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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