Starliner

Starliner was purchased in 2005, dismantled, and moved to Cypress Gardens.  After extensive work and rebuilding, it opened on July 14, 2007.  Just 16 months later, it closed permanently.  It was a tragedy to see such a wonderful, historic coaster sitting dormant after so much time and effort was expended to relocate and rebuild it.  It was for sale for a few years, but the park never did find a buyer.  It is uncommon to relocate a wood coaster like this one.  I can't imagine the amount of work required to gently disassemble the ride, move it to another amusement park, and carefully reconstruct it.  Just the time and money spent to repaint it after it was set up here would have been significant!

One of the reasons Starliner was repainted was that much of the wood was new.  Many of the supports were the original pieces relocated from Panama City Beach, but nearly all of the track and much of the adjacent walkways were created out of brand new wood when the ride was being reconstructed here.  The fresh paint made it difficult to identify what portions of the ride were old and which were new, but based on some of the pictures I saw as this coaster was being rebuilt, I wouldn't be surprised if over half of the wood on this coaster was brand new in 2006 and 2007.

©2021 Joel A. Rogers.