News The King Is Dead: Kingda Ka (& Zumanjaro) Closure & Demolition Confirmed

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Ending operations for Kingda Ka without a formal "Get you last rides in" announcement from Six Flags well in advance of any potential shutdown would be a travesty, not to mention a giant black eye for the park. The Golden Kingdom area isn't part of their holiday event either, so at this point (barring anything completely unexpected), it won't be long before the coaster is done for the season.

Unless I'm unaware of some huge deciding factor (the insurance aspect is a fascinating consideration), abruptly taking KK out of the lineup for 2025 would be nonsensical at this juncture. The park has a theoretical opportunity to make money hand over fist with traveling admissions and merchandise sales next year, particularly given that 2025 will be the ride's 20th anniversary.

If I were a higher up working for the chain, I'd say let the rumors swirl, even (especially) if the plan is to keep the ride open longer. People who think the ride is on borrowed time will make it a point to plan a trip, and locals will continue to continue to contribute with memorabilia purchases and increased ridership.
 
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GAcoaster said:
This park makes money, and lots of it. There is no way they are winding down operations out of spite or malice. They are fixing what can be fixed and removing what makes sense due to age and cost. Honestly IMO if it came down to a choice between keeping Kingda Ka or the Skyride, I know my choice. And for what they have to spend on maintenance for KK, they could buy a bunch of flat rides and fix what they've got already.

If KK is going, it may be their insurance company is to blame after having to pay out on the TTD accident.

My thought is KK stays one more season, then is removed or somehow reworked to reduce maintenance costs, just like TTD.
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Just like TTD? Not sure that's a good approach.
 
Yeah, the big rumor was that Intamin had a proposal for Dragster that would have replaced Iron Dragon with a Dragster layout extension. Presumably the absolute best case scenario for Ka is that something like that is pursued, potentially using part of the Green Lantern plot (assuming it is doomed).

Don't know how realistic that is as it may come down to where Six Flags and Intamin are in their relationship, but that's the most optimal outcome I think many of us are hoping for?
 
If KK does end up going, I'm hoping they don't replace it with that Mack shuttle coaster nonsense that I saw floating around.
 
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If it goes, I have an inkling Intamin could work with the park so that the new installation will be the "tallest xxx" of its kind in the US since Falcon's Flight will remain the world-record breaker for most aspects.

Imagine launching into that Top-Hat - but inverted...for the world's tallest inversion. If there is to be a meaningful record broken, that would breathtaking.

I'm sad that on the one day I went to this park, the ride was down. I may never get a chance to try it.
 
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If both Ka and Green Lantern are closing, I'd seriously wager it's a conversion/extension for Ka. Reverse spike + new second half + maybe new trains?

SF may be thinking it's a way to reduce maintenance costs while putting Ka back on the map as something new and exciting with TT2 and Falcon's Flight dominating social media rn
 
If GAdv was smart, if they are actually closing the ride, they would do a year long Ka farewell. Announce around when season passes go on sale that 2025 will be Ka’s final year and that it will close in Nov a year from now. Maybe have some contest that will allow guests to do the final ride if it is able to run next Nov.

This will:
1) Give the park a huge boost in attendance for next year since people will be rushing to ride it
2) Give guests more time to cope with the loss
 
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Well I gave into the hype and started planning a trip up with my friend. So there’s that. I’m a weak man but surprisingly I wasn’t the kind of guy to mass buy toilet paper.

If I miss out on the chance to experience that hydraulic launch I’ll regret it forever.
 
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the_pantsmith said:
If both Ka and Green Lantern are closing, I'd seriously wager it's a conversion/extension for Ka. Reverse spike + new second half + maybe new trains?

SF may be thinking it's a way to reduce maintenance costs while putting Ka back on the map as something new and exciting with TT2 and Falcon's Flight dominating social media rn
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I think if that were planned, the rumors would have been more along the lines of a conversion, rather than just an outright removal like all the rumors have been saying. ETR even specifically said in his video yesterday that he's heard the CF execs are against doing another TT2 similar conversion ever again. It sounded to me like he was saying they don't want to do any conversion at all, no matter who the manufacturer doing it is.

I'd personally much rather see them just remove both Ka and Green Lantern and replace them both with a full circuit Intamin/B&M/Mach/RMC giga, rather than try to make some frankenstein coaster using the existing Ka plus a new second half.
 
rollercoastercoaster said:
ETR even specifically said in his video yesterday that he's heard the CF execs are against doing another TT2 similar conversion ever again. It sounded to me like he was saying they don't want to do any conversion at all, no matter who the manufacturer doing it is.
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Honestly, I find this position legitimately enraging. They hired a company who had no experience with Dragster specifically or even anything remotely akin to Dragster more broadly to complete a project they were very clearly unprepared for. Unsurprisingly, the project (very predicably) blew up in their faces, and now the rumor is that they're completely unwilling to undertake any similar project with any manufacturer because of that experience. If that bit of what ElToroRyan said is true, it's wholly irrational. Intamin is intimately familiar with both Ka specifically and constructing enormous coasters in general. It is abundantly obvious that one should expect a different outcome if they were to hire Intamin for Ka instead of fucking Zamperla for Dragster.

If the sole justification for ruling out a renovation and ultimately demoing Ka's top hat structure really ends up coming down to "Dragster went badly, no more ride overhauls," it would seriously make me question the rationality of some of the folks steering the ship at the new Six Flags.

There may be perfectly sane reasons to take down Ka's top hat, but "Dragster failed, never again" is very much not one of them. Honestly hope ElToroRyan just has that bit of the rumor wrong.
 
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guy305 said:
Well I gave into the hype and started planning a trip up with my friend. So there’s that. I’m a weak man but surprisingly I wasn’t the kind of guy to mass buy toilet paper.

If I miss out on the chance to experience that hydraulic launch I’ll regret it forever.
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I’m making mine a big theme park road trip sometime in 2025. I’m really holding out hope they don’t pull the rug out from underneath me

madmax said:
If GAdv was smart, if they are actually closing the ride, they would do a year long Ka farewell. Announce around when season passes go on sale that 2025 will be Ka’s final year and that it will close in Nov a year from now. Maybe have some contest that will allow guests to do the final ride if it is able to run next Nov.

This will:
1) Give the park a huge boost in attendance for next year since people will be rushing to ride it
2) Give guests more time to cope with the loss
Click to expand...
This would be the smart thing to do
 
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I’m gonna be completely honest. The way that Great Adventure hasn’t commented on this makes me think that this rumor sadly might be true. I just have that vibe.
 
I think a removal is very easy to defend but I believe that if it's done with an 11th hour end of the year announcement that course of action is both indefencible and completely out of touch with the wider enthusiasts community.
 
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