CoastersRZ

Talk about resurrecting a post from a long time ago! Holy batman!

I don`t know. But I do know that when I left the park this past Sunday, I passed a family that was eating on a blanket spread out in the parking lot next to their car...

Or, as has been pointed out elsewhere, advertisements for Kings Island`s WindSeeker, including a full page color ad in the Cincinnati Enquirer, have included a rendering of the ride at Cedar Point (including a view of the lake and Top Thrill Dragster). That would be understandable if there was no rendering for Kings Island`s WindSeeker, but there is a rendering for KI`s.

Like the shutting rides down if it starts to sprinkle rule? Or opening them with only one train, on rides like The Beast that has magnetic brakes (installed after the incident you mentioned above with the old braking system when they were shutting the ride down), AND two lift hills to separate the trains. In Ohio, every ride has to be inspected in the spring prior to its being certified to open to the public. Ohio`s Department of Agriculture has ride inspectors that must take continuing education requirements to stay abreast of the latest technology in the amusement park industry. They inspect every ride, water slide and go kart track in the state of Ohio, including all those inflatable attractions. In Ohio, every permanent ride has a bronze plaque bearing the "Ohio Department of Agriculture- Rides Safety Division" seal with a unique license number. Every year, an operating sticker is placed on this plaque. Also, if there is any injury on a ride requiring hospitalization, the ride inspectors will conduct an investigation. Furthermore, once the initial inspection has been conducted, the ride inspectors will do unannounced inspections to check on the maintenance logs, as well as operations policies and paperwork. I happened to be one of the rides managers the day that two of the state ride inspectors came by Coney for an un-announced visit, so I`ve actually had the chance to talk with them before. As with anything, it is always best to err on the side of caution. Amusement park operators would rather be extra careful with safety, since having the reputation of being unsafe can drive away customers. And once you loose a customer, it is incredibly difficult to get them back as a customer.

But yet, people are willing to wait in the lines and pay these prices. Now, if the cost of admission was say $10 to $15 higher, I`d imagine that they would not be willing to pay those prices. I think its safe to say that the cost of admission at Cedar Fair parks is lower than it probably should be, but they make up for the lower gate by charging more for in park food. Other parks, particularly one in Southern Indiana will charge considerably more for admission, given the product mix, and offer reasonable prices on food, and even free soft drinks. I`d be curious to know if the price for 20oz. Pepsi`s went up at Cedar Point. I know when I was up there for the first weekend of Halloweekends, 20oz soft drinks could be had from the vending machines for $3. That compares to the $3.75 that a Coke would set you back from vending machines at Kings Island.

See, even back in 1993, they were mixing in footage from other parks, ie Top Gun doesn`t invert, but the footage they showed indicated an inverted coaster with inversions. I still love the slogan "Where the magic of the movies meets the thrills of a lifetime." Although, "Kings Island: The Fun and Only" has grown on me a little bit. It is better than "Where Else?" In response to that question, I like to say "Coney Has It." But would that really allow people to "Come on, get Happy?" Maybe since "The Best in Hollywood Entertainment: Now Playing" is no longer playing, people can go to Coney Island "Where fun is easy."

Well, you need to rephrase dead. The main section of the park may have had light crowds, but Planet Snoopy was thoroughly packed. Flying Ace Aerial Chase (formerly Runaway Reptar) had a full queue, which probably had more people in its line than Diamondback around 3 in the afternoon!

I`d say that the real issue is not the weight of the train, but the speed of the train. Less people in the train equates to the train not going as fast and not needing to be trimmed.

That trim is sometimes turned off dependent on weather conditions. I have ridden the ride before, and noticed the trim one during one ride in the day, then came back later and the trim was off. Today it was really windy, so I think that might have been slowing the trains down a little bit, thus rendering the trim brake not needed.

It may have nothing in fact to do with the bedrock or soil conditions between the two sites. A bigger issue is that one of the sites is a brownfield site (the old Flight Commander site), and one is a green field site (relatively undisturbed site). The reason I say this is twofold. First, they may not have wanted to relocate the Eurobobble attraction elsewhere. Secondly, I think it is safe to say that when Flight Commander was removed, its foundations were not removed. As such, in order to put WindSeeker on that site, they would have to first remove the old FC foundations, and relocate any utilities in that area. Doing those things adds cost to the foundation/site work. Not saying it can`t be done, its just more expensive than doing it on a site that is say, next to Vortex without any utilities or existing conditions to worry about. That being said, I have not seen any civil drawings for that area of the park, so I don`t know what kind of utilities are in that area, or what the soil conditions are between the two sites. Whatever the final location of the ride, I`m sure it will still be popular. And it looks like at least a portion of Coney Mall which hasn`t seen much TLC lately will be getting some tender loving care.

Yes today is nice, although high winds were causing an issue at the park. Drop Tower shut down due to high winds, as did Invertigo. And the Eiffel Tower was running in slow mode for a while due to the high winds.

EDIT UPDATE: Drop Tower`s foundation was designed by Steven Schaefer Associated, a Cincinnati based structural engineering firm. The foundation utilized a 700 cubic yard concrete pile cap on top of 16 H-pile sections, which were driven 90 feet down into bedrock. As far as how far out the soil cores extend from the ride foundation depends on the soil conditions, ride design, aka the design loads.

Speaking of Drop Tower's foundation. It is comprised of A series of piles driven into the ground with a pile cap on top of all the piles. In essence, both Drop Tower and WindSeeker are essentially large flag poles.

If the site for Flight Commander was acceptable for Flight Commander, I`m sure it would have been acceptable for WindSeeker. Now, if they wanted to use the site adjacent to that location, there may be some utilities in the way that made the other site a more favorable (and less expensive) option.

Not to mention that Paramount would often market some of those dry run days as "Season Pass Holder Preview" days. That way, the people weren`t paying specifically to visit the park for just one day, and would thus be disappointed with downtime. Pass holders could simply return another day. It also allowed kinks to be worked out that came with many people starting their first true day at their first job. And above all else, it allowed the park to market a special perk for pass holders, and these days were often quite crowded and the food stands often had lines.

I thought I spotted a soil coring location immediately off to the side of The Racer last Sunday, between the Red Racer and Vortex exit. My only problems with the location of this ride are twofold. One, it will likely create a bottleneck near The Vortex and Action Theater exits, while the old Flight Commander site seems like it would have been a more ideal location. Secondly, the new site is awfully close to The Beast. Hopefully, they maintain a safe buffer of trees around The Beast. Hopefully, they do replace a majority of the asphalt in Coney Mall with pavers. But bare in mind, that Coney Mall is really long, so I doubt we see the entire thing replaced this year with pavers, as pavers are expensive. And bare in mind that the far end of Coney Mall down by The Vortex and Action Theater already has pavers installed. If I had to guess, I`d say we may see pavers at the very least connect up to the pavers in front of Backlot, so in the vicinity of Shake Rattle and Roll. If we are lucky, they will extend the pavers to at least the Zephyr area, by where X Base connects to Coney Mall.

I agree slightly with separating the position of chairman and CEO. However, if paying down more of the debt instead of paying out cash distributions makes for a stronger company down the road, than I think that is the wise thing to do and I would oppose Q`s position on that subject. Yes, I own some units in Cedar Fair and would love to see a larger cash distribution than the 25 cents that they will pay in December. However, I think forgoing a larger distribution now may result in a better company with larger cash distributions in the future.

It isn`t something new to just Cedar Fair. I mean, look at the Scrambler at KI. It has been known as Scrambler since it was installed at Coney, and that is Eli Bridge`s name for the model of the ride. Even Paramount did that a couple of time. Invertigo at California`s Great America, which was installed in 1998, is both the name of the ride and the name of the model from Vekoma.

There is still no confirmation whether River Downs has actually been sold or not. One thing that is important to note, is that River Down`s parking lots are used for Riverbend Music Center concerts. And the entire area sits in a flood plain. So any plans the new owner, if there is a new owner, has about fixing up or adding to the complex (there were rumors and talks about slot machines being added to Ohio`s horse tracks) would have to account for flood waters. As an aside, River Downs was originally known as the Coney Island Race Course. It opened in 1925, the same year as Sunlite Pool. Problems arose pertaining to gambling which resulted in the tracks closure for nearly seven years, and ownership changing hands. Per the current update on the article, it received its River Downs name following the 1937 flood. The current owners bought the facility in 1975 and replaced the wooden grandstand with the current one in 1989.

I thought that I read somewhere that Super Roundup came from LL too, where it was called Electric Rainbow? The Super Round Up at Coney has been operating there since 1993. The Electric Rainbow from LeSourdsville Lake was actually relocated to Stricker`s Grove. Both models are a 42 person Super Round Up. Now the Tilt A Whirl at Coney came from LL`s neighbor: Fantasy Farm.

http://news.cincinna...iver-Downs-sold Very interesting news. I know River Downs had been struggling the last few years. For those who are unaware, River Downs is situated immediately to the east of Coney Island`s east parking lot.

Unfortunately, I`ve never made it out to Camden Park. I would love to visit this park someday. Its definitely on my list of parks to visit when vacation time and money permit. Hopefully I can score some new parks since I actually have vacation time now! It also amazing how quickly this season went by! It seemed like just yesterday that Kings Island opened and that I was getting ready for my 9th season at Coney. Now Coney is closed for the year, and there are only two weekends left at KI. Time to switch to winter mode, and other social pre-occupations like dating I suppose until next spring.

At the very end of the show, when the credits were rolling, it said "Dedicated to WILL KOCH." A very nice tribute. And I can also say that wasps are not only a problem at Holiday World. Wasps were out in full force at Coney on the final weekend. In fact, I had to take a ride on the top of the Ferris Wheel, after we shut it down due to numerous guests complaining about a ton of wasps hanging out at the top! Unfortunately, I did not spy any nests, so the wasp spray was ineffective. The part about the LIM car was cool, especially how it actually lifted off of the track because of the magnetic waves that were created.

I'm always fascinated by the construction process. Especially when it involves amusement par rides. I really am enjoying this show right now.

I`d love to visit some of the parks that you have been to. But time and money (and lack of vacation days at my new job) have limited my travel availability. Someday I hope to visit more parks. My coaster count has been slow to rise the last few years, only rising by two this year and last year. I thoroughly enjoyed Blue Streak at Cedar Point this past September. Almost more so than The Racer! Maybe its because the ride felt a lot smoother compared to The Racer. Or maybe it was the fact that the ride seemed better kept because of its blue paint job, and its LED chaser lights.