Wikipedia:WikiProject Amusement Parks/Newsletters/Quarter 1, 2026

WikiProject News
Everything WikiProject Amusement Parks

WikiProject Amusement Parks revival – Project Retrack

WikiProject Amusement Parks isn't as active as it once was. In its original heyday, editors such as Themeparkgc, Dom497, and Astros4477 led the project's article improvement. While they have since left Wikipedia or become less active, and thus activity on the project has waned, their incredible work has left the project with a very strong foundation of over a hundred good articles and multiple featured articles.

Project Retrack aims to breathe new life into the project. In our members list are dozens of active editors with a passion for amusement parks, and with organization, we can make incredible progress.

One major goal is to improve the WikiProject's editor resources to make it easier for new members to edit, as well as provide more detailed resources for experienced editors. Additionally, an overarching goal of Project Retrack is to bring the editors of the WikiProject together to form a community and to collaborate on improving articles. Finally, in conjunction with the previous goal, an aim of Project Retrack is to recognize editors who have made outstanding contributions to the project.

The first steps of Project Retrack are already underway, including this very newsletter! More detail about what is to come under Project Retrack is in the "What's next?" section below.

The future of WikiProject Amusement Parks is bright.

A discussion on Project Retrack is occurring here; your feedback and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

The newsletter is back!

Members of WikiProject Amusement Parks last received a newsletter on their talk pages in July of 2013. Back then, Mean Streak was years from becoming Steel Vengeance, Volcano: The Blast Coaster was still alive and well, Rocky Mountain Construction had built all of three roller coasters, and Ring Racer at the Nürburgring was about to open to the public (for a grand total of five days).

In December 2007, the first issue of the newsletter was put together for WikiProject Roller Coasters. Two more issues of the newsletter were released before it went defunct. In 2013, it was revived for two more issues before stopping for a second time.

This March 31 issue marks the first issue of the newsletter as In The Loop. What's different this time? This edition of the newsletter aims to focus on highlighting spectacular contributions from our editors, be more comprehensive than the previous version, and (fingers crossed) should be longer-running as multiple editors can contribute. If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, read the page about how to help write it! Anyone can do it, and this newsletter will flourish with your help!

This newsletter will be released each quarter for a total of four issues a year. This first issue is being sent to all members of the WikiProject as an introduction. If you wish to continue to receive notices when a new issue is released, add your name to the mailing list! Readership will ensure that this newsletter is successful!

What's next?

Many more exciting things are on the horizon for WikiProject Amusement Parks as part of Project Retrack.

Soon, a new members census will be sent out in order to find who in the members list remains active and interested in the project. Additionally, the project will receive a visual and organizational makeover which is currently being drafted here – this newsletter features this new color scheme and logo. This will help organize existing editor resources; furthermore, this effort includes implementing new guides and pages for finding sources, formatting articles, and more. New collaborations and awards will also be created to start to establish more of a community around this project.

The newsletter is only the first step, and there is much more to plan. The input of every member of the WikiProject is valuable in this major effort, so please leave all of the feedback and suggestions you have on the related talk page discussion.

Article News
Good articles, good article nominations, did you know hooks, and more

Current collaboration

The current collaboration is Operation B&M, working to improve the articles for roller coasters manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard!

Recently, Raging Bull (roller coaster) and Fury 325 were promoted to good article status, bringing the total good articles to just under 50% of all B&M coaster articles. With just one more good B&M article, half of B&M articles can be good articles!

Go to Operation B&M

Featured content

This section will typically cover new good articles, main page features, and (when relevant) featured articles which have been promoted the quarter, but as there has not been a newsletter for 13 years, below is an overview of all such progress within that time:

• In July 2013, there were 58 good articles and 4 featured articles in the WikiProject.
• As of this issue of the newsletter, the project now has 132 good articles and 16 featured articles! An amazing success! The most recent promotions have been:
  • Shockwave (Six Flags Great America) in October by Plighting Engineerd
  • Fury 325 in May by Therguy10
  • Main Street Vehicles in January 2025 by Jackdude101
  • Raging Bull (roller coaster), also in January, by Plighting Engineerd
  • Tantrum (roller coaster) in March 2024 by ReedyTurnip
• Additionally, 2023 Jetline roller coaster accident has been nominated for good article by AllegedlyAPhotographer and is under review!
• Furthermore, Adog's outstanding work led to Iron Gwazi being promoted to a featured article in 2023!
• Since 2013, WikiProject Amusement Parks articles have appeared as did you know hooks on the main page 114 times!
• Three images have been shown as Wikipedia's picture of the day!
• 14 articles have appeared as main page featured articles, including all three of the project's featured roller coaster articles: SheiKra, Millennium Force, and most recently, Iron Gwazi!

A full list of featured content can be found on the WikiProject's featured content page.

Goals and statistics

Below are a set of live statistics related to the goals of the WikiProject. More can be seen here.

All articles higher than Stub class: 79% complete

150 good articles: 90% complete

25 featured articles: 64% complete

Amusement Industry
The top stories of the quarter

Six Flags Qiddiya City opens its gates

On New Year's Eve 2025, Six Flags Qiddiya City opened to the public for the very first time. (Admittedly that means that it technically opened last quarter, not this quarter... but close enough.) Home to eight roller coasters, including many record-breakers, the park has received attention across the world from the media, enthusiasts, and Wikipedians. Since the park's opening, its Wikipedia page has been significantly improved, especially by the editor Morethenfootball.

Even excluding its attractions, the park is significant for being the first ground-up Six Flags park since Six Flags St. Louis was built in 1971, the first Six Flags park in Asia, and the first Six Flags park outside of North America since Six Flags Holland and Six Flags Belgium were sold in 2004. Of course, many of these facts have already been documented in the park's article.

The star attraction at Six Flags Qiddiya City, Falcons Flight has taken all of the major roller coaster records. It is the tallest, beating Top Thrill 2 by over 100 feet, and the late Kingda Ka by nearly 80. It is the fastest, beating Formula Rossa by 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h). It is the longest, beating Steel Dragon 2000 by 5,861 feet (1,786 m) – over a mile longer.

Falcons Flight is also perhaps the most impressive roller coaster ever created, designed by none other than Intamin (because who else would?). Featuring three LSM launches and an airtime hill rivaling the size of St. Louis's Gateway Arch, it is a true marvel of engineering.

An individual article for Falcons Flight was created just before it opened, and it has since grown into a sizeable article. Editors were also quick to update the list of roller coaster rankings – unsurprisingly, Falcons Flight is featured a great deal on that page.

A special shoutout goes to the various editors who contributed to Falcons Flight and Six Flags Qiddiya-related pages – thanks for keeping the articles up to date!

Ride announcements, ride openings, and ride closures

As always, amusement parks keep evolving, whether we like it or not. On the positive side, in the past quarter, Universal Orlando announced that a version of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is coming to Universal Studios Florida in 2027, manufactured by Intamin and featuring spinning cars, like its east coast counterpart. The article covering the attraction was swiftly updated.

A plethora of family roller coasters have opened in the last quarter as well. Among them are Speedway Stunt Coaster at Six Flags Mexico, Barracuda Strike at SeaWorld San Antonio, 100% Wolf at Plopsaland Deutschland, Galacticoaster at Legoland Florida and Legoland California, Minifigure Speedway at Legoland Billund Resort, and Bluey the Ride: Here come the grannies! at Alton Towers! Thanks to all the editors who have updated the relevant articles with opening dates and other details.

At Disney Adventure World, the new World of Frozen land opened at the park, featuring the Frozen Ever After shoot the chute dark ride. The opening of this land marked the rebranding of the park away from the Walt Disney Studios Park name.

On the flip side, the beloved and historic mine train, Thunderation at Silver Dollar City, was announced to be closing at the end of the 2026 season. Manufactured by Arrow Dynamics, the ride opened in 1993 and has since been enjoyed by more than 27 million riders. Silver Dollar City is giving guests an entire last season to ride the coaster, which is a very welcome gesture.

The Thunderation article was updated by CharlieRidesRollerCoasters on the day of the announcement, and the article has received minor edits since, but is still very much lacking; if any readers of the newsletter would like to contribute to its improvement, it would be greatly appreciated.

Six Flags sells 7 parks

After Six Flags and Cedar Fair merged in 2024, the combined company has taken measures to consolidate their assets. This first manifested as a park leaving the chain when Six Flags America permanently closed in 2025.

Continuing this pattern, on March 5, 2026, the company made the major announcement that they would be selling seven of their parks to EPR Properties. EPR is the current owner of Frontier City, Six Flags Darien Lake, and multiple Hurricane Harbor parks, leasing them to Six Flags. After the sale, La Ronde will be managed by La Ronde Operations Inc., a company owned by Kieran Burke of Premier Parks. Michigan's Adventure, Schlitterbahn Galveston, Six Flags Great Escape, Six Flags St. Louis, Valleyfair, and Worlds of Fun will be operated by Enchanted Parks.

Wikipedia editors were quick to add information to each of the related pages; Feather Better also created an article for the Enchanted Parks company on the day of the announcement. Thanks to all of the editors who have worked to update related pages!

Parks announce major themed areas

Near the end of the quarter, two amusement parks announced major themed areas to be coming to their parks in the coming years.

On March 21, during the Minecraft Live livestream, Chessington World of Adventures and Minecraft announced their collaboration to bring a Minecraft-themed land to the UK in 2027. The area will be replacing Chessington's Wild Asia section, and will feature themed food offerings, Minecraft merchandise, interactive activities, and a new roller coaster.

Filed plans indicate that the roller coaster will likely be an Intamin Multi Dimension Coaster travelling inside and outside a building in the land, but official details on the land's rides have not yet been released. News of the new area was quickly added to Chessington's page.

On March 26, just five days later, Six Flags Great Adventure formally announced the Shoreline Pier at the Boardwalk expansion to their existing Boardwalk area. This area will include Super Roundup, a round up ride relocated from elsewhere in the park, as well as three flat rides relocated from Six Flags America: Hypno Twister (a Zamperla NebulaZ), Wave Swinger, and Flying Scooters. Additionally, the land will debut with Barrels O' Fun, the Reverchon/Zamperla spinning wild mouse, previously located at Six Flags America as Ragin' Cajun.

This area occupies part of the site of the former Green Lantern roller coaster following its removal alongside Kingda Ka and other rides at the end of the 2024 season.

Thanks to all of the editors who quickly updated the related articles after the series of recent announcements!

Member spotlight
What have we been up to?

New members

In the last quarter, a very large number of editors have joined the project! A very warm welcome is extended to BlueStaticHorse, Dragonspark, AceLuan54, AllegedlyAPhotographer, Kowloon Wonton, Nathanc2127, XCELER8, 88miIesperhour, Lunarcat95 and Feather Better. Thanks for joining, and it is very nice to see so many new members on the project! If any member of the project (new or otherwise) wants help with anything at all, place a message on the project's talk page!

Additionally, all members should feel free to extend invitations to editors who may be interested in the WikiProject! Placing {{subst:WikiProject Amusement Parks invite}} on someone's user page will produce the following message:

Hello, <Recipient>! Thank you for your recent contribution to an article related to amusement parks. I'd like to invite you to join WikiProject Amusement Parks, a WikiProject collaboration which aims to improve the quality of articles across Wikipedia that cover amusement parks, rides, companies, and more! Feel free to stop by to learn more and join by signing up at the Participants page. Hope to see you over there! --~~~~

Outstanding contributions

Nominate someone who has made outstanding contributions to amusement park-related articles on the newsletter talk page.

This section exists to highlight editors who have gone above and beyond to contribute to amusement park-related articles, and as mentioned in the notice above, anyone can be nominated on the newsletter's talk page.

This quarter, Feather Better is spotlighted for their incredible work on various articles, especially pertaining to Six Flags Great America. Just by looking at the edit history of the Six Flags Great America article, it is clear how much effort they have put into improving it, so thank you very much, Feather Better, for your edits!

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

One of the easiest areas to assist in the WikiProject is to expand, improve, and fix errors in the WikiProject's 815 stub articles. Those who de-stub lots of articles can earn barnstars! Below is a handy button that will take you to a random stub, or a random roller coaster stub, if you'd prefer.

Random stub Random roller coaster stub

You can also check out the current collaboration, Operation B&M, and help improve articles on B&M's coasters!

If there's something else you want to do, be bold and do it! Leave a message on the WikiProject Amusement Parks talk page if you want help, want to know what else you can do to help, or otherwise want to connect with other editors!