The Great Escape has opened their new for 2021 attraction, a super tall flat ride named The Adirondack Outlaw. The ride takes passengers up to a dizzying height of 164 feet above the theme park, however the ride's placement on a naturally higher part of the park makes that height seem far greater. The attraction was built in the Ghost Town area of the park, near the Steamin' Demon roller coaster.
The attraction is certainly not for the faint of heart. the Adirondack Outlaw starts as riders are seated on opposite ends of the giant ride's arm. The entire ride then starts to rotate in a circle, with the maximum height at the top being the 164 feet. The ride rotates quickly, at speeds of up to 52 miles per hour.
The most thrilling part comes from the fact that the rider carriages at either end of the arm are able to loop around freely, meaning that a good portion of the spinning action is taken either upside down or some other non-level position. And no two rides are exactly the same, as weight distribution along with good old gravity itself means that the flipping action is different each ride.
Each end of the arm seats 8 riders, four across back to back. Technically that means that some riders move backwards as well, but with all that spinning is there really much a difference anyway? It's all thrills all the time on this attraction.
I found the below video on YouTube (via user Charles Wagor III) that shows the Adirondack Outlaw in action. Be sure to take note of how often the riders are upside down!
Amusement and theme parks, whether indoor or outdoor, in New York were not allowed to open at all during the 2020 season, but new guidance from the State of New York will allow them to the start planning their 2021 seasons immediately.
The Governor's office has set the earliest date for reopening as March 26th for indoor operations and April 9th for outdoor parks. Indoor parks will be limited to 25% of their capacity and outdoor parks will be limited to 33% of their capacity.
Each park must submit a set of their protocals for operating during the pandemic before they open their doors, with minimum requirements mirroring what most states did last season. These include temperature checks for visitors, face coverings for all and social distancing put into place. Another interesting requirement is that "contact information must be collected from each party to inform contact tracing, if needed" - that could be a logistical nightmare without the use of an app or similar technology.
Luna Park in Coney Island is very excited to reopen this year, and is getting ready to announce their opening date. The park posted a letter from their CEO that mentions six new attractions geared for the park's youngest guests.
Six Flags Darien Lake has already announced that they will reopen to their guests on May 21st, and The Great Escape will open even earlier on May 1st.
Two Six Flags Entertainment properties, The Great Escape and Six Flags Darien Lake, have announced that they will not open at all for the 2020 season.
Both of the parks are located in the state of New York, which has not allowed outdoor amusements to open as part of their COVID-19 reopening plan. While not confirmed by Six Flags, it would seem as though the parks were holding out to possibly be able to offer a Halloween or Christmas operating calendar to its visitors. Alas, that wasn't meant to be this year.
The Great Escape posted that they have been able to assist the local community while closed through donating approximately 900 surgical masks to Glens Falls Hospital, giving free WiFi to local SUNY Adirondack students who used the Johnny Rockets parking lot as a safe remote location for online education and using the freezers and refrigerators from the Six Flags Great Escape Lodge & Indoor Waterpark to keep food fresh for the local Washington County Office for the Aging.
All Great Escape season passes, and add-ons, have been extended through the end of the 2021 season.
Six Flags Darien Lake, who rejoined the Six Flags family not too many years ago, also set up a page to announce that they will not operate in 2020. Their information is a bit more brief than the Great Escape's, however they do also note that their 2020 season passes will be also extended through the 2021 season.
We still have a lot of ground to cover with regard to Six Flags Theme Parks' new for 2020 announcements. We've posted about a couple of the largest attractions, now let's take a look at the other rides headed to the parks.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom will be adding a new roller coaster, the Sidewinder Safari, which also has an animal exhibit located in its queue. Riders will enter a safari themed queue that features rattlesnakes and other reptiles. The coaster itself appears to be a clone of Rajin' Cajun at Six Flags America. The ride is one of Zamperla's family spinning wild mouse coasters, standing 42 feet tall with 1,378 feet of track.
Six Flags Fiesta Texas will open a brand new type of thrill ride next year, named Daredevil Dive Flying Machines. Themed as a steampunk flying machine, the attraction will be one of Zamperla's new elevated Super Air Race rides. The ride has six plane themed cars (each one seats 4 riders) that soar and rotate as the attraction rises to five stories above the ground. Daredevil Dive Flying Machines will be located in the Crackaxle Canyon section of the park.
Two parks will be adding a Booster ride from Funtime, at The Great Escape it will be known as Adirondack Outlaw and at Six Flags St. Louis Catwoman Whip. The Booster ride is also commonly called a "salt and pepper shaker" and features sets seats on each end of a large ride arm. The arm rotates and sends rides up 160 feet in the air at 50 miles per hour - oh and the ride carriage is able to rotate freely as well allowing for inversions.
My description of the ride may not be perfect, but this animation of the Six Flags St. Louis version definitely makes the attraction clear. I believe that Catwoman Whip will have more seats - 16 per ride cycle - than at The Great Escape, which looks like it will have 8.
A pair of parks will add another recently popular ride, Zamperla's Endeavour. The ride is the modern version of a Huss Enterprise, and visitors to parks are eating them up. The ride will be named Supergirl Sky Flyer at Six Flags New England, and Catwoman Whip at Six Flags Over Georgia. Riders are seated with their legs hanging free below them and rotated in a giant circle to seven stories above the ground.
Six Flags Over Georgia will place their ride in a newly renovated Gotham City area, with new theming, food, and a second new ride, a traditional Scrambler named Poison Ivy Toxic Twister. Six Flags New England's ride will be placed in the DC Super Hero Adventure themed area.
Good things come in pairs at Six Flags, and the trend continues with two parks building massive spinning pendulum rides in 2020. Six Flags America is going to add Harley Quinn Spinsanity, one of the 147 foot tall, 70 mile per hour version of the ride. To be located within the park's Gotham City area, it is sure to breath a lot of new life into that part of the park.
Six Flags Mexico is also building a pendulum ride, CraZanity, which is one of the even larger versions of these rides which tie as the tallest in the world. Standing 170 feet tall at maximum swing, CraZanity will hit 75 miles per hour at its top speed.
Turns out the rumors of Six Flags Magic Mountain's Green Lantern being transported to La Ronde were totally true, as the park has announced the ride as Vipere. The coaster opened in California in 2011 but has a difficult time at the park since then. Hopefully the ride will be better suited for Canadian audiences. The ride is one of Intamin's Zac Spin coasters, standing 105 feet tall and featuring cars that can spin wildly on the multi-level track, should the park desire those operations.
Last but not least, Six Flags Over Texas is building North America's first Mack Rides Power Splash ride, named Aquaman: Power Wave. The ride has a 700 foot long track that uses LSM launches to send boats both forward and backward up 148 foot tall towers at 63 miles per hour. At the end of the last drop the boats soar through a splash pool creating a drenching finale to a thrilling ride.
It's great to see one of these rides come to a park in North America, as they look very exciting. It is rumored that this ride was fabricated for the cancelled Six Flags Dubai project - in this case much to the gain of Six Flags Over Texas!
Six Flags has formally announced the rebranding of three of the latest parks to join the company's family of properties and a new name for an existing one. Darien Lake, Wet & Wild Splashtown and Wet & Wild Phoenix will all have brand new names, and the water park at The Great Escape will be renamed.
Six Flags Darien Lake, as it will be called (again) was an easy one to see coming, and honestly the park has already made it clear that was the direction they were headed. The park is building the Six Flags SkyScreamer for 2019, a 242 foot tall swing ride that will move passengers in seats at 35 miles per hour.
The park's website also offers that guests arriving at the park will be greeted by a "revamped main gate area with a towering, new digital pylon and a new Six Flags Darien Lake entrance sign."
Formerly known as Wet & Wild Splashtown, Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown will be making a, well, splash in the Houston, Texas area this summer. The 48 acre park will debut all new Caribbean theming to match the new name, along with a major new waterslide.
Known as the Wahoo Wave, the thrilling family raft ride will stand six stories and "send four riders into near vertical motion as they experience extended hang times and zero g-forces. Riders plunge 30 feet straight down before sweeping across the top of a massive waterfall, then descending into a refreshing pool below."
Next up is the transformation of Wet & Wild Phoenix into Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Phoenix. While there will be no major new attraction at the water park this year, it will also receive all-new Caribbean theming to match the name, along with an updated dining area with plenty of expanded seating.
The Great Escape is changing the name of their water park to Hurricane Harbor to better fit the portfolio of the company, it was also announced today. It will introduce "two brand-new family attractions: Bucket Blasters, where riders will spin around in barrels for a good old-fashioned water gun battle and Shipwreck Cove, a fun activity pool with interactive water sprays, geysers, and fountains for hours of water play entertainment."
The Great Escape has added a thrilling new flat ride for 2018, named Pandemonium, to the park's line up of attractions. The new ride opened earlier in The Great Escape's season, so it has already been thrilling visitors to the park for weeks now.
The ride, which looks to be a Freestyle from Chance Rides, seats 24 passengers at a time, facing outward on a giant ring. The ring rotates quickly while it is elevated and spun at the same time, creating a wave-like motion that riders experience as they go. The motion can be a bit disorienting, but is perfect for thrill seekers! Freestyle rides are more common at fairs and other traveling events, so it's interesting to see one installed at a Six Flags-owned park.
This video of the ride shows Pandemonium in action, and by the looks of it the riders are enjoying it! This smaller, but still very thrilling, flat ride looks like a perfect fit for a park the size of The Great Escape.
At night, the ride really glows with an "electrifying light package that hypnotizes onlookers as they follow all the twisting, twirling motions" of Pandemonium.
Rounding out the rest of the Six Flags announcements from the end of this past week, up first is a new spinning thrill ride for The Great Escape. Named Pandemonium, the new ride will seat 24 rides per cycle, each seating facing outward in a giant circle. The center of the ride will rise up as it spins, and once at full height the center arm will also spin as well. The result is a mix or disorienting fun that includes moments of low gravity.
Pandemonium looks to be one of Chance Rides' Freestyle attractions, which are popular at many traveling fairs but not often installed at permanent parks. It also comes with a fantastic light package that really makes the ride shine at night. Pandemonium will be installed in the park's Alpine Fest area, near the Screaming Eagles ride.
Six Flags Great America will be adding the tallest Larson Giant Loop yet created in 2018, standing 100 feet tall. The attraction was announced without a name, so that is still forthcoming.
Previous models of the Giant Loop rides that were installed at Six Flags parks stand 72 feet tall, so just less than 30 feet has been added for the version at Six Flags Great America.
Like with the other rides, one train will seat riders face to face as it moves through the giant loop both forwards and backwards. The ride cycle features moments at the top of the loop where the train slows so that passengers experience some nice hang-time.
The 2018 season at Canada's La Ronde will be focused on families with the addition of a new themed area, named Carnaval En Folie. The festive carnival-like atmosphere will feature "rich, bright colors, dazzling lights, festive music, and crackling popcorn" - not to mention three new rides that the entire family can enjoy together.
The first ride is named Torsade, a classic Tilt-a-Whirl, next up is Petitie Roue which is a smaller sized Ferris wheel, and finally Tourbillon, a scrambler. La Ronde plans to have the new themed area ready to open along with the park at the start of the 2018 season.
Last, but not least, we have the addition of the Wonder Woman Coaster for Six Flags Mexico. The ride will be one of S&S Worldwide's 4D Free Fly roller coasters, the 6th in the Six Flags chain, featuring individual cars that move along a multi-level layout. Riders are treated to several flips while on the ride, controlled by a bit of both gravity and magnets placed along the track.
The nature of the ride means that no two trips on the Wonder Woman coaster will be exactly the same. Six Flags Mexico released this preview video of the coaster in action, note the nice new color scheme that the ride will have!
Part of this past week's announcements from Six Flags parks was the addition of several new flat rides and slides, sure to offer plenty of spinning, soaring and splashing for park visitors. Here's a breakdown of what's opening where.
A new 242 foot tall Starflyer ride, named Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth, will be opening next season at Six Flags America. The towering ride will give riders a view of the park while they spin in a giant 98 foot circle at speeds of 40 miles per hour. The park notes that the new ride will be the tallest attraction at Six Flags America when it opens. No location for the ride in the park was specified in the announcements, just that the DC Comic theming will compliment the existing Joker, Superman and Batman themed attraction already there.
Spinning into Six Flags St. Louis next season is Spinsanity, a Zamperla Disk'O, that will be located in the Chouteau's Market area of the park across from Tsunami Soaker.
Spinsanity will seat 40 riders per cycle on motorcycle-style seats secured to a giant ring. The ring will rotate as it also moves up and down a five story tall "U" shaped track, creating a disorienting experience. Capable of completing 14 revolutions per minute, the ride will certainly be a draw for thrill seekers.
An imposing new pendulum ride named Titan will open at La Ronde, bringing pulse-pumping thrills to riders. Another Zamperla designed creation, Titan will be one of the company's Giant Discovery rides. These rides swing riders, seated on the end of a giant disk, up to 147 feet above the ground, taller than many roller coasters. The maximum swing angle means that riders are effectively upside down at that height - oh and it also hits speeds of 68 miles per hour!
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom will also open a Zamperla Giant Discovery, named Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth. While all of the statistics for the ride are the same as the one for La Ronde (and for that matter the Riddler themed one opened this year at Six Flags Over Texas), this instillation will have a color scheme that's fitting of the Wonder Woman Name. The park released the above concept art showing that the new thrill ride will be located next to the Superman Ultimate Flight and Joker roller coasters.
Rounding out the remaining Six Flags announcements is a pair of 30 foot tall twisting body slides named Bonzai Pipelines that will open at the Great Escape's water park, Splashwater Kingdom. Finally, Six Flags Mexico will add virtual reality headsets to the Medusa Steel Coaster, and celebrate with an all new Mardi Gras Festival. Hurricane Harbor Oaxtepec will also open in February of 2017 with a host of new slides and attractions.
Six Flags Great America will spend all of 2015 celebrating the park's 40th anniversary, having opened during the country's bicentennial in 1976. The celebration will not feature any large new rides or attractions, but will carry on throughout the season and feature a host of special events.
"In 2015 we plan to celebrate our park's history and how it has grown to
one of the premiere amusement parks in the country," said park
president, Hank Salemi.
"From the American Eagle to Goliath, and Whizzer to X Flight, the
skyline of Great America has grown impressively over the last four
decades."
To help celebrate, two of the park's original themed areas, Carousel Plaza and Hometown Square, will be renovated to bring back a retro feel. Three classic children's ride will also return, fully refurbished to a new generation to enjoy. The park will also hold weekly celebrations to honor each of the park's roller coasters.
A new children friendly water play area will be built at The Great Escape in 2015, named Buccaneer Beach. The addition will be a full renovation of the park's popular children's area, Noah's Sprayground.
"The refreshed and re-themed pirate adventure will feature pop jets,
splash pads, children’s slides and water elements offering endless water
park fun. The expansion to the upper water park will include new pool
deck space and increased shaded water park seating."
“We are thrilled to rejuvenate this beloved family attraction in
Splashwater Kingdom,” said Eric Gilbert, park president, Six Flags Great
Escape Resort Properties. “The introduction of Buccaneer Beach is in
direct response to our guests’ feedback and will breathe new life into
this historic area of our beautiful water park.”
Located near Six Flags Over Georgia, Six Flags White Water will debut an extreme new slide in 2015, named Dive Bomber.
Standing over 100 feet tall, the trap-door release slide features a plummet of nearly 90 degrees at 40 miles per hour. To replace the park's Cliffhanger slide, Dive Bomber will be the tallest attraction ever built at Six Flags White Water.
It is not totally clear if this is one slide or multiple, but I'm sure that will be revealed later as construction progresses.
Get ready for Halloween all summer long at La Ronde next year. The park's 2015 attraction is Maison Rouge - Labyrinthe de la Terreur - or a straight translation of Red House - Labrynth of Fear. The permanent haunted house features a pretty sick looking clown as its mascot, and appears to be taking place in a large carnival tent.
"The carnival has been gone for decades, leaving behind ruins and decay. The house is still standing, but it is in disrepair and haunted by evil spirits. Clowns, once friendly and funny, went crazy and insane. Initially, the house tour is fun, but it ends in blood.
Visitors can use different corridors leading to many parts, but soon
they realize that this house is a maze of fear and darkness which they
must escape."
The attraction is being advertised as having different paths you can take to get through, making it have a higher repeat visit value. It will be designed by ACME Scenic Services of Montreal, who have a very impressive resume.
Finally, Six Flags Mexico has announced SkyScreamer, a high in the sky swing ride. Standing 242 feet tall, the ride will feature red, white, and green - the colors of the Mexico flag. Many of the promotional shots of the ride show the beefy tower that was used on the 400 foot versions of the ride, however I think that's just for media purposes. I would expect the tower to be similar to the one at Six Flags Great Adventure, for instance. SkyScreamer, like its counterpart at other Six Flags parks, will spin riders around in a nearly 100 foot circle at 35 miles per hour.
Well, technically they're both Six Flags parks, though neither one has it in their name. But who cares when we're talking about new thrill rides!
The Great Escape, located in upstate New York, will open the Extreme Supernova to excited park guests starting tomorrow. The ride will first be open for several hours for season pass holders only, then the general public will get their turn.
The Extreme Supernova takes sixteen riders on a thrilling ride up to fifty feet above the ground at the end of a giant pendulum. The arm swings back and forth as the riders rotate around, creating a disorienting experience - and on top of that passengers' legs are dangling below them the whole time!
The new ride is located near the famous Comet wooden roller coaster.
Also up North, La Ronde recently celebrated the opening of The Demon, a wicked (perhaps evil?) twisting and inverting contraption. The ride is not one you often encounter at parks, especially in the North America - this is the type of machine you find on a midway in Germany, perhaps.
The Demon seats riders on a platform held by two arms, which does draw a comparison to a Top Spin. However the arms begin to rotate in opposite directions, much like a giant taffy pull. The resulting movements of the ride carriage are pretty crazy to watch!
You'll have to disregard the French, but this video shows off the Demon in action.
Frankly both rides make me a bit queasy just writing about them, but I have no doubt each will prove super popular this year!
A nice trend seen in today's announcements is the addition of tradition flat rides to many of the Six Flags parks. Granted some are much more modern, but the style of the rides being built represent something that you could say had been missing for many years at several parks.
Six Flags New England is going to build the world's tallest tower swing ride, named the New England SkyScreamer. Granted the ride is big, but still a flat ride at its core.
The New England SkyScreamer will lift passengers up to over 400 feet in the air, swinging them around at speeds reaching 40 miles per hour. The attraction will be more than twice as tall as any other ride at the park, and will give some astonishing views of the area surrounding Six Flags New England.
Following the success of the Texas SkyScreamer, installed this season at Six Flags Over Texas, the New England version is sure to become an instant landmark for the theme park.
Both Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom will be adding the Tsunami Soaker to their attraction lineups next season. The interactive water flat ride features a tea cup style motion combined with individual water blasted at each seat.
This style of ride successfully debuted this year at La Ronde, and guests loved the ability to blast other riders as they twirled around - so much that the chain decided to build more of them!
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom also announced that they will now be open year round, including weekends during winter months they previously closed. Also, due to the exceptional reception to Cirque Dreams Splashtastic this year, the show will return again for next Summer.
Alright, a coaster is not a flat ride, but that's only one of the new additions to Six Flags America in 2014. Set in a brand new Mardi Gras themed area, the park will add the Ragin Cajun spinning family coaster, along with the French Quarter Flyers, a set of Flying Scooters.
"Guests will discover a celebration every day as snappy jazz and zydeco
tunes pour into the streets of Mardi Gras. The entire area will be a
party inspired by the energy of New Orleans with delicious foods,
exciting games, tasty beverages and fun retail items to match the lively
spirit of the South.
“Not one, but two new rides and a completely new look will bring
the celebratory style of the Big Easy to Six Flags America,” said Rick
Howarth, park president. “The new Mardi Gras area marks a considerable
expansion to our excellent collection of rides and a major enhancement
to our theming.”
At this point I believe it is still speculation, but the Ragin Cajun coaster could be being moved to Six Flags America from Six Flags Great America. Six Flags America sounds like they have a promising new area on their hands, with new theming coming along with the two new rides.
The Great Escape is going for thrills next year with the addition of the Extreme Supernova, a pendulum style flat ride. Seating sixteen passengers with the feet dangling below the gondola, the Extreme Supernova will rotate and swing riders up to 50 feet above the ground, almost inverting them.
To be located near the Comet roller coaster, the new ride is definitely one for thrill seekers. From the concept art and video on the official website, it appears as though this will be a Zamperla Midi Discovery.
Our friends up North at La Ronde have a new Demon to fear, at least in the form of a flipping new flat ride coming to the amusement park in 2014.
Seated back to back on a giant gondola, riders will be pulled like taffy once the ride begins. This includes fully inverting riders during the course of the dizzying action. To make things even more fun, there will be fountains located under the ride that will shoot up at random times, potentially soaking riders.
Two parks will also see their children's areas expanded, including new rides and a general refreshing of the grounds. Six Flags Over Texas will totally renovate their section for small children, adding new rides and providing more shade and comforts for families.
Six Flags Magic Mountain will also renovate their Bugs Bunny World, and add another kiddie coaster to the mix - the park's 19th overall. While certainly not for little kids, the park will also run Colossus and Batman the Ride backwards for a limited time during the season.
I really love how many sets of Larson Flying Scooters have opened this year - that is certainly a trend that I would enjoy seeing continue!
The Great Escape, located in Lake George, NY, has opened their new attraction for 2013, named the Screamin' Eagles. As I'm sure you've surmised, the attraction is a brand new Flying Scooter, and has taken up home in the park's Fest Area in the location of a former building on a hillside which gives the riders an additional feeling of height. The ride has a bright yellow/orange/red color scheme, making it stand out among the tall trees that surround it.
Once seated the 'flyers' are able to control their ride using a fin on the front of each car, making it possible to sail up higher using wind resistance. Those who want a milder ride can just enjoy the view as they soar around.
According to this story, there's plenty of other changes this season, with several rides changing locations and even moving indoors. The park will also turn the train around on the Canyon Blaster for a limited time in July.
The Screamin' Eagles previewed for season pass holders this past weekend, and will open to the public on June 6th.
The Great Escape circa 1999 was a small dog in a big kennel of parks. Premier had gobbled up Six Flags the year before, and with re-branding and mega-attractions going in at parks across the globe, this park only got a used coaster inside a building out of the deal.
Still, the park knew what people liked about it and made sure to include that in their brochure. While the ownership was going through some big changes the Great Escape still had many of their classic attractions to promote. Why else have a random cut-out of a high diver flying through the air? Well, because the park's high dive show was well liked and something guests regularly enjoyed.
Rides. A big reason why anyone goes to amusement and theme parks, so it makes sense that they are featured first. The Great Escape offered the Comet wooden coaster (a great ride), the Alpine Bobsled (a unique ride) and Boomerang (if you have nothing polite to say then say nothing at all). New for 1999 was The Nightmare, and indoor roller coaster. For a new coaster, the ride sure didn't get a lot of space in the brochure!
A real draw for the Great Escape is the water park, known as Splashwater Kingdom. The area has been heavily expanded post-1999 due to its growing popularity but at the time already had a large wave pool, lazy river and several slides. A recent addition at the time was Paul Bunyan's Bucket Brigade, a huge water playhouse.
The historic aspect of the park really shines in the children's areas and live entertainment. The storybook displays are great for families with small children, and shows such as the "high-spirited Red Garter Saloon Revue, daredevil stunts by the Mermaid and Mariners, and the incredible Rock and Roll on Ice Revue" kept patrons busy during the day.
I also wanted to throw in the park's map from 1999 as well. I hate to be negative but this map is kinda awful. I'm pretty sure that individuals did exist back in 1999 that had quality artistic talent, so I'm not sure why this was what they settled on!
But really, it's an awkward layout - and check out the log flume that appears to be on par with a Splash Mountain level of theme! The Alpine Bobsled's track levitates in the air on its own, the park has a train track to nowhere and I will choose to leave alone the pointy spire that is the Condor.
It's okay though! The park has a much nicer map in use today, so all is well.
A reader recently alerted me to the fact that New York's The Great Escape theme park had some nice new 45 degree aerials on Google Maps (thanks, Chris!). Since the park has lacked a good aerial view for so long, let's dig in!
The entrance to The Great Escape takes you directly into a quaint, small but cozy, main street area. It isn't so much a street as an extended courtyard created by the buildings, but it's pretty nice. I wanted to snap some photos of it when I visited this past Summer, but a thunderstorm told me otherwise.
The park large S&S Tower ride stands adjacent to the entrance after being moved to the theme park from Six Flags New Orleans.
As you walk from the parking area to the gates the Steamin' Demon looms over you on a hillside. The Demon has been thrilling riders with its double corkscrew and vertical loop since 1984. If you brace your head accordingly, it isn't so bad!
The park's log flume uses the same hill to its advantage, taking the boats into a sawmill themed buildings before dropping them into the final splash. The flume travels around the perimeter of the large show building that once contained a coaster, named Nightmare. It also heads past from dilapidated western buildings that were once part of a train ride at the park, I believe.
Six Flags transplanted this wonderful old Arrow mine train to the park in 2003 after it sat in a field for years, originating from Opryland. Named Canyon Blaster the ride uses two lifts, and is filled with odd transitions that are the signature mark of old Arrow mine trains, at least in my opinion.
The landscaping is really quite above average on this one, too, filled with Western style props that were previously used in other attractions at the park.
The water park at the Great Escape is one of its biggest draws these days, and it's separated into two sections due to the park's hilly terrain. Here is the upper portion, which includes both a Tornado slide and Bowl slide bordered by a lazy river.
Oh my it is a two-fer! Here is the lower part of the water park, complete with the park's new set of twisting mat racer slides, part of the Alpine Freefalls, and a very large wave pool.
Behind it, and framing the water park oh so nicely, is the Comet, the Great Escape's large wooden coaster. A classic Schmeck by design, the ride was moved to the park in 1994 from Canada. Thank goodness it was, as it's still giving some pretty great rides.
We shall end the aerial tour of the Great Escape with a look at the Alpine Bobsleds, a coaster that both eluded me when I visited, and also is highly rumored to be removed soon. It is pretty fun to stand in the queue line, which weaves under the middle of the ride, and watch the trough sway as the cars pass by!
For more info on the Great Escape check out this story we did from our visit, and for a link to the aerials's on Google, click here.
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