TombraiderTy

Intamin is a company from Switzerland that sold/manufactured many of Kings Island's rides, including Drop Tower, Viking Fury, Eiffel Tower, White Water Canyon, and Congo Falls. They've also manufactured some big roller coasters at other parks, like Millennium Force and Maverick up at Cedar Point.

Are we looking at the same photo? As far as I can see, they covered all the details and didn't bring any of them out... I can't vouch for anything in terms of accuracy to historical sailing ships though. The skull and crossbones has always been on the ship. The whole theming package (skull, windows, figurehead, etc.) is standard on Intamin swinging ships.

Here's another picture of Viking Fury's new paint job, now from behind (courtesy Twitter user KyleKruthoffer): I'm disappointed that they seemingly just coated the whole boat with one color, especially those windows... I wonder if any light from inside will shine through with those layers of dark paint applied on top. For reference, here's a (slightly older) photo of the back of the boat. The big light on top was removed before the 2010 season.

GCI rendering? I thought this was a B&M!

Oh no, you don't know how big a can of worms you just opened After spending some more time looking it over, I'm fairly confident it's 1980. Here's some of the reasoning: WCPO 9 has an aerial video of Kings Island from 1980 (misdated as 1979) and you can see Stadium of Stars missing there too. I don't know if I've seen a 1981 photo/video with the venue, but it was a very temporary set-up and seems like it could've been easily assembled/disassembled as needed (though I do question why it wouldn't just be permanently kept up). Referencing old show guides, it appears that the Wild Animal Safari amphitheater was dormant in 1980 but hosted The Caribbean Serenaders in 1981. Off of Facebook and now uploaded to KIC's gallery, you can see that all of Joiner's images have filenames. The one we're analyzing is just "193 PARK", but the preceding and succeeding ones are definitely 1980... The Bat construction sign, Turnpike not a construction site yet, etc... which I think is strong evidence this was 1980 too. But don't worry, there's still a mystery (where would the fun be if there wasn't?! ) Screamin' Demon is running through its loop. Joiner had another photo, zoomed in a little on the old coaster... If we zoom in even a little further and count the cars... There appears to be (6) cars... And zooming in on the station platform appears to back up the (6) cars claim, with 6 clusters of queuing guests: (6) cars on Demon in 1980 completely contradicts everything I've ever read/seen about this ride and is throwing me for a loop (ba dum tss). The ride opened with 6 in 1977, but was down to only 5 by the end of its first season... and I've never seen any evidence of it returning to 6 car operation after, but this definitely changes that... And down another rabbit hole of KI history I go

Only about 70 or so feet over. Both photos courtesy Jeff Joiner: 1980 or 1981 (can't pinpoint which): 1982:

What @gforce1994 said is correct, but if you're updating the timeline then you may want to correct that Ferris Wheel opened mid-1978, not 1982. It was removed after the 1990 season and relocated to Libertyland amusement park in Tennessee. To nitpick, the text also jumps between present and paste tense. Bayern Kurve was a circular, roller coaster like flat ride located where Sling Shot now sits. Here's a similar attraction (although Kings Island's never had a jet of water in the center):

I used to have the 1982 poster map above my desk at work and got so used to looking at it and Ferris Wheel's wrong location that I almost forgot that Ferris Wheel was never actually located there I'm pretty sure that the Oktoberfest pond is drained in this picture (from KIExtreme / Mark Cross) for Viking Fury's construction. Unfortunately the ride is cropped out of the photo.

On the overall subject of Viking Fury, I don't think I've ever seen a construction picture of the ride. The ride is listed on the 1982 poster map as a 1983 addition, but it actually opened summer 1982 (July 18, though I've seen it misidentified as June 18 before). So it was likely under construction while the park was open to guests... which makes the lack of construction photos even more odd.

Not defunct; PTC still manufactures and refurbishes trains.

On the subject of the shrubbery around the fountains, this is one of the photos from the collection... I never knew that there were lights inside the plants, which really made it look extra beautiful at night. I'd love to have them back, but I'm not surprised the park did away with them - maintaining all that could not have been easy. Edit - I guess lights "inside" the shrubs is just evenly-spaced garden lights down each side of the fountain... but the effect is still fantastic

If you checked out the album earlier in the day, you may want to give it a second visit... the original poster added over 300 (!!!) more photos to the collection, now totaling 487 photos.

Well the colors on the front of the colors are the same as the colors on the back, so my point about the colors complementing each other better still stands But here's an image with the front of a car, from YouTube user Brendan Carey:

KI just tweeted a new picture of the paint job (LINK) Personally, I think the brown gave the ride a more rustic, natural appearance... I suppose the tan definitely helps it stick out more though.

To directly compare the two cars (both pictures from Kings Island): Old: New: I'd love to see an overall picture of the ride with the new cars, but even from the smaller picture it looks like a great change. The purples and green cars always clashed with the blue structure, but the metallic ones compliment it well. I wonder if these cars came from a pre-existing Scrambler or were fabricated new by Eli Bridge Company.

A member of the Kings Island Season Pass Holders just shared 150+ vintage photos from his family's collection. The images include such rare and cool things as The Bat's construction, a Screamin' Demon evacuation, and lots of detailed shots of obscure Kings Island history. I don't believe you need to be a member of the group or even have a Facebook to check them out. You can see the whole batch here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/KISeasonPassholders/permalink/1188566601476455/ Here's a few of the highlights though (all courtesy Jeff Joiner):

Yep; it went over the beginning of the ride (where Express' trains plunge into tunnel one) and then under the end. You can see both crosses in this old photo, courtesy Chris Gray.

Yes, because those signs were directly transposed from Cincinnati's Coney Island. My statement that the new sign is the same as the one that Cedar Point installed 16 years ago, and that any relation to Cuddle Up's sign is likely a coincidence, still stands.

From the blog post you quoted: I love the new look of the attraction. It'll really add some color to Coney Mall.

I think that's just a coincidence. As noted above, the new sign is the same design as Cedar Point's sign, and Cedar Point's sign was added back in 2004. Cedar Point's sign was definitely going for a 1950s/1960s retro look though, which Cuddle Up's sign un-ironically achieved when it (the sign, not the ride) was added in the 1960s.

The new Dodgem sign looks wonderful. It appears to be a near-copy of Cedar Point's, although I'm not sure if ours will be backlit or not (image from Wikimedia)

It was credited in a follow-up tweet from the original poster, but that video is pulled from the start of the video (from EFC 8MM Home Videos) I previously linked to in this thread. It's worth watching all of it (well, at least the first four-and-a-half minutes shot at Kings Island).

When I drove up to Nashville last summer I remember seeing billboards around the city for Dollywood, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Lake Winnie... as if Nashville would benefit from having an amusement park of its own There was a proposal for a new park in the early 2000s, "Thrillopolis". Ed Hart (who later revived Kentucky Kingdom) was involved in the project.

Is this highlighted path the one that you photographed, @Gordon Bombay? I don't really know Opryland history, but based off this 1997 aerial and the few retro images of the rapids ride I can find I wonder if the path wasn't a part of the ride, but instead just a nearby pathway toward the resort. The white part to the right of the highlighted path is the rapid ride's trough, and the ride's station is the box shape below the reservoir in the center.

I visited the Gaylord Opryland Resort and the Opry Mills Mall back in 2007 when there were still remnants of the raft ride. Here are some pictures of the abandoned troughs I took.