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Qiddiya
Saudi Arabia
NEW RESORT PROJECT with Six Flags Qiddiya Theme Park
 Resort News - (3/31/2024) According to an update from Blooloop, the newly announced Dragon Ball theme park coming to Qiddiya is being brought to life by the team at Falcon’s Creative Group who are serving as the creative oversight for the attraction, as well as overseeing development and construction on the project as it moved forward.
(3/23/2024) Qiddiya… I think you need to slow down a bit. It has been fascinating to see the construction progress of the Six Flags Qiddiya and nearby waterpark now under way, which has led to more recent announcements about other resort projects. We knew an F1 race track was part of the project from the start, and we knew there would be some resort hotels and maybe some kind of event or sports arena venue, so those announcements were also to be expected.
However… the latest announcement this week may go down in history as the moment when Qiddiya, as they say, “jumped the shark”. According to the latest press releases, Qiddiya just announced an all new theme park experience…. The world’s first “Dragon Ball Theme Park”. (See the video below)
There’s lots of crazy digital animation showing off the landscape of this park, that I’m sure features some iconic buildings from the Japanese manga series, along with footage of kids wearing goggles (AR headgear I assume) and 3D glasses in theaters, and a large mountain shaped structure at the center with the Shenron dragon figure around the top that will serve as the home to some kind of indoor/outdoor roller coaster. According to the official site there will be “more than 30 themed, rides, including 5 groundbreaking attractions”, and the guests can stay inside themed hotels on the property.
Now, generally I consider myself fairly well rounded when it comes to knowing about various popular IPs around the world, but I do have a few holes in my knowledge base. Things where I can recognize the IP but have never been exposed to it beyond the surface. Doctor Who for example… I love SciFi… but I’ve never seen a single episode of Doctor Who and the constantly changing universe of that IP has sort of served as a mental barrier to me, as I don’t know where to start if I wanted to take the dive in to learn more. Dragon Ball sort of falls into that area for me as well, as my manga watching days came long ago when I watched things like Akira, Voltron, StarBlazers (Space Battleship Yamato) and Robotech (Macross).
I know full well that Dragon Ball theme park is not intended for myself personally as someone outside of their target audience, and I’m okay with that. From a design point of view it looks beautiful and respectful of the IP it is based on. In fact, I’m sure that Dragon Ball fandom is incredibly excited to be recognized in such a way on a global level, which is great. So when I say that with this move Qiddiya has “jumped the shark”, I’m not being dismissive of the Dragon Ball IP, my target here is Qiddiya itself with the announcement of yet another theme park within their realm before they have opened a single gate. Say what you want about the overall vision of Qiddiya, but it started off with a more grounded world concept of items to build:
Waterpark? Check!
Race Track? Check!
Six Flags Theme Park? Check!
Resort hotels, restaurants and shopping? All the boxes have been checked… so now it’s time to build it and see if the people will come. Announcing yet another theme park before even the first phase is open, and a heavily themed one at that, is where I think they overstepped the vision just a little bit.
Anyone else remember a certain UAE project that was first announced about 20 years ago that was going to be loaded with attraction after attraction? Announcement after insane announcement came, each one more over the top than the one before… and I’m referring to Dubailand. Announced in 2003 as a massive entertainment complex that would be twice the size of Walt Disney World and become home to about every attraction concept you can think of, including a massive observation wheel, a Universal Studios theme park, Six Flags Dubailand, a Legoland park, a DreamWorks themed park, and more. In the end, few projects intended to fall within Dubailand were built, other than I believe IMG Worlds of Adventure. Beyond that most of the big park projects move on to new locations or were canceled entirely.
However, unlike the empty desert site of Dubailand, Qiddiya is a very alive and active construction site, and has moved beyond the dream stage into building real world structures and rides at this very moment. Some great new photos of Six Flags Qiddiya taken this month can be found over at ThemeparX, which clearly shows the progress they are making in Saudi Arabia. I would just like to see Qiddiya remain focused on getting their original vision up and running before breaking off into the creation of new worlds like Dragon Ball.
(3/9/2024) Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya has released new details about their planned F1 race course, and how it will be interwoven through the other Qiddiya area attraction spaces and massive building structures. Previously in animated teaser videos for Six Flags Qiddiya we’ve seen footage showing off how the Falcon’s Flight roller coaster appeared to come very close to sections of the proposed race track, but now we are seeing this concept yet again, but this time from the view of the race course as a driver glaces up out of the corner of his eye as the Falcon’s Flight train passes overhead.
(2/10/2024) A few new pictures showing off the construction progress from Qiddiya on the new water park and Six Flags park can be seen over at ThemeparX this week that includes some incredible shots of all of the roller coasters going up currently.
(1/17/2024) A few new construction pictures showing off the progress at Six Flags Qiddiya can be found over at ThemeparX this week.Most of the pictures are focused on the massive Falcons Flight roller coaster progress but in the background you can also see progress on the park’s Colossus wooden coaster (GCI) and the Iron Rattler’s tilt coaster (Vekoma).
(12/25/2023) In an update about the status of Qiddiya in Saudi Arabia, the project has confirmed that the waterpark is currently 61% built and Six Flags Qiddiya is 59% complete at this time. When first announced back in 2018, they expected that the Six Flags park could be complete before the end of 2023, but of course the global pandemic arrived and caused numerous delays to projects around the world. While progress on the first phases of Qiddiya are still moving forward rapidly at this point, Saudi Arabia isn’t ready to release a revised opening date just yet and according to this article, certain aspects of the Qiddiya project (many that have not been announced yet) are being delayed to as late as 2033-2035 while they focus on other aspects of the project, many of which are already under way. While on the subject of construction, recient photos of the work taking place there right now have been posted to ThemeparX.
Meanwhile the project released a humorous new video playing up the aspect that Qiddiya is planned to be a revolutionary place that will place an emphasis on how we all wish to “Play” in the world. “Don’t just live life, play life.” You can check it out below.
(12/23/2023) I may have missed this announcement previously, but Skyline Attractions has confirmed that they are working with Great Coasters International to create a new “Colossus” roller coaster for Six Flags Qiddiya. They describe it as a towering “hybrid roller coaster” that they designed and engineered that will use Infinity Flyer trains and feature a hybrid support structure.
Skyline lists Colossus as standing 94.3 feet tall, 2,918 feet long, and with a top speed of 50.2 mph. No further details are mentioned, so I’m unsure if they are referring to this as a Hybrid coaster just because it may have a hybrid (wood & steel) support structure, or if it might feature sections of Titan Track.
RCDB has finally added details for Six Flags Qiddiya to their database and now list the park as opening with a total of 8 roller coasters. In addition to the previously announced Falcons Flight and Colossus, other major coasters coming to the park will include the Iron Rattler (Vekoma Tilt Coaster), Sea Stallion (Maurer Spike powered coaster), Saw Mill Falls (Mack Rides Water Coaster), Spitfire (Intamin Launched), Twilight Express (Vekoma Family Coaster) and Adrena-Line (Vekoma Family Suspended coaster).
(12/19/2023) Another new announcement has come regarding a new feature of Qiddiya City in Saudi Arabia. According to the animated video, narrated by Mark Hamill, they are building ‘the first city built for play’, with the world’s first dedicated gaming and esports district.
(12/11/2023) A good video showing off the current progress on Qiddiya City (including the Six Flags park and roller coasters) as well as other infrastructure, roads and more can be seen below.
(12/10/2023) So far we’ve been following the construction of Qiddiya’s Six Flags theme park along with what should be a very impressive themed watepark next door, but now the crown prince of Saudi Arabia has revealed more details about the attached “Qiddiya City” area that will tie everything together with even more attractions and resort amenities.
According to the announcement, Qiddiya City, located just outside Riyadh, will eventually feature over 60,000 buildings spread-out over a 360 square kilometer area and will also feature a race track, a multi-purpose sports stadium, Gaming & Esports facility as well as Golf Courses. To help put the scale of the project to something more closer to home that you may have visited, Qiddiya City will be almost three-times the size of Walt Disney World’s 47 square mile footprint in Florida.
(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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