Defunct park rides.

Kings Island 1980's video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1CIOVIK6Cc

Has defunct park rides in it, and it has a first drop pov of an untrimmed Beast!

Unrelated to my previous post...

Can someone please tell me what the Ghoster Coaster at Kings Island was? When I first read the thread I was thinking of the junior wooden coaster (now Woodstock Express) but it seems you are talking about something else.

Can someone please explain to me the different between a cuddle-up, crazy dazy, and the teacups? And a tip-top while we are at it? Maybe RCMAC?

I am hoping to get to Sylvan Beach this year to ride some of the flats mentioned in this thread, crazy dazy, rotor, tip-top, rock-o-plane, and their dark ride, Laffland. They also have Fascination, that will make my fourth Fascination Parlor behind Knoebels, Wildwood, and Indiana Beach. :)

KnoebelsGrandCarousel said:
I haven't ridden any defunct rides at Kings Island but here is my Eastern PA list of defunct rides I have ridden:

Dorney Park:

Journey to the Center of the Earth - the ride I miss the most. I understand they had to tear it down because of aging and water damage but this was a fantastic ride. I believe it was the last mill chute ride in operation.

Old Bumper Cars - There were cool because they were in the same building as Journey to the Center of the Earth and also the Thunderhawk line was in the building. Thunderhawk used to have a tunnel and start in the dark, which is why now the beginning of the ride is in a 'trough.' I keep wishing they would put a tunnel over it, seems like it would be a cool thing to do, they would only really need a top since it is has the side walls around it.

Iceberg - a tea cups ride inside an air-conditioned building. It ran in the dark and has strobe lights inside (similar to the Cosmotron at Knoebels). This ride has such a long line in the summer because of the air conditioning. It was themed to an igloo and had penguins all around it. It was some really good theming. This was in the spot where Dominator now resides.

Sky ride - similar to the kind at Hershey and Dutch Wonderland. They would go over the creek near the Zephyr train is.

Motor Boats - These boats were in the creek by the Zephyr, they were on a track though, unlike the ones at Knoebels, so they were way easier to steer. Little children (including myself) would often steer them. :)

I don't remember ever riding the Rockets but I remember seeing them. I am also sad that I have no personal recollection of the paratrooper on the hill but I must have walked passed it hundreds of times as a kid.

Hersheypark:

Conestoga Wagon

Canyon River Rapids

Cyclops - Huss Enterprise located where The Claw is now.

Giant Wheel - double Ferris Wheel, this is the ride I miss the most from Hershey. It looked great in the front of the park.

Paddleboats - Were located in Spring Creek, near the Comet. Best part I remember about riding this is that the ducks would come right up to your boat.

Rodeo

Western ChuteOut - original water slides in the park

I sadly have no relocation of the "bigger" Sky Ride that closed in 1992 but I must have been by that a ton of times as well.

I had to repost this for the sheer awesomeness. Really brought back my childhood, especially the Dorney rides. You missed the Flying Dutchman, but other than that, you completely listed every ride that intrigued me as a child on my first trip to an amusement park EVER. *sigh* The Paratrooper actually used to be down at the base of the hill near Iceberg and Thunder Creek Mountain, and it was old and colorful. Then they either got a new one or reprinted the old one, and they moved it to the top of the hill.

We've all talked about Conestoga wagon at Hershey before, but I'm still bitter about it. Definitely the best of its type, and awesome airtime. Grrrr...lol

I like many of the improvements to different parks, don't get me wrong, but I wish places would keep some of their old "vibe". Not many parks can claim a lot of "charm" any more.

Ghoster Coaster is a lot like pteridon flyers at ioa.

bunky666 said:

I like many of the improvements to different parks, don't get me wrong, but I wish places would keep some of their old "vibe". Not many parks can claim a lot of "charm" any more.

Meh. I'd like to see parks make the leap forward even faster.

I'd rather visit a park that feels like it exists 50 years in the future than one that feels like it exists 50 years in the past.

That's only because you, yourself, exist 50 years in the future...

My first (and only for a really long time) visit to Kings Island was a family trip in the late 1980s when I was a kid. This was an unusual thing for us to do, as I grew up in Ann Arbor and so Cedar Point was the default amusement park. Back then I was afraid of roller coasters, so the only coaster I rode was the Beastie (and loved it and rode it over and over), but I do remember seeing King Cobra. The funny thing is that at the time I had the idea that Kings Island had a snake theme to their roller coasters, since I interpreted "Red Racer" and "Blue Racer" to be references to snakes.

Anyway, the one defunct ride I do clearly remember riding was the Smurf Voyage. I didn't particularly like the Smurfs, but I did like the ride. I also remember riding the carousel with Hanna-Barbera figures on it.

When I started turning into a coaster fan in the early 2000s, I returned to Kings Island and rode Scooby's Ghoster Coaster. This was a single-rail suspended coaster with an elevator lift. I was excited about riding it, since I had been intrigued by the single-rail suspendeds in Rollercoaster Tycoon. I tend to love even small coasters, so I'm not picky, but wow was it disappointing. I waited in an agonizingly slow line on a hot day for probably about an hour to ride it. The cars only fit one adult and one child, so my husband and I had to split up. This was probably part of what was making the line so slow. But I could forgive the long line if not that the ride turned out to be incredibly short and dull. The first curve felt promising, but then after a brief time of picking up speed it braked like crazy and crawled the rest of the way through its probably 30 second duration. I never rode it again. The only thing that kept it from being a completely annoying experience was the Asian guy in line in front of me with his daughter. He was just beaming and beaming, even standing in line, like he was having the best day of his life. I love someone who can be that happy even standing in a long line! There's a guy who knows how to appreciate the ambience and fun of a park even under suboptimal conditions.

Ghoster Coaster was a one-rail suspended coaster in the Hanna Barbara and later the Nickelodeon section of the park. It was red, and the ride vehicle was very small, large enough for maybe one adult and one child sitting between his or her legs. The ride vehicle was lifted by an elevator lift system, and the ride was quite short. Like P-Flyers at IOA, it has a very low capacity which could cause some very long lines.

Here is a video of the ride...

Gonch, I like progress, and when I think of how far ahead of his time Walt Disney was, it amazes me. However, I see how cold and impersonal everything is getting, and I don't always think it is for the better. We all could use a little charm and personality in the parks, I think.

Hey KnobelsGrandCarousel.

In an answer to your question about those rides, I'm not sure what a cuddle up is, but have answers for the rest. As I have been on them all. They are basically carnival rides.

Rotor: Stand up spinning ride, similar to a Gravatron, only it is a more superior ride.

Tip Top: This is a circular platform ride, with spinning tubs on it, that you control yourself, when the ride is at full speed it tilts to a 45 degree angle, and drops up and down. It's a fun ride.

Rock-o-Plane: This is a small upsidedown ferris wheel. Where you rock your car in order to get it to flip, it also has a "lock" bar, so you can lock the car in any position you want, so you can easily loop upsidedown the entire ride if you want. But, it's more fun and scarier if you can get your car flipping, it also turns very fast. Want a real thrill, lock your car in a verticle postition at the top of the wheel, and you will dive face first toward the ground, and be upsidedown at the bottom of the wheel. The best thing is, no two rides are alike, because you control the seat.

In the charm vs progress debate, I like that there are parks where I can find either or both. I don't think all parks need to go one way or the other. It's cool that you can go to some places for a more old school "charming" experience, and you can go to others for more cutting edge coaster/ride technology.

KnoebelsGrandCarousel said:

Hersheypark:

Conestoga Wagon

Canyon River Rapids

Cyclops - Huss Enterprise located where The Claw is now.

Giant Wheel - double Ferris Wheel, this is the ride I miss the most from Hershey. It looked great in the front of the park.

Paddleboats - Were located in Spring Creek, near the Comet. Best part I remember about riding this is that the ducks would come right up to your boat.

I related to all of this, although I'm not sure I rode the Cyclops. Most (if not all) of my Enterprise rides were on the Apple Turnover at Kings Dominion.

Is the Trabant (I believe it was called the Rodeo) still there?

The Giant Wheel is without doubt my favorite of the rides that no longer exist at Hershey. I always thought these were a great combination of observation tower and Ferris wheel, and while I never rode or even saw in person the three-arm version at the Marriott parks, I always figured Hershey's was taller.

A close second would be Coal Shaker.

Also, Mini Comet was a favorite as a little kid.

Gonch said:

Meh. I'd like to see parks make the leap forward even faster.

While I understand (and often agree with) the notion to push technology into the future, your lack of nostalgia for anything is weird. Sometimes it's nice to reminisce about crap you rode when you were a kid...and sometimes it's even better when you can still ride it. Keeping with Hershey, Sooperdooperlooper and Trailblazer come to mind as rides I refuse to skip whenever I'm there. Oh, and Coal Cracker, too. I'm continually amazed that thing is still there. All of those rides were some of my favorites as a kid, especially the 'Looper. I credit (or fault) that ride for being an enthusiast looong before being an enthusiast was a "thing".

Vater said:

While I understand (and often agree with) the notion to push technology into the future, your lack of nostalgia for anything is weird.

Your face is weird!

Seriously though, I think it speaks to how little of a meaningful role this stuff plays in my life. It'd be like being nostalgic about my socks. It's an afterthought. I don't have a meaningful relationship with this stuff.

I'm much more in tune with the idea of great rides I'll never see because I'll be gone before they exist than I am rides that I'll never see because they were gone before I existed.

What's the inverse of nostalgia?

The Devil.

Nostalgia certainly plays more of a role if it involves your childhood. I'm only nostalgic about Cedar Point because I went there as a kid. While I have some amount of attachment to WDW from going there with my wife, it's not nearly as strong as the childhood stuff. I think that's just how humans roll.

And maybe to Gonch's point, that's why I'm not nostalgic about old stuff at any other park. If they bulldozed pretty much anything at Kennywood, I wouldn't be all that broken up about it, even though I've enjoyed those rides as an adult.

Absolutely. I'm only nostalgic about the parks I frequently visited as a kid, too, namely Kings Dominion and Hershey.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like Gonch isn't nostalgic about parks he went to as a kid, which is weirder than even my face.

Maybe that's a lot of it too?

I have little-to-no childhood memories based on these rides...and certainly no regular or 'special' ones. We went to the amusement park a few times when I was a kid. No biggie.

As a child, I went to Cedar Point 3 times with my Grandmother with her work (When I was 5, 6 and 8), to Kennywood once with my parents (but I was young enough that I don't remember) and Conneaut once with my parents (I was 9 or 10). I went to Kennywood two or three times on school trips when I was a teen.

End of childhood park memories. Literally, I went to an amusement park about 8 times between birth and age 18.

Hell, I've only been doing this (hardcore park traveling) for a decade or so now. I guess I can't be all that nostalgic about something that happened in 2002.

I don't know. It's definitely part of my personality as well. I'm not one to dwell on the past in general.

I consider myself a nostalgic, a preservationist, and a historian. <( read: most likely I was there...) I ache for the old rides that were there before I existed, and pine for a lot of the rides I've seen disappear. However, I'm also glad for the inventors that keep the new attractions coming and look forward to what's to come. I mean, without them we'd be stuck riding those old ass paratroopers, scramblers, and the like til the end of time. Well, I would, anyway! Everyone else would likely quit coming.

In other words, I agree that there's a place for both, and God bless the park that modernizes but respects and includes it's history.

Hey, KGC. You've been on a CuddleUp and don't know it. Dorney's Iceberg was a re-do of their old CuddleUp that sat in the same spot, but was outdoors. It survived a horrible fire at the park (one of several) that destroyed the rides and buildings around it but left it, miraculously, untouched. I liked their ride, as it still had the original cars. Many rides of that kind, including Kennywood's, eventually replaced the cars with the daisy-shaped tubs. Which brings me to the Crazy Daisy, a smaller two table version of the CuddleUp. My first one of those was the Coffee Break at Euclid Beach. Knoebel's has one now and I happily found one last year at Adventureland near Des Moines. But the larger, 5 table CuddleUps are all gone now. I rode the rides at Dorney, Geauga, Kennywood, Coney and Kings Island over and over every chance I got. It's far and away my favorite flat of all time.

A few classics that I miss a lot...

1) Coal Shaker at Hershey Park (The two wheel remakes have nothing on the 5 wheel classic that was pure fun.

2) Surf Dance at Adventureland (Long Island) - I would get an all-day wristband and half of the day it was for this one ride.

3) Jumbo Jet at Wildwood - Interesting lift hill and lots of leg room. Like a Byren Kurve on a straight track.

4) Catapiller at Palisaides

5) The Bulls (I think it was called Stampede but I'm not sure) at Great ADventure.

6) Kiddie Rides from Peter Pan Playland and Buddies in Brooklyn.

Ah memories...

KnoebelsGrandCarousel said:

I haven't ridden any defunct rides at Kings Island but here is my Eastern PA list of defunct rides I have ridden:

Dorney Park:

Journey to the Center of the Earth - the ride I miss the most. I understand they had to tear it down because of aging and water damage but this was a fantastic ride. I believe it was the last mill chute ride in operation.

WRONG! There is one Mill Chute Ride in operation. Next time you decide to visit Tennessee, take a side trip to Rossville, Georgia (A Suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee) and visit Lake Winnepesaukah. Their Boat Chutes Ride is the last of its kind!