First The Curse of DarKastle was closed before the end of the busy summer season because the park was going to fit a new haunted house experience inside of it for Howl-O-Scream. Now it seems that trend will continue and the evil castle structure will be somehow repurposed as part of a new Santa meet & greet area for Christmas Town.
According to a report posted at BGWFans, the famous dark ride may actually never reopen it seems, as the park was having difficulty maintaining and operating it within their budget. According to a statement from the park, while the ride remains intact and able to reopen, it seems that it is true that they are considering the possibility of not reopening it next season, but as of this moment a final decision has not been made.
This is sad... because really while coasters are king at most theme parks, what really sets the top shelf theme parks apart from the crowd for me is the inclusion of some epic dark rides. The Curse of DarKastle is no exception... and while it may have flaws (who doesn't?) the attraction had set a pretty high bar for itself when Busch Gardens set out to make the world's first "clone" of the dark ride concept created for Universal's "The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man"... but doing it within a Busch Gardens level budget.
To that end, they succeeded in grand fashion, though as the linked report mentions, time has been taking it's toll on DarKastle, along with obvious budget cutbacks from the park as the SeaWorld Entertainment chain continues to struggle in the post Blackfish world. Given how things are likely being handled internally, the maintenance of the ride has probably been in what I like to refer to as "firefighter mode"... where non-safety related parts and equipment are ridden to the point of failure and only then fixed or replaced. This would be the opposite of "prevention mode", where much of the equipment is upgraded or replaced on a set schedule... such as the projectors for the ride's many screens which would ideally be refurbished or replaced after a certain number of hours of operation. Much like performing an oil change on your car after so many miles is ideal, rather than waiting for your car to burn up the old oil and start to grind metal on metal before you stop to fix it.
So now we are at the crossroads... will Busch Gardens spend the needed money to maintain and reopen The Curse of DarKastle or will it become another rusty junkpile sitting in the driveway on blocks? I can only hope they opt to fix it, and perhaps work on a budget to improve it down the line as well, because a good dark ride is not something to just throw away... it's what sets your park apart from your competition down the road.