Paramounts plans to remove Flight of Fear

[Guest Millennium]

How do we know Paramount planned to take out FOF? When were they planning to do so? Why? Were they planning to do the same to PKD's?

Thanks.

[flightoffear1996]

They closed PKDs to be moved to Wonderland I think.

[LongliveKingsCobra]

I beileve that they wanted it in a rotation where we would switch rides with other parks every few years.

[bkroz]

Paramount's Kings Dominion's was closed for the 2006 season, and did not open with the rest of the park in April. Cedar Fair took control of the parks in June, and reopened it. To this day, on Kings Dominion's site, the little paragraph about Flight of Fear begins: "You asked; we answered! Your favorite indoor roller coaster, Flight of Fear, is back to thrill you!"

Reports at the time were varying. Some said CBS wanted to re-theme the ride to the "MTV Soundwave," a sort of counterpart of Disney's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (Screamscape reported that there were even guest surveys asking about it and displaying a piece of concept art). Some here will tell you that the ride was as good as gone, and heading for Paramount's Carowinds (with Kings Island's to follow shortly, heading for another Paramount Park). I don't personally know which is true and which is not, or if a combination of both was the real plan. Perhaps someone here has "inside information" that they can now divulge?

However, for what it's worth, the long-announced, seldom-developed Paramount Park Korea has used the concept art of the MTV Soundwave to promote their park, so it was clearly a real idea at one point, and a variation of it may be on the table for the Korea park.

Link.

[Vortex]

Thats different art from the Paramount guest surveys. What was shown was in black in white.

[lopan]

Unlike the outdoor version of fof it would be a pain to shuffle the ki version,think how much it cost to move the ride AND the buildings its in and resetup it all

[bkroz]

But who knows if they intended to "take" the building and themeing? The cost to transport the interior theme would likely be as much as to create it from scratch, and then there's the notion of the MTV Soundwave re-theme, which would've meant it didn't need any of those space props.

[TheCryptRaider]

Wow! I never knew that there were plans to remove Flight of Fear! That would've been a bad idea on Paramount's fault considering it is one of the more popular rides at the park today.

[The Interpreter]

If certain people at Kings Island were right a summer ago (Mr. Gramke, for one), you may not have heard the last of ride rotation. Not only can rides come in on a ride rotation, others...very popular others, can leave.

[Dbfan]

But it would be odd to ride rotate an indoor coaster like FOF, im no expert, but it would take lots of effort to build that up and build the coaster inside with all that theme and then take it down years later for another park.

[The Interpreter]

One would hope that with its Geauga Lake experiences, the chain has learned you really don't save much money by moving a ride as opposed to buying one...

[KIfan1980]

The cost to move the ride/theming I can't speak to, but assuming the building is literally a shell (not connected to the ride structure), it is likely relatively easy/inexpensive (a few hundred thousand dollars) to move it.

Far more would be spent on prepping the new site (foundation work) and evaluating/potentially modifying the structure for different parts of the country (earthquake codes, snow loads).

[The Interpreter]

...or parts of Canada...

[flightoffear1996]

I would think that the bulk of the cost of building a ride is actually building it.

[The Interpreter]

During his last year at Paramount's Kings Island, Jeff Seibert often remarked that Paramount Parks saved less than half a million dollars in moving BORG Assimilator nee Stealth nka Nighthawk to Carowinds, as opposed to buying another one...

[PREMiERdrum]

During his last year at Paramount's Kings Island, Jeff Seibert often remarked that Paramount Parks saved less than half a million dollars in moving BORG Assimilator nee Stealth nka Nighthawk to Carowinds, as opposed to buying another one...

And Kinzel, aka "an operations guy, not an accounting guy", said it costs "about $0.50 on the dollar" to relocate vs. purchasing new. Of course, shipping StealthBorgHawk from CA to Cw alone would represent a huge cost difference compared to shipping Dominator from GL to KD, Firehawk from GL to KI, and Carolina Cobra from GL to Cw.

[The Interpreter]

Then again, Paramount Parks had paid full price for Stealth...while Kinzel bought Geauga Lake and its rides for a comparative song...

[BoddaH1994]

One would hope that with its Geauga Lake experiences, the chain has learned you really don't save much money by moving a ride as opposed to buying one...

You're absolutely right. I remember hearing a figure as to how much they saved by moving X-Flight to Kings Island, and it was only in the hundreds of thousands range (not a big deal for a multi-million dollar ride). Not to mention, the ride didn't even get that much attention. I'm not sure if that had to do with the fact that it wasn't "new" or not.

I think the real goal of a ride rotation program is a maintenance cost. If you have a ride that has run its course at one park, as opposed to building another ride at another park and having to pay to maintain both, you just move the ride and only have to maintain one.

Reports at the time were varying. Some said CBS wanted to re-theme the ride to the "MTV Soundwave," a sort of counterpart of Disney's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (Screamscape reported that there were even guest surveys asking about it and displaying a piece of concept art). Some here will tell you that the ride was as good as gone, and heading for Paramount's Carowinds (with Kings Island's to follow shortly, heading for another Paramount Park). I don't personally know which is true and which is not, or if a combination of both was the real plan. Perhaps someone here has "inside information" that they can now divulge?

I actually very distinctly remember the MTV Soundwave concept on the Paramount Panel survey. The art showcased for it was the queue area, which was almost exactly like FoF's. It even had the saucer. I think they may have added some lighting or something. But you know... it was Paramount... it would have looked beautiful for a few weeks then everything would have stopped working.

Other concepts that I remember on the survey were an indoor snow playing area, and yes - a family-friendly roller coaster themed to the blockbuster Paramount movie, The Italian Job.

[RingMaster]

Reports at the time were varying. Some said CBS wanted to re-theme the ride to the "MTV Soundwave," a sort of counterpart of Disney's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (Screamscape reported that there were even guest surveys asking about it and displaying a piece of concept art). Some here will tell you that the ride was as good as gone, and heading for Paramount's Carowinds (with Kings Island's to follow shortly, heading for another Paramount Park). I don't personally know which is true and which is not, or if a combination of both was the real plan. Perhaps someone here has "inside information" that they can now divulge?

I actually very distinctly remember the MTV Soundwave concept on the Paramount Panel survey. The art showcased for it was the queue area, which was almost exactly like FoF's. It even had the saucer. I think they may have added some lighting or something. But you know... it was Paramount... it would have looked beautiful for a few weeks then everything would have stopped working.

Other concepts that I remember on the survey were an indoor snow playing area, and yes - a family-friendly roller coaster themed to the blockbuster Paramount movie, The Italian Job.

I also remember a new preshow experience for Tomb Raider (Chamber of Fire), a Mission Impossible-themed stunt show (which became Hollywood Stunt Spectacular at Canada's Wonderland for a year), a Vekoma Tilt Coaster themed to Top Gun, an outdoor ride themed to a car wash filled with Nicktoons, and, of course, an indoor/outdoor dark ride/coaster themed to SpongeBob SquarePants.

But on Firehawk, I very distinctly remember a lot of marketing hype surrounding the ride, specifically the fact that it was "Kings Island's first flying roller coaster." I know this is true because the celebration of the park's 35th anniversary got shut out to promote Firehawk (much like The Beast's 30th anniversary got shut out to further promote Diamondback).