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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/27/2021 in all areas
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I hope they never change the essence of the front entrance to the park. Updates, for sure, new restaurant/ticket counters/customer service/entry ques....absolutely. Essence - leave it like it is. What is this Essence that I'm talking about? Its about the slow gradual incline from the parking lot up to the front entry plaza. I could do w/o the security aspect cluttering things up, but its the reality we have to live with, and as such, I actually think they have placed the security clearances fairly well. Anhoo, back to the point.... the slow walk up the inclined entry, sure you see the tower, you see some rides, you hear some going, but you don't really get a feel for the park. You proceed to the ticket counter if needed, or straight for the pass/ticket scanners. Now the ground is relatively flat, its relatively quit and its absolutely shady. You can hear the excitement in the air, but if you've never been you don't get a sense for what is about to hit you. As you proceed into the park, you get the 180 flip from shaded cover to full sun. You get the full view of the tower, the sounds of the fountains, the smell of the baked goods, food and sweets. It all combines in a flash to hit you like a ton of bricks and lets you know that you've arrived somewhere special. Above all else, the essence of the front entry they nailed. I have never been to an amusement park that nails it quite like Kings Island has nailed their front entrance. Disneyworld is pretty solid with the castle in view, but you don't get the rush of fountains that makes KI's better. I haven't been to as many amusement parks as others, but in my mind, they couldn't have done it any better. Sure the building/restaurant could use a face lift/update as mentioned earlier, but the feel, the smells, the sounds as you step into the open area is as good a feeling as you can find.3 points
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It was a $31 million budget. You should really read Kings Island: A Ride Through Time. I think you would find it enlightening!3 points
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What a crazy year...even if this were a good deed it doesn't make it right. https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-climbs-six-flags-roller-170219955.html2 points
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There appears to be plenty of room in front and left of the front gate for some coaster track. This would be more like Leviathan at CW than GateKeeper CP. In my opinion this is a better option because it retains the feel of the existing entrance plaza, but still creates a fun dynamic of bringing a coaster “outside” of the park. When I visited CW, the “parking lot” elements of Leviathan did create a fun effect.2 points
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Reading the news article was fascinating. I'm curious what the most expensive roller coaster was in 1995, so I can have some sense of what FOF cost. Also, some things never change: Remember when Valravn was the tallest coaster in the world? Ah, news media.2 points
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-Have The Gravity Group finish retracking/ reprofiling The Racer. -Repaint Racer to its original red white and blue color pallet. -Restore the Wurlitzer 157 band organ on the Grand Carousel & upgrade with MIDI program, much like Cedar Point's Wurlitzer 153 on the Midway Carousel. -Touch up the paint on the Grand Carousel to bring the ride back to it's post-1969 restoration standard.2 points
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My thoughts: 1. Paint The Racer its original scheme as many have mentioned. This one seems the most realistic. 2. Get our Eagle Flyers back from Carowinds without telling them 3. Backwards Racer. It may not have started backwards, but it ran that way for a long time. 4. A dark boat ride. The best dark rides are boats, imo. Phantom Theater would be cool to see back but that isn't happening. 5. Rename Woodstock Express back to The Beastie...but again it didn't start out that way so they probably won't. 6. Retheme Action Zone to match The Bat/Banshee (maybe a haunted, Victorian theme) 7. Do something fancy with the façade on the park entrance (keep the building/tunnel...just make it look nice above that). 8. Hire Peter Brady to do a one-man show.2 points
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Steel in 2014 (when Fury track would have been made) was around $650 per ton and was going for around $830 per ton when Orion track was being made in 2019...had Fury been announced for 2016 and thus track would have been built in 2015 it would have been $460/ton...just think it may have been Fury386 then! And right now steel is going for about $1,900 per ton. Moral of story - steel prices adjust substantially year to year based on supply/demand...2 points
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I spent a few days at Doe River Gorge in June. The Crown is getting its final brake piping (I painted most of it as they finished it) and modifications to the ashpan. Sanders and bell ringer also need to be piped. The boiler jacket has been added and is powder coated dark blue. The sand dome and bell are yet to be mounted, but the handrails are polished and installed. It currently has a round electric headlight, but someday a box may be made to put around it. The big ugly green regulator next to the pump has been replaced. The smokebox had been extended for the installation of a Lempor front end, but time, money, and manpower have put that on hold and it will have a standard blast nozzle for now. It has been fired up twice and run a quarter mile through the first tunnel. The limiting factor now is the spiking and tamping of 200+ brand new added crossties to convert the gorge from an 8 ton Plymouth line to a 25 ton Crown line. The early Crowns had very narrow tires, so holding the gauge will be critical. Pardee Point is not a place you want to derail. From their calculations, it should have just enough power to pull two coaches on the 3%. That is based on the fact that it has 4000# TE versus 5700# TE at Kings Island and we pulled six coaches on 1% at KI. The weight of the early Crowns was not much less than the 5700# TE version, so the Factor of Adhesion is above 4 and should be good for dry rail. Also we used power and traction references from a reprint of a Porter catalog that has a similar sized engine code name HADRIA. The coaches that will be used were home built at Dry Gulch and are slightly shorter than the Crown coaches with longitudinal benches that should be lighter. Since the last narrow gage steamer on the ET&WNC was #14 (there was no #13 - tradition!), this one I believe with be given #15. The hope is to have it fired up and at least doing short demonstration runs at the end of August for the National Narrow Gauge Convention. I plan to be there for that and will let you know how it went.2 points
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I highly doubt it. Compliance in general at businesses dropped off as time went on even when masks were still mandated by the state or local government. That ship has sailed and will take a lot worse than what we went through before we will see government mandates again...best case all we will see are strong recommendations along with certain cities implementing mandates, but I do not see it at the state level at this point.1 point
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A HUGE problem with a front gate coaster is that it would be going into the maintenance area and I'm pretty sure the park is going to be very reluctant in moving all that to make it aesthetically pleasing for a coaster. That along with the proximity of the employee entrance and the handicapped parking to the front gate as well. There's also simply just too many buildings and important infrastructure cluttered around the front gate to remove which, IMO, would also lose the appeal of International Street. The gate, the buildings along side, the fountain, and the Eiffel Tower should remain the centerpieces of the entrance IMO.1 point
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1 point
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Here is why. The ride is supposed to generate guest and money for the park. People dont care about an extra 13ft or extra 1000ft of track. This would have cost the park millions of dollars extra with no increased ROI. My biggest complaint with Orion is location. I think the ride would have been better served towards the front of the park and be interactive with the park entrance.1 point
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Yes 1/2 hr before park opening at 11. Here are the details: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/season-passes/early-ride-times1 point
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Orion was a $31 million coaster. Like I said, you should really check out the book, I think you would greatly enjoy it!1 point
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That whole side of the park could flow beautifully with the right theming. River town into camp snoopy into a returned and renovated “KingsMills WaterWorks” water park with tall pines and lusher landscape (and ditch the fake tropical -beach theme)1 point
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The booths (overall) seem to be staffed, there’s just so much you can do with some of the more “labor intensive” preps they are doing in “pop up” kitchens. Short of doubling up entire prep areas, I’m not sure what they could do to expedite. I could see maybe in future years splitting the sweet/ beverage and savory into two tents in some of the more popular areas.1 point
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I mean Orion costs just as much if not more than Fury 325 (which I believe had cost around 30 million dollars). Doesn’t exactly scream hyper coaster budget.1 point
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IF I make it to next year's Coasterstock, I will definitely try to bring it. Need to find a way to protect and move it safely first.1 point
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The red rails were just for the model. They were never painted red. I rode the ride in June or July of its first year. The line at opening stretched past the Zephyr, with all queues open. There was a also a lot of down time. My cousin and aunt attempted to ride it a second time before leaving that day. The ride broke down and by the time they got out it was 10:15 (they got in line around 8). We then went to Skyline down the road from the park (Fields Ertel), and they ran out of chili! They only had enough chili to make half of our order.1 point
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We split our visit between Friday night for Carnivale dance party, Parade then Area 72 dance party. 12yo gave away her glow bracelets cause it's more fun when everyone glows lol Then Saturday did the Scavenger Hunt, Opening Ceremony, Carnivale games: won a stuffed box of rice, stuffed crayon, and the loathed basketball. (Only time I'd let her get one since we weren't riding) Got to France about 5:45, took 20 minutes for us to order. Partially held up by a large group still debating what to get. The other part was purchasing drinks while getting our card I pre-purchase and ordering. The register itself seemed to drag a bit, poor guy just standing there waiting for it to calculate like it's on dial up. We had planned on using all 9 between the 3 of us, but husband wasn't feeling well by 8ish so only used 4. Wish we could have done more before leaving.1 point
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It was redesigned from scratch. The layout we have is 100% a Kings Island layout.1 point
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Good news… grand carnival is done this weekend. So next Wednesday the chef’s plate should return.. so only 1 more week of discussing the merits of plates vs trays until we can get back to drilling over excellent meal plan options. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk1 point
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For our Cedar Point trip this week (Tues-Fri) it was very busy each day. On Friday, they ran two trains, which I hadn't personally observed in years. I had heard it was common on Fall Saturdays, but both Myron H and GA Boeckling were running, and it was great to see. We did a full lap on both.1 point
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Ladies and Gentlemen, please remove your hats and place them over your heart. This is the sad, sad tale of ol' Rancid Butterball. For once upon a time, for five great seasons near Memphis, a little Carbon Limestone tanker #33 (Porter 1942) played a painted lady named "Ye Olde Huff n Puff". And indeed, it seemed she couldn't make it around the loop without being held up by some good old boys. Well, it appears that the ladies must have loved that little Porter, for one of them had just about enough of it. Fun summer job robbing trains? Think again...1 point
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Has anyone else had trouble finding hand sanitizer inside the park? This has probably become one of the worst aspects to my trips to Kings Island. From personal experience nearly every hand sanitizer station I try to use is empty. It’s especially disappointing that even the stations located in or near the restaurants are usually empty.0 points
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There is no way it cost as much as Fury. Theme parks inflate the numbers for marketing.0 points
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