Oh yeah I rode Loch Ness too. I cleared both bgw and KD in one day with rerides
Loch Ness is better
Anaconda
- Thread starter I305Evan
- Start date
Loch Ness is better
I been one for about 12 years and with the exception of Nessie and Tennessee Tornado which I love and Carolina Cyclone which I HATE that is my opinion of every Arrow Looper I have ridden.
For what it's worth, I'm not an enthusiast at all and still enjoy contributing to the ride boards every now and then. Weirdly, I know a good amount about coasters just from watching a weird amount of rollercoaster / theme park YT videos, but I've only actually been to a handful of parks. You do you, man. This board is seriously very welcoming to anyone, whether casual rider, new enthusiast, veteran enthusiast, whatever.
All that out of the way, my friends and I used to ride Anaconda all the time since you could always just walk right on, while Volcano or FoF would be over hour long waits. There were plenty of times where we'd ride a few times.in a row without getting off and then laugh later about how rough it is and how stupid it is to ride it as much as we did. So it definitely has nostalgic appeal to me. But I rode it a few years ago at Haunt for the first time in like 6 years and it gave me a nasty headache from all the head banging. I can still enjoy it for nostalgic purposes, but my 33 year old body doesn't appreciate my stupid brain falling for said nostalgia.
This thread inspired me to take a ride on Anaconda last night. Where I'll admit, anytime I'm over near Anaconda I see the other red and yellow coaster dominating the skyline, and I'm immediately drawn away from Anaconda; getting in as many laps possible on the other 
.
But I enjoyed my ride on Anaconda. For me, I learned long ago to always keep my head out forward, from between the OTSR's - and as others in this thread have mentioned - know how to help brace myself in preparation for which elements are coming next.
So I'm definitely in the camp to keep Anaconda, as it's departure would leave a large gap in the KD lineup; especially as another steel coaster option for younger riders, just hitting that major 48" milestone.
Otherwise while the ride remains at KD, I'll continue to marvel at how scenic it is. That is in my opinion, no other coaster at KD comes close to competing with its scenic charm - where I just wish it wasn't hidden away, only visible from its queue line. But perhaps a Jungle X re-theme of Anaconda may address this.
And lastly. Here are a couple of photos I took last night, just before riding, which I thought are pretty cool - which again help remind (at least me) of its picturesque attributes.
.But I enjoyed my ride on Anaconda. For me, I learned long ago to always keep my head out forward, from between the OTSR's - and as others in this thread have mentioned - know how to help brace myself in preparation for which elements are coming next.
So I'm definitely in the camp to keep Anaconda, as it's departure would leave a large gap in the KD lineup; especially as another steel coaster option for younger riders, just hitting that major 48" milestone.
Otherwise while the ride remains at KD, I'll continue to marvel at how scenic it is. That is in my opinion, no other coaster at KD comes close to competing with its scenic charm - where I just wish it wasn't hidden away, only visible from its queue line. But perhaps a Jungle X re-theme of Anaconda may address this.
And lastly. Here are a couple of photos I took last night, just before riding, which I thought are pretty cool - which again help remind (at least me) of its picturesque attributes.
I still don't understand why people believe i305 was a flop. Everyone seems to assume that because it doesn't have a line it didn't pay off but there are all sorts of numbers involved in calculating this. With Apple Zapple almost always having the longest line in the park that's clearly gotta be the most popular, right?
Not sure it was a flop but I don't think it bumped attendance like KD hoped it would. The problem with i305 is it's a little bit on the intense side. I always brown out on that coaster and the transitions can be painful (it's grown on me and I consider it one of my favorites now). Compare that with B&M's that have a more general appeal. You have to wonder if they installed Fury 325 instead of i305 would KD have had a bigger bump in attendance.
Locating I305 in a more centralized location in the park would have had more effect than actually getting a different ride. I’d imagine if you did a venn diagram of who rides I305 and Fury, they almost entirely overlap.
While I generally agree with location being a detractor (though realistically where else could it have gone?), I'm not convinced the park didn't suffer damage from the perceived intensity of the ride.
Does the average guest hype the ride up and downplay intensity over enjoyment when describing it after riding it, thus potentially convincing others to ride (as I've heard happen many a time, especially towards Dominator at KD or pretty much any of the B&Ms at BGW), or that only a handful of people get off I-305 and want to go again... But are also mentioning grey-outs and blackouts which end up scaring away those already not that interested in riding?
Does the average guest hype the ride up and downplay intensity over enjoyment when describing it after riding it, thus potentially convincing others to ride (as I've heard happen many a time, especially towards Dominator at KD or pretty much any of the B&Ms at BGW), or that only a handful of people get off I-305 and want to go again... But are also mentioning grey-outs and blackouts which end up scaring away those already not that interested in riding?
in theory you could have put I305 over top of Racer 75, similar to how Skyrush and Comet are, which would have put the ride entrance in the center of the park. This would make it a center piece attraction that all guests would walk by, vice being out the way in a back corner of the park. It would have also lessened the need for the blackout inducing turnaround.
I honestly know more enthusiasts that hate it and more GP that love it. I think i305 is a pretty ridiculous case of a very weird feedback loop. Is it too intense for some? Yes..... but so are many of the rides at CP but you don't see enthusiasts talking about how CP made so many mistakes.
IMO many of CP’s intense rides have a high re-ride-ability level to me. I305 is always a 1 and done for me.
I can say that while enjoyable, the intent of Gemini vs it's reality was a bit of a flop (tallest/fastest but in the end was not the advertised intensity - the era where the bigger and scarier rides got the best perceived ROI) while Magnum XL-200 hit the right spot at the right time (it actually was bigger and scarier).
But CP is much more an amusement park known for its rides and thrills over all else, an image that's slowly being rehabbed. KD is in a similar state, but I don't think was nearly as known for its rides as it wasn't built with the most coasters in a park record as a goal.
Anywho, Anaconda?
I’d take that with a grain of salt. While I understand why they could remove anaconda, I don’t see why they need to now.
Unless
The 50th anniversary project is much, much, much bigger than we anticipated. If this ends up being true, we could see them reuse the anaconda station for a coaster (should this prove to be true) and use that big area to be a mostly indoor coaster? Just a guess.
His "sourcing" is not even remotely compelling.
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It could be totally true, but good god it's hard to even conjure a less trustworthy information chain than "random Facebook group member posting about a message from a random unnamed Discord user in an unnamed Discord server speaking about a conversation between a random, unnamed person who claims to have spoken to Bridget Baywater."
It's as close to a useless rumor as I can imagine.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
It could be totally true, but good god it's hard to even conjure a less trustworthy information chain than "random Facebook group member posting about a message from a random unnamed Discord user in an unnamed Discord server speaking about a conversation between a random, unnamed person who claims to have spoken to Bridget Baywater."
It's as close to a useless rumor as I can imagine.
What an "interesting" evening.
I followed the chain all the way back to the supposed source of this rumor. Everyone involved in this game of telephone actually seemed pretty sincere to me in their belief in the rumor. That said, having now spoken to the person closest to the apparent originator, the information doesn't appear to have been sourced exactly as claimed on Facebook. I don't think this was the result of any malice, just miscommunication. That said, I find my new understanding of the sourcing to be much less compelling than was relayed publicly and it seems likely that it could have been the result of possible deception from an additional party.
Anyway, in talking to the person who seems to be as close to the root of all of this as possible, I was provided a lot of information that I don't think sounds remotely credible.
Before I go any further, I want to make clear that this person expressly told me that I could do as I wished with this information as long as I didn't reveal their identity or share the actual conversation logs. Hence, my summary below.
According to this seemingly-as-close-to-the-"source"-as-possible person, Anaconda has been purchased by a third party and will be relocated before the start of next season. They specified that this is being done in part to allow a new-for-2025 coaster to reuse Anaconda's current tunnel. They went on to claim that this supposed 2025 coaster would be a 280 foot tall B&M with a top speed of 60mph. This person added that Kings Dominion is in line for a relocated coaster from California's Great America sometime around the year 2030. Furthermore, they alluded to a supposedly once-planned Mack PowerSplash for Kings Dominion having been cancelled.
Needless to say, I see a lot of issues here. It's hard to imagine anyone purchasing Anaconda, but even if they wanted to for some reason, it would be an absolute nightmare to deconstruct while preserving it in any sort of rebuildable condition. Furthermore, the design of Anaconda necessitates either a tunnel or some very specific terrain. The person I spoke to claimed that they were told that this would be dealt with by extended the coaster's supports elsewhere to enable the first drop to say above ground.
The statement about the tunnel being reused for a new coaster also seems highly unlikely. The dimensions of the tunnel were specifically designed to accommodate Arrow track, supports, and trains. It seriously strains credulity to imagine a new, modern coaster somehow being built within that existing space. That's not even mentioning the logistical nightmare such an effort would entail.
The 280 foot B&M claim is equally bizarre. Shambhala at PortAdventura has a roughly 255 foot drop and it has a listed top speed of 83-ish miles per hour. Diamondback at Kings Island claims a top speed of 80 miles per hour with just a 215 foot drop. 280 feet tall with a top speed of only 60 miles per hour just doesn't seem to make any sense at all.
I'm going to largely ignore the California's Great America and Mack PowerSplash bits as I think there's already plenty enough to justify calling this entire alleged leak HIGHLY UNLIKELY, but I have reason to be quite skeptical of both of those claims too. I doubt any of CGA's rides have been allocated to any other park yet and I've never even heard a single mumble about a Mack PowerSplash—and I feel I had/have a pretty good idea of the park's 5-ish year plan both before and after the impacts from COVID.
So yeah, all that said, if it wasn't already crystal clear, I'd advise EXTREME DOUBT about all of this. I don't think any of the people I spoke to were trying to deceive—I think there was a lot of good faith involved in my conversations tonight—but I think someone has been dupped and that resulted in a rumor that caught fire. The most optimistic viewpoint here in my opinion is that maybe there's a dash of truth somewhere behind all of this, but I certainly didn't feel like I found any evidence of that tonight.
One of these days one of these rumors will be correct and Anaconda will actually close. That could even turn out to be this year—maybe even on September 4th if the universe wants to play a particularly cruel prank on all of us. That said, there have been hundreds of fake rumors about Anaconda's demise and I'm pretty confident in my assessment that this is likely to be another (particularly widespread) one to add to that pile.
I followed the chain all the way back to the supposed source of this rumor. Everyone involved in this game of telephone actually seemed pretty sincere to me in their belief in the rumor. That said, having now spoken to the person closest to the apparent originator, the information doesn't appear to have been sourced exactly as claimed on Facebook. I don't think this was the result of any malice, just miscommunication. That said, I find my new understanding of the sourcing to be much less compelling than was relayed publicly and it seems likely that it could have been the result of possible deception from an additional party.
Anyway, in talking to the person who seems to be as close to the root of all of this as possible, I was provided a lot of information that I don't think sounds remotely credible.
Before I go any further, I want to make clear that this person expressly told me that I could do as I wished with this information as long as I didn't reveal their identity or share the actual conversation logs. Hence, my summary below.
According to this seemingly-as-close-to-the-"source"-as-possible person, Anaconda has been purchased by a third party and will be relocated before the start of next season. They specified that this is being done in part to allow a new-for-2025 coaster to reuse Anaconda's current tunnel. They went on to claim that this supposed 2025 coaster would be a 280 foot tall B&M with a top speed of 60mph. This person added that Kings Dominion is in line for a relocated coaster from California's Great America sometime around the year 2030. Furthermore, they alluded to a supposedly once-planned Mack PowerSplash for Kings Dominion having been cancelled.
Needless to say, I see a lot of issues here. It's hard to imagine anyone purchasing Anaconda, but even if they wanted to for some reason, it would be an absolute nightmare to deconstruct while preserving it in any sort of rebuildable condition. Furthermore, the design of Anaconda necessitates either a tunnel or some very specific terrain. The person I spoke to claimed that they were told that this would be dealt with by extended the coaster's supports elsewhere to enable the first drop to say above ground.
The statement about the tunnel being reused for a new coaster also seems highly unlikely. The dimensions of the tunnel were specifically designed to accommodate Arrow track, supports, and trains. It seriously strains credulity to imagine a new, modern coaster somehow being built within that existing space. That's not even mentioning the logistical nightmare such an effort would entail.
The 280 foot B&M claim is equally bizarre. Shambhala at PortAdventura has a roughly 255 foot drop and it has a listed top speed of 83-ish miles per hour. Diamondback at Kings Island claims a top speed of 80 miles per hour with just a 215 foot drop. 280 feet tall with a top speed of only 60 miles per hour just doesn't seem to make any sense at all.
I'm going to largely ignore the California's Great America and Mack PowerSplash bits as I think there's already plenty enough to justify calling this entire alleged leak HIGHLY UNLIKELY, but I have reason to be quite skeptical of both of those claims too. I doubt any of CGA's rides have been allocated to any other park yet and I've never even heard a single mumble about a Mack PowerSplash—and I feel I had/have a pretty good idea of the park's 5-ish year plan both before and after the impacts from COVID.
So yeah, all that said, if it wasn't already crystal clear, I'd advise EXTREME DOUBT about all of this. I don't think any of the people I spoke to were trying to deceive—I think there was a lot of good faith involved in my conversations tonight—but I think someone has been dupped and that resulted in a rumor that caught fire. The most optimistic viewpoint here in my opinion is that maybe there's a dash of truth somewhere behind all of this, but I certainly didn't feel like I found any evidence of that tonight.
One of these days one of these rumors will be correct and Anaconda will actually close. That could even turn out to be this year—maybe even on September 4th if the universe wants to play a particularly cruel prank on all of us. That said, there have been hundreds of fake rumors about Anaconda's demise and I'm pretty confident in my assessment that this is likely to be another (particularly widespread) one to add to that pile.
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The b and m part is definitely fake. Like I said a few weeks ago, from my friend in a discord server that works there, it’s not a b and m product whatsoever.
The powersplash I could have seen in lake Charles, however, the nightmare of aquaman might have set them off.
I’ll take everything with a grain of salt. We will see however, we’re in announcement season, so some changes could be happening.
As much as I’d love to believe it’s happening, I can’t. There’s just too much going on to be able to do all of that.
Also, if the CGA portion was true, what attraction would they be getting? Volcano’s plot is the last large plot of land in the already existing park. We know that the park has lane they haven’t used, obviously, but in terms of land that can easily be developed without too much demolition, that is the volcano plot.
As for the 280 foot B&M with 60 mph top speed, while it is unlikely, it could do that top speed. If they’re looking for a story driven experience we could be looking at a ride with more darkride-esque segments and some medium sized drops, which could lend itself to the 60mph claim. Just a theory.
The Anaconda purchase though is the most bizarre out of all of this. Why would anyone want to buy the attraction that is already 30 years old, and for the most part, disliked?
The Mack Powersplash, however, is the one thing I’d love to be true. While I know it’s extremely unlikely, if it became a thing that would be a great addition to KD, could fit in Jungle X very well if themed right.
Also, if the CGA portion was true, what attraction would they be getting? Volcano’s plot is the last large plot of land in the already existing park. We know that the park has lane they haven’t used, obviously, but in terms of land that can easily be developed without too much demolition, that is the volcano plot.
As for the 280 foot B&M with 60 mph top speed, while it is unlikely, it could do that top speed. If they’re looking for a story driven experience we could be looking at a ride with more darkride-esque segments and some medium sized drops, which could lend itself to the 60mph claim. Just a theory.
The Anaconda purchase though is the most bizarre out of all of this. Why would anyone want to buy the attraction that is already 30 years old, and for the most part, disliked?
The Mack Powersplash, however, is the one thing I’d love to be true. While I know it’s extremely unlikely, if it became a thing that would be a great addition to KD, could fit in Jungle X very well if themed right.
He said he’d ask Bridgett when he gets a chance but ride ops and supervisors haven’t been told anything yet.