Just over the Missouri border outside St. Louis in the southwest corner of Illinois you’ll find the town of Grafton with Aerie’s Resort and Aerie’s Alpine Coaster. This Wiegand mountain coaster opened in September of 2022 and is currently the only mountain coaster in Illinois. The coaster sports 3,885 feet of track in a beautiful resort setting that offers insane views of the Mississippi River below.
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2024 has drawn to a close and 2025 is here. In some ways it is the sad and slow part of the year for theme parks with many closed for the season and announcements more sparse. However, winter will soon give way to spring with park opening days and new rides starting around March. This year will also be “epic” with the opening of Epic Universe!
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Dynabrook Greenhouse & Pumpkin Patch in Harrodsburg, KY looks like an amazing place to spend a fall day. However, unlike you standard pumpkin patch that may have a hayride, corn maze or maybe a small flat ride, this place also has a roller coaster! The coaster is called “Happy Bee” is a powered coaster made by Chinese manufacturer Henan Beston. The roller coaster isn’t anything huge of course, but the fact that they have a permanent coaster at a pumpkin patch is pretty cool.
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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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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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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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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.
Continue readingUpdate 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.
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.
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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BGT Safari 