DeLorean Rider

Best season I ever had was 2006 being a supervisor at Tomb Raider: The Ride. Boy I could tell you some stories... P.S. Take it from me, nobody likes a person who is obnoxious over the microphone. Nobody.

Hard to say. I mean who actually owns it now? Viacom? Cedar Fair? Or did it just fall through the cracks? I assume its the oval shaped .wmv file correct?

You were made to say "all clear" and "how was your ride" every 2 minutes for 50 hours a week? Lol, I'm sure that wont ever get old. Dont get me wrong, working in rides was a great time, but its the people that make it. If you build the actual work up in your mind, you're going to be let down very fast. Face it, 8+ hours a day outside in the summer repeating the same motion over and over; it will get old fast. Still if you make friends and get close to your colleagues , you will have a good time. Some of my best friends still are from when I worked at KI, and I've been gone for 5 years. Also just fyi, the driver position on a ride is a big responsibility. New hires typically are not trained there until at least mid season, if they even get trained there at all. It's not uncommon for someone to never get driver trained in their first year, especially if they're under 18. It's a position you have to prove you're ready for. If you're driving and something goes wrong, it's on you, and you HAVE to know how to respond.

The only things "weird" about Dollywood are that for an amusement park, their staff is incredibly friendly, and their food is all amazing. Compared to the other 99% of amusement parks in the world, this is definitely weird.

I wonder if Canada's Wonderland ever makes a call to them for something they need for Skyrider. I can imagine it would be quite difficult to get NOS Togo parts anymore. I'm sure many of the parts are updated, retrofitted, or re-manufactured, but there are always those select few parts that when yours needs replaced, you know you're in a bind. I know the Disney Parks trade hard to find or expensive parts all the time. I assume it would be the same for other park franchises.

I have been a die hard Garfield fan since I read my first Garfield book in 2nd grade, and even I wish he would leave that ride. Seems like every time I go I ride it to remind myself why not to ride it. The experience that that ride gives is what I would imagine an acid trip to be like.

Sadly, so does theme licensing. Unfortunately it does look seem like for now its getting worse more than better.

This is after it was changed from "The Enchanted Voyage," to "The Smurf's Enchanted Voyage" correct? Assuming so since it happened in 1984. The smurfs are also a good indication, haha

"For one low admission of $6.00"

Do you remember what year this was? I remember this one, I think it was 2001? Can anyone else verify?

These are awesome man! I love seeing pictures of skyride. The Monorail shot is pretty awesome too.

Next time try editing your post, not the quote. According to your post PKIDelirium said "nevermind," not you.

the red things to the right of tht building? Do you know what people are talking about when they say footings? This is what everyone is talking about: Keyword: Kings Island

Haha, I could only imagine interviewing with you.

Ah, the TRTR music. Somewhere around here I think I also have a copy of the video file used for the preshow. That and all of the individual sound effects for the ride. This one is probably my favorite: http://k004.kiwi6.com/hotlink/g6ngbba093/au49.mp3 Nothing like some good canned screams, haha This one too. Most of you probably didnt have the pleasure of hearing this: http://k004.kiwi6.com/hotlink/k9nif8pajb/au52.mp3 Also this one always puzzled me. There are about 40 individual sound effects and I could point out where every single one is during the course of the ride or queue, except this one. I've always wondered the story. I just assume it was something they had, then either didn't have a place for it, or just didn't use it because maybe it crossed a line. http://k004.kiwi6.com/hotlink/k30m6999cd/touch_anything_and_get_your_head_chopped_off.mp3 It's sound effect number 21.

I agree. As soon as the techno music came along, rows were removed, the vertical door gone, and it because a HUSS ferris wheel, I was done. I never once rode it as the Crypt. Every time I went to the park in the last few years, I would just watch the cycle, and just say forget it. I'll never forget the first time I rode it in 02, seeing that ultra-violet paint and having the eyes burning at you. I remember once in 02, buying a shirt at one of the stores to wear over my uniform so I could ride it on break. On that ride I ended up getting nailed by one of the water jets and had to go back to work soaked. Memories My favorite year working it was 05 (last year with the boiler and all steam effects). When they decided to shut down the boiler in 06 we knew it was a bad sign. From there it was just a downhill slope.

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.

Wow yea, I forgot about that. That was actually a video I made for a solid modeling project 5+ years ago. Not even sure I still have that file anymore; I've since completely switched to SolidWorks.

Have you ever actually been there? I went on their 1 free day of the year. (By offering free admission 1 day every year, the park gets a property-tax exemption and gets to be classified as a religious entity; seems like BS to me.) Getting your picture taken with a face character of Jesus then being invited to witness an extremely graphic representation of his crucifixion is not my idea of family fun. Definitely a weird park.

TR:TR was quite popular, particularly in its early days, when it was still playing off the popularity of the film and the video games, both of which are all but forgotten now. TR:TR was also a much different ride than The Crypt. This video gives you a good idea: Haha, wow, I posted that video years ago with my old youtube account. I cant believe its still up; I would have thought it would have been removed since it was a direct rip from the travel channel. 264,000 views! I posted it at the same time as I posted the "Cincinnati Kids" Brady Bunch episode which was very quickly removed. "kind of like a peanut butter cup!"

I had some enjoyable rides and some not so enjoyable rides on SOB. I worked there in 04 and it was definitely a blast. Craziest rides were those when the train would blow the block brake, (usually with the assistance of the driver). Still I would trade all those experiences for another wave pool. Imagine the wavepool that could go on SOB's plot. Talk about amazing.

Nothing will ever remind me more of KI than the Top Gun soundtrack. A year there hearing those 10 songs over and over is something I dont think I could forget.

Not for sure but I would guess it went to a recycler and was melted down. It might be someones car by now. Probably the best guess. I do not believe it was sold or relocated, just scrapped.

A what? You mean an honor? Also your best bet for getting hired is to go to the job fairs. That's where most of the new hiring is done. Don't expect an application in the mail or online to be enough. If you want it you need to be proactive. Anyway good luck. EDIT: Actually do they still have job fairs?