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SIX FLAGS AMERICA Baltimore, Washington DC Six Flags Theme Parks
Park News - (7/25/2024) Cedar Fair management’s over the newly merged Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is showing some clear signs of change already. In addition to the dropping of the controversial purchase surcharge at the legacy Six Flags parks ($1.30 for every transaction) that angered so many Six Flags guests this year, the chain is now rolling out their first Cedar Fair style Chaperone Policies to two Six Flags parks: Six Flags America and Six Flags over Georgia. The new policy goes into effect at these parks tomorrow, July 26th, 2024, where all guests age 15 and under must be accompanied by a chaperone who is at least 21 years old in order to be admitted into and remain inside the park after 4:00pm. For larger groups, one Chaperone may accompany only 10 under-age guests and must remain with the party during entry, remain inside the park during the entire visit and be reachable by phone at all times. Anyone 15 and under found in the park without a designated chaperone will be ejected from the park. After putting this program into effect at these two parks, I suspect that we will see it launched chain wide to all the legacy Six Flags parks between now between August and the start of Fright Fest season. (5/27/2024) According to a park guest report, a number of attractions at Six Flags America appear are still closed. It isn’t known if these are just temporary issues that have caused them not to be opened yet, or if there are plans to keep any of these closed for the entire season. The list of closed rides noticed include the Riddle Me This flat ride, The Penguin’s Blizzard River and Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth. The official website also lists Harley Quinn Spinsanity as also being closed at this time as well, which ironically makes all four of the closed attractions DC Comics themed. Unfortunately, the all too common complaint that virtually all of the roller coasters were only running one train was also brought up, keeping the lines unnecessarily long. According to our reader, in the cases where they could see the maintenance and transfer tracks, they noticed there was no sign of even having an additional train available for possible use at this time which doesn't bode well for the summer. (3/31/2024) SteamTown To Feature Time Travel and Dinosaurs and a RipQurl Blaster Update (8/21/2023) A reader dropped in to Six Flags America the other day and reported back that the Zydeco Zinger ride has now been completely removed. Nearby the Fireball is still up, however as seen before the cars have all been removed and are sitting on the ground nearby. A number of rides were also not running during their visit including Wild One, Harley Quinn’s Spinsanity, and Batwing along with the Lazy River and nearby pools in the waterpark. On the plus side, there were some crew members actually working on the RipQurl construction site. And now for the wild rumor time, as there is apparently talk about reopening Mind Eraser at some point. Maybe as a special addition for Fright Fest, but the bigger rumor suggests that Six Flags might invest in a new modern train(s) for Mind Eraser for the 2024 season. For that one, I say we’ll have to wait and see, but no promises. (4/8/23) With the announcement of the new RipQurl Blaster waterslide, Six Flags America has also updated their park map on the website. In this latest version they have entirely removed the entire Coyote Creek area of the park from the map (it was just below Roar), along with the various attractions within that have been closed since they shut that area down last season. This includes the removal of the Mind Eraser roller coaster, Renegade Rapids, Coyote Creek Crazy Cars (bumper cars) and the Rodeo. As expected, also shut down in late 2022 was the park’s Whistlestop Park kiddie ride area, and it too, and all the attractions within, have also been removed from the map and website. Formerly it was located on the map in the vacant area between Joker’s Jinx and Superman: Ride of Steel. Whistlestop Park was home to the rides: Up Up & Away, Happy Junction, Sky Jumper, Whistlestop Bus Line, Whistlestop Whirleybirds and the Whistlestop Train. While the closure of two areas and their respective attractions is a huge loss for the theme park, it would also represent a savings for their operations and maintenance budget as the park no longer needs to staff, operate or repair any of the attractions in those areas, as well as operate any gift shops or restaurants that resided within. As those areas were both quietly closed down during the 2022 season when attendance levels plunged at the Six Flags parks, I can only imagine these areas were selected due to the ease in which they were able to simply be closed off from the rest of the park, as well as the fact that they mostly featured less popular attractions.
2024 - RipQurl Blaster - Delayed - (3/31/2024) We’ve got a couple of quick updates for Six Flags America. For starters, after missing the 2023 season entirely, the park’s website now states that the new RipQurl Blaster water coaster slide at Hurricane Harbor will open to guests on May 25th. (7/9/2023) Things are looking a little dire for the RipQurl Blaster project at Six Flags America. If the guest post on social media is true, no real construction has been completed to build this new waterslide for the park thus far. So far the website is promoting it as a “Late Summer 2023” addition, but as we are now in mid-July, and so little time left to promote a new waterslide that is really only open in the summer, this project seems destined to be pushed back in 2024. If anyone knows more, please let us know.
(3/26/23) We knew something new was coming to the waterpark at Six Flags America… but this announcement was a bit of a surprise. While the teaser video seemed to indicate that the slide would feature a Drop Pod, this was entirely a misleading bit of marketing, as the park instead announced RipQurl Blaster, an awesome new Master Blaster style water slide from WhiteWater. Powered by currents of blasting water that will propel the two-passengers rafts through the up-hill segments, the slide experience will be 557 feet long, featuring three big drops, AquaLucent hairpin turns and a “pitch-black wall-hugging helix finale” before the big splashdown at the bottom. So big props to Six Flags America for introducing an amazing new waterslide to the park as a replacement for the loss of Bonzai Pipelines. (3/5/2023) Six Flags America is teasing a new attraction announcement is coming on 3/23/23. Based on the teaser video, it seems to clearly indicate some kind of Drop Pod style slide is coming. The letter “Q” is also prominently featured, so perhaps this may be a hint as to the name to be used.
2024 - SteamTown - (5/17/2024) A picture of a car for the new trains on Six Flags America’s SkyWinder (formerly Mind Eraser) was posted by SixFlagsAmerica_Fans earlier today.
(5/7/2024) Six Flags America held a presentation where they revealed the new ride names and some concept artwork for this season’s new additions. SixFlagsAmerica_fans has posted everything to the IG channel, which you can see below. The park’s former Mind Eraser coaster has been reprofiled, repainted and rethemed, along with all new trains, to become Professor Screamore’s Skywinder. As rumored, the park’s river rapids ride will return as the QuantumCanyoin Rapids, with a new time-travel theme and a whole bunch of animatronic dinosaurs to thrill you along your journey down the river of time. ElectroDerby is the name for the new indoor bumper cars with dynamic lighting and sound effects. SteamWhirler is the park’s new flat ride, a Zamperla NebulaZ. The land will feature a new entry portal, plus all new restaurants and shops as well, such as Filament’s SteamPub, They also mention that a new stunt show is also coming that will tap into the new SteamTown storyline.
(3/31/2024) There are some other new surprises coming to SteamTown when it opens. One in particular will change the look and feel of the park’s River Rapids ride. While the details have yet to be fully announced, the official website says that the details for the new river rapids ride are “coming soon” but also mentions that you will “Travel back in time on this classic river rapids ride with refreshing features and amped up adventure.” So what could possibly be added to a river rapids ride to turn it into a time traveling adventure? Would you believe… Dinosaurs may be the answer? Yes… the same way that Six Flags revamped a kiddie car ride at Six Flags New England in 2023, and will once again do to the car ride at Six Flags over Texas this year… Dinosaurs are expected to be added into the landscape around the river rapids at Six Flags America. In fact, it looks like they slipped a tiny one into the graphic for StreamTown all along. You can see a blurry little object just to the left of the worlds “River Rapids” in the trees on the official graphic, but the team at SixFlagsAmerica_fans got a closer look at this image inside the park on opening day where you can clearly make out the dinosaur head.
(3/9/2024) While the Mind Eraser has sat quiet since 2022 at Six Flags America, local fans are still hoping for a surprise return to service, despite the fact that the coaster and entire area around it was removed from the park’s website map. The current map available on the Six Flags mobile app however has brought back the area around it that is being transformed into Steam Town for the 2024 season, and along with some new attractions, the website also does promise the return of the former Mind Eraser roller coaster with a new name, along with the former Renegade Rapids and more. Backing all this up was the discovery of a shipping notice posted by Six Flags America Fans that shows that a large shipment from Vekoma rides arrived at the park on March 6th. As the park previously mentioned that the improved coaster would return to service, along with some new trains, this is good news indeed.
(8/30/2023) Six Flags America has announced SteamTown is coming in 2024 for the park’s 25th Anniversary. This will be a new steam-punk themed area to revive some existing attraction space (the former Coyote Creek area) within the park with a new storyline, three re-imagined attractions (the former Mind Eraser with all new trains, Renegade Rapids and Crazy Cars), the return of the stunt show, new food and retail spaces and “new surprises of prehistoric proportions”. Oh, and an all new ride: the SteamWhirler (Zamperla NebulaZ). Nothing was mentioned about the area’s former Rodeo flat ride however, so we can only assume it will be removed to make way for the new SteamWhirler.
2024 - Kiddie Ride Expansion - Rumored - (5/15/2023) According to a couple of pictures posted by the “sixflagsamerican_fans” account on IG, the park has put up promotional posters advertising a “Future Expansion” is on the way for 2024, with images of a kiddie train ride and a balloon themed mini ferris wheel. If these rides look familiar to Six Flags America fans, then you would be correct, as both attractions are currently in the closed Whistle Stop kiddie area of the park, tucked between Joker’s Jinx and Superman: Ride of Steel. One line of thought is that any of the Whistlestop rides they want to keep may be relocated to the Looney Tunes Movie Town kiddie area closer to the front of the park and the former Whistlestop area could be used for a new DC character themed ride expansion in 2025 or later.
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