Really poor decision for mine as well. You wonder how long it will be SBNO now, would seem almost impossible to remove without totally closing the park. 

The Dreamworld chairlifts STILL haven't been completely removed, and they closed long ago!

Really poor decision for mine as well. You wonder how long it will be SBNO now, would seem almost impossible to remove without totally closing the park. 

Are we talking about the same park?

Main entry station could be closed off with a temp relocation of (is it still animal adventures in there?) that building it's next to. 

Then you've got 1 pole on the water's edge - not impacting anything. 1 Pole in the water resulting in a temp closure of that walkway for maybe 2 days? 1 pole (based on google maps) near a dolphin pool which shouldn't result in any impact to guests apart from a small path area being closed off. 1 pole near the log ride station - time it with the maint for log ride and you've got little to no impact. 1 pole just outside the second station - not sure how it fits in with storm but shouldn't be too hard to remove in a day or so. Final station building should be pretty much on its own still isn't it? 

 

I doubt it would add to congestion, since theres only 30 or so people up on the skyway at any given time.

Are we talking about the same park?

Main entry station could be closed off with a temp relocation of (is it still animal adventures in there?) that building it's next to. 

Then you've got 1 pole on the water's edge - not impacting anything. 1 Pole in the water resulting in a temp closure of that walkway for maybe 2 days? 1 pole (based on google maps) near a dolphin pool which shouldn't result in any impact to guests apart from a small path area being closed off. 1 pole near the log ride station - time it with the maint for log ride and you've got little to no impact. 1 pole just outside the second station - not sure how it fits in with storm but shouldn't be too hard to remove in a day or so. Final station building should be pretty much on its own still isn't it? 

 

Maybe you're right, probably depends on how 'removed' it is. 

I would have thought something that high running straight down the middle of the park would cause some issues but maybe not. I guess time will tell. 

All still intact this morning,  but gondolas removed as they have been for weeks. 

 

Jurong Bird Park managed to remove their monorail track in a couple of years after it closed.  Their panorail was a similar vintage to Seaworld's monorail (actually 5 years younger).  It makes you wonder about running costs and parts for such an old fleet. 

Also managed to ride the cable cars at Disney World before they closed them.

They could do a disney, The people mover has been left in tomorrowland since the mid 90s... Its still there!

Have to agree. This is a massive shame. First the Train now the Skyway.

Hard to look at this in any positive way other than a massive downgrade and loss of infrastructure within the park. Sad to see that management has let this happen and make this decision. Will certainly be very unpopular with everyone- families and theme park enthusiasts alike.

I wonder what the reason could be for its demise- surely it would have been economically viable to keep running?

Could the ride be upgraded with new gondolas and motors for a reasonable price, if the will to retain was there?

 

I can see no reason why the pylons and the cable (and obviously the stations) wouldn't support a modern chairlift system. Sadly Sea World say they have no such plans.

TBH the ride for me was a bit of a white elephant. it lacked the capacity for it to be considered a transport ride, so it therefore ended up being just a vantage point you had to wait a long time for. 

I'm sad to see them leave the skyline for my own sentimental reasons, but really - it was the right decision all round. For a park that is so hampered by it's own geography - they need to cut the fat wherever they can.

Sure - they've lost a lot of solid attractions in a short space of time - but I don't think anyone can fault their maintenance crew for that - it was just getting on in years all round. The park is due for a refresh, and I think NL is going to be the start of that. The park now needs to start planning it's next blockbuster - and given there is no longer any need to consider the cable car envelope slicing straight through the centre of the park, they may well be able to get more creative with any layouts they come up with...

Although it's unfortunate that they have closed the chairlifts, I have to wonder how much it had been operating in the last few years. All the times I have been to SeaWorld in the last 5 years the chairlifts had not been operational.

 

Was it the cost to keep them operating or were they prone to breaking down?

I wonder how many operators it took to run it? If you are like many of us, trying to avoid visiting during the peak holiday seasons/crowds, for such a low capacity ride they may simply have closed it and saved on the staff when it was off season.

I would assume it would take at minimum 2, maximum 4 to operate with 1-2 people per station? 

I don't remember ever seeing more than 1 per station though. 

Skyway operated with 1 person per station with the one near the main entrance being the "master" control panel. As far as control panels go the secondary operator only had a "bell" button which was used to signal that their station was fully loaded and all clear to depart and then the main operator would start the attraction.

the second Skyway station near the Storm Coaster has now been fenced off, credit to TTPSN

Horrible.

I for one WILL be visiting Sea World less often because of this. Thankfully the monorail is still going though, and to be honest the monorail is the biggest attraction of Sea World for me now.

Even though it's not a dark ride?

I'm sorry but I LOLed a bit at that one!!

Awesome. We can start going back to Sea World again now...

From TPSN Facebook page: Looks like they might be getting rid of the whole ride quickly. Lets hope they remove the poles unlike dreamworld.

Sea World's chairlift now looks the same as Dreamworld's. Hopefully it's not left for the next 10 years.

Such a sad sight.

Makes me think of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJKMji2688M

Edited November 27, 201510 yr by pushbutton

I went to Sea World today, the chairlift posts certainly stand out a bit more than they do at Dreamworld.

 

In the new kids area, the little Sponge Bob 'coaster' was closed for maintenance - is this fairly early for something that only just opened? No great loss, as it's a bit dodgy, even for a kids ride IMO.  

Slightly OT, but I went on Storm Coaster for the first time today, I really enjoyed it.  Line was only about 10 minutes.  It was a bit shorter than I expected, but the final drop was fun, and I got absolutely soaked, and again got quite wet on the internal part.  I thought it was quite a good fit for the park.  

57 minutes ago, liz.wis said:

In the new kids area, the little Sponge Bob 'coaster' was closed for maintenance - is this fairly early for something that only just opened? No great loss, as it's a bit dodgy, even for a kids ride IMO.  

New rides are bound to have teething problems. Look how many times the Tailspin had to undergo maintenance in its first year or two... I swear it spent more time closed than open during our visits at the start of the year ?