What is the best capital investment that theme parks can make?
My pick would be family roller coasters. That’s why I was happy to see Six Flags announce a new family coaster for next year at one of its better-themed parks, Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio.
Family coasters appeal to larger audiences than thrill-focused coasters. It’s not just the lower height limits that allow smaller children to ride. The gentler ride on family coasters also helps accommodate older visitors who might not be comfortable with more intense coasters anymore.
Unlike all-ages dark rides that are encased in show buildings, family coasters also offer the advantage allowing all park visitors to see its riders having fun. That makes them great weenies that add to visual liveliness of a theme park.
Fiesta Texas’ new coaster will be Werewolf Gorge, a Vekoma creation that the park is billing as the world’s longest launched family coaster. Six Flags also is embracing storytelling on the new ride, with a backstory inspired to the park’s former use as a quarry that tells the legend of a haunted silver mine.
As the ride’s name suggests, there will be werewolves, too. That just might be a trend within the trend of family coasters. Last year’s Universal Epic Universe in Orlando also featured a werewolf-themed family coaster that included its titular creature in a swing launch barn, as the San Antonio coaster will.
Epic Universe also offered what I think is the best new family coaster in years with Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, an Intamin coaster themed to the “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise. That coaster provides kinetic energy to the Isle of Berk land, making it a fan favorite within the hit new park. Hiccup’s Wing Gliders offers an homage to the popular “goat trick” on Disney’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, with a sheep posed in the middle of a turn.
In my book, Thunder Mountain remains the model for what a great family coaster can be. A great family coaster blends enjoyable track design with engaging decoration and storytelling. Thunder delivers on all counts, with an iconic mountain that stages a variety of creative scenes, both inside and outside the mountain.
Last month I rode the newly rebuilt Big Thunder Mountain at Walt Disney World, where I worked for a couple of years between college and graduate school. Disney has changed the final indoor show scenes from what Disneyland offers. The ride has lost its riverside views due to Walt Disney World eliminating its Rivers of America attractions, but Florida’s Thunder remains one of the top three rides in the world’s most popular theme park.
Six Flags Magic Mountain might have a new family coaster in its near future. Planning documents have described its new coaster under construction as a Vekoma family thrill glider, which would be a new coaster model. I hope that Magic Mountain leans into storytelling the way that Fiesta Texas is with its new family coaster. That’s the investment Six Flags needs to bring more fans of all ages to its parks.