Goodbye Kingda Ka?

KK is going nowhere
I'm local and My friends that aren't enthusiasts want to go to Great Adventure to ride KK not any other ride.
Nowhere in the world can you go that fast and high.
Kingda Ka still brings them in.
I rode it over 100 times and still love it even in the front seat in the rain (with safety goggles on).
ANd yes its been running great all year and lines are just as long as El Toro even when it is running good.
Yes they do have a dedicated maintenance crew which I'm sure cost more but the advantages in public draw far out way maintenance cost.
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- *** Edited 11/23/2007 6:34:38 PM UTC by PcMan***

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Intamin Fan said:

With TTD this summer, we sat down in one of the trains, and then we were told to get out of the train. After a five-minute or more wait for the maintenance guy to arrive, they had to move the trains in manual mode to get them to synch again.

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Exactly! The ride has proxys literally every over inch of the load and unload stations so there is so much to mess up.

And when they throw that b*tch into manual mode, (lol that's how we always referred to it :) ) from what I hear it's really tricky lining it up and getting the computer system back in check.

Seriously though, go on pointbuzz or another site and check out the number of proxys that thing uses on it's track; it's crazy! No wonder theres so many problems.

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kRaXLeRidAh said:

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Kevin Max said:
Just flat out wrong there. At SfGAm, when the chains dropped, more people would run to the Vu than any other ride. (Granted, we don't have X at our park).

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I'd imagine Raging Bull would be that ride. I would highly doubt more than a handful of people would make a beeline for Deja Vu when the park gates open.

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I know we went for two rides first when we were at SFGAM in 06', because you never knew the fate of either:

1) Whizzer--For my friend, it was the ride he was too afraid to ride when he was a kid living on the West coast. And for me, it brought back strong memories of the Jumbo Jets that I used to ride as a kid. Since they tried to kill it off once before, we weren't going to wait until later only to find it closed for whatever reason.

2) Deja Vu--It looked insane, and it was actually running. We had to get that credit and we got it twice on the same day--once in the front seat, and once towards the back. It's was also the next coaster in line from Whizzer.

Raging Bull was actually one of the later big coasters we got on. We have Apollo's Chariot and Nitro back home, so it wasn't like it was something radical. It's hard to speak for another person, but, I was more excited by V2 (neither of us had ridden an Impulse since SFO), American Eagle (man is that thing huge), Viper, and the original Batman. I was even more intrigued by Iron Wolf over RB, simply because I knew nothing of the layout.

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Kevin Max said:
Again, wrong. People would run to DV for a few reasons:

1) Great ride

2) Slow line if you try to hit it in the middle of the day

3)Might be down later, get on it while you can.

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Again, wrong. People would not run to DV for a few good reasons:

1) It's more than likely closed.

2) It will most definitely have a long line that moves slower than a turtle crawls.

3) It's probably going to break down.

4) There are much better rides in the park to run to.

^Not that I can speak from experience since I've yet to ride a DV, but I think #2 and #3 support the opposing argument.

2. Logic dictates that if I run and get to it quick, I won't have to wait as long as I watch the long line that moves slower than a turtle crawls form behind me.

3. If I know a coaster has a high probability of breaking down and I see that it's running when the gates open, I'm most likely going to hit it up early before it does fail.

^^I think number 2 is a good one. Thus, that means that people are running to it first. If is has a long line, people are going there first. Good point!!

Unlike Ka, my experience withthe Vus has been that they don't typically open with the park. (GAm and oG's, specifically). Therefore, when the ropes are dropped, I'd usually end up going somewhere else that has a low-cap ride (V2, Ragin Cajun, or Mindbender, Canyon Blaster). Once the testing on a Vu begins, then it's time to get in line for an hour wait until opening...

Much like Ka, the problem is that the demand SO quickly outstrips the supply of rides (i.e., throughput).

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rollergator said:
^I think you meant Typhoon SeaCoaster...IIRC, they removed the turntables this past offseason(?), and I'd imagine that has helped tremendously with reliability and capacity. The weird part about SFA's water rides is they always seem to be closed (the S-T-C notwithstanding).

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Not hardly Gator....I only managed to get on it once this season & that was following an extended amount of downtime during the day.Every other visit I made to the park during the season the ride was always down so IMHO removing the turntables did nothing to improve the reliability of the ride at all.

^If by reliability you mean down because it was broke, how do you know the reason Skull Mountain was down was because it was broke?

One of the things I didn't realize about the former Typhoon Seacoaster ( but totally made sense) was that the first turntable still remains. Because of the angle of the lift to the drop, it was still necessary even if it no longer turned you backwards.

Skull Mountain was the credit I never got. Oh well, there's always next year (I hope).

Move over KK, here comes STEEL HAWG!!! More bang for you buck. I wonder what the breakdown is. Man... I'm glad I'm close to Indiana Beach and Great America.

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J7G3 said:
It's an ok one trick pony ride :)

Would rather see rolling thunder racing, or a nice knevil type woodie.

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Evil Knevil over TTD huh? I am glad you are not in charge of CP and SFGADV, or any major theme park, operations! You would drive both parks down the drain. Who would travel accross the country, or world, to ride a small wooden coaster? You can find those anywhere. TTD and KK are two of the most insane coasters I have ever been on despite only being 20 seconds.
LOL were you joking? You had to be!

1. Despite the fact that huge record-breakers may draw people from across the country, there are a lot of people who would rather ride a good average-sized woodie than Ka. Myself included.

2. The guy you quoted isn't on here anymore.

Not to mention that people who travel from across the country/world to go to SFGAdv and CP make up a tiny, tiny proportion of their annual attendance.

^ & ^^Is manofthechurch REALLY Kieran Burke in disguise?

The people have a right to know... LOL!

Little did you know I'm actually Gary Story.

I'm actually Rollergator ;)

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Vater said:
1. Despite the fact that huge record-breakers may draw people from across the country, there are a lot of people who would rather ride a good average-sized woodie than Ka.

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Define "a lot" and then compare it to the yearly attendance of the park.

^ Good point SFoGswim

But bang for the buck, which is a better investment?