originally posted on 1/21/2020
Gröna Lund will welcome a B&M inverted coaster in 2021.
Photo: Courtesy Gröna Lund. View full-sized image.
Let’s do the numbers. 2019 brought us 264 coasters (which included two woodies).
2020, which has just begun, has 132 coasters ready to go (of those we know of so far), including three woodies. And even a fourth, if you’re willing to figure in the planned reopening of Lakemont Park’s (Altoona, Pennsylvania) Leap the Dips as part of the good news count — so we will. Twenty-eight of those coasters are slated to be in North America, 56 in Asia, 44 in Europe, two in Australia, and two in South America.
With this year barely started, it might seem odd to think out even further. But it’s possible. How many new rides are anticipated as we begin considering that new year, next year? So far, 29 coasters are slated to open — three will be in North America, 15 in Asia, and 11 in Europe. Obviously, there will be more.
Photo: Courtesy Disney. View full-sized image.
It’s interesting to note that of the three slated for North America, two are at Disney parks in Florida: Guardians of the Galaxy : Cosmic Rewind (a Vekoma-made coaster, which will be enclosed, be very long (supposedly), and offer a family-friendly “storytelling coaster” experience featuring a ”groundbreaking” ride system with vehicles that rotate 360 degrees and will include reverse launches. It is notable that the ride is under construction at Epcot, the first coaster to appear in the park’s four-decade history. And then there’s TRON Lightcycle Power Run (another Vekoma enclosed, which will be the second TRON coaster for Disney, after TRON Lightcycle Power Run in Shanghai, China). TRON will cycle over in 2021 to The Magic Kingdom in time for the park’s 50th anniversary.
TRON Lightcyle Power Run was a big hit when it opened at Shanghai Disneyland.
Photo: Alex Rigsby. View full-sized image.
The third coaster promised for North America will be at Sesame Place (Chula Vista, California) — the new park, expected to open in 2021, has apparently planned the unnamed family coaster to be themed to “Super Grover” (similar to the Vapor Trail by Vekoma at Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania), and is the only coaster for that new location so far (Sesame Place in Pennsylvania already has two, including the 2018 family-woodie, Oscar’s Wacky Taxi).
Photo: Courtesy SeaWorld Parks. View full-sized image.
Wandering-oaken Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs will bring a new coaster to Hong Kong Disneyland.
Photo: Courtesy Disney. View full-sized image.
Asia’s 15 coasters announced for 2021 include Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs, part of a Frozen Land expansion at Hong Kong Disneyland, with the ride being similar to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or even Matterhorn-esque (as claimed by various fan sites) in offering a family thrill experience with a winding journey sliding over and around peaks and over hills through Arendelle.
Beijing B&M Universal’s new B&M coaster will be similar to Incredible Hulk.
Photo: Courtesy Themeparx. View full-sized image.
Arch-rival Universal will see three coasters opening when its Beijing (China) Universal Studios park debuts in 2021: an inverted powered steel coaster from Mack Rides for a Jurassic-themed adventure inside a mountain structure; a Bolliger and Mabillard (B&M) ride containing three inversions, and alleged to be a Transformers-themed copy of Hulk (from Florida’s Universal Islands of Adventure); and finally, a Flight of the Hippogriff-style family coaster, for the park’s planned Wizarding World of Harry Potter area. All coasters remain officially unnamed for now.
An attraction themed to Jurassic Park is under construction in Beijing.
Photo: Courtesy Themeparx. View full-sized image.
Other rides intended for Asia include: a B&M wing coaster for Fantasy Valley (Xiangzhou, Xiangyang, China); a Vekoma Top Gun launch coaster for Fantawild (Yiliang, China); and a Blue Fire-model Mack Rides LSM launch three-inverter for Lotte's Magic Forest (Gijang, South Korea). Of particular note for Asia, a new park will be opening in Licheng, China, which will contain three coasters, two steel, and one woodie, offering the only wooden roller coaster announced so far for 2021. The Gravity Group, LLC has designed, and Martin & Vleminckx will build the 75-foot-tall, 2,644-foot-long coaster (see RollerCoaster! issue # 151, for the article “Martin & Vleminckx Rides: A History of Collaboration and Expertise” for more info on the firms). The park’s name has not been announced yet, but the working moniker is, according to RCDB, Sunac Jinan. It’s woodie remains unnamed as well.
As for Europe, Gröna Lund (Stockholm, Sweden) will be getting a B&M multi-inverting steelie (reported to have an underground station, including some track action below ground too), and Plopsaland De Panne (Adinkerke-De Panne, Belgium) has already pegged a project name for their new attraction — it’s Time Traveler, a Mack Rides LSM launch multi-inverting Xtreme Spinning-model coaster (sounding very similar to Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City (Branson, Missouri). Tripsdrill park (Cleebronn, Germany) will build two interweaving Vekoma steelies —a family boomerang to be named Voodamf (Full Steam) and a suspended thriller, Hals-über-Kopf (Head Over Heels).
Tayto Park in Ashbourne, Ireland, hopes, again, to be able to build their two steel coasters for a 2021 opening (if the local appeals board will approve recent changes to Tayto’s coaster proposal and overcome local neighbor objections (see ACE News article, “Making a Coaster Project Less ‘Disturbing’” posted for January 12, 2020). Walibi Belgium (Wavre, Belgium) will erect an Intamin 164-foot-tall, 3,937-foot long “mega-coaster” with an 80-degree drop and 15 airtime moments promised, as well as the “world’s first side-banked double down.” Disneyland Paris (Marne, France) will reopen the previously-known-as Rock ‘n Roll Coaster, rethemed and refurbished to Marvel’s Iron Man in 2021. It has been closed since September 2, 2019.
Wow. That’s a lot of coastering excitement already with the rides ACE News has chosen to highlight for 2021.
Can any conclusions be drawn on how 2021, along with 2020, are shaping up so far?
Playing with Some Numbers and Taking Stock of Some Trends
Already, the number of rides being built looks promisingly high for 2020 and 2021, continuing a trend noted recently, in that a large number of coasters have opened each and every year for quite a few years — it’s quite a boom actually (which is great news for enthusiasts).
But of note, there’s a decreasing percentage of wood coasters being part of that bigger picture. For example, an amazing 2,372 coasters were opened in the nine recent years from 2010 – 2019, but only 41 woodies among them, or a lowly 1.7 percent of the total. Compare that to the 1,336 coasters for the decade before (2000 – 2009) — a lower count overall, but 56 woodies were among them, representing a higher 4.2 percent. The decade before that, only 848 rides opened in 1990 – 1999, but with 57 wood, or 6.7 percent of the total.
From appearances 2020 and 2021 will continue that recent trend, seeing more and more coasters in the total counts (great), but fewer woodies (not so good). In fact, at this point, according to RCDB, of the 5,064 coasters operating in the world (a phenomenal number), only 186 (with 122 of those in the USA) are wood (3.6 percent) — with, as noted in recent years, as many closings of woodies as opening.
Much of the higher and amazing counts of new coasters are due to the explosion of building in Asia (especially China lately). That trend looks to continue in 2020 and 2021.
The new coaster numbers have been high for that area, with loads of fresh rides and parks lately, especially since 2013 (with coaster-opening counts really going up that year for some reason in particular, and staying up), with 3 to 4 times as many coasters being opened in Asia (averaging about 150 a year lately) as opposed to North America for example (averaging about 50 a year).
As for North America, there the market for new coasters is holding steady, but not much beyond. With 27 of those announced for 2020, North America represents 19.2 percent of the worldwide total. The number of coasters built for the continent has not been going up over the years, unlike Asia or even Europe. Owing to Asia’s building boom, one has to go all the way back to 2000 to find more coasters opened in North America than Asia.
In fact, of the 5,064 coasters in the world operating today, an incredible 2,572 are in Asia (of those, 1,361 in China), 916 in North America (776 of those in the USA), and 1,289 in Europe (with highest number of them, 227, in Germany).
Europe’s growth has been strong in recent years and held pretty steady (again, since 2013 in particular), though with a slight trend towards slowly higher numbers of openings, with 70 or so coasters every year recently (again, a higher number than the average for North America, interestingly), and there has been a bit of an uptick with 2019, which saw 86 coaster openings for the continent.
North America is holding steady, but flat, with little extra growth — all the phenomenal coaster count explosions are taking place elsewhere in the world, including, it would appear, for 2021. Perhaps it is the rest of the world catching up.
Of course, much of this emerging picture for 2020 and 2021 could change — certainly a lot more coasters will be announced over the next few months. ACE will continue to be looking toward 2021, as the future for coastering continues to reveal itself.
— Randy Geisler
[Acknowledgements to Roller Coaster Database for its extensive research and documentation.]
Here's a look at the Disney Guardians of the Galaxy ride system vehicles:
Video: Courtesy Disney Parks.
To see Vekoma’s Top Gun model coaster intended for Fantawild, Yiliang, China:
Video: Courtesy Coaster Touring.
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