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Qiddiya
Saudi Arabia
NEW RESORT PROJECT with Six Flags Qiddiya Theme Park
 Resort News - (11/17/2023) Intamin and Six Flags Qiddiya unveiled the new themed coaster train for the record breaking Falcons Flight roller coaster, now under construction in Saudi Arabia. The striking gold and blue train features a falcon’s head in the front, complete with glowing eyes and other on-board lighting effects, with windshields in place to help block the wind and dust from spraying the riders during their amazing journey. The engineering to make this ride work is very unique, as not only are they dealing with forces generated by a ride at a scale never attempted before, but also one in a potentially harsh environment.
This includes a lot of work on the train designs. Falcons Flight will use 6 trains, each holding only 14 riders, so the ride will be built with a dual station to help increase capacity. Due to the hot summer weather and heat that will be generated, the ride will feature a unique “cooling system” in place in order to keep the 16+ inch wheels from overheating. While the trains will feature some windshields in place, unlike Formula Rossa in Abu Dhabi, riders will be able to ride Falcons Flight without needing safety goggles.
So what records will Falcons Flight break? Pretty much all of them…
There will be an over 640 foot height difference from top to bottom, so it will make Kingda Ka look tiny. The top speed will be 156 mph, beating out Formula Rosa speed record by 7mph. Length wise… Falcons Flight is going to blow you away with 13,123 feet of track, making it the longest coaster of all time. The next closest coaster in terms of length would be Steel Dragon 2000 in Japan that ‘only’ has 8133 ft by comparison.
(10/29/2023) New pictures taken on site at the future Six Flags Qiddiya construction site can be found over at ThemeparX this week. This includes current shots of the massive Falcon’s Flight roller coaster, and I do mean MASSIVE! The sheer size and scope of this coaster is incredible, though it can be a bit deceiving in the photos because there is little else built near it to help give you a true sense of the size of it all. It it also worth noting that in some of those shots you can also see what appears to be a Vekoma Tilt Coaster also under construction with dark supports and yellow track.
(8/8/2023) As seen in the latest photo updates on ThemeparX, the massive Falcon’s Flight roller coaster project for Six Flags Qiddiya has grown over the past few weeks. While the final chosen layout for the coaster is not entirely known, we can see that the track for it has already been installed across a significant amount of landscape.
(5/29/2023) According to this photo posted to IG, the massive LSM powered lift hill for the Falcon’s Flight roller coaster from Intamin is now being installed at Six Flags Qiddiya. I know some doubted that this park would see the light of day after announced Six Flags themed park in China and Dubai failed to open, but the work crews are on site and clearly this coaster is going vertical.
Now if you recall the original promotional animation for Falcon’s Flight, this was just the first of two lift hills, designed to offer some fun thrills and speed the coaster off towards those big mountains that surround the park, where a second even larger lift hill was supposed to take the train up to the top of a cliff and then drop you over the side for about a 500 foot drop.
The original animation was a bit over the top for marketing purposes and potentially physics defying as well, so we don’t really know exactly how the final layout for this coaster will turn out. However, if you jump over to ThemeparX, you’ll see a park layout drawing where you can make out the coaster leaving the station and heading off the map and coming back from an unknown element which we can only assume is the mountain climb and cliff dive. If you need more evidence that the cliff dive will still be included, scroll down a little bit and you’ll see a couple of pictures showing off construction cranes already perched up on that hill.
Take some time to look over that park layout image while you are there as well, as you can make out a number of other interesting flume and coaster ride layouts placed throughout the park. The right half of the park also appears to be shaded out, as if it is intended to be built as a Phase 2 expansion after opening the first half of the park on the left side of the image. There are a number of other coaster layouts in Phase 2, including what appears to be something reminiscent of a Top Thrill Dragster style coaster, perhaps more in scale with Stealth, but with a switch track that seems to indicate a multi-pass / swing-launch before the top hat.
(4/8/23) The dream has been a long time coming, but at last we have some vertical construction taking place at Qiddiya in Saudi Arabia. A huge new collection of photos posted to ThemeparX this week show off a lot of progress being made on the new Qiddiya water park attractions. Scroll through the photos and they even have some aerial photos of the site, showing off the size and scope of the construction taking place right now, which is quite impressive as it features work on both the water park and the new Six Flags Qiddiya theme park.
According to some of the concept artwork, the waterslides are going in first and will then be surrounded by a massive fake mountain structure featuring water falls and a scupted rock formation that will look like a massive camel. From the looks of things, this mountain structure be built to create a climate controlled cavern in the middle where guests will travel up various ramps inside to reach the entrance to the various slides built to run along the inside and outside of the mountain structure. In short the waterpark looks like it will simply be amazing if built to look anything like the models and concept art. As previously mentioned, the waterpark will also be home to the first Aquaticar attraction from Sub Sea Systems.
On a related note, in a Twitter post from ThemeparX, it looks like the first track sections of the huge new roller coaster going in for Six Flags Qiddiya have also been put into place this week.
(3/29/2023) According to the latest post at About Theme Parks, the world’s first underwater car ride attraction is going into the Qiddiya waterpark in Saudi Arabia, park of the same complex that will also be home to a Six Flags theme park. If the idea of an underwater car ride sounds familiar, then you’ve probably been to IAAPA where Sub Sea Systems has been showing off the concept for their Aquaticar attraction for the past few years.
Much like holding an upside-down glass under water, guest will be able to breath in a canopy of air and view the underwater world through the glass, while the rest of their body from about mid-chest down enjoys a good soak in the water. The crazy system uses air for everything, as fresh air is fed to the cars from the track itself, which is used to both feed clean air into the canopy as well as power the propulsion system for the vehicle itself. Check it out in the video below.
(12/15/21) According to a local news report Qiddiya Investment Co. signed a contract worth $1 billion with Saudi and French construction companies to officially build Six Flags Qiddiya. So with the money on the table, it looks like the project will soon more forward and let the real construction on the new theme park begin.
(1/5/21) TheCoasterKings takes a look at the concept art released thus far for Six flags Qiddiya and describes many of the possible attractions that could be in the theme park. Keep in mind that this is just concept artwork and the final attractions lineup probably has not been finalized yet, so everything is subject to change and re-design.
(12/31/20) The massive Qiddiya project in Saudi Arabia picked up Disney veteran, Philippe Gas to take on the role of CEO for the Quddiya Investment Company last month. Thus far most of our focus on Qiddiya has been on the new Six Flags theme park announced for the resort project to be located 45 km from Riyadh, but there is much more to the project than that. Much like how we’ve seen the transformation of Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Qiddiya is a major component of Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” plan as a way to diversify the county’s future income generation away from being primarily dependent on oil production. In addition to Six Flags Qiddiya the resort area will also be home to a waterpark, various sports facilities (including a race track able to host MotoGP and Formula 1 events as early as 2023), as well as on site resorts, wellness attractions, retail and dining opportunities and much more, all in a very scenic setting near the mountains and natural beauty of the region. The area also plans to lure in more than just tourists and travelers, with Qiddiya plans in place for build homes on the site as well for up to 10,000 residents.
Philippe Gas is no stranger to overseeing a major resort of this magnitude after working with Disney for much of the past three decades, serving as President of the DIsneyland Paris Resort from 2008-2014 and then President of Disney’s Shanghai Reosrt from 2014 to 2019. He has now settled into his new role with Qiddiya to build a resort complex like no other for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Gas spoke at length with BlooLoop about the project, the planning and what we can expect as they move forward towards the opening of Phase 1 in 2023. It’s a fascinating read that goes deep into the details of the entire project that is worth checking out.
(4/23/20) Six Flags Qiddiya is alive with an active construction site, with tons of heavy machinery on site performing the needed grading work in Saudi Arabia to prepare the site to be transformed into a future resort.
(8/28/19) I told everyone to expect this big announcement to happen several weeks ago and now it is official… Six Flags Qiddiya, a new theme park in Saudi Arabia was announced the other day, along with a very big claim. While there will be lots of new thrill rides in the theme park, the landscape of the park will be defined by the Falcon’s Flight coaster, which promises to break about every coaster record set for being the biggest and fastest. No official figures were thrown out about just what Falcon’s Flight will do, but they did put out a piece of animation that makes this coaster simply look as big as a mountain. It would be fair to say that the animation isn’t the most realistic looking, but rather looks like it was made for a VR style experience rather than to be an accurate representation of the true coaster to come, though that dive off a cliff wall into an underground tunnel sure is something I hope they can pull off.
The park will be divided into several different themed lands… six different realms of adventure to be exact to represent the Six Flags brand. Once you enter the park you’ll work towards the hub of the park called the Citadel where a giant compass will point the way to the different themed lands: City of Thrills, Steam Town, Discovery Springs, Valley of Fortune, Twilight Gardens and Grand Exposition.
City of Thrills is home to the Falcon’s Flight coaster, the Sirocco Tower drop ride,the Wind Rider flat ride and a family suspended coaster called the Adreline Coaster.
Steam Town will be home to various smaller rides as well as The Iron Rattler Mine Train, a massive steampunk inspired looking “Tilt Coaster” style creation that will give riders a vertical plunge down into the mine shaft waiting below. Other rides include the Steam Town Falls Water Coaster, the Steel Stampede and Treehouse Trek.
Discovery Springs will feature a number of water themed rides, including coasters, an interactive dark ride, and a family flume ride and something called the Sea Stallion where riders can control the speed of their vehicle.
Valley of Fortune will offer Spitfire, a triple launched coaster experience, or ride into the skies inside an enclosed building structure on Skywatch, along with other rides like Treasure Trail, Aeromax and more.
Twilight Gardens will be home to animals and family rides, but after dark it becomes a glowing family wonderland. Included will be the Twilight Express Coaster, the Critter Chase interactive dark ride and Kaleidoscope hot air balloons.
The Grand Exposition will be themed like the World Expo’s of year’s past, offering many incredible dining opportunities, the Arabian Carousel, Automania bumper cars, the Gyrospin Pendulum ride and what seems to be an RMC style custom coaster creation to be called The Colossus that will be 800 meters long.
All said and done the park will offer 28 rides when it opens, 25 restaurants and much more when it opens in 2023.
 
 
 
 
 
(8/8/19) Screamscape has been informed that an official press release regarding the new Six Flags Qiddiya theme park project going into Saudi Arabia will take place on August 26th. Stay tuned!
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