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November 8th 2012

Here's the video of the all around Closing Day. I still have Sling Shot and Skylyer videos. Have a good rest of the weekend! Edit: The beginning of the video is a lot better than the end. At least thats what I think.

It looks like you all had fun! I had a kick out of TheCrypt in his momentous part.

Thanks for sharing more footage! Somehow, TheCrypt managed to get more time in front of your camera than me - not sure how that happened. By the way, what is the song at 1:20 (before the National Anthem)? The Beast ride after the tour didn't work out so well. We ended up on two different trains and got separated afterwards. If we try that again, we should split into two and hold up both sides of the queue until the station has room for the group. I'm glad everyone else had so much fun; it was one of the most memorable days I've had there as well. We definitely need to do things like this again next year!

Haha, that was me!! Nice face into the camera, Crypt! We had too much fun that day, can't wait to do it again!

Hah, did I get mentioned in the background at 8:30?! Shucks, didn't know I was quotable. Sounds like you guys had a fun time!

^ That's probably it, in all actuality. I like several violent coasters, and getting ridiculous (and occasionally somewhat painful) airtime on Magnum is probably one of my favorite things about that ride. I love sitting in the back and watching the heads in front of me quickly hop out of view as the train lurches over the last series of bunny hops. You can even ask Gator--I spent (and enjoyed) more laps in Blue Racer's last row than I intended at Coasting for Kids, and the ride was moderately jackhammering back there. But hey, to each his own! (Then again, I was also half-comatose from lack of sleep at Coasting for Kids, so maybe that isn't the best example...)

...and then implicitly criticize a FaceBook poster who could use the same "defense?"

:/ My face at 8:15 is nothing short of rediculous ridiculous. Other than constantly dodging cameras, it was a fun day. Special thanks to Josh Moore and Beastie1980 for riding with me on The Beast. It was also nice to finally meet everybody.

^The Phineas And Ferb theme song. (Today Is Gonna Be A Great Day)

You must not like airtime... floater that is (See what I did there). The third hill in that seat (3-2) is one of the most amazing coaster moments of all time. I love 1-3 but 2-2 and 3-2 are sublime. So smooth and re-rideable. Probably the only coaster I've gone 10+ laps on consecutively. BTW 8 on Raptor in abt. 45 mins was not a good idea Truce accepted.

Thanks for the camera time ohiocolts. That was one of the best days that I had at KI. To bad I wasn't able to join ya'll on The Beast ride after the tour. I was bummed about it, once I heard!

Nice video! 8:08-(Person in the Backround) "Haha, Look! We got TheCrypt on video!" 8:14- (TheCrypt) *Looks back at Carmera*. In his mind-"I cant belive I just did that" XD

Im very surprised that we have kept mainly on topic for 51 pages! Thats got to be world recored of some kind... xD

I do appreciate the photos of the demolition. It went into a pile of wood chips quite quickly, didn't it?

I would go with A or B. I suspect if anything has anything to say about it, there will be some kind of news in the coming days. I can't see either party wanting to stretch this out over too long.

Just. Drop. It. Please.

Here is my take on the flame war: There should not be flaming of any sort against any opinion that a user might make. Web sites like this needs members to voice their opinions, experiences, and other discussions regarding the amusement sector of all types. I see lots of people that give the impression they are experts about all aspects that relates to roller coasters. This is all based on their love of the roller coaster rides and learning everything they can regarding the ride from various web sites and articles. Some have learned more than others. Then you have users like me who just want to enjoy a ride and can care less as far as who makes it, the engineering specs, the construction details, and so forth. When I see users commenting on a ride and another user responds that they are wrong, that is not the way to do things. People read these and when they see someone is flamed because someone didn't like their opinion, they begin to wonder why they even come here or why they should stay. Web sites only exists because of its membership base. Once it starts to have a reputation of users flaming others, then it looses its base and will not grow. I have seen various web sites shut down because of issues like this and the users go where they are welcome. The problem when some users would rather see people get offended and leave this site than to maintain an annoying presence here as 74gibson stated is wrong. It is ok to voice your opinion but not ok to say your opinion is wrong. Just my thoughts.

What was the flagship ride in Action Zone? Terp, who likes to ask questions.

For my 1,000th post, I've decided to post my video I took of a behind the scenes tour of The Beast that Don Helbig surprised KICers with. Thanks Don! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GjAbTZIflTk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Hopefully this works. It should also be 1080p instead of 360p, but thats what it wanted to upload as. Hopefully, I can get some other videos on the day and a trip report in this thread at somepoint as well. Thanks for watching! Edit: Darn, it didn't work! Here's the link to the actuall video: Edit #2: Oh wait, that's all I had to do .

Seeing these pics almost makes me wish I would have ridden it a second time. My one ride during RWCW (I think) really was the only time I've been scared on a coaster since I was a kid. It wasn't the fun kinda scared though.

I love how the promo video for Iron Rattler uses the same snake that was used in the Diamondback promo. haha

Full version of the article, with more pictures: http://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf/2012/11/keansburg_amusement_park_vows_to_rebuild_after_hurricane_sandy_destruction.html

I miss death row being where mysteria is, but I guess it was not that scary but that was my least favorite . And I agree they need to make the haunts way more scary and up to par with Madame fatales and slaughterhouse because I my opinion those two were the most frightening.

Those are some awesome pics...the skyline will be pretty different here in only a short period of time...then again, TOPGUN1993 always has cool pics... Oh, and for that first pic, here's a "before" picture for you all, not sure who took it...could have been TOPGUN1993 again but I dunno, got it from google:

Never been to college and nearly failed 12th grade English class, actually. Why do you ask?

There, I fixed it for you.

"spelling and lack of grammar is..."?

And I wonder if it will be seen as a fun classic or instead as old and outdated, and unthrilling.

Why breath air into the fire, why try to keep this flame war up. Let it go. It's over. Leave it.

Vortex definitely has the visual nostalgia! On my first KI trip in 2007 (three years before I became an enthusiast) I was so awed by Vortex that I watched it for at least 10 minutes non-stop. In fact, on every single KI trip of mine, I take about 5-10 minutes (at LEAST!) just to watch and take pictures of Vortex. It's always a part of my trip "schedule" and it always will be. <3

^ You mean "Pick-Up Large & Heavy Sticks, Bulldozer Edition"? OK, but where's my bulldozer?

Just for the record: Son of Beast also had said "awe" factor to an incredible degree, possibly even when it was not running. It was one of the most visually impressive roller coasters ever built, with its incredible 218-foot-tall wooden structure and the huge "dip" before the first drop...of course, looking good from off-ride and actually being good are two different things...

Well, El Toro @ SFGadv now officially has the record for largest wooden coaster drop in the world, since Son of Beast no longer has a drop... (Unless you count the air, in which case SOB now has the steepest drop of any wooden coaster ever built at straight down!) I have the feeling SOB will be 100% gone, save perhaps some footers or so, by January 2013 now...which means plenty of time (a whole year and about 4 months in 2013) to build whatever is replacing it and have it ready for the 2014 season. (I too hope for an Intamin Wooden Coaster, possibly one above 200', but anything beats open field...)

If there is one ride that gives the "awe factor" it is Top Thrill Dragster without a doubt.

Popcorn, Coke products and cotton candy available for purchase in the mezzanine.

If someone thinks this is a good way to influence state government in Kentucky, I fear they are sadly mistaken: Fake Fish Prods For Reopening Kentucky Kingdom: http://m.wfpl.org/#mobile/2340?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Kentucky+Kingdom%22&hl=en&tbo=d&gl=us&tbm=nws&source=lnt&tbs=sbd:1&sa=X&ei=nl2YUO2pMJGC8ASF9oD4Dw&ved=0CCQQpwUoAQ&biw=320&bih=416&utm_campaign=/post/fake-fish-prods-reopening-kentucky-kingdom

Awww...thanks!

1. Click your username at the top of the forum 2. Choose "My Settings" 3. Under Profile Settings, ensure your time zone is set to GMT-5 if you're in Eastern time (Ohio, eastern/northern Kentucky, most of Indiana - not including Gary, Evansville, or Santa Claus), GMT-6 if you're in Central time, or whatever offset you might be in. If the time was correct before but isn't correct now, you were likely set one hour ahead (-4 for Eastern or -5 for Central). 4. Check the box that says "Automatically detect when my timezone is in DST" if not already checked. 5. Press "Save Changes" 6. The forum will now display the time correctly all year round.

I don't even want to imagine how horrifying this whole event must have been.

No. The best way would be to lose even more by letting the property go to pot. Oh, wait....

"Remain seated throughout the entire ride. Please keep hands and legs inside the car at all times."

Too many people do not put things into perspective. Do the math. The cost of a KI season pass, that includes parking. Then divide the cost vs. the amount if hours spent at the park. My cost for the whole family is less than $1/ hr. Where else can you get out of the house for that value? You can even go deeper. Figure out how many times you have visited the park, then multiply the ticket & parking cost. Now compare that value to the cost of your pass.

Am I the only one who thinks $79.99 is still to cheap? That costs less than a ticket for a one day trip to Universal Studios, Disney World, or Sea World, but this $79.99 allows you to go unlimited amount of times and have free parking to one of the best amusement parks around. It should be $99.99 (just my opinion. That may seem expensive, but what do I know? )

It will be out of business, with the way this country is going.

This may interest some of you who are into conceptual stages of art production - namely Kings Island rides/attractions. I am good friends with one of KI's early employees who was a concept designer/sculptor. I met this individual from tracking down some of his other early work when he was employed with Kenner toys here in Cincinnati. This is the guy who sculpted the original Boba Fett action figure, for those of you who are into Star Wars While at Kings Island he sculpted nearly every fiberglass relief (3d character, sign, etc) in the park from the early 70's until KECO took over in the early 80's. He has told me several stories of what it was like working on projects big and small in the park. Some concepts were scrapped very early on, while others made it further and few were put into full production. I have always been most interested in The Bat ride and remember only seeing it as a child. At the time it was standing, but not operating. When he mentioned having worked on the design phase of the ride, I naturally asked if he had anything left over and he said only a few pieces have survived, but yes. He explained his work on the ride in an interview I conducted with him as follows: "I was told that we were getting a newer kind of coaster that would be very unique. There wasn't much detail given about the specifics of the ride, but we knew it was going to be different since Kings Island decided to go the route of unique coasters after the success of The Beast. The original concept for the park was that it would compete head on with Disney, but coasters seemed to be the new wave, so thats the market they played to. The first idea management had was that the new suspended coaster would be space themed. So they had me draw up a few sketches with moon surfaces and a queue line leading into a space station dome. I loved creating waterfalls, so naturally I added that in to the design. The entire surface was to be sculpted out of polystyrene and then covered in fiberglass. It would've been a massive undertaking, but we had already done this with the revamp of the Rub-A-Dub ride, so we knew we could do it. A week or so later I was given an order to begin creating a haunted house type station that would serve as the loading dock for the new ride. So out went the space ride idea and now we are working on some kind of haunted house themed coaster. I was told that they were now going with a bat theme and would need some sketches reflecting this concept. It was soon after that I was asked to sculpt up a large bat head to be attached on the front of the coaster trains. I love that thing! The haunted house loading station was to be decorated with pictures of "bat people" and a vampire maquette so I came up with a few ideas that were somewhat crude in nature, but would be refined once approved. Those concepts were unfortunately not approved since the theme was strong enough as it was. It was a job like any other...you are told what you were going to work on and the art department did everything they could to get it approved. Ideas would sit around for months and then all of a sudden management would approve the idea and want it completed and in the park yesterday! The ideas were already in place, my job was to simply refine the idea and give us a heading on what we were working on and how it would be accomplished, but ultimately management had the final say on what we could and could not do. The best projects were the ones where they would tell us to just be creative and come up with something! But I thought The Bat was a great theme and it's a shame the ride had so many problems" and lastly, his "artists proof" that was the first pulled from the mold and airbrushed for management approval... All of these items were rescued from certain destruction as KECO was taking over. They saw no value in the items and auctioned off the majority that remained. I'd love to one day showcase these items for the general public to view...if the park would ever ask me ~Josh

To be fair, the original intended purpose of the suspended model was that you wouldn't have to bank the track. Whether the purpose of this was to reduce manufacturing costs (as the bending of the steel would be significantly reduced) or simply to create interesting, unexpected movement, I don't know. In fact, the original model of a suspended included a corkscrew, but the idea was scrapped. The ultimate problem of The Bat was steel fatigue. The track wasn't designed to withstand the sudden side-to-side forces of the trains swinging into the turns. The repeated twisting of each ride cycle wore the track out very quickly, which caused hairline cracks. You can see how Arrow accounted for this in future suspended projects--you never really feel a prolonged force in any direction on Flight Deck except downward, where Arrow track can bear forces and avoid fatigue very well. Same goes for the braking system--the force on the bottom of the train created a twisting force (or a moment/torque, for you physics people) at the swinging hinge at the top, and that likely didn't have fatigue properly factored into its design. It's like if you repeatedly sat on top of a garden gate hundreds of times a day in the hottest part of the year: the hinges might be fine the first few days, but soon they'll bend (and eventually break.) I'd guess the twisting even further did a number on the wheels and brake run track, as they're going to pretty directly take the blunt force of the twisting of the brakes, too. For what it was, The Bat was a pretty cool and unique idea. It just had its imperfections, and they did the ride in much sooner than rides tend to go. FTW, very excited to take Failure Analysis... Here's the video Vortex is looking for: http://www.youtube.com/embed/GWjXBQKaueE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Same here! I always thought flight deck was originally fun. Just one that is always fun. If this is the case. The Bat must of been really fun. Dang nab it, I missed it.

I never noticed that! Unfortunately, there will never be another ride like Bat. Bank on it!

Yup! The Bat was the prototype Arrow Dynamics suspended coaster. Flight Deck was the last Arrow suspended coaster ever built, if memory serves. So, I guess you could say Kings Island was the beginning and the end of Arrow's suspended roller coasters.