CoastersRZ

Except that in order to gain access to Rivertown Junction you have to pay to eat at the all you can eat buffett. I doubt they would let you come in to just grab some vegetables to take out and walk down to LaRosa`s.

Well, it all depends on what happens this coming week. Now that is a good Q. 040810.

Because they opened and shut, that means there were moving parts. Moving parts means that there was maintenance involved on those moving parts.

A few years back, I did extensive research on Photo Voltaic cells for one of my elective seminars that focused on the 2007 Solar Decathlon. In fact, the end result of that class was that all ten of us produced a lot of diagrams looking at the design and energy efficiency of the twenty Solar Decathlon houses. (My main focus was on how the 20 designs utilized PV panels). The professor took our drawings and developed a book over the next year using our drawings as a basis. The book "Precedents in Zero-Energy Design: Architecture and Passive Design in the 2007 Solar Decathlon" is available through Amazon herehttp://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20777&pid=370454&st=200entry370454. My name is listed in that book, as well as several of my drawings. Pretty cool to say that some of my work has been published along with my name. (And technically my entire thesis document and design is also published online and searchable by anyone at an Ohio University).

Well, as far as the doors go, that likely is a maintenance issue. I was actually surprised that the doors lasted as long as they did. The only thing that bugs me now, is the trains clearly look like they are cars. But without the headlight decals on them, it looks like the park was cheating on maintenance/upkeep and repainted the trains and didn`t bother to reapply the decals. I understand that if they were to put the decals back on, it would look like the Mini Coopers again, but surely they could have gone for a hot rod type look with more flamboyant headlights, etc. I mean, the ride is themed to a car ride. Obviously, replacing the fiberglass shells to a more generic, non-car themed shape would be expensive. If I had to guess, I`d say if they made this change at Kings Dominion, it would only be logical that this change will also happen at Kings Island and Canada`s Wonderland. Chalk this one up to another cheap re-theming job, similar to what has become The Crypt.

Except Ryan, I believe that some parks like Disney and Busch have begun to introduce more healthy meal options to their parks in recent years. Kings Island and other Cedar Fair parks generally haven`t. If someone were to be looking for a healthy meal at Kings Island, they would generally be out of luck. In fact, last weekend, before leaving the hotel and heading to Carowinds, I heard some families talking about how they pack their lunches and eat at the car, because there is nothing healthy for their kids to eat, and they don`t want to pay an arm in the leg for the fattening food that the park does offer.

I think your estimate of converting the entire park to solar power is grossly underestimated. It would cost more than a million dollars to update the electrical system. Photo voltaic systems (the proper name for solar panels) are quite expensive because they are not being mass produced right now. Furthermore, they require a significant amount of area to produce adequate electricity. While they can be placed on roofs of buildings (and Dollywood has actually installed some PV panels on their tram stops in the parking lot), they are not currently feasible to power an entire park. Why is that? Well, remember that Cincinnati sees a lot of cloudy days. PV panels become even less efficient when it is cloudy out. When it is really cloudy, they are essentially useless until the sun comes out. They also are not very efficient (in the range of 60 to 70 percent) because they produce electricity in direct current, which then has to be transformed into alternating current, which is the standard in the United States. Another factor, is that electricity cannot be effectively stored. So even if the park were to install PV panels, they`d still have to be connected to the grid. And, electricity produced by coal (which is what is used primarily in the Cincinnati area) is relatively cheap per kilowatt hour. PV is more expensive than coal per kwH. There simply isn`t a financial incentive for the large outlay of capital to switch over to solar electricity. Not to mention an amusement park presents some unique challenges in terms of energy usage. Some rides, such as Flight of Fear and Backlot Stunt Coaster require lots of current each time the Linear Induction Motors fire. This in and of itself is not ideal for solar electric systems. And that is why most amusement parks have not adopted solar power systems. Even most large companies have not really started to incorporate large scale PV systems into their property. Some stores, particularly Wal Mart, have begun to look at the possibility of adding PV cells to the roof areas of their stores, because of the large amount of land that there stores cover, and the fact that Wal Mart can directly effect economies of scale. Moreover, recent changes to Wal Marts and Kroger stores has seen the introduction of skylights into the stores that allow the stores to typically not need to turn on their artificial lighting system during the daylight hours, effectively saving them energy costs. And when stores like Wal Mart do install PV panels, they see a benefit because of the large volume of stores that they own and operate, and thus the large amount of utility bills that they have to pay. Amusement parks don`t have the same economies of scale advantage as what Wal Mart or other big box stores have that have hundreds of locations in the US and around the world.

Not sure if you were being facetious but, yes you can buy such things as Carmel apples.. You can get them in two forms.. on a stick dipped in carmel, or sliced up served with a side of carmel. You can also pay a dollar less and get plain old apple slices. Did that many times last year. And just because someone is a vegetarian does not necessarily mean that they are a healthy eater. Be happy that he spent the time and effort making this instead of tearing him down just because Kings Island doesn't have "healthy options." Maybe you should talk to Kings Island about that? No, I was not being facetious. I did not know if one could buy caramel apples in the park. I thought you could, but wasn`t entirely sure. Just for my own curiosity, where can you buy those apples at?

Glad to hear you had a great time! I`ve never been to Six Flags Magic Mountain before. In fact, the only Six Flags park I went to, is no longer a Six Flags park or even an amusement park anymore. And the other park that I went to before it became a Six Flags is also no longer a park anymore, effective this year.

Now if only the park would have an official list like this on their new website, which may go live at the end of next week. I wonder if something like that is planned or not...

No offense to the time you took putting this together, but I`m sure some of the menu items will be changed for this year. And it is generally considered that Kings Island (and I heard similar comments down at Carowinds last weekend) does not offer many healthy meal choices. Especially look at many of the options you listed. Many of them do not scream healthy vegetarian choices to me. I mean, can you even buy such things as caramel apples at Kings Island (let alone regular healthy apples)? Part of the reason that some people will pack their lunches and eat in their cars (besides the outrageous food prices (I spent nearly $13 for a 20oz drink and two slices of pizza at Carowinds last Saturday), is that there are not a lot of healthy food options inside of Kings Island. Not to mention that generally the quality of the food is no where near what you would expect for the high prices you are being asked to pay.

Hopefully this ride is a huge hit and can bring in guests to Kings Dominion. That is after all the reason that the multi-million dollar ride was installed. They expect to see a boost in attendance that will result in hopefully more revenues generated at the park this year. They do need to see a return on their investment.

I`m really glad that the Cedar Point blog is back. I enjoy reading it. Tony and Tyler do a great job with their blog, especially the piece they did about coaster maintenance in the winter last week. It was an awesome piece that looked at the behind the scenes portion of winter amusement park operation that few people get to witness.

Well, the Flyers made by B&M are somewhat similar it sounds like to what you are talking about. In the station, the track is like normal inverted track. The seats tilt back and up into the flying position, unlike Firehawk where the seats tilt down. See this image on RCDB to see what I am talking about: http://rcdb.com/1977.htm?p=6365

I believe that the front nose cone, as I stated before, can rotate. I do NOT think that it is loose or misaligned because of the ride. If you could see the track in front of the nose cone in that picture, you would likely see that the train is preparing to enter a gently banked curve, thus explaining the misaligned nose cone. And that goose incident occurred on a B&M hyper at a park not far from Kings Dominion. And that too was on opening/media day for that said ride.

And the logical reason for that, is the front "nose cone" of the train is a separate piece from the first car. What I mean, is it looks like from the first picture that the nose cone is free to rotate independently of the car in which the front row riders sit. Take a look at this picture from theme park review: You can clearly see that there is a gap between the nose cone and the front row. For more images from Theme Park Review of the media event of Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion, click here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=877056#p877056

And has been discussed in other thread as well.

Already discussed here: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20959

Patience my friend. Remember, we are on the cusp of the season. In no time at all, the park will be in full, daily operation. And then like the blink of an eye, the season will be winding down again as daily operation ends and the park prepares for Haunt. And then, just as quickly as it began, the 2010 season will be over! Time flies much too quickly.

UPDATE: I swung by Coney today. The Python Pavilion is in fact the Pavilion on the east side of the Python, near where the old tennis courts used to be and adjacent to PNC Pavilion. Coney is gearing up for the season, as they are in the process of putting the rides back together, getting Sunlite Pool ready for the season, and painting various sections of the park. Not much longer before amusement park season is in full swing in the Cincinnati area! I can`t wait.

Well, technically Walt Disney World is bigger than Lake Buena Vista. The Reedy Creek Improvement District is the governing body that governs the land upon which the Walt Disney World Resort sits. It includes the cities of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, and other un-incorporated land owned by Disney. Originally, the city of Lake Buena Vista was named Reedy Creek, before being renamed in the early 1970s. As Ryan stated, both the City of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista have virtually non existent permanent populations. Per the 2000 census, Bay Lake had 23 permanent residents, and Lake Buena Vista had 16 permanent residents. Reedy Creek Improvement district handles many of the essential functions within the Walt Disney World Resort, including the fire department, sewage, water, and gas and electric utilities. About the only essential function that is not provided is the police department which is provided by the Orange County Sheriff`s office. RCID also handles the building permit process in the district. In fact, the building codes used in the Reedy Creek Improvement District are separate from the Florida Building Codes. In fact, per this site (which if you read it, contains some outdated information) http://www.rcid.org/Dept_Building_Safety.cfm, the building code used in RCID is called the EPCOT codes. Although after the introduction of the International Building Code in 2000 (upon which most states now base their building codes), the EPCOT codes now refer to the IBC for most of the code language. The building code is updated every three years. (For those wondering, the 2007 Ohio Building Code makes reference to the 2006 IBC). I bet that was way more information than anyone cared to gain about the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Yes, these accidents are tragic. Anytime a bid is hit by a bus it is tragic. Just look at the recent story in Cincinnati about the little girl who was killed crossing her cul-de-sac to get to a different school bus! But while the permanent resident totals in the cities within the improvement district are minor, they see millions of tourists a year. At a lecture I attended at UC in which there were several Imagineers from Disney presenting, they offered up this bit of wisdom. If there is a curb that is slightly too high, and it causes 1 out of every 100,000 people to trip and get hurt that is too much. Why? Because multiply that number by a magnitude of two. Instead of just one person per 100,000, you get 100 people per 10 million, which is a much higher number, and about the attendance of one of the Disney parks in a year! I think I am now done with this epically long post.

2005 was around the last year that they stopped issuing passes with your picture actually printed on the pass itself. Like other have said, now when your pass is scanned, a color picture displays on the monitor (which is easier to verify your identity than the small black and white image that used to be printed on the pass). That is when they verify that the person using the pass is in fact the person who owns the pass.

I will definitely ride Boo Blasters on Boo Hill on opening weekend. If for no other reason that to see if Kings Island`s version received the same awesome effect that Carowinds version received.

Wow. So it sounds like those quick transitions may prove to produce some rider discomfort. It sounds like this is one intense ride. I`ve heard reports from people saying this ride is more intense than Millennium Force! Hopefully, I can get out to Kings Dominion at some point this year to experience that ride. Kings Dominion is a great park, and its similarities to Kings Island are striking.

It should be noted, that at Carowinds this year, if you had the season pass voucher you HAD to process your pass before entering the park. The admissions staff was NOT accepting the vouchers, and directing people back outside of the metal detectors and to the season pass processing center. There were also signs posted stating that one had to process their pass first, prior to gaining entry to the park. Granted, that was Carowinds, and not Kings Island. Policies can and sometimes are different from park to park, even in the same chain.