CoastersRZ

Looks very exciting. I still need to get up to Mall of America some day.

My answer to that is they likely use that/rent that out for various corporate events throughout the season. They may not make a lot of money off of that, but it is a revenue center. Converting it to a lounge, would loose that as a revenue center.

Glad they are bringing back the drones and lasers. I was kind of hoping they would show the 50th anniversary show again, but understand that it is no longer the 50th any more. I wonder what the run time on the show will be, and if it will feature the song that was in the 50th.

I couldn`t agree more. I have no problem with that fence being there. I just wish it were a little nicer looking and matched the rest of the security fence. Heck, even some of the low zone black fencing would look better than the temporary barricades. And like I said in an earlier post, make some of that brick seat wall on the right side available for guests to sit. I get the point of the fencing, I just think it could look a little nicer and look more permanent. Same thing I have always thought about the temporary rental light fixtures they bring in during Haunt. If they need more light they should invest in better/more lights. Hopefully the parking lot light upgrades help this season in that regard.

I see what you are saying. However, when I read the article and it said to the north of the metal detectors, I took that to mean down by the picnic umbrellas down by where the old picnic grove used to be. Not the area between the two sets of metal detectors.

I don`t think that temporary fence would have prevented the stupid event from a few weeks ago. It looks tacky and hopefully it is just for something landscaping related. It also bugs me that the planter wall on the right side of the gates, they still have the temporary barricades and they are located in front of the seat wall. I understand the desire to have a fence there to funnel people to the metal detectors, but it looks tacky to be the temporary barriers. Why not install a black aluminum fence to match what is by the metal detectors? And why not place the fence immediately behind the metal detectors, so that it offers those a place to rest and wait for others in their party to arrive from their car?

My guess is that is the electrical building/machine room/air compressor for Sol Spin.

Unfortunately, that is probably accurate. All these years later, and I still miss working in the rides department there. I still think it was a bad business decision to remove them. Its not like they have invested in new water slides or expanded the pool area. Most of the rides side sits now unused. The Storybook Pedal boats and Cincy Mini Golf are still there and open on weekends in the summer.

I will say, based on my experience on pass holder preview day, it took me twenty minutes to get my food at Skyline in Coney mall. The way the area is set up at the pick up window is a mess. Hopefully they get into the swing of things and can make the food there quicker. Otherwise, I agree a second location would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, KI counts the number of ride cycles in an hour and the number of riders in an hour. Some of the coasters automatically track the number of cycles, and they have an "empty seat counter" button to push to count the number of empty seats. The computer knows how many people a train can hold and then deducts the number of empty seats. Other rides, like Sky flyer use hand held counter clickers to track the number of riders and cycles for each hour the ride is open. The last few seasons that Coney had rides, we too counted the number of riders per hour. In fact, the last season the rides were open (2019), the overall season had higher ridership numbers than the previous two seasons!

I think you meant assuming there are THREE sets of floats. Since the earlier date already has three parks spoken for and the later dates only have two parks spoken for, then the logical conclusion is as you deduced. July 22nd through August 6.

I am kind of bummed that the Royal Coasters won`t be back. I get that it was a tie in for the 50th anniversary, but my son LOVED that show. We would often have to watch it multiple times each visit.

So is Viking Fury paired with Carousel and Tower this year for ride crews? When I worked at Skyflyer for Haunt in 2013 and 2014, Viking Fury was paired with Adventure Express (Express Ship). I guess it makes sense as Express is likely paired with the two new rides this season. Back then, Delirium was paired with Slingshot (Deli-Shot), Congo was with Invertigo (Go-Go), Drop Tower was with the Bat (Drop Bat), and Banshee and Skyflyer were each their own crews. Skyflyer requires the ride ops to be 18. I miss my days of running rides between Coney and KI.

Anybody can edit Wikipedia. Until the park releases a map or confirms that, take anything you see on Wikipedia with a grain of salt.

Thats rather interesting, since Water Country USA is not directly adjacent to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The tracks will have to cross other tracks and cross I-64. Are we sure that this is legit, given the day that this was posted?

The park has another month where they are closed during the week to allow time for their painting contractor to finish the job.

I am glad that they are opening, I was just stating that the hours of the preview event could be limiting to those that work/are in school. Seems rather odd to close at 7. Would have been better to stay open until 9 or 10.

Kind of stinks that the preview day hours are 12-7. Some people that are in school/work won`t be able to get up there until around 5. Although it is the week after Easter, so some people might be on spring break then. Bring back the 5-10pm pass holder preview days.

As a Skyline fan, I am disappointed if there is only one location in the park. The Coney Mall location this past season was either closed when I wanted it or had a really long line that I didn`t want to wait in.

So the next questions I have to ask is: 1) Does that mean Adventure Express won`t be open with the park in mid-April? 2) Will that midway walk way be open when the park opens? If not, that will be terribly inconvenient to get from Coney Mall to Action Zone/Festhaus.

All in all, those seemed to be pretty solid numbers. I wonder how much of an impact there will be once California`s Great America is not contributing revenue. To be fair, they did get a fairly nice amount of money for selling the land, which helped them to reduce their debt load, while also purchasing units, which saves them some money when they pay out their cash distribution. I wonder what ways they will try to expand their out of park revenue. We saw them purchase and renovate the Saw Mill Creek resort, and the Sports Force Park in Sandusky, and the under construction E-Sports arena.

And honestly, I would not expect anything new this season. Which is a shame. The only thing they have added at Sunlite since they removed the rides was the floating obstacle course in the deep end of the pool.

I too thought about the not having Fireworks until Memorial Day weekend. Yes, that does seem odd to close at 7pm on Sundays. Likely due to schools being in session though. At least we still have the 10am opens. There was a year where the park was opening at 11 during Covid.

Yes, it does stink that there are no 10pm closings in April/May on Saturdays. I am sure they had their reasons why the change. Likely to save on labor costs for one. Maybe that last hour just wasn`t as profitable as they had hoped. I am sure that Cedar Fair/Kings Island have analyzed things like that and know how much they typically make for any given hour based on the time of the season.

Repainting a ride like Viking Fury comes from a maintenance budget. They probably needed to repaint the boat, and wanted it done as cost effective as possible. Yes, those details are nice, and would have been great had they been kept and repainted, but that would have cost money. Either money they didn`t want to spend, or would have come at the cost of some other project not getting funding/not happening. Be glad that they painted the ride. New rides like the ones coming with Adventure Port come from the capital budget, which is separate from the maintenance budget. Keep in mind that I don`t think KI originally intended to remove Sling Shot last year. There were reportedly a picture/post from the company that was going to be repainting the cage from Slingshot, about this time last year. Then the ride never opened last season. Not sure if that post with the cage was legitimate or not. Was is the plan all along to remove Sling Shot and add Adventure Port for this season? We may never know. I am thoroughly looking forward to Adventure Port and the two new rides within it. I think they are the perfect addition to KI. Hopefully in the coming years, we can get some more additions like this.