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Millennium Force: A Lonely Giant?

Well we already know of one more "planned giga" that hasn't been mentioned at Six Flags Saudi Arabia.

I use quotation marks around giga as in theory it's over 400ft which means it's whatever they feel like calling a 400+ft gravity coaster. And quotation marks around planned because Six Flags and their overseas parks haven't exactly had the best track record recently.

But in theory it's happening. I think If anywhere is going to get some more Giga Coasters it's going to be the emerging markets wanting records for themselves so China or the Middle East parks really.

China have shown a slightly odd reticence to go tall though with only 3 what I would call traditional hyper coasters so far (and one of those has never opened) but I wouldnt put it past one of the new parks eventually to go really big.

The Middle East is another matter. There has been plans for a a number of huge coasters in the UAE over the years but none have come to fruition. If anyone's going to pull it off though it will be Saudi Arabia and their oodles of cash.
 
trav said:
No. We won't. To put it bluntly.

The tallest coasters we will see from now on in my opinion are the B&Ms that are still being built.
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It's strange that this prediction from early 2008 actually held true all the way until now. It's just that B&M started building even taller coasters and eventually broke the Giga barrier. Well, there is another lift-hill Intamin in the Giga range too, but two of the B&Ms are taller. Granted, they were built after it, but the situation described by trav is true today.

By the way, I think there is another argument to be made when it comes to the prospects for future Gigas: If they make sense to build, why aren't they being built? Cedar Fair built four, sure, but are no other chains or parks in their position? After all, those four Cedar Fair Gigas are the only lifthill-based Gigas built after SD2000. Did the parks even get a good return on those investments? And if they did, why didn't anybody else build them as well? Even China?

Oh, and for those who'd like to feel old: Leviathan is older today than Millennium Force was when this thread was created.
 
Pokemaniac said:
By the way, I think there is another argument to be made when it comes to the prospects for future Gigas: If they make sense to build, why aren't they being built? Cedar Fair built four, sure, but are no other chains or parks in their position? After all, those four Cedar Fair Gigas are the only lifthill-based Gigas built after SD2000. Did the parks even get a good return on those investments? And if they did, why didn't anybody else build them as well? Even China?
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I'm sure the 'return on investment' does hold water, but I think also worth pointing out the logistical issue a giga presents. They are flipping enormous.

There can't be that many Cedar Fair parks that even have the space for one. Once you start to look at European parks many of the big players who might consider a giga you see a similar sort of picture. Gigas work relatively well in the Cedar Fair 'model' of big-parks-on-the-outskirts-of-cities-in-fields-with-no-major-planning-permission-hurdles, which is in such massive contrast to most of the big parks in Europe who are hemmed in and have lots of local heritage restrictions.

I think some of the reason we haven't seen China go that big yet is maybe due to their rapid expansion. There's been more focus on getting enough (?) parks built across the country, with less focus on developing the existing ones. Maybe they've just not caught up yet, and maybe they will be soon?

Who knows, when this topic is re-dredged in another twelve years, we may be looking at a different landscape of coasters again. :p
 
I think we may see some new parks built with tall coasters as centrepiece rides. Not necessarily giga coasters, but definitely tall coasters. Look at Six Flags Qiddiya, which someone already mentioned; Falcon’s Flight, while the coaster physics exhibited in the video was... interesting, to say the least, that ride will be absolutely monumental if it gets built anything like what the video says! Something like that will be a fantastic sales hook for any new park!

As for the question the thread asks; I could definitely see more gigas built in the near future. They’re huge crowd pleasers among non-enthusiasts and enthusiasts alike, and they’re easy to market, so they have quite a high chance of being successful, in my eyes. I’d also wager that they could potentially become more accessible in the near future, as manufacturers who are able to build them using cheaper ride hardware, such as Vekoma or Gerstlauer, might become more daring and start offering coasters in this size bracket.
 
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Hyde said:
Millennium Force simply fell victim to new technology which many parks find a more practical solution to their new, massive roller coaster needs.

Though we have seen the return of traditional style coasters from Intamin, that being their new Mega-Lite models, they have taken a definite back seat to the Accelerator roller coaster.
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Hyde said:
But yes, bottom line is simply that the biggest argument against giga coasters is space; being willing to sacrifice that precious land to one roller coaster.
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Oof.
 
Granted I've only been on MF out of the traditional gigas, but I'm always just finding myself disappointed in the amount of content they include. I get that its already super expensive and difficult to build, but it seems to me that the old-school hypers like nitro or expedition ge force both last longer and have more elements. The thrill of an amazing 300 foot drop to me just feels slightly wasted when you power through a few low turns, maybe 2 or 3 big airtime hills, and a lot of trims, into a 100-foot-high brake run. But maybe my opinion would be changed once I actually get on one, I know my opinion on b&m wingriders did (I thought they were slow and lumbering and boring, which they sort of are, but its actually a really fun ride anyway).

I sort of feel like roller coaster trends probably go through a bit of a wave, where over a few years a bunch of parks clamor to build really tall or whatever-record-breaking coasters by whatever the "hot" manufacturer is, until that market gets a bit saturated and the industry is bored of it. We probably saw that with the b&m gigas, because I agree its maybe hard to find many more parks on the market in the near future. But who knows in ten years what new wave will take off.
 
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