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Windseeker & Coney Mall Construction Continues


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^ Trying to figure out how our tower can be taller, but their gondola goes higher than ours... :P Someone somewhere must be levitating.

"Gyro drop" is the style of ride, like a HUSS Top Spin or an Intamin Blitz coaster. Intamin has two types of Drop Towers - Intamin Giant Drops (like Wonderland, Carowinds, and Great America's Drop Zones) and Intamin Gyro Drops (like ours, with the ring of riders). Both Kings Island and Kings Dominion have Gyro Drop Towers.

Kings Island's tower is taller, but the brakes start higher up, thus resulting in an altogether shorter drop. The tower is 315 feet, while the drop is 264 (which would mean that the brakes begin 51 feet up the tower).

Kings Dominion's tower is shorter than ours, but the brakes also begin lower down, so there's actually a longer drop area before coming in contact with the brakes. The tower is only 305 feet tall, but drop distance is 272 feet, meaning that the brakes start 33 feet up the tower.

So both are the tallest, just in different ways.

Why do are brakes start higher? if you know why.

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Why do are brakes start higher? if you know why.

my best guess as to why Kings Island's Drop Tower's brakes start higher is that the ride carriage for it weighs more than the one for kings dominion's Drop Tower, meaning it takes more time to slow it down.

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I don't know, but Kings Dominion's was built four years after ours, so perhaps technology had improved by then and allowed the ride to be adequately slowed in a shorter space on their tower.

And as was pointed out, Kings Dominion's is a gyro drop (and not a giant drop or a ballistic tower, the other two Drop Tower variants offered by Intamin) as evidenced by the higher capacity and the ring of seats. It's been my opinion that Kings Dominion's doesn't bother with the spinning gimmick because not having it seems to increase throughput tremendously - the ring ascends the tower much more quickly, and the catch-car returns much more quickly. Of course, that, too, may be from four years worth of technology improvement more than anything.

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So somewhat back to the topic of WindSeeker - I "learned" from my son at dinner tonight that while testing last night, two of the seats fell off. One of his friends was there and saw it. :)

I'm somewhat surprised that this was a topic of conversation in a class of second graders - many of whom are too short to even ride it.

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Don't forget that Vortex is also sinking and Cobra closed because of "Low Ridership."

I'm sure that if the seats actually fell off, the enthusiasts crowd would have heard about it a lot sooner than now. And (No offense,) through a second grader.

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i heard about the seat falling off also, apparently "everyone" saw it. if a dinosaur catching fire makes the news, i'm sure projectile seats would also.

BUT...even if it never opens (i know it will at some point), they need to keep it up for the awesome light show it puts on. I just hope they don't get lazy and let lights go out or let it fall into disinterest...like some lights in the starlight experience, the themed room of outer limits, or the general themes of Adventure Express.

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Takin from the Intamin website.

"40-seat ring structure rises slowly up the shaft,

turning as it goes to give the guests a good all-round

view of their surroundings, turning slowly and gently"

KD drop toower does not rotate. So it cannont fit under the the gyro drop title.

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Well, I went to Kings Island last Saturday for the first time. It was nice weather, sunny, and fairly crowded! I also took my camera for the first time in forever soooo....here are some pix :) (I'm mainly sharing one's of WindSeeker because most people have seen everything else I took photos of)

100_2922.jpg

As others have said, the motion limiter things hadn't been added...I didn't see any, but I believe someone said they saw one. I do wonder if the designer always intended for them to be added or if they thought it was possible, so they manufactured the ride with the brackets in place.

100_2939.jpg

I guess that is to keep the cables where they're supposed to be, even when it gets windy.

100_2907.jpg

The view from Diamondback's line! :D

100_2921.jpg

I personally really like the blue railings they used around WindSeeker...I like the blue and these railings seem more sleek.

100_2924.jpg

the seats look uber comfy....but quite minimal!

And now what everyone's been waiting for! We know how long til it opens...

WindseekerWaitTimeSign.png

:D

Also, here's the link to the album if you'd like to view the rest :)http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab289/AlexRB1994/Kings%20Island/

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^ Nice pics! Thanks!

KD drop toower does not rotate. So it cannont fit under the the gyro drop title.

Then what is it?

http://www.intaminworldwide.com/amusement/Towers/Gyro+Drop/tabid/142/ProductNumber/Gyro+Drop/language/de-DE/Default.aspx

The gyro drop page on Intamin's website has a photo of Kings Dominion's tower. The attached PDF has two pictures of it. The only other tower types offered by intamin both use little four-person carts (see, Drop Zone at the other three Paramount Parks). It is a gyro drop. Perhaps when constructing their final drop ride, Paramount requested that the revolving mechanism be left out (that is, after all, the only apparently difference between ours and theirs in terms of functionality) for one reason or another. Does that mean the ride deserves its own unique classification? No. It's a gyro drop without the added revolving gimmick.

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If you haven't seen, the CW WindSeeker opened up again for the past 2 days I think. Someone has put a POV on YouTube.

Gotta love the line out the queue in that video. People must really want to ride that. Wonder how long the line for Behemoth was at that particular moment...

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Flightoffear1996: if a sports car is never driven over 50 MPH is it not still a sports car?

Thats comparing apples an orange.

I'm just flabbergasted by this. So, it has the exact capacity, size, throughput, and duration as an Intamin Gyro Drop.

Intamin calls it a gyro drop and uses its picture to advertise its gyro Drop Tower.

Kings Dominion advertises it as the world's tallest gyro drop.

It is physically, mechanically identical its sister at Kings Island, which is a gyro drop.

But because it does not spin, it has its own classification that neither Kings Dominion or Intamin seems to recognize? Talk about arguing over semantics (and to argue that the manufacturer and owner are wrong, and that your classification is better than theirs... Argue if you must that it doesn't deserve to be classified a gyro drop, but recognize that it is classified as such regardless of your opinion).

Happy to see Canada's tower seems to be doing well. Let's hope ours is fast-tracked to open.

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Based on the POV, I can almost follow through with my opinion that this ride is no more than a kiddie ride 300 feet in the air. I know, I know, I will get you guys picking at me because I haven't been on it yet, but honestly - does it look that thrilling?

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^Do bear in mind that the video doesn't show that you're being held into an essentially sideless seat by a simple lapbar. I think that's where a lot of the thrill comes in--it's psychological.

And as far as this gyro drop controversy goes... Who really cares? They're still both the scariest things I've ever done in an amusement park! :)

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Hi, first post, but I feel the need to add this in here.

As I'm from St. Louis, we got the Skyscreamer, which is about the same as the WindSeeker, only 60 feet smaller..but you would think the ride is super thrilling..when all it is is REALLY basically a kiddie ride.

Sure, it's got a great view, and if you're scared of heights, it'll get ya, but once you ride it a couple times, it gets pretty boring. I don't know if the WindSeeker will be different, but hey, I'm just putting in my two cents.

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Welcome CPKIMAX! :)

Thanks for your input. I will say that saying that Skyscreamer is "only" 60 feet shorter is an understatement though...in my opinion 60 feet is quite a difference.

I am not thrilled with heights...so I can picture WindSeeker giving me a little bit of a scare.

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