What's That Xploratorium?!

� 2009 AmusementPics.com

Six Flags Great Adventure is hard at work on a new attraction that's being created out of a piece of an old attraction! Confused?

Well, part of the theming from The Chiller coaster- the Observatory as it was - is now being renovated and turned into something called the Xploratorium.

GreatAdventureHistory reports that "it's going to be a fun interactive attraction designed by the designer of the video effects in the Dark Knight's queue." Now I haven't a clue what that means it will exactly be, but I love that Great Adventure is adding something unique, even if it ends up not being anything that exciting afterall. It's thinking outside the box and that's wonderful!

Just another step in the right direction.

More Park Openings II

Another weekend, and plenty more park openings! The weather has really not been cooperative for park openings thus far though, hopefully it'll get better in the coming weeks!

SFGAm Zone has lots of great photo trip reports from Six Flags Great America's opening day, which was yesterday. Sadly the park closed today due to a winter weather advisory! But still, check out all the photos like the one above of the still under construction Buccaneer Battle.

Six Flags Great Adventure also opened for the 2009 season yesterday, and AmusementPics.com has a very in depth photo report that can be found here. Lots of positive changes were made at this park again this year!

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has already been open for the season, but the park's new Sesame Street Forest of Fun land just opened this past weekend. Coastercrew has plenty of photos from the area's media event. Looks like a lot of fun!

Kings Dominion is also now open for business. It appears as though El Dorado opened for the crowds, but the Americana ferris wheel was not quite ready (see above). Photobucket user Kinginkd posted a massive set of photos taken from this weekend.

Bizarro

Looks like Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags New England chose April Fool's Day to release the details about their coaster transformations - but no joke here - both rides will now be known as Bizarro.

The New England ride and Great Adventure version are now both listed on their respective websites. The Jersey version has general info, but New England's Bizarro will "soar through bizarre building structures and sprint through open-aired "S" shields." There will be on board audio and fire effects as well as unique lightning on both, as well.

Several of the websites created as part of the viral campaign have been updated too, such as Lois Lane Reports and The Daily Planet paper. The Lois Lane site has some awesome videos on it that you should check out!

The parks will also be holding a contest for a chance to win free entry to the Bizarro preview days - looks like they will be accepting photos of the Bizarre as entries. More details on that here.

Both rides are slated to open later in May - and I can't wait!

A Couple Great Adventure Updates

First, Clawshun Industries has updated their website with new photos of the makeover they are doing for Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure.

There some cool little details you can gather from the new photos, like for instance it appears as though riders are going to have quite the 'heated' experience in the dive loop this year!

Second, Great Adventure History just went on another off-season tour of Great Adventure to see the park preparing for their opening day. The park's Big Wheel is coming back together after a major refurbishment, and they highlight many changes throughout the rest of the park as well.

Check it out!

Sabrina's Brochure Spotlight: Six Flags Magic Mountain 2008

Opening day is fast approaching for all the seasonal parks across the States, and two of those parks are set to debut "new old" roller coasters which have been transformed into total multisensory experiences. I'm referring, of course, to Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure and Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England. But let's not forget about the facelift project that started it all: The transformation of Six Flags Magic Mountain's X into X2, which occurred just one short year ago.

"New"? Kinda. New trains, new colors, and new effects maybe, but the ride itself has remained unchanged. Nevertheless, this makeover made sense. Given the shoddy reputation for downtime and repairs that the original X had earned during its brief life, Six Flags was wise to replace what was perhaps the most troublesome component--the trains--and re-market this engineering marvel as the first "5th dimensional" roller coaster. After all the money they had dumped--er, invested--in it, you have to give them credit for making one final attempt to breathe new life into this coaster.

As for this year's round of Six Flags coaster transformations, one can only surmise that the company is doing what it can to give the thrill-loving public something new in spite of a bad economy and the company's financial woes. I get that, and I give them credit for trying. At least the Medusa transformation makes sense, as this coaster's previous so-called theming was confusing at best and could even be likened to an identity crisis. I mean, "Medusa Mining Company"? HUH? Superman, on the other hand... Sorry Six Flags, but color me baffled! Why fix something that was never broken? Surely there were other coasters more worthy of a makeover than this one.

But I digress. And when I say I digress, wow I really digressed! I must be subconsciously overcompensating for the lack of pages in this brochure. Back on topic we go.

X(2) was more fortunate than its brethren Psyclone and Flashback, which bit the figurative and literal dust in 2006 and 2007, respectively. While I never enjoy seeing a coaster (or any other type of ride, for that matter) meet its demise, the good news is that Six Flags seems to be heading in the right direction at Magic Mountain: Quality over quantity. That being said, with the addition of Terminator Salvation in 2009 and another rumored coaster project in the works for 2010, they just may be able to strike the right balance and achieve both!

The truly "new" addition to Magic Mountain in 2008 was Thomas Town, a family friendly children's area featuring--who else?--Thomas The Tank Engine. This was another positive move by Six Flags, as Magic Mountain has long been viewed as an unbalanced park in the thrills-versus-family department. (Not very Griswold-esque, if you will.) It would be nice to see this park add even more family attractions and some good flat rides over the next few years.

I guess there's hardly a need to include an operating schedule in the brochure when you're open year-round. I will, however, take issue with their "Minutes North of Hollywood" claim. In what universe?! Technically speaking, I guess it is a true statement. It simply would be truer if they added the word "Many" at the beginning.


Geez, I feel like I'm cheating you out of content when the brochures are this short! But as they say, "it is what it is". I can only hope that my colorful commentary has helped to fill the inevitable void in your lives...