Checking In at Six Flags America to Start Their Final Season
Check out the video on our visit, or read the blog version below!
A few weeks ago, the theme park world was shocked to hear the news that Six Flags America, the company's DC based park about to open for its 25th season, is going to close at the end of the year. Now I’d say we weren’t shocked in the sense that nobody saw it coming. With the merger of Cedar Fair and Six Flags, the company now owned Six Flags America and Kings Dominion only about an hour and a half away from each other serving a similar region. We were more shocked because it happened so abruptly. New trains had just been purchased for Superman: Ride of Steel and the park was actively promoting their 25th anniversary celebration on social media. This is Eric from Park Rovers, and being a DC area resident, I will admit that I have been neglectful of our most local park. Six Flags America is a 26 minute drive from my front door to the parking lot, yet almost every time I have a free weekend I find myself an hour down I-95 at King’s Dominion or two hours to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. With that in mind, I want to make it a point this year to visit Six Flags America as much as possible and enjoy the final season of this often derided yet underappreciated park. To start, I figured we’d just take a walk around the park and check out how things are going at the beginning of Six Flags America's 25th Anniversary.
Around the Park
I’ve always found that Six Flags America has a very understated and welcoming entrance, surrounded by foliage with not many visible thrills in your sightlines. Superman: Ride of Steel is really the only coaster present in your view. Other than that, it’s just colonial building facades and pleasant music to welcome you into Main Street 1776.
Welcome to Steam Town
We soon found ourselves approaching Steamtown, which is hands down the best themed area in the entire park, and is the biggest reminder in the park's final season of what could have been.. The buildings and sets are carefully crafted with an original score that feels bigger and more produced than anything you would expect for a regional park. I took the chance to hop on Steam Whirler, which is a Zamperla “NebulaZ” flat ride with fantastic theming. This was a brand new addition with the retheming of this land just one year ago, and is just so much fun. Shout out to my wife who isn’t a fan of spinning rides but got some great shots while I was riding.
Look ma no hands!
We checked in at Fillament’s Steam Pub, the quality of which speaks for itself. The interiors are beautiful and well maintained. I love that they actually have a little bar setup along the counter, not just take away.
The back of the land features Professor Screammore’s Sidewinder, a Vekoma SLC. Even with the new trains (again, new trains just a year ago), SLCs still are a little too much for me, I’m happy to have my cred and not repeat too often. It’s a shame, because the ride looks great and they did a terrific job theming the existing coaster in with the new land. I would expect that this ride is high on the list of coasters that could potentially move to a different park in the chain. At the very least, they’ll send those new trains to another park.
More than anywhere else, this area shows that the park was really trying. Just a year ago, millions were put into this land to give Six Flags America a signature area that any type of park fan can come to and be impressed with the level of detail. Much like Professor Screammore, it shows that they had their eyes set on the future.
Leaving Steamtown, we headed left into the Chesapeake area. More than anywhere in the park, I’d say that this has the theme in name only, featuring a variety of attractions that don’t seem to be connected to any central narrative. As you can see, being early May, we still have a few weeks to go until the park is fully operational. Still no water rides, train, major shows, and a handful of flat rides until after Memorial Day.
Passing by Roar, another usual skip for me as it is the definition of a jackhammer woodie, I’m once again reminded of the impending closure. This ride was always high on people's lists for a potential RMC conversions, but unfortunately now it is likely doomed for the scrapyard. Next door is Firebird, the first ever B&M. While I don’t love this ride, it’s a bit of a head banger, it’s a real shame that this will likely be the end of the road for it as well. In my opinion, it’s too rough at this point to justify the cost of taking it down and shipping it to another park, not enough juice in that squeeze. Regardless of how it rides, to be the first ever B&M counts for something. I’ll definitely get a farewell ride in at some point this season.
A long way up in Gotham
From there, we were onto the largest section of the park, Gotham City. As soon as you enter the area, you are greeted by the large Gotham City Arena. The sets that you can see inside look impressive, but I have yet to catch a stunt show there. As a whole, Gotham City doesn’t have the most impressive theming, it’s mostly just vague city facades put onto funnel cake stands and the like. But Gotham definitely hosts the most impressive ride lineup in the park.
The first being Harley Quinn Spinsanity, a pendulum Frisbee flat ride from Zamperla. Like much of Gotham, the theming is minimal but the thrills are high. This ride is only four years old, another very recent investment, so you can all but guarantee that this one will be relocated to a new home after the 2025 season. Next to Harley Quinn is an open air food court area that features a very cool Batmobile parked in the center. There is a top notch bar area, Steelworks Bar, where you can grab a drink in the shade next to the Batmobile, which I’d consider a pretty unique experience. This bar also features great views of most of the central area of the park, 9/10 theme park bar that could only be improved with a better draft selection.
That’s a big bowl of spaghetti
Passing the food court we encounter Joker’s Jinx, a Premier rides Flight of Fear clone. My opinion here, but I think this is the smoothest coaster in the park. It’s well maintained, and doesn’t use the break run half way through like Flight of Fear so you don’t lose any of your momentum. This is a must ride for me every visit, I’m a big fan. As far as the future for this one goes, I wouldn’t be surprised either way. It seems like an easy choice to be packed up and relocated, but at 26 years old you have to wonder how much life it has left. It may be easier to just call it a day with this one.
Superman: Ride of Steel
The hits keep coming as we approach Superman: Ride of Steel. The thing that I was most excited to check out on this visit were the brand new trains that the park invested in for the 25th Anniversary, and they are slick. They look fantastic, like you could immediately tell from afar by the way they shimmered in the sunlight that they were brand new, I swear like from the entrance of the park you could tell. The seats still feel a little claustrophobic, and my ride operator absolutely STAPLED me, we’re talking nervous that I was going to lose feeling in my legs stapled. Overall though, they are such an upgrade from the worn down seats you were greeted with last season. I was hoping the new trains might help a bit with the rattle that this ride has, but I’m not sure they did. It may just be a track issue at this point for the 25 year old Intamin hyper coaster. I really enjoy this ride, rattle and all, and unfortunately feel like it will be destined for the scrap yard with the new trains going to Darien Lake. The footprint is just too large to conveniently move it somewhere else.
Look at those shiny new trains
The final stop in Gotham is isolated way in the back, and I mean way in the back, it almost feels off property. The world’s last Vekoma Flying Dutchman, Batwing. I don’t even want to speak these words into existence, but I just don’t think there’s much of a chance that this one of a kind coaster survives the closing. Riding X-Flight, another Flying Dutchman at the now defunct Six Flags Ohio, was a seminal moment in my theme park fandom. I was OBSESSED with that coaster as a kid, and equally thrilled to learn that there was one right down the road when I first moved to DC. It was my number one priority on my first visit and does not disappoint. This ride is disorienting, forceful, and still smooth 20+ years after opening. The vertical loop that you take on your back is a potential grey out every time. I really hope that Batwing survives, but I’m going to get as many rides in as I can this summer just in case.
Park Rovers Eric properly wind swept from Batwing
Making the long walk out of Gotham, we headed to Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras, much like Gotham, has themed store fronts and some themed rides, but the ambiance overall doesn’t quite sell what the name suggests. The highlight here is the PTC woodie Wild One, the park's oldest coaster and an ACE Landmark. This one is really interesting from the perspective of the park closing. Wild One is 108 years old, and by all accounts should be saved and reconstructed somewhere. However, it is a gigantic coaster with 4000 feet of track, making the task of relocation seem almost impossible for something that old. This continues today’s theme of a ride that I truly believe deserves more, but I just can’t see how they justify the cost of preserving it in some way, and that’s a real shame. If we want to focus more on an almost guarantee to be saved, look no further than Ragin’ Cajun, a Zamperla spinning mouse. This ride actually rocks, I love Ragin Cajun. If you can get your car off balance, this thing absolutely tornadoes you through the entire course. Like top speed spinning from the second it releases, it’s absolutely insane. This will easily be broken down and shipped off, and considering it was the only ride in the entire park with a significant line, I can see why. Also, shout out to Hurricane’s Bar, another absolutely top notch theme park bar. Six Flags America is surprisingly strong in it’s bar setups.
Looney Tunes Movie Town is actually still in really great shape, the theming is on par with the Sesame lands in the Busch and SeaWorld parks.
Looney Tunes: Movie Town
The final land is the shady, welcoming Old Boston area, adorned with charming flat rides and a nice ambiance. I couldn’t help walking around and wondering where all of these rides would be in a year or two. If you need a break from the heat this summer, I’d recommend this area as it’s the most wooded section of the park. I also can’t recommend enough a stop into Heritage House to check out the exhibit that they have set up walking you through the entire history of the park. For devoted park fans, you’ll easily spend 15-20 minutes just checking out the details here.
Of course, the visit would be complete without a stop at the gift stores on the way out, which featured surprisingly little 25th anniversary merch. I had my heart completely set on a tee-shirt to commemorate this historic year for the park, maybe they’re waiting until Memorial Day to really roll out the anniversary merch.
Final Thoughts
And that’s it, our first visit for the 25th and final season of Six Flags America. I encourage any park fan who has it within their means to make their way and check out this park before it closes its doors forever. I know that it can get a bad rap, the rides are mostly outdated and busy days can bring out the worst in people. However, as I walked around and took in the reality of what the park closing means for a majority of the rides, I couldn’t help but appreciate them just a little bit more for what they are. The “most uncomfortable B&M” suddenly becomes more historic for what it represents to the industry. The “flying coaster that’s always broken down” is the last of an almost extinct, innovative ride system. And that “old rattly wooden coaster” has stood tall for longer than almost every other coaster that you’ve ever ridden. There is a dignity to so many of these rides, elder statesmen in a constantly modernizing industry, and I for one want to celebrate that.
