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Kingda Ka and Green Lantern's removal for new 2026 record-breaking coaster

I know I’m late to the party, but this is extremely disappointing news. Kingda Ka has been on my bucket list basically ever since I became an enthusiast, but I’ve never been able to get out to SFGA. I just can’t believe Six Flags would close the world’s tallest roller coaster with basically no warning. It’s not like it was in extremely bad shape, either. Because of the merge, I guess I could kinda understand if TT2 was up and running. But that’s been a total nightmare. I genuinely don’t understand why they would do this. I’m quite upset right now
 
I was planning on getting to this as soon as the rumors started going around it would close (I typically trust ElToro Ryan), but the soonest I could plan was next weekend. Literally missed it by weeks.

Excuse my language, but this is f***ing bullsh*t from the park, the PR department, and the entire chain, in my opinion. However considering they're merged and the absolute horse**** job they did regarding TT2, it doesn't surprise me.

I don't even care about the records, the fact that this is one of the last hydraulic launches on the planet at this scope is all I cared about.

Talk about a big "F-U" to not only enthusiasts (who honestly I don't really differentiate them from the GP anymore) but also the GP in general who apparently, this was probably one of the most popular rides in the world to them.
 
I'm sort of at a loss as to how or why a chain would do this in such a secretive and costly way. There is no benefit to the park in closing Kingda Ka without any fanfare whatsoever. Things would be sad but at least it would have got the send off it deserved, there would be a more nostalgic goodbye to the ride, rather then an angrier response. Shout out to the vloggers who got the word out and shared as much information as they could so at least some people got a chance to get out there and ride before it closed. They got a lot of stick and criticism for sharing what they knew.

IMO the Strata coaster by intamin was a complete failure on a personal level. Neither have lasted two decades. When I rode Dragster in 2018 it was a nightmare to ride. The reliability, the fear that every train would rollback as it barely made it over. When it did roll back and that lengthy delay to get it back open. I hated it. Getting on it felt more like a 'thank god that's done' more then the exhilaration I should have felt. I managed one ride over two days, the second day it was closed the entire time.

And Kingda Ka was closed the entire two days I was there because of a maintenance issue last year.

So for me, having one of the tallest and fastest rollercoasters meant nothing when they were barely open and stressful to even attempt to get on.
 
They are hardly a failure, they drew in huge crowds for years and years and have more than likely earned their keep substantially over those years.

Again, before everyone jumps on the “This is such a bad move by the chain”, maybe wait until we know what the actual announcement will be regarding the areas future?? There is nothing to indicate the tower is being dismantled so far.
 
Mark9 said:
I'm sort of at a loss as to how or why a chain would do this in such a secretive and costly way. There is no benefit to the park in closing Kingda Ka without any fanfare whatsoever. Things would be sad but at least it would have got the send off it deserved, there would be a more nostalgic goodbye to the ride, rather then an angrier response. Shout out to the vloggers who got the word out and shared as much information as they could so at least some people got a chance to get out there and ride before it closed. They got a lot of stick and criticism for sharing what they knew.
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The only reason I can think of to keep quiet about a ride closure like this, is as part of a chain-wide policy not to make a big deal out of a coaster's closing.

Big coasters have a finite service life, after all, and Six Flags built *a lot* of them in very few years around the turn of the millennium. And then, partially because of the cost of that spending spree, they stopped building them for many years. That means that very many Six Flags parks have a ride lineup consisting of big thrill coasters that are beginning to show their age, with few replacements to take over the headliner roles. The current investment budget isn't coming close to affording to replace all the old big rides, especially with how much more expensive such big coasters have become in the past 25 years.

In other words, I expect lots of ride closures out of Six Flags parks in the years to come. Not all at once, of course, but a few big ones every year, while the few coasters built to replace them will be smaller in scale and far less spectacular. An Intamin Accelerator and a B&M Stand-up goes out, a Vekoma Super Boomerang goes in, that sort of thing sounds about par for the course going forward.

It's understandable from a park management perspective that the old greats will have to go, and that the current economy doesn't support like-for-like replacements, but PR-wise, it's a bit more difficult. I can understand that they wouldn't want to make an event out of their biggest and most well-known coasters being retired, especially if the retired ride is more spectacular than the one announced to replace it. Each ride closure could make the public think the parks are getting worse. So the chain would rather make big announcements about the exciting new coasters coming to their parks, and sort-of-hope that the public won't notice that the park is missing one of its most iconic coasters from one year to the next.
 
Pokemaniac said:
The only reason I can think of to keep quiet about a ride closure like this, is as part of a chain-wide policy not to make a big deal out of a coaster's closing.

Big coasters have a finite service life, after all, and Six Flags built *a lot* of them in very few years around the turn of the millennium. And then, partially because of the cost of that spending spree, they stopped building them for many years. That means that very many Six Flags parks have a ride lineup consisting of big thrill coasters that are beginning to show their age, with few replacements to take over the headliner roles. The current investment budget isn't coming close to affording to replace all the old big rides, especially with how much more expensive such big coasters have become in the past 25 years.

In other words, I expect lots of ride closures out of Six Flags parks in the years to come. Not all at once, of course, but a few big ones every year, while the few coasters built to replace them will be smaller in scale and far less spectacular. An Intamin Accelerator and a B&M Stand-up goes out, a Vekoma Super Boomerang goes in, that sort of thing sounds about par for the course going forward.

It's understandable from a park management perspective that the old greats will have to go, and that the current economy doesn't support like-for-like replacements, but PR-wise, it's a bit more difficult. I can understand that they wouldn't want to make an event out of their biggest and most well-known coasters being retired, especially if the retired ride is more spectacular than the one announced to replace it. Each ride closure could make the public think the parks are getting worse. So the chain would rather make big announcements about the exciting new coasters coming to their parks, and sort-of-hope that the public won't notice that the park is missing one of its most iconic coasters from one year to the next.
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I can completely understand the policy to some degree however for Kingda Ka, going with such a policy isn't such a good idea and could be really damaging for the park.

If there was an announcement at the start of the year or even in September, more people would've come to the park to ride it and there were opportunities for merchandise etc.

Nobody saw this coming, even Alton Towers with Nemesis, we knew for months that there was a retrack going on.
 
owenstreet7 said:
I can completely understand the policy to some degree however for Kingda Ka, going with such a policy isn't such a good idea and could be really damaging for the park.

If there was an announcement at the start of the year or even in September, more people would've come to the park to ride it and there were opportunities for merchandise etc.

Nobody saw this coming, even Alton Towers with Nemesis, we knew for months that there was a retrack going on.
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I suspect something happened recently to force the issue. It was floating around some in the industry that the ride was due to run next year and close at the end of next season.

My theory is a recent inspection turned up something that would require a big fix next season (replacement cable perhaps) and the park decided it just wasn't worth the investment for just one more year and it got got the chop now.
 
Efteldingus said:
Except Great Adventure has confirmed Kingda Ka will be completely removed on multiple occasions to different people. It's not going go be a reimagination, but a full removal and new addition. It's coming down.
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This whole thing is such bad news. I was holding onto that 'retirement' in the statement, but no, looks like it's just getting binned completely.

The lack of any official announcement until it's too late is so disrespectful.

I got SO close to making a very long journey out there for its last weekend, but the stars didn't align. Now I'm really sad, and resentful! This will leave a massive hole in thousands of bucket lists all over the world. So iconic, so uniquely intimidating.

I'd settle for TT2 on the bucket list instead, but yeah. Doesn't seem wise to get too hopeful about that. 😑
 
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