Flight Deck gets a new name at Canada's Wonderland
Canada's Wonderland is renaming its Vekoma SLC, again.
The Toronto-area theme park announced this morning that the coaster originally known as Top Gun and most recently known as Flight Deck will be getting another name starting this summer - The DareDeviler.
Image courtesy Six Flags Entertainment Corporation
Canada's Wonderland is promising "new trains, enhanced comfort, open vest-style restraints, and targeted track refinements" on the coaster, which is currently rated last among the park's roller coasters by Theme Park Insider readers. You can fine our current rankings for the park on our What to do at Canada's Wonderland page.
The park also is promising a new DareDeviler IPA beer this summer, to celebrate the coaster's rebranding.
First installed in 1995, the Vekoma SLC originally was themed to the 1986 Paramount Tom Cruise movie "Top Gun." But when Paramount exited the theme park business, the ride rebranded to Flight Deck in 2008. The coaster is retaining the aerial theme, but now is getting an old-timey refresh with the barnstorming dare devil concept.
Will that, and the track and train changes, be enough to elevate the ride from the park's basement? You can tell us at the end of the season, when our annual ride survey returns. Canada's Wonderland said The DareDeviler will open in "early summer."
Replies (9)
@Jacob - While not officially confirmed, it has been strongly rumored that the gen-2 trains from SFA were indeed headed to Canada. Frankly, it would be stupid for them not to at least reuse the relatively new trains somewhere else if there weren't going to ship the track to another park - is there any park in the current chain that could use an SLC? Probably not.
Dang it!!! I still had my fingers crossed for this to be dismantled for a B&M inverter.
If this is like other SLC makeovers with the new trains, it will elevate it from a 0/10 ride to perhaps a 2/10. It's a good way to repurpose the new trains they just bought for SFA's ride, but that's really the only reason I see something like this happening rather than outright replacing the ride in the near future.
This is terrible news for this park. The Volare/SLC spot (the two attractions were right next to each other) was a prime spot for a major new attraction and the company making this move shows, again, they do not want to spend the money to do things the right away for the long-term at this park.
Eh, if they decide to bulldoze this in five years they can always send the trains along to their next destination. This costs them basically nothing and pretty significantly improves one of the park's worst rides.
Yeah, I don't expect to see Six Flags making much beyond already announced new ride investments for at least a couple of seasons. The culling of the park lineup seems to be the company's priority at the moment. This might be the best that CW can hope for at the moment.
One of my bucket list coasters is The Great Nor'easter at Morey's Piers. It got a full, new-gen Vekoma retrack and allegedly it's better than some b&Ms. If this is getting something like that, then I support it. But this doesn't really sound like that, so my hopes aren't high.
Apparently this park has huge capacity issues. I believe it. And the solution to that should not be an SLC retheme. This is a very Six Flags solution to their problem.
Let's face it, Six Flags is not about to plunk a bunch of money on new attractions that weren't already in the pipeline ahead of the merger. This move fits with that philosophy as CW just got a MAJOR addition last season with Alpen Fury, which is an elite coaster. Utilizing the recently purchased Gen-2 trains from SFA and giving Flight Deck a minor retheme is the exact kind of tweaks and minor additions we can expect from the company for the next 2-3 years.
While I would argue that CW should probably receive the same level of investment as SFGAdv, CP, and SFMM as one of the chain's flagship parks, if you take away "Project Purple/Phantom Spire" in New Jersey and the Vekoma Thrill Glider coming to California, which were likely both committed to 2-3 years ago, the level of investment (if you included Alpen Fury) is probably about the same as the chain's true flagship parks.
CP got tons of flak for getting Siren's Curse from Mexico, and it's been a massive success. While putting new trains on an SLC is nowhere close to a unique tilt-coaster, but I think this is a good value-conscious move that is an acceptable addition in the year following the debut of one of the best coasters in the world.
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Hmm... I wonder if they're sending the trains from Six Flags America's now defunct SLC over here? Those were surprisingly comfortable.