CoastersRZ

I ate at Chuckwagon pizza back in August of 2009, and thought the food was quite tasty. I was sorry to see it disappear... I typically do not buy pizza at amusement parks, in part because I am not a fan of paying nearly $3 for a slice of pizza. (I will however, buy pizza when that is served in Coney`s employee cafe, because then it is only $1 a slice (and the soft drinks are 50 cents, but that is a perk of being an employee at Coney, lol)...

I do not think it really does need a walk back. The ride usually has little or no wait. It was a very nice tradition, one that the park carried on in many years in her name. The walk back was essentially discontinued once The Beast became part of the ERT when Diamondback opened. Remember, that prior to 2001, there was no gold pass, and the only ERT sessions that pass holders or enthusiasts could get was at a coaster event. And the walk back was NOT exclusive ride time. It simply was a walk back to the entrance of the ride, to be the first ones in line for the ride.

Really? Flight of Fear has some pretty nice theming. And while it may not be as top notch as it once was, KI`s Flight of Fear has had its theming stay, relatively intact. Minus some minor deletions, like the radio antennae outside. At least its not like KD`s where most of the indoor queue was torn out for a Haunt location... Now if only Cedar Fair can bring back the Kings of Komedy Clown Band... The one thing that KI is missing is the liver atmosphere entertainment in my opinion.

But the question will be, will they go to Pepsi, or will they go to Coke? Who will pony up the most nickels? Personally, I hope KI stays Coke. I was glad when the Reds switched to Coke from Pepsi a few years ago!

Yeah, on the way home this evening, there was still a gas station with the cheap stuff at $3.35, while a station across the street was $3.49. I read an article here: http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/money/consumer/gasoline-prices-expected-to-increase-by-40-cents-this-week-wews1299090609430 that states we may see gas hit $4.05 by Memorial Day weekend! No thanks. It still amazes me that the price of gas can increase so rapidly, yet it will never fall fifteen cents in one day... And I have to wonder what these prices are going to do for the fragile economy...

Once Flying Dutchman was removed and Adventure Express opened, I believe the midway was slightly closer to Skylab than what was seen in that picture.

Coincidentally, hasn`t Marathon sponsored the fireworks at Kings Island the last few seasons?

And notice that there is no gate. There is simply a chain!

Much less, how did said individuals get away with stealing that much scrap metal. Its not like you can just walk off with large chunks of metal. Not to mention, that June through October is a pretty large time frame. Where were they taking said items from anyway?

I wonder what, if any, impact this will have on the popular summertime treat this summer.

Gotta like how you put the 'kaboom' after the words catastrophic failure! I know that car companies are getting very serious about finding alternative ways to fuel cars. Especially with the cost of fuel rising. And it would behove the car companies to find alternatives. Just imagine, if a car company could develop a car that runs on an alternative fuel, effectively, and economically. They would have a huge hit on their hands that would sell millions of vehicles. In turn, that huge hit would have a major impact on their bottom line. Also note, that at one point in time, most American cities, including Cincinnati, had very prevalent street car and rail transportation networks in the early 1900s. Right around the time the car was taking off, most of these street car and rail companies were going bankrupt because of competition from the new horseless carriages. Coincidence? I don`t think so. There is a WONDERFUL site on the history of the early railroads in Cincinnati, and what remains today. It is really a fascinating site, and I recommend you check it out. It is really insightful, and you could spend hours on it. (For example, there used to be a rail line that cut across my suburban street. It ceased passenger operation in 1935, long before my 1970s subdivision was built. The railroad, in case you are wondering was called the Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth Railroad, or the CG&P. Here`s the link to the train website: http://homepage.mac.com/jjakucyk/Transit1/index.html I know I went off on a pretty big tangent there, but I always find that website so fascinating. And to think how many railroads, street cars and inter urbans criss crossed the city back then!

Wouldn`t you think that some of the track in the station, where the wood is generally protected, and the trains traveling at low speeds could still be original? Granted, when Racer originally opened, it had old skid brakes. On the other hand, a certain racing coaster down in the Carolinas is slowly being completely rebuilt, after they decided to strip its protective paint coating. What a costly mistake that turned out to be. The ride was originally painted for a reason.

Yep. Bottom line, they are there to make money for the owners of the park. In Cedar Fair`s case, it is the unit holders and the general partner. For parks like Coney, it is for the individual owners of the park, the same goes for places like Holiday World that are family owned. If it doesn`t make good business sense, parks simply won`t do it. Having worked in operations at Coney now for nine seasons, you definitely get a different perspective on how parks are run, and how things are done with regards to how decisions impact guest experience and what makes good business sense.

And in most areas, Cincinnati included, most electricity is generated by coal, which is a non-renewable resource as well, and can be dirty to turn into electricity. One difference is, that coal is readily available in this country, so we would not be relying on foreign oil. Another option for charging electric cars, would be to charge them at night, when there is less demand for electricity. Most utility companies also offer lower rates in the evening hours for electric consumption. And since we are on the subject of pollution, concrete is one of the dirtiest building products, in terms of pollution, to manufacture. The cement making process is high in pollution output.

Why will you be leaving Ohio? I`m amazed at the amount of people who were classmates of mine in DAAP who could not WAIT to get out of Cincinnati and Ohio. Simply amazes me, because I love Cincinnati and Ohio.

And in case some were wondering about the connection on B&M coasters that the Interpreter was siting, below is a shot of the corkscrew on Vortex down at Carowinds. Notice how the support attaches to the track.

But also what is shocking is that the place didn`t have any kind of first aid staff on property. Definitely seems like lawsuits are waiting to be filed in this one, as someone certainly seems negligent. Hopefully the three that are seriously injured make a quick and full recovery. I also wonder, if the ride shown is in fact the one that had the incident, how kids could be violently thrown from it. It doesn`t seem like the type of ride to produce lateral forces that would want to force people out of the ride. And the other question is, who actually started the ride?

Yes, the infrastructure is not there yet for these new cars. Not to mention that some of them have very restrictive limitations. I mean, the electric Ford Focus can only drive about 80 to 100 miles on one charge. That is not a great deal of miles, considering for me to get from my house to the office down town and back home (round trip), is about 35 miles, I could realistically only get two trips in before needing to recharge the car. And then there is the whole other issue of needing special equipment at home to charge it. And I wouldn`t place all of the blame on just OPEC either. We have oil reserves in this country which could be tapped too. But environmentalists have stopped most of them from being tapped. And yes, the incident with the BP oil rig in the gulf was devastating to the environment. But we should not place the fate of our economy (and yes, gas prices play a big impact on the economy, especially one that is recovering from a big recession), in the hands of foreign countries that control most of our oil supply.

Actually, how closely have you watched the track on the first drop of Diamondback when a train goes down it? It flexes quite a bit when a train plunges down to the ground. Remember the old saying, if it doesn`t shake, it will break. If a steel structure was designed to not flex, it would then be brittle (and steel is inherently a flexible material), and would break under loading conditions. I could pull out some structures terminology from my structures classes (although most of those pertained to designing beams for buildings, we did discuss things like yield strength, elastic and inelastic beams, moment, inertia, etc.) but there is no need to. Eventually, there will be fatigue on the metal, similar to if you bend a paper clip back and forth enough, it will eventually break in two. The question is, what is the length of that time. And keep in mind, that maintenance can prolong the lifespan (or shorten it as the case may be). Wooden coasters are always in a state of perpetual building, and it is less common for whole sections of steel rides to see similar repairs. However, I`m fairly confident that sections of The Vortex track have been replaced over the years. In fact, several years back, there were some new rails sitting by the first drop on The Vortex. They were visible from The Beast, after leaving the station.

Seems like another well written book about a long lost park. Also illustrates yet another example of what a nemesis fires can be to amusement parks. I treasure the Charles Jacques Jr. book on Coney Island because it captures so much of the history of Coney and what it meant to the Cincinnati area in its early years. Few people realize how different the amusement park industry is now compared to the way it used to be. Back in the day, (before Disneyland was around and there were bigger "corporate" parks, there used to be tons of smaller parks. Trolley parks became prevalent as a way for streetcar companies to increase ridership on their routes. Several parks that were once served by trolleys still exist today. Kennywood is a prime example, as are other parks like Dorney, Camden, Lake Compounce, Lakemont Park, and Waldameer. For those who have read the Charles Jacques book on Coney Island, you will notice how Coney`s management would often write to Kennywood`s management describing the latest flood of the Ohio, or the latest reviews of the newest attractions. Right around the time that Walt was planning Disneyland, and after World War II when the baby boomers were being born, many of these original trolley parks were facing troubles. Most trolley lines and street cars were gradually declining use and being abandoned altogether. Almost every city at one point had small amusement parks (even Cincinnati had Chester Park and Coney Island). Then once Disneyland opened, and the big themer parks like the Six Flags, the Taft parks, initially with Kings Island, and other large parks started opening, it pretty much forced out most of the smaller, and in some cases, family run parks. It is truly remarkable that Coney Island, once given up for dead after the shiny new Kings Island opened in 1972 has thrived since that time. And this year it gets to celebrate a milestone that not many parks have reached. Especially the new wave of theme parks that opened in the `60s and through the 70s. This year Coney will celebrate its 125th anniversary. (The official date is June 21). I know that Coney is planning several special events over the course of the summer to commemorate this landmark anniversary. I`ll be sure to let everyone know about more details as I find out about them!

I like your avatar! "You will pay."

Really? $5 a gallon? That is $1.60 more per gallon than the current price of gas. (And my car, with its 18 gallon tank means if I fill up at 15 gallons, that`s an extra $22.50 per fill up. Multiply it by at least two fill ups a month, and that is an additional $45 a month, or $540 a year! Yes, it may not reach $5 this year. But play along for a bit. $540 is a sizeable amount. Just think how many Kings Island passes that could buy. Unfortunately, driving is a fact of life in cities like Cincinnati, where there is not a good public transportation service (outside of Metro). If people have to choose between paying for gas to get to and from work and buying a season pass to Kings Island, guess which one they are going to choose? Not to mention the increased gas prices will have a ripple down affect as it means the cost of transporting goods will rise, which means that almost everything else will increase in price too. How far off are those electric and hydrogen cars? If gas prices do go that high, you will likely see a bigger push for these types of eco friendly cars to go main stream sooner rather than later.

Yes indeed. Because those not familiar, Son of Beast actually has a different track gauge compared to typical wooden coasters. Hence, the trains had to be modified to fir the track.

Yeah. I believe that the trains that ran on Son of Beast came from the now defunct Myrtle Beach Pavilion and ran on Hurricane. (Which was a rather wild ride, and it ran rough back in 2003, and it was only three years old). Granted, I believe that some of the Gerstlauer trains that ran on Villian did make their way to KI (I believe that was reported at some time) at about the same time Son of Beast was reopening. EDIT: It looks like The Interpreter was editing his post when I was typing up my response. He has since rescinded any comment he made about the trains coming from Geauga Lake. Blue B&M at Cedar Point anyone?

Well, you kind of did just one up him, lol. Its not like those trains were anything remarkable to begin with. They were modified Gerstlauer trains. No real loss there. But it sure seems like a bad investment to purchase those trains when they only ran on the ride for a couple of seasons.