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Volcano removal and possible replacement?

Kalistos

Mega Poster
I've been on the HB World clone and my remembrance is that it's an okay one. It's rather intense compared to the other floaty ones in China (Parrot Coaster or the best one in Colorful Yunnan Happy World). The loop in particular is intense but well I guess we will have no loop here so ... The rest of the layout makes it probably the weakest wing in China, and probably one of the weakest wings overall, but it was still enjoyable.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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Is Thunderbird still the best wing coaster? Or does Falcon take the take? Or is it a completely different none now at the top?
I haven't done Falcon, but for me the bit that makes Thunderbird so great is the launch. I have a hard time thinking a wing coaster without a launch could beat one with - however good the other one is.

Would be interested to know how many people have ridden both. Anyone on here?
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
And aside from the launch, Thunderbird hits different though. The elements are noticeably more intense than other wing coasters. Maybe it's because the train is shorter?
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
I feel like this concept is just a filler to add another B&M (aka gp pleaser that will eat crowds and generally be decent) to the park to maintain the line up after Volcano rather than a star attraction.

Still hoping one day CF go back to intamin but I'm aware of the reasonings so it makes sense.
 

Fluorineer

Mega Poster
I feel like this concept is just a filler to add another B&M (aka gp pleaser that will eat crowds and generally be decent) to the park to maintain the line up after Volcano rather than a star attraction.

Still hoping one day CF go back to intamin but I'm aware of the reasonings so it makes sense.

I think it really hurt Kings Dominion that I305 hadn't brought as much attention to the park as Cedar Fair expected, which is evidenced by the fact that Volcano remained the most popular attraction at the park through all those years. Combine that with the Intamin-issues that I305 had (talk about bum luck), and you have the explanation for both why CF isn't going the star attraction route once more for Kings Dominion, and also why they stuck to the usual "just buy a couple of B&Ms"-treatment for all the other former Paramount Parks (or Cedar Point for that matter) which lacked a good amount of GP-crowdpleasers.

But who knows, maybe this will be the tester-attraction for Kings Dominion that may turn things for the better. I305 was the only instance where Cedar Fair went with the big money option without gathering more data first, all the other CF-Gigas were preceded by another reasonably big B&M to test how well a large steel coaster would be received at a specific park.

If this Wing Coaster turns out to be a sleeper-hit (which is not going to be that easy considering it's the smallest B&M Cedar Fair has added in forever, but the GP might still be all over it), maybe that will help Kings Dominion jump up a couple of spots on the Cedar Fair tier-list.
 

bob_3_

Giga Poster
CoasterMac, stunning NL2 work as usual. I think thats the most accurate account of this coaster we're gonna get!

It looks fun, I'm pretty much with everyone else on this. It's just not very exciting, it reminds me of how B&M did a number of variants of Kumba's layout, not exactly clones, but a similar formula that got stale (for us enthusiasts) BUT still fun additions regardless. Even on that recreation ^ a suggested next video is Parrot Coaster and I'm reminded how interesting that thing is in comparison.
 

Fluorineer

Mega Poster
so here's a question. since anaconda is most likely next up on the removal block what ride could replace that ? fly coaster or multi launch hyper ?

I would say that depends solely on whether Cedar Fair wants to step it up with Kings Dominion, now that BGW is expanding rapidly. Looking at what they might be replacing Volcano with, it doesn't really look like it. I suppose they won't rush removing Anaconda now, because KD already lost enough coasters during the past couple of years, however I could easily see Cedar Fair thinking that Anaconda didn't really attract any guests - both in a sense of people visiting the park, as well as guests in the park riding it - so that its removal isn't really a "loss" in the line-up, which means any replacement for it would just happen when Cedar Fair would have built a new coaster for KD anyway, independent of Anaconda's removal.

If they can't be arsed to splurge on a replacement for the park's most popular coaster, I doubt they will when Anaconda bites the dust.
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
Inb4 someone jokes about Cedar Fair pulling a Geauga Lake with this park.

GEAUGA LAKE DIDN'T HANG ITSELF


But in all seriousness, it's interesting how Kings Dominion, a relatively significant park in the chain, seems to be going the route of Worlds of Fun, Valleyfair, Dorney, and Michigan's Adventure. Cedar Fair did say they'd look at removing older, more cost heavy rides to maintain - hopefully plenty of more reliable replacements are coming down the pipe.
 

Kw6sTheater

Hyper Poster
I wouldn't be surprised if KD ended up like one of the more neglected parks. Their last 2 major additions did not bring in as much of a return as they expected and corporate might just stop heavily investing in a park that won't see returns.
Although a rather unfortunate fate, I can't help but agree; Intimidator 305 is an extremely maintenance-heavy coaster that most of the public stray from due to its intensity, and Twisted Timbers apparently didn't give the attendance boost that Cedar Fair had hoped it would. I'd very much hope that Cedar Fair sees more investment potential in King's Dominion since Busch Gardens Williamsburg has been stepping up their game, resulting in some great coasters for King's Dominion, but that doesn't seem like the case.
 
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