For our family, summer isn’t complete without a visit to a theme park, and there’s nothing like the clickety-clacking track, wooshing train, and excited screams that come from a roller coaster. Here are 14 new twisted, towering roller coaster additions coming to theme parks across the country.
Time Traveler roller coaster at Silver Dollar City (photo by Dean P Groover).
Time Traveler – Silver Dollar City
On March 14, Branson, Missouri’s Silver Dollar City theme park opened its Time Traveler roller coaster, the world’s fastest, steepest and tallest spinning roller coaster. The ride features a 10-story, 90-degree vertical drop and three inversions: a dive loop, a vertical loop, and a zero-G roll along more than a half mile of track. The area around Time Traveler also includes a themed restaurant and shopping.
Toy Story Land at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida (photo by Matt Stroshane).
Slinky Dog Dash – Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The centerpiece of Disney’s Hollywood Studios Toy Story Land expansion in Orlando is the Slinky Dog Dash family coaster. The attraction imagines that Andy built the ride in his backyard using his Mega Coaster Play Kit. Riding along in the Slinky Dog coaster train, families will pass Jessie, Rex the Tyrannosaurus, and more beloved characters.
Steel Vengeance – Cedar Point
Steel Vengeance will be the tallest, fastest, and longest hybrid roller coaster in the world when it opens to the public on May 5, 2018 in Sandusky, Ohio. The 200-foot-tall steel on wood hybrid features a 90-degree initial drop and Twisted Snake Dive, a maneuver that puts the train into a half-barrel roll, lets it hang upside-down momentarily, before turning back to the direction of travel, just shy of a complete roll.
RailBlazer – California’s Great America
Opening at California’s Great America in Santa Clara is RailBlazer, a single rail steel roller coaster with a 90-degree drop, three inversions, and dynamic rotations throughout the ride. Guests straddle the coaster’s track allowing an unobstructed view of the ground and sky during the 50+ mph ride.
Twisted Timbers – Kings Dominion
A wooden coaster with a “twist of steel” just opened at Kings Dominion Doswell, Virginia, park. The hybrid roller coaster has a 109-foot barrel-roll drop, three loops, and multiple airtime moments along 3,351 feel of track at speeds over 50 mph.
HangTime – Knott’s Berry Farm
HangTime will be the first dive coaster in California when it opens at Knott’s Berry Farm near Los Angeles in summer 2018. Towering 150 feet over Knott’s boardwalk area, the ride sends riders up a vertical lift hill, over and down the 15-story, beyond vertical drop (96 degrees) making passengers feel the track has disappeared. After the terrifying drop, HangTime travels through multiple inversions, midair suspensions, and twists along 2,189 feet of track.
Tantrum – Darien Lake
Western New York’s theme park opens Tantrum, a roller coaster that takes riders up a 98 foot/90-degree vertical lift over a 97 degree drop into a pretzel inversion. Reaching speeds of 52 mph, the ride rushes over a bunny hop, Immelman turn, and tilted loop finish.
Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster – Six Flags Fiesta Texas
The latest superhero adventure at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio is the single rail Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster. The ride features a 90-degree drop, two airtime hills, a 180-degree stall, and zero-g roll along its route.
Oscar’s Wacky Taxi – Sesame Place
The second roller coaster for Philadelphia’s Sesame Place opens in late spring 2018. Oscar’s Wacky Taxi ride will be a wooden-steel hybrid family coaster with a bright yellow, taxi cab-inspired train driven by Oscar the Grouch. Oscar’s Wacky Taxi is 1,200 feet long with a 40 foot drop, twists, turns, and airtime hills.
Electric Eel – SeaWorld San Diego
When the third roller coaster for SeaWorld San Diego opens in May 2018, it will be their tallest and fastest. The 150-foot-tall, triple-launch Electric Eel coaster propels riders at 60 mph through a multitude of twists, loops, and inversions.
Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster – Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster is a figure-eight that flips riders upside down 12 times. Billed as the world’s first dual looping coaster, the ride’s two trains seats 32 people face-to-face as they speed past one another. You’ll find this Six Flags in Vallejo, California.
Twisted Cyclone – Six Flags Over Georgia
A wood and steel hybrid coaster is coming to Six Flags Over Georgia in Atlanta. Twisted Cyclone has a 10-story, 75-degree initial drop at 50 mph in a train modeled after a 1960’s sports car. The 2,400 foot track also features 10 airtime moments including a 360-degree zero gravity roll that offers a feeling of weightlessness.
Adrenaline Peak Roller Coaster – Oaks Amusement Park
On March 24, Oaks Amusement Park in Portland, Oregon, debuted Adrenaline Peak, a new roller coaster that features a 72-foot vertical lift, heartline roll, 97-degree loop, and top speeds of 45 mph. The coaster will also include a lighting package later this summer for evening shows when the park is open past sunset.
Pixar Pier (Disney•Pixar)
Incredicoaster – Disney California Adventure
Opening June 23, Disney California Adventure in Anaheim is re-theming its California Screamin’ roller coaster for Disney•Pixar’s “The Incredibles.” Riders board at the Parr family’s house (i.e., the Incredibles’ house), and race along trying to keep up and catch baby Jack-Jack. Incredicoaster anchors one neighborhood of an entire new land called Pixar Pier.