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Finally...a question I know the answer to! I've been lurking for a long time, so I guess it's time to contribute... The gap between the support and the foundation will be filled with a high strength, low shrink cement...kind of like a grout. Remember the pics of the foundations with the oblong cavity? The bottom of the support has a piece of steel welded to it that will stick down into that cavity. The grout is pumped into the cavity and formed up all the way to the base of the support, locking the steel on the bottom of the support firmly in place, and forming a platform for the support to sit on. It serves to transfer the loads from the coaster to the foundations through the strength of the steel and support weldment rather than asking the anchor bolts to do the job of resisting these forces. Take a look at the foundation piles on any finished steel coaster, and you'll see that there isn't a gap there, there's a little step that rises up out of the main foundation to meet the support...this is the grout. I suspect a convenient side effect (for lack of a better term) is that the steel workers also are able to adjust the height and level of the supports slightly to help fit up of the structure...there are a lot of tolerances building up on a job like this!

yeah, i'm just going to continue using the official image...

Well I guess it wasn't technically my Birthday, it was on Friday, not Saturday but that isn't going to bother you. Is it? So after two brown Sugar Pop tarts, a quick game of pool, we crammed into the car, all five of us. On the way to the park we made a pit stop at Walmart, and geared up with sweatshirts, gloves, and OSU hats, and a pack of Juicy Fruit. We pulled into our slot in the typical Invertigo Parking, and threw on some ponchos. We made our way to the gate and were greeted by the cold, windy rain, and light crowds. We rented a locker, threw our Extra Cloths on, went to the restroom, made a stop by guest services asking what rides were down and the only thing was Surf Dog and Flying Ace Ariel chase at the moment. We browsed around the shops on International Street and then stood for the National Anthem and set off for Back Lot Stunt Coaster as pure our tradition. We then realized that the dormant BackWoods Bayou was blocking our path so we went all the way around. Aaron made an argument for Vortex but we reminded him it was Tradition. All four of us hopped into the front car leaving the other two behind us empty and launched! Despite the rides innocent looking appearance it really packs a punch with a lot of G-forces and whole lot of fun! We now prepared for Vortex I convinced Jesse (the smart one ) to sit with me in the famed 5-1 but stupid Aaron and Scott decided to Sit in the front. Oh well, I had fun. Awesome Ejector air and sweet G-forces, exceptional Arrow Coaster. Next we set off for Rivertown and the tallest, fastest and longest Roller coaster in the World, In 1979. The Beast. We got a nice longs, fun, but cold ride on the longest wooden coaster in Earth. Now it was time for Diamondback Pretty much a walk on a great ride in row number 16. I believe the inner seats right next to each other are a lot smoother than those that are on the edge of the train. We now headed to X-base to ride Firehawk, and the crowds weren't that big. This being my birthday celebration I had money set aside for Fastlane passes. But lines weren't to terribly bad so we held off. Firehawk went down so we left got inline for Flight of Fear, it took about 20 minutes to get on but we had an awesome adrenaline filled ride. We decided it was time for a ride on Invertigo so we waited 30 minutes and got a nice intense ride. We were going to do Drop Tower but the line was pretty long so we headed to Flight Deck. An epic ride on a dying race of rides, I hope it stays for a long time. Long live Flight Deck (#longliveflightdeck )! That was pretty much it for our ride count. It was about 2:50 at this point, we felt like seeing the Ed's Magic Show but the next one wash't until 3:30 so we headed up to the top of the Eiffel Tower got some lovely view of from the top, I pointed out the some of the tracks and supports on the ground for Banshee and they found it really cool to see it 'in pieces". I also pointed out the old Trams, they ask why they don't use them anymore because. My dad pointed out that the puniest park lot at the hospital he worked at has a tram and it is smaller than preferred parking. I wish those would come back just a common courtesy for everyone. But after a while atop of the center piece of the park, it was about time for them to start seating they opened the doors right when we got inline. Although they probably wouldn't admit it, I think they really enjoyed the show. They laughed out loud quite a lot. After a nice fun filled mind bending show in the Kings Island Theater we wanted something to eat. So we got our hand's stamped and set off for Taco Bell. We lost our parking spot before we even pulled out of the lane. Oh well, I got a Chicken Quesdilla quesadilla and everyone else got a Doritos Locos Taco Except Jesse he got a normal one. We got back to the park and some how I was talked into a Fright Lane pass . We waited outside Holiday Horror because I remember that one from last year and enjoying it (sort of). We didn't use our punch because we already in the front of line anyways so... But finally it opened and I walked down, my heart pounding. I actually really enjoyed I let out a few screams through it. I liked a lot of animatronics like the painting that folded down and the head popped out. And the room that caved it, that scared the pee (not really) out of me. So did the coat hanger with that hats that popped up to a skeleton with a hat on it. Over all an awesome opening to the Haunt. (7/10) Next one was CarnEvil I enjoyed this one we all came out laughing, we did use our punch on that one so we got the front of line and the group, so pretty good scares, really that one wasn't that bad. (6/10) We then did one that I was kind of nervous about. Madam Fatales Cavern of Terror, ultimately this was my favorite. I liked going through the cavern and having Madam Fatale Greet us in the pre show room. We went in the front of the line and I loved pretty much every aspect of this. It was just awesome, I liked the line of mummies and all sorts of other things. (10/10) We now wanted to do Board 2 Death, I was really disappointed with this one, I like the start with monopoly and some of the other things but really it wasn't all that impressive. (4/10) Next we decided to head to Urgent Scared. I actually really liked this one. I liked the reception room with the elevator music and the phone ringing. I did find it a little hard to hear the nurse at the start but ultimately it was a pretty awesome maze that got quite a few scares on me. My dad, being a physician really enjoyed this too. (8/10) We now headed to Delta Delta Die, which was better than Board 2 Death but wasn't as good as some of the others. I guess my dad liked it better, it might be because some of the theming and ideas I didn't get to well but it still got some pretty good scares on me. (6/10) Now we were going to do Wolf Pack but we ended up doing Club Blood first, it was okay the motor cycle scared me quite a lot, I guess that had a bit more of an adult theme but it was still enjoyable. (5/10) Wolf Pack was up next, I really enjoyed this one, they got quite a few scares on me and my friends. But we all really enjoyed it, but there was a bit of an issue with the Fright lane thing, because you exit where the Fright lanes go you could keep going so that should be addressed in the future. (9/10) Next was Slaughter House this one might have been a bit to much for me, a lot of gore and uck. The Car really got me. And I really freaked out when we had to push our way through all of those corpse hanging. But it was still pretty good, (8/10) Now it was getting pretty late so we stopped and got Jesse his Aunt Annies Pretzel and decided to do the outdoor ones which I liked. First was Corn Stalkers, I liked how it was different from the others, despite the fact it was one line the Scare Actors got me quite a few times. I liked the length and time in this one. (9/10) We now decided to hit up the train again with Tombstone Terror-tory, this is one of the coolest concepts for a Haunt it was probably one of my Favorites. I liked the trains' narrator and the story of it, that was pretty cool. It was really long and really fun. For the majority of the time We at the very front, just Aaron and I all alone no one ahead or behind us and that made it all the more awesome! (10/10) We hit up Holiday Horror one last time using Frightlane and settled to use our Extra one on the Cavern of Terror one last time. Over all a very fun and exciting night at the Haunt. Post Trip Notes: - Disappointed in amount and quality of the Monsters just walking aroung the Park, I was a lot more impressed with them last year. - Loved Tomb Stone Terror-tory and Madame Fatals Cavern of Terror. - Very cold and rainy, kept the Crowd away for us to get on most of the rides before Haunt Crowd Showed so we saved money and were able to buy Fright Lane! - I'll will try and post some pictures soon! And thanks for Reading my novel.

It's not KI...but some of y'all are probably ganna be a bit sad Base of space spiral post boom Under Chaos Double Loop @ CP Anyone miss seeing this

I'm still not sure why it matters. The point of his pic is to show us how completed Banshee is, not what color it is.

Dang, being able to walk up to FD and getting multiple rides without having to get out is the best thing about it. If it start having 30-45 min waits I'll pass

and a picture to the entrance to the queue that is now gone:

^Those are the stairs I figured would become a Fast Lane entrance. It's a shame as those were so well done. Great photo work.

This "step" can be seen in this picture of Mantis. http://www.joyrides.com/cedar_point/mantis8.htm This was a good discussion. I learned a lot.

I don't know but I found it funny: Wicked Twister Op: Welcome back Train Number two! And on Flight of Fear: Op: Welcome back riders how was… *acts puzzle*

They must really be doing something either spectacular and Don isn't peeping in on purpose Or nothing is happening and they just decided to remove everything

also, steps are missing concrete in this picture:

I like how they've already started landscaping around supports. The mature bushes will make it presumably harder for maintenance but it will look much cooler by the time opening day rolls around.

Here are my pics from today's trip

Thank you for posting that! The feels, man, the feels. I went to Kings Island for the first time in 1995, two years after the ride had opened. I didn't ride it, but most of the group I was with did. I have a very distinct memory of watching it from the overlook and seeing the fog pour out and the lights under the station. It looked amazing in the mind of a six year old who was absolutely in love with that movie. When I finally did ride it, sadly, a lot of that theming was gone/deteriorated. I still get nostalgic thinking about it though. The select songs form the movie soundtrack that would play in the line, the fighter squadron flags hanging up etc. SOME HISTORY: When you think about it, Paramount actually did a pretty good job theming that ride to the movie. Keep in mind, the ride had been ordered from Arrow under former management, was supposed to follow the area's "Adventure Village" theme ("Swoop" and "Thunder Road" are the intended names often mentioned). According to RCDB, Paramount had brought in John DeCuir, a famed Hollywood set designer who had worked on a lot of the sets for the film. However, I'm not sure if this is true since DeCuir died in 1991 and (I'm assuming) Paramount didn't begin plans to alter the ride's intended them until 1992 after DeCuir was passed. Nevertheless, they made the ride's queue and station feel like an aircraft carrier. I'm curious to know if/how had the ride been labeled as "Swoop" or "Thunder Road" would've utilized the under station queue if at all. From my understanding the ride's station design was completely altered by Paramount. Exline Design performed the design of the station for Paramount Parks and actually designed the queues for all three Top Gun attractions. Original concept art for Kings Island's "Top Gun" station: - Notice how much more it looks like an aircraft carrier than what was actually built? Exline actually spent three days aboard the USS America researching the carrier (The movie actually filmed aboard the USS Enterprise and USS Rangers, different classes of aircraft carriers). Exline also did a large format photo shoot during those three days which produced the photographs seen on the massive "billboards" in the ride's queue. A mural under construction: That above particular mural, I'm not sure which park that went to. I think it was the one that you saw when waiting at the loading gates looking across the station. You can see more of Exline's concept work here: http://exlinedesign.com/entertainment/portfolio/ride/topgun.htm At some point, when the ride became sponsored by "Gillette Mach 3," the murals were changed to this: - Photo from Don Flint's KIExtreme.com (another great Kings Island site that's worth a look!) The other mural not seen in that photograph depicted an F-4 Phantom fighter jet waiting on a carrier deck. The F-4 was no longer in service when Top Gun was filmed and is not the jet featured in the movie. Another mistake is that on the image above it shows to F-15 Eagles photoshopped in to a scene where they're flying over an aircraft carrier (again, it's the USS America, not the "Enterprise" from the film). The carrier shows F-14 Tomcats sitting on the deck. The F-15 Eagle was never used by the navy and never used in carrier service. Anyone remember the old spiel from the early 2000's of Jeff Seibert's voice saying: "Gillette Mach 3 Hopes You Enjoy you Ride on Top Gun!" That debuted the same year that the backs of the ride's cars had the Gillette logo painted on them. Somewhere around here I have old concept art from the ride that depicted a full scale F-14 jet that was to be placed atop the ride station. Clearly, that never made it to the actual ride, but it would've been visible from the tower and looked pretty cool. The F-14 was an amazing fighter jet, the backbone of the U.S. Navy for years. It's no longer in service. Back in 2011, when I worked for the park, my boss was really into sprucing up the theming along the ride. We used industrial tape to create the "fake" runway on the ride's brake run early one morning before the park opened. When trying to decide what number to put on the ground (aircraft carriers are marked with a two digit number on their flight decks), I suggested "93" for when the ride opened, we ended up going with "41," the last two digit's of the ride's phone number. SOME SPECULATION: I always loved the Top Gun theme and loved the movie. I miss hearing that awesome 80's soundtrack in the line. However, IF they are re-theming or changing anything I think "The Bat" would be a nice nod to KI history and to the fake website pulled earlier this year. They could turn the under queue into a "bat cave," but personally I think that they're just going to keep the line as is. There's an extra set of stairs that attaches the ride's exit down to the lower queue. In the past, this featured a handicap electric ramp where guests in a wheel chair could experience the queue then ride up to the accessible part of the station. I bet you that becomes a "Fast Lane" entrance. I.E. Fast Lane riders enter through the exit, then go down those stairs and join up with the regular queue.

I have a slight preference for this variation: If you wanna ride The Beast, clap your hands! If you wanna ride The Beast, clap your hands! If you wanna ride The Beast 'cause The Beast is really sweet If you wanna ride The Beast, clap your feet! Gets me every time.

todays update. Link to gallery

I didn't ride the Safari when I visited in '92…I rode it once when I was 2 in 1975. Still kick myself for that one.

^^ The day may come when you wish you had waited to ride Flight Deck. XLR-8. Big Bad Wolf. Rolling Thunder. And so they all go. And the Taft name was going to be Swoop.

Some thoughts. They wouldn't do all of that work just to do it. That is a lot of work that has be done for nothing more than cleanup. Why clean/refurbish an area guests haven't seen or had access to in years? When you paint a room, you remove all of the furniture and cover the hard stuff to move. Getting ready for paint? Could they be installing a new general public line and FastLane underneath?

"This is going to be a beautiful machine." Courtesy of Kings Island Central Facebook

Heard some interesting ones at Vortex yesterday! "Once the train comes to a complete stop, you may exit towards...the exit, I guess." "Enjoy the rest of your day here at Kings Island World." Loved these two: Op: If you enjoyed your ride on Racer, make some noise! *riders do nothing* Op: That is the correct answer. This is not Racer; it is Vortex! Op: Welcome back, riders! How was your sandwich? *riders do nothing* Op: Great job! You were all listening! Also while I was riding Zephyr, the op there played Simon Says!

talk about final regrets..... how about me, refusing to ride Shooting Star, Haunted House and Lost River on my last visit to Coney Island. (i was just seven) ..just beacuse I was a dumb kid....lesson learned.

Week 12 (10/14/13 - 10/20/13): -

It's getting much harder to see with all the supports that are there now

New supports going up after vertical loop section!

Also notice on Mantis the gap from track to the top of the support. That is where the bearing is on older style B&M coasters. New ones have a much much higher tolerance level so this is not needed

He beat me to it! That is a very accurate description! And the same technique is used in columns for building construction too, not just for coaster construction!

^ I was expecting decently sized crowds, with HalloWeekends and perfect weather. I was surprised at how quickly rides like Magnum and Corkscrew filled their queues, though. (Albeit, Corkscrew was stacking with just two trains on the track.) I waited under an hour for everything I rode, and I rode all the major rides except Raptor. Granted, I did a lot of speed walking around the park to find rides with reasonable waits. Millennium and Maverick had long lines all day; luckily, I hit them early. Raptor was closed a good chunk of the day, so the line stayed around 1hr until closing. Gatekeeper had a 1hr+ wait most of the day, but it was down to 20min by closing. I made that my last night ride, since I had no desire to stick around in Millennium's queue for 2 hours. TTD's wait was around an hour for a lot of the day, but I managed to wait only 25min by hitting it right after downtime ended. Winning Tony's Tweetup let me skip a full Maverick queue - that felt good. Wicked Twister had a minimal wait most of the day, and Magnum's queue was highly variable throughout the day. Mean Streak's queue got up to about 45min shortly after Eden Musse opened, but it was ~15min most of the day. Pretty much everything except Millennium, Maverick, TTD, Gatekeeper, and Raptor had a minimal wait after 6:00pm. The mazes had rather long waits today, so I only did one. I waited about 25 minutes for Eden Musse right after it opened. The props in Madam Fatale's are a lot better, but the scaractors seemed better at hiding than most at KI. Several "scares" made me jump. (The biggest scare was accidentally walking into an actor, hidden in dark clothing, standing in the middle of an unlit walkway. I apologized, of course.) This was my first HalloWeekends as well. I had a good time, but I'll probably be more inclined to pick non-HW days in the future. I think I prefer Kings Island's Haunt. As for wearing shorts and a t-shirt, it was definitely nice being properly dressed later in the day. Granted, Millennium Force was a bit chilly at 11:00am.

Last night, I was able to go to Haunt for the first time this season. Although my group of friends got split up and fought about it, we all had a good time. Here is a run through of the night. 5:30 PM: We arrived at the park, where already the cold has started to set in. We rode on Flight Deck in a short line and then head to the Festhaus for some pizza. FD ran great today, and the cold wind hitting my face was great in 11-1. 7:05 PM: We left the Festhaus for Adventure Express, which was not as rough as it was during the season in 14-1. After this, we got our first experience with the monsters, who were great as always. 7:20 PM: We got on Racer, which also was much smoother than it was during the regular season. We also had good airtime! The monsters outside of The Racer heard one of my friends' names, and they flew to her like moths on a light. It was hilarious to see. Then, as the girls decided to take pictures with each other, a scare actor freaked out my friend, and was also kind enough to pose for a picture! 8:50 PM: After an hour-long wait, we were finally on BLSC. Why did we wait? Because of the fire next to the tunnel, and we all wanted to get warm. I didn't get very warm in 5-2 though. What a bummer! The cold was really upon us at that point. It was 37 degrees out, I checked! We were doing anything to stay warm. 9:40 PM: We entered Madame Fatale's Cavern of Terror after a delay in plans because of some of my "friendgirls" got into a fight about something dumb. Being the tallest of the group, I was forced to go first. It actually worked out in my favor, as the "statues" scared my friends after I had passed. This haunt is great, and they kept everything that worked about it from last year, which was awesome. (9/10) 10:00 PM: Now we headed towards AZ, but first we had to pass through Backwoods Bayou, which was well done. One of the actors joked, "What's for dinner tonight?" My friend responded with a "He is!", pointing at me. The actor told her, "There's a lot of meat on him, good choice!" I liked the actors, but I wish there was some demented Mardi Gras person in there. (8/10) 10:30 PM: I waited with some friends as the other people in our group went to get Skyline. While two of the girls with us were sitting on a bench by themselves, a demon came and lifted up that bench! They jumped so high, and I couldn't stop laughing at them. S/O to you, Mr. Demon Guy in Coney Maul. You're doing your job well. 11:15 PM: The bouncer finally let us into Club Blood. He was a great actor. When asked about his strange eyes, he asked our group if they wanted eyes just like his. One girl volunteered, and he was about to bite her neck when he said, "Sorry, I don't eat rotten flesh." (BURN!) As we walked in, I saw the girls everyone has been talking about. It wasn't as bad as others had made it out to be. The maze wasn't that great though. Maybe they were down some actors last night, but there wasn't enough of them, and it made for a somewhat boring haunt. Well done, but not as good. (5/10) Then we left because of the cold. Overall, the scareactors did really well despite the cold and the crowd size. I wish more of them had attempted to scare me, but I understand why they don't want to freak out some random big guy. Banshee looks amazing from AZ. Also, one of my friends want to know, can you get in trouble for trying to scare other people? TL;DR for the lazy - Despite conditions, another good night at Halloween Haunt.

Boy you're observant!!! I took the photos and looked at them and didn't even notice the bushes til you said something!

That was an awesome day at work and ended up being the only day I left early. After spray painting all morning, my finger got really sore and I couldn't move it. I was allowed to leave work, made a doctor's appoiintment for that evening and then came home and fell asleep. Never ended up going to the doctor and that finger never hurt again. We also did a lot of work fixing up the FOF queue that season. Ha. Sorry for the random side story. Also, here's that concept art I was talking about. This isn't the image I had, but a newspaper article featuring the same art. Shout out to TG93 for this one:

Not to mention that Flight Deck will be much, much busier once Banshee opens, just as Flight of Fear is much, much busier since Firehawk opened. Proximity is destiny.

^^Flags.

o and another one as the park closes at Vortex station- (as they send the 1st empty train out) That all clear means your outa....stops as other attendent reminds her its empty

I don't know if they did this on purpose or not, but slingshots lights in Action Zone light up Banshees hill pretty well, I noticed this morning

ha! I went through the Gatlinburg house on a slow day, evidently. The same guy that did the Voice in the Foyer was the lone ghoul who chased us with a chainsaw. He didn't really chase us so much as wave us in the general direction of the door using the chainsaw as a pointer.

Now you can see why fun houses used to have a gust of wind blow upwards from the steps at the exit of the ride, though I'm wondering of it was exclusive of Bill Tracy designs. After people started dressing more casually, the "7 Year Itch" effect was lost on shorts wearers, and was just an annoyance. And Terp, You're right- adults used to watch out for kids at the park, with no fears. Some unknown man at the park grabbed my sister up and away just before lightening struck a pole she was standing by. Never did find out who he was.

I don't know what it is for, but it isn't the first time we've seen it. http://KICentral.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=291&pid=7184#top_display_media You can also see that the steel "flange" is sandwiched between washers and nuts. If something doesn't fit right, they can adjust these nuts to accommodate and fit.

It's a shame as those were so well done. Great photo work. Thanks! Though these aren't off my SLR, just my iPhone.

Ah yes the idea that "the fire was going to make us warm" For two seconds. After waiting in line for the lowest capacity ride next to Face Off and Firehawk! Yeah, I haven't been on that ride this season for a reason. I don't want to waste my time.

I'm not sure if you all have noticed, but the walkway for the queue has been removed. I'll post a picture soon.

I would love to have a giant wheel. I wouldn't mind seeing it go in Action Zone somewhere since there really isn't any observation kinda ride on that side of the park. ^ Those are by far the scariest ferris wheels.

And yet, what are October mazes, really?

If also depends on the reliability and durability of the ride itself. See the Cedar Point Wildcat. Oh wait, you can't.

^Thank you for taking the time to post all of that.

I miss the soundtrack playing in the que and sttaion and the fog effect when you came back in from the ride. Im sure thre ride ops got sick of hearing 'Danger Zone' 500x a day! I think a refresh and rename as The Bat would be welcome! Now if only the park could address the filthiness of The Racer tunnel as you reenter the staton..heck, I'd donate the paint!

I doubt it, with Wolf Pack and Club Blood, that area is already way too confusing and congested. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

Not really an interesting thing a ride op did but sort of. My friend and I were the only ones in line for the last ride of the night for Flight of Fear. The ride Op asked if we wanted to ride it with the lights on. This is something I've always wanted to do. But just as we were about to yell yes a mom and her young daughter came into the station and were very excited to ride it in the dark. Apparently it was her first ride on a roller coaster with inversions. So we kept our mouths shut. Another time I guess.