CoastersRZ

Well, in 1985, Kings Island was not owned by Taft Broadcasting anymore, which owned Hanna Barbera. In 1985, Kings Island was owned by Kings Entertainment Company (which itself would be sold just two years later). So its not like Disney went to a rival studio/company to make that television show. Yes, the park had ties to Hanna Barbera, but that does not mean that HB ever really rivaled the greatness of the Disney brand.

I actually have a model train the encircles my room. You can check out this picture and this picture. Guess you can figure out which soft drink I prefer. That train is actually O gauge and the cars were supplied by K-Line, which is now owned by Lionel. I actually haven`t ran the train in my room in about a year, because I need to clean the track, and just haven`t gotten around to it. I also have never been to EnterTRAINment Junction, and I would love to go there. I love model trains and have since I was mesmerized by the first model train that my parents put around my Christmas tree back in 1986 when I was almost two years old.

It has been years since I read those books. I have both of them in my room. For several years after the first one came out, they had a copy of it sitting in the control booth at The Beast facing the station floor. "The Beast" by R.L. Stine came out in 1994. "The Beast 2" came out in 1995. (I have copies of both books on a shelf in my room.)

And to think what would have happened if any of those ideas had actually been approved and constructed. Kings Island would be a much different place than it is today. The park still needs to do something with the old Flight Commander area. The whole area from the old funnel cake building down to the restrooms is rather dead and could really benefit from some new attractions/rides. Who knows how long, it will be before we see anything added in that area of the park. Again another wonderful post Shaggy!

But Paramount also installed Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion the same year as KI got Flight of Fear. And it was widely rumored that KD`s Flight of Fear was SBNO because they were going to be removing it and sending it to Canada`s Wonderland I believe. KI`s Flight of Fear was to eventually be sent down to Carowinds. It was all part of a ride rotation program. And remember, that during the last year or so that the park was called Paramount`s Kings Island, it wasn`t Paramount or Viacom that owned the parks. CBS was the company that owned Paramount Parks, and they very much wanted to save on expenses wherever possible and sell the parks as quickly as possible. They really had no interest in the Paramount Parks, nor in investing millions in capital improvements. And the reason that Stealth was removed from Great America and sent to Carowinds wasn`t entirely because of a ride rotation program. Great America is land locked (land that is not owned by the park, but leased from the city of Santa Clara which is the center of debate right now with the proposed 49ers stadium). The park wanted to expand its water park, and in order to do so, they had to remove Stealth. Why scrap a ride that could be a major new investment at a sister property on land that was formerly unused? So the ride opened as Borg at Carowinds.

Yes, when Flight of Fear opened in 1996 it was known as "Outer Limits: Flight of Fear." In 2001, the same year that the new lap bars were added to the ride, the Outer Limits license was not renewed and the ride became known simply as "Flight of Fear." The preshow video was edited to remove the references to the Outer Limits. Some of the audio that can be heard on the exit platform of the ride was not very well edited, however. I`m not certain on the exact phrases, but I know one of them is along the lines of this: "Thanks for coming with us to the" and it cuts off where it used to say 'outer limits.'

I already took care of it.

Hey now, beggars can`t be choosers! You are lucky I even knew about that much of the video being online!

Well, its not the entire video, but there is a portion of it here: http://www.rpmusic.com/wimpy_filmcues/myWimpy.html. Also note that video is the unedited version before all the references to the Outer Limits were edited out. That website is Rob Pottorf`s website (rpmusic.com). He was the person that composed the score for the Flight of Fear preshow movie. He also did the score for Tomb Raider: The Ride.

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Technically, it is a 215' first drop from a height of 230'. Remember, that the drop doesn`t go all the way to the ground!

And even if you visit this Sunday, the odds of getting 20 rides in one hour are slim. That would be an average of one ride every three minutes. Considering that average ride time is around a minute and a half to two minutes, that doesn`t allow much time for walking to and from the rides. Yes, Sundays are typically not as crowded as Saturdays in October. But the size of the crowd depends on many factors including the weather, and promotions that the park may be running such as the Interpreter noted.

Coaster Kid, as Terpy stated, please leave the moderating to us moderators. Additionally, there is an edit button to add to your posts if you forgot something. No need for back to back posts!

Wow! You were certainly very well traveled this summer! I obviously made many trips to Kings Island. I also visited Carowinds back on opening weekend. Carolina Cobra with the new trains is an alright ride now! I was disappointed that Afterburn was down on my visit though. Hit Dollywood on opening day. I still love Thunderhead and Tennessee Tornado. I`m not a big fan of Mystery Mine. I also visited Cedar Point in August. And tried Maverick again. While that ride seems to be popular among most enthusiasts, I just am not into that ride. Front seat ride on Top Thrill is always, well, a big thrill. And of course I visited Coney Island many times this summer. Surprisingly, I did not ride the Python this summer. My fondest memory was working July 3rd (the busiest day of the year) and sweeping up trash after the fireworks. While waiting in the rides office for the parking lots to clear, the fifteen of us ride ops who were still in the rides office were given permission by the ops manager for a midnight ride on Round Up. What an awesome reward for working a very stressful day!

I know that these songs are in Hot Blooded: Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf You Ain`t Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman Turner Overdrive After Midnight by Eric Clapton Rock This Way by Aerosmith Rock and Roll All Night by Kiss Taking Care of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive Break on Through to the Other Side by The Doors Magic Carpet Ride by Steepenwolf Evil Ways by Santana Someday Love Will Find You by Journey Final Countdown by Europe Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar Live and Let Die by the Wings I left out a few songs besides the once that you mentioned. The songs listed above are generally in chronological order in which they appear in Hot Blooded. I hope that helps.

From the first article, a quote from Jennifer Wright:

No, its not just you. We are aware that some of those things are outdated. Unfortunately, Dane has control over updating that stuff. And as you can imagine, Dane is a rather busy person.

And Friday nights so far, have not been as bad as Saturdays typically are for wait times. That being said, I have not gone on a Saturday with Haunt this year, because I know how crowded the park has historically been on those days.

I think it is safe to say that in terms of capacity for KI coasters, Vortex and Adventure Express had been typically among the top. Obviously, combining the each side of The Racer into one figure will make that larger. And Adventure Express likely hasn`t made the grade the last couple of years since they have only been running two train operation on it. But I think it is clear which coaster will take the capacity crown at Kings Island this season. I wonder how close Diamondback is to given its 2 millionth ride?

But Disney is also all about the "show" and the experience of the attractions. The actual ride hardware is just a piece that is utilized to help tell the story of the specific attraction. But yes, most of the Disney rides are plain fun because they don`t try to be the fastest, tallest, or most intense rides. They are, to put it simply, fun rides especially given the theming and the story line packaged with the actual ride hardware.

Wood coasters do not need to be built to heights of more than 200 feet. Leave those things to steel rides like Diamondback. Look at all the coasters that GCI has built. None of their wooden coasters stand taller than 110' high! But yet their rides are full of fun and enjoyable from start to finish. As the saying goes, bigger isn`t always better!

But that misses the point. This accident was NOT the result of something that should have been inspected. As stated in the state report, there was a design flaw that ultimately led to the failure. No degree of inspection thoroughness could have prevented this unforeseen accident from occurring. And I believe that KI and amusement parks in general are extremely critical with ensuring the safety of their rides for the general public. Their reputation with the general public depends on offering a fun yet safe environment. Rides that are deemed unsafe or have extensive maintenance issues are generally removed. Look at Flight Commander. The result of the accident back in 1991 was the result, in part of a design flaw. No degree of inspection on Kings Island`s part would have likely prevented that incident. While a design adjustment was made to the ride to prevent similar incidents from occurring, the ride had a short tenure at the park after the accident.

If you read any of the two stories that were linked to, you would know that the trial is not yet over. If everything goes according to plan, the trial should wrap up on Monday with jury deliberations. ^Looks like Interpreter beat me by a couple of seconds!

I actually had stumbled across the "Escapade" videos several months ago. It is truly amazing to watch these old live shows at Kings Island. Too bad I was really too young to really enjoy them. I remember waiting in line for "Santa`s Christmas Wish" outside the American Heritage Music Hall in the bitter cold with my parents. I barely remember the show, but I have vivid memories of waiting outside in the cold to get into the theater to see the show.

Yep, the coasters are all open, provided the temperature stays above a certain level. (It might have been 40 degrees). I don`t recall exactly. I just know that it was awesome riding Thunderhead at the end of December last year. And the temperature was right on the threshold where had it dropped one more degree, they would have had to shut it down!