Six Flags New England
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Six Flags New England, or SFNE, is an amusement park in the Six Flags chain of parks, named for the New England region in which it is located. Six Flags New England is located in Agawam, Massachusetts, near Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut. Like most other Six Flags parks, Six Flags New England is divided into two sections: the amusement park, which includes major attractions such as "Superman: The Ride of Steel", "Mind Eraser" and "Batman: The Dark Knight", and the water park, named Hurricane Harbor.
History
Throughout most of the 20th century, the park was known as Riverside. It started out as a picnic grove called Gallops Grove in 1840. It eventually was renamed to Riverside Grove, then Riverside Park. In the early 1940s, the park acquired its first ride, a wooden roller coaster called the Thunderbolt which still operates today. In 1996, the Carrol family - who had owned Riverside Park for many years - sold the park to Premier Parks. For four years, the park became known as "Riverside, The Great Escape". Riverside became rebranded as "Six Flags New England" when Premier Parks bought Six Flags, Inc. in 2000. The main street running through the park was renamed "Carrol Drive" in honor of the family which had owned it for so long.
For many years, Riverside was home to a NASCAR race track called Riverside Park Speedway. After the 1999 season, during the Six Flags rebranding, the speedway was removed, and that area is now taken up partly by the Superman: Ride of Steel roller coaster.
Six Flags New England offers a Fastlane system (not to be confused with the Massachusetts Turnpike Fast Lane system), that allows riders to use a "Q-bot" to wait in one line for them while they wait in another line. Unlike similar systems at parks such as those in Walt Disney World Resort, the FastLane system requires an additional fee beyond that charged to enter the park.
When Six Flags, Inc. bought the park in 2000, they added many attractions and generally refurbished the park. The new rides consisted of several clones and the unique, award-winning Superman: Ride of Steel. They added Batman - The Dark Knight in 2002, doubled the size of the water park in and renamed it from Island Kingdom to Hurricane Harbor in 2003 and introduced two new rides for the year 2005 season: the roller coaster "Mr. Six's Pandemonium" and a water coaster named "Typhoon". For the 2006 season, the SWAT flat ride from Six Flags Astroworld now re-named Catapult and Diablo Falls, also from Astroworld now re-named Splash Water Falls, will be added the park for the 2006 season.
Rides
Six Flags New England contains one of the tallest, fastest coasters in the northeast, Superman: Ride of Steel. It is 208 feet tall and drops 221 feet into a tunnel, reaching a top speed of 77 mph. It is considered the second best steel roller coaster in the world according to the trade magazine Amusement Today, which awarded it the prestigious Golden Ticket award in 2005. The park also contains the Cyclone, a wooden coaster; Thunderbolt, another woodie built in 1941; Mr. Six's Pandemonium, a spinning wild mouse; Poison Ivy's Tangled Train (family coaster); The Great Chase (kiddie coaster); Flashback, a Vekoma Boomerang; Batman the Dark Knight, a B&M floorless; the Mind Eraser, a Vekoma suspended looping coaster; and the Typhoon water coaster. It is also populated with many thrill rides, water slides, and kiddie rides.