We all love to see the opening of a new and shiny ride at our favourite parks. What an addition! Look at those lines! A ride for the ages! But before you know it, 25 years have passed and the ride is suddenly a quarter of a century old. The park has grown around it, guests have become bored with it, maintenance costs keep rising, and wear and tear makes the ride even more shabby each season. It still works fine - well, fine-ish - and may grow a bit of a queue on crowded summer days, but it's evident that the park could clearly use the space for something better, and evidence suggests they'd be willing to spend the money to do so as well.
This is the thread dedicated to spotting those rides. The ones that by this point might have a few seasons left in them, but are clearly on the way out or due for a major overhaul. The parks may not have made any statements yet, but rumours are circulating and the writing is clearly on the wall.
Do you have any examples of such rides? When we briefly talked about this on the CoasterForce Discord, two examples were brought up. The first, and arguably most rumoured-about, is Tomorrowland Speedway at Magic Kingdom. It takes up an ungodly amount of space, is noisy and smelly, and the time when gasoline-powered cars evoked images of the future is long since gone. Having all those individually powered cars must be a bit of a maintenance nightmare as well.
Another one those eminent Discorders mentioned is Wicked Twister at Cedar Point. This mechanically complicated electricity-guzzler of a ride sits relatively lonesome along the beach at the Point, next to a recently demolished stadium, and ostensibly hardly ever pulls a queue these days despite its quite low rider capacity (1000 pph, according to Wikipedia). There must be a reason why Intamin never sold any more Impulse Coasters after 2003, and Cedar Point might know that reason all too well. With limited ridership, high running costs, and the area it sits in due for an overhaul, it looks like Wicked Twister is on its last legs. Hard to tell what might replace it, though, as it is very space-efficient after all.
Can you think of any other rides whose time may be running out?
This is the thread dedicated to spotting those rides. The ones that by this point might have a few seasons left in them, but are clearly on the way out or due for a major overhaul. The parks may not have made any statements yet, but rumours are circulating and the writing is clearly on the wall.
Do you have any examples of such rides? When we briefly talked about this on the CoasterForce Discord, two examples were brought up. The first, and arguably most rumoured-about, is Tomorrowland Speedway at Magic Kingdom. It takes up an ungodly amount of space, is noisy and smelly, and the time when gasoline-powered cars evoked images of the future is long since gone. Having all those individually powered cars must be a bit of a maintenance nightmare as well.
Another one those eminent Discorders mentioned is Wicked Twister at Cedar Point. This mechanically complicated electricity-guzzler of a ride sits relatively lonesome along the beach at the Point, next to a recently demolished stadium, and ostensibly hardly ever pulls a queue these days despite its quite low rider capacity (1000 pph, according to Wikipedia). There must be a reason why Intamin never sold any more Impulse Coasters after 2003, and Cedar Point might know that reason all too well. With limited ridership, high running costs, and the area it sits in due for an overhaul, it looks like Wicked Twister is on its last legs. Hard to tell what might replace it, though, as it is very space-efficient after all.
Can you think of any other rides whose time may be running out?
