Six Flags plans new pendulum rides, coasters for 2024

the load times for this, at least at magic mountain, can be quite long -- but it is an extremely fun flat ride.

Excellent fit for the park! Hopefully they also get the elaborate themed funhouse queue SFFT has on their identically named version, as that's a simple way to plus what is becoming a pretty common flat ride.

We need one of these in Florida .... Crazanity was awesome.
Maybe ICON park ??

I'm right there with you AJ, the "funhouse" integrated into the queue of SFFT's version of this attraction is excellent. Also, while lines for these rides look long, the extremely high capacity per cycle allows the line to move surprisingly fast.

Is there anything to do at six flags other than coasters and carnival rides?

Video games?

I'm surprised these spinning pendulum rides aren't in more places. They are really great rides that take up relatively little space in a park.

interesting about SFOT updating the original log flume. i was afraid it may end up leaving. now, if they could just keep pirate's of speelunker's cave running, my childhood memories would be complete.

As for the other SF announcements, The Flash: Vertical Velocity at SFGAdv is an interesting addition. Based on the photos, it looks like they're adding it behind Cyborg, which will create a crowded corner of Gotham (would have made more sense to put this between Wonder Woman and the Gotham Arena). For a park as popular as SFGAdv, I always wonder about capacity, and the ops teams have proved me wrong by doing an excellent job with the otherwise low throughput of Jersey Devil, but unless Flash has a switch track to allow multi-train operation, this is going to be a pretty slow-moving line given the length of this shuttle coaster even if crews are on their game.

The "additions" to my home park, SFA, are pretty lame. I did like the Steam Pun/Western theming used at SFFT (other SF Steam Punk overlays are most mediocre), but Coyote Creek was one of the better western themed lands in the entire SF chain. Now they're going to overlay Steam Punk elements on top of an otherwise well-themed area while other parts of the park that could use some attention are allowed to stagnate. The new attraction looks interesting to watch, but doesn't appear very dynamic from a rider's perspective. This is likely taking over the pad where the bull flat ride was (or maybe the old tilt-a-whirl pad), and renaming and repainting Mind Eraser is putting lipstick on a pig. The only SFA announcement that's worth some publicity is the return of their stunt show, which was probably one of the best regularly staged live entertainment offerings across the entire chain, but was suspended this season for unknown reasons.

The most interesting announcement for me is Bobcat, a woodie from Gravitykraft. I really liked Switchback at ZDT's in Texas, and it's always good to have some different manufacturers out there getting opportunities with the big boys. Great Escape is in no man's land, but might be worth a visit for us next year if we find a way to make it up to SFNE next summer.

@mbruscco - I don't think Pirates is going anywhere. They just did a major refurbishment and relaunch of the classic ride 2 years ago, so I get the feeling that they plan on maintaining it for the foreseeable future.

@tiptop22 "Is there anything to do at six flags other than coasters and carnival rides?"

Get shanked? Watch a fight? Wish you were somewhere else?

These will be great additions to SFGAm and SFStL, especially considering SFGAm's current Huss Frisbee is really old and unreliable but still pretty popular (it was relocated from SFGAdv 20 years ago and I have no idea how long it was there).

That being said IMO the super boomerang at SFGAdv is a terrible addition. They already have the Joker, how about instead of adding another lame, low capacity, "one and done" coaster, you take that money and hire more maintenance staff so the rides aren't constantly down and visiting your parks is actually fun? And the name/theme is puzzling as well, people associate the Flash with something fast or something that launches fast. This is in the same park as Kingda Ka, is 21 years newer, yet is less than half the speed. I also wonder if the new overnight "luxury experience" (not sure if its a hotel or not?) will last or just be something they try for a year or two before giving up on.

At this point SFA needs a new owner. KD is two hours from DC and BGW is 3 hours away, meanwhile Six Flags is right in the middle of the DC Metro and not even trying to be good. I am seriously befuddled why they even bother owning this park, the DC area is 5.5 million people and Six Flags just hurts their brand reputation letting that many people think of them as the company that doesn't give AF.

Seeing what is happening right now with SF reminds me of what football coaches/GM's do right before getting fired, they change their strategy to one that will be more popular to try and buy themselves more time. Kirean Burke did this with Six Flags in 2005 as well.

Only news that I really care about is the status of El Toro.

@the_man3
Get out of my head. Although I'm not a fan of NJD, I wonder what the motivation is when it comes to new ride investments and determining the location as the park has an abundance of dead and ghost areas.
SFA is just....*sigh

Colonel, what would you do to improve the Six Flags experience? Serious question.

Don't know if you know this, @the_man3, but the Super Boomerang is nothing like the old crummy Vekoma Boomerangs scattered everywhere. It is a multi-launch coaster with airtime, interesting inversions, and a significant ride length despite being a shuttle coaster. I am very concerned about capacity, but there's a decent chance it's the second-best coaster in the park.

Now that the whole list is out, I'll say this: I think every park getting something is getting an attraction that is beneficial for the park, and I don't see anything on the list that feels like an addition simply for the sake of making sure the park gets something new. That said, nothing Six Flags is installing next year is something I'd consider travel worthy, and despite the company's claims of increasing their capital budget, it doesn't really show in this set of attractions. The big thing Six Flags needs to do, though, is commit to having all of these open in the first half of 2024. The fact that 3/4 of their announced projects for 2023 still have not yet opened and it's now the end of August is not lost on the public, and if the chain gets a reputation for failing to deliver on promises that will be far more damaging than less impressive additions.

^This. Well said, AJ!

The addition at SFGA (Chicago) isn't so much an addition as a replacement for the Revolution. So, it's another year of disappointment for my home park. After much speculation that the footprint of Buccaneer Battle coupled with the go-kart area would create a pad for "something big," it looks like we will have another year of a wooden fence blocking off Buccaneer Battle. Add to that the rumors that the Demon is not long for this world due to being closed the 2nd half of the summer; you've got a diagonal gash across the rear of this park with nothing but dead space. Then if you want to connect the gash to the front of the park: you've got the Condor sitting in pieces at the front of the park, and they have finally updated the app to acknowledge it is closed and not "coming early summer," and the Mardi Gras Hangover, which may be the biggest waste of money SF has ever spent because it was open for two years and now sits idle. Finally, the the American Eagle has only used one side of operations for years, and the blue side has a large section of track missing covered with a tarp at the bottom of the first hill. It would appear that disrepair has finally caught up with the Eagle as well. This is a park that is in desperate need of a capital infusion, but it's ok a Zamperla Giga Discovery pendulum ride will cover the warts.

These look AWESOME! I'm just wondering why New England location isn't getting cool new rides. Sad ??

@MLB: At least it's better than just getting a "new" DC Universe area with some new paint jobs on a few rides, and saying this just replaces Revolution is like saying Raging Bull just replaces Whizzer.

@Mattcoz - I've ridden both the revolution and a Zamperla Giga Discovery pendulum, yes the new ride is better but not that much better that I would consider it a major upgrade. I will agree with you about the "new" DC Universe paint job. You forgot one thing... the "new" Aquaman Splashdown, that wasn't open the first year of the "new" DC Universe. They ran the Yankee Clipper instead.

Not a great lineup but not bad. Zamperla pendulums are pretty thrilling. As an aficionado of woodies, I'm gratified to see that Bobcat will be added. Not sure what to make of The Flash: Vertical Velocity. (Of course Six Flags has to once again be redundant with names, as there's an impulse coaster named Vertical Velocity at SFGA.) It's an interesting concept and purportedly a family coaster but the vertical part looks a bit daunting for young kids.