Volcano Goes Extinct
- Thread starter b.mac
- Start date
You didn't see the massive protests on Facebook about its renaming? The thing is like a confederate monument!
Also, this thread should be called “Volcano is extinct” rather than saying it’s dormant. Dormant means it’s just in a deep state of sleep. This bitch ain’t waking up ever again!
I still maintain that was st least 75% that they chose a stupid name.
I am really curious to know what they found that made them make this call. On a side note anyone else notice that KD didn't post the announcement of their FB page? I wonder if that was because they anticipated massive backlash.
Had a horrible dream last night that it’s replacement was just moving Dominator back there.
Anyways. I think the real reason may never be publicly announced as to why it’s getting shut down. I fear there must have been a safety issue there.
I think what my ultimate feelings on this are depends on what they do with the area. How long is it SBNO? Do they replace it with another coaster? Do they put flats in the area?
Anyways. I think the real reason may never be publicly announced as to why it’s getting shut down. I fear there must have been a safety issue there.
I think what my ultimate feelings on this are depends on what they do with the area. How long is it SBNO? Do they replace it with another coaster? Do they put flats in the area?
Nah it’s gonna be another coaster prob. Removing the mountain opens up a huge plot of land.
People keep mentioning this as being a large area for a replacement coaster. The mountain is crammed between two other rides like a sardine. Volcano has a tiny footprint that goes in a circle a couple times 150 feet in the air. I don’t think there is hardly room there for a conventional lift hill, let alone a decent coaster. I’m hoping they can leave the mountain, but the wrecking ball would have to have perfect aim. Farewell beloved Lost World.
Conversely, it’s footprint that’s highly visible is small, but you go back to the property line with a lift hill, then over to the space behind avalanche, you can fit a Yukon Stiker sized dive coaster....
....actually....that’s not a bad idea...
Stunned. I'm wondering what the actual events were. I'm thinking: Intamin drags their feet even giving a quote. Then it's bad. Then they have to ask Daddy for the money. Plus, maybe they've already absorbed part of the loss of closing a ride, it will affect them less this year than if this was just now happening.
One thing though, the ride never looked like it was supposed to. I saw the original concept art first displayed in the park and best I can remember it had almost no visible supports, just thin arms angling out of the mountain, which it was very tight against. T-Rex, I305-style track or B&M could do so much better.
There is a huge area behind the mountain, it's just kind of in the way. I'm wondering if they'll leave the mountain without all the pink tubing and no longer really having you go "inside" the mountain except for glancing tunnels, or at least that seems cool to me. A slower style of coaster would allow wrapping a whole lot more into the space.
One thing though, the ride never looked like it was supposed to. I saw the original concept art first displayed in the park and best I can remember it had almost no visible supports, just thin arms angling out of the mountain, which it was very tight against. T-Rex, I305-style track or B&M could do so much better.
There is a huge area behind the mountain, it's just kind of in the way. I'm wondering if they'll leave the mountain without all the pink tubing and no longer really having you go "inside" the mountain except for glancing tunnels, or at least that seems cool to me. A slower style of coaster would allow wrapping a whole lot more into the space.
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Given how unique Volcano was, I would expect the reason for this to be deeper than just cost. There’s got to be something tied to that cost, like a one off part that someone else made and is out of business or a safety issue was tied to a repair that makes the repair more rebuild than repair.
I wish the structure for this was much easier to keep the mountain than it seems, because a whole new coaster, and making it themed to revenge of the mountain would be a lot of fun.
I wish the structure for this was much easier to keep the mountain than it seems, because a whole new coaster, and making it themed to revenge of the mountain would be a lot of fun.
I know this is nuts but I'm going to put it out there anyway...
Official statement from Kings Dominion:
"After thorough evaluation, the decision has been made to remove Volcano: The Blast Coaster."
Does this actually preclude a radical Volcano redesign? I mean, in some sense, Hurler was removed from Kings Dominion too, no?
Volcano had two major issues before the inciting incident last year—reliability and capacity. Rumor has it that plans were in place to address the first of those this off-season. When last year happened, that was going to be taken care of as well. Maybe someone at Cedar Fair concluded that these were just more short-term bandaids and that it was time to really radically renovate the coaster to address the other of the two long-term core problems as well: capacity.
Simultaneously, a project like that would provide a much higher chance of a solid return on their investment. You can't market "our ride actually works now," but you can market a "new" coaster despite it sharing plenty of bones with a "removed" one. See: Timbers.
What does a project like that look like? I sort of don't know—but I also sort of don't think it's an impossibility.
Great coasters really aren't that hard to build. Iconic coasters—that's a different story. Volcano is an instantly-recognizable, unique icon for Kings Dominion. Squandering that would be a huge waste.
Official statement from Kings Dominion:
"After thorough evaluation, the decision has been made to remove Volcano: The Blast Coaster."
Does this actually preclude a radical Volcano redesign? I mean, in some sense, Hurler was removed from Kings Dominion too, no?
Volcano had two major issues before the inciting incident last year—reliability and capacity. Rumor has it that plans were in place to address the first of those this off-season. When last year happened, that was going to be taken care of as well. Maybe someone at Cedar Fair concluded that these were just more short-term bandaids and that it was time to really radically renovate the coaster to address the other of the two long-term core problems as well: capacity.
Simultaneously, a project like that would provide a much higher chance of a solid return on their investment. You can't market "our ride actually works now," but you can market a "new" coaster despite it sharing plenty of bones with a "removed" one. See: Timbers.
What does a project like that look like? I sort of don't know—but I also sort of don't think it's an impossibility.
Great coasters really aren't that hard to build. Iconic coasters—that's a different story. Volcano is an instantly-recognizable, unique icon for Kings Dominion. Squandering that would be a huge waste.
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Volcano has 1 turn behind the mountain. Train tracks 40 feet behind that. That means there is enough room back there for 1 turn. NoT exactly a ‘huge area’ behind the mountain. Just sayin.
Given this ride's recent history as well as Cedar Fair's new regime which has been no stranger to removing rides as of late, the writing was on the wall... I am a little disappointed that there wasn't an advance announcement, however, as many have pointed out, there was something preventing this thing from operating and it made more sense for them to not fix it. It's a shame to lose something this unique. Even though it was only good for maybe one ride when I would visit, it certainly will be missed.
"huge" was overstatement but that curve and connected bits is the footprint of the entire rest of the coaster due to the speeds involved. The Volcano concept clashed with making it high speed launched and inverted, they wanted it all. A smaller coaster could go closer to the tree line. If they remove trees they could also go closer to the tracks and wrap around Avalanche.
Woah okay give me a couple of moments to reply to all of this since there's a lot of topics going on at the same time.
While I invite speculation about its replacement, it is highly unlikely the ride or the mountain survive in their current forms for any future developments of the park. While other rides were built inside or around the mountain, Volcano is so intertwined with the mountain it is basically a budget version of Expedition Everest. It will likely remain SBNO for the 2019 season, and due to its size I doubt KD/CF will be able to turn that property around for a 2020 addition. As for what is replacing it your guess is as good as mine, but KD and Cedar Fair are already talking options from what I've gathered with industry friends.
Now the plot of land Volcano occupied may not have been large, it does open up a monsterous amount of space behind Flight of Fear for a larger coaster. There's also no laws against building one coaster on top of another ala Dragon Fire and Leviathan. There's also soace for something to go out past the oicnic groves and into the parking lot, as well.
For the status of Avalanche I'm fairly certain it will remain running while Volcano is being ignored / torn down. While it's not one of the parks most popular rides it at least has enough uptime and ridership to justify staying for a while longer. With Volcano gone? I'm not sure of the impact on that area.
Now for the reason the ride has been closed. I can't really go into the specifics but up until recently the plan was to reopen Volcano at some point for 2019. KD invested multiple millions of dollars into updating the ride itself along with the mountain it resided on over multiple years to make sure everything is nice and proper. You don't just up and decide to drop an investment like that, especially on a ride that is far and away the most important one to guests on an average visit. This wasn't Intamin dragging their feet, as Gavin mentioned before they were contracted to do update work on it this offseason. Who knows whether that actually got done or even started in the first place. So while Volcano is SBNO I would hope to see its maintenance budget allocated elsewhere into the park to continue updating things, unless Cedar Fair yanked that with their annual budget allotment.
While I invite speculation about its replacement, it is highly unlikely the ride or the mountain survive in their current forms for any future developments of the park. While other rides were built inside or around the mountain, Volcano is so intertwined with the mountain it is basically a budget version of Expedition Everest. It will likely remain SBNO for the 2019 season, and due to its size I doubt KD/CF will be able to turn that property around for a 2020 addition. As for what is replacing it your guess is as good as mine, but KD and Cedar Fair are already talking options from what I've gathered with industry friends.
Now the plot of land Volcano occupied may not have been large, it does open up a monsterous amount of space behind Flight of Fear for a larger coaster. There's also no laws against building one coaster on top of another ala Dragon Fire and Leviathan. There's also soace for something to go out past the oicnic groves and into the parking lot, as well.
For the status of Avalanche I'm fairly certain it will remain running while Volcano is being ignored / torn down. While it's not one of the parks most popular rides it at least has enough uptime and ridership to justify staying for a while longer. With Volcano gone? I'm not sure of the impact on that area.
Now for the reason the ride has been closed. I can't really go into the specifics but up until recently the plan was to reopen Volcano at some point for 2019. KD invested multiple millions of dollars into updating the ride itself along with the mountain it resided on over multiple years to make sure everything is nice and proper. You don't just up and decide to drop an investment like that, especially on a ride that is far and away the most important one to guests on an average visit. This wasn't Intamin dragging their feet, as Gavin mentioned before they were contracted to do update work on it this offseason. Who knows whether that actually got done or even started in the first place. So while Volcano is SBNO I would hope to see its maintenance budget allocated elsewhere into the park to continue updating things, unless Cedar Fair yanked that with their annual budget allotment.
You left a few things to unpack here @b.mac
1) Pure guess but given the quick closure after planning to get going, they don’t have a replacement ready to go. I think it might be 4-5 years before something happens for replacing.
2) And plenty of CF parks have the entrance in a tight area with a bulk of the ride being elsewhere.
3) I don’t think they would take out Avalanche along the way. Yes it’s high runtime, and even though low usage, it’s a rare coaster to have anymore.
4) the planning to update and get going, along with all the work on the mountain tells me (no need to expand) that they found something really bad as they went to start those upgrades.
Further follow up to 3 and 4.
Avalanche is one of those "Legacy" rides that Cedar Fair is currently planning around. Provided replacement parts remain cheap and abundant it won't be going anywhere.
Also with regards to finding something, at least with the knowledge I have that there was nothing safety wise compromising the reopening of this ride. It is mostly the fault of its budget along with other factors brought up in the original blog post.
Which brings me to that as well, KD did not make the decision or the statement of their own accord. Corporate hands are in the pie right now, and I'm sure that's why KD has only made an update on,their website instead of posting the blog update like they usually do for the public to see. People cared for that ride, inside and out.
Avalanche is one of those "Legacy" rides that Cedar Fair is currently planning around. Provided replacement parts remain cheap and abundant it won't be going anywhere.
Also with regards to finding something, at least with the knowledge I have that there was nothing safety wise compromising the reopening of this ride. It is mostly the fault of its budget along with other factors brought up in the original blog post.
Which brings me to that as well, KD did not make the decision or the statement of their own accord. Corporate hands are in the pie right now, and I'm sure that's why KD has only made an update on,their website instead of posting the blog update like they usually do for the public to see. People cared for that ride, inside and out.