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It gets hit several times a year, as it is basically a lightning rod LOL. Eiffel Tower gets hit as well, along with WindSeeker and the big steel coasters get hit on occasion as well. Most of the time the grounding works as intended, but sometimes lightning does its own thing. Sometimes it is even caught on camera LOL:

Thoughts? Cedar Fair Announces 2022 Third Quarter Results and Record Performance Through the First 10 Months of the Year - Cedar Fair

Glad to see continued growth for CF!

Nothing to do with the Free Fall and has been discussed in a thread here somewhere - different manufacturer and different restraints. Drop Tower has a seat belt between the legs and that one didn't and is the main difference (well FreeFall also has seats that tilt forward which didn't help the situation). It would have been a different outcome had that ride had seat belts (and why a brand new ride didn't learn from the past and have them is crazy) AND had they not allowed the seat to be altered. In addition to the safety aspect of Drop Tower seat belt not allowing someone to slide thru, it would also prevent the ride from going with the restraint as high up as the Free Fall ride because the Drop Tower restraints will lock a lot higher, but if the seat belt doesn't lock, then no ride. The seat belt is a certain length for a reason. Your spy reports are wrong LOL. It ran until August 9th and was struck that night/next morning by lightning and fried some components that can only be obtained by Intamin and they had a long lead time that kept getting pushed and when it became obvious it wouldn't be here in time for final weekend, they went ahead and started winter prep for the ride early... It was down a bit for wind this year, as well as another lightning strike earlier in the summer (July 6th) that knocked it out a few days while the spare part was put in (thus why when it blew again a month later they didn't have a spare available as they were waiting on the part).

Good thoughts, but I would just as soon ship Backlot (coaster only) to Michigan's Adventure. On the site make a new Swan Lake. This would bring back some of the beauty we lost in 2008.

While doing my ride count totals for the season (as a good number of rides will be closed for Winterfest), I found some interesting things and I'd like to share some stats. My most ridden coaster this season is Orion (20 rides) while my most ridden coaster overall (since 2010) is still The Bat (251 rides total). My most ridden flat this year is Delirium (8 times) while my most ridden flat overall is Drop Zone (93 times). And while not on the Excel spreadsheet, my most visited Haunt maze this year was Slaughter House (12 times!). Getting back to the spreadsheet, one interesting thing I noticed is that since 2017, I have made one of the Arrow coasters (mostly The Bat) my last ride of the regular season. While most years it is The Bat, in 2019 Vortex was my last ride of the main season (because of course it was!) as 2019 was its last year. On a similar note, all my true last rides of the season (during Winterfest) have been different every year.

https://www.hersheypark.com/explore-the-park/rides/wildcats-revenge/

It's nice to see debt levels normalize. Brian Witherow During the 9-month period, we also generated $310 million in the sale leaseback of the land at our Great America park in Santa Clara, California. Through the first 9 months of the year, we used $264 million to fully repay the company's term loan, bringing total debt outstanding down to $2.3 billion and net leverage back to pre-pandemic levels at 3.7x trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA at the end of the quarter. Richard Zimmerman "Ben, the other thing that I'll jump back to. When we went into the pandemic, a lot of question marks, we issued a $1 billion bond in April of 2020 to make sure we had adequate liquidity. Yes, you look at what we've done on the capital structure, paying down 90 -- more than 90% of the debt that we incurred to survive the pandemic and get us through. The reinstitution of the distribution, getting down to that 3.7. I'm really pleased with the rapid recovery, if I could put it that way. And I’m really pleased with what we’ve been able to do with the free cash flow to set the foundation on the capital allocation side for how we create some – create even more value for our unitholders. I don’t want to step over that because I think the impact of that rapid recovery has really let us get healthy very quickly. And that’s going to let us drive growth in the future."

Here is a nice drawing of the layout by user RrevinEvann on reddit.

Hard disagree. Where's their abandoned strata coaster?

Great idea reassigning Delerium just so the “mini area” has 2 rides and a food option.

Hey cool sats! My most ridden coaster at the park is Adventure Express just because my sister and I would marathon it every Tuesday in 2019. The operators even started to catch on and ask "we're you here last Tuesday?" Or say "you ride this a lot don't you?" Or " I see you here alot".

This is all posted by memory. I might have missed a thing or two, but you'll get the general gist. There was originally a bell sound and a long train whistle when you entered the first tunnel. This tunnel was supposed to be a like a "dynamite" tunnel I believe - with kegs of black powder in it. There was also mist (not fog as some seem to think) along the section of track just after the train left the station and passed under the queue line bridge. It was sprayed out of misters hoses attached to the side of the track. You would then drop out of the mist down and into the first tunnel. There were animal sounds, most notably monkeys. I believe the second tunnel used to have a long snake in it, and of course always had the spears darting in and out of the "ruins." There were some smaller cobras that used to move around too. There was music/creaking sounds played on the first lift. The third tunnel was the "lava" tunnel and had a flickering/glowing red light effect and (I think) more mist originally. The final tunnel, obviously had the "now you will pay" statues. But the main effect was at the top, there was more mist and the large figure was animated with glowing eyes, and he tilted the basin he is holding and a minor amount of water poured out onto riders. The mist at the beginning and the water pouring onto the train at the end disappeared about the same time, I believed it had to do with rusting track. Back in 1998 they had to replace a few sections of track - which I think they have done again since. Its important to note, however, although most of the theming has gone by the wayside in the past 30+ years, it was never on par with something like Big Thunder Mountain etc. The theming on AE was always sparse, and you went by it so quickly a lot of it got overlooked by riders. Shaggy

I would be happy enough for all the current elements to be restored, and the sound effects and fog for the first bit to return. Main wish list item would be to have full theming of the third tunnel like the other 3 have. That stretch always feel so out place to the rest of the ride, like the ran out of budget and just stopped. The first one has a nice mine shaft look with props. Second has stone tiled wall look throughout with spear effects and artifact props, final lift has the statues chamber. The the third tunnel is just a basic wooden box with a spinning light. I know the little rock facade and red light are supposed to simulate a volcano, but I would have never guessed that if I wasn't told. can keep the volcano theme but love to see it get a rock wall interior with orange/red/yellow underlighting below track to simulate lava/magma with light fog for a steam effect. Other potential enhancements would be something for the turn into the station. Don't think there is much they can do for it, but just a little theming would help that little dip and turn not feel so plain after the lift. Additonal queue and station theming/props would be great too. Neither of these is really necessary but would enhance the experience.

Hey thanks for the info! Glad to hear my "spies" were wrong! Lol. I didn't think it really had to do with freefall accident but wasn't sure. The wind closure makes sense and I had no clue about the lightning strikes this season. Does that happen often or has this been a bad year for lightning strikes?

Straight drops has better airtime. A curved to straight like expedition GeForce would be ideal though.

Although it would slightly reduce capacity I would love to see the front car have a train theme like Carowinds Goldrusher. It looks great. CF has been theming front coaster cars in the recent years like Carowinds did in the 70s. I doubt if it happens They will probably do some knickknack theming in the station and maybe queue like they have done at Jungje Expedition at Kings Dominion. Someone is having a good time at flea market treasure hunts! it would be nice if the fog returns. Any on ride theming should be done in the 2nd and final tunnels. The reset of the ride is too fast to see theming. I hope they leave the first tunnel dark. It’s great at night. This isn’t theming but the biggest improvement they could make to the current coaster is removing that stupid kink in the helix. Arrow really knew how to make a coaster unnecessarily janky.

I think that RMC is straying away from curved drops. They've mentioned many times that the best option for lift structures is the steel lifts on rides like Zadra and Iron Gwazi. I have a feeling that almost every conversion will have these from now on. Also, notice the first element after the drop and it will make much more sense. The first inversion is what was the lift and drop.

Saw the video; looks pretty cool. Interesting choice going for a straight drop rather than Wildcat’s curved drop. A cool detail I noticed on the logo is that there are two claw marks- almost like “Wildcat II”.

No it didn't LOL Looking back in this thread, I now think something along the lines of a Coney Mall skyride going along the strip is the best option now. @SonofBaconator had some good illustrations as to what that could look like.

I can’t believe how dramatically Diamondback altered/ruined that area of the park. They quite literally removed every tree they could for that project. Definitely removed some of the charm from Rivertown.

Yes someone does.

Congratulations to Dennis Speigel, who is being inducted into the IAAPA Hall of Fame during the convention in November. As many of you already know, Mr. Speigel was Kings Island's Assistant General Manager in 1972 and played a key role in the park's development and opening. He was also involved with Kings Island as the Vice President of Operations and Vice President of International Operations for Taft's Amusement Park Group. http://media.interthemepark.com/2022/10/dennis-l-speigel-announced-as-newest.html

This is Incredible

This post didn't age well. LOL

Honestly, should have happened a long time ago.

If he is charging 11k for that 1 1/2" slice then I should ask 110k for my 1' slice. ROFL

The price is insane but so is hounding the guy repeatedly and then making a thread on here asking other people to bother him as well. His item will never sell at that price but coordinating an online mob to harass him about it is not only pointless but also childish. Stop acting childish and leave the guy alone.

There are only so many ways to deal with those kinds of people. The best way will take months, maybe even years, of them attempting to sell it with nobody biting for that price.

Pull the lever Kronk and start the countdown! T-MINUS 166 DAYS UNTIL APRIL 15TH, 2023 We also can probably assume that April 14th (the Friday before) will be passholder preview day based on that opening day.

I'm having a hard time processing that 2005 will soon be 20 years ago.

In general, I thought this season as a whole was fantastic and one of the best in the 14 years I've been a passholder as an adult. The park was in peak performance this year, and I absolutely loved it and love where we're heading. The announcement of Adventure Port has to be up there for me. I can't begin to describe the joy it brings me to see KI move closer to being a theme park. On a smaller note, one of my favorite personal moments this year was participating (and placing second in) the 50th anniversary art contest back in May. I don't typically do art for anything other than my own satisfaction, and it felt amazing to put the work in and see it pay off. Getting to participate in the signing event and meet park staff was one of the coolest things I've gotten to do at the park!

Could we see fog return?

That's a perfect way of putting it. While it never had the level of the Orlando Parks, for KI, it's always had its charm and beats many attempts made by other regional parks. Also, Arrow Mine Trains have always had their charm, but I feel Adventure Express takes this another level with it's theming and character. While maybe not a Beast level night ride, the terrain style coaster gives amazing night rides. I hope KI can bring back some cool lighting effects on the tunnel, as well as on the arches, but at the same time the dark forest atmosphere is part of what makes it an interesting night ride

They could of been, or a train whistle sound? Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

Wasn’t there a bell once too? Way back when.

I can see where it would feel that way. For example it felt more like one section before Antique Autos took out the left side of.the midway and when Vortex was still around. To me Stunt Cars have never felt like they were in Coney Mall but they technically are. I honestly associate Stunt Cars with International Street because it's right behind the Tower however the entrance is clearly a Branch off of Coney Mall because Rivertown doesn't start til you get to the Laroses pizza

Ugh - that looks TERRIBLE - Just when you think they are making strides toward looking better, they pull that!

I wonder what drinks they sell there.

just please, no plywood cut-outs...

Taft/KECO, Paramount, and Cedar Fair have all been owners of KI. I'd like to get some of your opinions on some of the best and worst decisions made by each owner. Basically I want a best and worst for Taft/KECO, a best and worst for Paramount, and a best and worst for Cedar Fair.

I'm for anything and everything that helps me walk less