Great. Just what we need. More parking in an area already oversaturated with parking. Now if this is Family Kingdom parking, then I think they would’ve done better with a parking garage located closer to the other side of the park and saving that plot for expansion for the park.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Construction of the highly-anticipated Raptor, single-rail steel roller coaster at Family Kingdom Amusement Park has been delayed until later this year, according to Les (Corky…
Not shocked at all. I saw absolutely nothing on that front when I drove through in mid March.
I guess I’m also just used to beach town coasters being delayed being that I lived near Atlantic City for over 20 years, Crazy Crab and the Sky Rocket II (which still has no indication of actually existing) were being teased at least as early as 2022.
Hopping on the Family Kingdom rumor train, but Bodhi Pierce who has ok sources with information for Family Kingdom has mentioned a few things. Bodhi has gotten many things correct with Family Kingdom, and a few things wrong (I imagine things change). But he has mostly been correct.
(Just a reminder this anything can change, these are all possibilities and rumors)
-Pistolero Roundup is rumored to become a haunted dark ride
-The Raptor is planned to have a pirate theme, and incorporate the Galleon pirate ship as themeing. (Probably just placing the boat in the middle of the ride)
-Remove Slingshot
-A new ride "confirmed" next year which is a Kolmax Breakdance called "Casino"
Remember this is all speculation and anything can change
A darkride renovation and a breakdance both sound like big improvements to me! Is the belief that all of this could be for 2027 alongside the Raptor or are those post-Raptor plans?
Them investing in a Sally upgrade would be incredible, though I hope it's not another Ghost Blaster.
Pistolero needed to go a while ago, even if I'm nostalgic for it. It's the first ever Sally shooter (31 years ago!) built in a former Mexican restaurant. What a history!
The break dance is confirmed. Powers Great American Midways sets up several traveling fairground rides in the park during the main season. Browse the site and you'll see several familiar rides.
Finally got to visit the park for the first time today. Didn’t see any movement on the Raptor, but nothing could have prepared me for Swamp Fox. Trip report coming later, but of the PTCs I’ve been on, this is BY FAR the best and I’ve loved them all.
Finally had an opportunity where Family Kingdom’s hours and my usual drive into NC aligned, and made it a halfway stopping point to stretch and pick up some credits.
You’d think a guy who lived in NJ for most of his life would be painfully aware how much he’d be spending to ride 3 rides at a boardwalk-ish park, but it’s been so long that I was in fact taken aback. $15 for 2 hour parking (no shorter options) and $23 in ride tickets sucked, but I paid it anyway.
This park feels like a carnival that just happens to have a PTC and a log flume. Bit of a confusing layout, it’s not entirely evident where the entrances to ANY of the coasters are, but no big deal. I only grabbed enough tickets for the coasters as I needed to get back on the road as soon as I could. It was brutally humid in Myrtle Beach today, so I didn’t spend too much time looking at the Raptor site, but I didn’t see anything noteworthy unfortunately. Forgot to take a picture, but it wouldn’t have exactly mattered anyway.
Dragon (Credit #135, ranked #112):
This is absolutely nothing special, but interestingly enough only my 2nd basic dragon coaster and my first one in nearly 20 years. Probably the only Jung-Max coaster I’ll ever ride if I had to guess, too. It’s tucked into a corner and very confusing to get to, so I got what I’m fairly certain was my first ever zen ride.
Twist N’ Shout (Credit #136, ranked #120):
This thing fucking sucks, man. I obviously didn’t expect much of anything, but this is the roughest wild mouse I’ve been on without a doubt. Dragon’s op and later Swamp Fox’s ops told me I could set my phone on the control panel, but the ops here told me to just throw my phone behind my back and it would be fine, which is something I’m baffled by ANY ride op suggesting. They also tried to cram me and a guy who was probably 6’4” into the same row, and I had to tell them like 3 times that we do not both fit. Not worth all the aggravation, but having grown up going to Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, it was at least interesting going on a coaster they once had for less than 2 months.
Swamp Fox (Credit #137, ranked #8):
Obviously this is the reason I even stopped here in the first place, so I had high hopes. I did not expect those hopes to be exceeded in the way they were, but Swamp Fox is everything it’s hyped up to be and more. I have never had so much standing airtime, to the extent that I actually held myself down a bit which I have never done on any coaster. It has the perfect amount of jankiness for a PTC, not rough but definitely not smooth (and that’s a good thing here, imo). This is everything a wooden coaster should strive to be, it’s my second favorite behind The Beast and I am insanely grateful that it’s now the closest coaster to me (I don’t ever need to ride Dragon or Twist N’ Shout again). This alone was worth the $38 in parking and ride tickets.
Got back on the road and promptly got rear ended about 40 mins later. Tiny little ding in my bumper, wasn’t a hard hit at all, but it was definitely a bit scary after my friend’s accident last week and it would’ve been completely avoided if I coughed up the money to ride Swamp Fox a second time. Shit happens, and now I’ll always ride it twice just in case.
I'm so glad Swamp Fox is running well. I rode it a few years ago and it was so rough. It looked like the park was slowly retracking it, but there were still some really bad potholes at the bottom of all the dips.
Pistolero Round Up ended up being my favorite ride there.
Swamp Fox over the last few years has been getting a full retracking in phases. The first year they did the death ejector hills leading to the last turnaround, then the following year the last airtime hill and the drop and big camelback. Lastly they did the speed hill and hill into the turnaround and the last turnaround. Swamp Fox is my #1 wooden coaster because it’s just THAT GOOD. And, it still runs with the buzz bars and skid brakes! The wild mouse is one that I probably won’t ride again on account of it being the one that killed someone when it was at Magic Springs.
The fatal accident was at Gillian’s (thus its less than 2 month tenure), unless there was a second which really wouldn’t shock me.
Being in tech repair, they’re fucking deranged for telling people to lean back on their phones. Damn shame I’m 2 hours south, they’d keep me profitable during the summer.