The concept I have to share today isn't a wholly original idea—it has been pitched and alluded to by a number of folks here on ParkFans and in private chats with me over the years. It's no secret that Six Flags America has long been a troubled park so it shouldn't be surprising that radical ideas have been tossed around as per how to fix it. This is definitely one of those radical ideas, but I also think it's a very good one—and probably a shockingly realistic one too.
Though the general ideas of how best to restructure and reform Six Flags America have been percolating in the back of my mind for years now, the recent revelation of the incoming merger between Cedar Fair and Six Flags was the real impetus for me finally sit down, work through, and sketch out my ideas. Why? Because, post-merger, Six Flags America will be more troubled than ever before. Now, instead of being a marginally profitable, bottom-tier Six Flags park, it will be an active competitor to one of Six Flags' new (and far superior) parks, Kings Dominion.
The quick and dirty answer to this problem that many people out there on the internet are jumping to right now is to just shutter Six Flags America, sell of its land, and pay down some corporate debt (or finance much-needed improvements elsewhere in the chain). Though I do, unfortunately, think such a move is a legitimate possibility, I very much hope that the new Six Flags doesn't opt for that path. Yes, right now, Six Flags America is highly duplicative with Kings Dominion. Yes, right now, Six Flags America is a run-down mess of a park. And yes, right now, Six Flags America is probably worth far less as a park than the land it sits on.
All that said though, I believe selling off the land beneath Six Flags America would be a tremendously short-sighted decision. Six Flags America sits well within the suburbs of Washington DC, just outside the beltway. The Washington DC area is the sixth largest metro in the country with around 6.4 million residents. That's not all either. Six Flags America is located only about an hour southwest of the Baltimore city center—the 20th largest metro in the country—featuring over 2.8 million people calling it home. Better yet? It's far closer to both of these metro areas than either of its nearest, major-park neighbors: Hersheypark and Kings Dominion. Still even better yet? DC's population has been steadily growing for the last 50 years, it's one of the most economically-stable areas of the country, it rarely suffers any particularly severe weather, and it has a booming, highly lucrative tech sector. Want even more? Though snow does occur occasionally and the winters do get nippy, a park in the DC area can sustain a notably longer season than can be achieved just a state or two further north (mid-March through the end of December, for example, is a cakewalk). Oh, and did I mention that Washington DC is the 7th most-visited city in America with over 1.1 million tourists per year?
As far as theme park locations go, there are, legitimately, few better options than Washington DC and yet, somehow, miraculously, Six Flags is the only park-operating property owner in the entire region. That said, the park they've long operated here, Six Flags America, is massively overshadowed by Hersheypark to the north and Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg to the south. Additionally, given the relative prosperity and highly-educated of the DC area, it's likely that a run-down, generic, thrill park was never going to be the most-correct solution for the market—particularly when there are great, pleasant, high-quality, guest-experience-focused parks within day-trip distance. So, while the location may be immaculate, it's clear the park itself is very much a square peg being shoved uncomfortably into a round hole.
While some may say the right call would be to just give up the ghost and let Kings Dominion carry the DC market for Six Flags, I'd counter that giving up such an incredible foothold in such a massive, uncontested market seems obviously wrongheaded long-term. Worse yet for Six Flags, if they were to exit the local DC market, it is only a matter of time before another competitor enters and takes the market for themselves—potentially threatening the future success of Six Flag's new property to the south, Kings Dominion, in the process. After all, Disney and Merlin have both already previously attempted new parks in the immediate vicinity of DC despite Six Flags America's existing presence. If Six Flags were to shutter their property entirely, only Houston, Texas would be a larger domestic city without a major amusement park close by. Washington DC is probably already atop many chain's lists for potential expansion, but the closure of the area's only existing park would supercharge that park power vacuum.
While I may be ardently against Six Flags surrendering their DC foothold, I do very much agree that the current status quo is not sustainable. The park has seemingly been struggling more and more over the last few seasons with the removal of Holiday in the Park, the closure of entire sections of the property, and a palpable neglect visible everywhere that is open. It's clear that something has to change in order to keep the property above water. Sure, maybe they could add a major coaster or two to give the place a boost, but it would still be the wrong park for the market and doing so would only cannibalize more traffic from the chain's Doswell property, Kings Dominon. Furthermore, even when Six Flags America does add something new, the park's truly abominable local perception and reputation makes the ceiling for those additions depressingly low. It seems to almost always be true that those attraction investment dollars could have been spent to much grander returns at any number of other Six Flags parks—a situation that's even more true now that the Cedar Fair properties are being added to the fold.
So, how could Six Flags cleanse the property of its past sins in the public consciousness while also driving new visitation and avoiding breaking the bank? Oh, and that needs to be accomplished while also, preferably avoiding direct competition with their new sister-park, Kings Dominion. Well, I propose a potential solution: A new, first of its kind, Six Flags—a family-focused, fully IP-based, theme park sub-brand, that I'm calling "Six Flags Kids."
We've seen the domestic family park market heat up dramatically over the last handful of years with the debut of two new Legolands, a new Sesame Place, and the first-ever Peppa Pig theme park. This segment of the industry shows no signs of slowing down either with a first-of-its-kind Universal Studios kids park, the country's first Hasbro family theme park, and the second Peppa Pig park all currently in development. With Universal, Merlin, and SeaWorld all having already entered/announced plans to enter this incredibly profitable market, it's time for Six Flags to jump aboard too—and Washington DC is a fantastic place to do it—and Six Flags America is the perfect property for it.
With all of that preamble out of the way, what, exactly, am I proposing?
Below, you'll find a map of the property layout I envision. Major lands are labeled, but specific segments of the plan are also numbered. I'll break down each one-by-one in a moment. Also featured are white arrows to depict general guest path-flow through the property. Six Flags America is, currently, a maze of often worthless paths that cause the lower half of the park's existing layout to look a bit like Swiss cheese. A large goal of this concept was to massively simplify pathing and navigation throughout the park.
By far the largest change I'm proposing to this area is the removal of the turnstiles from the front of the hamlet. Though the security perimeter must, of course, be retained, my vision for Capitol Square is for it to be entirely free to enter (once people pay for parking, of course). Though few people would probably ever visit the property exclusively for Capitol Square, it could be used as an off-peak-season, free-to-enter event venue for, say, a beer festival or the like where profits would come from food and beverage sales rather than admission. I could also envision upcharge birthday party facilities which could be accessed from this area if Six Flags wanted to break into that market. Birthday party facilities are something that many other family-aimed parks offer and, the fact that this one would be outside the gate, would make it extra appealing for, say, off-season usage or for mixed groups where not everyone attending the party would need to purchase park admission.
As for the park itself, though I've never stepped foot within its perimeter, from the outside looking in, the place could definitely use some updates. I won't go into what attraction(s) should be removed, replaced, rethemed, or refreshed as I can't speak with any confidence as per the existing experience. That said, I would like to see a major retheming and rebranding effort take place for the park as a whole. I really love what Carowinds has done with Carolina Harbor—capitalizing on the local market's familiarity with the states' beaches. I think doing the same in Maryland with the Chesapeake Bay would be a solid thematic direction in which to head.
The restrooms on the left and the restaurant on the right as you enter this area will need extensive interior overhauls and exterior clean-ups, but the bones of this area are very strong from the clocktower and theater overlooking the area to the charming chair swing to the back-right. With some beatification efforts and freshening up, this will make for a grand first impression for our new children's park.
The area to the bottom right of the black dotted line would be themed to the darker, seedier Gotham City. The facade and small gift shop on the left side of the Grand Theatre would be themed to the exterior of Arkham Asylum with the scrambler out front taking on a Joker theme. The existing theater would feature a Riddler-ridden action stunt show centered around Batman taking on the famous question-focused nemesis. Across the path, the existing Shipwreck Falls boat ride would take on a Gotham City Water and Power Authority (GCWPA) theme after it has been taken over by the Penguin. Right next door, the current Goldrush Chicken Co. restaurant would be fully enclosed and rethemed to Mr. Freeze's infamous Iceberg Lounge (bonus points for serving an iceberg salad).
Past this point, the path takes guests into a small botanical garden, a favorite hangout spot for Poison Ivy and a nice, green way to transition to the second section of the DC Universe land: Metropolis.
Unlike the Gotham-half of the DC Universe land, not much would be carried over from Six Flags America's Chesapeake to Six Flags Kids' Metropolis. The existing B&M floorless coaster, Firebird, would be scrapped. The two existing flat rides (a swinging ship and a second round swing ride) would both also be removed. All of this newly vacated land would be reallocated to a collection of fresh, new, Zamperla flat rides themed to many of your favorite DC Comics heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and others. The walk-up food stalls and gift shop in this area of the park would also need refacing to bring them inline with the art deco look and feel of Metropolis. Additionally, at the very back of this land is the single station for Six Flags America's existing railroad. The station would be renovated and the train painted to bring it to near-parity with the recently announced, absolutely gorgeous Metropolis Transit Authority coming to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in 2024.
What about Chesapeake's other former roller coaster, Roar? I want to RMC it. That sounds like a wild proposal, but hear me out. Rocky Mountain Construction's I-Box coasters manage impressively low minimum height requirements and I-Box conversions are almost always cheaper than similar scale ground-up alternatives. Unlike the other RMC conversions we've seen around the industry, this would be the world's first FAMILY I-Box installation—notably cutting down the height, speed, and length of the existing Roar layout. This would certainly still be one of the park's two most notable, most thrilling coasters, but it would be dramatically more tame than your typical RMC project. I don't have strong opinions about the theme for this new coaster, but I could see Cyborg being a good option since, as far as I can remember, he doesn't have a coaster anywhere yet and, better yet, the duality of Cyborg parallels nicely with the melding of steel and natural materials found on RMC conversions.
Overall, Metropolis would be an idealized, sparkly-clean, art deco-styled area featuring many of the park's new flats, its major "new" coaster, and one other major draw...
Anywho, before I jump into points of interest 7 through 10, I feel I need to contextualize what's going to look, on the surface, like a pretty weird decision. Remember how I subdivided DC Universe into two mini-lands, Gotham and Metropolis? Well, I decided to do that after I already made that big, fancy layout map at the start of this concept and, frankly, I was way too lazy to go back in and try to retcon all of that information into the main graphic itself. Instead, I tossed together that second image you saw with the sloppy, black, dashed line separating DC Universe into its two themed sub-sections. Why am I bringing all of this up? Because I've subdivided a Looney Tunes-themed land in this park as well, but that separation is actually depicted on the original map since it was my plan from the start.
Note I said "a Looney Tunes-themed land"—as in I am pitching two Looney Tunes areas on opposite sides of this new park. If you count the bisected, second Looney Tunes themed land as two different areas, there are three thematically distinct Looney Tunes areas here. So, why? Well, Six Flags America currently features two other, actually pretty well-themed areas: a western town and a small New Orleans area. Because we're attempting to make this concept financially feasible, part of the goal is to reuse as much existing infrastructure as possible. Demoing legitimately good scenic should be avoided, if possible, in my opinion. Fortunately, with the Looney Tunes, we have a very flexible IP full of a variety of characters that we we can cleanly shoehorn into many different environments. I think I've used that IP flexibility to the max in this concept.
While yes, this does mean that there are more Looney Tunes themed areas than anything else, they're also much smaller than their other regions of the park and feature fewer rides than either the DC or Peanuts areas.
The big twist here though is the park's existing spinning coaster would get a massive makeover. A handful of years back, Busch Gardens Tampa had plans to enclose their wild mouse with a warehouse. Other Six Flags parks also currently feature enclosed mice. I'd like to see the same happen here with Ragin' Cajun. Back behind the festivities in the town lies Witch Hazel's house. She's currently inviting tourists in town for the Carnivale into her home for fortune tellings. Once you enter though, you're bewitched and sent on a spinning, swirling, blacklight-lit trip through all sorts of cartoon-y magic imagery (spirals, smoke clouds, etc). Basically, think Hersheypark's Laff Trakk except themed to Witch Hazel. Crucially, this gives Six Flags Kids a second major indoor attraction to aid in extending the park's season and weatherproofing the place against rainstorms.
First off, even in our fake, "trashy" area of the park, go karts have no place in a premium theme park so they have to go. I think the current Zydeco Zinger and Bourbon Street Fireball flat rides may already be dead but, if not, they are now as neither would survive this renovation. I'm not sure what pair of flats I'd put in their place, but they should be two of the more intense options in the park as this area aimed more towards older kids who are looking for a bit of a thrill. Both would, of course, have to look comically "rundown" and be "operated by" Looney Tunes characters. The Tasmanian Devil, Elmer Fudd, and Daffy Duck all seem like good IP integration opportunities here.
Though it may be a bit unexpected due to its relatively high thrill level, I think I'd advocate keeping Six Flags America's 140 foot tall Intamin Giant Drop, Voodoo Drop, in place. Again, this is the thrilling corner of the park, it gives kids a high point in the collection to work towards, and it would be perfect as a Marvin the Martian ride.
Lastly, the park's wildly historic, out-and-back wooden coaster, Wild One. With a comprehensive retracking and partial rebuild from GravityGroup (a la Grizzly at Kings Dominion or Beast at Kings Island), Wild One could, once again, be a fun, smooth, wooden coaster for the whole family. My theme pitch here is that it's an old wooden coaster operated by Ralph Wolf (who already has the perfect, sketchy carny vibe). Simply renaming it "Ralph Wolf's Wild One" would be perfectly fine by me. Wild One is preserved, it gets the restoration it deserves, and it's thematically integrated into the thrilling, little back corner of the country's first Six Flags Kids park.
Plus, though us thoosies would lose some great coasters (emphasis on some since, as I've already covered, I have a top-secret plan to preserve the best coaster at the park, my beloved Batwing, forever), this new Six Flags Kids park would actually have a shockingly strong one-two punch combo with a fully renovated Wild One and the world's first RMC family I-box coaster. In fact, I'd go out on a limb and say it would be the best top coaster tier of any family park anywhere, ever. And hell, pair those headliners with a blacklight, indoor spinning mouse and the Battle for Metropolis dark ride and I honestly believe this starts to look like a super pleasant little park for people of most any age. Yes, the target audience is like 3- to 14-year-olds, but families with older kids could certainly visit and have a great time too. It wouldn't hold a candle to the collection down at Kings Dominion of course, but it would draw in an all-new market in addition to incentivizing more people in the area to visit Kings Dominion too. It seems like a win-win all-around.
Fingers crossed!
Though the general ideas of how best to restructure and reform Six Flags America have been percolating in the back of my mind for years now, the recent revelation of the incoming merger between Cedar Fair and Six Flags was the real impetus for me finally sit down, work through, and sketch out my ideas. Why? Because, post-merger, Six Flags America will be more troubled than ever before. Now, instead of being a marginally profitable, bottom-tier Six Flags park, it will be an active competitor to one of Six Flags' new (and far superior) parks, Kings Dominion.
The quick and dirty answer to this problem that many people out there on the internet are jumping to right now is to just shutter Six Flags America, sell of its land, and pay down some corporate debt (or finance much-needed improvements elsewhere in the chain). Though I do, unfortunately, think such a move is a legitimate possibility, I very much hope that the new Six Flags doesn't opt for that path. Yes, right now, Six Flags America is highly duplicative with Kings Dominion. Yes, right now, Six Flags America is a run-down mess of a park. And yes, right now, Six Flags America is probably worth far less as a park than the land it sits on.
All that said though, I believe selling off the land beneath Six Flags America would be a tremendously short-sighted decision. Six Flags America sits well within the suburbs of Washington DC, just outside the beltway. The Washington DC area is the sixth largest metro in the country with around 6.4 million residents. That's not all either. Six Flags America is located only about an hour southwest of the Baltimore city center—the 20th largest metro in the country—featuring over 2.8 million people calling it home. Better yet? It's far closer to both of these metro areas than either of its nearest, major-park neighbors: Hersheypark and Kings Dominion. Still even better yet? DC's population has been steadily growing for the last 50 years, it's one of the most economically-stable areas of the country, it rarely suffers any particularly severe weather, and it has a booming, highly lucrative tech sector. Want even more? Though snow does occur occasionally and the winters do get nippy, a park in the DC area can sustain a notably longer season than can be achieved just a state or two further north (mid-March through the end of December, for example, is a cakewalk). Oh, and did I mention that Washington DC is the 7th most-visited city in America with over 1.1 million tourists per year?
As far as theme park locations go, there are, legitimately, few better options than Washington DC and yet, somehow, miraculously, Six Flags is the only park-operating property owner in the entire region. That said, the park they've long operated here, Six Flags America, is massively overshadowed by Hersheypark to the north and Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg to the south. Additionally, given the relative prosperity and highly-educated of the DC area, it's likely that a run-down, generic, thrill park was never going to be the most-correct solution for the market—particularly when there are great, pleasant, high-quality, guest-experience-focused parks within day-trip distance. So, while the location may be immaculate, it's clear the park itself is very much a square peg being shoved uncomfortably into a round hole.
While some may say the right call would be to just give up the ghost and let Kings Dominion carry the DC market for Six Flags, I'd counter that giving up such an incredible foothold in such a massive, uncontested market seems obviously wrongheaded long-term. Worse yet for Six Flags, if they were to exit the local DC market, it is only a matter of time before another competitor enters and takes the market for themselves—potentially threatening the future success of Six Flag's new property to the south, Kings Dominion, in the process. After all, Disney and Merlin have both already previously attempted new parks in the immediate vicinity of DC despite Six Flags America's existing presence. If Six Flags were to shutter their property entirely, only Houston, Texas would be a larger domestic city without a major amusement park close by. Washington DC is probably already atop many chain's lists for potential expansion, but the closure of the area's only existing park would supercharge that park power vacuum.
While I may be ardently against Six Flags surrendering their DC foothold, I do very much agree that the current status quo is not sustainable. The park has seemingly been struggling more and more over the last few seasons with the removal of Holiday in the Park, the closure of entire sections of the property, and a palpable neglect visible everywhere that is open. It's clear that something has to change in order to keep the property above water. Sure, maybe they could add a major coaster or two to give the place a boost, but it would still be the wrong park for the market and doing so would only cannibalize more traffic from the chain's Doswell property, Kings Dominon. Furthermore, even when Six Flags America does add something new, the park's truly abominable local perception and reputation makes the ceiling for those additions depressingly low. It seems to almost always be true that those attraction investment dollars could have been spent to much grander returns at any number of other Six Flags parks—a situation that's even more true now that the Cedar Fair properties are being added to the fold.
So, how could Six Flags cleanse the property of its past sins in the public consciousness while also driving new visitation and avoiding breaking the bank? Oh, and that needs to be accomplished while also, preferably avoiding direct competition with their new sister-park, Kings Dominion. Well, I propose a potential solution: A new, first of its kind, Six Flags—a family-focused, fully IP-based, theme park sub-brand, that I'm calling "Six Flags Kids."
We've seen the domestic family park market heat up dramatically over the last handful of years with the debut of two new Legolands, a new Sesame Place, and the first-ever Peppa Pig theme park. This segment of the industry shows no signs of slowing down either with a first-of-its-kind Universal Studios kids park, the country's first Hasbro family theme park, and the second Peppa Pig park all currently in development. With Universal, Merlin, and SeaWorld all having already entered/announced plans to enter this incredibly profitable market, it's time for Six Flags to jump aboard too—and Washington DC is a fantastic place to do it—and Six Flags America is the perfect property for it.
With all of that preamble out of the way, what, exactly, am I proposing?
Six Flags Kids, Washington DC
As I envision it, Six Flags Kids would replace the entirety of Six Flags America, sans the water park and the dry park's existing entry area. Though a lot of park infrastructure is preserved and, where applicable, repurposed, the goal is for the vast majority of the rest of the existing park to look nearly unrecognizable from its predecessor. Alongside the significant rebranding and retargeting of the park, this dramatic visual alteration is an essential component of selling Six Flags Kids as a truly new, fresh experience. If guests are frequently reminded of Six Flags America, the project will have failed one of its core objectives.Below, you'll find a map of the property layout I envision. Major lands are labeled, but specific segments of the plan are also numbered. I'll break down each one-by-one in a moment. Also featured are white arrows to depict general guest path-flow through the property. Six Flags America is, currently, a maze of often worthless paths that cause the lower half of the park's existing layout to look a bit like Swiss cheese. A large goal of this concept was to massively simplify pathing and navigation throughout the park.
1: Capitol Square
- Vibe: Historical, Patriotic (See: Colonial Williamsburg)
- Target Audience: Families & Adults
By far the largest change I'm proposing to this area is the removal of the turnstiles from the front of the hamlet. Though the security perimeter must, of course, be retained, my vision for Capitol Square is for it to be entirely free to enter (once people pay for parking, of course). Though few people would probably ever visit the property exclusively for Capitol Square, it could be used as an off-peak-season, free-to-enter event venue for, say, a beer festival or the like where profits would come from food and beverage sales rather than admission. I could also envision upcharge birthday party facilities which could be accessed from this area if Six Flags wanted to break into that market. Birthday party facilities are something that many other family-aimed parks offer and, the fact that this one would be outside the gate, would make it extra appealing for, say, off-season usage or for mixed groups where not everyone attending the party would need to purchase park admission.
2: Chesapeake Shores
- Vibe: Chill, Beachy
- Target Audience: All Ages (Varies by Area)
As for the park itself, though I've never stepped foot within its perimeter, from the outside looking in, the place could definitely use some updates. I won't go into what attraction(s) should be removed, replaced, rethemed, or refreshed as I can't speak with any confidence as per the existing experience. That said, I would like to see a major retheming and rebranding effort take place for the park as a whole. I really love what Carowinds has done with Carolina Harbor—capitalizing on the local market's familiarity with the states' beaches. I think doing the same in Maryland with the Chesapeake Bay would be a solid thematic direction in which to head.
3: Six Flags Kids Entry Plaza
- Vibe: Grand, Refined
- Target Audience: Families & Adults
The restrooms on the left and the restaurant on the right as you enter this area will need extensive interior overhauls and exterior clean-ups, but the bones of this area are very strong from the clocktower and theater overlooking the area to the charming chair swing to the back-right. With some beatification efforts and freshening up, this will make for a grand first impression for our new children's park.
4: DC Universe
- Vibe: Dark, Serious, Gritty Downtown (Gotham City) & Bright, Bustling City (Metropolis)
- Target Audience: Kids & Tweens; Some Rides Suitable for a Wider Audience
The area to the bottom right of the black dotted line would be themed to the darker, seedier Gotham City. The facade and small gift shop on the left side of the Grand Theatre would be themed to the exterior of Arkham Asylum with the scrambler out front taking on a Joker theme. The existing theater would feature a Riddler-ridden action stunt show centered around Batman taking on the famous question-focused nemesis. Across the path, the existing Shipwreck Falls boat ride would take on a Gotham City Water and Power Authority (GCWPA) theme after it has been taken over by the Penguin. Right next door, the current Goldrush Chicken Co. restaurant would be fully enclosed and rethemed to Mr. Freeze's infamous Iceberg Lounge (bonus points for serving an iceberg salad).
Past this point, the path takes guests into a small botanical garden, a favorite hangout spot for Poison Ivy and a nice, green way to transition to the second section of the DC Universe land: Metropolis.
Unlike the Gotham-half of the DC Universe land, not much would be carried over from Six Flags America's Chesapeake to Six Flags Kids' Metropolis. The existing B&M floorless coaster, Firebird, would be scrapped. The two existing flat rides (a swinging ship and a second round swing ride) would both also be removed. All of this newly vacated land would be reallocated to a collection of fresh, new, Zamperla flat rides themed to many of your favorite DC Comics heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and others. The walk-up food stalls and gift shop in this area of the park would also need refacing to bring them inline with the art deco look and feel of Metropolis. Additionally, at the very back of this land is the single station for Six Flags America's existing railroad. The station would be renovated and the train painted to bring it to near-parity with the recently announced, absolutely gorgeous Metropolis Transit Authority coming to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in 2024.
What about Chesapeake's other former roller coaster, Roar? I want to RMC it. That sounds like a wild proposal, but hear me out. Rocky Mountain Construction's I-Box coasters manage impressively low minimum height requirements and I-Box conversions are almost always cheaper than similar scale ground-up alternatives. Unlike the other RMC conversions we've seen around the industry, this would be the world's first FAMILY I-Box installation—notably cutting down the height, speed, and length of the existing Roar layout. This would certainly still be one of the park's two most notable, most thrilling coasters, but it would be dramatically more tame than your typical RMC project. I don't have strong opinions about the theme for this new coaster, but I could see Cyborg being a good option since, as far as I can remember, he doesn't have a coaster anywhere yet and, better yet, the duality of Cyborg parallels nicely with the melding of steel and natural materials found on RMC conversions.
Overall, Metropolis would be an idealized, sparkly-clean, art deco-styled area featuring many of the park's new flats, its major "new" coaster, and one other major draw...
5: Justice League: Battle for Metropolis
This family park needs a dark ride—especially if we want to extend its season. Luckily, Six Flags already has a good, predesigned, Sally shooter that they love installing in many of their parks. Fortunately for us, Six Flags America hasn't gotten one yet so we can plop it down on the current site of Roar's existing extended queue, one of its helixes, and a large, backstage Fright Fest warehouse that this new family park won't have any need for now. The front entrance for this attraction would be right at the entrance to Metropolis on the other side of the Gotham Botanical Garden that connects down to the lower section of the DC Universe land. Just as the Justice League unites Superman and Batman, this new attraction would tie their cities together beautifully.6: Camp Snoopy
- Vibe: Quaint, Campy, Cute Forest
- Target Audience: Toddlers & Kids
6.5: The Looney Tunes Preamble
You're like 15 to 20 minutes into reading this godforsaken concept and I've just snuck in an unexpected ".5" header to launch into yet another ramble about a park that will never exist. Your blood pressure is probably spiking a little as you begin to realize that, after this stunt, you're finally, seriously considering just cutting your losses and closing this thread forever. Will you stay if I apologize? If so, I'm very sorry for the aside. If my apologizing won't help and you're just bailing right here anyway, uh, fuck you I guess?Anywho, before I jump into points of interest 7 through 10, I feel I need to contextualize what's going to look, on the surface, like a pretty weird decision. Remember how I subdivided DC Universe into two mini-lands, Gotham and Metropolis? Well, I decided to do that after I already made that big, fancy layout map at the start of this concept and, frankly, I was way too lazy to go back in and try to retcon all of that information into the main graphic itself. Instead, I tossed together that second image you saw with the sloppy, black, dashed line separating DC Universe into its two themed sub-sections. Why am I bringing all of this up? Because I've subdivided a Looney Tunes-themed land in this park as well, but that separation is actually depicted on the original map since it was my plan from the start.
Note I said "a Looney Tunes-themed land"—as in I am pitching two Looney Tunes areas on opposite sides of this new park. If you count the bisected, second Looney Tunes themed land as two different areas, there are three thematically distinct Looney Tunes areas here. So, why? Well, Six Flags America currently features two other, actually pretty well-themed areas: a western town and a small New Orleans area. Because we're attempting to make this concept financially feasible, part of the goal is to reuse as much existing infrastructure as possible. Demoing legitimately good scenic should be avoided, if possible, in my opinion. Fortunately, with the Looney Tunes, we have a very flexible IP full of a variety of characters that we we can cleanly shoehorn into many different environments. I think I've used that IP flexibility to the max in this concept.
While yes, this does mean that there are more Looney Tunes themed areas than anything else, they're also much smaller than their other regions of the park and feature fewer rides than either the DC or Peanuts areas.
7: Yosemite Sam's BOOMtown
- Vibe: Bustling, Slapstick Old West Town
- Target Audience: Kids & Tweens; Rides Suitable for a Wider Audience
8: Fast and Furry-ous
The park's second new pair (!) of roller coasters would be a set of Skyline Attractions' new dueling P’Sghetti Bowl children's coasters sitting atop the site currently occupied by Mind Eraser. Six Flags is currently installing two sets of these rides—one at Fiesta Texas and one at Over Georgia. Needless to say, they'd work brilliantly for the target audience of this new Six Flags Kids park as well. The name I'm pitching for the coaster is the name of the first Looney Tunes episode Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote appeared in. Naturally, one side would be blue and one side would be brown. Bonus points if Road Runner's "Meep Meep" is the dispatch sound and the Wile E. Coyote side always slows down on the lift allowing the Road Runner side to "outrun" Coyote.9: Looney Tunes Carnivale, Part I
- Vibe: Festive, Party, "Bourbon Street During Mardi Gras but for Kids with Looney Tunes"
- Target Audience: Kids & Tweens; Rides Suitable for a Wider Audience
The big twist here though is the park's existing spinning coaster would get a massive makeover. A handful of years back, Busch Gardens Tampa had plans to enclose their wild mouse with a warehouse. Other Six Flags parks also currently feature enclosed mice. I'd like to see the same happen here with Ragin' Cajun. Back behind the festivities in the town lies Witch Hazel's house. She's currently inviting tourists in town for the Carnivale into her home for fortune tellings. Once you enter though, you're bewitched and sent on a spinning, swirling, blacklight-lit trip through all sorts of cartoon-y magic imagery (spirals, smoke clouds, etc). Basically, think Hersheypark's Laff Trakk except themed to Witch Hazel. Crucially, this gives Six Flags Kids a second major indoor attraction to aid in extending the park's season and weatherproofing the place against rainstorms.
10: Looney Tunes Carnivale, Part II
- Vibe: Chaotic Cartoony Carnival
- Target Audience: Tweens, Teens, and Adults
First off, even in our fake, "trashy" area of the park, go karts have no place in a premium theme park so they have to go. I think the current Zydeco Zinger and Bourbon Street Fireball flat rides may already be dead but, if not, they are now as neither would survive this renovation. I'm not sure what pair of flats I'd put in their place, but they should be two of the more intense options in the park as this area aimed more towards older kids who are looking for a bit of a thrill. Both would, of course, have to look comically "rundown" and be "operated by" Looney Tunes characters. The Tasmanian Devil, Elmer Fudd, and Daffy Duck all seem like good IP integration opportunities here.
Though it may be a bit unexpected due to its relatively high thrill level, I think I'd advocate keeping Six Flags America's 140 foot tall Intamin Giant Drop, Voodoo Drop, in place. Again, this is the thrilling corner of the park, it gives kids a high point in the collection to work towards, and it would be perfect as a Marvin the Martian ride.
Lastly, the park's wildly historic, out-and-back wooden coaster, Wild One. With a comprehensive retracking and partial rebuild from GravityGroup (a la Grizzly at Kings Dominion or Beast at Kings Island), Wild One could, once again, be a fun, smooth, wooden coaster for the whole family. My theme pitch here is that it's an old wooden coaster operated by Ralph Wolf (who already has the perfect, sketchy carny vibe). Simply renaming it "Ralph Wolf's Wild One" would be perfectly fine by me. Wild One is preserved, it gets the restoration it deserves, and it's thematically integrated into the thrilling, little back corner of the country's first Six Flags Kids park.
The Wrap Up
If you've made it this far, I truly thank you for reading. I know it was a lot. I've spent an embarrassing number of hours on this concept this evening and I sincerely believe something close to this is not only feasible, but also just a legitimately great idea to fix the incoming conflict between Six Flags America and Kings Dominion. I hope this concept shows that it wouldn't actually cost that much to completely overhaul Six Flags America into the truly top-tier, nearly-year-round, one-of-a-kind, family theme park that the DC area deserves. Better yet, by offering such a quality family park locally to residents of DC and Baltimore, there's a clear path to upselling multi-park admission products that would also allow folks season-long entry into Kings Dominion—locking them into the Six Flags ecosystem. Suddenly, Hersheypark starts lookin' far less appealing for families.Plus, though us thoosies would lose some great coasters (emphasis on some since, as I've already covered, I have a top-secret plan to preserve the best coaster at the park, my beloved Batwing, forever), this new Six Flags Kids park would actually have a shockingly strong one-two punch combo with a fully renovated Wild One and the world's first RMC family I-box coaster. In fact, I'd go out on a limb and say it would be the best top coaster tier of any family park anywhere, ever. And hell, pair those headliners with a blacklight, indoor spinning mouse and the Battle for Metropolis dark ride and I honestly believe this starts to look like a super pleasant little park for people of most any age. Yes, the target audience is like 3- to 14-year-olds, but families with older kids could certainly visit and have a great time too. It wouldn't hold a candle to the collection down at Kings Dominion of course, but it would draw in an all-new market in addition to incentivizing more people in the area to visit Kings Dominion too. It seems like a win-win all-around.
Fingers crossed!
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