2013 is coming to close, and you know what? We still have four months until parks open around here. Oh man, this is going to suck. I’m already feeling theme park and carnival withdrawal! How about we reminisce about the 2013 season? In particular, about the best, or at least most memorable, ride experience of 2013. That’s an easy one for me, it was actually my last roller coaster of the season on Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure. It sounds clichĂ©, I know, but it was more memorable because it’s was stinkin’ freezing that night!
My lone photo of Viper đ
Back in the early to mid 90s, few people had the internet. You had people using networks at colleges and others posting to Usenet boards (like good ol’ rec.roller-coaster), but the internet as we know it didn’t flourish until 1997 or so. This meant that any new coaster announcement was met with building anticipation with people actually having to wait until they visited the park to see the ride in all its glory. Such was the case with the announcement of Viper in 1995. Coaster fans and park goers had to wait until June of 1995 to see this new coaster, touted as the world’s first “heartline coaster.” Heartline coaster? Wow! That sounded awesome! We’ll be the first ever to ride a heartline coaster! Well, as people would find out, the hype machine was in full swing with Viper, and the coaster simply wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
2024 Update: This ride is closing!
Green Lantern is kind of like the lesser superhero. Hell, I thought Green Lantern was a super-villain for the longest time. I always thought of him as some evil ghost dude carrying a lantern or something. I mean, if I was to be saved by a superhero, I’d want to be saved by the likes of Batman or Superman, you know? Preferably Batman as played by Christian Bale so I could call him Bateman and ask him about Huey Lewis and the News.
In 2010 Six Flags announced that Green Lantern would be vanquishing the Arrow megalooper Great American Scream Machine, occupying its spot in the process. Apparently Green Lantern pledges his allegiance to the evildoers, after all he killed Six Flags’ most patriotic coaster. Maybe my original assumption about Green Lantern was right! From mid-July forward Scream Machine was de-constructed. Towards the end of the operating season, in October, the site was a barren swath of land, ready for Green Lantern’s sumptuous Bolliger & Mabillard handiwork to rise over the area.
Worlds Tallest Roller Coaster to be Built
It’s being reported by Screamscape that a pair of PolerCoasters are confirmed to be built, one of which will break the height record currently set by Kingda Ka. Representatives at the 2013 IAAPA Trade show revealed that a 325 foot model will be built at Lakepoint Sports Complex near Atlanta, GA that will be set to open in 2015. A second, record breaking 520 foot PolerCoaster is also planned and will be located in Florida; the exact location is to be revealed in the coming weeks. This 520 foot installation will also have an inversion at its max height, making it the coaster with the highest inversion.
I haven’t talked about Freestyle Music Park in Myrtle Beach, SC in a while. Seems like nobody else has really been talking about the place either! The park has been standing but not operating since 2009 with no entity willing to resurrect what may be the biggest flop in amusement park history. Apparently, enough was enough as the rides are finally being sold off individually instead of waiting around for new ownership.
Used ride brokers Ital International have many of the rides from Freestyle Music Park listed on their site. This includes Time Machine, a multi-million dollar B&M looper along with the lovable magic mushroom themed Huss Airboat that I’m sure would be a great fit for any park (no, seriously, grab that ride Great Adventure.) Other coasters like Round About and Iron Horse are also listed as well as many flats and children’s rides.
For anyone who isn’t up on Freestyle Music Park, it originally opened in 2008 as Hard Rock Park after some $225 million went into developing the place. It was projected that the park would see 3 million visitors the first year, but thanks to poor advertising and the economy, the park never hit that figure. The park was then sold for a paltry $25 million and reopened in 2009 as Freestyle Music Park. The name was changed due to the fact that “Hard Rock” is a trademark of Hard Rock International (Hard Rock Cafe, you know) and that the new name would attract more families. See, when I thought of “Freestyle Music Park,” I thought of that horrible 80s/90s music of the same name!
The park once again saw less than stellar attendance in 2009 despite slashing entry and season pass prices. The economy likely played a large factor, but another reason thrown around was that the park, while in Myrtle Beach, was simply too far away from the actual beach and thus too far away from the action (about 3 miles from the strand according to Google Earth.) The owners hoped to open in 2010, but were unable to do so after debts caught up with them. Four years later, here we are! Maybe you’ll see an FMP ride coming to your home park!