Volcano Goes Extinct

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thopping said:
Well, that's the thing. The mountain isn't supporting the coaster; the coaster is supported through the mountain. The mountain is not solid structure that could bear the weight of the coaster, so you're not removing it from the top "down to the mountain surface"--that coaster is supported by the earth (and footers poured down to previously undisturbed earth at that), and you're going to need to carefully go through/around/etc. the mountain to remove it--assuming you want to save the mountain.

Caveated that I honestly don't know exactly how the mountain or coaster was built, but I do have some construction/engineering perspective and have read a bit more than I expected I would about this over the past days. The mountain is likely long in its expected design life and reports are is no longer structurally fit for purpose, at least as a structure originally purposed for multiple dark rides. The coaster may not be in good shape either at this point, and regardless, you're not going to sell it. So you're looking at the limited aesthetic value of the mountain (from CedarFair's likely view, not those of you fond of this thing) that would be more costly to deal with than just demo'ing the whole site.

Which is what I'm practically certain they will do, at least me trying to look at this in an objective way with some admittedly generalized assumptions about the site.
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Right, the coaster is currently independent of the mountain shell. It seems to me they will need to be somewhat careful and go through a round of trimming it away, with a crane to hold up and move away the chunks, before they can section it off and knock big parts over. That's basically how they do it even there is no mountain involved, for example, see the recent demolition of Firehawk at KI videos. To keep the mountain, same thing except stop at the mountain top and do it a little more cleanly, patch. Requires more care, but 5% the mass.

Again, I'm thinking in terms of major rides not being inside the mountain anymore, so its age becomes less a problem.
 
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So there's a lot of coaster enthusiast YT channels GOING OFF on CF about this announcement, and talking about how it should either: repair no matter the cost or replace ASAP.

Frankly, without knowing what's really wrong and how much its going to cost (especially given CF's financial situation); I'm of the opinion that it's somewhat irresponsible to suggest the park spend anything to rebuild/replace Volcano. They also went on to talk about the wait time for Volcano and how that reflects popularity, without diving in too much on capacity, downtime, load times, etc. I think they are looking at this too much in the coaster enthusiast POV and not enough in the overall park and scheme POV. Some were talking about how now they won't make the drive from Upstate NY, Western PA, Georgia to VA for KD because of no Volcano. Uhhhh....well, if that's the line that takes you to a park, maybe you should re-evaluate things.

If I could give the park my $0.02 on what to do:
You have two plans, a short term next 5 years, and a long term next 20 years. Stick to your 5 year plan. Flats, upgrades to areas, maybe 1 coaster. You need to scrap the 20 year master plan, and develop a new one at this point. The unexpected deterioration of Safari Villages core was a huge hit. The Crypt and Volcano being lost means we got Avalanche and a scrambler left there. So if that area remains 'doormat' for a few years while pre-planned improvements take place, it's not the worse thing in the area. I wouldn't leave all of it SBNO though. Maybe take out what you can and let the area breathe some.

But the year 6 of the new master plan needs Safari Village to be attacked in years 6-10. And attacked hard. Possibly put up a new theme for this area. I wouldn't put a new coaster in Volcano's spot. Anaconda, FoF, BL:SC, I-305 is enough for this themed area, invest some flats, upgrade the dining some, improve the looks of the area. Keep the Volcano plot open if you need to TBH.
 
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Keep Volcano’s plot open? That is gonna look hideous. They 100% need to put something there.
 
Just a reminder that KD has let two defunct rides stand without touching them for a while.

Don't be surprised if Volcano is the third part of that trilogy.


I will say this again since people seemed to have missed it. Keep an eye on the crowds, keep an eye on Fast Lane Plus activity, etc. How those are affected this season will tell you how important replacing Volcano will be to Cedar Fair and KD.
 
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warfelg said:
They also went on to talk about the wait time for Volcano and how that reflects popularity, without diving in too much on capacity, downtime, load times, etc.
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It could also be said that it shows how popular the ride was that guests were willing to wait in those extremely slow moving lines and endure the downtimes and slow load times to ride. For me I have had my fair share of rides over the years and while I do not want to see the mountain go I really dont care about the ride. I will say however that with my son and many other teenagers and young adults that it is still a very popular ride. Its unique in thats its not something they can go to BGW or HP and ride. You can say there are similur rides out there like Stormrunner for the launch and Alpen for the hanging ride vehicles but nothing that combines the two.
 
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Pretzel Kaiser said:
That being said, the GP is not going to be happy about this closing. CF would be wise to get something just as gimmicky as Volcano in ASAP.
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They’re already upset. Just look at the comments on the official KD Facebook page and some of the fan pages like KD Golden Years.
 
I also wonder if they will post anything in the park that its closed forever or if they will just let day guests go over and see it listed on the not operating today board as it was last season.
 
I see my main point has been bastardized already. Which was spending the money to fix it because the GP loved it or rushing to replace it and getting a half assed ride are BOTH mistakes.

Edit:
I mostly say this because when was the last time a park made a hasty decision on repairing/replacing a ride and it paid off?
 
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WDWRLD said:
I also wonder if they will post anything in the park that its closed forever or if they will just let day guests go over and see it listed on the not operating today board as it was last season.
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I think they should do it similarly to DK; remove the signage and block the entrance with a semi-permanent barrier, that way there can't be the confusion of "Volcano is closed today"
 
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lce said:
I think they should do it similarly to DK; remove the signage and block the entrance with a semi-permanent barrier, that way there can't be the confusion of "Volcano is closed today"
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There is still confusion daily at DK even after being closed the whole season.
 
warfelg said:
Which was spending the money to fix it because the GP loved it or rushing to replace it and getting a half assed ride are BOTH mistakes.
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Not that I'm really invested in KD's future, but I completely agree. Fortunately for that view, I doubt CedarFair views it any differently, and to your point, we don't have the facts about the situation that they do. Emotion runs high from a subset of the public in times like these... Good for the company to manage, so long as they don't overly influence whatever their first-hand knowledge of the park and industry indicates about plans for the park, both real, potential, or revisited if this is an example of change of plans.
 
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I can't help but think about DK right now.

There was public outcry saying they should've invested the money into it to keep it around. BGW decided it was more fiscally responsible to close it, and we weren't happy.

Now KD has made the "mistake" of putting all that money into trying to get it back up to par, listening to the public outcry, instead of making the fiscally responsible decision to just close it.

I feel like the parks can never win.
 
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lce said:
I feel like the parks can never win.
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At least BGW went and publicly admitted that DarKastle would be closing. Kings Dominion has not made a public statement beyond their blog post, which has not been mentioned on social media or any of their other communication outlets.

They're setting themselves up for opening day and I want to see every damn second of it.
 
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