I don’t blame BGW for removing Da Vinci’s Cradle any more than I blame KD for removing The Crypt — both were aging, maintenance-heavy flat rides that probably faced dwindling ridership in their final years.
That said, I’ll miss it. Everything from the deceptively large queue house completely hidden in foliage, to the artwork of Da Vinci’s inventions and blueprints painted on the queue walls, to the winding queue to the load station, to the janky restraints and seating configuration, to the ivy-covered old operator’s tower, to the the long, winding elevated walkway down the exit ramp. Something about all of it was both so thought-out but also so well nestled into the landscape that the entire experience of Da Vinci’s cradle — from the moment of entering the queue — felt like the perfect embodiment of “classic BGW.”
The ride lost a lot of its luster with the diminishment of its full ride cycle, and lost even more of its charm with the removal of most of its wooden rope and pulley apparatuses. Those moving ropes and mechanics added so much kinetic energy to both the ride and the surrounding area, and their perfect integration into the structure made the attraction seem like more than just a ride but a living sculpture, a machine, an invention. To that end, Da Vinci’s Cradle embodied the imagination that made the entire Da Vinci’s Garden of Inventions so wonderful.
I won’t hold my breath, but I hope whatever replaces it (whenever that time finally comes) is built with at least a fraction of the thought and imagination that AB put into the area when they added Da Vinci’s Cradle.
