Top 20 new attractions and locations in theme parks around the world: what to visit in 2024
The year 2024 will once again be a very successful one for theme park enthusiasts. Many parks have already begun construction on 2024 projects, while others have only announced plans or launched teaser campaigns.
The Daily Breeze has a list of the best new attractions and locations coming to theme parks in the United States and around the world this year.
1) Fantasy Springs
The new Fantasy Springs port, coming to Tokyo DisneySea in Japan, will feature four attractions dedicated to Frozen, Tangled, and Peter Pan, as well as three restaurants and a hotel.
The new attractions include Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey, Rapunzel's Lantern Festival, Peter Pan's Neverland, and Tinkerbell's Frisky Buggies.
They are scheduled to open on June 6, 2024.
2) Addition to Donkey Kong Country
The new Mine-Cart Madness will be the centerpiece of the Donkey Kong Country expansion to Super Nintendo World from Universal Studios Japan.
The first-of-its-kind family coaster will boom through gaps in the roller coaster track and perform other stunts related to the Donkey Kong video games.
The Donkey Kong Country expansion will include interactive video game-style experiences, as well as Nintendo-themed food and merchandise.
Donkey Kong Country and Mine-Cart Madness will open in the spring of 2024.
3) Tiana's Bayou Adventure
Disneyland and Disney World closed their Splash Mountain rides so that Walt Disney Imagineering could begin the process of transforming the classic log rides into a new Princess and the Frog theme.
The twin rides, Tiana's Bayou Adventure, will tell the continuation of The Princess and the Frog story, which begins after the last kiss between Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. The new Splash Mountain backstory will tell the story of Tiana and Luis, a trumpet-playing alligator, as they prepare for their first Mardi Gras performance.
4) Voltron Nevera
The new four-launch Voltron Nevera roller coaster at Europa Park will be dedicated to Nikola Tesla's electrical experiments as part of the first phase of the German theme park's new Croatian location.
The Mack Rides Stryker, with its 105-degree backward launch and vertical forward launch, will reach a top speed of 56 miles per hour on a 4,544-foot track.
The ride's seven inversions will include an inverted cylinder, a slide, an inverted stall, a falling roll and a dive loop.
5) Danse Macabre
Imagine a crazy Disneyland tea party on an inclined platform and you'll get the general idea of the new Danse Macabre attraction coming to Efteling in the Netherlands.
Danse Macabre will be the first installation of Intamin's new Dynamic Motion Stage dark ride concept, which is described as an immersive ride with immersive show technology.
6) Top Thrill Dragster-2
Cedar Point is rebuilding Top Thrill Dragster with a new multi-pass launcher and reverse spike to propel new trains at 120 mph up and over the original 420-foot-tall cylinder element.
Top Thrill 2 replaces the Intamin hydraulic launch system with a Zamperla electromagnetic motor launch system.
7) Six Flags Great Adventure
Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey will get North America's first Vekoma Super Boomerang, a modern take on the old shuttle coaster once popular in parks around the world.
Flash: Vertical Velocity will reach a top speed of 59 miles per hour on a 1,430-foot track.
8) Hyperion
The new Mack Rides Hypercoaster coming to Thorpe Park is positioned to be the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the United Kingdom - 236 feet high with a top speed of 80 miles per hour.
It will be dedicated to a fearless goddess named Hyperia, which is also a play on the attraction's hypercoaster status. Hypercoasters exceed 200 feet in height.
9) Fire in the Hole
Silver Dollar City is building an all-new version of Fire in the Hole that will replace the classic dark ride roller coaster that has been a staple at the Missouri theme park since 1972.
The $30 million Rocky Mountain Construction ride will be the largest investment in any single attraction in Silver Dollar City's history.
10) Jungle Rush
The Jungle Rush roller coaster, coming in late 2024 to Dream World in Australia, will be the centerpiece of the new Rivertown themed location.
The $35 million Vekoma will feature show sections, 12 airtime elements, backwards and forwards motion, and the world's first inclined turntable that moves the train into position for launch.
11) Iron Menace
The new Iron Menace diving coaster coming to Dorney Park in Pennsylvania will be themed around an old steel mill.
Riders will hover briefly before plummeting 152 feet down the first 95-degree drop with a top speed of 64 miles per hour.
The Bolliger & Mabillard Coaster will go through four inversions in 2,169 feet of track.
12) Phoenix Rising
The new Phoenix Rising, coming to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, will be the 10th roller coaster at the Florida theme park.
The Bolliger & Mabillard family inverted roller coaster will reach a top speed of 44 miles per hour on a 1,831-foot track.
The first roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa to feature onboard sound will have a "one-of-a-kind soundtrack."
13) Penguin Trek.
Riders will cross the icy tundra of sunny Florida on a mission to save penguins when the new Penguin Trek roller coaster opens at SeaWorld Orlando.
The family-friendly steep roller coaster will have an Antarctic theme with riders taking off through the park's penguin habitat.
The Bolliger & Mabillard double coaster will reach a top speed of 43 miles per hour on the 3,020-foot track.
14) DreamWorks Land
Universal Studios Florida will transform the former children's area into DreamWorks Land with rides and interactive play spaces dedicated to Shrek, Trolls and Kung Fu Panda.
The former Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster is expected to be renamed Rollercoaster, according to Orlando ParkStop.
15) Mattel Adventure Park
Mattel's new Adventure Park in Glendale, Arizona, is expected to debut in 2024 after a series of delays.
The toy theme park will feature two Hot Wheels roller coasters and a Barbie beach house with a Dream Closet Experience featuring Barbie in a hologram.
16) Catapult Falls
SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas is calling the new Catapult Falls the world's first coaster to be launched.
The Catapult Falls will launch riders at 20 miles per hour through a crossover and into the wake. Passengers will then ascend a 55-foot-high elevator before plunging down a 53-degree drop at 37 miles per hour.
The water ride was announced for 2023 but has been delayed until spring 2024.
17) New Bobcat
The new Bobcat will be a similar old wooden coaster with a few modern innovations at Six Flags Great Escape in New York.
Gravity Group's 55-foot-tall slide will reach a top speed of 40 miles per hour on 1,412 feet of track.
Timberliner trains promise a more comfortable ride, while allowing for sharper turns on the track.
18) Ultra Surf
The Intamin Ultra Splash takes the Intamin Surf Rider's shuttle coaster concept and adds water - lots of it.
The new Ultra Surf shuttle coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia will reach a top speed of 60 miles per hour on a 590-foot-long U-shaped track.
Between the 144-foot-high spikes, a surfboard-shaped train with two rotating circular platforms will race back and forth over an airtime hill and through a splash zone.
19) Dino Valley
Dino Valley will include the Explorer River Quest and Duplo Little Dino Trail rides, a dinosaur-themed Lego building and play area, a reimagined Dino Dig sandbox for fossil hunting, and opportunities to meet new prehistoric characters.
20) Peppa Pig Theme Park, Texas
The second Peppa Pig park in the United States will open in 2024 in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The main attraction will be the Daddy Pig roller coaster, which is claimed to be a "family attraction".