Six Flags America opens Saturday, with 400 jobs still to fill

Six Flags America will open Saturday, marking the Prince George’s County, Maryland, park’s 25th anniversary.

It opens for the 2024 season with two new rides.

In May, RipQurl Blaster will come online at its Hurricane Harbor, the tallest water coaster in the Mid-Atlantic. The white knuckle raft ride includes three uphill rip currents, three drops, three reverse hairpin turns; a total of 550 feet of twists and turns.

Six Flags America will open on March 23, 2024, with two new rides. (Courtesy Six Flags America)

Later this summer, SteamWhirler opens as a brand new attraction, plus three other attractions that have been either restored, re-themed or enhanced.

Six Flags America has a total of nine roller coasters, a variety of waterslides, a lazy river, three kids areas and an 800,000-gallon wave pool.

The park is currently looking to fill about 400 additional jobs before the start of summer, including lifeguards, ride operators and food and beverage service. The park is open weekends only, with a couple of exceptions, until June 1, when it begins operating everyday.

The park was originally founded as a wildlife center owned by Ross Perot in 1973, with a drive-through safari until it closed in 1978. It was reopened by Jim Fowler’s Wild Kingdom and eventually transitioned into a theme park. It was rebranded as a Six Flags park in 1999.

Six Flags Entertainment merged with amusement park operator Cedar Fair, whose parks include Kings Dominion in Virginia, last year. The combined companies operate 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties. The parks attracted 26.7 million visitors last year, and generated $1.8 billion in revenue.

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Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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