Something else is crawling in Jungle X-Pedition. Arachnidia.
The park’s Eli Bridge Scrambler ride, which made its debut in 2000, will now be known as Arachnidia. It was formerly known as Witch Doctor and Scrambler. Arachnidia becomes the second attraction in the park’s former Safari Village to receive a re-theme this off-season, joining the coaster formerly known as Avalanche, which will now be known as Reptilian.
A diagram shown in the video shows that Scrambler will receive a new coat of paint (becoming green), and the “buckets” will be get their own new paint job.
According to park lore:
“Five years before Professor Rovin Jay and his team discovered the temple, Reptilian, another mysterious temple was discovered by Dr. Maria Estrada in Jungle X-Pedition 12 years ago in 2010. Because this temple was seen to be a multi-armed mechanism, resembling a creature like a spider and spins around continuously, Dr. Estrada and her team dedicated the temple to the Goliath Tarantula and chose to name the temple Arachnidia.”
We’re not going to say we called it, but during the August 2021 announcement of Tumbili, Andrea Brennan, granddaughter of the fictional founder of Jungle X-Pedition, Gerald Winston Whey, had the following to say.
“As the story goes, in 1935, Professor Whey took off in his plane to discover the fabled ruins of an ancient temple complex that he referred to simply as X. Legend had it that visitors that could possess the powers and abilities of the local jungle creatures — monkeys, tarantulas, crocodiles, and more. Professor Whey found those temples, and in the first, he unveiled elaborate carvings celebrating a “monkey spirit” and a “wild, mysterious contraption” that spun the professor high into the jungle canopy.
In our article, we wrote the following.
Personally, it’s great that Kings Dominion has given this area a new backstory, and I’m wondering if Andrea was hinting at a few more changes and re-themes in the area with mentions of Tarantulas and Crocodiles. Purely speculation here, but could we have seen the first hints of re-themes to Scrambler and Avalanche?
Nailed it.
Kings Dominion opens for the season on March 12. For more information, be sure to visit the park website, and follow the park on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
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