CoastersRZ

Last time I checked, the Python was still sponsored by Pepsi. (At least it was last year). I don`t know if that has changed this year but see no reason why it would have. If it has, I will let you know as soon as I know.

I`d like to remind everyone what Ryan stated yesterday:

There is already a topic on this. No need to create another topic on it! If you read the first post in that thread (see link below) you will see that it sufficiently covers your topic. http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?...;hl=photo+shops Topic closed.

Well, I can`t really speculate on that. That would be like asking "So when will the Reds win their next World Series and who will be on the roster." I think it is safe to say that no coasters will be added to Coney in the foreseeable future. Especially with Coney investing a large amount of money ($2 million into projects this year, including the $1.8 million Twister water slide). Not to mention that Coney added three new attractions the previous year (River Runner, Turtle Parade and Eurobungy Dome) and the year prior to that they added the Rock O Plane from LeSourdsville Lake. It all really depends on how successful of a year Coney has, given the current economy. And the rides at Coney are NOT the primary draw or money maker for the park.

Because they likely intended to make the announcement in a couple of days. But when planning a two day event of this size, unexpected problems can arise during the planning stage. The time to resolve these unexpected problems could not be immediately clear. When the blog entry was created, Don could not have foreseen the unexpected delay. Rest assured that the information will be disseminated on here when the official details are released.

Mr. Eagle Eyes, you may in fact be correct. It certainly looks like that building is no longer there. As an aside, imageshack is taking a long time to load your images. At least for me here at UC anyway. Those supports are the same navy blue color that they were last season. Because of the cloudy dreary day and the low resolution of the webcam, they appear to be black. I actually remember seeing a film in the Cinema 180 theater. You actually sat on the floor.

Well, things take time. But things will be finalized soon. They have to be since May 9th and 10th is just over a month away from now.

Well, Cedar Fair is looking to sell off some assets so that it can remain a viable company moving forward. And the fact that Cedar Fair does not own the land that Great America sits on is a further reason why the sale of Great America would make sense. Cedar Fair has a long term lease for the land, that it inherited when it bought Paramount Parks. In 1985, the Marriott Corporation was looking to sell both of its Great America parks in California and the one in Chicago (which is now owned by Six Flags). The California park was sold to the City of Santa Clara Redevelopment Agency. The 118 acres of land was sold for $72.5 million with another $16 million for the rides, buildings and equipment. The city then entered into a management contract with KECO for five years with an option for KECO to purchase the park at the end of the contract. In 1989, KECO exercised its option to buy Great America`s business assets (buildings, rides and equipment) from the Santa Clara's Redevelopment Agency for approximately $25 million. Also, KECO then entered into a 50 year land-lease with the city`s redevelopment agency. The above is just a little of the back story on how Great America became a part of KECO, and later Paramount Parks and Cedar Fair. I`m not sure how much money Great America makes in revenue, but have heard that it is a weak performer. Not to mention that the park is land locked.

Yes, in the past they have shut down the coasters if there is rain in the area. If the rain is expected to be a prolonged period of rain, they will often take all but one train off onto the storage tracks. That results in one train operation during the rain, but that beats having the coaster completely closed. I`m not sure if that will be the policy again this year. It seems to change from time to time, and even month to month.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything comes of these talks in the next two weeks. Will Great America still be owned by Cedar Fair? Or will the 49ers purchase the park from them? Will the 49ers continue to operate the park as an amusement park? Who knows. If Cedar Fair sheds that property, and receives some monetary compensation, they will be able to pay down some of their debt. Which is one of their main objectives with the announcement last month that they may sell Great America, Valleyfair and Worlds of Fun in order to reduce their debt levels.

Right, obviously some sort of extension would be required. I really liked all the banners that Carowinds had. It added a lot of festiveness and energy to the park.

Need I remind the younger posters on here about King Cobra`s line. You passed immediately under the lift and right next to the lift motor (which was separated from the line by a tall fence (ie like nine feet tall). So passing right by the lift motor is not something new to Kings Island. But since King Cobra last operated in 2001, it will be eight years since the ride ran at the park. I really like the light fixtures that they have put up. They look modern, but yet also have a touch of nostalgia that reflects the old gas lamps that used to light the area. I wonder if the two little stubs on the lamp posts (seen in this picture) will be used to hang banners, similar to what can be found on light posts at Carowinds as seen in the picture below.

Remember that Sunlite Pool is still chilling visitors to Coney Island. And this year it will be home to the new multi-million dollar water slide, The Twister which is currently under construction. Both Sunlite Pool, the Twister and Coney`s classic rides officially open for the year on Saturday, May 23 (Memorial Day weekend).

And remember how Vortex looked before it got its fresh new paint job in 2002? It looked far worse than what Flight Deck currently looks. The dark blue supports were almost a light gray in some areas because they had faded so much.

Now if only Flight Deck could receive some fresh paint...

Even Coney Island has private events every year when the park is not open to pass holders or the general public. These institutions are willing to pay to have the park open exclusively for their members/employees. And has been said before these events guarantee the park some revenue for that particular day.

The Disney bus system at Walt Disney World is VERY nice. When I went down there in September, my sister and I utilized the bus system. All the bus stops are clearly marked with the final destination for the bus. The only drawback we found was that because we stayed at the All Star Sports (a value resort) and the fact that September was not peak season, we sometimes had to wait upwards of twenty minutes at the resort to catch a bus. Otherwise, the bus system is very efficient. Disney has the operation of moving massive amounts of people across its property down to an almost perfect science.

And there are many on here that likely do not even know what TQM stands for... To understand total quality bus systems, Cincinnati`s Metro is not a pristine example. Try riding the CTA buses on the Magnificent Mile. Now that is public transportation at its finest.

Ronny and I actually spotted one of those buses over my UC last week! They are very cool looking indeed!

Just as a friendly reminder, Kings Island will be closed on Sunday April 19th for a private event.

I don`t know if it was open or not. I would assume it was. We never made it to that area. I would assume it was open since even River Battle was open (despite having some mechanical difficulties at one point). We passed on riding that since it was only in the mid 60s and did not want to get completely drenched.

I agree, the paint job for Nighthawk looks nice. Those colors would look great on Flight Deck. Cory commented that they look like the Blue Angel colors. I never rode it when it was at Geauga Lake. When I went there in 2002 (the park was Six Flags Worlds of Adventure at the time) the ride was closed the entire day I was there. So I can`t really compare it with the new trains to how it was when it was up north. However, it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride. The new trains are awesome and there is no headbanging whatsoever.

KI Man, the ride formerly known as Top Gun: The Jet Coaster at Carowinds is not known as Flight Deck. It is now known as Afterburn. And no, Cory did not take pictures at either park. And yes, I am certain that the Eagles opened at Coney in 1940. As my source, I cite Charle`s Jacques` book "Cincinnati`s Coney Island: America`s Finest Amusement Park."

Well, from the looks of things, they were still demolishing parts of the log flume. And regarding Dollywood photos (emphasis added):

After stopping by Cici`s, battling torrential rain, blinding fog, and driving through the mountains at night, we arrived in Charlotte, shortly after midnight. Sunday morning we awoke to bright sunshine and blue skies. The high temperature was supposed to be in the upper 60s, and there were strong winds, which is something that we would eventually wish were not around. I had last been to Carowinds back in 2003, so it had been a while since I had visited it, and many things have changed. My KI Platinum pass scanned fine at both the parking lot tolls and the main entrance to Carowinds. Throughout the park, they have these banners hanging off of the light poles. I really liked them, and wished Kings Island had some of these, other than in just the Action Zone. The main entrance building to Carowinds. The state line between North and South Carolina passes right through the middle of the park. Several rides, including the Goldrusher, and Thunder Road are actually located in both states! One of the shops near the front entrance had something familiar written in its window: Carowinds also still has a vine covered walkway near their scrambler ride, which is dubbed Kaleidoscope. Our first ride of the day was on the Southern Star. This ride has a new name and location from when I last visited Carowinds. This ride is your typical inverting viking ship. The new ride for this year is the Carolina Cobra. The ride was moved from Geauga Lake and sits in the spot that was vacated by the Flying Super Saturator. The entrance to the Goldrusher provides a great view of the ride and station. The ride also features brand new trains from Vekoma with a new over the shoulder vest restraint system. The vest is attached to a lap bar, which is attached to the train via two bars that are conveniently places as grab bars. We only waited about ten to fifteen minutes for this ride as crowds were light and the crew was working very efficiently. Upon completing our ride on it, the train was stopped in the wrong spot, which wouldn`t allow our lap bars to unlock. Luckily maintenance was watching the ride for any hiccups it might have, and our restraints were unlocked one car at a time by a maintenance worker with an electronic device that was attached to the car. I mentioned the strong winds earlier. This is why we both wished they were not around: Because of the high winds Afterburn, Vortex, Drop Tower and the Carolina Skytower were down all day! Which was too bad because Afterburn is a GREAT B&M inverted coaster. Alas, this would be about as close as we could come to riding it! Another feature that Carowinds has that Kings Island used to have is a water geyser fountain surrounded by the midway. Kings Island used to have one of these by the Zephyr, right where the circle of trees is across from the Obey the Net basketball game. Currently, the location of the fountain is home to a planter. Too bad this type of feature still is not around at Kings Island. One of the neat things about Dollywood is that almost everywhere inside the park you can hear the sound of running water! Another fun ride at Carowinds is Ricochet, a wild mouse coaster. The tight turns pack quite a punch with the lateral Gs. A ride that was not at Carowinds on my last visit is Nighhawk, formerly Stealth at Great America (CA). The ride looks absolutely stunning in its new blue and yellow paint job. The ride is visually stunning to ride in part because you fly over areas of water. The ride went down to one train operation when we were in line, resulting in the longest wait of the day at about twenty minutes. The trains are slightly different than Firehawks. And the ending of the ride is a little more intense than the ending on Firehawk. It was a fun ride nonetheless, even though I couldn`t see because I was required to take my glasses off (even though I had them secured with an athletic strap). And finally, one last picture of Nighthawk. Right below the train is a new wooden fence. This used to be where the entrance to the log flume ride was. Not much is left of the log flume, although the queue building remains, and the Wild Thornberrys logo is still in plain sight above the new fence in a couple of areas. I heard many guests disappointed that the ride was gone. By far the highlight of the day for both Cory and myself was riding Danny Phantom Flyers. This is the ride that used to be the Flying Eagles at Kings Island and opened at Coney Island in 1940. We finished the day with three rides, and we were able to snap the tubs just as good as you could when the ride was at Kings Island. My final ride I got a couple of severe snaps in. The ride ops running the ride were actually calling the numbers of the tubs that were "flying the highest" over the rides PA system. I`m glad to see this ride continuing to thrill people at Carowinds and that they still allow snapping. I`m just sad that this great family ride is still not at Kings Island! Throughout the day, we also rode Thunder Road, which only had one side running with one train op which resulted in a ten minute wait. The completely rebuilt sections of the ride are extremely smooth. We got a pair of rides in on both the Carolina Cyclone (an Arrow coaster with two vertical loops and two corkscrews over the midway) and Hurler. Goldrusher was also only running one train, which resulted in a longer wait, even though we only had about a three train wait (that ride has two lifts like Adventure Express). We also grabbed a ride on the Scream Weaver (Huss entreprise) and the Yo Yo (Chance). All in all, we had a great day at Carowinds, despite Vortex and Afterburn being down. We left around 4:10 because we had an eight hour drive back to Cincinnati ahead of us. If you have not been to Carowinds, it is a fun park. Between Danny Phantom Flyers and Afterburn alone I would recommend this park. Afterburn is a tremendous ride that I loved when I visited Carowinds back in 2001 and 2003. Carolina Cobra is a great addition to the park, and surprisingly lkely has better capacity than the Super Saturator had. Now we are only a few weeks away from Kings Island opening, but Cory and myself were able to start our coaster riding season a little early. And now that spring break is over, I am in my last quarter of grad school at the University of Cincinnati! Thanks for reading this very lengthy PTR, and to quote Carowinds` slogan "Ride on!"