Every year, when theme parks announce the new attractions that will be debuting the following season, a hefty proportion of the new rides are roller coasters. Despite the many other options available, nothing quite catches the imagination – or draws in huge crowds – like a major coaster.
2016 will see a particularly large crop of impressive new steel and wooden creations opening at theme parks all over the world. We’ve picked out 16 of the most impressive here, but we’ve barely scratched the surface – somewhere around 150 new coasters are expected to carry their first riders this year.
But to give you a taster, in no particular order, here are those that we consider to be the most intriguing.
16. Cobra’s Curse (Busch Gardens Tampa, USA)
Image: Busch Gardens Tampa
Manufacturer: Mack Rides
Type: Spinning Coaster
Top speed: 40mph
Height: 70 feet
Busch Gardens Tampa already boasts an impressive line-up of coasters, and it will add to it in 2016 with a family-friendly spinning coaster from Mack Rides. Hosted in the Egypt area of the park, Cobra’s Curse will use the former King Tut’s Tomb walkthrough attraction to host an air-conditioned queue. While they wait, guests will be able to admire mambas, pythons and vipers, all hosted in a 400-cubic-foot snake exhibit.
Image: Busch Gardens Tampa
The ride’s most unique element will be a 70-foot-tall vertical elevator lift, which will send guests spinning towards the jaws of the snake king Venymyss. They will then race through an archeological dig site, where the remains of Venymyss’ temple have been uncovered.
Image: Busch Gardens Tampa
A second lift hill will see the cars locked into a backwards position, while for much of the rest of the ride the cars will be in “free-spinning” mode, allowing every individual ride to be slightly different.
15. Capitol Bullet Train (motiongate Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
Image: Dubai Parks & Resorts
motiongate Dubai will be the flagship park at Dubai Parks & Resorts when it debuts later this year. The park promises to bring Hollywood to the desert, featuring attractions based on the works of three major movie studios: Sony Pictures Studios, DreamWorks Animation and Lionsgate. It’s certainly an impressive line-up, with the potential – if the budget matches the vision – to create a park that could rival Universal’s best offerings.
It’s the headline ride of the Liongate area that has captured the imagination, with the Capitol Bullet Train set to simulate a journey on the high-speed trains that link the Districts in the Hunger Games movies.
Image: Dubai Parks & Resorts
Little has been confirmed about the coaster itself, but concept art shows that it will be surrounded by familiar landmarks from the movies. The design looks similar to launched coasters installed by Intamin at other parks across the world. It’ll be accompanied by Panem Aerial Tour, a simulator ride that will take guests on a hovercraft flight above Panem.
14. Valravn (Cedar Point, USA)
Image: Cedar Point
Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard
Type: Dive Coaster
Top speed: 75mph
Height: 223 feet
Cedar Point’s new addition for 2016 is Valravn, the third Bolliger & Mabillard Dive Coaster to be built in the United States. The ride’s themed is based on the valravn, a supernatural bird of Danish folklore.
The park is billing Valravn as the tallest, longest and faster Dive Coaster in the world. After leaving the station, the train ascends a 223-foot-tall lift hill, before plummeting down a 214-foot vertical drop at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour. After passing through an Immelmann loop, riders experience a second drop of 131 feet, before racing into a dive loop and a 270-degree corkscrew-style roll.
Image: Cedar Point
Compare that to Oblivion at Alton Towers – the world’s first Dive Coaster back in 1998. Its drop is 180 feet, and it has a top speed of 68 miles per hour. Crucially, though, it also has one stunning theming element…a gaping hole in the ground into which the coaster dives during its signature drop. Can Valravn’s additional inversions and other thrilling elements make up for the lack of a similar “black hole” drop? We’ll have to wait and see…
13. Lost Gravity (Walibi Holland)
Image: Walibi Holland
Manufacturer: Mack Rides
Type: Steel Coaster
Top speed: 54mph
Height: 105 feet
The yellow and black track of Lost Gravity, which opened in March, lends the coaster an air of menace. It’s a Mack Rides creation, featuring new “Big Dipper” trains that seat four across in two rows.
Image: Walibi Holland
The two-minute ride features two inversions, with the trains hitting a top speed of 54 miles per hour. The coaster stands at a relatively modest 105 feet tall.
Image: Walibi Holland
No records broken here then, but Lost Gravity sneaks into this list by virtue of its unusual-looking trains and well-executed design.
12. The Joker (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, USA)
Image: Six Flags
Manufacturer: Rocky Mountain Construction
Type: Steel-Wood Hybrid Coaster
Top speed: 53mph
Height: 100 feet
In 2016, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom becomes the latest Six Flags park to follow the current trend for converting aging wooden roller coasters into modern hybrids by laying a new steel track on top of the existing wooden support structure. In this case, the former Roar coaster, manufactured by Great Coasters International and opened in 1998, is being given the hybrid treatment by Rocky Mountain Construction. The ride will also receive a new DC Comics theme, based around Batman’s arch-nemesis The Joker.
Image: Six Flags
Some elements of Roar’s original layout will be changed quite significantly. Most notably, the ride’s height has been increased by around five feet to 100 feet, with the first drop having been re-profiled to make it steeper. In addition, a total of three inversions have been added to the circuit, reflecting the ride’s new steel nature and transforming the experience completely.
Image: Six Flags
The trains themselves will feature Joker theming, with each featuring six cars that can seat up to four riders each. Expect a smoother ride than Roar used to offer, thanks to the new construction…and expect to see many more of these hybrid conversions in the years to come.
11. Flying Aces (Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)
Image: Ferrari World Abu Dhabi
Manufacturer: Intamin
Type: Steel Coaster
Top speed: 75mph
Height: 207 feet
Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is already home to the world’s fastest roller coaster, Formula Rossa, and the park is not messing around in 2016 – it is opening no fewer than three new coasters, in addition to a new dark ride. The overall effect will be to completely transform the (mostly) indoor park into a new – and much better – experience.
Image: Ferrari World Abu Dhabi
The first of the new coasters to open is Flying Aces, which debuted in February. The ride features an aviation theme, inspired by Count Francesco Baracca, Italy’s top fight ace of World War One. The prancing horse embled that adorned his plane was adopted by Ferrari in 1929.
Image: Ferrari World Abu Dhabi
Flying Aces boasts a number of unique features, most notably the world’s tallest non-inverting loop at some 170 feet. The trains feature a bi-plane theme and the ride was manufactured by Intamin.
10. Taron (Phantasialand, Germany)
Image: Phantasialand
Manufacturer: Intamin
Type: LSM Launch Coaster
Intamin has built many launch coasters over the years, but Taron looks like it will be one of the most unique and ambitious. It will certainly be one of the most beautiful – the amount of rockwork being used to create the new Klugheim area that will house it is truly stunning.
Image: Phantasialand
Taron is being billed as “Europe’s fastest multi-launch coaster”, and the circuit will indeed feature multiple Linear Synchronous Motor launches, putting it in the same bracket as the likes of Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens Tampa.
Image: Phantasialand
It won’t be the only coaster to occupy the new area, either – Phantasialand is also squeezing in a Vekoma Family Boomerang coaster dubbed Raik. The two circuits will intertwine in places, making this a staggeringly complicated construction project and one of the most impressive new lands at any theme park in the world this year.
9. Storm Chaser (Kentucky Kingdom, USA)
Image: Kentucky Kingdom
Manufacturer: Rocky Mountain Construction
Type: Steel-Wood Hybrid Coaster
Top speed: 52mph
Height: 100 feet
Following its painful and protracted rescue by former owner Ed Hart – the park remain closed for nearly five years following its closure by Six Flags – Kentucky Kingdom is beginning to get into its stride. Storm Chaser will be the second new coaster to be constructed at the park in a period of only two years, adding a fifth coaster to the park’s line-up.
Image: Kentucky Kingdom
To replace the former Twisted Twins wooden coasters, which had been standing but not operating since 2007, the park has commissioned flavor-of-the-month manufacturer Rocky Mountain Construction. Parts of Twisted Twins’ wooden structure will be reused, but the coaster will receive an all-new iBox steel track – only the fifth coaster in the world to do so. This is designed to create the “feel” of a wooden coaster, but with the benefits of a steel superstructure to support it.
Image: Kentucky Kingdom
Standing at 100 feet tall, Storm Chaser will be the first coaster in America to feature a barrel roll drop from a 10-story lift hill, with the drop being a very steep 78 degrees. Other elements includes a stall dive, airtime hills and a corkscrew, making this very different from a traditional wooden coaster.
8. Mission Ferrari (Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)
Image: Holovis Attractions
Manufacturer: Dynamic Attractions
Type: SFX Coaster
Perhaps the most intriguing of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi’s new additions for 2016 is Mission Ferrari, an SFX Coaster manufactured by Dynamic Attractions. That’s the same firm behind Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts at Universal Studios Florida, and this will be a similar construction, even if it may lack the astonishing level of theming of the Universal ride.
SFX Coasters are capable of a wide range of impressive maneuvers.
Image: Dynamic Attractions
Relatively little has been confirmed about Mission Ferrari, but the few leaks and sneakily-captured construction photos so far suggest that it will feature at least two inversions, along with Gringotts-style elements such as a drop track, tilt track, 3D movie screens and a launch or two.
How impressive will the final product be? We’ll have to wait until later in the year to find out.
7. Pulsar (Walibi Belgium)
Image: Walibi Belgium
Manufacturer: Mack Rides
Type: PowerSplash
Top speed: 62mph
Height: 148 feet
Is Pulsar, Walibi Belgium’s world-first addition for 2016, a water ride or a roller coaster? It’s perhaps open for debate, but the ride receives a listing in the Roller Coaster Database, which is good enough for us. The attraction will be the first Mack Rides PowerSplash, and carries a price tag of nearly $10 million.
Image: Walibi Belgium
The boats/trains on Pulsar will rush backwards and forwards through a huge splash zone, with two vertical sections of track standing either side of the splashdown lake. The boats will hit a top speed of 62 miles per hour, making this a very intense experience. The video below best illustrates the ride experience:
Mack will be hoping that Pulsar proves to be a hit, sparking a rush from other theme parks around the globe to install their own clones.
6. The Flying Dinosaur (Universal Studios Japan)
Image: Universal Studios Japan
Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard
Type: Flying Coaster
Top speed: 62mph
Height: 151 feet
Universal Studios Japan’s major new addition for 2016 is The Flying Dinosaur, rumored to have cost as much as $90 million to build. It made its debut in March, allowing the park to cash in on continuing interest in the Jurassic Park franchise following the box office success of Jurassic World last year.
Image: Universal Studios Japan
The storyline behind the attraction is that the owners of Jurassic Park have long dreamed of creating a ride that would allow guests to fly through the sky with wild pteranodons. Finally, they managed to train the pteranodons – but their behavior is still unpredictable.
Image: Universal Studios Japan
In reality, guests board the longest Bolliger & Mabillard Flying Coaster in the world, featuring a 124-foot first drop and a 3,688 feet circuit. They then soar over much of the Jurassic Park area of Universal Studios Japan, making this a ride that’s almost as fun to watch as it is to experience.
5. Galactica (Alton Towers, UK)
Image: Alton Towers
Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard
Type: Flying Coaster / Virtual Reality Coaster
Top speed: 47mph
Height: 66 feet
Technically speaking, Alton Towers’ “new” roller coaster for the 2016 season is nothing of the sort. Instead, it is a major overhaul and retheme of the existing Air coaster, which has been at the park since 2002 when it debuted as the first ever Bolliger & Mabillard Flying Coaster. It sees riders rotate into a position facing the ground in what is a remarkably smooth simulation of “flying”, but the original Air faced criticism for its general lack of theming after cost overruns forced the scenery to be scaled back.
Air in its original form.
Galactica (as the coaster is now known) merits its inclusion in this list because of a fundamental change to its ride experience. Riders now have the option of wearing a virtual reality headset, which is attached to their seat. As the train travels around its circuit, they experience a “flight” into outer space, with the movements of the coaster being synchronized to what they see on screen. A number of different destinations are on offer, with guests able to choose which one to head to.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield tests the Galactica experience.
Image: Alton Towers
There are issues with the new system. Early reviews suggest that loading times (already pretty slow on the original Air) are now extremely lengthy, due to the need to wipe down the headsets after each use. And it seems there’s still work to do to create a truly coherent simulation of a flight into space. But as a proof-of-concept, Galactica works.
Six Flags has also introduced virtual reality headsets on a wide range of its coasters in the US this year, so it looks like this could be the year that virtual reality coasters take off.
4. Wildfire (Kolmården Wildlife Park, Sweden)
Image: Kolmården Wildlife Park
Manufacturer: Rocky Mountain Construction
Type: Wooden Coaster
Top speed: 70mph
Height: 187 feet
Due to open in June, Wildifre is yet another Rocky Mountain Construction creation – the firm’s first in Europe. Vekoma will help out by manufacturing the power and control systems, with RMC producing the track and trains.
Image: Kolmården Wildlife Park
Wildfire will be the fastest wooden coaster in Europe at 70 miles per hour, and the second tallest in the world at 187 feet. Like many modern wooden coasters, it will include inversions – 3 of them – and a series of 12 airtime hills.
Image: Kolmården Wildlife Park
The Kolmården Wildlife Park is primarily a zoo, and riders on Wildfire are likely to feel close to nature as they race through a spectacular woodland setting.
3. Mako (SeaWorld Orlando, USA)
Image: SeaWorld Orlando
Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard
Type: Hypercoaster
Top speed: 73mph
Height: 200 feet
SeaWorld hasn’t been having the best time of late, given the volume of negative coverage it has received since the release of the highly critical Blackfish movie. This has led to the subsequent decision to stop breeding killer whales in captivity, and to management doubling down on an existing strategy of supplementing aquatic exhibits with high-tech thrill rides.
Image: SeaWorld Orlando
Enter Mako, the 2016 addition at SeaWorld Orlando. Headlining a new shark-themed area, the ride will become the tallest, fastest and longest in Orlando. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard (who also built the park’s most recent coaster, Manta), the hypercoaster will stand at some 200 feet tall, and will hit a top speed of 73 miles per hour as it races around a 4,760 feet circuit. The coaster will boast a number of airtime hills, as well as a unique new feature dubbed the “Hammerhead turn” (a tight U-turn to the right).
Image: SeaWorld Orlando
The sheer height of Mako means that it won’t be integrated into its surrounding environment in the same way that the visually impressive Manta is, but SeaWorld claims it will give guests a sense of the awesome speed of the real-life Mako shark. And concept art suggests that the train will dip close to the water on the park’s lake on several occasions.
2. Lightning Rod (Dollywood, USA)
Image: Dollywood
Manufacturer: Rocky Mountain Construction
Type: Wooden Coaster
Top speed: 73mph
Dollywood has splurged an estimated $22 million on its new addition for 2016, and Lightning Rod is certainly an ambitious concept. Themed after a tricked-out 1950s-era hot rod, the ride is billed as the first wooden coaster in the world to use a launch system instead of a traditional lift hill.
Image: Dollywood
Riders will be launched from 0 to 45 miles per hour before racing around a 3,800 foot circuit that includes a 165 foot drop. At the foot of the hill, the trains will reach 73 miles per hour, making Lightning Rod the fastest wooden coaster in the world.
Image: Dollywood
As is often the case with “world’s first” coasters, Lightning Rod has encountered some teething issues. Originally due to open with the rest of the park in March, the ride’s opening was delayed after Rocky Mountain Construction found that the third-party launch system “would not be able to perform at the level required for proper operation.”
1. TRON Lightcycle Power Run (Shanghai Disneyland, China)
Image: Disney
Manufacturer: Vekoma
Type: Motorbike Coaster
It’s been a long, long road to get to this point, but Disney’s first theme park in mainland China will finally open to guests in June 2016. It’ll feature a mix of classic attractions such as Peter Pan’s Flight and Dumbo the Flying Elephant, modern takes on old favorites (a high-tech update of Pirates of the Caribbean will be a headliner) and all-new experiences. TRON Lightcycle Power Run, which will dominate the Tomorrowland area of the park, falls into the latter category.
Image: Disney
The ride will be housed inside an impressively huge color-shifting canopy, which will be the signature element of Shanghai Disneyland’s Tomorrowland in the same way that Space Mountain dominates the area at several of Disney’s other parks. The undulating canopy will be covered in a translucent material that reveals the pulshing glow of Lightcycle trains as they race around the interior.
Image: Disney
Inside, guests will board a motorbike-style coaster, boarding individual Lightcycles that are launched across the initial section of track (dubbed the Upload Conduit) before diving into the “game world”, packed with light and sound effects.
Image: Disney
Even at this late stage, there are few hard statistics on the coaster itself, although it will be a customized variant of Vekoma’s existing motorbike coasters (Vekoma has partnered with Disney on numerous coaster projects in the past). The ride won’t be contained completely indoors, with the trains bursting outside in one section.
