10 Incredible Roller Coasters You'll Never Get To Ride Ever Again

Location: Universal's Islands of Adventure (Orlando, Florida)

What’s the one way you could make an extreme roller coaster more in demand to try? Add a cool theme to it, especially if that theme is linked to one of the most popular franchises in the world – Harry Potter.

Dragon Challenge, known as ‘Dueling Dragons’ for the first half of its service, comprised of two intertwined roller coasters in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter area of Universal Studios’ Island of Adventure. One side featured a Chinese Fireball dragon which reached a top speed of 60mph whilst the other was a Hungarian Horntail with a maximum speed of 55mph. They both ran for approximately three minutes and shared adjacent lift hills but traversed two unique courses. It was a well-received ride which qualified for the Top Steel Roller Coaster awards every year from 2000 to 2012.

The two rides would be released simultaneously, hence its original name ‘Dueling Dragons’, and would simulate three near misses for added fear factor. In 2011, two accidents occurred (one fatal) on the Dragon Challenge, both of which were believed to be caused by flying debris. The serious incident involved a man who got struck with an object on the ride and had to get his eyed removed due to the injury.

From then on, the two dragons would only dispatch separately and the ride continued in business hours as normal, with no further injuries reported. Even after a success run despite the incidents, the ride still came to a permanent end as the officials announced a new Harry Potter themed roller coaster would be replacing the Dragon Challenge.

By late September 2017, it was fully removed to make room for ‘Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure’. Although this sounds pretty cool, it’s actually considered a huge downgrade and not worth all the expenses that went into it.