Favorite Defunct Attraction

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Mushroom

Mushroom

Getting aHEAD of myself
Advisory Panel
Feb 12, 2011
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I've taken some interest in the park's defunct attractions/rides. What was your favorite?

By far, I'd have to say BBW. When I was little, I hated it more than anything, but now I really miss it. Le Mans was fun too. And didn't that cute little kiddie flume in Land of the Dragons move to the Forest of fun? I can't remember DF or Wild Maus that well. Pirates 4-D was a different-paced experience, and it was plagued by an evil red monster and his sidekicks (a. k. a. Elmo and friends). I miss these attractions:(. I'm mad they're gone:mad:.
 
The kiddie flume is still there, they just have two now. Wild Maus is fun(I can tell you cause I rode it twice in the past week or so), but I think that Darkastle is a better fit for the area. I think it would have gone well in another area of the park, but it's just not a big park ride. First off the terrain needs to be flat, not easy at BGW, then the capacity is terrible. It can only load one car at a time, carrying four riders max, which makes the line agonizingly long on a slow day, not to mention a busy one.

BBW was, in my opinion, better than Nessie. Even so I can't say how much I'll miss it till we get the new coaster. As of now, I'd say my most missed attraction is Le Mans'(sorry Nora). It was fun and perfectly secluded. Then they put in a b-rate coaster like Griffon in. Hey KD, I'll trade you Griffon for Flight of Fear.
 
I know I'm in the minority here, but my favorite would be Drachen Fire. I had learned how to brace myself to avoid most of the beating and I loved the loops. Then again, I was a LOT younger back then. Honestly, if it were still up, I probably wouldn't ride it anymore because I couldn't take it now. I still watch video of it on You Tube occasionally. It brings back some great memories.
 
I'm going to agree with Fur Dozy here. Le Mans, not because of the ride, but because of the memories and most of all, what it stood for. It stood as a huge sign showing that you don't have to have a 200ft vertical drop with two inversion and a splash-down to have fun- all you need is a little, fake, gas-powered car that runs on a track. The first ride I can ever remember riding at the park was Le Mans. Something about the atmosphere and just general feeling you got while on it made the ride different. I've been on similar rides at King's Dominion, Holiday World, Six Flags St. Louis, etc. and for the life of me I can't find what made Le Mans so different. Whatever it was, it worked.
 
BBW is #1 by far, of course, but if I also miss Le Mans a great deal, and Wild Maus. But I do love Griffon and Darkastle, though I really wish they had just been added rather than replacing other rides.

Actually I think it's pretty lame the park feels they have to remove a ride to add a ride rather than figuring out how to keep the old rides. Yes, I recognize there are often issues of space and terrain and so forth but really, the park has plenty of space to add things without taking others away. Even with the example of Drachen Fire and the often-cited belief that it suffered from being out of the way, I think with better planning and signs and traffic flow and so forth BGW could figure out a way to expand/add attractions rather than use existing developed space/replace more often than they do. After all, Festa Italia manages to be successful even though it is off the main loop.

Good topic! As a corollary, though I'm almost afraid to jinx things by bringing them up, what rides would you hate to see removed or replaced? I would die a thousand deaths and seriously consider giving up my platinum pass status if they removed the Sky Ride -- a classic that's relaxing and offers gorgeous views of the park.
 
Favorite defunct attraction for me is definitely the Big Bad Wolf! (That was probably no surprise to anybody). As a kid I also loved Wild Maus when it was still around. I agree with Fur Dozy about the idea of possibly moving the ride somewhere else in the park would have been a neat idea. I don't have that many memories about Le Mans or Drachen Fire. Really the only memory I have of DF was being very young and waiting with my mother and sister for my older brother to finish riding it with my dad. As a kid the sight of DF did fascinate me, its a shame it went away so quickly, if it lasted longer I would have definitely ridden it at least once just for my admiration for classic Arrow Dynamics coasters!
 
Aside from BBW (duh!), my favorite attractions were: Lemans - lots of memories riding it with my dad and I won't be able to have that experience with my kids, although I did ride it with my daughter but she was too young to remember, the Spider ride in Oktoberfest (don't remember the actual name) it was so much fun spinning around and around, and for all you Old Schoolers... Grimm's Hollow - I loved playing there as a kid and riding the lady bugs (my grandmother took a picture of me and had it turned into a little puzzle), it was always a treat playing in the gingerbread house in the sandbox as you can imagine THAT wasn't an every visit thing...
 
J0E1 said:
Fur Dozy, I checked; they DID move the kiddie flume in LotD to Forest of Fun (Bert & Ernie's Loch Adventure?). LotD just has a flower bed now. Anyway, it was a kiddie ride, so who cares? BBW is obviously different.

By the way, does anybody remember the rides in Grimms Hollow?
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In that case, they just ripped out the old one. The new one is deff not the same one.
 
^If you are talking about the "log flume" if thats what you want to call it in FoF, they removed the small drop on it so that parents could ride with thir kids, the chain type thing up to the drop would not have been strong enough for parents to ride.
 
In Grimms Hollow I remember the Ladybugs and I think the boats were there as well. Anything else I'm not sure...

I just remember being scared to death every time the Loch Ness Monster train would come past and all of the support rods would shake. lol
 
michaelcollier1 said:
^If you are talking about the "log flume" if thats what you want to call it in FoF, they removed the small drop on it so that parents could ride with thir kids, the chain type thing up to the drop would not have been strong enough for parents to ride.
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NO, the whole thing is new. The old one only had one side, the cars were different, and the whole circuit was much smaller. I was riding it since before you were born, trust me.
 
Oh, sorry I didn't know that, that is just what my tour guide told me during the Roller Coaster Insider Tour.
 
^Hey, are you guys talking about the ride that had the dragon boats? Or a different one? Something to check out on Preview Day, lol, as I hadn't noticed the loss of the flume in LotD, even though I do like to eat/snack at the picnic tables that overlook LotD, one of my favorite "hidden" places in the park. How unobservant of me -- duh.
 
Speaking of the LotD, I'd like to see them do something with that area. Either spruce it up a bit or redesign it with sometime different in mind. It is useful for those kids between 5-9 that aren't all about the rest of the park yet, but are getting too big for FoF.
 
pandorazboxx said:
Speaking of the LotD, I'd like to see them do something with that area. Either spruce it up a bit or redesign it with sometime different in mind. It is useful for those kids between 5-9 that aren't all about the rest of the park yet, but are getting too big for FoF.
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I speak from Experience, that area rocks for ages 2-12. I was there at that age, and so are my bro's and sis's. FoF is cool, but kids could play in LotD for hours. I'd love to see something like the treetop trails part of Jungala at BGT. That place is SWEET. Tampa doesn't have LotD, but they have TONS of play space. Including what may be the world's largest bounce house (It's about the size of our bumper cars.).
 
*Cough* Family Spinning Coaster *Cough*

Really, rip out the useless rides back there and put in something for the whole family. Yes, you can keep the theme and even the play area. Honestly, are there really kids that like the rides back there? Please tell me. Maybe it was just me, but when I was young, I hated rides like that.
 
^I remember liking the rides there. I liked all but the boats. The were just so LAME and didn't fit the Grimms Hollow or LotD theming. If they did put in a spinning coaster, maybe they'd reuse the "Drachen Fire" name.

GOSH! I didn't use any smilies in this post:shocked:! Ah, much better!:D
 
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