Deno’s Wonder Wheel announces Phoenix roller coaster for Coney Island

Vekoma. I wonder if it will be the same as the family invert at Dollywood. I liked that ride a lot, it was fast, fun, and comfortable. You gotta love a ride that puts the brake run in the station.

It looks like a good addition to the overall lineup at Coney and it's good to see Deno's expanding.

It certainly looks a lot like Dragonfly at Dollywood.

Dragonfly is really cool. A longer version could make a really great themed experience if money were no object.

A little more info here

Modern Vekoma coasters are absolutely top notch. I can't wait for this one.

Richard Bannister said:

Modern Vekoma coasters are absolutely top notch. I can't wait for this one.

That's a statement I never would have predicted circa 1992-2005ish

eightdotthree said:

Dragonfly is really cool. A longer version could make a really great themed experience if money were no object.

Agreed. I was surprised by how much fun it was.

BrettV said:

Richard Bannister said:

Modern Vekoma coasters are absolutely top notch. I can't wait for this one.

That's a statement I never would have predicted circa 1992-2005ish

Agreed, but it's totally true now.

Lech Coaster (https://rcdb.com/11034.htm) is one of the finest coasters in Europe.

Bringing up an older thread, so sorry if this isn't quite the right spot. But also didn't think this warrants it's own dedicated thread.

The Phoenix saga has a really cool story behind it, and might be the most engaged with external groups a park has been with deciding a ride in a long time. It starts ~2 years ago with this post over on r/rollercoasters: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/afwwek/advice_on_new_coaster/

Turns out the poster is one of the co-owners of the park (DJ if you have seen the recent CoasterForce construction site video), and lots of ideas are thrown around. Mainly Vekoma SFC, Chance Hyper GTX, and Gerstlauer/Maurer spinning coaster.

Things go quiet for a bit, then he posts this cryptic message: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/jg6dxx/new_coaster...island_ny/ about 2 months before the final reveal.

Reveal post: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/khglem/phoenix_com...rk_in_the/

First construction post: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/m0gfj3/a_steel_pho...h_phoenix/

DJ has been pretty active on discussing the ride over on Reddit, with a fair number of behind the scenes pictures.

Hope you all found this bit of story interesting, it was really cool to see unfold.