After several months of waiting in agony, Great Adventure fans can know what exactly it is they’re receiving for the 2011 season – The Green Lantern.

The Green Lantern will open in the park’s Boardwalk section in 2011. The ride’s green and black paintjob will stand out from the parking lot – offering a more twisted look than the neighboring Kingda Ka roller coaster. The Green Lantern is slightly similar to the park’s Bizarro roller coaster – but the main draw of the coaster will be the riding position – riders will ride standing up. The stand-up coaster will be the first one in the area since Shockwave, an Intamin stand-up, was moved from Great Adventure to Astroworld during the mid-90’s. Ironically, Great Adventure will have had some of the oldest stand-up technology and the newest in the same general area.

The Green Lantern will be themed to, you guessed it, the infamous DC Comics character who has been around since 1941, and will be starring in his own movie coming out in 2011. The Green Lantern will make Great Adventure the B&M Capital of the World – with five world class B&M roller coasters, including B&M’s best creation according to the Golden Ticket Awards – Nitro, as well as B&M’s first floorless roller coaster Bizarro, Batman: The Ride – one of the first inverted coasters, and Superman: Ulimate Flight, one of the first B&M flying coasters.

The Green Lantern will be the fifth DC-comics-related coaster at Great Adventure, and is sure to be a huge hit. It will also bring the back of the Boardwalk-themed area to life, especially since it will be next to Superman: Ulimate Flight, one of the park’s other huge draws.

One thing I’m curious about is whether or not the ride will feature immersive theming – while the park did a good job theming Batman: The Ride and The Dark Knight Coaster, Superman: Ultimate Flight and Bizarro featured lackluster theming at best – hopefully the ride will have very immersive theming relating to the Green Lantern theme – and the movie tie-in can really help this. The ride is also supposed to have two short tunnels – a first for Great Adventure roller coasters.

The ride has been moved from Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom (where it operated as Chang), and taken right out from under the nose of Six Flags Great America, where it was supposed to go until Al Weber became the new CEO of Six Flags. I think the decision to give it to Great Adventure makes sense – Six Flags Great America already has a stand-up roller coaster, Iron Wolf. In fact, it is the first B&M roller coaster. While it’s highly unpopular at the park, management opted to get the stand-up before the design was perfected – and this is what happened. If Great America bought an iPhone, and an iPhone 4 became available – should it go to Great America, who already has one, or a park like Great Adventure, who got their “iPhone” taken away? I will admit, I am a bit biased … but on the whole it makes sense. Unfortunately, parks like Six Flags America and Six Flags St. Louis could have received the coaster, but they don’t make the profits that parks like Great Adventure make due to their location.

As a Great Adventure fan, I’m extremely excited by this announcement. What do you think? Leave us your park thoughts, s’il vous plait.

It seems like the first Six Flags 2011 project has been announced. Six Flags Over Georgia will be recieving a Eurofighter, named Dare Devil Dive, for the 2011 season next year. This marks the first Eurofighter for Six Flags parks, and should proove to be a popular addition.

“Dare Devil Dive’s mission begins as you’re pulled straight up to the sky on a special vertical chain lift,” say Six Flags representatives, “then slowly roll to the top of the tower nearly 100-feet in the air. After an agonizing pause at the crest of the summit, you plummet downward at an angle that is beyond straight down — it actually angles inward at a blistering 52 mph.”

The coaster claims the country’s first beyond vertical dive – which is a lofty thing to have, except for that fact that it isn’t the first coaster in the US to go beyond vertical on the drop. Several coasters, including Fahrenheit at Hershey Park and Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach already go beyond vertical.

One other thing that can be noted about this ride is that the name isn’t entirely unique – Dare Devil Dive is actually the name of the Skycoaster model at Six Flags Great Adventure as well, although most people aren’t likely to notice this. Interestingly enough, this is one of many links between names at these two parks, including Batman: The Ride, Superman: Ultimate Flight, and The Great American Scream Machine.

Despite this slightly misleading feat – this coaster should prove to be popular at one of Six Flags’s original parks. Except more Six Flags announcements coming soon!

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Cedar Point’s Facebook page has just announced their new 2011 attraction, Windseeker! It will be located on the beach right next to Wicked Twister, the park’s Intamin Impulse coaster. It will be an exact clone of its counterparts in Knott’s Berry Farm and Canada’s Wonderland. For more information on these rides, you can read Ethan’s post located directly below this one.

The same ride will also be flying into Kings Island in Mason, Ohio for the 2011 season. It will be located in the Coney Mall section of the park.

Windseeker at Cedar Point

Windseeker at Kings Island

What do you think about these two Windseekers? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts below!

An overall view of the park.

From this drawing, the park looks absolutely incredible. Now, we don’t know if Six Flags will follow through with all of what is pictured here (we’ve seen theming and rides being cut back before), but it would really be a great step for Six Flags if they did follow through. So, that’s the “good” side of me. My bad, jealous, evil side is thinking “What? How come Great Adventure can’t be like this?”. Some of the flat rides I can detect from looking at the overview are a Huss Frisbee or Zamperla Discovery, a Parachute ride, a Waveswinger, and even what looks like a themed dark ride. In the “obvious” category, I see a B&M hyper coaster and a woodie (more about that coming).

Roller Coaster Road? Seriously?

One of the first “attractions” of the park is going to be Roller Coaster Road. This road will go up and down, simulating a roller coaster. The clever sign up there has a funny joke about roller coasters and cars. Haha. Now, this is one part of the plan that I can easily see being cut out if there was any sort of money problem when it came to building the park. It seems like there are always budget cuts, and this would be the least important thing on my list. It costs money to make those hills. It seems fun – but it also seems like it could cause some serious traffic accidents… thrill seekers looking for airtime on those hills could, well… let’s think positively instead, shall we? But I’ve been to Dubai – they don’t have the best drivers. Enough said.

What?

Here’s another rendering that makes my bad, jealous, evil side scream. What the… how come they… why don’t we… That’s how all my complaints start. This looks absolutely incredible, and it’s a great idea. I love the LED lights on the coaster, but I just wish some of the exsisting Six Flags parks could get this kind of attention. They don’t specify what kind of woodie this is – but it’s a good bet it’ll be GCI.

Good lord.

Geez. This looks incredible as well. This reminds me of those Shanghai Disney renderings! Yet, this is Six Flags! Wow, I wish that… I hope that…. you know how my wishes and complaints go. I hope Six Flags decides to copy some of these ideas onto their existing parks. This is what Six Flags Dubailand’s entrance will look like. A step up from Magic Mountain’s entrance, huh?

A spinning, six-tower sculpture.

The park will have a six-tower spinning sculpture dedicated to the six flags that stood over Dubai – oh wait, I think they stopped doing that. Were there even six flags over that area?

The ticketing office. Nope, not a 5-star resort.

Six Flags has decided to replace the ticket booths with this – an indoor area which is “elegant, yet playful” where you can buy your tickets, but better interact with your exciting surroundings. From the looks of the building, one might think Marriot built a resort next to the hotel. Nope, that’s just where your buy your tickets. The roller coaster going by is called “Revolution”. From the looks of it, it looks like an Intamin looper, sort of like Collosus at Thorpe Park. I can’t be sure, though.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering – how come THIS Six Flags park gets so much freaking detail when MY Six Flags park is so general? Here’s the answer. Once Dubailand is completed, this park will be competing with the likes of Universal, Warner Brothers, Marvel, and others. If the park was like your friendly neighborhood Six Flags park, it would never compete. It’s my personal opinion that Six Flags has no business even being there, but think what you may, it’s going to be there no matter what. I was lucky enough to visit Dubai this summer, and I even drove through the future Dubailand site. All I saw was the Universal arch, with nothing but desert sand surrounding it. There was a billboard advertising it. And that was it.

What do I think? I think Six Flags should be using this money to expand and improve their existing parks. Parks like Six Flags America and Six Flags Mexico are really hurting. This money could be used so much better, especially on the 55th or 60th anniversary of the chain. What do you think? Leave us your park thoughts.

Nothing beats the feeling of driving up to an amusement park and seeing all the rides you’ve been looking forward to riding from the parking lot. Well, things are a bit different for Universal, but the feeling is just as great – if not better. Walking down Universal’s CityWalk, you can see the green curls of the Incredible Hulk Coaster, the tower of Hollywood Rip, Ride, and Rockit, and … something new. There’s a castle rising from next to the Jurassic Park Discovery Center – it’s Hogwarts Castle.

Hogwarts Castle looks amazing from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I decided to save The Wizarding World of Harry Potter for last on my first go-round of Islands of Adventure during my week-long vacation. I’m a fan of the books of movies – not a diehard fan, but I enjoy them very much. Let me just say – walking through the gates of Hogsmeade was like entering a whole new world. Videos and pictures don’t do the area justice – I’d even say it looks awkward in pictures. When you actually walk in, it looks incredible. When you compare it to shots in the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Universal was really spot-on in constructing the area. All of the stores from the movies are there – and the area is filled with hidden details that I really had to notice during the whole week I was at Universal. But this isn’t the reason people were lining up an hour before the park opened at the Islands of Adventure gates. They were here to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

The Hogwarts Express greets visitors as they enter the area.

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to the queue line – the line. The bad news is that you spend roughly the first 75% of your waiting either outside or in the green house, and it’s boiling hot in there. The theming is minimal (since the greenhouse in the movie doesn’t really have that much, and this serves as the main turnstile area), but the line moves very quickly.

Then comes the good news – the last 25% of the ride is the new “best queue line ever”, now that Dueling Dragons, that is – Dragon Challenge, has removed most of the theming that made its original line amazing. First, you see a statue featured in the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, then you see the house jewels (guess which house is winning), and of course you see the entrance to Dumbledore’s office. Next, you walk past several talking portraits (one of some sort of alchemist, and some wizards watching Quidditch), before entering the main Portrait room with the changing stairs, where the founders of Hogwarts quarrel above your heads, and talk about the Muggles entering the school. Finally, you enter Dumbledore’s office, where Dumbledore talks to you about your approaching 3 hour lecture on the History of Hogwarts by Professor Binns. However, you enter the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom where Binns hasn’t arrived yet, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione warn you about the boringness of the lecture and decide to whisk you away using Flying Benches.

A statue featured in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Next, you enter the Gryfindoor commonroom where some other portraits explain the dynamics of the ride, and you also pass the Fat Lady who sings and says unimportant stuff to you. The last portion of the ride’s queue line brings you to an excellent Sorting Hat animatronic who tells you some more technical information about the ride, before a ride attendant (dressed in Hogwarts robes, of course) helps you and your family into one of the rapidly moving vehicles … wait.

This is an Omnimover?? Yes. Of course, it’s the robot arm technology – but tons of cars are rapidly coming in and out of the station. There’s a constant flow of these arms, which means the ride never stops moving, granted of course it’s not broken down. So, that means if you waited 90 minutes – there must be a TON of people in front of you waiting to get on. Think about it, if there was no pre-show, Haunted Mansion would never have a wait. That’s a comparison. I thought the ride stopped, you boarded, and then it started again, like Spiderman. No wonder the line moves quickly. The thing is, you just don’t get anywhere.

So, when you board, you get your shoulder harness pulled down, and you’re off. The Harry Potter theme plays as Hermione uses floo powder to whisk you off on an amazing adventure. The ride uses a creative combination of animatronics and video screens. When you’re in front of the video screens, fans blow wind in front of you as if you’re really flying. Suddenly, you’re in a live set and stuff is happening right in your face – and I mean it. The ride vehicles, the robot arms, are capable of getting you closer to the sets than in Haunted Mansion or other dark rides. I won’t give anything away – but a bunch of “characters” from the Harry Potter books and films are flung in your face in a manner that’s really amazing.

You’re sad the ride is over, and you realize the 90 minute wait was COMPLETELY worth it. I’d give this ride 10.0 rides out of 10, without a doubt. I can’t decide whether I like this ride or The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman better, so for now I’ll give them both the double-thumbs-up. Universal’s constant use of cutting-edge technology is really creative and amazing, unlike some of the other amusement parks in the area. Visiting this area, trying pumpkin juice and butterbeer, and riding these rides is all worth the day-trip to Islands of Adventure, and a full week can be easily spent at Universal.

Here’s a tip – the single riders line for this ride moves a lot quicker than the normal line, and you even get a quick glimpse in the castle – but make sure you walk through the real line at least once during your vacation. This ride has a whole new kind of magic – and it must be experienced. It’s a shoe-in for Best New Attraction and Best Dark Ride in this year’s Golden Ticket Awards.