Anaconda Slated for Demolition

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grkitalny said:
The original brochure advertising it stated "throw you for a loop six times...." -- Might be where you're remembering that from!


KD Brochures and Maps
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They also ran TV ads featuring a guy dressed in a shirt and tie trying to interview people with a handheld mic as they all rode the ride. One thing I recall him saying was “The Anaconda has six loops.”

After that, seeing the finished ride for the first time was a bit of a WTF moment. An early lesson in the difference between advertising and real life.
 
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Jonesta6 said:
are we expecting visible portions of footer and/or anything that wasn't the track or supports being removed?
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If Torrential Twist/Spiral Chute is anything to go by, don't get too excited🤣 Looks like the 4 main footers are till there since ~2010. Maybe this'll be the excuse to chop those too.

I'm not hopeful that tunnel could be reused for anything else, though. Very specific clearance envelope.
 
Considering the fact that they didn’t save the lost world mountain, they won’t save the tunnel.
 
Jonesta6 said:
It's costly for an over-water demo to begin with, but I could see them removing in phases - first phase being just the structure, second phase they drain the lake
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The lake is already drained annually to clean the lake bed and do anaconda's annual. I'd expect it's drained before they get anywhere close to demoing the over-water sections
 
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horsesboy said:
The park has now made an official statement in response to media inquiries

www.12onyourside.com

Kings Dominion to remove Anaconda

Anaconda was the world’s first looping roller coaster that featured an underwater tunnel.
www.12onyourside.com www.12onyourside.com
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Wouldn't be surprised if they were trying to get to the off season to announce this. Probably not a big deal in the grander scheme of things, since no one goes to KD just for Anaconda, but not a great look for the park either way.
 
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rswashdc said:
Wouldn't be surprised if they were trying to get to the off season to announce this. Probably not a big deal in the grander scheme of things, since no one goes to KD just for Anaconda, but not a great look for the park either way.
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Company wide mo closer has been announced till it's leaked and gotten enough attention I would assume that was the same here.
 
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I just wanna say this:

If Kings Dominion is planning to close anything else ahead of the 2025 season—especially if said ride(s) is/are currently operating for Winterfest—they need to tell people that NOW. They should have taken the opportunity to do so in their statements to media re: Anaconda, but since they didn't, if there are other closures, KD needs to make that clear ASAP.

They have some level of plausible deniability with Anaconda because there's a legitimate chance that they sincerely did not know it was being removed until after Anaconda closed for the season. If Berserker, Americana, or something else that is currently running for Winterfest is also doomed though, to show some level of good faith, KD needs to announce that. They won't have any excuse for not giving fans a heads-up about those.
 
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Hopefully they are able to remove the ugly wooden fence around the Intimidator 305/Pantherian plaza with its big retheme (and lack of service road needed for Anaconda now) this offseason to open up views of Lake Charles and the park's skyline. Cutting back the overgrown landscaping, providing nice seating/shaded areas, and even putting a fountain back in the center of the lake would be great for the park's 50th Anniversary celebration.

Big picture thinking, I'd like to see other parts of the park get attention before this site gets a major capital investment. I'd move Delirium to where Anaconda's station currently is, retheme/repaint it for Jungle X, and have it swing over the corner of the lake. This area of the park is desperately lacking a flat ride. A medium-large sized coaster on the current Delirium site and/or former Thunder Raceway site would help balance the park's major coasters (and bring either of those areas back to life) more than the Anaconda site with the opening of Rapterra.
 
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a
rswashdc said:
There's a decent chance these decisions were made very recently due to poorer than desired financial issues, vice a desire to pull one over on guests.

Considering both parks are still open for the season, the ride closures aren't being done lightly. Most likely these rides were already prospectively on the chopping block, but some internals made SF realize they needed to take action sooner than later.
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l was recently told by a decently reliable sources that the significant down time this fall was related to maintenance being told to not keep stockpile of spares for it and having to source parts to fix issues. This opens the door to it's removal being close to the forefront if possible not fully decided.
 
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horsesboy said:
a
l was recently told by a decently reliable sources that the significant down time this fall was related to maintenance being told to not keep stockpile of spares for it and having to source parts to fix issues. This opens the door to its removal being close to the forefront if possible not fully decided.
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It stinks to see Anaconda go, but the base-case scenario is that the above is true. Hopefully the uppers new further in advance than a week ago and now have the scramble through the demolition.

Of course there won’t be a long-term replacement/plan for the area for some time unfortunately, but perhaps if they new about this months ago, they’ve had some time to prepare a short-term solution. Perhaps clean up the lakeshore a little. Maybe add some food seating for chicken shack on the shoreline, and perhaps a new bathroom in this area. Wasn’t there a chicken shack Reno permit filed a year ago for this coming year? I thought after Victoria’s chicken shack was the next food update, then we were all surprised by border burrito (but out of necessity).

It would stink to clean up the Rapterra plaza and make that look wonderful only to move construction walls to anaconda’s entrance/lake Charles, completely blocking view. Hopefully, there’s at least some minor touchups in that area once demo is completed.
 
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James said:
I'm sad this coaster is closing because I always told myself this was probably the closest I'll come to knowing what it was like to ride Drachen Fire.
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I rode Drachen Fire a lot the year it opened (‘92), and rode Anaconda a bunch the following year. I remember thinking the first time I rode it that it felt like doing Drachen Fire things in a Loch Ness Monster train.
 
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Zachary said:
Long-term I think everyone agrees that the water park should all be unified on the other side of Racer. Right now, most everything on the park-side of Racer is super old. As long as KD sticks to only adding new offerings on the other side of Racer, they could, eventually, legitimately depreciate the front bit of the water park. Adding a new slide would basically reset the age clock on that area and likely kill those dreams for many, many, many more years.
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Splash Island was added in 2015 along with a visual refresh of that side of the waterpark. I don’t think Six Flags will be willing to spend the money to demolish everything & restore lake charles, but I’d love to be proved wrong. If backlot’s name and theme are updated this year in Jungle-X, I’m assuming it’s here to stay along with the water park. In that case, I suspect we’d see a water coaster (similar to Kings Island’s 2025 addition) added to the front half of soak city in 2026.

Jonesta6 said:
It's costly for an over-water demo to begin with, but I could see them removing in phases - first phase being just the structure, second phase they drain the lake and remove the remaining concrete down to the lake bed plus do some landscaping, perhaps adding the parts for a fountain system.
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That lake can be drained. I don’t think this will be an over-water demo
 
Avalancher said:
Splash Island was added in 2015 along with a visual refresh of that side of the waterpark.
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Good point, but Splash Island was an exceedingly modest addition, and it's so small that it could conceivably be moved. Plus, Splash Island was literally the last "major" addition to the north side of the water park. Since then, they've demolished Tornado, removed the little market they also added in the middle of the lazy river in 2015, and gutted the old restaurant by the north side changing rooms. The only other investment I can think of into that area was that Freestylin' was repainted sometime around 2017.

Meanwhile, during that same time period, investments into the south side of Soak City have included Hurricane Heights, the Beach Street dining area, an updated Sharky's restaurant, a repainted Pipeline Peak, a new water play feature by Pipeline Peak, Coconut Shores (Lighthouse Landing plus Sand Dune Lagoon), a new cabana area, and an updated entrance area around Tidal Wave Bay.

That'll make 2015 a full decade since any noteworthy investment into the area, along with a decade of steady removals, while the south side has been plussed up significantly. I don't know what the park or Six Flags has planned for the future of the north side of Soak City, but there's a clear pattern that suggests to me that they've planned (at least at one point) for the future of Soak City to all be behind Racer 75.
 
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