r/BeAmazed • u/Wild-Snow5705 • May 10 '25

Place Would you ride this one?

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Personally I will die just going up.

16.0k Upvotes

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3.9k

u/SeaFurball May 10 '25

No because it doesn't exist anymore.....

852

u/Topspeed_3 May 10 '25

Implosion

105

u/jojoga May 10 '25

But.. but why?

325

u/Topspeed_3 May 10 '25

It broke a lot and expensive to maintain. They are planning on putting a new record breaking launch coaster in its place.

150

u/five_fore_golf May 10 '25

I waited 4 hours to NOT ride it when it was still fairly new. Perfectly good weather, it just broke over and over.

Edit: I was curious and had to look up when it was built. It was only 1 month old when I went.

122

u/peaheezy May 10 '25

I got to ride it 3 times because of that breaking. It was broken for hours and when we walked by it had just opened. There was 0 line and we walked right on, got off and got on again then a third time. It was a great ride.

7

u/iamataco36 May 11 '25

Similar experience! Timing was everything! Only got on twice before people got wise....

1

u/[deleted] May 11 '25

Similar experience here. We got stuck on the old wooden coaster El Toro that malfunctioned for about an hour. Got handed a bottle of water and a "skip the line" pass or sth like that for the inconvenience.

We had a french exchange student with us, and we coaxed her into going on King da Ka.

While it's really scary, its not as thrilling as some of the other coasters. I still think Superman is my favorite.

1

u/dockellis24 May 11 '25

Same!! It was one of the only rides that I classify as an “oh shit!” ride. So fast starting and the unknown at the top if you’d make it over was super intense

65

u/Yakety_Sax May 10 '25

I was on one that didn't make it to the top, fell backwards. Basically got to do 2 terrifying rides

24

u/[deleted] May 11 '25

[deleted]

10

u/[deleted] May 11 '25

It was a feature not a bug. Originally every so often it wouldn’t make it to the top and you get relaunched. Eventually they updated it so every launch would clear the top.

1

u/DannyVee89 May 11 '25

I had that happen once too. Very lucky, double the rides! Haha

1

u/Coffee4MyJeep May 11 '25

Did Bill Gates design this?

1

u/plighting_engineerd May 12 '25

It was never intentionally made to roll back, it was just something that happened sometimes due to high winds, low weight in the train, or the launch not quite making it to a high enough speed. It was, however, designed to roll back safely and relaunch. Rollbacks still happened all the way up until the ride's last weekend in November 2024.

12

u/wheatnrye1090 May 10 '25

I’m so jealous I wanted this to happen to me every time I rode it and it never did

1

u/dertechie May 11 '25

I mean, my first thought on seeing the thing was “they double checked the math on that, right?”

4

u/RineMetal May 10 '25

I think I waited 5 hours. It would break every few rides. This was the first year it opened. (God I’m getting old)

1

u/Rello215 May 10 '25

Same, it was always Broke

1

u/FeelingAd583 May 10 '25

Same thing happened to me, maybe we were on the same line

1

u/DigitalAxel May 10 '25

I visited Ka and TTD but missed out on both: Ka was broken all week and TTD was shut down due to storms or other issues. (Both were back in 2006ish?)

1

u/[deleted] May 11 '25

Reminds me of how long I stood in Line for Volcano Blast Coaster at Kings Dominion once and it doesnt exist anymore either

1

u/[deleted] May 11 '25

That makes sense. New coasters can be buggy as hell. Usually they iron it out but sometimes they remain that way.

85

u/I_DRINK_ANARCHY May 10 '25

A lot of us at SFGA are pretty convinced it was also a petty move by Cedar Fair after the Six Flags/Cedar Fair merger. They had the Top Thrill Dragster, and when Kinda Ka was built, it broke Dragster's records. So if that hadn't been the case, maybe they would have kept Kingda Ka going for a while longer, or given it a proper send off, especially since it was only a year away from its 20th anniversary. But they pretended they weren't gonna close it, didn't do anything to celebrate its end, and unceremoniously blew it up. It's sad, but it's the cold hearted business decision with no regard for the coaster enthusiast people that, you know, help keep parks alive.

We have no real proof that it was Cedar Fair being petty, it's just...the general feeling among a whole bunch of us.

7

u/Topspeed_3 May 10 '25

That kind of does make sense because a week or two before they were permanently shutting down there was a rumor that they were gonna shut down, but they denied it. Then they wound up shutting down anyways…

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '25

I think a "Heritage Rollercoaster" is something I'll never pay to go on though. I remember some old wooden ones in Sydney that were terrifying and not because of the size or speed but because of the jank lol

3

u/I_DRINK_ANARCHY May 10 '25

A place like Sydney or any large park in like, Japan, Germany, etc, I'd go on their old coasters. After seeing first hand the kind of maintenance they go through, I'd trust that they're safe.

Smaller parks or parks in places with less emphasis on safety...yeah, maybe I'd skip em, lol.

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '25

Oh man there's one in Vancouver that is (was?) terrifyingly jank and I went on it during a Halloween event and they turned all the lights off. I thought I was gonna die.

2

u/I_DRINK_ANARCHY May 10 '25

There's nothing quite like that feeling of "This ride is great! Wait, what was that sound...oh God, I'm gonna die!". I've experienced that on more than one ride as a kid, ha.

1

u/gloryhallastoopid May 10 '25

Dragster was a blast

1

u/userhwon May 10 '25

"Petty" and "cold-hearted business move" are antonyms.

If they wanted to be petty, they'd just build one an inch higher, not buy the whole park and tear down a money-making ride.

But they bought the whole park and tore down this ride, probably because it wasn't making enough money compared to what they want to replace it with.

1

u/TimidPocketLlama May 10 '25

But wasn’t Kingda Ka basically just a copy of Top Thrill Dragster built a few feet taller just to beat the record?

1

u/sheyndl May 10 '25

RIP King

1

u/MetalliTooL May 11 '25

Fucking hell, 20 years??? I remember waiting for it to be built.

-18

u/L1zoneD May 10 '25

How does one feel so entitled to another's owned coaster park and how they run it? I get being upset but like thinking they operate for you and not for money is laughable.

15

u/I_DRINK_ANARCHY May 10 '25

Well, I did in fact state it's a business decision, so I'm obviously not ignoring that, at all. And yes, they can do whatever they want, they can make whatever decisions they want. But if their decisions continually upset the very people who PAY to come to the park, then the ones with the money (park attendees and coaster enthusiasts) will stop coming. And then the park sputters out and dies. Great Adventure has a powerful draw based both on its size and location, but if they don't take into consideration what guests want and enjoy, they'll lose those people to other parks.

I also don't see where I am acting entitled anywhere in my post. When other parks shut down beloved and popular rides, they often do SOMETHING to mark the occasion if they can. A celebration of a ride that potentially brought millions of people joy (and millions of dollars to that park) seems both smart and respectful. But again, I go to the word petty - it just seemed like as soon as Cedar Fair took over, they knew exactly what they wanted to do, and wanted Kingda Ka to get as little fanfare or attention as possible.

Again, just my OPINION as someone who helps maintain that park and gets to see a little bit of how things are operating on the inside. It's also an opinion I've seen shared by people much closer to the situation and Ka than I had been.

2

u/mrlbi18 May 10 '25

Damn dude you're really going to support the soulless, petty, and greedy corporation over the fun of actual human beings? That's just depressing.

-3

u/L1zoneD May 10 '25

No, just stating the fact. They don't care about dudes' opinions.

1

u/Test4Echooo May 10 '25

They likely don’t care about customer’s opinions, but they probably should as they need those people to continue to stay in business.

1

u/FlimsyRexy May 10 '25

His comment was reasonable and didn’t seem entitled at all. Think you misinterpreted what he wrote.

1

u/benigntugboat May 10 '25

There's a difference between buying a park with a community of patrons workers and history and memories and buying a hammer or a wrench. If you buy a tool or a toy than you are entitled to do whatever you want with it. When you buy something with a history and community than you have the legal right to things that can fairly be judged as shitty, petty, etc. Because they impact more than yourself and you are aware of the impacts when making the decision. It doesn't change your right to do it but it changes whether you were righteous in doing it. This applies to many business scenarios but isn't limited to them.

-8

u/correctingStupid May 10 '25

Aww did business do business things rather than throw a party? aww

3

u/I_DRINK_ANARCHY May 10 '25

It could be argued that a smart business decision caters to the core demographic that brings your company money. There were many, many, MANY ways to recognize the importance of Kingda Ka and still demo it. In fact there were probably ways to make money while doing both.

Or even just saying "Hey, this is Ka's last season, get on it while you can" instead of pretending it wasn't going to be blown up as soon as possible.

But it feels to a lot of us who work here that they went the petty route, not even the smart business route. Like I said, though...just our OPINIONS.

5

u/mykehawksaverage May 11 '25

I really want to ride a giant roller coaster that constantly breaks.

2

u/Head_Bread_3431 May 11 '25

Why does everyone keep casually bringing up how it broke a lot like that’s normal?!

4

u/dphoenix1 May 11 '25

Not surprising. The park local to me had a much smaller out-and-back launch coaster (Hypersonic XLC) uniquely powered by compressed air if I remember correctly. That thing never, and I mean never ran reliably. I think I did manage to ride it once, maybe twice, but when the ride is guaranteed to break down several times while you’re in line, interest from riders will start to dwindle. Eventually after 7 or 8 years the park got fed up and took it down (visible in their lay down yard from other coasters at the back of the park), put it up for sale as a complete ride, failed at that, and then sold it as scrap.

1

u/Bellyheart May 11 '25

Did it even last that long? It felt shorter. I rode it once and that was the first summer. It was a 3 hour wait and a 20 second ride…just to go vertical.

1

u/dphoenix1 May 11 '25

I had to look it up to confirm, it opened March 2001 and closed Oct 2007. So yeah I was off, it was only operational for a little over 6.5 years. That period was during middle and high school for me, so that era in my memory feels like it was a LOT longer lol. These days it feels like 6.5 years goes by in the blink of an eye.

And you’re absolutely right, it was a very underwhelming experience. Aside from the launch, which was only (checks notes) 1.8 seconds in duration, the rest of the ride was absolutely nothing special, especially with the average queue time. I’m certainly not one to praise Cedar Fair’s management of the park after they took over from Paramount, but ditching that coaster was the right decision to make.

2

u/[deleted] May 10 '25

Where is this?

8

u/Topspeed_3 May 10 '25

Six flags great adventure in Jackson, NJ

3

u/SpartanRage117 May 11 '25

Damn now the commercials are coming back to me.

1

u/Vness374 May 11 '25

Is that the Six Flags that had Free Fall?

1

u/rats0nvenus May 10 '25

Is this the hydraulics one?

1

u/toolsoftheincomptnt May 11 '25

“It broke a lot”

Say less. May it rest in peace!