Any coaster/attraction that was a mistake from day one?

[XYZ]

SFMM adding another kiddie coaster next year when their current kiddie coasters have very low ridership.

[DarienLaker]

^The only correlation it had with skateboarding was with Tony Hawk. There is really no evidence of any relation to skateboarding.

 

Frankly, I wish Six Flags had kept the "Big Spin" name for the former Tony Hawk coasters. It's not like Tony Hawk owns the rights to use the name "Big Spin" and also big spin is a skateboarding trick!

[firewalk13]

My vote is for the trailer park, high-rises, and subsidized housing Euclid Beach Park was replaced with

 

On a serious note, I'd actually like to vote for Congo Falls at Kings Island. Making it a much larger ride with multiple drops and a themed river-cruise section to the right of Adventure Express would have been sweet. The theme could have been coordinated with Adventure Express and that terrain and the trees could've made something epic (and very expensive). It does not fit where it is now and it's too much of a one-trick pony, It's not enough getting soaked and the one fun pop of airtime on the only drop to compensate.

[Geauga Dog]

Kings Island - Paramount ripping out the Antique Cars and moving the Flying Scooters to Carowinds for Italian Job/Backlot Stunt Coaster.

[3Mutts]

Surprised no one mentioned Wind Jammer at Knotts Berry Farm yet. IDK what was going through thier minds when they thought "oh let's take out a unique family coaster for a piece of Japanese crap" boy did that backfire...

[cfc]

Two words: Rocket Rods.

 

Disney replacing the perfectly serviceable Peoplemover with an underfunded, issue-plagued "thrill ride" was a huge mistake. Superstar Limo is right up (or down) there, too.

[VinTheAttendant]

Sorry Kings Island, but these were the two that came to mind:

 

1. Whatever happened to Tomb Raider/The Crypt. It was a marvel of special effects and thrills unmatched by anything remotely near it. So much money was invested into the ride, all for it to fall from grace after losing the Paramount license. I still can't believe that a flat ride that received so much attention did not even make it to ten years.

 

2. Son of Beast. I think most of the fault lies on RCCA for biting off WAY more than they could chew, but boy did SOB turn into a burden for Kings Island in record time.

[DarienLaker]

Barracuda Bay at Darien Lake, they used to have more water slides in the back where Slingshot is now. In 1999 they took those slides out leaving 'Cuda Falls and Floodgate Falls. in 2008 they left Floodgate Falls for dead. The fate of 'Cuda Falls is kind of unknown at this time, but there's rumors that it going to be removed!

[megametal]

Hypersonic XLC at Kings Dominion. They bought a prototype that had a launch, a hill, and a turn... but unlike TTD or Kingda Ka, it was not very tall, was down a lot, and had one of the slowest moving lines I'd ever seen. KD is my homepark, but in the 7 years the coaster was there I rode it maybe 3 times as the line tended to be so long and the ride was literally about 15 seconds from blast to brake run. Glad they got rid of it.

[coasterbill]

 

Dorney replacing arguably their best coaster (which was extremely reliable) with an unreliable piece of crap that routinely valleys, has stranded riders for hours and even when it's working fine it's easily the worst, least popular coaster in the park.

[djboss302]

Dark Knight Coaster, SFGAm. They could've at least made it more than a wild mouse.

[rcdude]

Here are the worst I can think of at my local parks...

 

Rocket Rods at Disneyland: Replacing the people mover with one of the most unreliable and trouble ridden rides Disney has ever built was definitely a major blunder. Every time I visit and see the empty track I'm reminded that even Disney fails sometimes.

 

Superstar Limo at Disney California Adventure Park: Super cheesy dark ride done on the cheap that is not even the quality level of Disneyland's worst dark ride, plus it had capacity issues. I only remember riding this a couple times and I don't remember the ride ever having more than a 10 minute wait. The replacement is better but still suffers some issues.

 

Golden Zephyr at Disney California Adventure Park: The ride is dull and winds as low as 5 MPH ground this attraction. I think this was the last of the original DCA rides that I experienced simply because it was rarely open.

 

Windjammer Surf Racers at Knott's Berry Farm: A trouble-ridden ride that rarely ran as it was designed to and gave one of the most unpleasant rides I've experienced. It was a tremendous step down from its predecessor.

 

Windseeker at Knott's Berry Farm (and other Cedar Fair parks): The real mistake here was buying four copies of a prototype and then two more the next year despite the originals' known issues and troubled track record.

 

Creature from the Black Lagoon at Universal Studios Hollywood: I don't think this show lasted more than 6 months. I never saw it, but I heard it was absolutely terrible.

 

Green Lantern at Six Flags Magic Mountain: The mistake here is installing such a low capacity ride in a major park and then not running it the way it was intended to be run, not so much the design of the coaster itself.

[Blind Idiot God]

Sorry Kings Island, but these were the two that came to mind:

 

1. Whatever happened to Tomb Raider/The Crypt. It was a marvel of special effects and thrills unmatched by anything remotely near it. So much money was invested into the ride, all for it to fall from grace after losing the Paramount license. I still can't believe that a flat ride that received so much attention did not even make it to ten years.

 

2. Son of Beast. I think most of the fault lies on RCCA for biting off WAY more than they could chew, but boy did SOB turn into a burden for Kings Island in record time.

 

Tomb Raider was the victim of poor engineering and more or less tore itself apart.

[Schrecken]

I would also add that SFMM made a mistake in where they chose to locate Flashback (not so much that the coaster itself was a mistake; IMO if it had had better trains it might have been a fun ride) - too close to the water park. Whenever the water park was open, Flashback had to be closed because people couldn't hear the lifeguards over the roar of the coaster. Towards the end of its life, it was a hard credit to get, because it was closed for long periods of time each year.

[daniellazarus]

Six Flags removing "Joker's Revenge" from SFFT and sending it to New Orleans Six Flags only to have it destroyed by Katrina. Then Six Flags replaced it at SFFT with Tony Hawk which is now Pandemonium. Jokers Revenge was much better than Pandemonium and themed better too.

[goatdan]

A lot of these it seems that people pick because you don't like the ride, but they did what the park was hoping for.

 

Having said that, Son of Beast from the moment it was being constructed, was a bad addition. Paramount fired RCCA during construction due to issues they had. There is seemingly little information on this now, but it opened, ran for a day and then was closed for about another month because they had to re-brace a big portion of the ride. I remember it clearly, as I was following it very closely because I was headed to the park, and it opened the day after we planned on being there, so we returned in the morning to ride it - I want to say early June.

 

It was known more for the accidents and reprofiles to try to "fix" it than for being good at all. It wasn't an overly popular ride. And, after less than 10 years of standing (not even operating), the multi-multi-million dollar investment was torn down. It doesn't get much worse than that.

 

The Deja Vu trio is the only other thing that I can think of that comes close. A large outlay for rides with insanely low capacity, coupled with some of the worst design ever (pick what you'd like...), and the fact Six Flags was silly enough to buy three of them at once combine to make this one of the worst choices. A lot of the info about these things out there only scratches the surface of the issues that they had. The only saving grace to me is that both Great America and Magic Mountain basically had other things built at the same time (V2 and X), and Deja Vu wasn't known for hurting people like Son of Beast was.

 

My favorite Deja Vu memory will always be that there was (and perhaps still is) a picture in the McDonalds directly outside Six Flags St Louis of it - and oddly, of a bunch of Great America rides - and the picture of Deja Vu that was in the entrance was of an empty train on the ride course. It could have been valleying, for all we know.

[Jackdude101]

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit at Universal Studios Florida.

 

They decided to go cheap (as far as big steel roller coasters are concerned) for their latest big roller coaster attraction instead of sticking with what worked (the big B&M roller coaters at IOA next door) and they got what they paid for. Also, the theme of just being about rock music in general is boring and uncreative. They should have picked a famous band with which to tie in the ride like Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring AEROSMITH at Disney World.

[Angle O. Descent]

Leviathan at CW. The ride itself is great, it just seemed redundant for CF to put a B&M giga into a park that already has an arguably superior B&M hyper. Could've had a mega-lite

Edited October 30, 2013 by Angle O. Descent

[mark549]

The Deja Vu trio is the only other thing that I can think of that comes close. A large outlay for rides with insanely low capacity, coupled with some of the worst design ever (pick what you'd like...), and the fact Six Flags was silly enough to buy three of them at once combine to make this one of the worst choices. A lot of the info about these things out there only scratches the surface of the issues that they had. The only saving grace to me is that both Great America and Magic Mountain basically had other things built at the same time (V2 and X), and Deja Vu wasn't known for hurting people like Son of Beast was.

 

It is curious that Silverwood claims they manage to get about 98% uptime on their Giant Inverted Boomerang. It's an excellent ride. Rocky Mountain put it back together after Silverwood bought it from Six Flags. It's interesting how a small park manages to run this much better than the mega chain of Six Flags.

[Jew]

I would also add that SFMM made a mistake in where they chose to locate Flashback (not so much that the coaster itself was a mistake; IMO if it had had better trains it might have been a fun ride) - too close to the water park. Whenever the water park was open, Flashback had to be closed because people couldn't hear the lifeguards over the roar of the coaster. Towards the end of its life, it was a hard credit to get, because it was closed for long periods of time each year.

 

Flashback was there first. But you can't call hurricane harbor a mistake, since that makes good money.

[Skycoastin Steve]

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit at Universal Studios Florida.

Yep.

[Vonni]

I guess the only one I can have an opinion about is SOB. I think the idea was great, and innovative, Paramount just chose the wrong company to go with. But, now that is all said and done and that area of the park is already taking a great turn!

[bonsaiisuperstar]

Son of Beast. I rode it three times opening year and swore to never ride again. I always heard rumors that Kings island had invested almost 38 million in it from start to demolition. (Construction, removing loop, re-profiling & bracing, lawsuits, new trains & demolition) What a waste of money. but...they tried!

[CorkscrewFoley]

Leviathan at CW. The ride itself is great, it just seemed redundant for CF to put a B&M giga into a park that already has an arguably superior B&M hyper. Could've had a mega-lite

 

This is true...although the GP thinks that Levi is the better of the two because it's taller and faster...

[IronWolfman]

It's interesting how a small park manages to run this much better than the mega chain of Six Flags.

 

But this isn't just any mega chain, this is Six Flags.

 

10 years ago we would have all agreed the G.I.B.'s were a fail, but since the only 2 still having major reliability problems are SFNE's Goliath since Six Flags won't fix the ride system and Stunt Fall for similar reasons. The remaining ones are doing pretty well.

 

SoB comes to mind for reasons already stated.