Kingda Ka Closed?

In This Newsletter

• New dark ride opens at Efteling

• Shaquille O’Neal is the new Face of a theme park

• Kingda Ka Closed???

• Universal Studios Japan Gives us an In-Depth Look at their new Donkey Kong Country Expansion Land (IT LOOKS AMAZING!)

• Mattel Park Officially Delayed until 2025

• The ultimate Christmas gift for a coaster fan

Kingda Ka Closed For Good?

There have been multiple high level theme park influencers that have heard Kingda Ka will be closed permanently following its last send off last weekend. Coaster Studios and El ToroRyan have both said the park has decided to close the ride for good.

What makes this very sad and unusual if true(so far the park has yet to make an official announcement), is that there was no official announcement. Riders only learned of the possible closure from these influencers.

I would’ve loved to plan a trip out to the park to get to ride this but learned of its closure just a week before, and flights were outrageously expensive. Had the park announced its closure months ahead of time, I’m sure many coaster enthusiasts would have booked trips out to the park to get one last ride in (or first ride in my case). If true, many fans are going to be quite angry at Six Flags for this move.

I really hope that this ride isn’t closed permanently but instead maybe getting a Top Thrill 2 treatment. Where they improve the launch mechanism and maybe add some other element to the ride.

There have been multiple construction markings around the area which lend to the idea something big is happening.

Further, multiple other rides have been officially been filed for demolition with the local township website. These rides include Green Lantern, the Parachute drop, and Twister Top Spin. These demolition permits came after the two large coaster influencers told everyone that Kingda Ka and Green Lantern would be closing permanently.

Two things can be true about the situation though. Kingda Ka can be closing permanently and it can be upgraded into a new ride for the future where the current version of it could be closed permanently but a new version might be built.

We’ll most likely learn what is happening to the ride at IAAPA.

Do You Want The Perfect Christmas Gift This Year?

Do you find it hard to shop for a fellow theme park fan for Christmas? Well, look no further! We’re selling real rollercoaster wheels!

These rollercoaster wheels weigh about 23 lbs and are about 11 inches across! This isn’t some sort of “Gotcha” item where it turns out to be 1 inch long and made from a 3d printer. This is an actual rollercoaster wheel we bought at the Dynamic Attractions auction when they went bankrupt.

Get your wheel now before they sell out! Once they are gone, I won’t be able to get anymore!

Get Your Wheel Here

Theme Park Stock Watch

From the last 5 days of stock changing as of Tuesday Night

Danse Macabre Dark Ride Opens at Efteling

If you’ve ever wondered are there other theme parks out there with high quality dark rides, then Efteling should be at the top of your search. I have yet to go there but I’ve seen countless POV’s of their dark rides and this new dark ride, Danse Macabre, is no exception!

It seems like a small-ish dark ride that is musically driven. There is a small horror part of the ride but from what I can tell, it seems like the same amount of ‘horror’ that the Haunted Mansion has at Disneyland (not much).

Riders stay in the same room for the whole ride, but they move around in circles and vertically as well. There seems to be a whole lot of re-rideability in this as you try to find new things happening around the room. Seemingly, you don’t have to know Dutch to enjor this ride because it is so musically driven. Overall, my impressions of this ride are 10/10

From The Editor

Woohoo! This is the second consecutive week I’ve gotten this newsletter out! I’ve managed to find some time to work on it while my kids are asleep!

IAAPA Expo is next week and I want to know what you want me to ask manufacturers, theme parks, and anyone else at the event! For those of you that don’t know, IAAPA Expo is the biggest theme park convention in the world and it happens in Orlando.

Respond to this email with what you want me to ask coaster manufacturers and I’ll do my best! Also, stay tuned for the next two newsletters as they will be chaulk full of the latest and greatest news!

As always, if you want to go the extra mile in supporting this newsletter, please consider our Patreon account below. I’ve turned down multiple sponsors of this newsletter that have felt too scammy.

P.S. the hidden phrase for this newsletter is “The King”, simply reply back to this email with that phrase and your mailing address and we’ll send the first few people some swag for free!

Shaquille O’Neal Becomes New Face Of Yas Island

Previously Yas Island has had Kevin Hart, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Mamoa as the ‘Chief Island Office’ CIO. This role is basically a brand ambassador of the island and all of the amenities it has to offer. The new CIO of the area is now Shaquille O’Neal.

What I find interesting is that in the past these celebrities have gone on the coasters so videographers can film their reactions on the rides, to help promote them. Shaq though is seemingly way way too big to go on most of the rides at the park as he is 7 feet and 1 inches tall.

Most coasters and rides have a maximum height, width, and weight. I don’t know how many rides Shaq can actually go on(which I feel very bad about as the rides are amazing!). In the promo video announcing he is the new CIO, it seems like he is doing all the non-rides available at Yas: Golfing, Driving the Race Track, Walking Around Sea World, and other similar things.

Last week we asked what Six Flags park should the company sell off. This was in response to their investor call where they said they would be exploring the possibility of selling off poor performing parks. Michigans Adventure and Valleyfair came in last place with just 10% of the votes each. The remaining votes were tied between selling off Six Flags American and Darien Lake (each received 40% of the votes).

Universal Japan Gives Us A Look At The Donkey Kong Themed Land

Here are some of the interesting things I took away from this video:

• There will be a game where you can use your ‘Power-Up Bands’ to earn points and make something special happen if you do it right. This will be a 3 player game. There will also be letters throughout the land that spell out KONG that you can tap to earn points

• The Donkey Kong meet and greet looks really great. I loved the costume they made and the background with all the bananas is just perfect!

• The queue for the Donkey Kong coaster looks incredible and appears to have some animatronics in it.

• The loading for the coaster seems to be on a continuous moving platform, making rider capacity seemingly higher than if it was stationary.

News At A Glance

• The Georgia Surfer at Six Flags Over Georgia has begun testing

• The Mattel park has announced they will delay opening until 2025. They had expected to soft open later this year. Here is a construction update I did of the park a couple months ago, once you watch this you’ll understand why they delayed opening.

This Weeks Comic

Earn Cool Stuff By Referring Friends to the Newsletter!