News The King Is Dead: Kingda Ka (& Zumanjaro) Closure & Demolition Confirmed
- Thread starter Python_Survivor
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Thanks for saying this, because I have felt the same way since we heard a merger was possible. Many people were saying that Six Flags parks were going to benefit from a merger and Great Adventure will get better investments. While it’s VERY early post-merger, I do not like the direction that I am seeing. Cedar Point had a flop of an opening of Top Thrill 2, so they took a ride previously planned for a Six Flags park (Mexico), and gave it to their beloved Cedar Point.
I worry that the new execs will just treat Great Adventure as an automatic revenue generator for their top Cedar Fair parks, like Cedar Point, Canada’s Wonderland, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Kings Island. I do think it’s not a guarantee that Great Adventure generates money unless you provide sufficient expenditures in new rides and experiences. I understand this is a very early reaction to this merger and nothing is technically confirmed for ride removals at GAdv, but I am concerned about what I have seen so far.
Standard Intamin parts contracts are good for 5 years. That means the current one expires this year.
Ain't related to contracts or anything like that it's getting the axe due to cost of operation. The other rides I mentioned are getting removed for various different reasons ranging from end of life cycle to "may as well just rip the bandaid off." Ka was an albatross in operating costs for Great Adventure, a lot worse of one than I originally thought, and the park made massive amounts of money in spite of that.
Attendance is already down because Selim fucked with the prices and scared customers off, I doubt the removal of Ka would make the situation any worse. Perfect time to trim some fat, invest in some fresh paint, and improve customer experience in various areas before a replacement is announced. Great Adventure needs that kind of work for once, it's needed it for a while.
I'm a broke college student and only really have the money to go to 1 non-VA park per year. This year I was torn for months between Great Adventure and Hersheypark. Ended up choosing Hersheypark and disliking it for a variety of reasons. Immediately after visiting the park I felt I had made the wrong choice. These recent rumors only make it so much worse. If KK closes this offseason, I think choosing Hershey over GrAdv might be the worst decision I've ever made as an enthusiast.
Dang dude, I’m sorry to hear that. Would you mind shooting me a DM or just replying with what you did like and didn’t like at Hershey park. I had that one circled for a visit.
I have tons of health issues that have prevented me from going on alot of these bucket list parks. I know that might not make a difference but you’re definitely not alone in your heartbreak!
But seriously I would love to hear your review of Hershey if you don’t mind
Hershey is awesome and 100% worth going to. It was my home park for years. Just try to give yourself 2 days if you go in the summer (finances permitting)
I had an incredible time at Hershey as well. There will always be a subset of guests at a park who do not have a good day, but I've heard enough positive things about Hershey (in addition to my own experiences) that I would say it's worth visiting. I found it had a very nice atmosphere and amazing rides - truly one of the best lineups in the country.
I can't argue with a thing said but I also don't think that's the full story.
Closing Kingda Ka doesn't hurt attendance but doing so unannounced is a HUGED lost business opportunity. After closing down 305 tonight and seeing the enthusiasm for last rides on a ride that is going away in name only I am more and more convinced that if this is happening that announcing it even as late as the beginning of October would have caused a noticeable jump in attendance. Speaking for myself Ka went down on my only visit to the park had there been an announcement that it was closing that gave me enough time to plan a second trip I would have done so even if it ment shelling out money for the Frightfest tickets. If there is no Ka next year there really isn't another attraction there that will motivate me to make the 7 hour each way trip to visit.
And I would argue that what you propose is why they should keep it for one last season and announce farewell year.
To lose everything they are closing, only open a really low capacity shuttle coaster, and paint some things is a major loss. At least for 2025 if they kept KK and Zum open, only close GL, and worked to refresh paint and everything it would be more tolerable.
Very possible the new execs came in and see the financials don't work at all. This merger has to either see revenue generation or cost cutting opportunities to work.
The reality is a lot of park choice just got eliminated in that region of the country with the merger, so there isn't a lot of incentive for loss leader type activities. More likely they are going to drive customers to the better established destination parks in the chain and rationalize the parks that need a lot of investment.
Well as @b.mac said, that park makes a ton of money even with KK’s operating costs. I feel like putting the blame on revenue generation is excuse making for a bad decision.
Except SFGAdv is an established destination park. So if that’s the goal, it’s kind of a stupid one because now the major metro areas of NYC, Philly, DC have Carowinds and Cedar Point as their closest destination parks. There’s a lot of PA residents who specifically make 3 day weekends for GAdv and it also pulls plenty of shore goers for day trips.
And the merger in that area reduced the “choices” by one. HP and Knobles are still bigger pulls than Dorney and SFA. By killing all of that at SFGAdv you make is less likely I go there, more likely I go to Hersheypark, and if I want to do a SF chain I’ll do Dorney instead.
Counterpoint @warfelg: They are intentionally hiding the removal news so that they won't suffer the loss of destination park visitation next season.
I obviously think that is insane and that the play won't work (or, at least that we should do everything we can to make sure it doesn't work), but that does certainly seem to be the strat they're attempting.
I obviously think that is insane and that the play won't work (or, at least that we should do everything we can to make sure it doesn't work), but that does certainly seem to be the strat they're attempting.
For people that plan trips that far out sure. I can just give my experience from living close enough but often times out 1-2 night SFGAdv trips were planned a week or two out.
In the end the whole decision making is insane. I had some friends ask about Philly area park recommendations. Their plan was SFGAdv, Dorney, Knobles. I told them to hold off because of this, and plot a Knobles, Hershey x2 trip instead. Because if the new SF rips those rides out they don’t deserve their money. They were thankful because the only reason they were doing the new SF parks was KK and Iron Menece.
SFGAdv may have been a destination park under legacy SF, but new SF is looking at things more holistically with CP and CW in the mix to draw people to. It's definitely a challenge having Dorney nearby in that they are basically drawing from the same customer bases and competing with one another.
My gut instinct is they shift GAdv to the KD level and make it more of a day trip park vice a destination one. That means a few less big rides and more ancillary type attractions such as food and events.
I think they hide the removal to basically rip the bandage off all at once that the park is not going to be what it was. It's basically the KD Volcano strategy in that it resets park goers expectations to a lower level and then allows the park to be rebuilt under a new vision
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It’s going to become a meme about Kingda Ka just “mysteriously disappearing” if they aren’t going to be public about it.
That would be a massive fucking mistake. Without it the new SF lacks a NE destination park. Putting it at Dorney level would kill a major revenue stream for them.
Trust me they tried to argue it but with the costs to keep Ka running even on a month-by-month basis there was no way they could make it worth it. The bump in business from a farewell event would not outweigh the costs of simply operating the thing on a daily basis for a few more months. Like the costs of operation rolls well beyond gallon of gas territory for a single rider and that's with optimistic rider numbers that the park hasn't seen the ride make since 2016.
I can break the cost down better at a later date if someone reminds me, but I can tell you the loss in attendance from Ka being removed will not adversely affect the park in the long term. They're well and capable of surviving for a few years even with a 50% hit in attendance and that was with Ka operating. Great Adventure is in too good of a market to avoid getting some sort of major attention later on down the line but with the decade and change of shoestring budgets and near zero investment into quality experience at the park it's going to take some time to get the park operating at a Cedar Point / Kings Island level of quality.
This is the point of my argument though. KK is expensive to run and keep running, but it's not like the park would financially be in the red with it running, it would be fine. So to close it with no announcement, no farewell month/season/year is disrespectful at best.
So to take it, Zumanjaro, Green Lantern, and potentially other things close; not put in anything (or even announce) that keeps people excited, and say it's capital improvements is a big middle finger to the park goers (IMO). And frankly - It should be something that causes people not to go. Like I said, for the New SF, keeping this park as a destination park is important (again IMO) because of it's location. To take it down (as suggested) to a Dorney level (I put this on SFA/SFNE level too) is a mistake.
The rehab of this park should be something that happens really fast and should not be drawn out. Again all my opinion here - but they should go about fixing, painting, and beautifying what they can while running a KK/Zumanjaro (by the way the loss of this is getting really washed) for even a part of season farewell. Announce that you are closing and tease a replacement. Replace all these rides that are closing and do a new F&B at a couple of eateries at once for 2026.
You're forgetting this is now the same company that didn't say anything about TTD closing until they announced TT2, waited until a week before the season started in 2019 to announce that Volcano was closed after being radio silent for 8 months, and was radio silent for most of the summer about TT2 being closed for the rest of the season. This is how Cedar Fair does things.
And as much as I agree with you on there being better ways to handle this there's no way they're going to justify spending millions of dollars to keep a ride open for a few months next year for sentimental reasons. This is how they're going to handle it, there's no room for five stages of grief postulating about how it could be done better. It absolutely can.
I'm not forgetting - that's part of what makes this as bad as it is IMO. Legacy CF/New SF doesn't give a shit about their consumers.
Willing to bet though they try to play on the nostalgia next year and sell cuts of the track for $299+ though. As long as there's a profit that's all that matters.