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Kentucky Kingdom: General Discussion

BigAl

BigAl

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Held-off from making a topic about this in case this didn't happen, but Ed Hart and his company LLLP have all the funding sorted and all contracts signed for the former Six Flags theme park to reopen next May.

CoasterForce picked-up on a few things that Hart said about what's going on with the park:
“The highlights of the new Kentucky Kingdom will be the addition of the first new rollercoaster in 17 years and a large expansion of the Hurricane Bay water park," said Ed Hart on new expansions for the park. “We will also reopen such signature rides as the Thunder Run wooden coaster, the Mile High Falls giant spill ride, the 150-foot-tall Giant Wheel, the rapid river raft ride, and the Thrill Park Theatre, as well as all of the park’s remaining rides and attractions.”

“We’re not stopping there. In 2015, we will unveil a complete makeover of our suspended looping coaster, T2, and we are well on our way to converting the two intertwined wooden coasters known as Twisted Twins into a much superior ride, which will debut in 2016. We will continue to introduce new attractions each season. In fact, per our lease with the state, we have an obligation to invest as much as $2.5 million each year for as many as 70 years. That would equal an investment of more than $200 million, including our initial outlay of $43.5 million.”
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Screamscape also wrote about the new roller coaster in the works, as well as mentioning the Hurricane Bay expansion:
Up first will be the addition of a new roller coaster to the park as well as a large expansion that will double the size of the Hurricane Bay waterpark. The later will see three new slide complexes added, a new 12,000 sqft wave pool, and a high-speed adventure river added.
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If anyone wants to know more, head to Kentucky Kingdom's new website: http://www.kentuckykingdom.com/



Finally, everything here is summed-up in a recent report done by an American news channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWW5iwwmbi8#ws


:)
 
Sad news for any Schwarzkopf fans, Kentucky Kingdom are scrapping Greezed Lightnin'. TPR have some photos of it being removed here.
 
Sad, but not surprised. The last thing you want when you're trying to resurrect a dead park is for an old weight-drop rust bucket to be sapping your maintenance budget. :(
 
Why did they have to cut it to pieces? What a waste, it's the kind of coaster that a small park somewhere would really benefit from. Surely it would be worth more as a coaster than as scrap even if it was a bit old and tired.

That was the last second generation shuttle loop in existence, although I'm delighted that the park's reopening, this move has not made me a fan of the new management.

There seems to be something about America where they will much more readily scrap perfectly good coasters. Here in Europe, there's always a healthy second hand coaster market and scrapping seems to be much rarer.
 
Shame when the UK scraps a ride it's something worth saving like Southport's Cyclone or Runaway Coaster that operated at Funland Park (oldest travelling coaster and the last Figure Eight in the UK just demolished). :/
 
I guess a lot of it comes down to cost. In the UK and Europe you can dismantle a coaster and move it from one country to another quite easily, and cheap. However, in America to get it anywhere else it would no doubt be quite expensive. The further the ride needs to go, the more it'll cost, and the more you have to question is it really worth the hassle?

I've always been very surprised by Monster/Orochi traveling halfway around the world from Japan to France if I'm honest! That said, it is a huge, solid ride, which would have no place on the scrapheap in my opinion. But when we're talking about a Shuttle Loop, no matter what nostalgic value it may have, as a ride it's not exactly incredible. I doubt being SBNO for so long will have done the launch system any favours, and also bare in mind that in 2006 it reportedly had sections of track replaced with those from another Shuttle Loop. It doesn't really sound like it was in the best condition.

1978 to 2009 though. Not a bad run! :)

Glad to hear that the park is set to return though! It's nice to see a park coming back to life rather than closing in what is quite a challenging time for a lot of places.
 
The park have released an animation of Lightning Run, their 2014 roller coaster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IHJFKkKqpc#ws


Looks like it's going to be a Chance Rides creation. Looks jammed with twists and hills. Could be a great cost-effective alternative to parks usually going with Intamin for something like this. :)
 
Morgan became part of Chance Rides in 2001. The company ran for a few years as Chance Morgan, but they reverted back to being known as Chance Rides quite recently. And I agree, their Hyper-Lite looks set to be the best product that the company has ever produced. :)
 
BigAl said:
And I agree, their Hyper-Lite looks set to be the best product that the company has ever produced. :)
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Not saying much though is it? :p
 
Hey, Chance make the CP Huntington Train and a couple of decent flat rides! :p
 
I'm quite pleased that Morgan are still around in one form or another. Whilst their hypers are perhaps not known for being the most intense coasters ever, I've never heard them being described as rough or painful and there's something reassuringly old school about them. I believe that Phantom's revenge is pretty well regarded as well.

If this new coaster runs anything like as fast as it does in that animation, it could brilliant however, in the past these animations have had a tendency to exaggerate the speed slightly.
 
CGM said:
I believe that Phantom's revenge is pretty well regarded as well.
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Oh god <3

The airtime on that thing is wonderful, it was a complete surprise to me actually, but Phantom's Revenge is actually a very good ride...

If this Mega-Lite-Like thing can provide a similar experience, then it will get some good ratings...
 
Indeed! Phantom's Revenge is really good! :D I did find Steel Force pretty boring though, so will keep an open mind with this.
 
TPR gives us a look at the trains on their Facebook:

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I must say, that's pretty damn cool! Reminds me of 50s American space age style concept cars. :p
 
Chance now have the Hyper GT-X on their website here, with this image of Lightning Run being used on its page:

cr_subpage_pix_hyper_gtx.jpg




Ride Specifications are here.
 
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