I’m sure that you’ve noticed that I haven’t been posted on the blog in quite some time. Tonight, you can finally see what I’ve been up to. My new theme park community magazine, Theme Park Geekly, is now live! It sounds weird to call it mine. While I created it, organized it, and edited the articles it has been my
Kraken at SeaWorld Orlando | Roller Coaster Review Kraken at SeaWorld Orlando has been one of Florida’s most popular roller coasters for years. It’s a floorless B&M looper where riders face seven loops in unprotected, open air seating. I got the chance to ride it when I visited SeaWorld for the opening of Manta a few years ago. Kraken’s Setting
Wild Eagle to Soar Over Dollywood in 2012 | New Wing Roller Coaster Tonight Dollywood announced the details of their highly anticipated 2012 rollercoaster at the Boomsday celebration in Knoxville, TN. Wild Eagle will be a $20 million Bolliger & Mabillard wing coaster. Riders will be seated in four across trains with seats positioned outside of the track, instead of
A Review of Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags Over Georgia Located near the back of Six Flags Over Georgia you’ll find Great American Scream Machine. In typical Six Flags fashion it shares its name with another roller coaster in the chain. The other Great American Scream Machine was an Arrow looper at Six Flags Great Adventure. Georgia’s version
Their openings are often delayed and their known for having downtime even after they are open. But, how can you not applaud the creativity and ingenuity of roller coaster prototypes? These firsts expand on existing designs and concepts and take them a step further. Launch coasters come to mind as suffering from delays and downtime. I can remember Volcano The
Holiday World Involved in Talks with Kentucky Kingdom Holiday World owners are in talks with Kentucky Kingdom officials. They’re apparently in the “fact-finding” stage of looking into whether they see an opportunity to run the park at some point. A Wave3.com article has more: In a statement to WAVE 3, Paula Werne, director of communications for Holiday World and Splashin’
Busch Gardens Williamsburg recently released a new teaser video for their highly anticipated 2012 roller coaster, Verbolten. It’s basically an extension of the 30 second teaser that the park released last fall. Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s new teaser video: The Verbolten Experience Gnomes, Bats, Lightning, and Wolves! As some hoped, it looks like there may be a reference to our dearly
Best of the Blog 2011 – Poll Results This is the continuation of the Best of the Blog 2011 series. This post will look at poll results from last year. The polls with the most responses were first impression polls where I asked you to give your first impression of new roller coasters that had just been announced. The possible
While there won’t be a full face-lift of the site like I typically do in the off-season, I have added two interactive features that should be fun. Ask Me Anything I’ve received a lot of questions over the years. Everything from the obvious favorite theme park and favorite coaster questions to questions about setting up websites. I found myself answering
Recapping 2011 – The Most Read & Discussed Posts I thought it’d be interesting to look back at my posts and polls from 2011 in a new three part series. In Part 1 I’m going to review the blog’s most read and most commented posts. Most Read Post Busch Gardens’ Verbolten Plans Leaked Runner Up: Top 10 New Roller Coasters
Upcoming Interview with The Gravity Group The Gravity Group has been kind enough to agree to an interview for Theme Park Geekly. I have a number of questions and a general theme for the interview but, I thought it’d be cool if one question could from my readers. I’m sure there are some really interesting questions that I just wouldn’t
Merry Christmas! As promised, here’s my review of Georgia Scorcher. I hope that you got what you wanted. And, more importantly that you were able to give to others and spend some time with your family and friends. Enjoy! Georgia Scorcher at Six Flags Over Georgia In recent years, stand up roller coasters have become a dying breed. Six Flags
As I was working on the latest issue of Theme Park Geekly (Issue 4 is live by the way, check it out), I came across a video of Theme Park Review’s Robb Alvey interviewing Alan Schilke of Rocky Mountain Coasters. They’re the company behind the New Texas Giant. We can thank them and Larry Chickola for that coaster’s incredible ride and
I took this shot back in 1999 in the pre-digital camera era. Well, it was well before I had my own digital camera at least. It was on this trip to Kennywood early in my theme park travel adventures that I gained a newfound respect for woodies. Before Kennywood’s still electrifying Thunderbolt, I only had woodies from Kings Dominion and
You’ve probably seen the Toyota commercial by now that features an interesting ‘What If’. It pontificates: “What if the energy generated from a braking roller coaster was used to power something?” The commercial features the Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain by the way. Even though I skipped the Arrow looper while I was at the park I identified it
Rumors of a Hyper/Giga Roller Coaster for Knott’s Berry Farm Resurface as the Park Clears Land According to a recent Screamscape update about Knotts Berry Farm’s yearly Halloween event Knotts Scary Farm, land has been cleared to build a rumored mega/hyper coaster. Again, just a rumor, but cross your fingers. Supporting Link: Screamscape This (You)Report was submitted by Marcos What’s Your Take? What do
A Review of Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags Over Georgia Located near the back of Six Flags Over Georgia you’ll find Great American Scream Machine. In typical Six Flags fashion it shares its name with another roller coaster in the chain. The other Great American Scream Machine was an Arrow looper at Six Flags Great Adventure. Georgia’s version
Is Tremors at Silverwood An Underrated Coaster? Silverwood (Athol, Idaho) is the largest theme park in the Northwest. It doesn’t have a very large coaster lineup, but the 1999 CCI woodie, Tremors, seems to be pretty highly regarded. It’s ranked an impressive 9th in the U.S. and 17th in the World in Mitch Hawker’s 2010 Internet Wooden Coaster Poll. With
For this edition of Top 3 Thursdays I thought I’d take a look at the most common roller coaster names. Instead of trying to find the specific roller coaster names, I figured naming themes would be a bit easier. I perused the indispensable Roller Coaster Database until I came up with a handful of common namethemes. I’m sure that
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