Thrill Seekers Leap for Six Flags’s Opening

     Six Flags Amusement Park, located in Agawam, opened on April 5th for the season, offering thrill seekers some of their favorite attractions as well as a brand new one.

     Six Flags’s newest attraction is the Quantum Accelerator, a dual-launch, straddle coaster, that will surely get those thrill-seekers screaming! This ride is the first roller coaster of its type to become a part of the Six Flags New England experience and will replace the once popular Goliath. According to Six Flags’s website, the Quantum Accelerator will deliver “two exciting launches, twists and turns, 11 moments of airtime, and speeds up to 45 miles per hour.” Patrons can expect to straddle the coaster’s cars, which have been designed to look like  “steampunk-themed hover bikes.”  This ride is sure to excite!

Other popular attractions offered at the park include Batman the Dark Knight, Superman the Ride and Harley Quinn Spinsanity, all roller coasters; the water park offers lagoons, a lazy river, and exciting water slides like Hurricane Falls and the Tornado.  And of course, the park offers a variety of shops and  restaurants, includeing JB’s in Crackle Canyon.     

Jayleena DeJesus, an eleventh-grader at West Springfield High School and a retail employee at Six Flags says that she and her team members work hard to provide guests with a good experience when they visit the park.  She says, “Even though each department has different responsibilities, being a Six Flags team member in general, we all have some of the same responsibilities, creating a fun welcoming experience for guests… You want to make guests feel like they’re welcome back anytime.”

Six Flags also has other locations across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The amusement park pulls in multitudes of customers every year.  The history behind the park began in the late 1950s with a man named Angus G. Wynne Jr., a Texan in the oil business. He held a dream that he could open a park that would provide a form of family entertainment that all people could enjoy. Considering Disney World’s popularity, he saw rides as being a major attraction, but he also wanted to take into account the importance of location. He thought the park should be kept local and the prices affordable.  The first Six Flags was opened in 1961 and was called “Six Flags Of Texas.” The six flags on the park’s sign is meant to represent the six countries that had, at some time or another, control in the state of Texas. Over time, the amusement park grew to have 27 locations.