CoastersRZ

I know I certainly take offense to that article. I mean, I worked eight years at Coney (possibly soon to be a ninth) season. It is a fun job that I enjoy doing. The pay is not the primary reason I work there. And, saying that the job is for stoned teens is really a nice way to generalize something. I mean, I graduated from one of the best architecture programs in the country! Coney was the first job that I ever had, and to say that I still enjoyed going into work every day in my eighth year is something not a lot of people would say about their jobs, after eight years.

Beware the ides of March. Good old Shakespeare! I remember reading Julius Caesar in 10th grade. We had to memorize a passage from that play for English class that year. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ear. I come to bury Caesar not to praise him. The evil men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with Caeser." Alas, this is not a forum dedicated to Shakespeare.

Exactly. But a lot of how a ride handles is determined by how well a park maintains and cares for its rides. Even the best designed GCI coaster will eventually turn sour if it is not well looked after. As an aside, I found the website for Rock Mountain Construction, the company that is doing the work on Texas Giant. It should come as no surprise, that they have worked on projects involving Intamin`s plug and play wood coaster track on rides such as El Toro. Check out their website here: http://www.rockymtnconstruction.com/rollercoasters/roller_coasters.html

That new track seems interesting. So I wonder if they will be getting new trains? I would imagine they would at the very least need to change out the wheels on the old trains. This brings up the whole debate of whether or not this ride will even still be a wooden coaster. In theory, it will not be much different from rides like Adventure Express! Granted, the steel track is in the shape of wood coaster track. It is not like the prefab- wood track on the Intamin designed wooden coaster. And most of these wooden coasters that have had these problems are larger rides. The smaller rides have fared far better. Just look at the quality designs of GCI rides, that may cost more upfront, but their designs prove to be more cost effective in the long run because of less maintenance issues. Granted, every wood coaster is naturally going to require some maintenance, and usually more maintenance than a steel coaster of a similar size.

The question now becomes when will it come to Kings Island, if it indeed is scheduled to make a stop here. And what venue will this be housed in, since all of the venues (save for the old Enchanted Theater), are home to shows this season. Obviously, Timberwolf is vacant most of the summer too.

I was actually going to offer that same description, to those who might not be as financially inclined!

Well, as of midday, Cedar Fair units are only trading down 8 cents at 11.18, down .71%. Not exactly a big drop off, given the dire circumstances they outlined in the letter they are mailing out.

There you go. I knew I read it somewhere. I search KI`s site, and did not see any pass holder perks listed out yet. Yet another reason why their website needs updating. But its safe to say that corporate management is distracted at the present time.

I thought I read somewhere that there is a discount for pass holders to the Great Wolf Lodge. Not sure if it was a Platinum Pass holder only discount, or if it was open to Gold as well. I do not recall the actual amount.

Well, with the amount of money they have invested buying units, they have to have some formal strategy developed. Especially since I would imagine that they hope to see a return on some of their investment. Isn`t the corporate structure of Cedar Fair different because it is an L.P, and would thus prevent a hostile takeover? And yes, that letter paints a very bleak future for Cedar Fair without the merger. But there are also a lot of "if" statements in that letter. The economy is still not on solid footing, but things seem to be picking up. Will that positively impact Cedar Fair`s bottom line moving forward? Its really too early to tell.

That is what I was wondering. If the company and board had access to the results of the voting as it stands at present. This letter, like I mentioned and you reiterated, makes it sounds like currently, the vote is not going the way the board had hoped, but instead trailing the way that Q Investments wants it to go. Hopefully, the economy is a littler better this year compared to last year. I know that Coney struggled last year too. So it wasn`t just the big corporate parks that struggled with the economy.

Hmmm. Is it normal for a company to send out a second letter and proxy card like this? This letter, (to me anyway) screams desperation on the part of Cedar Fair to try and get this vote to actually be close. At this point in time, with the size of Q`s investment, I don`t see how this merger can actually be approved. Of course, Q`s position is still somewhat perplexing. For the record, I do own a few units in Cedar Fair. I received the original proxy statement from Cedar Fair, but have not, as of today, received any letter from Q, like it was announced they were mailing to all unit holders. Granted, I hold my units in street name, but that still shouldn`t make a difference. Secondly, are they able to see the results (thus far) of those that have already voted their proxies (either by mail, phone or internet)? Although, it is possible for people to cast another vote, which will void their earlier cast vote. Interesting times ahead. How long will it be after March 16th until we have a result of the vote?

Actually, Interpreter, according to this website: My linkhttp://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:zr3l0q_7HYAJ:www-personal.umich.edu/~bcash/music.html+musicla+theme+to+breakfast+at+tiffanys&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a, "Moon River" was in fact the theme song to Breakfast at Tiffany`s. I just had to. Its not every day that you get to point out a big blue ride at Cedar Point wasn`t actually made by B&M!

And as has been reported elsewhere, they likely are only going to be selling a limited number of passes. Per the article, they haven`t officially decided if they are going to have a cutoff date, or a cutoff amount of passes they will sell. Bottom line is, if you want a season pass for the first time to Kennywood, you best be checking out their website and ordering sooner rather than later!

350 tons of concrete is a lot to remove. So I would imagine that they are replacing some of that with some other material. Brick pavers perhaps? I can`t imagine that all of that concrete removal would be for locations in which they are adding some of those many trees. Glad to see they are adding trees though. Herschend Family Entertainment seems to be interested in investing lots of money in this property.

According to a post in that other thread, the Worlds of Fun blog stated that their new website went online on December 3rd.

Would ousting the current Six Flags management be in the best interest of the company? I mean they were successful in making the company cash flow positive and turning the company around. Arguably, it was too little too late to save the company from bankruptcy, but ousting them? The Six Flags bankruptcy process certainly has been anything but smooth sailing.

A lot of the land that Kings Island sits on also used to be farmland. Columbia Road used to run through the property as well. In fact, the employee entrance is the old Columbia Road. And that road between the parking lot and Invertigo/Congo Falls that goes back by Flight Deck and continues past Great Wolf Lodge and the KI Green House is the original Columbia Road. Kings Island Drive was built when the park bisected Columbia Road. That house in the fort used to be located on Columbia Road. The fence right there by the train tracks (opposite of the fort) actually hides the parking lot beyond.

Agreed. The same thing applies to Backlot, which also has magnetic brakes before the typical pinch brakes.

I for one wouldn`t mind it if The Beast one day got Timberliner trains. It could provide for a smoother ride experience with improved capacity. Although, the current limiting factor on capacity is the way the blocks are currently set up, since the crew often has to wait to dispatch the train in the station until the other train clears lift one (which it is waiting on train two to clear lift two). I just hope that they will do an upgrade to The Beast to allow it to run two trains in the rain this year, like Diamondback was able to do last year. Beast with one train operation is brutal, considering the ride time is nearly five minutes!

That house inside the fort actually pre-dates the park.

I am lucky enough to have ridden King Cobra many times back in the late 90`s and up until its removal. I really enjoyed the ride. In fact, I enjoyed it much more than Mantis at Cedar Point. One downside that people don`t really appreciate unless they have ridden the similar TOGO rides at Kings Dominion or Canda`s Wonderland is the slow loading process, due to the unusual restraint system. It is not as efficient of a system as what the B&M stand ups use. There is a lap bar, and the shoulder bars rotate out. There is no bar that comes down over your head like on most steel coasters.

Well, bicycle chains are more similar to most roller coaster chains than the chains used on swings. It all depends on the specifications and design of the ride as to what type of chain is used.

Well, I renewed my Platinum Pass in October at Kings Island. I was given a NEW Platinum Pass, not like the Cedar Point one pictured. Instead, I was given an identical pass to the one I had for 2009. After the 2009 season ended, I took the 09 pass out of my wallet and kept the 2010 one in my wallet. I now have no idea where I put the 09 pass. But its all good. I have the pass that counts safely in my wallet!

Yes, prior to receiving its light shade of purple paint, the coaster was paint blue. When on ride photos started becoming common, they needed a place to sell them. They might have just had that piece of themeing and were able to use it for the on ride photo booth, and it also helped promote the Hanna Barbera theme. Just look at how the size of photo booths have increased. Compare Vortex and The Beast`s photo booths with the one for Firehawk, Flight of Fear (when its photo area was in use) or even Diamondback`s photo area. And speaking of on ride photos, I remember riding Adventure Express in the mid `90s when it had a black and white on ride photo!