DeltaFlyer

I am confused, where do you say that you don't want it left to "those of us who continue to support this gem of the midwest"? All I see is that you say if I'm not happy, I can spend my money elsewhere. You then continue to state how if people like me were to leave, you'd have a better time with shorter lines? If this was not your intent, please clarify. Your entire argument above is about how "they could survive a drop in season pass sales at KI". Why would you not want them to be as successful as possible? More pass sales = more money = better additions more frequently. The only point I am trying to make is why wouldn't you announce something? I'd rather hear an announcement telling us that some new grass seed has been planted than nothing at all. Tell us about some painting! Some gardening!

My original post was not intended to be a complaint, griping, or anything of the sort. I am merely saying that for me, and what drives me to purchase a pass, the lack of something new is making it difficult to spend that kind of money again. Perhaps I’ll still get a pass, but it won’t be with all the bells and whistles. If the park was going to do some more work in the off-season, like painting Diamondback or more retracking, why would you wait to say anything about it? It seems like things like that could be taken advantage of. Just the other day, I saw a post from Kennywood on how they are about to repaint their Racer. Why would KI not want to hype some of that sort of thing up early? Baynum has been on top of their social media game lately. The points made above of the 2022 projects being pushed to 2023 makes sense to me. It just seems to me (not a marketing or PR person) that if you didn’t have a major addition planned you could at least showcase some TLC that will be coming instead of looking like Michigan’s Adventure. Please, why must we continue to use the “We just got a $30m giga coaster, why can’t you be happy” bit? I am so very grateful that the park we all love got that investment. I also understand we have been told that large capital improvements will have more years in between, with smaller events like Carnivale in between. It should not be unreasonable to be expecting something small like a restaurant, water park addition, or flat ride in between major additions. Whatever that might be, even if it’s “Hey look! We are planning to re-do this flowerbed in the off-season to continue beautifying the park!” It could help someone make a decision on renewal. Even if they are in the minority, why not hype up the little things? Again, this kind of response just comes off as “be grateful for what you have or go away and leave it for the rest of us”. This is a business, and a loss of 10% of season passes will be noticed by the shareholders. I agree with many of your points, KI is a gem and will likely continue to be under Cedar Fair. I also never said I was “done” with Cedar Fair because we didn’t get something new. I simply said I cannot justify the cost of a pass and all the add-ons for the first time in a while.

I’ve had a season pass every year for the last 10+ years. The last 4 years have been platinum passes, with the last two having all season/all park Fast Lane, the dining plan, and the drink plan. It goes without saying I’ve spent thousands over the past several years. I travel for work often, and when I find myself near another park I like to visit for a few hours. I was originally excited about Prestige+, as I could save myself from buying the all season Fast Lane if I could get one skip-the-line at each park. Now it appears that is not the case. If the benefits at your home park are being reduced, it stands to reason they’d do the same at other parks. If so, why would you limit prestige benefits to your home park? The number of guests (outside the KI/CP corridor) that would both visit another park and use the prestige benefits must be small. The 50th celebration was magical. It was truly next-level for a regional park to put on a show of that caliber. Next year, we have the return of Carnivale. As fun as it is, it’s not new. I understand that a park cannot get something big and new every year, but there has to be something that drives you to renew your pass. This year, for the first time since I’ve been a pass holder, there isn’t anything driving me to renew my pass. I am certain I am not the only person to feel that way.

Not necessarily true. Backlot, Flight of Fear, Wicked Twister, Maverick, Copperhead Strike- they all use an AVC (Adaptive VAR Compensator). This is basically a capacitor bank that can hold a good amount of energy- which levels out the instantaneous demand from a LIM and LSM system. You can see this system pretty easily outside Backlot- it’s just behind the transfer table. FoF’s is located outside the building and is visible from Orion’s exit. You have to remember- energy is energy. It doesn’t matter if it’s supplied by hydraulic accumulators, compressed air tanks, or capacitor systems- the amount of energy it takes to get the train to a set speed is the same no matter the method. Since all of these would use electricity to gather their energy, the electric bill would be nearly the same for each, allowing for the efficiencies of each system (e.g. the hydraulic launch is X% efficient versus an air launch Y%.) If we didn’t have these sort of voltage compensation methods, we’d have to increase the conductor sizes quite a bit from the utility. It’s usually easier to install one of these systems than it is to upsize your primary and secondary conductors. Heck, even Delirium uses one like a hybrid car- the end of the ride cycle recharges the capacitors while slowing the gondola down. Here’s an article on the S&C Purewave AVC system if you are curious. https://eepower.com/news/sc-electric-installs-avc-compensator-for-recycler/

If you didn’t know that something had happened here, you’d probably never be able to tell. It’s just a slightly different hue of orange.

Sorry, no ride- it's the "Grand Pavilion", which the building department lists as a 2-story building.

The speed at which the trains park in the station is comically slow. It makes me laugh every time.

Mystic's controls were done by Irvine Ondrey Engineering, who also does most of the new RMCs. I always thought that Valravn was done by Consign, and the collision is what prompted the move to Altec.

Here's my audio clip collection: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ifinL5Jen_6C6Kwy2OvD-hV---jMsx1b?usp=sharing

Got it in two out of six. Wish I could paste it here, but alas no emojis are permitted.

As long as we stay far, far away from Antoni Gaudi, I’m fine……

The main show building measures approximately 90 x 90 feet- that would fit a Top Scan (50 x 50 ft), the ABC rides Tourbillion (65 x 55 ft) or even a Zamperla Nebulaz (39 x 36 ft). Even the Zamperla Endeavor could fit. Any of those could easily have some dark ride type elements integrated with them, reusing the infrastructure that is already in place. Acquiring a used ride could further drive down the cost.

DMX is just a control protocol for intelligent lighting. Almost any new fixture can be DMX controlled in one way or another, from street lights to the sconces on a restaurant. Adding DMX would add the ability to tie the lighting in with the park-wide lighting controls. You could very easily have lighting look totally normal during the day, and then sync with the music during the fireworks.

This is going to be assuming a whole lot of variables since I don't know the exact specs of the fountain, but here goes: Fountain has 112 total nozzles (source). By observation, there are (26) 1" Finger Jet Nozzles, (26) 1.5" Geyser Nozzles, (6) 2" Geyser Nozzles, and (54) 1" Geyser Nozzles. Assuming Heights of 10 feet for the Finger Jets and 1.5" Geysers, 15 feet for the 1" Geysers, and 25 feet for the 2" Geysers. Nozzle Quantity Aperture Size (in) Height (ft) Exit Velocity (ft/s) Flow Rate (each, gpm) Flow Rate (total, gpm) 1" Finger 26 1 10 25.38 62.1 1615.1 1" Geyser 54 1 15 31.08 76.1 4108.3 1.5" Geyser 26 1.5 10 25.38 139.8 3634.0 2" Geyser 6 2 25 40.12 392.9 2357.2 Total: 11714.6 To size the pumps, I assumed a head of 150ft for each run. Total guesstimate, but it would be far too complicated to do any actual calculations to determine this, especially since the pipe runs to each nozzle are going to be in the 3-4" range to get the flow rates needed for the height. HP Amps (@480/3Ø) VA Basis of Design Pump 1 GPM 1615.1 100.0 124 103092 Grundfos NBS 040-095/7.72 Pump 2 GPM 2054.152 121.0 156 129696 Grundfos NBS 050-150/14.09 Pump 3 GPM 2054.152 121.0 156 129696 Grundfos NBS 050-150/14.09 Pump 4 GPM 1816.975 100.0 124 103092 Grundfos NBS 040-095/7.72 Pump 5 GPM 1816.975 100.0 124 103092 Grundfos NBS 040-095/7.72 Pump 6 GPM 1178.622 75.0 96 79813 Grundfos NBS 030-095/7.36 Pump 7 GPM 1178.622 75.0 96 79813 Grundfos NBS 030-095/7.36 Total Power: 728293 VA 728 kVA Cost Per Hour: $35.32 So there you go- $35.32 an hour assuming a 50% demand factor on the pumps (those fountains aren't at full spray all the time). As far as water loss, on a typical summer day the evaporative losses come out to be about 2,400 gallons per hour. That is about $10/hr using the GCWW rates.

That would depend on a lot of factors- outside air temp, how much the chillers are cycling, their efficiency, etc. Assuming they are using all 3 chillers at about 80% capacity (typical safety margin), that would be 7.2 MBtu/hr * 0.8 = 5.76 MBtu/hr / 0.003412 Mbtu/hr/kW = 1688.15 kW of thermal power. Using a COP of 2.8, these would consume approximately 602 kW of electrical power. At $0.097 per kWh, this would place the running cost at $58.39 per hour.

By my observations, snowflake lake is using 600 tons of cooling to make the ice. That's pretty bonkers. There are three 200-ton Aggreko chillers in the fenced enclosure behind the Zamboni garage. For the other nerds out there- that's 7,200,000 BTU/hr of cooling, or 200 times larger than the typical home air conditioning system.

I had it last night. Different than previous years- they are serving the macaroni without any cheese then you pick from 4 different cheeses which one you want. From memory- five alarm, brew master (beer), alfredo, and classic. I had it with Bacon jam and the brew master cheese- it was pretty tasty. Much better than CP.

What I find most interesting about this is that it is designed by Joe Draves, not Alan Schilke. This will be his first RMC. Both are consultants at Ride Centerline, which has designed all of the RMCs.

I have been sitting on KI drive for the last 35 minutes- crawling along. The park is about as slammed as it gets. They are parking cars in the grass next to the road. Diamondback: 150 min Orion: 180 min Banshee: 90 min Mystic: 90 min Beast: 150 min Flight of Fear: 150 min

Agree with this! We did the same. The roast I had at Grain and Grill was fantastic, and so was the au gratin potatoes. I wish the sirloin at Coney BBQ was as good as that roast was (though I will still get the sirloin ) The portions at the burrito bowl place on the other side of IS were very large- more so than Hank's. I couldn't finish my bowl. Grizzly is, hands down, the worst wooden coaster I have ever been on. This year I got two more rides on it, for an all-time total of 7. It still earned that dishonor before, but this year was on a different level. The layout is really nothing too spectacular- especially the first drop that goes right into a slow turn-around. The roughness was just brutal. Rougher than Mean Streak or SOB on their worst days. If it were to get re-tracked (completely) AND get new trains, it might stand a chance at being decent. Reprofiling some of the turns and hills might give some semblance of airtime, instead of feeling like sitting on a washing machine full of rocks and getting punched by Ronda Rousey.

I mean... aren't all inverts floorless?

Really wouldn't be too hard- might have to beef up the footings on either side of the hole, but then you'd just run a steel beam across to catch the columns that are removed. That service road access is done just like this. Seclusion, on the other hand, is a different story.

There is some construction happening in Coney Mall- pavers have been removed just outside the Kill Mart building, with what appears to be a concrete pad poured. Sheets of plywood cover the slab to protect from recent rain. Thoughts?

A few more pictures I took last week: