Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa has closed and is now erased from the park map. The name “Kumba” was said to translates to “roar“ in an African Kongo (Congo) language, according to the Busch Gardens marketing material. The hollow track provided the distinctive roaring sound as the train traversed the track. However, there is still a ride named Kumba and it’s located at Serengeti Park Hodenhagen in Germany. It’s not a roller coaster, but a giant pendulum ride.
Continue reading
ArieForce One will get the chance to continue to thrill riders! John Arie announced on the park’s social media that the coaster had indeed been sold in an enthusiastic video. He teased about when and where it was going, but ultimately no details were given. I guess we’ll have to just stay tuned, but this is spectacular news! Pretty amazing it all came together one day past a month of Fun Spot Atlanta’s closing too!
Continue reading
Daredevil Falls at Dollywood and Bugs’ White Water Rapids at Six Flags Fiesta Texas are the only Hopkins Super Flumes left in the United States. They were both built in 1998 and are joined by 3 other locations in South Korea, Taiwan and Australia. Hopkins was acquired by WhiteWater West in 2012 and the last Super Flume was installed in 2015 before being discontinued. However, the Super Flume is making a comeback as the Super Flume Technology has been selected by Six Flags for Rip Roarin’ Falls at Carowinds. In this case it will be a WhiteWater West Super Flume, but it’s a successor to the Hopkins Super Flume. WhiteWater West differentiates the Super Flume from a traditional log flume because it features boats that hold up to eight passengers, offers the potential of turntables and backwards motion as well as enhanced theming.
Continue reading
Dollywood’s social media has posted that NightFlight Expedition will operate on Monday, August 31, 2016 from 2pm to 8pm. The ride has been shut down for several days as Dollywood said the manufacturer had asked for additional time to adjust the timing of the ride’s turntable in the flying simulator section. The park hasn’t made any promises after Monday, but the park is scheduled to be closed on Tuesday, September 1st anyway. Dollywood considers the ride in “technical rehearsals” so we can expect the schedule to be fluid, although I’m sure they’d love it operating 100% for Labor Day weekend. I had a chance to experience NightFlight and it’s an extremely ambitious ride with simulator, boat, roller coaster and dark ride elements all together. None of the ride elements of NightFlight themselves were revolutionary, but having one single Mack vehicle do them all in a 5 minute experience was pretty amazing!
Continue reading
Opryland closed back in 1997, but several of its rides were purchased and still operate today. One of those rides was Lumberjack Falls at Wild Waves Theme & Water Park near Seattle, Washington which operated in Opryland as Old Mill Scream from 1987 to 1997. Unfortunately Wild Waves is slated to close permanently on November 1, 2026 with Lumberjack Falls is already closed for the season (which essentially means forever). This is sad to see on many levels, but perhaps in this there’s a small glimmer of opportunity. Comedian Nate Bargatze is looking to build a theme park called Nateland in Nashville, Tennessee. The park is inspired by Bargatze’s childhood memories of the former Opryland and the era it 90’s era of it’s operations. Wouldn’t it be something if Nate Bargatze bought the former Opryland attraction Old Mill Scream and brought it back to Nashville for his new Nateland theme park? This would be the ultimate homecoming and give Nateland an actual former Opryland attraction.
Continue reading
Opryland was a famous theme park in Nashville that closed almost 30 years ago. It had a nice group of rides which you probably need to be almost 40 to remember riding. Remarkably though, several of the rides from the park were relocated and are still operating today. One of those is Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, a classic Arrow mine train, which is now operating as Canyon Blaster at Six Flags Great Escape (Enchanted Parks) in Queensbury, New York. There were a few modifications to fit the space, but it’s essentially the same ride. The signature moment for Canyon Blaster is the huge 900 degree helix at the end.
Continue reading
It’s no secret that NightFlight Expedition at Dollywood has had some up-time challenges in its early days. I experienced this personally earlier this week with it opening late and shutting down early. We may have an indication of one of the potential issues with Dollywood’s social media post stating, “As part of on-going ride rehearsal, the manufacturer has asked for additional time to adjust the timing of the ride’s turntable to ensure a quality experience for this unique part of the attraction.” It’s rare that you see this level of transparency and specificity by a theme park about a ride issue and it is quite refreshing. The post has now been removed as everything is about Dolly Parton’s passing (and rightfully so), but the bottom line remains that the ride is closed for now.
Continue reading
NightFlight Expedition at Dollywood is open and it is a highly ambitious ride, but in these early days you may need a lot of patience. I went to Dollywood on Monday, August 24th, 5 days after the August 19th official opening date. This ride is complex with a moving loading platform, simulator section, coaster section (forwards and backwards with turntables), a water rapids section, a calm boat section and tons of screens and effects. Getting it all to work in sync borders of a miracle of technology as there is so much going on during this ride. The ride’s opening date was delayed from Spring to August and it’s obvious they’re still debugging the ride. However, when it all works it’s pretty cool, but try to ride as early in the day as you can as it has had a propensity for extended closures as they work to get everything right.
Continue reading
The log flume is one of the most iconic rides at Busch Gardens. At Busch Gardens Tampa the recently closed Stanley Falls Flume opened in 1973 as the park’s first “thrill” ride and was built by the famous roller coaster company Arrow Dynamics. At Busch Gardens Williamsburg there’s Le Scoot which opened in 1975. However there was a third Busch Gardens log flume known as Ya-Hoo Barrel Ride (sometimes known as Busch Barrels) which opened at Busch Gardens Van Nuy in 1972. You might be wondering, “There was another Busch Gardens?” Well sort of, but not as extensive as the parks we know today and the log flume closed in 1976 and the entire park closed in 1979. However, this ride would be moved and still operates today as Desperado Plunge at Great Escape.
Continue readingThe first modern wooden shuttle roller coaster Switchback has been sold and will be headed to a new home. ZDT’s Amusement Park in Seguin, Texas closed a year ago and the coaster along with it. The owners have been trying to find a home ever since and have announced a year later that it has finally happened. No details at all about the new location are known yet. Hopefully this is both encouraging and calibrating for fans of the recently closed ArieForce One at Fun Spot Atlanta. It’s encouraging to show there is a market for coaster relocation, but also calibrating in that it took a year to happen.
Continue reading
