I genuinely don’t understand why anyone wants a dark ride there. It would just be wonder mountain guardian 2.0 where it’s screens: the ride. Just can the volcano concept and build a quality coaster which is what people go to KD for.
Kings Dominion Project 2024 (?): Jungle X-Pedition Phase II
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
Given that the mountain was originally constructed to house 2 dark rides and a flat ride, I would not rule out a dark ride as a future possibility.
As far as Canada's Wonderland Guardian ride, it is one of many dark ride variations. Neither of KD's former mountain dark rides were anything like Guardian. They were the closest thing to a Disney dark ride back then. I don't think any US regional theme park has come close to making something like the Lost World since it opened in 1979.
Yeah I don’t think CF is doing anything like that especially with the possibility of lot of downtime
CoasterAuditor
I have an adverse opinion of Vekoma SLCs
I wouldn't ever rule out the possibility of any theme park adding a dark ride, however I don't think because they constructed a mountain in the 1970s to house dark rides, that Cedar Fair in the 2020s is going to shift drastically from their capital investment approach and construct a large expensive mountain to house dark rides like that.
My general guess would be Jungle X expansion with Zamperla flats, a smaller B&M or maybe even a GCI. That seems to be their MO for expansion these days, and personally I hope for a deviation in coaster manufacturer (NOT ZAMPERLA) for the purpose of it being surprising more than anything. That and improving areas to make them more immersive, but with 5% (a lot less most likely) of the budget of the immersive areas at Disney and Universal.
I believe we are at Step 2 of the Jungle X Phase II thread cycle at this time. Though it feels like a hybrid of Step 2 and 3 since we're talking about a dark ride and not like a Vekoma tilt coaster or something else.
My general guess would be Jungle X expansion with Zamperla flats, a smaller B&M or maybe even a GCI. That seems to be their MO for expansion these days, and personally I hope for a deviation in coaster manufacturer (NOT ZAMPERLA) for the purpose of it being surprising more than anything. That and improving areas to make them more immersive, but with 5% (a lot less most likely) of the budget of the immersive areas at Disney and Universal.
I believe we are at Step 2 of the Jungle X Phase II thread cycle at this time. Though it feels like a hybrid of Step 2 and 3 since we're talking about a dark ride and not like a Vekoma tilt coaster or something else.
Welp, there we go, the non-existent mystery of Anaconda's status is solved.
Granted, it's an older non-classic Arrow coaster so eventually it'll run out of service life.
But given that all evidence presented so far is that it's fairly reliable, has generally good attendance, is a capacity monster, and also really easy to fit into JX's theme make that claim highly unlikely.
BLSC... Well I think many folks here have speculated what that retheme could look like, so hopefully anyone here is close to right.
Granted, it's an older non-classic Arrow coaster so eventually it'll run out of service life.
But given that all evidence presented so far is that it's fairly reliable, has generally good attendance, is a capacity monster, and also really easy to fit into JX's theme make that claim highly unlikely.
BLSC... Well I think many folks here have speculated what that retheme could look like, so hopefully anyone here is close to right.
Those dark rides were up and running more than I-305 has been since it opened in 2010. Might as well say the same for Twisted Timbers since it opened in 2018. Until KD makes it official of what is going in the mountain's spot, nothing is off the table
Yeah, this is where I have a major issue with you @92ramsfan
I don’t mean to be rude… But cmon man. This is NOT Anacondas last year. You’re also trying to destroy Dennis’s character by making false accusations regarding his leave. I apologise, but this forum has done such a great job lately filtering this kind of stuff out and I sure hope it stays that way. I am 100000% sure that you are wrong about Dennis, as well as Anaconda.
Back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.
I don’t mean to be rude… But cmon man. This is NOT Anacondas last year. You’re also trying to destroy Dennis’s character by making false accusations regarding his leave. I apologise, but this forum has done such a great job lately filtering this kind of stuff out and I sure hope it stays that way. I am 100000% sure that you are wrong about Dennis, as well as Anaconda.
Back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.
CoasterAuditor
I have an adverse opinion of Vekoma SLCs
I have no idea why the uptime comparison to Intimidator 305 and Twisted Timbers of dark rides from decades ago is relevant. This thread isn’t about debating what should go in the volcano plot of land, or the value of a dark ride versus a roller coaster.
It’s not like people don’t want them to build a new mountain, just a lot of us have followed the industry for decades and that idea while fantastic doesn’t appear consistent with what Cedar Fair, the owners of Kings Dominion are doing with capital investment. Expedition Everest at Disney World cost an estimated $100 million to build in 2006 and the largest roller coaster at KD cost $25 million to build in 2010. I’m not sure what a Cedar Fair budget friendly cost of a mountain would be but I have a feeling it’s more than what they plan on spending on this expansion.
Am I saying a dark ride in Jungle X is a non starter? Hell no we just haven’t seen them build a new dark ride since Guardian and the Voyage to the Iron Reef……thing.
So anyway, there’s like this Eagle and Panther image the park has scattered about Jungle X-Pedition…..