Kingda Ka Is Back Open
Six Flags Great Adventure: Great Adventure's record breaker has re-opened after its maintenance mishaps.
From Mike M
Posted August 4, 2005 at 5:16 PM
The commercials have started to play this week for Kingda Ka, and nothing else in the park. This can only be a good sign as to the opening of Kingda Ka, after its
recent troubles. The commercial just repeats: "128, 456, 3.5, Zero" over and over again, while showing flash shots of Kingda Ka.
Six Flags Great Adventure's website today included this message:
Dear Valued Guest:The wait is over — Kingda Ka is now OPEN! We invite you to conquer the tallest, fastest roller coaster on Earth!
We are 100% committed to your playtime and are doing everything we can to make your experience a "great adventure."
Click here for additional information about Kingda Ka.
Thank you for your patience, and we look forward to seeing you at Kingda Ka!
Rick McCurley
Vice President and General Manager,
Six Flags Great Adventure
From Jen Horne
Posted August 4, 2005 at 11:49 PM
Yeeeeep I'm excited! I'm going in a few days, cross your fingers everyone, hopefully it will stay open for atleast a week!
I went August 4th and Kingda Ka was closed. They were doing a ton of test runs on it, and when we went the gate they told us we MIGHT be able to get on it, but as of 6PM when we left, it was still closed. Bummer.
Kingda Ka was amazing! i got to go on itthe day it opened, but they only opened it for about an hour so lets hope they decide to keep it open all day from now on
the commercial for it annoys me TTD is almost exactly like it. And there are other rocket coasters out ther.
From Mark M
Posted August 5, 2005 at 12:14 PM
LIEK OMG!!!!1!11!!! Kingda Ka is OPEN!!!11!!!1!
But seriously, it's amazing! They are VERY late though. Did it open several weeks after the incident like they promised? No. How about almost 2 months? Yes.
I have not seen the comerical. But I really want to. I have never seen a comerical for Cedar Point, But it would not be a shocker if Kingda Ka did have the almost same camerical, they do tend to copy everything.
But I think it's better that way because I am closer to SFGADV.
I am going on thursday. And staying for the Season-pass friday thingy.
me too i went last friday and this friday i am going too
How long was the wait last time you went?
What exactly happened the laat time that was so major?
if ur planning to go for early enrty friday. get there at 9:30. get to the serutiy gates. scan ur pass. then they will be more people to cheack for it so don't put it away. ?And sprint the whole time. use the boardwalk to get there. about 20 minute wait if they still have to test. but if not and u can run fast. then it should be a ride on for you.
if u don't have a season pass then go tommorw not firdya cause the season pass holder weill be in line. so get there at ten do the same excat thing as i told you and you will get a ride on.
Just thought I'd check in and see if it's broken down again yet...???
Give it a few more weeks to build up the hype before the next major breakdown. lol
Give it a few more weeks to build up the hype before the next major breakdown. lol
I went on today, It was Awsome!! But I threw-up, not because of the roller coaster but when I was running to the roller-coaster I was Sprinting and it was very hot and I had not eaten so I had to stop throw-up and keep running. After I threw-up I felt fine.
Sounds like you had a pleasant ride.
From Jen Horne
Posted August 12, 2005 at 6:43 PM
I just went on Kingda Ka yesterday, I was with about 300 people clumped together at the gates waiting for it to open, and there was about a 2 hour line, we waited extra time for the FRONT ROW (which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND) and the ride was absolutely BRILLIANT! I was very very impressed! I was especially impressed at the engineering and the efficiency of the ride, the way they set it up was very very smart (having four trains and two loading sides). I loved the new breaking system, it was so smooth! The acceleration was INTENSE....I LOVED IT!
Yeah, It might be slightly taller and 8 mph faster than Top Thrill Dragster, but it's not significant enough to me personally to make THAT much more difference than TTD. Plus, TTD I can put my hands up all the way up & down.
I finally got around to riding this record breaker yesterday. I do have to say that Six Flags did a very good job keeping the coaster running near peak capacity on a day on which the park was not terribly crowded and during threatening weather. While the station design seems very ingenous with four loading platforms, in reality it does not speed the process. Much like Dragster, trains are dispached two at a time, so having a four seperate loading platforms does not make a difference. What the massive station does do is create confusion, much like X, as guests don't know which way to go when the lines diverge to go to seperate sides of the station, creating a choke point. There was even a ride op at the split who was not really helping things much. In addition, by creating two loading/unloading tracks with two track switchers, the coaster has two more things that can break. Intamin track switchers are pretty reliable (California Screamin'), but on this coaster, they're really unneccessary.
The other big problem I have with the design of this coaster is that there is nowhere to view the launch from. There was a massive crowd of people near the ride exit attempting to watch the launch, with an obscured view, but Six Flags chose to run the queue right by where the should have installed a viewing area. Also, the horn on every launch seemed rather unneccesary.
Now let's talk about the ride itself. Because of Dragster, this coaster is not a "one-of-a-kind" experience, and the speed and height are not differentiable from Dragster. The one major difference between the two, the hill, does not really offer that big of a change, but does offer some decent airtime in the back seats. There were two very noticeable differences between Kingda Ka and Dragster. The first is that Kingda Ka felt extremely rough compared to Dragster, especially the ramp up the tower (before the 90 degree roll), and the very bottom before the airtime hill. Some trains were a little rougher than others (I managed to get on three of the four trains), but they all seemed rougher than any of my experiences on Dragster. The second big difference between the two was the launch. Dragsters launch is rather smooth all the way up to the top speed when you can notice that the engine is adjusting the train to the top speed with a few jerks at the very end of the launch. Kingda Ka's launch is a little difference as you can actually feel the engine shifing gears as the train approaches top speed. There are a series of four jerks as you can feel the gearshift and increase along the launch track to top speed.
Is Kingda Ka a bad coaster? NO WAY! It's a great roller coaster, and as long as Six Flags can keep it running consistantly, it will continue to be a great move by the park to add it. I am a little disappointed in that it was not that much different, or a dramatic improvement on Dragster, and the poor queue design and lack of viewing area detract from the potential of this coaster. For all those coaster fans out there, a trip to New Jersey is probably not necessary for those who have already experienced Dragster, but for those in the east not don't have to get to Sandusky to experience one of the most amazing thrills in the world.
TTD is alot better, enuff said!!!!!!!
I went on Kingda Ka on August 26, 2005 and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Me and my aunt had went there before we went on to see if we could and there was alot of people around. So we skipped and figured no so we went to go on medusa when we saw Kingda Ka Test running so we ran all the way to kingda Ka and waited in line for about an hour because they were doing test runs to make sure it works and nothing happened to it, wehich was fine with me since i didn't want anything to happen while i was on it. After about an hour we started moving after walking through the whole thing to get to the actual entrance it was about 20 minutes. When we got to the entrance we got on the next ride. And it shot us up and down really FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!! after riding that this is number 1 on my list
kingda ka should get rid of the over the shoulder reistrents and get lap bar like top thrill dragster
I don't think you'll see any more Intamin coaster with lab bars. They have had way too many problems with their t-bar restraints that have cost them more money than they could have ever imagined. Every one of their coasters with t-bars have had to re-engineered to sufficiently secure riders to their seats. Some of the results have yielded restraints that are now incredibly uncomfortable with chunks of steel that did into your ankles and seat belts that can barely fit around a person with a 34-inch waist. OTSRs are the way to go, and surprisingly comfortable, especially on Kingda Ka in comparison to Storm Runner.
I agree
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