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Cheap? The show elements and price of the attraction were far from cheap I bet. What were HUSS' suggestions? obviously not cheap, didn't paramount pay over $20 million for the entire ride. what i meant was the cheaper route. i've read on here multiple times that for starters, they didn't want to pay the extra for the ride to be weather proof, which basically led to the demise of many of the show elements (mainly the water ones.). i also read on here that paramount went against huss' recommendations on which type of braking system to use, they went with the cheaper one that failed often and caused significant downtime around once a season. Well if you heard it on here it must be true! Since you seem to be an expert, can you please elaborate on the way in which the ride was supposed to be braked compared to how it was actually braked? This is BS. Let me lay it out for you. For KI's purposes, the HUSS design was flawed from the beginning. Not because HUSS's design was bad, it was bad for what KI wanted it to do. Topspins are supposed to be free moving and operate within a wide window of acceptable movement; almost to the point where as long as it homes at the end, the ride is fine. When KI decided the ride needed to sync with a show within a tiny margin error, the weight was simply too much to control. Ever notice how when you watch a normal topspin, they rarely come to a complete stop during the cycle? The ride suffers significantly more fatigue when its expected the be braked 100% (ie, abrupt full stop at the ice field, post topspin, pre lava pit, etc). Add the fact that the ride is twice the size and you're going to have problems. It's like trying to stop a freight train on a dime. The braking was simple. The gondola used a large locomotive brake disc on each side (this is the orange circle inside the arm in TheKlockster's photo) with 11 brake calipers around it (11 at the end; the number of calipers was slowy increased in an attempt to brake more, if I recally correctly it originally only had 8 calipers each arm). The arms were braked by running the 3 motors on each side backward (relative to the instantaneous direction of motion). When the kinetic energy from the ride fought the motors, the motors became generators, turning the excess kinetic energy into electrical energy. This electrical energy was then fed into the giant bank of variable resistors behind the building, and the energy was converted to heat. Because these variable resistors are essentially switches actuating at high frequency, when this huge amount of energy was channeled into them, the actuation could actually be heard. This is the loud screech that could be heard behind Tomb Raider during the cycle. The arms and gondola were loaded with encoders, and if the positioning wasn't correct for a given rung in the logic, the ride faulted. In addition the excessive size and simple fact that it was a prototype often meant that if something did not fall into place exactly as it should, things would break (most often the arm motors while trying to overcompensate.) Arm motors were very expensive and difficult to acquire. The removal rows and closing off seats obviously expresses the idea that the reduction of mass would reduce the kinetic energy and decrease the load on the motors. In the end it still wasn't enough and all the changes to the ride significantly reduced the popularity. Now the simple fact is that the land is worth more as storage or a future attraction, than as a big box to burn money in.

Photo #52 - I found out like last month that one of my teachers was Supervisor at King Cobra.

If they weren't, what would be the point of them? You wouldn't be able to view the countless options or interact with it. I believe that would defeat the purpose.

I can guarantee you that the opinions of a few people on a park fansite will have no bearing whatsoever on the fate of a "record breaking coaster" that has proven to be one of the park's biggest headaches.

Meanwhile, at Carowinds...

I passed Ki today and took a picture of Invertigo. They have started to paint the main supports. It looks pretty awesome.

I was able to grab a few quick photos of the gold pass area today. Just so you could see what I was talking about.

Yet another possible poke at Viacom. It will be interesting to see how the new/former GM Fairs in the new company. Ouimet seems to be on a continuous streak of bringing fresh people with experience into the company; can't wait to see how this plays out.

Here's a photo of the ride outside of a box. http://www.geering-engineering.com/images/content/KI-GTS1.jpg

I didn't want to create a new topic for this, so I just decided to put it here. I just passed KI earlier and the entire gold pass parking area has basically been torn out. Almost all the poles are gone and the attendent booth seemed to be missing as well. Makes me wonder if they may be repaving and re-designing the parking lot due to SC expansion. I will try to get a picture tomorrow if I pass.

I think the HW folks know what they are doing. You can run both parks and have them appeal to two demographics. The KY park being the thrill park and HW being the traditional park. They can price the KY park right too and keep out the trouble. The SF days it was the cheapest park in the chain for a pass. I could get a pass and did so for many years for less than admission to KI. Price the pass higher and offer visits to Holiday World too and you can get the families and keep out trouble. The markets are close enough to be mutually beneficial.

Such wonderful demographics they bring. I don't think the Kochs are used to dealing with some of the inner city demos that park attracted.

My goodness, was a paint job ever just a paint job? Honestly, how on earth do you link a new coat of paint to a new coaster? Just stand back and examine how stupid that is.

KI was not built with backstage areas in mind for some reason.

^I had a less than pleasant ride on Zephyr this past summer thanks to a nearby dumpster and there was also a certain spot in Rivertown that smelled like garbage almost every time I walked through it. They need to keep those things further away from the guests.

Am I the only one who vastly prefers the old exit location to the new one, which gives you a nice view of what's obviously a backstage area. Yup, it's time for my "backstage area" rant. How easy would it be for KI to block guest view of that dumpster behind Starbucks that's visible over the fence? Or the blue siding that makes up the backs of the International Street buildings? Or even closing the big gates that seem to be left open for convenience, many of which give great glimpses of how KI handles its trash. It's disappointing that such easy things to fix (ok, maybe not the blue siding) are ignored year after year. And don't get me started on the odors anywhere near the dumpsters...

Which I have... I Love Kings Island, but there down 4 Gold passes this year because we didnt renew. That may be just a splash in the Pan, but the more people they Tick off, the more they might wanna do something to change... But, did you visit? Once? Twice? If so, they got the same amount of money out of you, didn't they? Those with money get more. That is life. Is it right? I can't say. But that IS capitalism. That's the whole point. Pursuit of profit is the basis of our economic system. People pay upwards of $200 for a pair of shoes that costs $2.00 to make. No one says thats wrong. In fact, we might think, "good for them!" If people are willing to pay x amount of money for a product or service, why would the seller charge less than x? People with no money don't go to Kings Island at all. People will more money than that visit once a year. People with more than that might buy a pass. People with still more may buy the Fast Lane tickets. People with more than that may choose to take their business to Disneyland instead. People with still more money may take a family vacation to France or England. And is it wrong for those with the means to visit Disneyland instead of Kings Island to do so? Absolutely not. If you want to get the most of your car, you need to pay extra for a sound system, automatic doors, hands-free starter, etc, and if you have the means to get your car "fully loaded," is that wrong? Is it wrong of you to do it? Wrong of the car manufacturer to offer it? Was it wrong of me to visit Discovery Cove when so many people can't? I don't think so... I had the extra money to pay for that upcharge experience, so I did. It was their right to charge what they saw fit, and mine to choose if I was willing and able to pay it. I was. The idea of the pursuit of profit is that the market regulates itself. If people don't pay $200.00 for the shoes (or $50.00 for the Fast Lane pass), then it won't be that expensive for long... And indeed, we saw that as Kings Island and Cedar Fair adjusted the price weekly to find the balance of what people will pay for. I say again that I think the major difference here is that so many of us think of Kings Island as a beautiful, loving, emotional place in our lives and feel personally offended by the reminder that it is a business. "We like Son of Beast! Why not fix it?!" It's not that simple, though. They want and need money, and while we may question their methods, it obviously works or they wouldn't do it.

And those who can't afford to come to the park at all think that those who can have an unfair advantage. The park is a business, and will do what it thinks it must to consistently make money over time. And that's not BS. If that means $12 parking, selling Fast Lane or charging more for premium experiences, that's what they will do. And you can vote with your dollars.

I don't go to Kings Island nearly as much as most you guys. I go maybe once every 2 years. And I'm definitely not a KI fanatic. I've just always been interested in the inner workings of the industry and I enjoy learning something new everyday from all of you, which is why I joined. Therefore, I don't have anything original to add to this topic, but I agree with what previous posters have mentioned: --Do something, anything with Tower Gardens; has so much potential, yet sitting there wasting away. I remember when it used to have the Paramount movie signs in there. It was such a nice little area. --Do something, anything with SOB. Gives the company a black eye just sitting there idle. --Paint Racers. --I don't know if it was just that night or if it's like this all the time, but when I was at Haunt this year, one side of the park (WindSeeker to Rivertown Junction) was crowded and the other side (formerly called Action Zone area) was dead. This is more of a long term thing, but I think they need to add some more rides and spruce up the former Action Zone area. That side seems to be the red-headed step child area, so to speak. I understand why one side of the park is more heavily populated, because that's where the more popular and new/er rides are, such as Beast, WindSeeker and Diamondback. I'm just saying they need to balance it out some. That's all I have.

I'd like to see higher quality food, with more healthy choices, and a table service restaurant. Same wants as for years. And at least one adult show that is NOT a musical revue.