Six Flags Qiddiya Announces World’s Tallest, Fastest, Longest Roller Coaster
Today, Six Flags ($SIX) and the Qiddiya Investment Company announced what they hope will be the final word in roller coasters: Falcon’s Flight. While details are thin at the moment, the company claims that it will be the tallest, fastest and longest steel roller coaster ever built.
The announcement coincides with the release of the Qiddiya Master Plan yesterday, outlining the park’s six themed areas. Falcon’s Flight will be the lynchpin in a greater development of the area, transforming what is currently desert to a thrill-seekers paradise, with 28 rides in total when it opens in 2023. The park will include several other record-breaking attractions, according to the news release.
Despite the scale of the announcement (and it’s a big one, folks), it’s seeing quite a bit of skepticism online from both park fans and the general public. So why all the downer Dave’s & Debbie’s?
For starters, the ride (and park) are still three years away from opening, if everything goes smoothly. Generally, parks or chains hold back on “record-breaking” announcements, to not allow others to potentially compete for a longer period of time.
By telling the world you’re building a 155 mph coaster, other parks or manufacturers could get a head start on breaking those exact, same records.
However, with the animation and stats that have been released, it’s doubtful any park would – or more crucially could – spend the capital necessary to match or exceed these world records. Just from the looks of the video, this ride could easily exceed $100 million USD to build. That’s more than some park chains spent on rides at all of their parks last year!
Second, there are still calls for Six Flags and other American brands to abandon their partnerships with the Saudi Royal Family, after it was revealed the Kingdom was an active participant in the murder of Washington Post reporter, Jamal Khashoggi.
Thirdly, others are wondering whether this coaster (and park) will ever see the light of day, given the company’s track record of opening new parks internationally. Of the five announced international projects, Six Flags has delayed two (China) and cancelled one (Dubai).
The last surviving park Six Flags built from the ground up is Six Flags Mid-America (St. Louis), debuting back in 1971 (Six Flags Power Plant in Baltimore was more of a themed-entertainment attraction, opening in 1985 and closing in 1990). All of the other parks that make up the chain today were acquired after they were built. (Side note: the current Six Flags, Inc. is not the same company that built the original three parks).
Of the five announced international projects, Six Flags has delayed two (China) and cancelled one (Dubai).
With all that being said – the project is backed by members of the Saudi Royal Family, some of the richest people on Earth. It’s doubtful that they would allow a project of this scope and notoriety (after today) to fail or falter, let alone never open.
The bigger issue is: can the manufacturer of this ride (or any of the rides planned) work out the inherent complications of operating safely and consistently in the scorching, desert heat and sand of the Middle East?
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see three years for the answer.
Are Social Media Influencers Good Stewards of your Brand?
You hear about them all the time, these so-called “social media influencers.” They’re people or groups with massive amounts of followers or subscribers online who get paid to appear at locations or promote products in their feeds. The hope from brands hosting them is that their popularity garners tons of positive publicity in an otherwise crowded media landscape.
This week, Six Flags Over Texas opened themselves up to a group of YouTube Influencers, hoping to drum up some good publicity and positive coverage. Sadly, it appears they got neither.
The Arlington theme park hosted YouTube celebrity “Mr. Beast” – whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson – for two days. His goals? To win every prize in the park and give $20,000 to whomever on his crew could ride a coaster the longest.
Standard YouTube fare these days.
Unfortunately, the first video featuring the park’s many, different games exposed a little secret: not all of the prizes shown at games can actually be won.
They’re referred to as “display prizes” throughout the video by employees. So while you definitely can’t win those prizes, you can definitely pay to play said game under those prizes. That just seems like false advertising to me.
That alone wasn’t a good look for the park, but 17 million or so views later, “display prizes” at Six Flags are now definitely in the public domain. Now, that’s not to say other parks or chains don’t do the same thing, but that doesn’t make it any more right to do in my humble opinion.
But that’s not the worst thing to come out of these appearances, sadly.
In the second video uploaded, Mr. Beast and Crew rode the park’s Mini Mine Train, with the promise of whoever survived the longest would win $20,000.
Good work if you can get it!
Now, if you can get past the fact that Mr. Beast is standing in the danger zone as a train is being dispatched:
You’ll then get to these truly jaw-dropping moments: when the team encouraged young on-lookers to toss them small food items while they were on the ride:
Now, credit given where it’s due: the team does not start the food tossing conversation – a guest did – but the influencers encouraged it.
Also, the team does acknowledge in passing that, “…we’ve started a problem,” and that it, “…probably wasn’t a great idea.”
That being said, the very next scene featured a team member openly asking if they could, “…come back with an Xbox on the next trip?”
That was immediately followed with a scene featuring another team member, holding a loose t-shirt dangerously close to the ride’s moving wheels, tossing it from the moving train to the crowd of on-lookers on the other side of the safety fence:
Anyone else seeing some mixed messages here in the edit? Imagine if you’re one of the channel’s younger, target audience. Does a passing warning even register with them?
What’s truly befuddling is that all of this could have been entirely prevented. It appears the park had no say in the final edit of the video – which is unfortunate. Scenes like these should have never seen the light of day, let alone be allowed to occur during filming.
In an ironic twist, while the two videos have received a combined 37 million views (and climbing), the park (actually just the Six Flags brand) received a total of *one* direct mention across both videos. Unless you recognized the park from a previous visit, you’d have to do some serious sleuthing to figure out where the heck this place is.
Consider the amount of resources that were needed to pull off these shoots and you have to ask the question, “Did the park get the most for their money?”
With all that being said, the park ended up looking like a victim and got the very raw end of the deal. Not only were they barely mentioned, they were shown featuring prizes you can’t win and had their safety rules flaunted, captured and broadcast to millions of young subscribers (the company’s core market).
Mr. Beast, on the other hand? They got two new videos, 37 million+ new views and tons more ad revenue. Is this a fair trade?
Influencer Marketing is a fast growing sector, with more and more brands leveraging it as an additional tool in their marketing toolbox. Incidents like these are a good reminder that just because someone says they have a lot of “influence,” and wants to “work” with you, doesn’t mean you should sacrifice the image or safety of your attraction to get it.
Fan Journalism has Officially Jumped the Shark
Remember when blogging was just a fun hobby? When you could start a website (or visit one) that covered all the cool happenings going on at your favorite theme or amusement park?
Well, those days are numbered – in the name of clicks and likes.
Over the past few years – and especially the past few weeks – amusement park fans online have been bombarded with fake stories, new ride announcements spoiled through “investigations” and general bad behavior.
And it’s ruining our entire community.
Let’s get one thing straight: just because you cover a park, it does not make you a journalist. All true journalists are bound by a code of ethics with the constant threat of losing their jobs if they get something wrong.
Theme park “journalists” have no such code and as such, can (and do) post malicious, false or confidential information, generally with little to no ramifications. Take it from a guy who’s worked both sides of this story: Fan journalism is rapidly running out of style at parks across the country.
Can you blame them? Investigating and “breaking” news like shipping documents or permits showing what new ride is coming next season…what fun is that? It’s akin to searching for (and finding) your Christmas presents hidden in the closet.
Not to mention all the hard work and planning that goes into these announcements from the park side. True, the general public will most likely never visit these sites, but don’t you want to be surprised on announcement day like them?
“Take it from a guy who’s worked both sides of this story: Fan journalism is rapidly running out of style at parks across the country.”
For all the good bloggers out there, all it takes is one bad apple to spoil the bunch. Some parks have even removed bloggers entirely from the equation, simply because of perceived issues with the greater community.
So what can we – as a community – do to stop it?
In so many cases, we cannot remove these people from our community – but we can take away from them the one thing they want: attention. Flag false stories. Don’t engage on tabloid-style stories. Basically, take back the community we worked so hard to create.
On the park side, actions must have consequences. Share problem bloggers with others in the industry and let them know (in no uncertain terms) why they’re not being invited to events anymore. Give them a road map to success and if they stray – it’s on them, not you.
These bad actors cannot be allowed to represent us as a whole, otherwise our community is doomed to toxicity (and irrelevancy) for eternity.
Why Virtual Reality Roller Coasters Seemingly Died
It seemed like virtual reality (VR) on roller coasters was about to be the “next big thing” in the amusement industry. Many parks / chains figured they could breathe new life into older attractions with a VR update. So why are we seeing less and less of them all of a sudden?
Slow Operations / Long Lines
The first thing folks noticed about VR coasters was their wait times – and it wasn’t because they had become instantly more popular. Ride dispatches, even on small trains could average up to 10 minutes+ making ride capacities plummet and wait times soar.
Plus, in many cases, there wasn’t a separate line for non-VR seats. Guests would have to wait the exact same amount of time to NOT experience VR as they did if they wanted to.
Galactic Attack was the “second generation” of VR on coasters for Six Flags. However, the long waits and malfunctioning headsets disappointed many guests.
The Experience Wasn’t Seamless
During my many experiences with VR coasters, the ride didn’t sync properly with the timing of the train or shut off completely, which led to queasy guests. Other times, the VR required people to do an action, like shoot space aliens – leaving their hands unable to brace themselves into corners and brakes.
Did it make the ride better?
But for me, the biggest downfall of virtual reality coasters is that they don’t make the coaster they go on any better. In fact, in the case of Ninja at Six Flags St. Louis, it made the ride WORSE. I couldn’t brace for the “transitions” and the ride ended up being very painful.
There’s Promise on the Horizon…
Where VR coasters appear to have failed, there seems increasing promise in VR drop towers. Parks with multiple towers or vehicles seem like they could benefit the most.
To me, these experiences are a vastly superior VR experience: smoother, one plane of travel and decreased forces, coupled with not slowing down the other towers or vehicles.
VR on drop towers has promise, but if it lowers capacity it may not be worth all the effort from a guest perspective.
So, to sum up, the VR experience is a novel concept but it’s not quite ready for prime time, at least with it’s current implementation here in the United States. If parks can ultimately work out the capacity and reliability issues with the headsets, it might be a novel way to breathe new life into older rides.
Otherwise, virtual reality coasters should be relegated to an up-charge attraction that only runs certain times of the year or specific hours of the operating day.
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What do you think? Do you enjoy VR on roller coasters, drop rides, or neither? Let me know in the comments below – and be sure to check us out on social media!
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom unveils Rage of the Gargoyles VR Coaster for Fright Fest
Being the closest Six Flags park to Silicon Valley, it seems strange to have it receive the virtual reality add-on to one of its coasters so late in the game.
However, with time comes improvement and those lessons learned at other Six Flags parks were on full display at the media preview aboard Kong for “Rage of the Gargoyles” – a virtual reality experience powered by Samsung and Oculus.
The headsets have been completely re-designed, with a simple click wheel for tightening in the back and bungee straps with a single adjustment point. The phones themselves still have the occasional hiccup, which does add to dispatch times. But overall, it’s faster than other installations I’ve seen.
The newer headsets are easier to clean and adjust, which should speed up dispatches.
WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD:
The experience itself is fairly straightforward. You’re a gunner in a helicopter, slowly climbing to do battle with gargoyles – because, why not? At the top of the lift, a giant gargoyle appears and rips the top off your helicopter, rendering your gun useless.
During the ride, the gargoyles still come at you, move your head around to target them with missiles.
At the end of the ride, the “boss” gargoyle appears once again, so you have to do battle with him as the train slowly navigates back to the station. If you don’t do battle with him at the end – you actually end up losing the game!
END OF SPOILERS…
My biggest concerns going into the event today were shared by many others: how could a ride known for rough, jerky transitions be suitable for a “blinded” VR experience? I have to say, I did not experience significant headbanging on my two trips (it was far from smooth, however). On the second trip, however my headset did become loose and began bouncing around on my head, which was not pleasant.
With the large, Vekoma over the shoulder restraint, I also found it difficult to reach the side button to shoot during the game. It also limited my reach when the headset came loose.
Dispatch times were improved over what I saw this past summer at other Six Flags parks. At this special media event, they were averaging around 4-5 minutes. That is a vast improvement over the 7-10 minute dispatches I saw at Six Flags St. Louis, Over Georgia and Over Texas this past summer.
So, is it worth a trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom to experience Northern California’s first Virtual Reality coaster? Yes, if you’ve never done it before. Just be prepared for long waits and slow dispatches. I’ll predict that the general public will eat this sort of thing up, while coaster fans (who already weren’t too hot on Kong) might give it a second look.
If you’ve been on a VR coaster before, it’s not much different from what you’ve already experienced. A ride on the Joker or Medusa might be a better bet if the lines are as long as predicted.
Understatement of the century when it comes to VR coasters!
Overall, I still don’t like the idea of VR on rides, at least on the rides that they’ve been installed on in the United States. While the idea is there, the execution just isn’t worth the wait. At least, not yet. All that being said, this is one of the better VR installations that I’ve experienced.
Have you done battle with the gargoyles aboard Kong? Let me know what you think in the comments section below:
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom’s New for 2017 attraction is a real headscratcher
It’s the best time of the year for park fans – time to find out what that 2017 season pass will get you at your local or favorite bemusement and theme parks.
Early this morning, Six Flags fans got up early to see what was coming their way – and it was a lot of DC Comics-themed clones.
A lot of them. Several “Justice League” dark rides and Joker-themed 4D Free Fly coasters dominated the announcements, which isn’t surprising – considering the larger investments in parks last year across the chain.
But the real headscratcher in this chain-wide announcement is my local park, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Here’s why:
The park is adding a Zamperla Giant Discovery – a large pendulum ride that swings riders while the disc spins around:
There’s just one thing – the park already has something just like it – a very intense Huss Frisbee known as “Tazmanian Devil.”
Call me crazy – but I think many would agree a better addition would have been a Zamperla Endeavour; the same model seen at Six Flags Over Texas:
Of course, Tax could also be having some serious maintenance challenges – and might not be there next year. But if it is – better get some Scalpicin shampoo to cut down on the irritation to your head.
Even more amazing – despite all the issues surrounding the closure of Vortex and subsequent communications afterwards – California’s Great America STILL has an opportunity to not only trump Discovery Kingdom’s announcement – but completely usurp the Vallejo parks’ new addition – if they play it right. Betcha did see that coming last week…
Personally – the biggest and most exciting news out of Six Flags this year – wasn’t even part of the annual announcement – it was released the day before it.
Jeffrey Siebert – long time Public Relations and Marketing manager for Paramount’s Kings Island, Schlitterbahn and Fiesta Texas was promoted to the role of General Manager of the San Antonio park. Anyone who has been to one of his events knows he is the prototype for all communications / public relations employees at an amusement or theme park. He isn’t just another employee – he IS the park. Lives, eats, sleeps and breathes it. It could not have happened to a better person – and I look forward to seeing what he does now that he’s his own boss (sort of).
What did you think of the Six Flags announcements for 2017? Leave a comment below and let’s chat!
Cell phone on roller coaster injures guest and cause rides to go down more often
This past week, a guest at Six Flags Great Adventure sued the New Jersey park, because a loose cell phone smashed into them on the “El Toro” wooden roller coaster – giving the riders “substantial injuries.” Here’s the link.
Earlier this month, trains on California Screamin’ at Disney California Adventure were e-stopped when a guest whipped out a cell phone selfie stick (apparently to film themselves) all while the ride was in motion. As a result, guests had to be evacuated and the ride was down for over an hour.
It doesn’t help when companies encourage this sort of reckless behavior, either…GoPro did pull this post down after massive backlash.
Three days later, a ride attendant at Carowinds was assaulted when they refused to allow a guest to retrieve their dropped cell phone from the show building of a dark ride. The operator was shoved to the ground as the guest proceeded to walk along the track to retrieve their precious cell phone. The ride was immediately e-stopped and security arrived shortly thereafter.
Nearly a year to the day that Disney Parks officially banned selfie sticks and phones on rides, guests are still not getting the message – leave the phone in the station or in your secured pocket – and parks have not heeded the call to make it more clear that filming on a ride isn’t safe, or tolerated.
Our partner site, Thrills By The Bay had two guests whip out their cell phone on Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain – and when they told the operators, “…they practically shrugged their shoulders and said, ‘Well if they lose their phone it’s on them.'”
Actually, it won’t be on them – it’ll be on the face of an innocent rider, who never saw it coming.
Cell phones litter the infield of Mr. Freeze at Six Flags St. Louis
Enthusiasts have been trying to warn parks and ride operators for years now about this – but no one seems to want to listen. Sadly, it may take more suits like the one against Six Flags Great Adventure before the industry steps up and tackles this problem properly.
