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For those wondering the OG Fire In The Hole structure is still with us along with the adjacent cemetery as they did announce the latter is set to be moved to the new area.

Also while this was covered last year the view walking up to the Waterfall and AP sure is different now with the trees wiped clean.

I haven't seen any concrete signs of where the station foundation is being set nor any signs of tunnel work yet but I have strong suspicion it's gonna be where that excavator is. They are going hard digging a 20 ft deep channel and breaking rock with jackhammers.

Here is an update for Project 2027 including a photo dump. We got at least 100 footers in place now and many of these are huge. Many additional forms are continuing to be built for more footers so they are not done with this stage of construction as of yet. The clearing has expanded right up against the Powderkeg entrance too. AP is up and running with a new retention pond in place in the middle of the new construction with rock work in place.

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.