Yes, it was early. In comparison to Wipeout, which was announced after it had run its final cycle. This gives people a chance to actually ride it.
So, GD remains, and the TOT track will be removed "in the coming months".
They have no plans for the space at present, as noted by the DW faqs stipulating that Fully Six, and the TRRR site coaster are 'the replacements' so to speak, as well as leveraging off Sky Voyager - a ride that is now more than a year old... definitely getting mileage off that one.
While some purists may seek to return the vintage cars to their old location, and consolidate the park - I feel that the TOT space is ripe for their next planned expansion - which, i'll admit, won't be on the radar yet, but it will be the next expansion pad.
My ideal, is this:
Currently, the public views DW's as yet unnamed and unthemed coaster as being better than SW's Leviathan. From an enthusiast standpoint, a launched mack probably does beat out gravity group, but from the general public perception, i feel its more a case of 'steel: good, wood: old'.
However, SW is going to have something unique - one of the only woodies in Australia - and if the ride succeeds - DW may seek to steal some of that by building their own woody. The Tower launch envelope, the dead area near rocky hollow and the murrissippi may lend itself to a great meandering layout, finally utilising the river and the island as well as the possibility of impacting the DW skyline positively, so that their graphic designers don't need to add superman escape to the silhouette to make it look good...
It's probably a ways off, but the narrow launch track footprint would look great with a tall wooden lift hill, before a huge first drop leaning into a sweeping bend to swoop back up over the river.
For anyone keeping score:
Cinema, Wipeout, Thunder River, Tower of Terror
Sky Voyager, Unnamed launch coaster.
Taking things out, and not putting things in used to be a sea world thing.