Goodbye sweet prince, thanks for the uh bruises? (Anaconda)

https://kdfans.com/2024/ana...emolition/

Slowest corkscrews ever and yeah the turns right before them. So long Anaconda.

I got a non-consentual nipple piercing on that ride when I was wearing a con badge.

Not surprised one bit. when I rode it back in SEPT it ran really really rough. I was expecting the first half to be decent but not the case. Following the brake run it was sluggish and very shaky. Goodbye to a ride that looked far better than it ever was.

Yeah, caught this news yesterday. Not surprisingly, the angry mobs have come forth with online petitions and outraged disbelief that Kings Dominion dares to remove a beloved ride without letting them have their deserved goodbye rides on it.

What an odd ass world I live in.

Vater:

Yeah, caught this news yesterday. Not surprisingly, the angry mobs have come forth with online petitions and outraged disbelief that Kings Dominion dares to remove a beloved ride without letting them have their deserved goodbye rides on it.

What an odd ass world I live in.

Well considering how Six Flags Great Adventure handled Kingda Ka, Im not surprised the villagers came out with pitchforks and blazing torches. Im not singing praises of Anaconda per se, but some warning for those that DID like (few that they were) might have been a nice gesture.

You don't need to quote the previous post. We don't need to read it twice. I made it harder to deliberately quote an entire post and people do it anyway. I can't win.

Coasterhound36:

but some warning for those that DID like (few that they were) might have been a nice gesture.

I liked it. Was one of my favorites at the park for years. I remember my excitement when I saw it under construction in 1990, the first drop ended about 20 feet or so over the water (before construction began on the underwater tunnel) and it looked impossible to pull up in time to avoid the lake. My brother even correctly predicted the name, given the paint scheme and its location on the former King Kobra site. It’s the only other coaster there that I ever marathoned since Scooby Doo when I was about 6.

All that to say that it’s bizarre to me to expect a park to announce the closure of an aging ride ahead of time so a niche group of entitled people can go on it one more time.

I wish I understood the need to have a last ride after the closure is announced. Actually, I don't. What makes that one so different? If you miss out on that, your last ride on it was still your last ride. The concept of feeling like you're owed something that really isn't unique is odd.

Coasterhound36:

Well considering how Six Flags Great Adventure handled Kingda Ka, Im not surprised the villagers came out with pitchforks and blazing torches.

Unless this is last minute decision making, why not mention that a ride will not be around next year. It is getting closed anyways, not like telling people sooner will have a negative effect on attendance or anything. If anything you might have a tiny boost to attendance or revenue for people that stop by for one last ride. Well, maybe not so much for Anaconda, but certainly would have happened for Ka.

Jeff:
You don't need to quote the previous post. We don't need to read it twice. I made it harder to deliberately quote an entire post and people do it anyway. I can't win.

You know what they say about idiot proofing.

If it wasn't so many rides this year maybe people wouldn't be so upset, but now that they have this shiny new company they need those "synergies" to be realized. Realization is going to come in the form of hardcore cost cutting. Bench : The Ride certainly costs less than Kingda Ka does. Though it baffles me a bit that they wouldn't reuse that giant structure and keep Zumanjaro cause that massive drop tower is rather cool. Noise around is that Mack is doing the replacement ride, might be a spinner ala RtH/TT. Which is extremely cool, but not what Ka was either. However after riding TT, Copperhead, and Voltron, I don't think Mack can do anything wrong.

Anyway, I shamelessly stole this list from another site, but there have been a ton of closures, any most during off season.

• Kingda Ka @ SFGAV

• Zumanjaro @ SFGAV

• Green Lantern @ SFGAV

• The Sky Way @ SFGAV (Closed in 2022, but removed this year)

• Twister @ SFGAV

• Parachute Tower @ SFGAV

• Scrambler @ SFMM

• La Vibora @ SFOT

• El Diablo @ SFOT

• Snake River Falls @ Cedar Point

• Professor Dilbert’s Frontier Fling @ Cedar Point

• Nighthawk @ Carowinds

• Drop Tower @ Carowinds

• Scream Weaver @ Carowinds

• Anaconda @ Kings Dominion

I don't think it's completely unreasonable to have some notice. Sure, they don't need to give away commemorative T-shirts and ERT, and entitlement is silly, but I don't see any harm in giving a heads up. If there wasn't some purely emotional connection to the rides, this site wouldn't exist for 25 years. Heck, amusement parks wouldn't exist.

Of course there's nothing wrong with giving some notice and there's a goodwill component to doing so. There's equally nothing wrong with giving no notice and I just don't get the indignation over not getting a "last ride".

There are certain rides I would absolutely deem worthy of taking a day or two of PTO, booking flights and hotels, finding a cheap Frontier flight to go ride one more time if the park gave notice of the closure. I can't say any of the announced after the fact Cedar Flags coasters would have made that list. But there are plenty of rides in the newly combined chain that would.

Meanwhile Universal gave us nine months notice on RRR and Google Maps says my house is exactly 25.8 miles from the entrance to the coaster. I can't imagine a world where I ride it again.

I actually think it’s a bad move to give people no notice of a ride’s closure. It costs literally nothing except a few minutes of time for the marketing team to make an announcement and a few social media posts, and you have the upside of potentially driving a little more traffic through the gates for the folks who do want a last lap on something. An announcement like that resulted in me hopping over to Universal for last rides on the Dragon Challenge. Even if only a few people take advantage, it’s basically free money.

Also, you could get some social media mileage out of it as the date approaches. It’s not exactly a high-effort endeavor.

I get that some of these rides don’t exactly hold a lot of meaning to those outside of the local markets, but Anaconda could very well have a special place in the memories of folks who have been going to Kings Dominion for years. Sure, it’s obviously dated, but my cousin and I had a fondness for it even as better rides built up around it.

My trips wouldn’t be for “one last time” coasters but more for “first time, yet last time” coasters. In other words I’d be more likely to, knowing it was to be destroyed, chase a bucket list item that I never had a chance to ride. I think of Blackpool’s Wild Mouse, a removal that drew the ire of many fans that weren’t allowed a last ride. Now there’s an announcement that would’ve prompted me to move that bucket list item to the top.
As for Anaconda, I’m in the “good riddance” camp, but I had plenty of chances to experience that monster. And I don’t go to KD often but attended an event when the ride was new and re-rides were plentiful. I remember good times that week as we all marveled at that innovative ride and wondered what would be the next great thing from Arrow, lol.
Oh, and I almost forgot Vortex at KI. I had abandoned it and its roughness years ago but sentimentality took over and I, during one of its last weeks, took a final ride. And what a mistake that was. I carried soreness and regret with me for the rest of the week, more so than if I had just missed the last ride altogether.
It’s interesting to look back through coaster history to find entire categories of rides that declined and eventually faded away, and the reasons vary. But it seems like the Arrow behemoths, with only a couple of exceptions, are heading that direction.

TheMillenniumRider:

a spinner ala RtH/TT

The who what now?

Ride to Happiness/ Time Traveler.

There are certain rides that I will, with enough notice, make a last pilgrimage.

If only because they held a place in time in my life.

Big Bad Wolf was one, and when the day comes that Kings Island retires the Beast, it will be another.

Normal end of useful life retirements are to be expected, and a final “farewell” season costs a park nothing. I am still stunned by the lack of notice on some of these more recent closures, because it’s a social media buzz generator. Unless there is some solid reason for not announcing (e.g. ride is closing immediately because of a known safety failure) I’m at a loss why a park wouldn’t enjoy the engagement and pimp it out.

Rumors right now are that Kings Island's The Bat may be gone soon. I hope they keep it for at least one more season, so I can get some rides on it. If true, I will definitely miss it. It's so much fun.

Anaconda was interesting the first year it came out. "The only coaster with an underwater tunnel," or something like that. But the layout couldn't come close to comparing to Vortex at KI. Arrow loopers used to be the shiz!

The Bat?! Say it ain't so. I love that ride. There are coasters out there that are considered overrated, but among the underrated rides? The Bat is near the top of that list for me. I got my first night ride on it during Haunt last year, and woooooo boy was that a wild ride.

At the very least, announcing a closure of a

ride in advance and giving fans a last ride, would give a park a temporary financial boost.