AWESOME King Cobra Blog

[westcoaster]

Amazing time W Standing room only Nice Ride. 

[wabashcr]

Thanks for sharing this.  I loved the King Cobra, and would kill to get to ride it again (even mentioned in another thread that I've looked into visiting the park with the clone in Italy).   I miss a lot of great rides KI has removed over the years (Skylab, Flight Commander, Keelboats, etc), but the Cobra is at the top of my list.  I have so many great memories of waiting in that queue, the thrill of finally stepping onto the train and strapping in, the slow climb up the lift, and then just pure exhilaration.  I always returned to the station with a huge smile on my face.  

I understand of course why they got rid of it.  The capacity had to have been abysmal, renewal parts were difficult or impossible to obtain, it seemed to suffer more and more from downtime, and standups fell out of favor with the GP.  If it still stood today, it would be an obvious anachronism.  But it had character, and it was such a big part of my formative years at the park.  I miss it dearly.

Thanks again for the blog.  It was a nice bit of nostalgia to start the week.

[BringBackOurEagles]

On 8/23/2020 at 9:00 AM, KIghostguy said:

It was considered a Wild Animal Habitat/Adventure Village/Paramount Action Zone ride from its opening in 1991 until 1999. It was reclassified as Oktoberfest in 2000, where it’s remained ever since.

You've never been able to access it from within Adventure village/Action Zone though, right? For as long as I can remember the entrance was over in oktoberfest

[DiamondBeast]

7 hours ago, BringBackOurEagles said:

You've never been able to access it from within Adventure village/Action Zone though, right? For as long as I can remember the entrance was over in oktoberfest

I never got to see The King Cobra in real life since it was torn down a year before I was born, but I've seen a picture that shows an entrance on what I presume to be in Action Zone/ Adventure Village. It only had an entrance and an exit sign instead of the King Cobra sign with the snake on it. Does anybody remember this? 

Edit: I've found the photo I was talking about at  http://www.casabrian.com/parks/pki2001.html 

 

[BringBackOurEagles]

2 hours ago, DiamondBeast said:

I never got to see The King Cobra in real life since it was torn down a year before I was born, but I've seen a picture that shows an entrance on what I presume to be in Action Zone/ Adventure Village. It only had an entrance and an exit sign instead of the King Cobra sign with the snake on it. Does anybody remember this? 

Edit: I've found the photo I was talking about at  http://www.casabrian.com/parks/pki2001.html 

 

Oh sorry @KIGhostguy and I were having a side conversation about how Adventure Express was technically considered a part of Adventure Village / AZ for a while but was never accessible from inside AV/ AZ. You're correct that King Cobra's entrance was always on the AZ side, although I think this picture may have actually been the entrance for the go-cart track. The KC entrance would have been a little farther to the right of this frame, leading up to that ramp where you can see people lined up in front of the station.

[DiamondBeast]

14 hours ago, BringBackOurEagles said:

although I think this picture may have actually been the entrance for the go-cart track. The KC entrance would have been a little farther to the right of this frame, leading up to that ramp where you can see people lined up in front of the station.

Oh! That makes more sense considering that all the other photos I've scene of Cobra entrance have all looked different. Sorry for the confusion.   

[CoastersRZ]

Yep.  You can actually see the line for King Cobra with people in line on the right side of the above photo.  The entrance to King Cobra is today just to the left of the Ice Scream Zone. The exit to the ride, originally exited through a gift shop.  In 1999 when Ice Scream Zone, the exit was just to the right of Ice Scream Zone, close to where the exit for Delirium is.

[dbackdreams]

I looked at the bog and watched video but I don't think I like Kings Cobbler.  I thought maybe it was like Daimonbdack a snake but it's not

[Maestro]

Love that Kyle & the park are sharing these.  Is that Dave Focke in the video?

[KIghostguy]

4 hours ago, Maestro said:

Is that Dave Focke in the video?

Yes, it is!

[dbackdreams]

23 hours ago, KIghostguy said:

Yes, it is!

Who is David flock????

[KIghostguy]

2 hours ago, dbackdreams said:

Who is David flock????

He was the director of maintenance and construction 1981-1984, director of park operations 1984-1993, and vice president of maintenance and construction 1993-2002. He can be seen in the video to the far right at 3:57.

[ROBBE1]

Many fond memories of this ride.  What a great post!

Probably my fondest memory was standing there watching the trains go through the helix the first year it was opened.  Watching those trains zip through that feature over the pond (it was removed at some point) sounded so powerful.  There was even a geyser of water that would spray up as it raced through the turn.  I was only 7 at the time and could not ride.  However, to see people riding a coaster standing up was crazy to see with my young eyes.  It was groundbreaking at that time.

I finally was able to ride a few years later and loved it.  It was short and sweet and had unique charm for a coaster.