Rivertown Rider
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Posts posted by Rivertown Rider
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Flying Ace is getting some painting done.
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I'm excited to see a new color scheme as well. Hopefully whatever they select fits the aesthetics of Rivertown better than the current color scheme does.
I am also very excited about Adventure Port and it is something the park has needed to do for years in terms of adding family flats.
I do think that there is a good chance that 2024 sees the next coaster added in Action Zone. I know most are set on The Vortex plot but by '24 it will have been 10 years since anything was added to AZ. We have seen the park improve areas close to the next coaster location before.
They moved the WWC entrance and built the new funnel cake building in '16 before adding Mystic. They used part of the Dinos area for the Antiques in '19 before using a lot of the rest of it for Orion. They are improving the gateway to Action Zone with Adventure Port.
Banshee needs a Valravn to Raptor 1-2 punch in Action Zone to keep people in that area of the park longer. I'm not saying I want a dive but another big coaster (If it has to be a B&M either a floorless or wing would be preferred.) in that area will help disperse crowds better.
If I were to do a five year plan it would be:
2024: New coaster in rethemed Action Zone with Timberwolf (removed prior to '23 season) and an improved queue line for The Bat.
2025: Planet Snoopy becomes Camp Snoopy. Boo Blasters becomes a new version of Phantom Theater.
2026: Soak City improvements.
2027: Family flats added near BLSC. Reworked BLSC queue.
2028: New coaster on Vortex plot.
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I would love to see a Gryphon come to KI.
I really enjoy Apollo at Dorney and it is nice to see Zamperla has started manufacturing a ride similar to that.
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This is what the Zamperla site says:
Open air, suspended passenger vehicles give riders the sensation of flying sixty feet through the air at 25 miles per hour.
This is what it says on the KI web site:
Climb aboard these open air, suspended passenger vehicles to experience the thrill of flying 60 feet through the air at 25 m.p.h.
My thoughts: It just looks like a few words were changed around. I would expect based upon KIs desire for high capacity that we will get the 48 person model.
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My preference would be either a Floorless or a Wing, I do think with the popularity of both Valravn and Yukon Striker that a Dive is likely the next coaster. I don't think the park wants another maintenance heavy coaster like a Flying would be.
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I'm thrilled to see the two new flats getting added next year.
As we look to the future beyond 2023, hopefully they continue expanding the flat ride collection.
If Action Zone eventually turns into Oktoberfest, a Bayern Kurve and Musik Express would be great fits for that area.
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A few additional thoughts:
Even though Cedar Fair did go on a Zamperla shopping spree it is nice that the parks got different Zamperla rides. This gives more of a reason to ride those when I go to Carowinds. I am extremely happy with the two we got as capacity should be pretty good and they fit in well as spiritual successors to rides that were in that general vicinity in their previous incarnations. As others have said these rides will be there for generations.
I do think the next area to get rethemed will be Action Zone and I think the whole area of AZ will become part of the remaining Oktoberfest. If O'Rourke starts tearing down the SOB station and Timberwolf things will get very interesting. I just hope they reroute The Bat queue closer to the midway. This has the feeling of the Antiques before Orion. Action Zone needs some love and a retheme.
My thoughts on some of the companies being the same is that I have wondered if the park planned on tearing down the SOB station and/ or Timberwolf back in 2020 but paused due to the pandemic.
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I'm thrilled with this addition. A Spanish themed area takes care of a lot of criticisms that Hank's location got. The Teacups and Endeavor will be wonderful family flats for that area. Nice to see AE get some love as well.
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A flat rides collection in Oktoberfest makes a ton of sense. Especially if the park is looking to go year-round, family flats would be good there with Festhaus, Hanks, Chicken Shack, and Coney BBQ close by, the flats could run year round. A new Spinning Keggers and a Nebulaz would be very nice additions to the park.
If the park is open in January thru March, I wonder if they will close some sections off. I could also see some small additions in Planet Snoopy as well.
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^ That would be my thoughts as well.
I could see the Zamperla flat rides installed for next year and demolition during the offseason with cleared ground by Opening Day 2023.
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5 hours ago, KIghostguy said:
Yes, Jeff Gramke and Jamie Gaffney. The initial idea was for the station to go where TimberWolf was and the coaster would have gone along the old Columbia Road and the parking lot. The issue with that is there's a lot of utilities owned by outside companies right around there. Relocating those and negotiating with the companies would have been too time-consuming since the project started later in the game at Kings Island. Ultimately, Coney Mall was slipping on the revenue side and had two rides that needed to be replaced, so they decided to focus on that area instead. I don't believe there were any layouts done with the ride in Action Zone since it was early in the planning process. Just the general idea of, "This is where it could go."
There are some easements posted in the last couple years (one earlier this year) on the Warren County Recorder site between the park and Duke Energy which makes me wonder if that is related at all to this project.
Action Zone does need a refresh. If O'Rourke is being brought in to take out Timberwolf and the old SOB station the park has a real opportunity to revamp that whole area including lessening the walk to The Bat. Another B&M in that area will help rebalance the crowds. The main question is do they go Dive or Wing.
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One of the vendors listed is Arenas Americas who specialize in temporary staging and flooring so they could easily put the temporary staging in the parking lot if they get rid of Timberwolf.
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I would agree that area is saturated with restaurants. You can stand at that location and see three restaurants (Chicken Shack, Festhaus, and Hank's) and that doesn't count being a short stroll from IS or Coney Mall. That doesn't even count the ice cream stand by Banshee.
That area could use a flat. Doing some quick measuring on Google Earth you could easily fit anything from a Top Scan to a Musik Express to a Teacups style ride. With the amount of Zamperla flats they are putting in the chain, this is the ride KI needs in that spot (https://www.zamperla.com/products/tea-cup/). Get rid of that pirate on the top and you can easily bring back a new version of Der Spinning Keggers. It 1. Fits the theme of the area, 2. give you a super high capacity flat ride (according to their site around 1,500 people an hour), and 3. gives you a ride that easily run during Winterfest. During Winterfest that area is quite dead and it would help the area tremendously.
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I'm happy that they continue to improve food service but I don't think there are many people who buy a season pass solely because of food.
KI needs flats in the worst way and adding some smaller family flats would have greatly improved the park.
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I expect them to announce something. I don't think it will be anything huge but something like a flat in the Slingshot space, a Camp Snoopy conversion, or something at Soak City. With KI's season pass holder base being as large as it is I would think the chain realizes the importance of adding something.
I'll renew regardless, but I think they need a little hook for the larger population. A Camp Snoopy conversion and a family or thrilling flat in Oktoberfest would be my preferred scenario.
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Worlds of Fun announcement is going to be on August 11.
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1 hour ago, disco2000 said:
Keep looking...there are some survey markers within the park that showed up in the past week...
Do tell. I guess I was too busy eating that golden vanilla ice cream.
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Carowinds has announced the closure of Southern Star, Yo Yo, and Plants vs Zombies so the area expansion that leaked earlier in the year looks to be coming to fruition.
As far as KI is concerned while there have been no markers anywhere to my knowledge I do think a Planet Snoopy overhaul/expansion is coming sooner rather than later. It is one of three areas that haven't really been touched much (i.e. more than just paint jobs) since Mike Koontz became GM (the others being Action Zone and Soak City). I would love to see the Camp Snoopy improvements like Carowinds got several years back.
I am excited to see what the GCI rumored Titan Track for WOF ends up looking like. I see it as a test and learn similar to when they put GCIs in the smaller parks. If it is successful and not as maintenance heavy as SV is I could certainly see a bigger version in KIs future.
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In addition to one's already mentioned, King Cobra and Firehawk would be two I'd like to see.
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I am surprised they aren't letting GCI do the Titan track on it.
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24 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:
The way I see it
- Flight Deck to Valley Fair
- Railblazer to Worlds of Fun or Michigan’s Adventure (both parks could use a sit down looper but which gets which is a toss up)
- Patriot to Worlds of Fun or Michigan’s Adventure (same argument as stated above)
- Psycho Mouse to KI? We don’t have a wild mouse
- Gold Striker to Dorney? (If they can relocate it of course)
I would send Railblazer to WOF and Patriot to MI for 2 and 3. I love the idea of us getting the Wild Mouse. I would love to see them put it into the Crypt building and then it could run all season long.
Gold Striker would also be great at Carowinds.
It is also good to see you back.
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I got to see the first show yesterday and it was incredible. The combination of this and the Phantom Theater Encore show are two of the best things I have ever seen the park do.
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I finally rode it yesterday for the second time this season (this time in a non-wheel seat) and I got one of the best rides that I have gotten on it in years. I do agree that they need to get the issue fixed when you get back into the station though. It is hard to say how much capacity they are losing to that on an hourly basis.
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Action Zone Redevelopment
in Kings Island
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I would expect Invertigo to leave before The Bat would. It seems like it has the most downtime of any of the coasters and it has bad efficiency because of its design.
Also the Invertigo area being flatter would be easier and likely cheaper from a future construction standpoint.