Goodbye Kingda Ka?

Oh no, La Vibora? Really? I think it’s the only Intamin Bobsled remaining.

You are correct, sir. La Vibora was the last one operating.

Just wait- there are even more ride removals underway right now that enthusiasts don’t know about because their park is closed for the season.

Are they moving all of them to Cedar Point too?

LostKause:

So if this is true, and I don't have any reason to think it's not true, then they haven't decided the details of closing the ride yet, and that's why they haven't announced anything. Sounds reasonable to me.

But all through Facebook, people keep saying that November 10 was supposedly the last day of operations. They say theyve received information from park employees and maintenance crews. I wont necessarily discount what the scuttlebutt says, but of course there is still reasonable doubt regarding the rumors. On the flip side, it would be immensely duplicitous and just outright shady for Great Adventure to close KK without even a warning and give its fans a chance for a final ride to say "Goodbye". Hell, even Cedar Point gave guests a few weeks to get in final rides on Mean Streak before it was converted to Steel Vengeance, and Mean Streak was considered a far worse experience. Like I said, if Great Adventure wants to do right by their customers and fans, they should make an announcement of its closure in autumn 2025, just try to keep it running for the season and then give it a farewell send off to that junk heap in the sky.

There are a lot of people claiming that SFGA intentionally leaked the rumors to social media Influencers, knowing that would bring out the enthusiasts as a goodbye.

After all, the news cycle of a park announcing a ride closure in advance is a lot longer than announcing after the fact.

Coasterhound36:

it would be immensely duplicitous and just outright shady for Great Adventure to close KK without even a warning and give its fans a chance for a final ride to say "Goodbye".

This mentality reeks of the entitlement that gives enthusiasts a lousy reputation. Let me reference my comment from 3 days ago (emphasis added here):

Based on the eons-old dead thread that was resurrected today, I looked up the rumored last days of Kingda Ka (something I have yet to see confirmed) and the butthurt over the park not announcing it so the public can take last rides on it is predictably ridiculous. One comment said it felt "backstabby"...as if there's some nefarious, deliberate decision making by park execs explicitly to piss off enthusiasts.

The "backstabby" comment I mentioned was on YouTube; let me just echo the most fitting reply to that comment, in all its eloquence, which applies here as well:

Edit: Oooh! I just came across another extremely applicable response from a different YT vid on the same subject...

Did anyone even like this ride before all this started a few weeks ago?

Yes, but not as much as dragster due to the restraints. The acceleration on these rides is amazing. Well, not on dragster anymore.

Vater:

If it didn't break the internet then I don't see there being much of an uproar.

And who wants to eat chilled beans anyway?

People being dramatic about ride removals is hardly exclusive to enthusiasts.

TheMillenniumRider:

The acceleration on these rides is amazing. Well, not on dragster anymore.

Oh for the love of god. If it's not still amazing at those speeds, your fun-haver is obviously broken.

Adding drama isn't limited to removing rides or even amusement parks. Common pretty much anywhere at this point (especially on social media).

And here all for rumors rather than anything confirmed by the park.

Nah, it’s just not the same. Dragster would rip you out of the station and that was fun, but the cool part was while you were already hauling ass it was still dumping the acceleration on the entire way down the launch track until you broke free from the catch car and ripped up the tower.

It's not the same. But there is a lot of space between "not the same" and "not amazing". In particular, having the train ripped out from under me going backward was pretty dang cool.

I remember being pretty upset when Drachen Fire was removed, but I was 25 and it was my favorite ride at the time. Even so, I never imagined Busch Gardens was being "duplicitous" or "outright shady" or "backstabby" or whatever asinine adjective you might dream up. I think the fact that some parks announce the closure of a popular ride so people can experience it one last time is a rarity that goes above and beyond what I consider normal or expected for enthusiasts OR the general public. Thinking a park owes it to you to announce a ride closure is entitlement.

Kingda Ka was amazing, but I'm not going to lose sleep if it's gone tomorrow.

Vater:
Even so, I never imagined Busch Gardens was being "duplicitous" or "outright shady" or "backstabby" or whatever asinine adjective you might dream up. I think the fact that some parks announce the closure of a popular ride so people can experience it one last time is a rarity that goes above and beyond what I consider normal or expected for enthusiasts OR the general public. Thinking a park owes it to you to announce a ride closure is entitlement.

Hold the phone for a second..... Parks do and have been announcing closures temporarily and permanently it seems for a while. Six Flags Great Adventure announced the closure of Scream Machine on July 5, 2010 in order to give people a final two weeks to get in their last rides before replacing it with Chang...er Green Lantern. Six Flags Over Texas made an announcement in March 2009 that Texas Giant would be seemingly be closed for good before we discovered that it was being rebranded by RMC. Cedar Point had an actual FUNERAL for Mean Streak before closing it down for its transformation. In spring of 2014, Magic Mountain advised fans of Colossus to enjoy their final rides because August 16, it would be shutting down. So parks do try to make announcements in that regard and give guests one last chance to get in before they close.

And as far as your charge of being "entitled", let me throw something your way. Ive chatted with a few people that already bought their 2025 Great Adventure season passes earlier this summer/autumn. And among the reasons they did is because they were looking forward to riding KK again. Now me personally, I prefer Nitro over KK, but thats just me. In any case, people were anticipating being to ride the worlds second tallest and third fastest roller coaster(remember Falcons Flight opens next year). So you dont think they should be disappointed by its early closure? That seems a bit myopic. There had been rumors circulating in 2022 that Magic Mountain was going to close Viper(thank goodness it didnt), but my heart sunk. That ride is what helped start my fascination in coasters so of course if SFMM were going to close it, Id want to get in one or four last rides(even if it does sorely need a new paint job!) So rather than assert people are being "entitled", maybe TRY(if you can) to empathize and see the situation from their perspective. And with that, Im going back to checking out the MLB free agent prospects now that my team has won the 2024 World Series <G> Everyone have a blessed Monday.

bigboy:

TheMillenniumRider:

The acceleration on these rides is amazing. Well, not on dragster anymore.

Oh for the love of god. If it's not still amazing at those speeds, your fun-haver is obviously broken.

The speed maybe still in the same ball park, but the forces of acceleration from old dragster to new dragster are quite different. He wasn't talking about the speed of the ride, but the acceleration or time duration that it takes the train to get to those speeds. My personal go fast car launches harder than the new dragster. I rode dragster for the launch, not because it went 120 mph.

I was there yesterday...not knowing it was going to be Ka's last day.

Not one t shirt...magnet...hat from the Ka collection was avaliable. The shops near Golden Kingdom area mostly had Jersey Devil stuff. People (including me) were looking to buy such merchandise.

Six Flags, Cedar Flags, Six Fares (Whatever you want to call it) missed a golden opportunity to make money...which is VERY rare for them.

By the way...I was unable to get a last ride. I was not going to wait 2 hours for it. there were several bursts of cheers when an inoperable ride opened again.

There were also a lot of folks decked out in tiger pajamas or wearing mech from Ka or other parks.

I grew up with Geauga Lake/Worlds of Adventure as my first park, my home park and the defining location of some of the best memories of my childhood, teenage and early college years. Yeah, it really sucks when a park closes a well loved ride without advance notice. But after you've been through your entire park being shut down without warning*, one ride doesn't really move the needle much.

* = obviously the rumors were rampant, many who were actually in-the-know all but confirmed it and you could see the writing on the wall.