Six Flags Over Georgia debuted its largest single investment in a ride by opening Superman - Ultimate Flight.

"With the opening of Deja Vu, Acrophobia and now Superman - Ultimate Flight," said John Odum vice president and general manager of Six Flags Over Georgia,"this regional theme park has transformed into the Super Park of the South,"

The opening of Superman - Ultimate Flight represents the 35 year old park's third major thrill ride addition in less than a year and brings Six Flags Over Georgia's roller coaster tally to a nine.

On Superman- Ultimate Flight, riders will encounter two incredible features as they travel the 2,759-feet of twisted steel track - the first ever pretzel shaped, inverted loop and a 360-degree in-line roll. Riders sail head first, through the 78-foot pretzel loop, climbing to the top of the large loop and diving into a curve, which brings them amazingly close to the ground. Rounding out the flight is the surprising 360-degree in-line roll, tightly coiled and quickly executed, giving riders the feeling of being hurtled through space just before the train enters the station.

Superman - Ultimate Flight is manufactured by Bolliger and Mabillard of Monthey, Switzerland. Other Bolliger and Mabillard rides at Six Flags Over Georgia include Batman The Ride - a suspended and The Georgia Scorcher.

Canadians can get special pricing on theme park tickets and resort hotel stays at Disenyland Resort in Southern California. You can choose between a free visit for kids or 5 days for the price of 3 and the 4th night free.

One child (ages 3-9) will receive an equivalent length Disneyland Resort Park Hopper ticket free per one paid adult 3-, 4- or 5-day vacation package (minimum 3-Day Park Hopper Ticket; one-to-one ratio). The "Kids Free" offer is valid for arrivals until September 3, 2002.

The "5 for 3" ticket offer has been extended. This popular Canadian-exclusive ticket offer provides five days of for the price of three over a 13 consecutive day period to both Disney theme parks: Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. Plus the "5 for 3" Disneyland Resort Park Hopper Ticket entitles each guest to "park hop" - visit both Disney parks on the same day. The "5 for 3" ticket offer is valid for arrivals until January 7, 2003. You can't combine the offers.

Book for three consecutive nights at one of the three Disneyland Resort hotels (Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel and the Disneyland Hotel) and receive the 4th night of your stay for free. "4th night free" is available for arrivals until September 1, 2002.

Last week, Disney share price climbed after the company reported that there was a significant increase in park attendance during the spring break.

On April 5th, Six Flags Incorporated and Comunidad de Madrid opened Warner Brother's Movie World in Madrid, Spain. The 625 acre park has 5 themed areas and 25 state of the art attractions.

Rides include B&M’s coaster Superman: Ride of Steel and the wooden Wild Wild West Coaster. Europe’s tallest freefall ride, Riddler’s Revenge, also opened.

Tomb Raider: The Ride opens on April 5th at Paramount’s Kings Island, Ohio.

"Part of the thrill of the Tomb Raider property is the mystery and intrigue that surrounds each adventure. Consequently, we aren’t going to disclose all of the surprises in store for riders," said Tim V. Fisher, executive vice president and general manager of Paramount’s Kings Island. "We are confident this attraction will become one of the greatest adventure rides on the planet."

The Paramount Pictures feature film is based on the popular Eidos Interactive Inc. Tomb Raider action games. The 2001 Paramount Pictures feature film took in 275 million dollars worldwide.

Playing off scenes from the motion picture filmed in Cambodia and Iceland, the ride includes rocketing upward for a close encounter in an ice cave with menacing, razor-sharp stalactites and a face-first plunge into the heart of an angry volcano.

Members of the project team visited the soundstages at Pinewood Studios outside London, England and hand-selected key props to use throughout the ride experience. "It is our intention to bring the excitement, adventure and technology of Tomb Raider to life in a stunning, multi-dimensional experience. Ensuring the authenticity of this experience is of utmost importance to us," Fisher said. "We want guests to feel like real tomb raiders from the moment they enter the attraction."

Paramount’s Kings Island, Ohio is owned and operated by Paramount Parks.

Wild Waves and Enchanted Village, now a member of Six Flags Parks, will add 10 new rides to its Pacific Northwest park this season, including the splash coaster Buzzsaw Falls, the three-story water tree house Hook's Lagoon and the 360-degree thriller The TimberAxe.

"These 10 new rides are the single largest expansion to Wild Waves and Enchanted Village and represent Six Flags' first step in its commitment to bring the Puget Sound-area a world-class theme and water park experience," said Lenny Freund, general manager of Wild Waves/Enchanted Village. "We are working closely with the City of Federal Way, and will continue to do so, as we improve this park."

"We've always believed in the Puget Sound and Pacific Northwest as a prime theme park destination and are thrilled to have Wild Waves/Enchanted Village as a member of the Six Flags family of parks," said Gary Story, president of Six Flags, Inc. "The 10 new rides we're adding to the park this year is only the beginning. This is only phase one in our goal to make these parks the greatest entertainment value in the state of Washington. When it comes to thrills close to home, you just can't beat a Six Flags park."

Celebrating its 25th year, Wild Waves and Enchanted Village will open its 2002 season on May 19. Most of the new rides will be open in May, with all 10 rides opening in summer 2002.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued their report on last September's fatality at Knott's Berry Farm on the 'Perilous Plunge' ride. They ordered Knott's to make 12 modifications to the ride, including changing the restraints to hold larger people. Knott's is working with Intamin AG the manufacturer, to make the changes and reopen the ride.

Korakuen park, situated in the middle of Tokyo, Japan, has announced a large addition. The new section of the park, which will be called LaQua is scheduled to open in 2003, and it will sport some very impressive new rides.

Perhaps the most unusual new wide is the hubless ferris wheel. The wheel is designed with no center, and only a circular rim supporting the cars. The rim is supported and driven from below. What this has allowed designers to do is to run a roller coaster right through the middle of the new wheel. The coaster itself will be the largest new addition to the park, standing 70m (230') tall. It will be a non-looping steel megacoaster built by Intamin, and designed by Werner Stengel. Part of the coaster will be perched on top of the new mall building, and there are two major drops off the side of that building.

The whole LaQua is a very innovative design, because it had to be squeezed into such a small space. The coaster, mall, ferris wheel, and other rides - including a log flume - were packed into a small triangular plot of land. It's great to see that the Japanese are still constructing large-scale rides, even in their large cities, where space is at a premium.

Six Flags Magic Mountain claims to have "the most coasters than anywhere else on the planet." With the addition of the new X Ride, (see news item 76 below) it has reached a level of real thrill explosion. The Park also addded Thrill Shot which is an extreme thrill ride. In this ride, riders are launched straight up over 300 feet into the sky. They can reach speeds in excess of 50 miles per hour. Riders then experience total weightlessness before plummeting straight down to the ground.

Seated two-across on a rotating seat, riders can choose from four different thrill shot experiences. The seat rotates forward for the launch facing the ground and rotates to an upright position at the top before rotating face down for the drop. This ride is manufactured by S and S Power Incorporated. Six Flags Magic Mountain is charging separately for the ride.

Six Flags Magic Mountain is located in Valencia California and owned by Six Flags, Incorporated, the world's largest regional theme park company. The company owns and operates 39 parks throughout North America, Latin America and Europe.

Knott's Berry Farm announced that their new ride XCELERATOR will open in May 2002. It will have a retro theme. At the start of the ride you enter a chrome and glass station, then you're transported back to the 50s and 60s era. You ride in a yellow and orange flame-emblazoned, candy-apple red or purple fin-tailed hot rod.

XCELERATOR hydraulically launches you off the line at a top speed of 82 mph in 2.3 seconds through an exhilarating 205-foot ascent and immediate descent at a 90-degree angle. It has a capacity of 20 people per train and carries 1,330 guests per hour.

The new attraction continues the re-vitalizatison of The Boardwalk themed area and reinforces Knott's ongoing commitment to world-class thrill attractions.

"Knott's has set the pace for record breakers and highly acclaimed rides and our coaster will be at the top of those lists as well," proclaimed Jack Falfas, General Manager and Vice President of West Coast Operations for Cedar Fair, L.P., Knott's parent company.

The new coaster is designed and manufactured by Intamin International of Switzerland.

Knott's Berry Farm is owned and operated by Cedar Fair, L.P., a publicly traded partnership that is listed for trading on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FUN."

Disney has started construction on Tower of Terror and a Bug's Life at its new California Adventure Theme Park.

Tower of Terror is based on the Twilight Zone theme and is already open at its Florida Park, MGM Studios. Disney does great ride theming and in Tower of Terror you enter an old and creepy hotel eventually making your way to an "elevator" ride that first takes you up many stories then plunges you downward at a very high speed.

Six Flags Magic Mountain, Los Angeles announced that X, the world's first "4th dimensional thrill ride" is now open. Unlike traditional coasters where trains parallel the track, X is pushed to the extreme. Riders race in prototype vehicles that can now spin independently 360-degrees forwards or backwards on a separate axis -- creating a "don't know what to expect next" sensation. Perched on the EDGE of a massive 20-foot wide wing-shaped vehicle, riders plummet 200 feet to the ground - head-first face down -- and race at 76 miles-per-hour spinning head-over-heels and performing forward and backward acrobatics through the massive 3,600-foot twisting steel maze.

Opened: January 12, 2002

Sky Dive: 1

Height Restriction: Must be at least 48" tall to ride

First Drop: 200 Feet

Twisting Front Flips: 1

Back Flips: 2

Raven Turns: 2 Speed: 76 MPH

Track Length: 3,610 Feet

Vehicles: The prototype design allows vehicles to spin 360-degrees forward and backward independent of the train's primary movement. Weighing 5 tons, the vehicle has a unique wing-shaped design that spans an unprecedented 20-feet wide. Each of the three trains carries 28 passengers sitting four abreast.

Safety Systems: Computer controlled fail-safe magnetic brakes and trains with state-of-the-art specially designed seat and shoulder restraints to assure proper ride speed and rider comfort at all times.

Capacity: 1,600 Riders per Hour

Manufacturer : Arrow Dynamics

On January 14, one of the 80m (265') towers comprising Cedar Point's new "VertiGo" ride broke about 20m (60') up and collapsed onto the ground. Two engineers from S&S arrived the next day to investigate the incident. The park also hired a third-party company to test the other two towers on the ride.

Though this incident occured during Cedar Point's off season, there were two other two other rides of this type operating at the time of the accident, at Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain. These rides were shut down immediately folowing the collapse of the tower at Cedar Point. The cause of the faliure has not yet been determined.

Fantasy Island Park (Ingoldmells, England) is poised to break into the amusement-park big leagues, with three major coaster opening within a few years of each other. The Millennium Roller Coaster is the park's most recent addition; a steel looper from Vekoma. But this park is well underway on construction on their record-breaking inverted coaster, who's name for the moment appears to be "Jubilee Oddysee". The park has not released much official information on the ride, but we have been able to construct a rough layout diagram of the coaster, pictured at left. The ride will feature six inversions: a loop, a cobra roll, a sidewinder, a zero-g-roll and a corkscrew. The third major coaster the park will be opening will be "Stunt Flyer", Vekoma's "Hammerhead-stall" prototype originally intended for the Sheraton Studio Resort in Orlando, Florida. With the addition of these rides, especially Odyssey, the park looks to become a major player in the theme park scene in the UK.