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Busch Gardens Gives Us a Look at DarKoaster For years now, the building formerly known as DarKastle in Oktoberfest has politely housed some haunted houses and Santa's Workshop. But, at last, a ride is returning to the sinister home of Mad King Ludwig. In fact, the new ride, DarKoaster, looks like something that fits both Howl-o-Scream and Christmas Town: a crazy "snow mobile" ride in which you try to escape an evil blizzard! The ride has been a bit of an "open secret" for a while, but the park made a more formal announcement at a media event on Tuesday, September 6. After a brief presentation and video by Kevin Lembke, park president, they took us backstage to DarKastle to give us a look at the ride itself. But we had another visitor, too . . . Yes, Jack would like to remind us that while DarKoaster is a fine thing, indeed, don't forget that Howl-o-Scream starts on Friday, September 9! Here's the park's official press release for DarKoaster. Here's a look at the media day and DarKoaster. Welcome to the Abbeystone Theatre in Killarney. There will be no traditional Irish dancing today, but this makes up for it. I think the scary face in the storm might be old Ludwig. Park president Kevin Lembke tells us about DarKoaster. Remember--you have been warned! Here, we see coaster enthusiasts in their natural habitat. Be very quiet! We don't want to startle them. Suzy Cheely, vice president of design and engineering, was there to answer questions about the new ride. DarKoaster will feature projection-mapping effects and physical set pieces to tell its story. As I recall, we were standing in what used to be the maintenance bay for Curse of DarKastle. It was the entrance of the Distorted Dimensions HOS maze a few years ago, too. Lots of twisty track in here. It looks like they're repurposing some of the old ride's theming, too. You can see it a bit more clearly here. Here's a close up of one of the launch sections. A closer look at the twistiness of it all. Looks like it'll get pretty "stormy" in there. Gets pretty close to the ceiling there. One last look at the track. "COME BACK, YOU FOOLS! I was gonna make espresso." And that's a wrap from Busch Gardens--for now!

Great update! I still wish they had kept the old dark ride, but this looks fun and will be an awesome upgrade from a giant empty box.

I have no idea what they're doing, but it's definitely interesting. I would imagine that they announced it when they did because with the park closed on weekdays now they might really start making some pretty-obvious changes pretty quickly.

Themed, protected, and air conditions building queue along with a name change. You'll now be launching into space on LSMs with new generation Intamin trains and coming back in Alaska (for some reason) Disaster Transport 2.0 I'm sure the park would love to brand the ride to a disaster... that would go over great

Thanks for the report, Chuck! I only rode DarKastle once right before it closed but I thought it was really awesome and was super bummed it closed. Couldn't ask for a better replacement than some fresh Intamin indoor goodness. This should be amazing.

Keep arms down, head back, and hold on.

If all of these whiny entitled enthusiasts on Twitter and Facebook truly "never come back to CP," think how AWESOME that would be! I have read so many asinine comments like "first Wicked Twister now this! I refuse to EVER go back to the park." Cool bro! Enjoy Six Flags (while you can!)

You did see a tunnel entrance by Boomerang. Though, it isn't being incorporated into the new Zambezi Zinger. That's the old tunnel from the original Zambezi Zinger. The entrance of the tunnel was buried when Boomerang was built. The exit portion was completely removed as it would've been roughly where Boomerang's unused photo booth is now. The park has shared a couple photos on social media of them starting work on removing the last bits of the tunnel. In typical Cedar Fair fashion, the park proposed the idea of selling chunks of the old tunnel over on their Twitter.

I wouldn't wear a random used watch on my sweaty arm for hours. And I wouldn't trust the kids at SF to properly clean and disinfect them.

I think of it as a "sequel" to Curse of DarKastle, and I'm looking forward to what sort of effects they'll use in the show building. As for Battle for Eire, my guess is that it'll be "special event space" for a few years, at least. One of the returning HOS mazes, KILLarney Diner, is still in there.

^Marathon the log ride and mine train.

Just give it to Dorney Park. That place has been relying on Cedar Fair's table scraps for years now.

I’m here for this thread. I have nothing to add. Just here for the spectacle.

This! Everything about Dragster made it the better ride than Ka, who cares about 8mph and 45 feet? In addition to all of the things you listed, what really pushed Dragster over the top for me is the "all force at once" launch, as opposed to the "okay, lets go....now lets go a little faster....now lets go full speed" launch of Ka. Dragster also kept its smoothness through its entire life, as opposed to Ka which got horribly rattle-y after the first few years. And since we're wildly speculating with ideas that will never ever happen, I would not be upset if they put a vertical loop on top of the spike to reclaim the height record.

One guess I heard is the CP might take this chance to "take back the record" from Kingda Ka. Really? Why bother. Cedar Point cares about a quality experience. I *LOVE* TTD. Rode Ka once in 2006 and I'll be fine never riding it again. It was enlightening to see how much different such similar coasters can be. Presentation, station, operation, maintenace (and restraints!) mean a lot with this sort of ride.

It will free up some space to install some of the rides from california’s great america.

That makes me think...maybe CP is turning TTD into the world's first stratastraddle coaster.

Guys, clearly this is a SF/CF swap!!! Mr. Freeze basically had the same announcement, so you heard it here first, Mr. Freeze going to CP and TTD going to SFOT!

A retheme means.... No more "Ready To Go" on repeat. A moment of silence is necessary.

Well, since they've been kind of running it half assed the last few years and this park is on a kick of killing off Intamins... MF next year? J/K. This sucks though. I like TTD a lot more than Kingda Ka so the "2nd option" of still getting the same ride experience kind of sucks IMO. We'll see, maybe the "as you know it" will just mean "oh we're just changing the queue line" and this will be overhyped. Maybe they're painting it purple, adding flames, and calling it Bizarro. Who knows.

My faith lies in the "as you know it" phrase, but I hope for all that is good in the world that they do not do to it what they're doing to Montezooma. Everything Kumbak makes can die in a fire.

We decided to squeeze in a trip from Orlando to the NE region and had a great day at the park yesterday. I wasn’t going to post anything but noticed this thread has been quiet for a couple months so I thought I’d share my thoughts. For background, I grew up in the region and have probably been to the park a half dozen times in my life (including 2001 after the unfortunate accident). Overall the park was fairly empty for such a perfect weather Saturday on Labor Day weekend. We opted to skip all day FP and bought one shots for $11-15 each. Our plan worked fairly well and we even scored a spin on Pandemonium with single riders (Gerstlauer spinners reign supreme.) - Superman is still amazing. This is not my first time with the U-bricks, and it could have been because I’m about 20 lbs heavier than my prior visit. I’m 6’ 185 lbs and found the trains really cramped. The lap bar itself is fine but the angle makes no sense I finally found a riding position that worked and our night ride was heavenly. No noticeable rattle either. Love the soundtrack on the lift and brakes! 3 rides - Experienced Riddler for the first time with the new trains. Everyone’s right, it’s a great coaster now. 1 ride -Holy crap, I forgot how good Wicked Cyclone is! The second half was not sluggish whatsoever and we even got a second lap in an empty back row as the fireworks were going off. Great way to end the night. My partner said it was a baby Iron Gwazi. 3 rides - Op’s were mostly average, but the Superman crew, though small were mighty. Trains were barely stacking and the line stayed less than 30 minutes from what I saw. - Batman: TDR has a wonderful view of the river and park. Punchier and smoother than I remember. 1 ride - Thunderbolt was fairly violent in a good way, probably old news but no more combo tower on Scream, and Flashback was Flashback. - Food was… just ok. Most stands were open but bees everywhere. -Between a great 1-2 punch, beautiful setting, light crowds and ideal weather, I can definitely say our trip has been a success. At Canobie this afternoon (first timers). Salem MA for some spooky spooks tonight (we’ll probably be Groupon’ing a tour), and Lake Compounce tomorrow before back to FL we go on the luxurious Frontier airlines. Thanks for reading! Legendary photo ops

Let’s hear it for Six Flags acknowledging us as a fan base though, us alphabet folks love to see it!

Thursday and Friday ride availability is actually much better than in the past. Having two less coasters helps, but Gemini and Corkscrew are the only adult coasters that won't operate.

FYI to the Alphabet Mafia... this year's Out On the Mountain is Friday Sept 9th. A little earlier than in past years. The flyer is definitely giving some *Graphic design is my passion* vibes...