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I know the Desperado roller coaster in Primm has been closed for quite some time. Will this ever reopen? Or is it just bound to be taken apart soon?
It's no longer closed. And don’t worry, the Desperado isn’t going anywhere, although its hours of operation have been curtailed.
Owner Affinity Gaming has just finished a maintenance overhaul of the “hypercoaster” and reopened it a few weekends ago. The last time we rode the Desperado, it threatened to shudder and jar itself into pieces, so we applaud Affinity’s upkeep of the old gal. The biggest change, however, is to the Desperado’s schedule. It's now only a Friday-Sunday attraction, running from noon to 8 p.m. most of the time and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. if there's a concert or on special event on the premises.
At the time it opened, in 1994, the Desperado was the tallest roller coaster in the U.S. However, times change and it has come down in the world … or rather, everyone else has gone up. The Desperado’s 225-foot apex is literally dwarfed by the 456-foot Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure, in Jackson, N.J. In fact, the Desperado no longer ranks in the U.S. top 10, bested by the likes of Fury 325, at Charlotte, N.C.’s Carowinds (number four and 325 feet high, as its name suggests), Intimidator 305 (number six at 305 feet, in Doswell, Virginia), and Diamondback, Kings Island (number 10 and 230 feet, Mason, Ohio).
However, now that Affinity has tightened the nuts and bolts on the Desperado, we're sure it will continue to dominate the California-Nevada border for many years to come.