Six Flags New England has confirmed the new name of Superman: Ride of Steel as “Bizarro.” Now I’m not Superman junkie but I believe that Bizarro is part of that brand. Here is the Wikipedia page.
I think my favorite part of the Wikipedia article is the following quote.
…the term Bizarro is used as to describe anything that uses twisted logic or that is the opposite of something else
Ok, that makes sense, but purpke is not the opposite of red (and I’m colorblind). I’m excited to see how they tie this …

I was thinking about my upcoming wedding (June 27th and I expect gifts from all of you) and the nice weather brought about thoughts of coasters. I figured it would be fun to narrow down a list of coasters that would be good to get married on. I have my ideas on some good ones, but lets find out some critera to start off with. Now I’m not actually getting married on a coaster, but a guy can dream right.

This is going to be more of an introduction posts to …

You might be wondering what Alltel Wireless, a cellular phone company, has to do with coasters or even the amusement industry as a whole. Well they recently released a commerical with people picking up loose articles from under a coaster while the coaster is operating. Last year we had several deaths in the industry as a result of this. As a national advertisement, that is just kind of sad. IAAPA has already responded to the commerical with a letter to Verizon Communications, parent company of Alltel.
Our specific concern has to …

It certrainly does seem that Six Flags is taking their older rides and redoing them, much like the “famed” MTV show Pimp My Ride. The best part here is that the title is so apporiate for the amusement industry. Six Flags has three coasters under their belt that have gone or are undergoing a transformation of sorts.
X, now X2 was the first to be done with new trains, new paint, and new elements. Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure is getting new paint and possibly some other things. The final …

CNN Money recently did an interview with Premier Rides which is based out of Millersville, Md (I live in Millersville, Pa).  It was nice to get some much information from a perspective that is actually in the industry. There are a lot of interesting things said.
One thing that suprised me is how new Premier is in the industry. The company was founded in 1994 after Peter Schnabel, the founder, left his job as head of US operations at Intamin AG. According to the article Intamin controls a quater of the …

Update: SeaWorld has released some video of Manta Testing. Boy of Boy does it look like a fun ride. A little slow in spots, but it still needs to be worn in. Looks like a lot of fun.
RCPro has recently posted a great update on SeaWorld’s new cosater Manta. The coaster has really progressed to the point that theming is now taking place. As you can see from the pictures SeaWorld is doing it right, and it really looks great. It might be the best looking construction site I’ve ever …

Six Flags held their year end conference call the other day and boy did they give us some interesting information. The first of which is that Six Flags Over Texas’ Texas Giant is going to be closed for all of the 2010 season. It will receive a 10 million dollar rehab! According to the article, “This would be the largest ride renovation in the history of the company. New trains, a more comfortable ride, a faster ride with additional features all with the intention of restoring this famed coaster to …

World’s of Fun has been doing a great job updating their site with new pictures of the coaster. I thought today’s update was interesting becasue they got the chain on the coaster. Maybe it is nothing ground breaking, but I do think it is neat to see all the little bits come together to make something great.
My only real problem with the World’s of Fun Prowler site (and some other Cedar Fair ride update sites) is that the photo gallery puts the newest first, and the oldest last. That is …

If you check out this thread you will see a lot more pictures. User SROS1fan posted a bunch of pictures from the newly opened Six Flags Roller Coaster Cuts. I think the community is still laughing at this idea, but wait till you see the pictures (or the prices). The store is essentially a giant gift shop that cuts hair on the side. It appears as though they don’t cut adult hair either.
Want to know the best part? Of course you do, they are charging $19.99 for a haircut! I …

A recent posting at the SEC shows that Six Flags might not be able to raise enough revenue to continue through this year. They have some huge bills (hundreds of millions) that come due in August, and they have not shown much postitive cash flow in the past years.
We have had a history of net losses. Our net losses are principally attributable to insufficient revenue to cover our relatively high percentage of fixed costs, including the interest costs on our debt and our depreciation expense. We also have an accumulated …