TombraiderTy
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Posts posted by TombraiderTy
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14 hours ago, Kenban said:
Is anyone familiar enough with the history of Coney Island to know if a complete replacement of the Dodgem ride occurred between 1924 and 1972? I believe it moved and that the cars were replaced but I have no idea if it was completely replaced all at once like what appears to have happened at Kings Island in 1986.
Here are all the times that the ride is mentioned in the Cincinnati's Coney Island book:
- Page 46, 1922: "Coney got a bumper car ride called the Dodgem. It was owned by A. H. Light of Cincinnati. John A. Miller of Miller and Baker designed and built a new dome-shaped building for the ride."
- Page 114, 1947: "Postwar model Dodgem cars were purchased."
- Page 130 and 143, section "1948 to 1961": Photos of ride cars on both pages that show one-person vehicles. The cars have the same bodies in the two photos, but detailing on the front is different - uncertain if they're different cars, or just updated.
- Page 165, 1962ish: "The wooden building that had housed the Whip, Cuddle Up, and Dodgem was torn down and replaced with a new steel one." (Note this implies the pre-1960s Dodgem building isn't the same as the dome-shaped 1922 one)
- Page 182, 1967: "New cars were purchased for the Dodgem."
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I could understand the Ship of Theseus debate if the 1986 Dodgem had retained the same cars or same location, and only later changed one of those... but it was an outright replacement in every sense, and it was marketed as such. Saying the two rides are the same would be comparable to saying Coney Island's Shooting Star and Kings Island's Racer were the same ride... they're both wooden roller coasters with an emphasis on airtime. But I think most people would agree that they're different rides.
For what it's worth, it's only been a recent trend for Kings Island's marketing department to classify the current, 1986 Dodgem as an original ride.
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Thanks for sharing! I especially love the footage inside Enchanted Voyage.
If you wanted confirmation it's from 1981 and not later, the Firestone International Airshow's last year was 1981 - with the presence of The Bat (opened in 1981), that limits the video to that year.
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Zodiac was before my time, but I've always been fascinated by it - it was such a cool looking ride.
17 minutes ago, johnjniehaus said:I believe the Zodiac was an Intamin Double Ferris Wheel that operated from 1975 - 1986. As far as I know none of these rides exist anywhere in the world at this point.
Technically the ride was from Waagner-Biro and was brokered by Intamin. Intamin almost always gets credit for it though.
And technically one still exists - Scorpion at Parque de la Ciudad in Argentina. It hasn't operated in almost 20 years though.
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Thanks for sharing! I love old park maps. If you're a fan of Six Flags Over Texas' history, I'd recommend reading Six Flags over Texas: The First Fifty Years - it was gifted to me a couple years back and is a good dive into the park's rich history.
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On 7/24/2022 at 10:56 AM, FUN&ONLY! said:
However, the Infinity Flyer trains were really designed with the Titan Track in mind, so it makes the most sense for them to be used on a new Titan Track hybrid. Also, World’s of Fun’s permit filings mention Daniel Peak as the engineer. He works for Skyline attractions which is the company that makes GCI’s Titan Track and designs GCI layouts. Worlds of Fun already has a GCI wooden rollercoaster in Prowler, so a Titan Track hybrid is really all that makes sense for the park to differentiate the new ride from Prowler.
Maybe the Infinity Flyer trains Clair announced will be used on a Titan Track ride, but that wasn't confirmed and that's speculation. All that's confirmed is that Infinity Flyer trains are going on a new ride. The Infinity Flyer trains don't have to go on a Titan Track ride, and there's tons of reasons they wouldn't - they can operate fine on wood track and allow for a lower height requirement, tighter turn and crest radii, and reduced maintenance.
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10 hours ago, DiamondbackFan said:
Clair Hain Jr. of GCI confirmed the purchase of two Infinity Flyer trains and Titan Track for a ride opening in Spring 2023.
For what it’s worth, Clair didn’t confirm Titan Track, but only confirmed the Infinity Flyer trains. Everyone is speculating it’ll include Titan Track, but as he said, the trains can be used independent of the steel track.
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The Fun Box is included on KingsIslandGear.com, which the park has linked to and I believe identified as their official online shop in the past. So sounds like it's official.
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You can see the room next to Willard's at the 1:25 mark in this POV that Kings Island recently shared. It appears to be an endless hallway effect.
At the 3:18 mark of the same video, you can see Houdelini's box on the left. I don't think there was anything on the same level as Maestro.
Regarding the statues, I don't believe that those audio files have ever found their way online.
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Thanks for the comments!
Friday, June 3 (Part 2)
Back toward the front of the park, I explored the Route 76 area that Valleyfair overhauled a few years back. It includes their Intamin Impulse (Steel Venom), a few flat rides, a good chunk of the Wild Thing hypercoaster, and Northern Lights. Northern Lights is a Zamperla disk'o coaster, aka the same ride as Kings Island's own Surf Dog. The ride experience was pretty comparable, but this one has LED lights along the track. I didn't have the chance to see the ride at night, but if it's anything like Cedar Point's Pipe Scream, I really wish Kings Island would enhance Surf Dog with a similar lighting package.
Next door was Delirious, a Larson super loop. I believe this is the only one of its kind at a Cedar Fair park, which I've always found odd - I know that enthusiasts aren't wild about these rides, but the general public seem to enjoy them and they seem like a smart addition. I didn't ultimately ride this one, but I liked how the ride's marquee was in a planter with purple mulch, matching the attraction's color palette.
I took a break from the rides and walked around the park, enjoying the sights and looking for a place to eat. As mentioned in the first post, Valleyfair was a little understaffed, and the number of closed food stands reflected that. There was an interesting stand named Minnesota Eats that featured local flavor, but it was closed. The park's version of Chicken Shack was also closed. A few of the places that were open had (understandably) long lines. I ultimately settled on Mama Chetta's Pizzeria, which was a very standard theme park pizza place. I think the slice of pizza, bread sticks, and the drink would've rang up around $18 or so, but I was able to use my newly-acquired meal plan for the first time here.
I had been traveling solo up until this point, but my friend James arrived around here and joined me. We started with a new ride for both of us - Wild Thing, Valleyfair's tallest (207'), longest (5,460'), and fastest (74mph) coaster. The ride was one of only a handful of hyper coasters built by Morgan Manufacturing, which was later purchased by Chance.
Wild Thing was a quirky ride. It felt reminiscent of an Arrow (which Morgan founder, Dana Morgan, had came from), with its abrupt transitions and long straight sections. It was still a ton of fun though, and there was a wacky tunnel section midride that was a good surprise. I think I'd rank it below the other Morgan hyper coasters I've done (Steel Force at Dorney Park and Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood), but it was still a great ride and one of the park's best.
Up next was High Roller, a classic out-and-back wooden roller coaster from the defunct International Amusement Devices, Inc., which was the successor to National Amusement Device Company. The ride wasn't anything spectacular, but it was enjoyable. It also had a very bright, seemingly recent paint job.
One weird thing about High Roller was that it was located in the heart of Planet Snoopy. It wasn't too intense and I'm sure a lot of kids love it, but its location was a tad odd. It'd be like if Kings Island put The Racer in its Planet Snoopy.
We next took a spin on Renegade and then Excalibur, James for the first time on each. We did Renegade in the very back, which is easily the best row for the ride. Excalibur was toward the front, which was comparable to my earlier rides on it.
The school crowds had been crazy all day with endless middle schoolers in all the queue lines, but there weren't too many younger kids in Planet Snoopy. Considering this, there was almost no wait for Snoopy's Rocket Express, which is comparable to Kings Island's Woodstock Whirlybirds. Unlike the KI counterpart though, it featured open-air vehicles. We decided to give the small ride a spin.
Snoopy's Rocket Express was a good break from the back-to-back roller coaster rides, and it gave some nice views of the Planet Snoopy area. I know Kings Island's area won the Golden Ticket Award for ages, but Valleyfair's was really nice and gave the Kings Island counterpart a run for its money. One big thing that Kings Island has the advantage of though is child-friendly coasters - there's four (including Surf Dog) coasters with 44" or lower height requirements in KI's Snoopy area, whereas Valleyfair only had one.
We followed-up Snoopy's Rocket Express with another slower ride, Ferris Wheel. Valleyfair's was placed near the heart of the amusement park on a small hill and gave a good panoramic view of its surroundings. I don't know if it was for balancing purposes or staffing or what, but they were only loading maybe a third of the cars. This resulted in what was probably the longest wait of the day, but it wasn't too bad and the ride was worth it.
Adjacent to the Ferris Wheel was Corkscrew, which was also one of only two roller coasters I hadn't ridden yet. We followed-up our ride on Ferris Wheel with a spin on this classic Arrow looper. The ride was really pretty and its placement over the water was great, but the experience itself was about what you expect from an old Arrow. A little rough with some sharp transitions and not-so-great restraints. It was a one-and-done for me.
We wrapped up our first day at Valleyfair with one last coaster, Steel Venom. I believe this is the last Intamin inverted impulse with a holding brake, which I was excited to try out (I think Possessed at Dorney Park still had its holding brake when I rode it in 2008, but that was so long ago I don't really remember).
We rode in the very back. The launches and the twisted spike are great, but the holding brake was honestly more painful than fun. No desire to ride this one again.
The park closed at 5pm, right as we were riding Steel Venom. We headed out afterward with plans to return at opening for day two.
Day 2 coming soon; any comments welcomed and appreciated!
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It's been a couple years since I've done a trip report, but I used to love sharing them and figured I may as well take another stab at one. I visited Valleyfair and Nickelodeon Universe for the first time last weekend, spending three days between the two parks. Overall it was a great trip, and both parks have some great rides. I'm not sure I'll make the trip back up anytime soon, but I'm glad I did this visit and finally got to visit another one of Kings Island's sister parks.
I'll split the three days (two at Valleyfair, one at Nickelodeon Universe) into a few parts each. Feel free to comment with any questions or thoughts on the parks or rides!
Friday, June 3 (Part 1)
After waking up 3:20am for an early flight, I took a Lyft from the airport directly to Valleyfair and arrived right at opening. I love how every park's skyline is different, and Valleyfair's had a really fun one visible directly from the parking area.
The park oddly doesn't have a passenger pick-up or drop-off area, meaning my Lyft driver had to go through the tolls and explain that he was just dropping me off. The attendant waved us through, so it wasn't ultimately an issue, but it was still a strange set-up.
The park had a standard Cedar Fair entrance. The wait wasn't too bad for security, and I was able to scan my Platinum Pass without issue. First time using it this year!
The park had this sign placed outside the entrance. It was clear that the park was short-staffed throughout the day, and operations were a little slower than I'd expect at many of the rides. But it's early in the season and nothing was ever too painful.
The first thing you see upon entry is this adorable fountain of Snoopy and Woodstock. I'd love to see a similar fountain somewhere at Kings Island.
I grabbed a locker for my backpack and a coffee at Caribou Coffee, which I hadn't had since it left the Cincinnati area years ago. Then off to my first ride: Mad Mouse.
Mad Mouse is one of only four Wild Mouse rides ever built by Arrow Dynamics. Two of the others are also at Cedar Fair parks (Michigan's Adventure and California's Great America), whereas the fourth was at the now-defunct Myrtle Beach Pavilion in South Carolina. I've wanted to ride one of these zany little rides for ages and was excited to finally get my chance. Perhaps I set my expectations a little too high though, as the experience itself was... meh? It was a very standard Wild Mouse, even though Arrow tried some quirky new things, like some zig-zagged track and a bit of banking on some of the curves. By no means was it bad, but it was just a run-of-the-mill Wild Mouse.
I next moved toward Renegade, the park's newest roller coaster. It wasn't open for the day yet and there was a train parked on the lift, so I continued down the midway to Excalibur.
Getting to Excalibur was weird - it was a very narrow pathway through the waterpark and into a tight underground tunnel. Given that it was still early morning, and how isolated this coaster was, I was able to do Excalibur back-to-back with minimal waiting. The ride was built by Arrow Dynamics in 1989 and feels like an XL version of Adventure Express. It has some really sharp (and jarring) transitions and definitely throws you around. It was a ton of fun though, and I had been wanting to ride this odd ride for years ever since I saw it in a roller coaster book as a kid. Definitely a highlight of the park.
After Excalibur, I returned to Renegade and was pleasantly surprised to see it had opened. After a short wait, I rode the park's newest coaster (and my 250th... not that I keep track
) in the third row.
My first ride on Renegade was honestly a little underwhelming, but as I rode it more over the next two days (especially in the back) it kept getting better. The curving drop (the only one of its kind on a GCI coaster) is stellar and some of the high-speed, low-to-the-ground transitions are extra thrilling. I don't think the station fly-by really added anything, but it was still a great ride and ultimately was my favorite one at the park.
I next walked back toward the front of the park, passing through Planet Snoopy on the way. Similar to the Snoopy fountain at the front of the park, the Snoopy area was filled with a ton of fun fiberglass figures - I would love to see Kings Island add some of these.
I swung by Guest Services with some questions and ended up investing in the meal and drink plan, which should be motivation to get up to Kings Island and some other Cedar Fair parks more this summer. I also left with a fun button, courtesy the Guest Service staff.
Part 2 coming soon; any comments and questions appreciated!
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Did Slingshot operate any of the past few weekends?
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I'm pleasantly surprised to see concerts in Timberwolf again and hope that they do well. Also interesting to see that they're allowing park people to buy tickets to just the concerts and not requiring park admission... it's been done at least one other time, for a Loverboy concert back in 1982.
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On 4/27/2022 at 4:59 PM, Coasterteam said:
Also, anyone happen to notice the trims before the first lift on Adv. Express were off opening day? We slammed into that turn!
I wasn't at the park opening day, but I think the same was done in the past, if memory serves me right... coasters run slower when it's colder, and it may be a little chillier some of these earlier weekends, so it's probably a preemptive measure to make sure the train has enough speed to successfully engage with the lift hill.
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Monster opened at Coney Island in 1968, as noted in this May 19, 1968 article from The Cincinnati Enquirer. Monster reference is halfway down the left column.
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What a fun commercial - I laughed out loud when I saw a tire going down the drop on Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal.
I'm intrigued by the inclusion of "And seatbelts on thrillers like these" at 0:23, showing Racer... I wasn't aware Racer had seatbelts in the 1970s? Did it, or is it just video editing and they actually showed the seatbelts on a different ride?
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2 hours ago, MDMC01 said:
Looks cool! When was the wheel originally installed/how long did it last?
The wheel was original to the ride when it opened at Cincinnati's Coney Island in 1968, as seen here (photo source unknown):
It was removed sometime between 2004-2005. It actually sat in a park boneyard afterward for a few years, before being assumedly scrapped.
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1 hour ago, Shaggy said:
It’s the modern day version of a gum wall/gum tree. Thank goodness that fad is over.
Ive never understood why, in the off season, no one climbs up there with a broom.
Or a leaf blower during the season, maybe once a week or so. All that stuff is unsightly and (literally) trashy.
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Here's a wonderful pair of photos showing the flume with the lights. Both photos were previously shared in the Kings Island History Facebook group by user Pete Leaf Peters.
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17 hours ago, chuck norris said:
Although it’s not a relevant question since The Racer didn’t change its layout or angles. They just replaced old wood for new.
Actually Racer did have its track shifted at some bents. You can see how the ledgers (long pieces of wood that the track sits atop) have been shifted down here... the old locations of the ledgers are the brown spots on the white posts.
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11 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:
The parking lot was gravel in 1972. I think it was paved either the next year or soon after. Unlikely to be original, but decades old.
I think that the edges of the parking lot were gravel (it's a little hard to tell in photos), but the main section in the middle was paved. Here are a pair of photos from 1972, shared by Steve Reiner in the Kings Island History Facebook group.
One more photo, cropped from one by the Ohio Department of Transportation in 1972... the far left and right definitely look like they could be gravel (also interesting that buses used to park on the right, whereas today that area is handicap / associate parking... I wonder when that changed?)
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Thanks for sharing! I really like the picture of Scooby-Doo and Mr. Red in front of the Eiffel Tower; I don't think I've ever seen that one before. Nice find!
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Thank you so much for having me! It was a lot of fun to discuss Kings Island's history, plus all the ways that the park will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.
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24 minutes ago, CoastersRZ said:
When was the parade time when they did Winterfest in 2005? I want to say it was around 7:30.
Per the 2005 WinterFest map, you're correct that it was at 7:30pm.
This is exciting for the event. The floats look really great and I bet the 8:30pm time will encourage visitors to stay at the park longer.
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Winnie Witch's Cauldron for Sale
in Kings Island History
Posted
One of the cauldron-shaped ride vehicles from Winnie Witch's Cauldrons has been listed for sale on Facebook. Only $1,950, and it can be yours!
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1786720408469147/
More information about the ride, which operated at Kings Island from 1972 through 1991: https://KICentral.com/parkhistory/past-attractions/winnie-witchs-cauldrons/ (I strongly suspect that the product description on Facebook used this page as a reference)