befat
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Posts posted by befat
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Having operated all of the original KI rides that were still around when I worked at the park in the early 2000's, the Grand Carousel was on a different level. Even though it wasn't the biggest or most exciting ride, it was a joy to operate for hours at a time and take in the history and beauty. Do the ride operators still have a spiel that indicates the age of the carousel? I always enjoyed announcing that before the start of each ride cycle.
The park has at least one extra horse and they would consistently have one in the shop, year round, refurbishing and repainting it. They had them all on a rotation. I don't know how many are original, but an educated guess tells me that it's the majority of them. (They don't build 'em like they used to).
From my experience, the entire maintenance team really took pride in taking care of the carousel. For example, when the band organ would go out, they would lobby for the resources to get it back up and running. Which seems to still be a continuous battle. (That band organ is finicky and fixes can be costly and time consuming). The operations crew really took pride in it as well. I recall one of the supervisors would bring newspapers from home to clean the mirrors since they wouldn't leave streaks behind.
Oh and the lights that were added during Winterfest are terrific!
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The waterpark addition is finished! https://www.kingsdominion.com/blog/2020/coconut-shores-construction-update-october
It's interesting to see how these attractions were built on top of the old wave pool, vs a total demo and new build.
Also, goes without saying, it's crazy that back in August of 2019, we couldn't have imagined that Kings Dominion wouldn't open at all in 2020.
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On 8/25/2020 at 2:03 PM, brenthodge said:
I wasn’t referring to just the vine tunnel. The park as a whole definitely went through several phases of “remove and repave” as it changed from TAFT to KECO to PARAMOUNT. As to the vine tunnel, it seems that food location functioned fine for many years without a service area right behind it. Anyone know what it originally served and what changed to necessitate the removal of a path to add a service area?
My guess: Frozen Chicken Tenders. They probably did more fresh food in 1972 and didn't need as much food storage. At some point, they decided they needed a walk in freezer.
Trends and needs change over time. I doubt the removal of the pathway was taken lightly. Someone has to make the hard decisions.
What has been removed and repaved? Paramount and Cedar Fair have both removed a ton of asphalt from the park and replaced it with concrete (nice stained concrete with the Nickelodeon project), or pavers. Sure, more modern materials have been used but you're not going to find the same building materials that you did in 1972.
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Low capacity coasters haven't done well at KI in the past. See Ghoster Coaster and Firehawk. Backlot does okay now, but the lines for that thing were atrocious when it first opened.
While KI and Kings Dominion are sister parks, Kings Island was the leader of the Paramount Parks when it comes to annual attendance and is a leader in the Cedar Fair world. I say keep the low capacity Mouses and 4D Free Spin types away from KI and save up for full scale coaster models.
A low cost/capacity coaster might be more of a possibility now because of COVID though...
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22 minutes ago, brenthodge said:
Wow. Those pictures are great, but sad. Shows just how much changes in ownership and public tastes have butchered a beautiful park. Also shows you what a missed opportunity they had when they stopped way short of a full renovation of International Street last year. It’s better, but the paver layout make no sense, the tables and benches are bad and industrial, and they missed the chance to bring back the gas lights and “street” feel. I think CF is really trying to “bring back” the park, but man they inherited a mess that even they themselves created the first few years of their ownership.
I don't blame management changes for the removal of the covered walkway. The original vine covered archway suffered from poor placement. The archway was mostly removed and the pathway cut off to make way for the walk-in cooler and service area behind Snoopy Grill, which you can see in the photo posted by SonofBaconator. The rest was removed because the plants were starting to die and it probably wasn't worth the investment to replant on a dead end walkway. It's always great to see the love that the old archway gets because it holds a special place in my heart too. I always made my parents go out of the way to walk through it. I'm glad a new one was added in White Water Canyon's new entrance and I hope it grows in fully soon!
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5 hours ago, FUN&ONLY! said:
Maybe someone at the park can get a better look. What would it indicate if there were more markers on the other side?
If there are more markers on the other side of the entrance plaza, it would almost certainly point to utility work. The power lines and sewer follow Old Columbia Road.
Fun fact #1: The power lines were partially buried in 2012 when Tidal Wave Bay was added. This is why the area seems kind of removed from the rest of the waterpark.
Fun fact 1.5: Tidal Wave Bay is Kings Island’s only expansion into the parking lot.
Fun fact #2: There are 2 structures that pre-date KI on Old Columbia Road which are still standing today.
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On 5/5/2020 at 6:50 PM, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:
Not Orion related, but candymonium is testing at Hershey Park. Hopefully maintenance and construction crews go back into KI soon and we can start seeing Orion test again as well as other rides test.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=608316093102777&id=197689567498767
Does Candymonium have a mid-course brake run? If not, that would be a welcome evolution!
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Unpopular opinion? SOB had a boring layout. The drop and the loop were great, everything else was filler. The rose bowl was one of the main attractions of the ride and cause for the most issues. It was supposed to be a bigger and better version of Beast's helix but failed miserably. I don't think there's much RMC could have done with the rose bowl to make it better other than completely tearing it down and have the ride go a different direction at the top of the second hill. Or leave the rose bowl alone and just shore it up, keeping the same layout. I'll take Banshee with the hope of a ground up RMC someday any day.
With that being said, if we had gotten Iron SOB, some sort of barrel roll at the top of the second hill would have been epic and could have changed my mind on the whole subject.
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It's hard to believe that iphones were a relatively new thing back in 2008/2009 which is why you probably don't see any in the box. I believe there was also a concern of guest's trying to break into the box so expensive phones weren't used. It is my understanding that all of these phones went through the lost and found procedure and went unclaimed, so none were actually from 2009. The box is there more for safety, and less for concern about your phone. Part of Diamondback's initial testing by management before the park opened was riders intentionally dropping things from the ride to see where they would land. The placement of the nets that you see around the ride today are a result of these tests. Since Firehawk didn't travel over the midway, a box of this type was never placed there even though it threw a lot more items from pockets on a daily basis.
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13 minutes ago, KIBOB said:
I was thinking about this the other day (modernization), and realized Tim Fisher, who wanted to modernize KI when he was GM, is the COO of Cedar Fair. Probably no connection, but interesting nonetheless.
I meant to say oldest in reference to Invertigo, but you obviously knew what I meant. I edited it in my original post.
That is an interesting tid-bit on Tim Fisher. I believe Tim Fisher was GM when SOB was added so maybe he's helping making up for that mistake.
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The loss of Vortex definitely modernized the Kings Island skyline. The oldest steel coaster over 100 feet is Invertigo. In the back of my mind, Invertigo doesn't really count as a major part of the skyline, so after that it's Diamondback. Which is just... wild.
On another note, since Vortex was pulled down in narrow sections, I'm hoping they were able to drop it within the ride path and preserve the sections of trees.
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On 5/2/2013 at 7:05 PM, violakat03 said:
Holy old topic Batman.
Anyway, I actually was really surprised to see the Boat Tag attraction in this thread. I'd completely forgotten about it, but I remember it very clearly now from when I was younger.
Alright, it has obviously been a very long time since this topic has been discussed! Does anyone have any more information, stories, or pictures of the Boat Tag attraction while it was at Kings Island? This page shows it opening in 1994. Anyone know what year it cosed?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_Kings_Island_attractions
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I drove by late this afternoon. No new supports or track have been erected from what I could see. Pictures of the most recent work have already been posted here by others.
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Anyone else read the title of this thread as Webcam "Outrage" Discussion?
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6 hours ago, thatguyfromohio said:
741 going into mason when you can see Kings Island in the distance, you can see all of Diamondback hills, and how tall the cranes really are, around 350ft tall
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkThat's pretty cool. When driving up I-71 North, the cranes peak out over the trees before you can even see the Warren County Water Tower or any rides in the skyline. Those cranes really are massive!
Furthermore, while Orion won't "look" that much taller than Diamondback, it balances out the park nicely. I always liked how Son of Beast framed out the Eiffel Tower when driving north and Orion has a similar effect.
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1 hour ago, Maverick44 said:
Does someone want to tell Linda that actually yes that is where the webcams are lol
Listen Linda.
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On one hand, I think building out this park with rides along with the Sesame Street brand could be a really successful endeavor. On the other hand, I think it's really strange that they are dropping rides into the existing park instead of adding an additional area. Not sure how that's going to work.
https://sesameplace.com/san-diego/about-the-park/
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17 hours ago, super7 said:
That seems to be the direction the park has went. Cut down trees instead of working around them (the land clearing for Diamondback and Orion instead of building the coaster through the trees like The Beast). Also the tree removal around The Beast the last couple years ( around the station, between the first tunnel and the brake run, and between the brake run and the long 2nd tunnel).
Any bad tree is now cut down and not replaced with the exception of the new trees on I-Street. Overall, the park is VERY hot when the weather is hot, as there is little shade now on the walkways.The emerald ash borer has a lot to do with the tree removals you see around the park.
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On 10/2/2019 at 10:20 AM, teenageninja said:
It's kind of funny, of all the rides Kings Island have removed in my lifetime (and I'm sure I'm missing a few) very few have been replaced with something better:
Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal - TR:TR/The Crypt - Madame Fatale's Haunt
King Cobra - Delirium
Flying Eagles and Antique Cars x 2 - Backlot Stunt Coaster
Skylab - Games
Flight Commander - Removed, then planned Drop Tower, then Eurobungie, then eventually Antique Autos
Son of Beast - Banshee (I would call this a big positive)
Firehawk - Orion (Should be a big upgrade)
Vortex - The jury is still out.
That is a good point!
I'll add one more - Ghoster Coaster - Surf Dog (definitely an upgrade)
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1 hour ago, Tr0y said:
You are still sitting on a B&M floor less but there is no floor so your feet dangle over track.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floorless_Coaster
I should clarify, I have ridden a B&M's with floor-less trains and regular sitting trains (a la Hulk). Just curious if people think the floor-less experience is that much greater. Would it be worth the extra cost to add the machinery in the station to accommodate the floor-less trains? The ride layouts on these coasters seem to be similar regardless of the train style . Either would be a worthy replacement for Vortex in terms of lift hill height and inversions.
I took the "sitting coaster" terminology from RCDB.
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What about a B&M sitting coaster (a la Hulk or Time Machine)? Are floor-less trains vastly greater than sitting?
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2 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:
Call me dumb but I would prefer not to have another wooden based coaster next to The Beast and Mystic Timbers
I agree - and Racer.
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1. It's kind of funny that The Vortex land will probably sit empty for a while right after the land across the way was just redeveloped for Antique Autos . (After 20+ years! For the most part.)
2. While I think The Vortex station is a goner, it would be cool if KI reused it for a 3rd coaster. Does anyone know of another example of a coaster station being reused for an entirely different coaster? I don't think RMC's and stand-up to floor-less conversions count. I will miss the Victorian (ish) styling of the station.
3. How far would be acceptable for a new coaster to go back without encroaching on Beast's seclusion? I'm thinking not past the crest of the first lift hill.
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5 hours ago, Kodistict said:
This shed is open again, does anyone know what it is?
It was built to house the helicopter for the helicopter tours. Last I knew, it was used as temporary storage in the summer and for winter maintenance on the wood coaster trains in the off-season.
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Demolished Coasters
in Kings Island
Posted
These were the first 3 parks I thought of to compare to KI:
Six Flags Magic Mountain - 8 (tied with KI)
Kings Dominion - 6
Carowinds - 3 (interesting since they opened a year after KI)