For those of us who grew up on discussion boards and social media following the goings-on of amusement parks and roller coasters, there was no more fundamental a divide than that between Six Flags and Cedar Fair. For decades, these two regional parks operators battled back and forth, inciting the “Coaster Wars” in their continuous…
As thrillseekers know all too well, 2024 ended up being an unusual year when it comes to record-breaking roller coasters. A series of high-profile closures left several would-be record-holders in the dreaded state of standing but not operating (“SBNO”)… So many are closed, in fact, that as we explored, the “world’s fastest roller coaster” in…
It’s been a bad few years to be a record-breaking coaster. That’s probably not a coincidence. At the dawn of the new Millennium, amusement park operators across the globe bet big on the “Coaster Wars,” racing headlong into multi-million dollar efforts to build the tallest, fastest rides on Earth. Now, two decades later, we’re seeing…
If you’re an amusement park fan, there’s no doubt that the “merger of equals” between Cedar Fair and Six Flags (forming the new Six Flags Entertainment Company) is the biggest news of the year, decade, and maybe of the 21st century so far. But for those of us who’ve been around long enough, the second…
It was June 2020 – when all six of Disney’s U.S. theme parks were still shuttered amidst the COVID-19 pandemic – that Disney announced a major change few had expected. In the years that followed, both installations of Splash Mountain (at Disneyland Park since 1989 and Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom since 1992) would shed their names,…
Higher. Taller. Faster. Wilder. In the 1990s and early 2000s, nothing – and we mean nothing – mattered more to Six Flags and Cedar Fair than breaking records. Parks battled back and forth to attract the globe’s most extreme thrill-seekers, loading parks up with the biggest coaster counts they could manage – and then a few more for good…
By now, you know the news that shocked the coaster world: that Cedar Point would get a very surprise addition for 2025: a second coaster to open alongside the highly-reviewed but infamously-pit-stopped Top Thrill 2. And we’re not talking about a kiddie coaster. Nope, Siren’s Curse will be a whopper – a sizable steel behemoth that…
Disney Parks tend to go big for the holidays. Fans dream all year of walking down Main Street, U.S.A. at Christmas; they plan their trips around riding the “Jingle Cruise” or “it’s a small world holiday”; they battle the crowds to experience New Year’s Eve as only EPCOT can do it. But as theme park…
Forget birthdays. Forget anniversaries. Forget Christmas. For horror aficionados, there’s nothing like Halloween Horror Nights. Nearly every year since 1991, Universal Orlando has transformed into a premier event that – even three decades later – still leads in a rapidly-expanding industry. Harnessing all might of Universal’s in-house creatives, storytellers, scenic designers, and owned & licensed…
By now, you know the story. In 2001 – the waning years of exiting CEO Michael Eisner at the height of his cost-cutting, budget-slashing era – Disneyland’s long-time dream of gaining a second theme park became a nightmare. Disney’s California Adventure was a mistake from the start. A self-referential, comical park designed with a “tongue-in-cheek attitude”…
