycle and averaging 90-120 seconds to load/unload you’re only talking 20-24 cycles per hour. With 20 riders/train that’s only 400-480 riders/hour which is pretty low for a coaster as modern coasters range between 1,200 and 1,800 riders/hour.
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It’s a new year and it’s fun to speculate what it might bring. In the beginning of 2023 we of course had some suspicion that Sand Serpent may be closing sooner than later (like we hear about Kumba today), but nothing was confirmed. We also had no clue there would be a second B&M invert coming in the form of Phoenix Rising to take its place. In checking building permits there doesn’t seem to be anything new for 2024 other than some modifications to the giraffe barn. It’s early though and it’ll probably be summer and after Phoenix Rising’s opening before speculation turns to what’s next. However, I believe something Big has to be announced in 2024 for 2025, probably something EPIC if you catch my drift…
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Unfortunately theme park accidents do happen, however rare, and people are injured or even killed. However, there seems to be a trend now with the news media of showing roller coasters stopped on lift hills and acting like it’s some huge lapse in safety. I’d argue it’s actually just the reverse, it’s safety measures working just as they were intended. Getting stuck 200 feet up on a lift hill for 30 minutes may be disconcerting for some, but in most cases the riders are in no danger and there’s no mechanical issue. Instead, it’s often something like a tripped sensor (the equivalent of the check engine light in your car) that must be checked and cleared before the ride can proceed.
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