If they can replace it with something badass enough, there will be arguably more of a draw- especially if they go above Ka's height and speed and beat Top Thrill 2...
News The King Is Dead: Kingda Ka (& Zumanjaro) Closure & Demolition
- Thread starter Python_Survivor
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It's certainly possible but I would be kinda surprised to see something taller replace it especially given the "success" of dragster. But hey maybe we will see Ka 2
So I'm a bit of a mixed bag with this because Kingda Ka itself still justifies its continued operation at Great Adventure in spite of the rumors. Coaster Spotting who was shared earlier is underballing the maintenance fees for Ka by quite a bit but the attention Kingda Ka brings and its ridership still makes it valuable to the park. Kingda Ka also does not have the same liabilities that Top Thrill Dragster developed which warranted the conversion to TT2, Ka has consistently been the more reliable of the two even before COVID.
HOWEVER.
Zumanjaro is a problem in ridership, costs, and liabilities for the park and I can definitely see the park shuttering Zumanjaro after this year but keeping Ka running. Zumanjaro is out on its own in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing besides Kingda Ka that attracts any attention out its way. If Zumanjaro were to live the only things left to anchor the Golden Kingdom as an area would be the tiger exhibits and Kingda Ka. Though I don't see them removing Zumanjaro without affecting Kingda Ka, the infrastructure and tools needed to dismantle Zumanjaro are so hard to get a hold of that if Zumanjaro ends up being removed then they'll probably just cut their loss and take Kingda Ka with it, but it's entirely acceptable for them to just leave Zumanjaro there and just not operate it for the rest of Ka's shelf life.
I, personally, have always looked at the area back behind El Toro and beside the Zumanjaro queue as a potential spot for a roller coaster, and thought at first it was the planned spot for Jersey Devil before it inevitably got changed over to Seaport. With Green Lantern at/past its service life and a massive overhaul needed for the Boardwalk since Parachutes is gone, Twister is near end of life, Go Karts serving no purpose anymore and being more of a staffing leech than anything, there's a very large chunk of the park that needs some massive attention in order to reverse course for the park since it came out of COVID.
I would be a huge fan of the idea of Great Adventuretelling corporate to stick it working with Intamin to refresh and overhaul Kingda Ka to extend its service life another 20 years, since even with it losing the world's tallest record next year it is still a massive attention grabber for visitors now that Top Thrill 2 is the world's tallest lawn ornament. Alongside this doing a massive overhaul to the Boardwalk and Golden Kingdom as a whole by refreshing the themeing elements and landscaping to bring new life to that area of the park. They absolutely could do a 2-3 year battle plan to refresh both areas while also touching up on the other massive issues the park has and needs to address.
HOWEVER.
Zumanjaro is a problem in ridership, costs, and liabilities for the park and I can definitely see the park shuttering Zumanjaro after this year but keeping Ka running. Zumanjaro is out on its own in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing besides Kingda Ka that attracts any attention out its way. If Zumanjaro were to live the only things left to anchor the Golden Kingdom as an area would be the tiger exhibits and Kingda Ka. Though I don't see them removing Zumanjaro without affecting Kingda Ka, the infrastructure and tools needed to dismantle Zumanjaro are so hard to get a hold of that if Zumanjaro ends up being removed then they'll probably just cut their loss and take Kingda Ka with it, but it's entirely acceptable for them to just leave Zumanjaro there and just not operate it for the rest of Ka's shelf life.
I, personally, have always looked at the area back behind El Toro and beside the Zumanjaro queue as a potential spot for a roller coaster, and thought at first it was the planned spot for Jersey Devil before it inevitably got changed over to Seaport. With Green Lantern at/past its service life and a massive overhaul needed for the Boardwalk since Parachutes is gone, Twister is near end of life, Go Karts serving no purpose anymore and being more of a staffing leech than anything, there's a very large chunk of the park that needs some massive attention in order to reverse course for the park since it came out of COVID.
I would be a huge fan of the idea of Great Adventure
IIRC, an older Cedar Point general manager's autobiography mention that TTD never justified its own expenses, in terms of attendance. Most guests didn't even consider riding it, and its reliability was so low, even people who wanted to ride it often missed out. If I didn't hallucinate that, I can't imagine Ka has been any more successful, especially since it's more ratty than TTD apparently was.
Well stated all around. Zumanjaro's singular entry/exit point is indeed a pretty big issue. It's a tremendous ride, but feels like you have to walk a mile to get to it. For the most part, I'd wager that most people who are interested in riding head to that area once, get their jollies with their 1/2/3/however many rides, and that's it for the day. It's not really something that you can decide to visit on a whim while you're passing through on the way to something else.
The land that Rolling Thunder once occupied (and, as you mentioned, the area just beyond it) is brimming with potential and could be a nice conduit to change the Zumanjaro walk entirely. With this year's added path spanning the gap between El Toro and Kingda Ka, I'd like to think such a possibility is at least being considered.
Take this and GL away, give them a Giga that will take on Fury for best steel coaster.
I can understand that Great Adventure would be in better shape if they didn't have to support this absurd, hydrologic-launched monstrosity every year. I get the desire to get out from under that burden completely. I also get that Cedar Fair has been severely burned by Zamperla on TT2.
I think the grand question here in my mind is whether or not Intamin is willing to renovate Kingda Ka for the new Six Flags with either a standard LSM launch or a swing launch with a back spike.
If Intamin is willing to take the project and it is the new Six Flags who is refusing to play nice with Intamin (as was rumored on TT2), I believe removing Ka would be horrendous mistake. Ka is, objectively in my opinion, incredibly valuable—both as a hunk of steel and as an icon for the park. The problem isn't the coaster, the problem is the launch system.
If Intamin is willing to replace the launch system and new Six Flags is allowing their pride/arrogance/anger/past frustrations/whatever else to cloud their judgement to the point of preventing them from working with the company who could be reasonably expected to make a renovated Ka function reliably and with far lower operating costs, that would be a major management red flag for me.
I believe history has now shown that contracting Intamin would have almost certainly been a far more correct course of action for Dragster and, if new Six Flags is still unwilling to acknowledge that after what has happened with TT2, that'd be pretty concerning to me.
Now, on the flip side, if Intamin isn't willing to LSM-ify Ka, I think the argument for the wrecking ball becomes much, much stronger, unfortunately. No other manufacturer has successfully and reliability built coasters in this tier of height/speed/etc. Contracting anyone else would be playing with fire.
I think the grand question here in my mind is whether or not Intamin is willing to renovate Kingda Ka for the new Six Flags with either a standard LSM launch or a swing launch with a back spike.
If Intamin is willing to take the project and it is the new Six Flags who is refusing to play nice with Intamin (as was rumored on TT2), I believe removing Ka would be horrendous mistake. Ka is, objectively in my opinion, incredibly valuable—both as a hunk of steel and as an icon for the park. The problem isn't the coaster, the problem is the launch system.
If Intamin is willing to replace the launch system and new Six Flags is allowing their pride/arrogance/anger/past frustrations/whatever else to cloud their judgement to the point of preventing them from working with the company who could be reasonably expected to make a renovated Ka function reliably and with far lower operating costs, that would be a major management red flag for me.
I believe history has now shown that contracting Intamin would have almost certainly been a far more correct course of action for Dragster and, if new Six Flags is still unwilling to acknowledge that after what has happened with TT2, that'd be pretty concerning to me.
Now, on the flip side, if Intamin isn't willing to LSM-ify Ka, I think the argument for the wrecking ball becomes much, much stronger, unfortunately. No other manufacturer has successfully and reliability built coasters in this tier of height/speed/etc. Contracting anyone else would be playing with fire.
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To add to this as was evidenced with Six Flags New England the Six Flags parks themselves do not have a problem with Intamin as a manufacturer. Despite all the problems Zumanjaro gave Great Adventure the biggest roadblock in them maintaining and fixing the ride was corporate, they never had a problem sourcing parts and resources from Intamin quickly for any of their rides.
if they going to do something with kingda ka, maybe move zumanjaro to metropolis since that the reason why the roller coaster becomes too much to fix it (maybe rename zumanjaro ride in metropolis as superman tower of power with the current superman coaster renamed to something else)
and if kingda ka do get the upgrade, maybe get Zamperla to do it but after the whole top thrill 2 controversy, I don't know
and if kingda ka do get the upgrade, maybe get Zamperla to do it but after the whole top thrill 2 controversy, I don't know
Someone on Reddit is claiming there was a website leak. Anyone have a better source than this? Seems VERY sketchy.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
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^Agreed. Could be real and was published accidentally (see Quantum Accelerator webpage leak), or it just as easily could be inspect-element'ed and faked. I feel like the title of the 'leak' is a bit odd, calling it "our tallest coaster" and not "the King of Coasters" or something more impactful.
We'll see.
We'll see.
^ Editing a page with Inspect Element is extremely easy to do.
I don't think anyone is denying that lol, we're just saying that Six Flags has dropped stuff before it was supposed to be announced before...
I have yet to encounter anyone who claims to have actually seen the "leak" live on the Six Flags site which is what gives me far and away the most pause. Sounds like it originally appeared on a Facebook group last night...?
The biggest red flag for me is that all the rumors have claimed Ka gets one more year. If the larger rumor is true and the 2025 closure is correct, why would Six Flags being announcing its closure on the website now? Seems bizarre on its face.
The biggest red flag for me is that all the rumors have claimed Ka gets one more year. If the larger rumor is true and the 2025 closure is correct, why would Six Flags being announcing its closure on the website now? Seems bizarre on its face.
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To be fair, I'd expect a good bit of notice- like a "one last season" type of thing. God only knows we wish BGT did with Scorpion
If it’s true (which for what it’s worth, I don’t think it is), it’s the tallest and fastest operating coaster in the world. A farewell tour-esque season would draw in people from all over the world, people with nostalgia for it, etc.
I haven’t lived near Great Adventure for quite some time now and have a lot of issues with the park as it is today, but if this ends up being true, I’ll be there next season without a shadow of a doubt.
The story could be true, but that screenshot is obviously fake. All the other article titles on the newsroom page are titled like formal headlines for use by the press, and they all refer to the park in the third person (“Six Flags Great Adventure Announces…”). The Ka article is titled like a blog post. (I actually don’t think the park would want to highlight that they’re removing their tallest coaster in the title anyway.)
Which is about the yearly operating cost. The scrap steel would also help pay for it.
Once again, I think it’s possible, just not probable that it’s going for next season, especially if Green Lantern is truly leaving. Losing three MAJOR attractions with no replacements just isn’t happening.
I think it would make the most sense to lose GL this year, then if they pull the plug on KK next year, announce its closure and replacement at the same time, replacing it with something better. Maybe even replacing it with something that could utilize the tower and keep Zumanjaro.