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Well I hope not. They'd need a pretty big 3D printer for that.

Not to mention it's a horrid name for that park. At least they didn't call it FootChopper. Sigh.

Maybe Im the minority here or just a bit different but.... I always enjoy hearing "Enjoy your ride on ____." Just something about that sentence, then hearing the brakes release. Same with "Welcome back riders, how was your ride? Enjoy your day at ___" then hearing the electrical click of the restraints releasing. Just something about those sounds brings me back...

There will be a brake following the zero g roll. It will automatically adjust based on the speed of the train, weather, temp, etc. Essentially, the train will go the same speed no matter what after the brake run. It's not necessarily a trim brake per se.

Kings Island on Facebook : "On July 10, 1978, this concept drawing of The Beast was unveiled at a press conference at Kings Island to announce the park was building a roller coaster that would break all existing records as the longest and fastest with the two longest vertical drops. The Beast celebrates its 35th anniversary season this year." Photo : Don Helbig / Kings Island via Facebook

Vinnie got into trouble, but he didn't partake in anything at all, someone took that image and ran with it. It wasn't even someone on our crew actually..He got hit for other people's work, not even himself.. They got upset because there were a few that were made, nothing crazy or anything, just demotivationals..then it went crazy when the bad eggs and other departments got ahold of it and decided to trash it..Was a shame really, there were some clever ones in there, and very true ones..The 17 hour shift deal..TRUTH Anyways I enjoy a good spiel if the ride op can do it, and I hate to toot my own horn but like how I would do it..If you can't spiel, that's fine, just don't do it. There were people on my crew who knew they weren't good or didn't enjoy it, and they didn't get the mic, all good. When you give it to those people it gets dull, people don't listen to the important bits, and then stupid stuff happens on platform and the good mood amongst employees gets sucked away. Take Beast for instance this year..I say the, you say Beast crap..just disappointing. There was only one good spiel during halloweekend of the guy doing 300, very impressive, it was different and people were paying attention to him. Best spiel this year had to be Zephyr, very engaging and interactive but still to the point, or Eiffel Tower, no bias honestly. They're job is talking, that aside from safety is practically in their job. They stand around on either platform or elevator and spiel/answer questions. But again, if you can do it and it's effective, use the mic and have fun while keeping the guests safe. If you can't, pass the mic to someone who can, or just leave it quiet. Don't try and just cause people to not listen or complain because you are talking. Last note, I agree with AZ. Controls should be watching the ride cycle, the panel, and the platform at all times, nothing else. While a train was moving through the track especially the lift hill or block transitions, my eyes were on it, before dispatches checking pedals and all clears, and an occasional glance at the panel to make sure nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

They have non-scary mazes. There's a hay bale maze and a nursery rhyme themed maze over in Soak City for your enjoyment! Just givin' you a hard time!

^^ I totally agree with you. I'm not sure where this hatred of Ride Op spiels comes from. I think it totally adds to the experience and something I come to expect when coming to the park. I think it creates a more personal, and relatable experience. If they are having fun, it seems guests are happy.

I personally don't think spiels add anything to the ride. I usually don't pay any attention to them at all. Unless I'm at Disney on the Jungle Cruise.

B&M trim installed after the fact? On the drop, no less? Mantis. Just sayin'

I'm just excited to see Banshee test runs, and then later ride Banshee! Anyone with me?

I dont disagree with your statement, if we are talking about all things being equal. If there was a marketing campaign already happening, etc. You stated you believe they will do a large blitz right before the summer hits. The problem with a late media blitz is the dollars are tied up. A proposed child/adult interaction happening just outside the Lousiville Area: Feb/March Adult: Child would you like to go to KI this year and ride their new ride or go to HW and ride (x, y, z)? Child: Oh I think KI/HW (chooses 1) would be great parent of mine! Adult: Super!Ill book the hotel room and buy a ticket. APRIL Adult: Here is more info about the park we are going to, isnt it awesome? Child: Sure is parent! I love you! MAY/JUNE (1 month before trip) Child: I saw a KK commercial let us go there instead. Adult: ummm no. I just spend $*** on our trip to KI/HW. Thats where we are going. Child: Bummer! KK: Oops?

Action Theater is a waste of space to me now. I have not cared about it since 007 was taken out. That and Days of Thunder were the only ones I liked.

I agree with you. I mentioned this in a TR a couple of years back for Busch Gardens Tampa. It felt weird and awkwardly quiet when you got off an awesome ride like Montu or Kumba and you heard nothing but people getting off the ride. Even if they aren't sincere and/or just required to ask "How was your ride" its nice to get the routine "Wooooo" from everyone on the ride. It makes the ride seems more fun/memorable to me. I think as long as the spiel is done AND the ride op can ensure the safety of the passengers then I'm all for it.

I always took pride in myself when I was on the mic at Flight Deck and Drop Tower. I feel like a well done speil added to the expirence of the attraction. In fact alot of my speils were still used by the Flight Deck crew after I left.

Disagree with you on the spieling. Having been one of those people that have delivered said spiels, when done right, it is effective. Ensuring rider safety, when it comes down to it, is a visual check. A good ride op can ensure rider safety and deliver spiels at the same time. In the Paramount years, the control operator delivered most, if not all, of the spiels. Frankly, I'd rather have the ops on the floor deliver the spiels then the controls operator. The last thing I want, as a rider, is the controls operator to be distracted.

Figured I posted this elsewhere, probably fitting here, great video. Any of you folks here for this event?

What would I like this year? For the scare actors, or whatever you call them, to wait to take their positions and to stay hidden while the "family" portion of the day is still going on. I was there last year and they were starting to transition into "Haunt" a good 30-40 minutes before the Howl-O-Palooza portion of the day was over. I thought we had lost track of time because we were walking back towards International Street and there were bloody, decomposing zombies and other such characters starting to come out and walk around. I checked my watch and we still had a good half hour or so left. I know most people could care less, but sometimes I'm there with my young niece or nephew and we choose not to attend "Haunt" because of these types of things. My nephew, who is also autistic, is frightened easily and very sensitive. If the schedule says that Howl-O-Palooza goes until 6, then there is no reason for bloodies zombies to be roaming around at 5:30.

Well I hope not. They'd need a pretty big 3D printer for that.I HATE AUTOCORRECT!!!!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is it just me, or is anyone else getting frustrated with all this "wasted" space being used for only 2 months out of the year? I get tired of hearing things like, "Can't use that building because it's a permanent 'Haunt' attraction" or " 'Haunt' occupies that space, so we can't use that area" and so on and so fourth. For people who don't give a rip about any type of "Haunt" attraction or festivities of any kind (like myself), it's just frustrating to read stuff like this. I understand that the "Haunt" celebration at the park is a huge draw, but it's a very small part of their whole operating season. I wish there wouldn't be so much emphasis placed on it. If KI needed a space for a new main season attraction, I hope that they wouldn't hesitate to use a space or a building that already existed and not over look it because it's currently being occupied by a "Haunt" attraction. I, for one, enjoyed the Action Theater and was sad to see it go. Many, MANY great memories of all the films that once were featured in that attraction. It's sad when things start changing, but it's nice to see when new things come. Unfortunately, nothing of interest is really being displayed as of now in that building for me. Perhaps one day in the future!

Because Terp is like me, ride ops should be focused on nothing but checking restraints and getting the ride in and out safetly. That is always number one (which btw, safety is still #1 over capacity Rollernut..CP just works well at efficiency). I didn't even spiel at the start of the season, I was too busy helping guests, learning this and that, and watching the ride. I actually couldn't multitask it well, it's harder than you think like the first week of work with live guests. After awhile some movements become fine tuned muscle memory and your ride visuals adding just talking became easy. You were able to tell if a seatbelt was buckled and engaged, restraint down far enough, etc. people are very predictable and so is the ride after a few hundred cycles everyday. Like I said, if you can do it, do it, if you can't keep quiet.

Gee, Cedar Fair having problems with public representations that company ride ops, pictured in company uniforms on company property, don't care about guest satisfaction. I can't imagine what the problem was. For crying outloud. Just goes further to illustrate how preposterous, immature (and annoying) spieling is. Guests and ride ops should take safety instructions more seriously. Paramount Parks until its last few years had a totally different philosophy about guest interaction at rides: Safety is important, be sure you've done as much as you can to assure that. The point of contact at guest boarding is to assure safety compliance, first and foremost. If any spieling is to be done, it will be mechanically reproduced by automated systems, as our ride ops have far more important responsibilities to consume their time and attention. That was the nineties and early 2000's Paramount Parks ride operations philosophy. Then somebody got "Welcome Back you crazy Magnum Riders, How was your ride?" envy. Sigh.

Only because Mr. Johnson of Apple fame was fired.

The underlying problem seems to be that http://KICentral.com/images/SiteImages/Bansheestation.jpg returns a 404.

Haha... I just noticed that. Please imagine devarious just saying it, while I explained it in a strong He-Man style voice. One thing that I want people to realize is that it's all computerized. It's not like maintenance will adjust the brake different on different days. It'll make the instantaneous calculation and adjust accordingly.

Isn't it in the TOS that you have to provide names or sites that you hear the rumor from or is that no longer enforced?

So you're telling me they came out, put holes in the track, and installed a trim before testing even began. That makes no logical sense. If they had and reason to believe they might need a trim brake down the road they would have sent the track looking something like this.

Take any rumor with a grain of salt. There is no evidence that a trim was ever installed. I'm pretty sure all of Banshee's parts for braking the ride came installed on the track before they arrived at the park. With B&M being as well trained as they are I highly doubt they decided after the coaster was built to come out and install a trim. Especially near the part of the coaster where the park is boasting it will reach its top speed.

I thought that any ride that involved a restraint system had to be disassembled, inspected, any warn parts replaced, and then reassembled, before it can function for a season? I thought this and other maintenance and upkeep is what off seasons were for, at the parks that are seasonal?

Some of my spiels still stuck too, it was funny going back two years later and hearing people I know use them or first years. I did a thing guys! Some spiels even hit KI..Girlfriend stole a few, and now her crew used some..buggers

All too often: A very annoying chant, story or sing-song bunch of talking by an employee whose job it is to ensure safe operation of a ride. In the rest of the world: a sales talk, a pitch--often regarded with contempt by those who hear it. Think of a carnival barker, an infomercial (but wait, there's more). or a child selling magazine subscriptions door to door. Ironic, eh?

Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see if my favorite Cedar Fair park outside of Ohio has Streetview. Off to virtual North Carolina. Be back in a half hour or so!

Just some general wooden coaster advice as well: where you sit on the train doesn't really matter. What matters is where you sit within the car. I'll try to explain the best I can. Basically, on the wooden coasters at Kings Island, each car has three rows. The first and third row in each of the cars are what we call wheel seats, since they are directly over a wheel. What you want to do is sit in the second row of any given car on the train. This will offer you a dramatically smoother ride, as you are not taking the full brunt of every bump in the track, as you would if you sat in a wheel seat.

Ah, I miss Paramount Parks. Safety is number one, capacity is number two. Do anything to endanger safety or reduce, and there is the door. Lines moved faster under PP.

...because you'll be free to go ride Banshee any day you choose. Only as long as the park is open and operating that day.

Yep - just like Decoding 2014, this thread will one day expire... ..and it will be glorious.

No this is what you have to look forward to hehehe

Wow..y'all are on the sanitary kick here as of late..If I even TOLD you of some of the stuff that is unsanitary or unclean, it'd blow your minds. Also the bacteria you spread on your body. More than likely it is common flora from individual to individual, and even your own. You will never be germ free, you will never be perfectly sterile. It's practically impossible. Also keep in mind, this bacteria must have a route of entry, which means a break in the chain of infection. If it isn't broke, no sickness/ailment/etc. But honestly I'd be more inclined to think someone would have a bacterial related issue with a food illness or soft drink machine (yes a soft drink machine, they have been noted to carry e-coli in a few studies, drink up kids), than a public restroom. Also if you're flipping out over a restroom. Think of the queue rails, restraints, seats, turnstiles, park maps, chairs, doors, and everything else you touch. A good bit of that probably isn't any cleaner than that restroom. For example I know we only cleaned queue rails at night or early in the Morning probably every other day or so for my ride. Trains get cleaned everyday no doubt, but a nice hot sweaty day, oh the juices get a flowing. Moral of the story, theres alot of bacteria and germs out there everywhere, most of you aren't even at the germ capital of the world everyday for employment. It could be alot worse, and most of what you will deal with in the park is common flora, maybe a virus or infectious bacteria here and there, but as long as you don't have breaks in your skin, pick your nose, stick your hand in your mouth, or poke your eyeball repeatedly, I think it would be safe to say you'll be ok.

Oh, I was going off of this park map.. for some reason I thought it was a new ride coming in 2016... oops.http://www.kentuckykingdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/mapbrochure_page1.jpg T2 (supposed to become T3) needs new trains & track work. Couldn't get it done in short time span.Same applies for Twisted Twins, except it sounds like it needs to be retracked, fixed & they probably need to figure out which trains will make it work correctly.It wouldn't surprise me if they can get both done next winter.Twisted Twins has some unique trains. I kind of like them other than their painful ride. And on another note my awesome manager had me moved to rides and I will be working at the park this summer!

From Kings Islands Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10152589877088368&set=a.226729858367.174830.155893938367&type=1 The Beast celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. "Like" this post if you are among the more than 40 million park visitors that have taken a ride on the longest wooden roller coaster in the world since its debut in 1979.

Better than some dumb target.

The problem I had with Mr 300 for The Beast spiel-er was on a few nights, the crew would have all 3 trains stacked, which, on Beast, you almost have to try to get that to occur. I would say that most of the Coney Mall flats have pretty good spiel-ers.

Totally agree on this. I loved the Zephyr and Eiffel Tower spiels. The Eiffel Tower one is actually really informative and in my opinion is THE most important spiel in the park. In fact, without a spiel going up the tower, it would be a very awkward silence. For this ride and only this ride, I would have substantially less fun without a spiel. Zephyr spiels are always great too, I especially like the park trivia. I try to let others get a chance to get the questions right, but I find that I know more Kings Island history than the general public, so it is often difficult to keep quiet. The WORST spiel is "If you wanna ride Diamondback clap your hands!". I really hate when they get to the end and they're like "If you wanna ride Diamondback, stomp your feet... Oh, wait...". Since I am vertically gifted, I always stomp my feet obnoxiously loudly when they say that to make them realize how dumb that spiel is. There ARE people whose feet can reach the platform on Diamondback. I personally want a prerecorded spiel by Sammy Hagar to go with the Van Halen on Drop Tower. THAT would cement Kings Island in the annals of Theme Park history as the greatest park ever.

The best way? Read the pages you missed. Seriously.

Perhaps they're building an exhibit to educate the masses on the differences between footers and footings, and between concrete and cement.

^ Nah, the part where I was only a queue rail away from very easily seeing the inner workings of Gerstlauer wooden coaster trains. A couple of the cars were in pieces, so it was really easy to see chassis, etc. while waiting in line.

I understand where the park is coming from and I do agree that no one should be on park property at any time when the park is closed, We can all wait to see the ride running up close in April. Small story though, on the same note. This site (KIC) asked me in 2007 to go to the parking lot and take photos of Firehawk track arriving in the parking lot. So even I and this site are guilty in that sense. http://KICentral.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=180 Good news is if any of you happen to own a small plane you can take as many photos or videos from the air during testing! #throwback

In this photo, Mark Wagers from Baynum Painting Inc., paints a section of track orange on The Bat roller coaster. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152623293563368&set=a.226729858367.174830.155893938367&type=1&theater

From KK Facebook Page: Hole for FearFall has been dug! I'm guessing this is the drop ride?