Archive for the 'Magic Mountain' Category
Six Flags Magic Mountain to add family coaster for 2010
November 3, 2009 6:26pm
Six Flags Magic Mountain will add its 17th roller coaster in 2010, bringing the Valencia amusement park into a tie for the most coasters in the world, officials said.
Scheduled to open in early summer 2010, the family coaster will be located in the northwest corner of the park between the looping Déjà Vu coaster and the Johnny Rockets Shakes and Fries food stand.
The steel coaster moves Magic Mountain into a statistical tie with Ohio’s Cedar Point for the coveted title of “roller coaster capital of the world,” according to Roller Coaster Database.
Knott’s Berry Farm to add 1980s-era thrill ride in 2010
October 20, 2009 11:01am
Knott’s Berry Farm’s new attraction for 2010 is an aging hand-me-down thrill ride that’s older than many of the Buena Park theme park’s patrons.
The Demon Drop attraction will be relocated from sister park Cedar Point in Ohio, where the ride debuted in 1983 — when Ronald Reagan was president, Michael Jackson introduced the moonwalk and leg warmers were in fashion.
Knott’s officials confirmed that the installation of the drop tower ride will begin in January with a grand opening scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend 2010. Knott’s will keep the Demon Drop name, color scheme and theme.
The best and worst of Halloween 2009 at Southern California theme parks
October 16, 2009 10:00am
As we reach the midpoint of the Halloween season, it’s time to take a look back at the best and worst of the Southern California theme park scare fests.
I found something to like at each of the parks. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood clearly had the best haunted mazes and scare zones. Halloween Haunt at Knott’s Berry Farm — with 13 mazes and seven shows — simply offers too much to do in just one night. And Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain serves as a great introduction for tweens testing the mazes and monsters for the first time.
Halloween bloodfest heats up at Southern California theme parks
October 2, 2009 8:58am
October marks the return of the annual death match between Halloween Haunt at Knott’s Berry Farm and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood for the blood-splattered title of best Halloween theme park event in Southern California.
Halloween Haunt, celebrating its 37th year, is universally regarded as the granddaddy of Halloween events. Halloween Horror Nights, which focuses on movie-set-quality authenticity, is the bloodier and gutsier upstart bent on Halloween supremacy.
My recommendation: Hit ‘em both. You won’t be disappointed.
Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which includes its Halloween event as part of general admission, can’t compare or compete with the big boys. Disneyland, Legoland and SeaWorld San Diego focus more on family-friendly fare.
In Northern California, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom delivers a similar Fright Fest event, and California’s Great America offers its slim-downed take on Halloween Haunt.
2009 Halloween events at California theme parks:
Halloween events at U.S. theme parks
October 1, 2009 12:16pm
If the calendar on the wall says October, then it must be time for Halloween mazes, monsters and mayhem to take over theme parks across the U.S.
Here’s a rundown of the haunted attractions:
Six Flags Magic Mountain to reclaim coaster crown in 2010
September 30, 2009 5:36pm
The back-and-forth war of one-upmanship between Six Flags Magic Mountain and Cedar Point resumes next summer when the amusement park behemoths battle again for the coveted title of “roller coaster capital of the world.”
Six Flags President and Chief Executive Mark Shapiro said this week that Magic Mountain would add a “family attraction” for 2010, with an official announcement expected in November. But regular Funland readers already know that the “family attraction” will be a new roller coaster.
Magic Mountain’s 17th roller coaster would move the Valencia amusement park into a statistical tie with Ohio’s Cedar Point for coaster supremacy, according to Roller Coaster Database.
Six Flags Magic Mountain unveils Fright Fest 2009 lineup
September 15, 2009 5:05pm
Six Flags Magic Mountain will add three new mazes and a new scare zone for Fright Fest 2009.
The Valencia amusement park will also bring back some traditional Halloween treats, including coasters in the dark, a Mr. Six dance party and my all-time favorite: Colossus backwards.
Highlights of Fright Fest 2009 at Six Flags Magic Mountain:
Golden Ticket awards honor top amusement park rides of 2009
September 10, 2009 5:43pm
Amusement Today magazine awarded the Golden Ticket today to the Prowler wooden coaster at Worlds of Fun in Missouri as the best new amusement park ride of 2009 in the United States.
The Voyage at Holiday World in Indiana remained the all-time favorite wooden coaster, with Prowler claiming the eighth spot in the Top 10 wooden coaster list.
Diamondback at Kings Island in Ohio was named the best new steel coaster for 2009, moving into the seventh spot on Amusement Today’s all-time Top 10 steel coasters list. Bizarro (formerly Superman – Ride of Steel) at Six Flags New England in Massachusetts maintained the all-time top spot in the steel coaster category.
Schlitterbahn water park in Texas snagged best new water ride of 2009 honors for Congo River Expedition.
Theme park news: Cedar Point water ride, Fantasmic dragon debuts, Rihanna at Magic Mountain
September 5, 2009 7:16am
A roundup of my theme park Twitter updates for the last week:
* Cedar Point in Ohio unveils the $10.5-million Shoot the Rapids water ride for 2010 set amid an illegal moonshine still.
* Report: Shanghai Disneyland to open in 2013 on a site four times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland.
* Video: New fire-breathing Fantasmic dragon at Disneyland looks stunning and pleases crowd in debut but seems a bit stiff and fails to “breath” fire.
A bad week for theme parks: deaths, crashes, crimes and even a typhoon
August 13, 2009 1:27pm
At the peak of the summer vacation season, theme parks in California, across the United States and around the world have suffered a seemingly endless slew of bad news.
* A 38-year-old man died after experiencing breathing trouble on the Firehawk coaster at Kings Island in Ohio. (Screamscape)
* Firefighters rescued 28 people stuck on the Invertigo coaster at California’s Great America in Santa Clara. State investigators shut down the ride for two months following the mishap.
* A Walt Disney World actor who fell and broke his neck on stage during a mock sword fight with Jack Sparrow died of complications. (Orlando Sentinel)
