Theme/Amusement Park Additions For 2014

     On Friday I went over the various additions to amusement parks for this year.  As was shown, there were some good additions, but mostly on the west coast.  2014 sees additions more spread out.  Just a word of warning though...  Some parks may not have announced yet.  I would not expect more coaster announcements at this late date, but some may have waterslides or flat-rides coming down the pipeline that we haven't heard from yet.  We should start again with roller coaster additions, as that's what most people want to hear about.  So....

Kings Island:  The Cincinatti, Ohio park is getting Banshee, the world's longest inverted coaster.  It replaces the recently demolished Son of Beast, which had a troubled history.  The new coaster includes 7 inversions with a top speed of 68 miles per hour.  It goes into the park's ravine area in it's last half.  This will be the park's first full circuit inverted coaster.  It looks to be a great addition to the park, which is the sister park to Kings Dominion.  Here's an computer-generated ride-through.

Dollywood:  The wonderfully themed Tennessee park is getting a nice family coaster next year.  It's themed to firefighting and is called Fire Chaser Express.  It includes two low speed launches and what we call a show building, which is where scenes with animatronics or lights and stuff is played out.  There is no POV to show you yet.  Knowing Dollywood, though, this will be a great attraction.  They put a lot of thought and effort into them.

Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom:  A few years ago, the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland started on a complete re-do.  Originally it seemed they were going to girlify the whole area having meeting places for Disney fairies and princesses, while at the meantime getting rid of the Mickey's Toontown area.  They've since soften their plans, but they did open a place to meet Belle from Beauty and The Beast and opened a new dark ride themed to The Little Mermaid.  They are also opening a new small coaster themed to the Seven Dwarves and their mine, obviously called Seven Dwarves Mine Train.  It's currently being built and will include indoor and outdoor sections.  It's meant for families as everything in the Magic Kingdom is.  I think it's an okay addition, though I don't approve of the massive changes they've made to the area.

Universal Studios Florida:  In some sort of madness, Universal is attempting to bridge their side-by-side parks by having two Harry Potter areas.  The original area themed to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts in Islands of Adventure will remain.  The new area, in Universal Studios Florida, will be Diagon Alley themed and include a Gringotts Bank coaster, a new restaurant, and a train station to take you to the other park's Hogwarts.  They tore out the old Jaws ride and Amity area to build this one.  I guess the train will only be open to those that have 2-park passes or something.  The coaster has not been detailed yet, either.  Though the building is going up!

Six Flags Magic Mountain:  The park with the most coasters on the planet is getting another one next year.  It is only a kids' coaster, but it brings their coaster count up to 19!  Also, they will run two of their coasters backward for the first half of the season (Batman and Colossus).  I so wish I could get out to California and finally go to the park.

Six Flags Great America:  The Chicago area park is getting a new wooden coaster next year.  It will be called Goliath, and will be have the biggest drop on a wooden coaster (180 ft), the steepest drop on a wooden coaster (85 degrees), and will be the fastest wooden coaster in the world at 72 MPH!  As is becoming common-place with these new wooden coasters, there will be 3 inversions as well. 

It's made by Rocky Mountain Coasters who also did this year's Outlaw Run and Iron Rattler.  The park's coaster count will stay the same, however.  One coaster will be leaving the park to go to Six Flags America in Maryland.  Speaking of that...

Six Flags America:  The Washington DC area park will get a new spinning wild mouse coaster from Six Flags Great America.  This is the second coaster they've got from that park in the past 3 years.  This new coaster will herald the christening of a rethemed area of the park.  Southwest Territory will be rethemed to Mardi Gras and will also see the addition of a new flat ride (a flying scooters).  No attraction is supposedly leaving to add these.  I've ridden this specific spinning mouse, and it's great fun if you have 3 or 4 people.  It will make a nice addition to a park they've been trying to turn around for the better for the past few years.  The park will now have 9 coasters.

Luna Park:  This park is a part of what is collectively known as Coney Island in New York along with Astroland.  They are building a new steel coaster that shares it's name with a wooden coaster that used to be there.  It will be called Thunderbolt.  It's nothing like the old coaster.  It's what is referred to as a Euro-fighter coaster.  They are a lot of fun, so this one should be too.

And that's it for roller coasters in North America as revealed so far.  Now a few words on some other park additions!

Water slides seem to be a big addition this year.  Water parks are good for amusement parks as they are cheap to build up, they swallow a lot of people, and they can charge for lockers.  It's good for park-goers because during the day, everyone's over there instead of making huge lines for the coasters/rides.  Carowinds (NC/SC), Dorney Park (Pennsylvania), Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Six Flags Magic Mountain are all getting new waterslides this coming year.  Six Flags Over Georgia is adding in a whole waterpark!    Two parks, Worlds of Fun (Missouri) and Adventureland (Iowa) are getting Windseekers.  If you've been to Kings Dominion recently, you know what that is.  Worlds of Fun is getting theirs from Knott's Berry Farm, as California decided they couldn't re-open theirs.  They are good family rides.  Six Flags New England (Massachusetts) is getting a 400 ft. Skyscreamer like Six Flags Over Texas got this year.  However, there's will be a few feet higher to break the record.  Yet another ride where only a chain is holding you 400 ft in the air! 

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (California) and Six Flags St. Louis are getting new water rides/flat rides.  It's a combination of the two things really.  It's hard to explain, so I'll just show the advertisement.  It looks fun for families with kids, and those that truly like walking around in soggy clothes all day.

Universal Studios Hollywood will be getting a 3D simulator based on the Minions from Despicable Me and a new childrens' play area called Super Silly Fun Land.  Six Flags Over Texas is redoing their kids area, which I hear did need a lot of work.   Holiday World in Indiana, which is one of the best parks in the world, is getting a swinging pirate ship for their Thanksgiving area called The Mayflower, obviously. Great Escape in New York is getting an interesting new flat ride that I can't explain.  Cedar Point in Ohio is getting two new flat rides as well.  A Disk'o (those are great fun) and a flying scooters.  (For those wondering what a flying scooters is, if you've ridden the Flying Eagles, which used to be called Scream Weaver, at Kings Dominion, those are Flying Scooters.)  New flats for Cedar Point are a good thing.  They tend to focus on coasters, and their current flats are mostly from the 1970s. 

This leaves two additions left...  Two drop towers that are making history.  Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey is taking out their oldest coaster, the wooden Rolling Thunder, and putting up Zumanjaro!  415 ft. high and 90 MPH!  The ride will be built on the supports of the world's tallest coaster, the already open Kingda Ka.  It will be the tallest, fastest drop tower in the world.

And Busch Gardens Tampa in... Tampa is opening Falcon's Fury.  It's not the tallest, but it's the first to tip your seats forward so that you're looking right at the ground as you drop.  It will be 335 feet.  And I must try it!

Obviously, my home park Kings Dominion has not released any info on what's coming next year.  I'm betting on a waterslide.  Busch Gardens announced yesterday that they are getting a new show called London Rocks.  It features British rock music and will be in the Globe Theater where the Pirates 4-D show used to be.  It will be live performers, not a movie.