What looks to be a large first is currently breaking out in Europa Park.

Major Fire in what looks to be the Scandinavia section of the park. @EuropaStreet

The first broke out earlier today in the Pirates of Batavia ride. a water and pirate themed dark ride. The ride was built by Mack Rides in 1987 and is situated in a large hall in the Scandanvia-themed area of the park. The building is designed as a Dutch brick building from the outside.

At the moment the ride seems to be a total loss looking at the picture below. Let's hope firefighters can prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings.

https://twitter.com/HCHTelevDigital

#europapark hoping everyone is ok pic.twitter.com/rgfb05XO8U

— Alan Kelly (@Alankels) May 26, 2018

Toverland inches closer to opening their new entrance and two lands.

On 7 July 2018, two brand new magical worlds will open their gates. "Our new entrance Port Laguna and the mysterious theme area Avalon will make Toverland more magical than ever. In this episode we celebrate a special moment. We’ve now reached the highest point of Fēnix at 40 metres. Not just this beautiful rollercoaster is slowly arising in this landscape. Also Port Laguna and Avalon are gradually taking shape." -Toverland

Back when Bright Sun Films began I wasn't a large fan. I feel they didn't go in depth enough and used bait-like titles to get clicks.

Today they use real footage and even visit locations themselves to tell a story with details and images you may have never seen before. The research and stories are well thought out and are always interesting.

Take a look at one of their newer episodes explaining things you've never known about, like Port Disney and WestCOT.

Darien Lake opens Tantrum in time for the big weekend.

(c)Darien Lake

Darien Lake was recently sold back to Six Flags, but that doesn't stop the park from keeping the new Tantrum coaster opening before the big weekend.

Tantrum opened today to excited riders that gave the ride great reviews.

“AWESOME!” “Really fun!”
“The drop was amazing!”
The reviews are pouring in for Tantrum! Come out and ride it THIS WEEKEND! pic.twitter.com/TSpZslVHmS

— Darien Lake (@DarienLake) May 25, 2018

Tantrum riders embark on a 98-foot vertical lift hill that then drops them at a 97-degree angle back down, shooting riders directly into a pretzel inversion. Reaching speeds of 52 mph, the coaster then travels through the structure over a bunny hop, Immelman loop, and tilted loop.

Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opening in just over a year.

Disney has announced today the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, the new themed land coming to Disneyland and Disney World, will be opening Summer and late Fall, respectively.


Star Wars will be one of Disney's most themed-lands to date, with multiple rides, shows and food areas.
Droids will be roaming the land and have specific charging stations throughout. Also, expect drones in the air themed to specific Star Wars themes. Plus you'll be able to meet the real R2D2 as he roams around the land!

An example of what could be if Star Wars drones roam the area.

Concept Art by (c)Disney

This week's guess the coaster is a ride pictured at night. A nice red color, but is that the track color too or just the lighting?

Hover your mouse over the image for the answer. Need a hint? Scroll down.

Hint: A shuttle coaster.








Hint 2: Opened in 2017.

RMC wow's riders once again with Twisted Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia.

The signature element on Twisted Cyclone. (c)Six Flags

A while back the response to the Georgia Cyclone getting an "RMC Treatment" wasn't all positive. Many enthusiasts thought the ride was too short after see the proposed layout, and thought it had some missed opportunities. Now the ride is open, and of course reviews are great.


Screamscape.com Review: "The pacing of the ride is perfect, as are the transitions between elements. And in true RMC fashion, the ride is smooth as glass. If you want to watch my honest reaction, please check out the reverse POV because I am not exaggerating in my response to the airtime moments - they are ejector level at times. The key element of this ride, for me, is the 90 degree banked perpendicular turn in which you can even get some airtime!"

Reddit's r/rollercoaster Conor_CBG on the wave turn element: "This was my first wave turn, and I can whole-heartedly say that not only is it my favorite element on the ride, it’s one of my favorite elements on a roller coaster PERIOD. The element is such a blast to go through that could say that it’s worth riding just for that element."

You should start counting coasters again. 

When I was younger, counting coasters was a necessity, as it is to most in the coaster community. It gives you a feeling of power and expertise in the theme park world when you can say you've ridden X coasters. I eventually grew out of it. I found myself wasting time on kiddie coasters that I really didn't care about, just to add +1 to my total. They're uncomfortable for my tall self, they're usually more painful than a full-on 1980's wooden coaster because my knees bang against the train in every direction, and they began to make me feel like I was rushing around the whole day trying to fit every single coaster in that the park had to offer.

Iron Rattler queue. Very nice for Six Flags.

So I stopped, and I enjoyed theme parks that much more. I could take breaks and enjoy a nice meal outside on a terrace next to a coaster, watching trains fly-by or boats splashdown. The people watching is also excellent at theme parks, if you're into that sort of thing. Eventually, beer came into play and the whole theme park-vibe became more relaxing instead of a sweat-filled disaster. Not to say that most of my theme parks trips aren't sweaty run-arounds, because they are, but it's about the mindset that they aren't, I guess.

I could sit and watch this all day.

What I'm getting at is that now I could ride something like Mystic Timbers (Kings Island) over and over and not have to worry about going over to the family Vekoma coaster around the corner, a clone of a ride that I'd already been on, because I needed the credit. You know you would like to ride Mystic Timbers again over a family Vekoma that you've ridden somewhere else. So ride it again and again and forget about that Vekoma with the 20-minute wait.

Stop worrying about your coaster count and don't ride the clones that you hate. You'll start to enjoy your trips more!

I love the pacing of this ride. And the tree section is beautiful to a bystander.

Then one day I took the time to map out the places I'd been in the past 10 or so years, and out of curiosity, added all those coasters into my old total, wondering what number I was at. Turned out I was at 198, and that's when it all began again. I figured I'd make big trips out of my big accomplishments, so over to Canada's Wonderland I went, ready to make Leviathon number 200. (I did end up liking Behemoth more... but hey, liking and comparing certain coasters over others is what makes this hobby so much fun.)

Number 200! Rain! No Line! Matching Shirt!

And so I urge you to count coasters, but don't ride to build your coaster count, you'll find it start to take over your enjoyment of the park. Make it a thing to plan big trips around the big milestone numbers, who knows where I'll be when I get to the 490's. But one thing I do know is that I will be planning quite the exciting trip once I'm up there. Don't rush, enjoy your time in the parks, and if you don't like Vekoma Boomerangs, don't ride them! Hell, I don't even remember the name of the Boomerang at Canada's Wonderland.  Because why would I ride that thing when I can go ride Behemoth again instead? Or maybe I'm just old and Boomerang's give me a headache now.

'So why not ride more coasters to get to the milestones quicker?' you ask.   Good question.   What a useless article.

ICON has opened to the media!

Today was media day for ICON at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, England. And while the ride may look slow in the POV video below, we are hearing great things about the coaster.

POV by Coaster Touring

As we mentioned earlier this week, Pleasure Beach Experience interviewed guests about the ride after the preview to select people this past weekend, here's what they had to say:
"Smooth as Silk,"
"Not as forceful as I thought it might be, but it's an ideal ride for the park."
"Fantastic, Particularly enjoyed it after the second launch, the first bit is [also] really good."
"It's definitely up there [for best ride in the UK]."
"Number one UK coaster, definitely."
-Pleasure Beach Experience

The MACK folks Photo (c) @BACKSEATBOYOS

Attendance Is Up In Theme Parks Globally.

The always interesting to look at annual attendance study finds many park's rising attendance numbers.
The report .pdf can be seen here.

Most visited amusement parks in the world. USA parks taking seven of the top 13 spots, with China and Japan taking five of the 13 top spots. Interesting to note that the Walt Disney Company did complete a full takeover of the Paris resort in June 2017. Chimelong had large increases across all parks, like all Chinese and Japanese parks.  Data: (c)TEA

The Top 20 parks visited in the United States. SeaWorld taking the biggest hit, as it has been since the Blackfish backlash. Data: (c)TEA

Top 20 visited parks in Europe/Africa/Eastern Asia. Alton Towers recovering from the "Smiler" accident backlash that began back in early 2015.  Data: (c)TEA

Six Flags Purchases 5 New Parks.

The purchase of the 5 new parks means the total number of Six Flags parks is now at 25 in North America. The parks joining the Six Flags family are Wet n’ Wild Splashtown, Houston’s largest waterpark.
Wet n’ Wild Phoenix, the largest waterpark in Arizona.  Darien Lake near Buffalo, NY, which Six Flags used to own. Frontier City, an iconic part of the Oklahoma City landscape. And White Water Bay, near Frontier City.

“'We are thrilled to welcome these outstanding properties and employees into our family of parks and look forward to sharing the thrill of Six Flags with guests of all ages in these key markets,' added Reid-Anderson.
Closing of the transactions contemplated by the agreement is expected to occur in June, 2018 and is subject to customary closing conditions." -Six Flags

Diamond Back at Frontier City! Photo: (c)Negative G

Carowinds Proposed Layout POV, Prediction Video.

3 years ago, Thunder Road, a wooden coaster, closed down near the Carolina Harbor water park area to make room for a water park expansion. Not all this land was used for the expansion and after a boat ride closed a nice plot of land was left available for more expansion.



What we based this off of:
With a few leaked photos of the layout circulating the web, we've made a coaster based purely on the heartline and the supports shown on this blurry image below found over on the Reddit roller coaster sub, along with the scale of a leaked layout via Screamscape. The supports give hints at the heights in various areas, as well as the heartline that can be seen. It also mentions a hold during the first launch but not during the second. There seems to be a lot of low to the ground elements at the end, but it is hard to tell.  The layout may be spinning, but for the sake of this video and your viewing pleasure, it is a regular Mack launched coaster.

Reddit

The layout superimposed over a Carowinds Satellite Image.

The park has filed a copyright for the name Copperhead Strike, could this be the name of the new coaster? MACK is not known for its wild intensity, however, the second half of this ride does seem to be filled with low-to-the-ground turns looking at the rather small supports through the finale section. Which would be an extremely fun ending, let's hope!

Side View

Action View

Action View, from Pathway

4 Slidewheel's Sold Worldwide, and They Look Totally Awesome.

A while back we heard about the new Slidewheel concept. We weren't sure on whether it would be boring or not, but after watching it more and more, it looks totally epic. The engineering is incredible and just fun to see in motion, the Physics are smart and take advantage of riding a ride while also not getting closer to the ground, which leaves more possibilities for a "slide-after-a-slide," as you can see in the incredible product video below.

The Slidewheel at Chimelong, the most visited waterpark in the world. Pic: (c)Slidewheel

Just take a look at the new ride at Chimelong Waterpark, and decide for yourself.

The "blocking" system is innovative, allows for an incredible amount of riders for a raft ride, and the ride looks absolutely stunning. We cannot wait to get on a Slidewheel, "the first rotating and pendulating waterslide worldwide. Made and tested in Germany.  Explore the amazing light system - are you ready to slide?" -wiegand.maelzer GmbH