The Ups and Downs of 2024
Every year in the roller coaster industry has its ups and downs. On the upside, another year passed means more new coasters have debuted around the world. On the downside, another year passed means parks have had to retire beloved aging coasters.
The 2024 coaster season had exciting new additions that pushed the limits of creativity and engineering. Unfortunately, this year has also been defined by major coaster delays, underwhelming additions, and heartbreaking closures. This year brought innovation like Voltron Nevera in Germany, but it brought disappointment like the world’s tallest coaster abruptly closing forever.
Let’s take a look back at 2024: a complicated year for roller coasters.
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The Ups: New Coasters
The year started off promising with a lot of highly anticipated coasters on the way. World-class parks like Cedar Point and Six Flags Great Adventure, among others, were debuting high-profile coasters.
Missouri Blazes the Season
By early spring, Silver Dollar City kicked off the coaster season with its brand-new Fire In The Hole. This Rocky Mountain Construction family attraction revived one of the park’s classics and was well-received. The 2024 Fire In The Hole wasn’t necessarily groundbreaking for the industry, but it was a great addition for Silver Dollar City.
Germany Shocks the World
About a month later, Germany amped things up. Europa-Park introduced Voltron Nevera: a first-of-its-kind Stryker Coaster manufactured by Mack Rides. Voltron ran away with a Golden Ticket Award as the Best New Roller Coaster of 2024. Its cutting-edge ride system, dark ride elements, beyond-vertical launch, and electrifying layout were clear highlights of the 2024 coaster season. Voltron was instantly recognized as one of the best coasters in the world—it’s that good.
A coaster with that kind of praise only comes around every now and then, so 2024 was already off to a strong start. Unfortunately, that momentum wouldn’t last.
Cedar Point Can’t Cross the Finish Line
In early May, Cedar Point opened the highly anticipated Top Thrill 2. The original Top Thrill Dragster closed in 2021 following an accident, but Cedar Point worked with Zamperla to reopen the coaster as a re-engineered experience. Top Thrill 2 was years in the making. Zamperla transformed the world’s second-tallest coaster by adding a vertical spike and a more reliable swing-launch system.
Excitement was racing as crowds waited hours to ride the revamped coaster, but Top Thrill 2 had to pump the brakes. The long-awaited coaster regrettably closed only a week after its grand opening. Top Thrill 2 was down for an extended pit stop, as announced by the park. A few months later, Cedar Point confirmed Top Thrill 2 would stay closed for the remainder of 2024 with an expected reopening in 2025. Top Thrill 2 was supposed to be this year’s marque addition for Cedar Point—and honestly, all of the United States. Instead, the roller coaster capital of the world suddenly had a 420-foot-tall lawn ornament and a lot of disappointed fans.
Top Thrill 2 was one of many major standing-but-not-operating (SBNO) roller coasters in 2024—more on that soon.
The U.K. Finds Its Fearless
Across the pond, England had an eventful year for coasters. In March, Alton Towers reopened the country’s most iconic coaster: Nemesis, now known as Nemesis Reborn. The legendary inverted coaster dives through the terrain with a reimagined theme and new track from Bolliger & Mabillard.
Nemesis Reborn was just the start: The U.K. made even bigger coaster headlines in 2024. For the first time in 30 years, the country now has a new tallest roller coaster: The 236-foot-tall Hyperia at Thorpe Park claimed the height record from The Big One at Pleasure Beach Resort. Hyperia was Thorpe Park’s first new coaster in over a decade, so the hype for this Mack Rides hyper coaster was strong.
Visitors at Thorpe Park could find their fearless on Hyperia’s opening day in May 2024, but that one day was all the coaster could handle. Hyperia operated for its grand opening, but it closed the very next day. Clearly, Hyperia needed more time as it unexpectedly closed for a short period after its debut. The coaster struggled with lift hill issues and incidents of valleying. Thorpe Park extended the closure for several weeks until successfully reopening Hyperia in June.
All American Headache
Back in the States, Indiana Beach finally opened All American Triple Loop: a classic Schwarzkopf looping coaster the park acquired and announced way back in 2020. All American Triple Loop is definitely not a new coaster, being manufactured in 1984 and having a tragic past. Indiana Beach relocated and restored the coaster before adding it to the park’s lineup in May 2024. It’s like the coaster got a fresh start, but it ended up being a headache for the park and guests.
All American Triple Loop was immediately notorious for its deeply uncomfortable ride experience caused by unbearable and unnecessary shoulder restraints. The coaster already had lap bars, so the extra shoulder pads were redundant and made the ride painful. All American Triple Loop also had some problematic operational issues, which led the park to restrict guests from filming or photographing the coaster—even off the ride. It was a bad look.
Eventually, Indiana Beach removed the unpopular shoulder restraints, and the coaster’s reputation has evened out a bit.
Solid 2024 Openings
Up the this point, the 2024 coaster season had high highs and low lows, but the year had in-between moments too.
The most notable U.S. coaster to open successfully was Iron Menace at Dorney Park, located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This was the park’s first ground-up coaster since the 2000s. The B&M dive machine sent riders down a 95-degree drop and through four inversions. Its theme fit nicely into Dorney Park and has been a generally well-liked improvement that went over smoothly—except for one issue: The track had a noticeable rattle and a large jolt toward the end of the layout. It may have been a nitpicky talking point, but valid for a roller coaster fresh out of the factory that should be glossy smooth. This has sadly been a common complaint for B&M’s newer coasters.
United Parks & Resorts—the operators of SeaWorld and Busch Gardens—added a pair of B&M family coasters to its Florida parks in 2024. In July, Penguin Trek opened at SeaWorld Orlando, and Phoenix Rising opened at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Both were new coaster models for B&M, which usually manufactures larger rides. They were solid additions to balance out the parks, despite Penguin Trek having a bit of that new B&M rattle.
Meanwhile, Holiday World and Kings Island in the U.S. Midwest debuted new Vekoma family boomerangs: Good Gravy! and Snoopy’s Soap Box Racers, respectively. Emerald Park in Ireland opened a pair of intertwining Vekoma thrill and family coasters: Na Fianna Force and The Quest.
And one more family coaster of note: Six Flags Great Escape in New York introduced a Gravity Group wooden coaster, Bobcat, which ranked highly for the Golden Ticket’s best new coaster category. This was the only new coaster that opened across the Six Flags legacy chain in 2024—the others were delayed.
The Downs: Delays and Closures
Delays affected many parks in 2024. Arizona’s upcoming Mattel Adventure Park, which was supposed to open in 2023, has pushed its opening to 2025. The change in plans of course postponed the park’s roller coasters: Hot Wheels Twin Mill Racer and Hot Wheels Boneshaker: The Ultimate Ride.
Likewise, COTALand in Texas missed the 2024 opening of its two new coasters: Palindrome and Circuit Breaker. Both coasters have gone vertical—literally speaking for Circuit Breaker, which will be a rare Vekoma tilt coaster.
Once Six Flags and Cedar Fair officially merged in 2024, a few of the company’s imminent coasters were rescheduled for 2025. Georgia Surfer at Six Flags Over Georgia and THE FLASH: Vertical Velocity at Six Flags Great Adventure were put on hold. Great Adventure was celebrating its 50th anniversary, so having to wait for the coaster, which was already under construction, was surprising—but not the worst news for the park that year.
Down Goes the King
As the year went on, the Six Flags rumor mill was active and suggested something unimaginable: Kingda Ka was going to close. This Intamin engineering marvel was the world’s fastest operating and tallest coaster—a record it broke back in 2005. Simply put, Kingda Ka was monumental and probably the most famous roller coaster around the globe. To say it was an icon feels like an understatement.
Rumors said it might close by the end of 2025, but that date steadily reeled in. The rumors were changing faster than the coaster’s record-breaking launch, now hinting at a late 2024 retirement—much sooner than expected. Six Flags was completely silent about Kingda Ka’s uncertain future while content creators were putting their reputations on the line by sharing the unconfirmed news.
Turns out, the rumors were true; the unthinkable happened. Kingda Ka abruptly retired without any official notice or ceremonial sendoff on Nov. 10, 2024. It was a bitter ending for a widely celebrated coaster. The king was dethroned, and coaster enthusiasts were heartbroken.
Kingda Ka’s retirement overshadowed the unannounced closure of another major Six Flags Great Adventure roller coaster: Green Lantern. Yes, it happened twice in the same year in the same park. Six Flags Over Texas also quietly closed the La Vibora roller coaster.
Months earlier, Fuji-Q Highland in Japan confirmed the dormant Do-Dodonpa, which was the fastest-accelerating coaster in the world, would permanently close.
Also, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay retired its oldest coaster, Scorpion, with little notice, leaving fans sentimental about its legacy. Kumba, which always seems to be rumored to close, went down for maintenance at the end of the year.
In Limbo: SBNO Coasters
Throughout the year, notable coasters opened, notable coasters closed permanently, and other notable coasters stood nonoperational. It’s just another layer on top of an increasingly complicated year for coasters.
In January, the record holder for the world’s fastest coaster closed unexpectedly. Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi has been out of commission while significant work continues on its launch system.
Superman: Escape from Krypton at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which is among the world’s tallest and fastest coasters, has closed for refurbishment. Its future is unknown and possibly doubtful given recent decisions by Six Flags. Another Six Flags coaster, THE FLASH: Vertical Velocity at Discovery Kingdom, has also spent the year unavailable.
Pennsylvania’s tallest coaster, Steel Curtain at Kennywood, was closed for all of 2024 as part of what the park called an “extensive modification project.” Unconfirmed rumors say the coaster has structural or foundational issues. Kennywood has since optimistically announced Steel Curtain will reopen in 2025. TMNT Shellraiser at Nickelodeon Universe has been in a similar SBNO situation.
Lakemont Park’s historic Leap-The-Dips, which is the world’s oldest standing roller coaster, was out of commission in 2024. The park did not operate its amusement rides this season. The bizarre Dragon Mountain at Marineland Of Canada was also shuttered in 2024 as the park paused its operations.
A few old-school coasters on the West Coast have been out of service: Desperado at Buffalo Bill’s Resort & Casino as well as Montezooma’s Revenge at Knott’s Berry Farm. Montezooma’s Revenge has been undergoing a very lengthy refurbishment, with a new expected reopening date in 2025 and a reimagined name: MonteZOOMa: The Forbidden Fortress.
Finally, on the kid-friendly side, Pteranodon Flyers at Universal Islands of Adventure has yet to reopen after unexpectedly closing earlier in the year, and the Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster models at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Over Georgia are still inactive despite being only about a year old.
The Promises of 2025
The 2024 coaster season was a letdown with a mix of highlights and lowlights. Many of the year’s premier coasters failed to open, and many headlines were surprising. Of course, roller coasters close and have struggles every year, but 2024 felt excessive. It was disappointing—full stop—but that doesn’t change how exciting 2025 looks. More than 100 roller coasters are scheduled to open.
Universal is unveiling an entire new theme park in Orlando with a strong roster of roller coasters. On top of that, Six Flags Qiddiya is going to rewrite the record book with the unbelievable Falcons Flight. The Intamin exa coaster will be the first to break the 500-foot mark and the 600-foot mark—assuming it will actually open. The track is now complete, and it is by far unlike any coaster attempted before.
The best is yet to come. Several elite, innovative, and creative roller coasters are under construction right now. Even though 2024 had its issues, there has never been a more exciting time to be a theme park fan.
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