The Most Shocking Ride Removals

[Skycoastin Steve]

I must throw in my vote for Stealth and Invertigo, I just don't understand what compels a park chain to relocate a parks newest largest and most popular attractions somewhere else with no replacements, I might have understood more if Six Flags wasn't so close by and there was no competition but in my eyes it just seems like a very odd business decision unless the plan is to slowly shut the place down

Well with Stealth, it was (and still is) a major POS and maintenance disaster, and Paramount wanted to expand the water park. With Invertigo, it was (and still is) a major POS and maintenance disaster, although I'm not sure if CF has anything else in store for that area.

[ScottBrown]

See that is what I don't understand if a ride is a maintenance nightmare why keep it in the same company where in the long run you are still paying for it instead of selling it off and washing your hands of it altogether

[SKULLY]

I must throw in my vote for Stealth and Invertigo, I just don't understand what compels a park chain to relocate a parks newest largest and most popular attractions somewhere else with no replacements, I might have understood more if Six Flags wasn't so close by and there was no competition but in my eyes it just seems like a very odd business decision unless the plan is to slowly shut the place down

Well with Stealth, it was (and still is) a major POS and maintenance disaster, and Paramount wanted to expand the water park. With Invertigo, it was (and still is) a major POS and maintenance disaster, although I'm not sure if CF has anything else in store for that area.

 

A multi-million dollar space filler is still better than a few dozen square feet of concrete.

[Jared4781]

BBW wasn't a huge surprise, but it's still a shame it's gone. I honestly wanted Busch to do 'Revenge Of The Wolf' in it's honor.

 

I'm surprised to see people list HS XLC. That thing was a death trap and SUPER uncomfortable! I never rode it more than twice because all it did was bang the $h@t out of you.

[805Andrew]

For me it would be the People Mover at Disneyland.

 

It was a great ride, where you could just kick back for 15 minutes and have a amazing view of tomorrowland. It didn't need any alteration, it was great the way it was. I never got tired of riding on it, and it was a fun way to just hang out with whoever you were with that day and relax.

 

I hope that they can somehow bring it back again in the future.

 

I missed the old Tomorrowland before Disneyland redid it in 1996. I thought it was strange to put a high-speed thrill ride on a flat People Mover, but the biggest shock for me was removing the rocket ride from the top of the People Mover tower and putting a new rocket ride on the ground by the Tomorrowland entrance. Talk about the ultimate way to neuter a rocket ride. Rockets are supposed to give the sensation of flying in the air and the old one did a great job of doing that being three stories in the air and added a thrill element simply by being that high in the air. The current one is lame and tame and is another "Dumbo" clone with a rocket decor. Rocket Rods (not to be confused with the rocket spinning "Dumbo" ride) was alright but was not the thrill ride it amped itself up to be. It wasn't thrilling except for the initial launch and wasn't more thrilling then driving fast in a convertible car. It did have a really cool queue line through the Circlevision theater showing Walt Disney's 1950's/60's vision of today (he would be sorely disappointed ) that made waiting 90 minutes (the first time I rode it in 1996) bearable. Rocket Rods must have been plagued with problems since it closed 4 years later and nothing has been put in its place since. I wish they would do something with the People Mover track, anything! Put a parade on there or another track ride, or best of all, bring back the People Mover. The People Mover was a great relaxing "lets take a break" ride to chill and eat some snacks. Every time I go to Disneyland I ask a cast member what they are going to do with the People Mover track and I get they might put a parade on it or bring the People Mover back but the CMs not sure and agree they should do something with it. Disneyland has made good use with Tomorrowland in recent years by adding Buzz Lighter's Astro Blaster's to Rocket Rods old queue, connecting both Autotopia tracks to form a longer one, bringing back Captain EO (waay better than Honey, I Shrunk the Audience - and more surprisingly relevant), updating the submarine ride (which I never liked and still don't like) to Finding Nemo's Submarine Voyage (better than an empty lagoon I guess),and updating Star Tours, so maybe there is hope for bringing back People Mover or something similar. And hopefully they will see the light and but the rocket ride back where it belongs - on top of the People Mover tower

[PSiRockin]

I say Lazer at Dorney Park.

[bill_s]

This has me curious -- parks that closed like Geauga Lake and Astroworld, how empty were they? What does a park running on borrowed time look like? I'm guessing like many parks on a slack day, without the big days.

 

As to the question, Drachen Fire was the first time a big park let me down, although BBW was the popular one. Hypersonic was a loss but understandable and rapidly compensated for (rough and uncomfortable? more like super-smooth and very kind to large guests as well).

[Coaster Cow]

This has me curious -- parks that closed like Geauga Lake and Astroworld, how empty were they?

Geauga Lake was EMPTY just about every time I went post-SeaWorld. Once for their Halloween event, where it was totally empty (although I thought that was understandable given the season), but also later on when Cedar Fair owned it during the summer. Everyone there was there for the new water park; walking the boardwalk to the other side was downright spooky. Very creepy feeling, certainly didn't help them too much.

[PayneTrain]

I'm shocked that people are shocked the Wolf closed. Inverted Suspended Arrow Coasters are the Sega Dreamcasts of roller coasters. The outlook for them hasn't gotten any better since they were first built. I made a post on an relatively obscure BGW board in late 07 or 08 --I'm not tracking it down-- about then BEC sitting on a large plot of land, with the Wolf acting like wall blocking any expansion. People forget Drachen Fire wasn't successful just because it was an insufferable engineering nightmare that beat park guests to a pulp and acted as one of the pillars of Arrow Dynamic's destruction (here's to you, X!), but apparently park guests couldn't figure out how to get there. It's understandable. Instead of pulling a number out of my head, I'll just say the entryway to DF between the Wolf/Bumper Cars and the Festhaus was very small. It also fed into an absolute dead end, unlike the train-linked Festa Italia, which has a large entry bridge and even larger hyper making it more noticeable than DF ever was.

 

I think Project 2012 at BGW will solve that problem, but that's not this thread. Point being: Combined with being a maintenance nightmare, the ride limited the park's potential in more ways than most would care to notice. It was coming.

 

In all honesty, the closing of AstroWorld is the strangest, saddest, and most senseless removal of anything ever. Geauga Lake's fate was sealed when Busch pulled out of Aurora, instead of doing the risky thing and buying the park over the already unstable Premier Parks. AstroWorld may have had dipping numbers, but I'm pretty sure no one is making money off of the land right now. The park was an icon, a right of passage to the people of Houston, and now it's a piece of land used as overflow parking, because it's hard to develop some 60-odd acres of land for anything but a small stadium or theme park unless you plan on building a neighborhood next to the South Loop. It's senseless. It's shocks me still.

 

It's criminal.

[larrygator]

Rodeo at SFGAdv.

 

"Hey let's create a new Mexican area in the park and remove the one flat ride that could easily fit the theme of the area with a simple name change."

[palmerleeberry]

At my home park of KINGS DOMINION and the thirty-plus seasons I've been visiting the park, I had my share of shocking ride removals.

 

The first was the GALAXIE coaster. So what if it was just your standand family steel coaste with a Zyklon / Galaxi track layout - this was one of my favorite coasters inside the park. 1984 would be the last season I would ride it.

 

Then there was the renovation of The Lost World into THE VOLCANO in which 1994 would be my final time I take a journey through the Haunted River, a train tour through Smurf Mountain, and my final spin on the Time Shaft.

 

And finally comes the shocking removal of THE HYPERSONIC XLC that only lasted just a few years. Now it sits in the boneyard up in the sky.

 

"Cheer up; they will never remove me from your bedside!"

[KDCOASTERFAN]

At my home park of KINGS DOMINION and the thirty-plus seasons I've been visiting the park, I had my share of shocking ride removals.

 

The first was the GALAXIE coaster. So what if it was just your standand family steel coaste with a Zyklon / Galaxi track layout - this was one of my favorite coasters inside the park. 1984 would be the last season I would ride it.

 

Then there was the renovation of The Lost World into THE VOLCANO in which 1994 would be my final time I take a journey through the Haunted River, a train tour through Smurf Mountain, and my final spin on the Time Shaft.

 

And finally comes the shocking removal of THE HYPERSONIC XLC that only lasted just a few years. Now it sits in the boneyard up in the sky.

 

"Cheer up; they will never remove me from your bedside!"

 

Galaxi was removed due to a fatal accident in 1983,not because it was an outdated ride.As for LWFM being replaced by wht,IMHO is a boring excuse for a suspended coaster it had more to do with the rides contained within being outdated & possibly hard to maintain & in the long run it was time for something new.

 

I'll never understand why SFAW had to close myself when, if SFI had just spent time & money on new rides instead of just throwing rides like they were candy to their "favored parks" they could have continued seeing a profit & maybe brought back some of the guests that they'd lost over the years especially since SFAW became the SF dumping ground for old,outdated rides that the other,bigger SF properties no longer wanted.GL was a lost cause when SFI chose to stop investing in it & chose to sell it leaving the new owner(in this case CF) with a big mess to try & "clean up",which as we know now wasn't successful.

[QueerRudie]

I'm surprised that other KD fans don't lament these two more:

 

Time shaft and Apple Turnover- two of the park's finest 'flat' rides- and the only two spinning rides I willingly go on. Apple turnover was a core ride at KD from 1975- as one of the first Schwarzkopf Enterprises. Time shaft, well, it was cheezy, it smelled funny, it rattled like a ghost was stuck in it (Hmmmm...) and often people would lose their lunch on it. BUT- it was still a great way to hide from the sun, heat and humidity of Virgina's somewhat brutal summers.

 

Apple Turnover is a ride I missed from that point forward- the Huss Enterprises just don't cut it when it comes to the feel of an Enterprise- Yet another example of Anton's greatness...

[KDCOASTERFAN]

I'm surprised that other KD fans don't lament these two more:

 

Time shaft and Apple Turnover- two of the park's finest 'flat' rides- and the only two spinning rides I willingly go on. Apple turnover was a core ride at KD from 1975- as one of the first Schwarzkopf Enterprises. Time shaft, well, it was cheezy, it smelled funny, it rattled like a ghost was stuck in it (Hmmmm...) and often people would lose their lunch on it. BUT- it was still a great way to hide from the sun, heat and humidity of Virgina's somewhat brutal summers.

 

Apple Turnover is a ride I missed from that point forward- the Huss Enterprises just don't cut it when it comes to the feel of an Enterprise- Yet another example of Anton's greatness...

 

I so miss AT & would love to have it back...it was installed in 76,not 75 however.I cannot figure out why they took it out as there were no injuries/deaths associated with it to my knowledge & with this ride operating to this day in other parks it couldn't really have been a maintenance issue with this specific installation could it?

[Supreme]

I was shocked that they removed the Flying Eagles at Kings Island. There was nothing wrong with the ride. And now we have to settle for another game that steals people's money.

[QueerRudie]

I so miss AT & would love to have it back...it was installed in 76,not 75 however.I cannot figure out why they took it out as there were no injuries/deaths associated with it to my knowledge & with this ride operating to this day in other parks it couldn't really have been a maintenance issue with this specific installation could it?

 

Ugh- i get my years mixed up.. go figure. As far as the 'rumor mill' went, it was becoming a parts nightmare, as it is listed as the first Enterprise opened up in the US- whether or not the parts issue is true or not is the question. It was the first built, and usually the first built of a ride tends to have some nasty issues over the long-run (Look at prototype airplanes!) .

[xmichellex]

The Original Journey Into Your Imagination!!! This was a truly wonderful and rather lengthy classic Epcot attraction. The ride that they replaced it with completely down scaled the whole experience and I am unsure as to what Disney was thinking when they spent so much money for something smaller and much less immersive. The sets and props on this attraction were amazing and truly mesmerized me the only time I went on it when I was around seven. Even the return of Figment and limited appearances of Dream Finder don't pay adequate tribute to this lost attraction.

 

^ Definitely agree. I was so bummed out about this... it was one of my favorite attractions/rides ever.

 

Also going to have to say Drachen Fire and the Galaxi ("Rockin' Rider) at Canobie Lake. I loved Drachen Fire, but I rode it when it was still fairly new so maybe it wasn't worth keeping around in the end. Canobie took out the Galaxi and put in the Frisbee... which is cool, but the little Galaxi coaster was always fun and I miss it.

[chillerfan]

batman and robin the chiller by far, it made me so sad , i still cant get over it.

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

Alien Encounter...okay, I guess it wasn't THAT shocking, but I'm still bummed it's gone.

[Mr Stratosphere]

High Roller at Stratosphere.

[chargersmichael]

I understand itwas time for the big bad wolf to come down eventually but I thought that was a shocker because it seemed it was a great ride and I never got to ride it. Always wanted to and went to the park 8 months after it closed to see footers and grass.

[steven6995]

Hands down Geauga Lake, whose closing hurt even more because I finally got to go there with my mother the last season it was open (though I didn't know it was at the time). She was raised going to Geauga Lake due to it being near Youngstown. During the trip she was pointing out all the things she remembered when she was a young girl, like Double Loop being white and light blue, Big Dipper's overhaul and white paint scheme, Raging Wolf Bobs' opening year, Sea World, and Corkscrew. She didn't like how commercialized it became, and how it lost a bit of it's charm. CF's horrible, sudden announcement of the closing AFTER the season was a low blow. Once my mother found out, she was very upset, she told me how it was like a piece of her childhood being taken away. She said it was the same feeling for her when Idora closed. The Wildcat was her first roller coaster, which is pretty impressive since she was only 7 or 8 at the time.

[AstroDan]

Alton Towers closing Black Hole. As much as it was only a Schwarzkopf Jet Star, the closure of the ride in March 2005 was due to the fact they didn't wish to spend money on new H&S requirements. Therefore, it was closed. Now, the building in which the ride resided remains - opposite Oblivion - with nothing inside - even to this day. They could have spent the money and kept the coaster open for a good 5-10 years longer. The UK has lost two dark coasters in recent years, with Space Invader 2 at Blackpool closing more recently. We are now left only with X:/No Way Out and Raptor Attack. The UK lacks a genuine top quality indoor coaster, even though Lightwater Valley tried their best with Raptor Attack.

 

[coastermaniac]

Geauga Lake (I know it's not a 'ride' but the park in general), even though it really wasn't that shocking after Cedar Fair bought it. I grew up going to that park. Even though I am currently only 19 so I know there are people much older than me who went there years before I was even born, I still made memories there with my friends and family. It was a great park and Cedar Fair should have never even touched the place.

[dropthefloor]

Astroworld as a whole was like WTF?

Great American Scream Machine

Drachenfire

and most of all The Big Bad Wolf.

 

 

They can't tear down dragon mountain, they just CAN'T!