amusement-park

Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia to Get a $1 million Paint Job for the 2025 Season

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Goliath Repaint from SFOG Coaster Fest 2024 (pic courtesy of u/CoasterGuy95)

Six Flags Over Georgia GM Greg Fuller announced at Coaster Fest 2024 that it will repaint its iconic Goliath roller coaster. The ride will sport a completely new color scheme or turquoise blue and tarpaulin grey. At a price tag of $1 million this will be part of the park’s 2025 capital investment (along with the delayed Georgia Surfer). The paint job will begin after Fright Fest and will be ready for the 2025 season. The colors are hard to make out from the slide from Coaster Fest, but the RAL Colour samples below should give a better idea of the new colors.

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Could Virtual Reality Allow you to Experience Roller Coasters From Around the World?

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The "VRoller Coaster" at Virtual Reality Adventures in Las Vegas
The “VRoller Coaster” at Virtual Reality Adventures in Las Vegas

I had the chance to experience the “VRoller Coaster” at Virtual Reality Adventures in Las Vegas and came away extremely impressed. Virtual Reality Adventures is located in the LINQ Promenade near the High Roller Ferris Wheel on the Las Vegas Strip. They offer several VR experiences with one simply called “Roller Coaster” that looks unassuming enough, but really packs a punch. During this experience you experience 3 coasters with first what I believe is Goliath at Walibi Holland, second being Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios in Florida and finally the Big Apple Coaster located at the New York New York Resort in Las Vegas.

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Visit Busch Gardens in Minecraft with MCParks!

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Falcon’s Fury in Minecraft Courtesy of MCParks
Real Life Falcon’s Fury

Are you a fan of Busch Gardens? Are you a fan of Minecraft? Then you totally need to check out MCParks Busch Gardens Tampa for Minecraft! MCParks uses teams of Imagineers, Technicians and Guest Relations to faithfully recreate the park experience. The park uses a variety of resources to to create a one block to one meter virtual recreation of the park. You can see this demonstrated in the picture above with the faithful recreation of Falcon’s Fury!

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The Flash Pass One Shot at Six Flags Over Georgia is a Great Value

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On my last visit to Six Flags Over Georgia I noticed for the first time several of these green signs offering the Flash Pass One Shot. When you follow the QR code you’re taken to the Flash Pass website where you can buy a flash pass for the day, the season and now a Flash Pass for a single ride. This “One Shot” is reminiscent of the Lightning Lane Single Pass at Disney parks where you can buy “skip the line” access to certain attractions. The cost seems to vary by ride and day (similar to the Disney system) and I’ve seen prices range on a Friday between $6 and $14 each. However, a Flash Pass on that same Friday went for $60 for the Standard (virtual line holder) Flash Pass all they way up to $145 for the Ultimate (no wait) Flash Pass. So if you’re a regular and only going for a few hours, Single Shots seem to be the way to go.

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ACE’s “World’s Largest Ride” at Wild Adventures on Boomerang

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On June 16th at 2pm participating parks simultaneously dispatch coasters as part of “The World’s Largest Ride” to celebrate the anniversary of LaMarcus Thompson’s Switchback Railway, the first modern roller coaster. The event is organized by American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) and this year is the 3rd annual celebration of the event. About 20 parks participated this year including Wild Adventures of Valdosta, GA where I participated.

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Who Wants to Buy a Used Roller Coaster for $15,000? How Parks Buy and Sell Old Rides.

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Update September 2025: It appears Canada’s Marineland is selling most of its rides. Bill Ossim of Rides Plus, LLC is handling the sale with details like pricing managed through a formal inquiry process for qualified buyers. There have been some reports of pricing online with family rides going for $75,000 and thrill rides as high as $2.5 million.

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Review of an Afternoon at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park

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Arial view of Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
View of Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk from Sky Glider

On a recent business trip to California I had a free afternoon and decided to check out the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. This seaside park opened in 1907 and is California’s oldest surviving park. Walking down certain parts of the boardwalk feels a bit like a trip in a time machine, but most of the rides are now modern with one huge exception, the Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster. The Giant Dipper is the signature attraction of the park dominating the skyline and it was the main reason for my visit.

Giant Dipper Roller Coaster
Giant Dipper Roller Coaster
Giant Dipper Roller Coaster
Giant Dipper Roller Coaster
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Georgia Surfer Construction Update for Six Flags Over Georgia’s New Intamin Launch Coaster!

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I visited Six Flags Over Georgia on Saturday, May 18, 2024 and was able to check out the construction progress on the new Georgia Surfer coaster by Intamin. It was surprising to see a flurry of activity on a weekend day, so they must be pushing hard to get this done. There were now retaining walls in place, concrete footers poured, the beginning of what appeared to be a water retention area. No track or supports were seen anywhere, but I can’t imagine we’re far away from seeing the installation of the first few pieces.

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Construction Walls in Jungala, Does this Mean Long Rumored Busch Gardens Giga is Coming?

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Work walls up at Jungala at Busch Gardens
Work walls in Jungala courtesy of /railfan_andrew
Jungala at Busch Gardens
Tree Top Trail signs removed courtesy of /railfan_andrew
Survey markers near Jungala at Busch Gardens
Survey markers in Jungala courtesy of /railfan_andrew

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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Get a Six Flags Diamond Pass for $100. A Great Deal with Admission to 27 Parks! A SFOG Review.

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Six Flags Diamond Pass

Update March 2025: The Six Flags Diamond pass is essentially no more. It has been replaced with the Prestige pass which does NOT have the “all parks” access. You can still get many of the same “all parks” benefit by buying anything as low as the Gold Pass and then get the All Park Passport which could be $75 to $150 more depending on your park. It is more expensive than the old Diamond pass with all parks for sure, but it’s also a lot more parks including all the legacy Cedar Fair parks and not just the legacy Six Flags parks. The Prestige Pass would also be required to get you into the VIP Lounge. The new price of the Prestige Pass at SFOG is $149 in 2025 instead of $100 in 2024.

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