TOMB RAIDER: THE RIDE – Unearthing the World’s Most Mysterious Abandoned Adventure

Unsealing the Crypt

Though Cedar Fair’s new ownership and the removal of Paramount’s licenses in 2008 amounted to little more than genericized ride names across the park, fans anticipated that more substantial changes would be necessary within TOMB RAIDER: The Ride. And they were right… 

Aside from the removal of the Triangle of Light emblem carved into the exterior of the entry cavern, the only real change outside of the attraction was its new name: THE CRYPT. What about the inside? The only hint there was an A-frame sign proudly proclaiming, “This ride now has more THRILLS.” It was an intriguing invitation… but what did it mean?

Once you stepped inside, it might at first seem that things had only changed subtly. The Antechamber was still there with all of the detailed set design of Paramount’s tomb still on display… sure, those Monkey Warrior props from Tomb Raider were gone (replaced with a few scattered skeletons reclaimed from old Halloween haunted houses, draped in cotton cobwebs), but that much was to be expected.

Also unsurprisingly, the “rolling door” that one came alive is permanently open – perhaps because of Tomb Raider’s Triangle of Light carved on it, but more likely because its job was to partition off the queue from the pre-show, and… well… there is no pre-show anymore… Instead…

Again, it’s not Cedar Fair’s fault that the impressive Brahma that once reigned over the pre-show room is gone. And at least the new owners made a sincere attempt at replacing it by way of… well… a hokey animatronic bat-demo which slowly, laboriously, mechanically opens and closes its wings, emitting a high-pitched, raspy snarl.

Okay, so if’s not obvious enough yet, Cedar Fair doesn’t really “do” dark rides (in part thanks to the failure of the Declassified Disaster: Disaster Transport at Cedar Point just up the road). Positioning mannequins, Halloween props, and camouflage netting throughout the Crypt and abandoning any semblance of story, pre-show, show lighting, or style is indeed a signal of what’s to come.

But before we can board, another bad omen awaits… As you stand before the bat-demon, take a look to your left… The rising wall that once hid the ride from guests is gone, which means you can see directly into the ride chamber to listen and watch as the ride runs with the group before you on board. So much for the mystery and the thrill of the unknown…

And as for the experience once on board?

More thrills

Another unusual change made known in the former pre-show room is that rather than being sorted into three rows, now guests were sorted into only two. In fact, in the changeover to The Crypt, the entire front row of the attraction’s ride vehicle had been removed, slicing the ride’s capacity by a third (and creating an oddly asymmetrical ride vehicle, surely “off-balance” when the gondola was unlocked to rotate freely or brought to rest?).

The reduced size (and thus reduced weight) of the gondola was reportedly in exchange for The Crypt’s other big change: its ride cycle. Naturally, all of the theatrical lighting, effects, fountains, and fog had been shuttered. To compensate, The Crypt had been reprogrammed, plucking a dizzying, nauseating nine-flip ride cycle designed for the nimbler, more agile HUSS Top Spins you’d find at any other park. Even with its front row removed, the immense weight, size, height, and power of the churning Giant Top Spin turned this thrilling ride cycle into an ultra-intense experience known to leave knees quaking – “more THRILLS” indeed.

And so, in 2008, Kings Island’s Giant Top Spin reintroduced itself as The Crypt – looping, flipping, and falling in near pitch-black darkness to the sounds of techno music (quickly replaced by jungle animals and beating drums). Though the goddess and volcano remained, they were unlit during the ride, visible only to those who bothered to squint through the darkness.

The Crypt seemed ready to continue on as a bland but thrilling reinvention of the Giant Top Spin’s capabilities. But as strange as that sounds, the story of the Crypt didn’t end there…

Afterlife edits

Beginning in 2009, Cedar Fair was ready to leave their mark on the former Paramount Parks… which meant bringing them up to snuff in the company’s modus operandi: roller coasters. That year, Rivertown became home to Diamondback – a soaring, crimson, steel hypercoaster dominating the park’s skyline… and cresting right over the formerly moody entrance to The Crypt

In fact, the ornate, atmospheric, bamboo forest plaza with its ancient glyph carvings and distant mystical music became a finely-manicured lawn hemmed in by a “western” wooden fence. The bamboo grove queue was torn out to make way for the coaster’s first drop, exposing the massive showbuilding the ride took place in. 

The elimination of Rivertown’s wooded landscape for the steel behemoth would’ve been a killer to The Crypt’s atmosphere and theming… if it had had any left to begin with. But even if the last remnants of “theme” left over from TOMB RAIDER: The Ride were gone, at least The Crypt offered “more THRILLS”! …Right?

But the arrival of a new, noisy neighbor wasn’t the only change to The Crypt in its second year. Though the ride began the summer of 2009 with that same, ultra-intense ride cycle, mid-way through the season, it was quietly edited. Without acknowledgement or comment from the park, The Crypt was reprogrammed.

Now, the ride would circle around the room twice, then perform one “locked” flip foward; then it would reverse direction, circling around the room twice, then one “locked” flip backward. (Watch that video again, this time noting the ride cycle…) The Crypt now flipped just two times – half as many as TOMB RAIDER: The Ride had. So much for “more THRILLS”…

Insiders allege that the tepid and downright disappoint ride cycle was actually about all that the ride could handle after a season of perfoming the intense, nine-flip cycle it wasn’t built for; that the ride was simply incapable of keeping up with such an extreme profile, necessitating the limping, lame version. In fact, this neutered two-flip ride cycle was pitiful and pointless, earning literal boos from stunned riders and the name “Ferris wheel in a box” from park enthusiasts.

To their credit, the team at Kings Island didn’t give up on the Crypt. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, incremental “upgrades” clearly signaled that the park was listening… Though the “rising wall” didn’t return, views of the ride in action were blocked from the pre-show room by simple wooden doors; music from Inception replaced beating drums and howling jungle animals; and culminating in 2011, Tomb Raider’s theatrical lights were reprogrammed to pulse during the ride cycle (even in the empty lava pits!), at least giving the impression of a show.

But offering neither thrills nor theme and clearly limping along as a maintenance nightmare, The Crypt was doomed.

In early 2012 – almost ten years after TOMB RAIDER: The Ride debuted – the cavern in Rivertown was sealed. The Crypt never re-opened. The ride was quietly dismantled and removed during the off-season. Its cavernous queue and its three main show scenes – the Warrior Room, Antechamber, and ride chamber – have been revived every autumn as a walkthrough haunted house. While much of the walkthrough takes place in the grand, 100-foot-tall chamber – still overseen by the carving of Durga and the volcano along the back wall – the details inside are impossible to see in the darkness.

Elsewhere…

Following in Kings Island’s footsteps, in 2005 Paramount’s Kings Dominion in Virginia opened a Tomb Raider attraction, too. In fact, their ride – TOMB RAIDER: FIREFALL – was a Top Spin, as well, but a smaller, suspended version carrying only 38 riders, reaching half the height of Kings Island’s, and with a built-in, thrill-focused ride program.

Set in the park’s Congo themed land (in the shadow of the spectacular Volcano: The Blast Coaster), Kings Dominion’s Tomb Raider attraction made even more contextual sense than Kings Island’s ride, even if it was located outdoors and not in a highly themed dark ride building. Still, Firefall had its own custom-made musical score as well as fog, water, and fire effects synchronized to the thrilling ride.

Even if Virginia’s TOMB RAIDER: FIREFALL was a cost-cut version of the ride compared to Ohio’s, it fared much better. After all, Kings Dominion’s Tomb Raider attraction was renamed The Crypt in 2008, as well, but kept it special effects, its custom-made music score, its ride cycle, and even the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider prop Monkey Warrior statues that flanked the ride!

Ultimately, Kings Dominion announced in January 2020 that their Crypt had taken its last rides at the close of the 2019 season. It was removed to make way for “future adventures,” and given that its neighboring Volcano closed a year earlier, it’s likely that the land is due for an elaborate roller coaster that’ll need the space. Still, Kings Dominion’s Crypt is the rare special-effects packed Paramount leftover that Cedar Point apparently maintained!

In any case, the era of the Top Spin seems to be coming to a close. Throughout the 2010s, no less than a dozen installations of the ride model at Cedar Fair, Six Flags, and Merlin parks bit the dust, included Ramses Revenge (Chessington World of Adventures), Ripsaw (Alton Towers), FireFall (California’s Great America),  King Kahuna (Kennywood), King Chaos (Six Flags Great America), Voodoo (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom), and RipTide (Knott’s Berry Farm, above).

Perhaps the smaller units ended up with just as much wear-and-tear as Kings Island’s – which was and will always be the only Giant Top Spin ever built. Likely due to its mechanical problems as The Crypt, the ride manufacturer HUSS stopped offering the Giant version of the ride entirely.

In 2007 – just as TOMB RAIDER entered its last season – Phantasialand in Germany opened the stunning Talocan, clearly based on the precedent set by the two TOMB RAIDER rides. It’s a stunning attraction that’s as fun to watch as it is to ride… and at least for now, it’s still around!

Sealing the Tomb

As for Kings Island, TOMB RAIDER: The Ride represented their second massive failure in as many years. The $20 million Tomb Raider – groundbreaking, unprecedented, and unimaginable for a seasonal park – didn’t live to see its tenth birthday. That said, it still fared better than Paramount’s Kings Island’s 2000 addition, which ultimately cost close to twice as much as lasted only until 2009 – another Lost Legend: Son of Beast. 

Two new millennium wonders, both groundbreaking, both living less than a decade and both remembered as two of the most expensive (and ambitious) theme park failures ever, even if they failed for very different reasons.

Frankly, it’s one thing to say goodbye to a treasured, world-class attraction; it’s quite another to see its shambling corpse limp on, so close and yet so far from the greatness it once achieved. Consider that – for a generation of Kings Island guests – Tomb Raider: The Ride was almost there; so close you could taste it; you could see (and point out) its features, hidden in the dark; and but for a licensing fee and a little maintenance, it could’ve lasted… 

To this day, that cavern entrance and the massive showbuilding it conceals both sit in Kings Island’s Rivertown, used seasonally for a Halloween attraction but otherwise abandoned. In other words, it stands as a reminder that even seasonal, regional theme parks can aspire to greatness… all they have to do is think outside of the box and commit.

Are you surprised to find that a seasonal amusement park right here in the United States had such a grand and Disney-quality attraction? Did TOMB RAIDER raise the bar for seasonal parks, or did it simply prove that the big rides should be left to the big players? Did you ever get to experience TOMB RAIDER: The Ride? Let us know your memories and thoughts in the comments section below!