Are log flumes and antique cars passe?

King's Island removed their antique cars in favor of Italian Job and their flume for tomb raider. King's Dominion removed their water chute for tomb raider as well. Now CP has removed their flume and possibly their antique cars in frontier town. Are flumes and Antique cars passe? Do these rides take up too much valuable real estate to remain at parks? Now that most amusement parks have water parks; Do you think maybe will see more of these removals in the future?

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King's Island removed their antique cars in favor of Italian Job and their flume for tomb raider.

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PKI never said that the cars wouldn't come back in some form or another.

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King's Dominion removed their water chute for tomb raider as well.

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PKD's flume ride Shennadoah Logging Company is still standing and is actually clear across the park from where Tomb Raider is.

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Now CP has removed their flume and possibly their antique cars in frontier town.

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Just because they removed the flume doesn't mean they won't add a newer "updated" version elsewhere and the cars are not gone yet. IF they are removed they still have two other tracks (heaven forbid they only have TWO).

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Are flumes and Antique cars passe?

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No

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Do these rides take up too much valuable real estate to remain at parks?

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Depends on the park planning, but highly doubtful.

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Now that most amusement parks have water parks; Do you think maybe will see more of these removals in the future?

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No.

I have to ask, are you a journalism major? Because the sensationalism techniques you used in your post are top notch. Really, Marky should hire you to help with his battle in outlawing rollercoasters.

My second question is why do you care and my third question is why are you loosing sleep over this?

-SS

Me-OW!

I didn't see anything wrong with the question. In fact, I think it may even be worth asking. It may be soon to jump to such a conclusion (that antiqud cars and flumes are "passe"), but it does seem like a number of these park staples are disappearing in favor of new attractions.

-Nate

In fact, I believe Dick Kinzel did mention that the company does understand how much people like log flumes, and that it is being taken into consideration.

I certainly enjoy log flumes, and I was sad when I heard the news that Kings Island and Cedar Point were removing their's.

I think one problem flumes suffer is they haven't made many technological advancements since their first appearance. There are different variations, such as water coasters and "giant" flumes or whatever their official name is. I hope someone has some new ideas to maybe put a twist on the old technology, and re-introduce some flumes to replace older ones that are disappearing.

As for antique cars, I'd say they are here to stay, especially at traditional parks.

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Swoosh said:

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King's Dominion removed their water chute for tomb raider as well.

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PKD's flume ride Shennadoah Logging Company is still standing and is actually clear across the park from where Tomb Raider is.

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Counter Point must consider Shoot-the-Chutes to be a variant of the log flume species. At any rate PKD demolished the Diamond Falls StC or whatever it was called to build their Tomb Raider.

Anyway, I don't really think any of the rides mentioned are on the endangered list so to speak. Most all of the 60s/70s Randel Duel-designed parks still have their log flume, just as most parks still have a car ride of some sort.

Now, the old gas-powered Arrow Model-T replicas are disappearing, but at the same time Chance is installing many new electric ones as well.

Off hand, the only parks I recall that have scrapped Arrow flumes are Dollywood, Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Six Flags Over Georgia.

What do all of these parks have in common? They all had two flume rides, and just decided that one was all that was necessary in the face of new development. (Minus CP's most recent decision)

Cedar Point has a unique flume history as it has now went through three of them- Shoot the Rapids, the Mill Race and White Water Landing, with the third actually replacing Shoot the Rapids.

Other than Kings Dominion, I don't know of any parks that have removed modern Shoot-the-Chutes.

EDIT: Fixed Paragraphs *** Edited 1/16/2006 9:09:55 AM UTC by Dukeis#1***

PKI still has a log flume. They removed their Arrow Hydro Flume.

Log Flumes will never be passe because they are the only water ride that gets you wet and not soaked most of the time, because of this more people are willing to go on them.

For PKI's old Arrow log flume, it was bigger, taller, longer, and more scenic than the small one they kept, but it freed up a large piece of real estate in Rivertown. The Wild Thornberry's log flume really does a good job of soaking it's victims, and has become fun and just as scenic (IMO) as the old Arrow, (if I remember right it was called Kenton's Keelboat Canal).

I scanned really quickly and didn't see a mention of it, but PKI has not gotten rid of their antique cars that I know of. During the season they could be seen from Dropzone sitting right behind Delirium's fence.

Kind of a funny question for me...

When we visit parks, aside from Roller coasters, the three types of rides that my wife and I always try to hit are dark rides, log flumes and Antique Car Rides.

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TopGun said:I think one problem flumes suffer is they haven't made many technological advancements since their first appearance. There are different variations, such as water coasters and "giant" flumes or whatever their official name is. I hope someone has some new ideas to maybe put a twist on the old technology, and re-introduce some flumes to replace older ones that are disappearing.

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Not sure if you consider this as being new technology but MACK still makes flumes and their rides can have turntables to turn logs/boats backwards. We just haven't seen much of this type of flume in the U.S.

X Factor

^Because almost every park in the US has a log-flume already. This was one of the reason why OD Hopkins went out of business.

PKD's log flume is on the other side of the park well enough away from TR:FF,Diamond Falls was removed for IJ:SC,not TR:FF as TR:FF sits much closer to volcano & avalanche than DF ever did.

^That was what I was getting at too, I didn't understand where Counter Point was coming from.

I don't think Antique Cars and Log Flumes are passe... Both are still attract large crowds at parks.

Mack log flumes, from my experience, tend to be very unreliable! The Mack flume with backward portion at Walibi Belgium was down more than it was up for each of my visits.

Over on the US side, how many times did Ripsaw Falls get its final drop reprofiled?

Dukeis#1 I don't remember Dollywood ever having 2 log flumes. When was that?

Also, I believe Miracle Strip's was an Arrow (which would be one to add to the scrapped list). And what about SFAW's?

*** Edited 1/16/2006 5:24:07 PM UTC by thrillerman1***

SLFAKE,

Almost the same thing for my wife and I. We don't ride the antique cars anymore, but flumes are one of my favorite, non-coaster, ride at most parks.

Swoosh, didn't you say that SFStL was going to expand their antique car layout with the new kids area going in? Doesn't sound like something you'd do to a ride that's become passe.

I'm just waiting for some of those spiffy looking Mack water-coasters to start popping up in place of the flume in some of the bigger parks.

Diamond Falls was torn down over four years ago. Them tearing it down had nothing to do with IJ. *** Edited 1/16/2006 5:26:32 PM UTC by notnow1218***

...and by the way, because both antique cars and flumes are rides the whole family can ride together, I don't think they'll ever be passe.

I'm all for making the gas powered cars electric. Although I do love the sound the gas powered ones make, the fumes are awful. I can't imagine the headache the ride ops must get working the cars day after day in the summer sun.