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Figured I'd start the SDC 2026 Season Trip Report thread.

Who's going to opening day on Friday?

This will likely be our Flooded Mine replacement before too long.

Welp there goes my hope for Hershend to come in and rescue WoF from SF. Wont lie I would have loved a dual SDC WoF park pass as I know others would have too.

https://www.sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=4456.msg86377#msg86377

I have to say these names feel like something straight out of Rollercoaster Tycoon. If I have to choose here ...probably Daredevil Railway.

As for a Hyper Mine Train, that would be out of left field for sure. The park really could use an airtime machine with speed hills and no inversions or spinning. Would also be neat if they designed Macks Hypercoaster trains to look like TNT.

The speculation front has been quite interesting to say the least. It's gone from being a Mack Hyper or Stryker to a Vekoma Launch Coaster, the impractical being a single rail low capacity S&S/RMC coaster themed to mine carts, to the silly with it being another Mack Spinner. If it is a replacement Mine Train I can only figure SDC is gonna market it as the world's largest and fastest Mine Train or something to keep the titles they had with TNT as it was the tallest and fastest of it's kind. Hopefully we see the first track put in place to confirm the manufacturer later this month but I still hold firm it's 99% a Mack product based on the footers.

Do note Terry's comment about it being big and the additional large footers built on that little hill there in the construction footage...

I pretty much expected that. It makes sense to open it in concert with the new coaster.

Yes I mentioned it to the Page Admins on Facebook

Wow they sure clear cutted and dug it out even more. That area isn't gonna be the same. More big footers placed on that hill now too. Terry's "it's gonna be big"  comment is intriguing. Worlds largest Mine Train?

Something too with losing TNT is we will be losing more of the neat theming and awesome hand painted signs in the park. Particularly inside the station building. Hopefully they can be repurposed at other rides/coasters and not binned.

Yes what if they pull a FITH and reuse the ThuNderaTion name for a Stryker coaster done like Mystery Mine at Dollywood? The more I research on Voltron and the Stryker Coaster model from Mack the more I'm hoping this is what SDC went with. That coaster has seven 16 rider trains with an active loading area allowing 1600 riders per hour. That's more capacity than Wildfire. The park desperately needs another reliable high capacity signature ride with the absence of TNT and this could fit the bill quite well without being too extreme or unreliable. It also has a backwards launch which I could see SDC using to market as a callback to the backwards seats on TNT.

I know any additional speculation is probably wishful thinking at this point of it being anything other than a modern clone of TNT but the first of it's kind in the USA talk and the size of the footers with all that land cleared still makes me question the possibilities.

Well, it's pretty obvious what's next going by the current trend of other classics that have recently bit the dust at the park... I'm almost certain now Flooded Mine will be gone by 2030 so get your rides in on it too. I feel this is something that will resonate well with long time SDC fans. This was inspired by Kings Island's ride graveyard and some internet memes.

EDIT: People should keep an eye on Dollywoods Nightflight Expedition opening soon to see how successful it is, that ride type will probably be it's replacement that will come to SDC sometime after 2030 if the park gives it the revamp treatment like they did for Fire In The Hole.

Somethings afoot. Apparently employees that worked it were blindsided today. What the heck is really going on? This is in line with what was told to ACE attendees last Christmas that "it wasn't going anywhere".

EDIT: Only thing I can figure is they intended to keep it but this closure was part of some kind of out of court settlement over the worker that got killed a while back.

I recognize the mining story is just their creative marketing campaign; do we have any ideas on what this means for the 2027 addition (mine themed ride, I assume) and/or the plot of land that TNT currently occupies?  While we're at it, any rumors on what is/will happen with the old FITH building?  It feels like lots of real estate is opening up, in addition to the 1200 acres between the park and the resort. 

If they haven't already you can pretty much count on the old FITH building getting razed next along with Flooded Mine and the old Train Station. The new Train Station will probably go where the old FITH building is. What they say isn't happening is actually a confession of what is.

Now I'm wondering why Brad lied(or the decision was forced by corporate)
Anyways, I think it's a pretty bad decision on SDC's part. If project 2027 is a Mack hyper like rumored, the park will lack a true family coaster- something for 8 year olds to get used to thrill rides. The jump between FITH and powder keg is pretty big. Whatever replaces TnT won't be here until '29-'30 at the earliest. If they had to close it, they should have pushed it until after project 2027 opens.

Yeah it definitely seems like it was pushed by corporate. It's just weird and financially wasteful when they just rebuilt some of the support structure in the final drop late last year (you can see the new wood and metal) and refurb the 2nd Train just to kill it a year later. Seems like the park is bent on getting rid of all their legacy attractions now. The 2030 project will probably come at the expense of Flooded Mine. Super disappointing trend to say the least. But as Swoosh and a couple others  previously mentioned it seems corporate doesn't get the style of the old park and wants it remade in their own image...

With this news, I don't think Project 2027 is a Mack Hyper which has been the popular rumor via YouTubers. (there's a chance of it being a low intensity Stryker still) Realistically now It will probably be Macks take on Firechaser Express at Dollywood. While it's a cute coaster it doesn't hold a candle to TNT. Also Hershend corporate came out a couple weeks ago saying Hyper/Giga coasters aren't in their portfolio because it's not their target demographic for the chains future. AKA Family coasters from here on out.

I won't repost it here but there's someone who is a construction worker that claims to know what it is and is posting comments about it on SDC's FB posts. I am very skeptical as it could be a troll but it's probably best if nobody else reposts it here either. We don't want this board to get into trouble with the park. Let's not forget the leaked Outlaw Run fiasco.