Six Flags to open world's tallest, fastest, longest coaster

[BoddaH1994]

Don't get too excited.  It's in Saudi Arabia.

https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201908/6969/

[King Ding Dong]

I have this bone saw phobia so will take a pass.

[JonahWilliamson]

Really hyped to watch this thing never get built. STOKED to watch this park never open. 

 

[homestar92]

Interesting how they offer us no stats other than that it's "the tallest, fastest, and longest".

How tall? How fast? How long? Who actually agreed to make this? The video doesn't look like any ride announcement I've seen before. It doesn't look like an Intamin, the track actually reminds me of Premier track, but I'm just not sure they would build something of this scale.

There are also a few spots in the video where it seems to defy physics with the speed at which it goes uphill in some of the segments of the ride, so it seems that it has multiple launches even though the video shows no launching mechanism on the track. The whole POV just seems really fishy to me like it's not quite completely finished yet.

If this ever does get built (and that's a BIG if), I worry that its complexity is going to result in this thing almost never being open.

[BoddaH1994]

4 minutes ago, JonahWilliamson said:

Really hyped to watch this thing never get built. STOKED to watch this park never open. 

 

I'd be worried as to what would happen if American-Saudi relations soured.

Also, why would you invest in the biggest, tallest, fastest anything in a country that doesn't have an amusement park yet?  Would that even be a draw?

Also also, who's manufacturing this thing?  Do they even know?

[homestar92]

1 minute ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Also, why would you invest in the biggest, tallest, fastest anything in a country that doesn't have an amusement park yet?  Would that even be a draw?

Especially when considering that the parks in the UAE (which is a much friendlier destination for foreign tourists than Saudi Arabia) have consistently failed to pull the kinds of attendance numbers you'd like to see from a park with that much money being invested into it.

It doesn't really make sense to build any record-smashing attractions in a park that will likely see fewer visitors than "nearby" year-round parks that pull a third to a quarter of the guests that the larger seasonal American parks pull.

[BoddaH1994]

Just now, homestar92 said:

Especially when considering that the parks in the UAE (which is a much friendlier destination for foreign tourists than Saudi Arabia) have consistently failed to pull the kinds of attendance numbers you'd like to see from a park with that much money being invested into it.

It doesn't really make sense to build any record-smashing attractions in a park that will likely see fewer visitors than "nearby" year-round parks that pull a third to a quarter of the guests that the larger seasonal American parks pull.

Plus.... someone mentioned that steel costs double now of what it did when Fury was built.  Imagine that largest steel coaster on earth... 3 years from now... what would the budget be? $60 million?  

I'm in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp.

[SonofBaconator]

It looks like one of those No Limits 2 coasters kids make that always pop up on Youtube.

[homestar92]

I just hope someone else is funding this. If Six Flags is footing the bill, I fear this could be a blunder of pre-2009 Six Flags proportions.

[JonahWilliamson]

Coming to Six Flags Galapagos Island in 2025.

Nah but for real this what it feels like

[BoddaH1994]

7 minutes ago, homestar92 said:

I just hope someone else is funding this. If Six Flags is footing the bill, I fear this could be a blunder of pre-2009 Six Flags proportions.

Imagine what it feels like to have a Six Flags park as your home park.  Many have gotten sub-$5 million investments over the past five years.  Now they are building their biggest and best in a country you'll never visit.

[Maverick44]

The POV shows this thing so spaced out. Its going to cost a butt load to build haha.  Count me in the I'll believe it when I see it camp right now.

[malem]

40 minutes ago, homestar92 said:

I just hope someone else is funding this. If Six Flags is footing the bill, I fear this could be a blunder of pre-2009 Six Flags proportions.

Saudi Arabia itself is almost certainly footing the capex bill, so funding shouldn't be an issue. Six Flags seems to be on board for IP and operations, similar to the China parks that are under development.

[BeeastFarmer]

• SIX is franchising their name for a licensing fee.  They will also give design input and management input.  It should be a profit enterprise for them, with the risk being taken by the Saudi Arabia group that is actually building the park.

[Maverick44]

I wanna know what manufacturer is supposedly building this coaster. Kinda reminded me of S&S in the pov.

[FUN&ONLY!]

I honestly don’t think this coaster is ever going to see the light of day. It is too ambitious like Son of Beast, and we all know how that mess ended up!

[Rivertown Rider]

I doubt this coaster ever gets built.  It reminds me of when I used to build these insanely long log flumes on Roller Coaster Tycoon.  Just because you can build it on a computer doesn't mean it makes logical sense.

[decyferite]

I think this describes where the idea came from

[TheBEASTunchained]

2 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Imagine what it feels like to have a Six Flags park as your home park.  Many have gotten sub-$5 million investments over the past five years.  Now they are building their biggest and best in a country you'll never visit.

I’d say it’s much better to get a sub-$5 million investment than to get absolutely nothing, as Cedar Fair seems to think is appropriate for their “smaller” parks. 

[BoddaH1994]

3 minutes ago, TheBEASTunchained said:

I’d say it’s much better to get a sub-$5 million investment than to get absolutely nothing, as Cedar Fair seems to think is appropriate for their “smaller” parks. 

Not this year. You get a water slide! And YOU get a water slide! And YOU get a water slide.

[MDMC01]

The park itself sounds interesting, almost like a modern version of an ambitious “edge of the millennium” theme park concept, but a few questions/comments:

1) What is a hydraulic boom ride (and how does it differentiate from the Drop Tower)?

2) I’m curious about the water coaster... will it be the Intamin vertical lift type (or launch?), a water slide, or something like the Liquid Coaster of yesteryear (a modern counterpart could have been Shoot the Rapids in a way)? Or could it even be a single rail suspended coaster Roller Soaker/Nickelodeon coaster (at Hershey/Carowinds, respectively)?

3) The Aeromax sounds like those rides where you can control the rotation of your craft (forget what that’s called)

4) The rainforest theme sounds cool

5) Why Saudi Arabia? As someone else said, lots of theme park projects in that area have either been shuttered or are struggling due to over expansion- what makes this project any different?

[MDMC01]

Sorry to double post, but I just saw that Falcon’s Flight video... please tell me that’s not the actual ride lol... that looks like something made in a game like Planet Coaster or Ultimate Ride. And what’s with the unbanked turns and insanely high hill on the cliff top... I get that’s it’s a concept video (I guess), but, uhh..

[King Ding Dong]

Did construction on that Polar Coaster in Orlando ever begin?  

[IndyGuy4KI]

I think they gave us the wrong video and info, instead:

world's tallest, fastest, longest coaster

world's tallest, fastest, Larson Looper

[Magenta Lizard]

7 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

• SIX is franchising their name for a licensing fee.  They will also give design input and management input.  It should be a profit enterprise for them, with the risk being taken by the Saudi Arabia group that is actually building the park.

Unless there’s an accident. Then they’re risking what value their name has, on a installation they have little to no actual control over. 

“Did you hear about that roller coaster crashing at Six Flags?!” and nobody is going to bother to specify which one, and everyone who hears it will assume the closest one to them. 

[FUN&ONLY!]

31 minutes ago, Magenta Lizard said:

Unless there’s an accident. Then they’re risking what value their name has, on a installation they have little to no actual control over. 

“Did you hear about that roller coaster crashing at Six Flags?!” and nobody is going to bother to specify which one, and everyone who hears it will assume the closest one to them. 

Wait a second! Are you telling me there is more than one Six Flags?

 

- Literally every GP with a Six Flags as their home park! LOL!

[BeeastFarmer]

Unless there’s an accident. Then they’re risking what value their name has, on a installation they have little to no actual control over. 

“Did you hear about that roller coaster crashing at Six Flags?!” and nobody is going to bother to specify which one, and everyone who hears it will assume the closest one to them. 

I dunno...maybe the news would actually report facts instead of sensationalize and state that the ride is in SA instead of the US.  But then again, when there is an accident currently, most of the general public has a misunderstanding of the facts.

Also, I would have to assume that the licensing agreement would include brand standards and if bad PR would ensue, I am sure SIX would distance themselves.

Buuuut….all this is theoretical until the park is actually built, which I have some doubt of.

 

 

[homestar92]

3 hours ago, Magenta Lizard said:

Unless there’s an accident. Then they’re risking what value their name has, on a installation they have little to no actual control over. 

“Did you hear about that roller coaster crashing at Six Flags?!” and nobody is going to bother to specify which one, and everyone who hears it will assume the closest one to them. 

Six Flags already runs this risk by putting "Six Flags" in the name of (almost) every park they operate and also reusing ride names. Sure, they do have control over their parks in North America, but incidents do occasionally happen and I can only assume that guests at other parks get confused as to where the incidents occurred. I never quite understood that marketing tactic, honestly. The number of people who visit theme parks other than their "home" park or the major national destination parks is so minuscule that I'm not sure where the value is in having that kind of cohesive branding. I can see a whole lot of downsides (for example, an incident happens at "Six Flags" and everyone thinks it was their local park) with not too many upsides (since the only people who would ever appreciate the branding consistency are the sorts of people who will probably know that they are part of the same chain without them sharing a name).

[BoddaH1994]

9 hours ago, homestar92 said:

Six Flags already runs this risk by putting "Six Flags" in the name of (almost) every park they operate and also reusing ride names. Sure, they do have control over their parks in North America, but incidents do occasionally happen and I can only assume that guests at other parks get confused as to where the incidents occurred. I never quite understood that marketing tactic, honestly. The number of people who visit theme parks other than their "home" park or the major national destination parks is so minuscule that I'm not sure where the value is in having that kind of cohesive branding. I can see a whole lot of downsides (for example, an incident happens at "Six Flags" and everyone thinks it was their local park) with not too many upsides (since the only people who would ever appreciate the branding consistency are the sorts of people who will probably know that they are part of the same chain without them sharing a name).

Furthermore, why would someone on vacation in Georgia want to go to the Six Flags there since, “we have that at home.”

[MaxxForce]

We don't know much about this coaster or park, but here's what we do know:

The maximum speed will be 156MPH, attained on the drop through the tunnel.

As for the park, it will be part of a new city called Qiddiya, located 40 minutes from the capital.

Information about the park can be found here: https://content.sixflags.com/qiddiya/

Information on Qiddiya can be found here: https://www.qiddiya.com

 

Here is the video!: