With every year there has to be winners, and losers. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the losers for 2009. It’s unfortunate we have to write this, but not everything is perfect.
Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, Universal Studios Orlando
Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, Universal Studios Orlando
Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit was one of the biggest letdowns of 2009. The ride was supposed to be open by the beginning of summer, but it wasn’t until the end of the summer when the ride opened. Numerous construction and technical problems pushed the ride back farther and farther. Many people were wondering if it was ever going to open before the summer ended. Once the ride opened, it was still plagued. The boarding process was very slow and some trains have valleyed. We’ve also heard reports of some trains being very rough, while others are soon. This ride has been far from what Universal Studios had in mind. It has become better lately, but it has taken a long time to get to it.
The Bizarro Coasters, Six Flags Great Adventure and New England
Bizarro, Six Flags Great Adventure
In an attempt to make their coasters even better, Six Flags decided to re-theme two of their biggest coasters, Medusa at Great Adventure and Superman: Ride of Steel at New England. Like X2 at Magic Mountain, they added various effects to the rides. Did these effects work? Not so much. They spent millions on each coaster adding audio onboard, giant poster scenes out of comic books, and as always, fire. It almost seems these millions were wasted for nothing. People have said the effects don’t really do that much, and if anything, make the rides worse. We’ve heard complaints about Bizarro at Six Flags New England, the #1 steel coaster in the world, not being enjoyable anymore because of the blaring music. It may have been better for Six Flags to save their money and build new rides.
Xcelerator, Knott’s Berry Farm
Part of video shot during Xcelerator's cable snap
Even though it was built in 2002, Xcelerator at Knott’s Berry Farm had more troubles that deserve attention. Intamin Accelerators have never had great uptime, as they continually break down. This year something terrifying happened that no coaster fan, or guest, wants to see. During the launch, the cable snapped sending shrapnel towards riders. An insider at Knott’s leaked the footage from the on-ride camera of the first row riders. We see the ride launch, then metal shreds going everywhere and the riders in pain. The ride comes back down the hill and they are in panic of course. This video has brought the questionable safety of Intamin Accelerators to public view.
Ghost Town in the Sky
Cliff Hanger, Ghost Town in the Sky
After being closed in 2002, Ghost Town in the Sky renovated and reopened their largest coaster, Cliff Hanger. But it wasn’t so grand. The ride was only open for a few weeks before it was shut down again. It turns out there was a very small crack in the prototype custom-built train’s seats. Even after they fixed it, the rides status was in limbo. It would be open one day, and closed the next. It was not a success. As if anyone could had predicted, the park filed bankruptcy in November since they couldn’t pay back. The park will go before a judge to decide wether or not it will be auctioned off. This shows how sometimes parks assume they will have large crowds when they won’t. The park should have researched wether or not they could get the crowds to pay for something this big. It’s an unfortunate truth, but you can’t pull money from the sky. Seems this Ghost Town in the Sky will be a true Ghost Town now.
This concludes our look back at 2009. Leave your park thoughts on these and tell us if you think there are any other losers for 2009.
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8 Responses
FlowJo Dec 29th, 2009, 3:46 pm
I think something else that can be added to the down list is Kingda Ka. Kingda Ka was barely open for any of the season which was quite a big letdown to the guests that came to Great Adventure.
Awsomedude137 Dec 29th, 2009, 5:46 pm
another one to add could have been Ring Racer. has it even worked yet? Also, even though I never rode Medusa before it was Bizzarro, I think the effects are really awesome
You can really feel the fire’s heat when you fly out of the Dive loop, and the mist is pretty cool. Also, the soundtrack can only really be heard during the lift and the brakes, but it really adds to the excitement of the ride.
SuperSteve Dec 30th, 2009, 11:33 pm
No Freestyle Music Park? They failed almost as hard as HRP did! If it weren’t for figuring out that people will come in for dirt cheap prices, the new management would have already given up. Even now, they’ve missed payments and have no obvious strategy to make the park profitable.
Ethan Dec 31st, 2009, 10:53 pm
Well they didn’t file for bankruptcy, but they didn’t exactly do amazing, which is enough for us to leave them off of both lists. From what I heard they have or are getting ready to pay off the vendors.
zacqua10 Jan 1st, 2010, 4:32 pm
This post is pretty biased. I don’t agree at all the SFNE’s Bizarro. Gadvs Bizarro, yes sucks. All your facts were based off GAdvs except for the blaring audio at SFNE. None of the effects work at GADv because it was a last minute decision to transform Medusa, not S:RoS. How are they failures if they succeeded in bringing a ton of people to the park. All the effects worked at SFNE all year.
“It almost seems these millions were wasted for nothing.”
Thats a lie. A bunch of people came to both parks, it was a great turnout and it brought more money into the park. Lines for both were full all year. GADv succeeded in making Medusa popular again. Previously it opened at 12:00 and closed early. No one ever rode it. Now it is popular again. SFNE’s lines were long all day but due to a great crew the line went by lightening fast.
“People have said the effects don’t really do that much, and if anything, make the rides worse.”
Nothing can make a ride worse unless something is done to the track. The effects enhance SFNE’s but no GADv’s. GADv and SFNE have the similar audio that tells a story but they are completely different. One line changes it. “We’ve gotta find that reporter” is not said on GADv, therefore you’re just going through random stuff. At SFNE your getting Lois Lane and Bizarro is trying to kill you.
In my opinion both Bizarro’s should not be on this list and I feel it is very biased. No offense, but no wonder no one comes to this site.
Doug Jan 1st, 2010, 7:03 pm
How would this post not be biased? If we wrote about something else, someone would come and complain about that too. There is no such thing as a perfect opinion. There will always be critics.
MarvelMaker Jan 4th, 2010, 11:37 am
The review of Bizarro on this site said that they liked it. How can you say its a “loser” and like it at the same time?
Austin Jan 4th, 2010, 8:33 pm
Bizarro’s a great ride! I really don’t think it deserves to be a loser… the ride with the special effects is REALLY cool. You guys should ride it before you judge it – I bet you’ll like it.
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