Pre-Season Top 5 for 2009 - #4 Terminator Salvation

While I'm not 100% on-board with the fact that Six Flags Magic Mountain has named a wooden roller coaster after a science fiction character made of metal.... I still like this ride.

When you watch the ride animation, it seems to go on forever and never lets up. It reminds me of the relentless power of The Voyage at Holiday World.

I also really like the station fly-through gimmick. However, I have to wonder if this would get old after awhile if the wait was really long.

There is also talk of on-board audio and special effects in the rides queue. This is also the 2nd GCI coaster in our Top Five.

I think this is one of those rides that could be really great or tremendously over-hyped. I'm curious to see whether it will remain the the Top Five after the 2009 season is over.

Talk about it in the CoasterRadio.com forums.

What will be the story in 2009?

Happy New Year to everyone!

I hope you guys had a great holiday season and a very successful 2008.

When a new year begins, it's always interesting to look ahead and try to figure out what the next 365 days will be like. For our purposes here, let's focus on the theme park biz.

Just as it was in 2008, the biggest story in 2009 is going to be the economy. Sure, gas prices have dropped, but in this unstable time, will people still want to travel to theme parks?

We have a bunch of new rides and attractions premiering this year. Kings Island's Diamondback (pictured) looks like it will be a winner. Manta at Sea World Florida seems to be getting a lot of attention and rightly so.... the theming and layout looks very interesting.

Speaking of theming, we'll find out whether a wooden roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain can be successfully themed to The Terminator series. We'll also see if the Saw movies will make a good theme for a roller coaster at Thorpe Park in England.

I also wonder if 2009 will be a good year for "coaster enthusiasm" in general. One thing that I've noticed over the past several years is that interest in roller coasters and theme parks seems to be waning. Back in the late 90's (during the "coaster boom") the community was engaged, excited and growing. These days, it seems like there isn't the same level of enthusiasm as there was back then. I could be wrong, but I'm curious to hear what you think.

So what does 2009 have in store? What will be the big story in 2009?

Let's talk about it in the CoasterRadio.com forums.

Terminator: The Coaster

Today, Six Flags Magic Mountain announced a $10 million coaster, engineered exclusively for the Valencia theme park by Great Coasters International Inc.

TERMINATOR: THE COASTER will feature a loading station "fly-thru," a state-of-the-art sight and sound package, and unique queue line and on-board entertainment elements. The GCII-designed Millennium Flyer coaster trains will zip through five belly-flopping hills and six high speed banked turns over 2,850 feet of track to create a ride that delivers the acrobatic thrills of a modern roller coaster while retaining the nostalgic look and feel of a classic "woodie."

The last thing I expected when I heard about a "Terminator" themed ride was a wooden coaster. After all, when you think of a Terminator, you think of the cool liquid metal that was used in T2 and T3. What does wooden coaster have to do with the franchise?

I really wish we were still doing the podcast. If we were, you know we would have broken out our cheesy Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions to discuss this ride.

Speaking of Terminator, I'm really curious how the new movie is going to be received. I think the new TV show is pretty cool. So far, it's been pretty creative. Let's hope the ride isn't a letdown thematically.

Talk about this in the CR Forums.