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Flight of Fear Awesomeness "PTR" 6/27


CedarPointer
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I can't believe the state of the theming in Flight of Fear right now. Someone needs to give whoever did this a freakin' medal.

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This is more lights than I've ever seen working on the UFO. And check out how dark the queue is!

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Only the colored spotlights are on!

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It's lighted underneath the UFO.

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Inside the saucer is much darker now, too.

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I had no idea that this still worked!

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Another (sideways) picture of something that I didn't think worked.

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The lights in the station are better than usual. The sphere thing on the ceiling is lit up, there's red spots on the body pod things, and there's some neat lighting on the sides of the op's booth. Oh, and all the sounds seem to be working, including the takeoff sound.

I honestly can't believe that this much themed lighting is working at Cedar Fair's Kings Island. As I said, whoever fixed this stuff deserves a medal.

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They added the crashing sound!?!?

As to the station lighting, you mean the lights that look like they're vents, at the bottom of the drive box?

And in your last picture, see the purple lights on the ceiling? Did they fix the ones at the beginning and end of the station?

EPIC!!

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They added the crashing sound!?!?

As to the station lighting, you mean the lights that look like they're vents, at the bottom of the drive box?

And in your last picture, see the purple lights on the ceiling? Did they fix the ones at the beginning and end of the station?

EPIC!!

Either they added that sound or it was REALLY loud inside the drum today, because I'm 100% sure I heard a whoosh after the train left (not the normal metal-sounding one from the track). I didn't notice those lights in the station, the ones on either side of the drivebox are now red, so the wall has a neat color to it (you can sort of see it in the last pic). I didn't notice of those lights were working or not, but I can't imagine they aren't- even the lights in the room between the first saucer room and the station work now. I also noticed the trash cans in the hangar have black and yellow tape around them, is that new?

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They added the crashing sound!?!?

As to the station lighting, you mean the lights that look like they're vents, at the bottom of the drive box?

And in your last picture, see the purple lights on the ceiling? Did they fix the ones at the beginning and end of the station?

EPIC!!

Either they added that sound or it was REALLY loud inside the drum today, because I'm 100% sure I heard a whoosh after the train left (not the normal metal-sounding one from the track). I didn't notice those lights in the station, the ones on either side of the drivebox are now red, so the wall has a neat color to it (you can sort of see it in the last pic). I didn't notice of those lights were working or not, but I can't imagine they aren't- even the lights in the room between the first saucer room and the station work now. I also noticed the trash cans in the hangar have black and yellow tape around them, is that new?

Oh, those lights on the side of the drive box have been there since Haunt last season, except they were purple. The trash cans would definitely be new. I know they used to have the black cylindrical cans with the red lids, (here:

)

but now they're the generic trash cans. I'll have to check it out, I'm hopefully going tomorrow. Now which lights didn't you notice? The white ones at the bottom of the drive box or the purple ones on the ceiling? There's also supposed to be green ones above the purple ones, did they fix those?

You can kind of see them here, along with the white lights at the bottom of the drive box.

resized_flightoffear02_614.jpg

Is the beginning of the launch tunnel lit up still or is it completely dark now like in that picture?

(Sorry, I'm a huge Flight of Fear geek, just in case you couldn't tell.. :P)

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Both. I think the vent ones have worked recently (I'm 99% sure they did last time I rode FoF), and I can't imagine the purple ones don't work. I don't think the green ones were working but I didn't really pay attention. Oh, and the strobe on the UFO over the door strobes almost constantly now, and the lights on the stairs into the UFO have red gels now. The trashcans outside are still generic brown KI ones, but the ones in line are gray with no lid and yellow and black tape around them. I think it's the tape that's new on them?

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I was just discussing this with Micah earlier this evening... there seems to have been quite the culture shift happening recently within the park's management. You've got to remember: The directive coming from the brass in Sandusky has been putting a much greater emphasis on safety/liability issues and per caps than on actual guest experience. I'll go out on a limb and say that several park-level managers caught wind of the "type" of CEO the board was looking for, and started to adjust their MO accordingly. It's obviously far too early to think that Mr. Ouimet had anything to do with this, but if the powers-that-be at KI got word that someone of his caliber was being entertained as a CEO candidate, I'm sure their focus away from guest experience and thematic maintenance could easily be reframed.

As I said in the other Ouimet/Cedar Fair thread... I fully expect him to come in and create a corporate directive that moves overall quality of guest experience back to the forefront. It shouldn't be his job to go park-by-park and point out all the stuff that's broken. It is is job to make sure each park's managers (and, by extension, the P&D and Maintenance folks) know that it's expected for things like this to work.

Kudos, KI. Excellent work recently.

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^ Agreed!

Because let's look at this for what it is:

  • Added ride soundtracks on Drop Zone, Delirium, The Crypt, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Flight Deck's queue, and WindSeeker.
  • Incredible lighting package on WindSeeker.
  • Restoration of Flight of Fear's queue and station to an INCREDIBLE degree.
  • The Crypt's queue re-arranged with new lighting, sound, etc. and the former "lava pit" re-illuminated on the ride with thousands of LEDs.
  • A well-landscaped, immersive Dinosaurs Alive exhibit where employees wear excavation equipment (very Paramount and theme-driven)
  • New LEDs and sound effects on Backlot Stunt Coaster.
  • Our Backlot Stunt Coaster has all of its flame effects working, whereas its two clones in Virginia and Ontario don't even stop at the midcourse brakes because there's nothing to see there - they simply skid through while the helicopter firing sound goes off.
  • A flight deck painted on Flight Deck's brake run - simple, but evident of attention to detail
  • Missiles and airplanes added to Flight Deck's queue.

I am so utterly impressed. There's just no other word for it. I can't manage to express how truly hopeless I had been feeling the past couple of seasons. I love Kings Island, and I love introducing my friends to it, but each season I found myself justifying and using the phrase "used to" far more than I would have liked. "This used to have music." "This used to have water." "This used to have lighting." This used to have fire." And while things aren't PERFECT and there are still little things that would mean a lot to me (like the Tower Gardens, a few key effects on The Crypt, maybe a runway repaint in X-Base, music on International Street, etc), I am overjoyed with the fact that Kings Island is back "on track" in this department.

And I suppose our warm reception of these changes is also a message to those in power: Post-Paramount Kings Island has proven that it, too, can pay attention to detail and establish some neat effects and lighting. Now, let's just hope that they can do what Paramount didn't: maintain it. Because as of now, I still feel like I need to organize a visit to the park ASAP or risk missing these effects. I shouldn't feel like that. I shouldn't worry that if I wait more than a week or two, they'll already be gone. Hopefully this is the start of a new era. And if the new CEO leads to even further changes, I will be in heaven.

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Wow! Thanks for taking these pictures. I think one of the things I've been most impressed with this season is that the theming on the rides is actually improving the further into the season we get. I've been to the park 3 times this year and each time I notice something new, and each visit has been better than the previous one because this attention to detail does make a difference and I'm ecstatic that they seem to get that. Not only are they bringing theme back that was already there, they are getting creative with what they have, little things like the landing strip on Flight Deck.

My last visit was 2 weeks ago and I noticed that only the colored lights were on in the hangar area, but the rest of the queue once you got into the saucer was nowhere near what it looks like in those pictures. That's a lot of improvement in 2 weeks (in the middle of daily operation!). I cannot wait to see what is in store for the rest of the season! Great job to everyone at Kings Island!

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Wow. It almost seems like they read the poll I did on here a few weeks ago...remember, the "What Coaster would you give offseason work to?" one? Guess what coaster had the most votes on that poll...and now, here it is, all nice and cool and stuff. Wow. Kings Island, great job! We complain...you guys fix.B) Or at least it seems that way.

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Thanks for sharing CedarPointer! A few KIC'ers and myself got to see this first hand on Friday. It really does add to the ride experience!

This goes to show when we have a realistic discussion like McSalsa's poll, and it does not become a complaint and bashing thread the park does listen and value our opinions!

Thanks KI for for the attention to these details!

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All this stuff they are doing to FoF, and yet it still breaks down every other minute.

Don't hold a grudge, Zach :)

It doesn't break down that often. The only time I've seen it go down this season was that day when we went. Every other time I've gone, it's been open. It was a lot worse last year, but luckily they switched train 3 out for train 1. Train 3 was the problem train.

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All this stuff they are doing to FoF, and yet it still breaks down every other minute.

*coughFirehawkcough*

*coughWindSeekercough*

Apparently you did not read my post above? Do you think other posters here and the park are going to take you serious or give you any credibility when you actually have something worthwhile to say after posing these types of posts?

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All this stuff they are doing to FoF, and yet it still breaks down every other minute.

Don't hold a grudge, Zach :)

It doesn't break down that often. The only time I've seen it go down this season was that day when we went. Every other time I've gone, it's been open. It was a lot worse last year, but luckily they switched train 3 out for train 1. Train 3 was the problem train.

Before I left, it broke down soo much. Like it kept getting stuck in the trims, it always got stuck in the blocks even though like half the train was in the blocks and the other half wasn't. Train 2, well is self explanatory and Train 1 gets stuck in the breaks.

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