CoastersRZ

The final weekend of my spring break just happened to be the same weekend that both Dollywood and Carowinds opened for the 2009 season. Myself and Cory made plans to head down to Pigeon Forge on Friday, March 27th and hit up the tracks at NASCAR Speed Park followed by Dollywood on Saturday, and Carowinds on Sunday. Prior to leaving, the weather forecast for Friday and Saturday was ominous. 70% and 80% chances of rain on Friday and Saturday. Nevertheless, the trip was a go especially since we both had passes to get into each park. We departed my house shortly after 7am on Friday morning. We arrived down in Pigeon Forge shortly after 1 and checked into our hotel, the Quality Inn at Dollywood Lane. Unfortunately, it was raining so the NASCAR Speed park was not open. We sat in the hotel room for a couple hours, looking at the weather forecast and radar hoping that Saturday would be a better day and that it wouldn`t be a wash out. Finally the rain cleared around 3:30 and we decided to head south and go exploring in the Smoky Mountains National Park. The mountains were beautiful, even though there was a light rain again. The low clouds made for some stunning visuals. Again, the low clouds made for some impressive visuals, and the trees were just starting to show their green leaves for spring. The numerous overlooks along the side of the road inside the national park provide some absolutely breathtaking views. After exploring the overlooks for a while, we decided to go hiking for a little bit by the visitors center. We actually encountered several wild turkeys on the hike, as well as several deer. (I have actually seen wild turkey on the side of the road on a couple of occasions driving home from working at Coney Island!) The trails followed this small stream, and it was a very pleasant hike along the paths. After exploring the national park for a couple of hours, we went to Ripley`s Davy Crockett Mini Golf in Gatlinburg. For 36 holes of mini-golf, it was $13.99. Not a bad price and the two 18 hole courses were very well done. I ended up winning both games by a few strokes. Saturday was the day for Dollywood. Before checking out of the hotel, we checked the weather forecast, and it wasn`t good. Radar showed we would have some heavy rain, but we could possibly see a break in the afternoon. Due to the forecast, I opted not to bring my camera along to Dollywood. Both Cory and I had bought passes back in December when we went to Dollywood for a Smoky Mountain Christmas (you can view my PTR of that here). The pass does not include parking, so we paid $8 at the newly renovated entrance to the parking lot. And you can`t really complain about the parking fee, since Dollywood does offer tram service right to the front gate. Dollywood is all about the live shows, and they had a LOT of shows for the Festival of Nations. The first show was "Kinfolks" featuring several of Dolly Parton`s relatives. From there, we saw the Kingdom Heirs in the Pines Theatre. While not exactly my type of music, the show was very good and they have been performing at the park for more than twenty years!! After the conclusion of that show, we saw the Czech Pilsen Band (a brass band) that was very good. We then moved on to the signature new show Imagine. This show by Le Grande Cirque was very well produced and featured some great audience participation by the ringmaster. We then watched the 1pm show of Wings of America featuring birds that can be found in America. We then watched Mexico Calpulli featuring a live band and authentic Mexican dancing. Next, we saw the Jennifer Roland band representing Canada. By this time it was 3:30pm and we had seen seven shows and not yet ridden any rides! It is simply amazing that from 9:30 when we saw the first show until 3:30, we were walking around the park with only fifteen or twenty minutes in between different shows! We also saw the show Keona show featuring unique percussion instruments. The rain actually stopped by around 1pm, and the skies lightened up a little bit. At 3:30 we headed off to grab our first coaster ride of the 2009 season: Tennessee Tornado. A simply amazing ride, although way too brief. Lines for the rides were non existent. We also rode Daredevil Falls, which is a fun log flume ride. Mystery Mine has some great theming, and a great ending to the ride, but the first half of the ride is a little lackluster. Thunderhead is still an amazing ride, and we ended the day with three rides on it, with only a couple of trains wait, even for the front row. We also grabbed a ride on the Dizzy Disk, Blazing Fury, Waltzing Swinger and of course, the classic Heartsong: The movie. All in all, despite the rainy start to the day, we had a great time on opening day for Dollywood. Crowds were light, and the shows excellent. I highly recommend you visit Dollywood if you have not already. Even though the park was open until 8pm, we left at 7:15 because we still had to grab some dinner, and drive four hours to Carowinds in Charlotte, NC. Which will be part two of this PTR.

The Imagine show for the Festival of Nations was incredible! I`ll share some more tidbits in my Carowinds/Dollywood PTR. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera to Dollywood, due to the weather forecast, so no pictures from there.

It kind of reminds me of a cross between the Jungle Cruise ride at Walt Disney World and your typical lazy river attraction. It will be interesting to see the reviews of this attraction once it is open and operating. Definitely a very cool concept though.

And it should be noted that Major League Eaters was the group that held the Skyline Chili eating competition at Kings Island over Labor day weekend last year. And Joey Chestnut was one of the participants in the competition last year. Could this mean we could see the Skyline Chili competition making a return in 2009? It was rather disgusting to witness the competition. Just imagine people eating three ways with their hands!

Carolina Cobra was relatively smooth, and offered a fun and intense ride. The crew was being very efficient in running the ride and getting people through quickly. I think that the restraints are pretty nice, and could improve some of the Arrow rides that suffer from rough transitions. And the trains seem to track really well to.

I actually rode the Carolina Cobra yesterday! I took a brief spring break vacation to Dollywood on Saturday and Carowinds yesterday. The new trains are very nice. The new restraints are very comfortable and are very nice. A benefit of the restraints is that they are much easier to use than the vest that can currently be found on Firehawk, as it is like a typical over the shoulder restraint. I`m sure the ride will be a big hit down at Carowinds. Yesterday, we only waited about fifteen minutes to ride it! Watch for a PTR of the Carowinds leg of the trip coming in the next few days.

Rob Pottorf was the senior music composer for Paramount Parks for a number of years. He has scored numerous television shows and movie scores as well. At Kings Island, he was responsible for the audio on Flight of Fear as well as on the original Tomb Raider: The Ride. His site is rpmusic.com. And if you go to http://www.rpmusic.com/wimpy_filmcues/myWimpy.html and select the upper right corner movie for Flight of Fear you will see a brief clip (several minutes long) of the FoF preshow video. This video is prior to the removal of the Outer Limits tie in. Additionally, you can see the Tomb Raider preshow video in that same menu. I hope that helped answer your question! Generally the video is played, at least the times I rode Flight of Fear. If the line is not outside of the saucer, then there really is no need to play the preshow video.

Yep. Holiday World just transferred the cost of parking and soft drinks and added it into the general admission cost. However, the result of that is that most guests think that they are getting a great value with the free soft drinks, even if they are paying more at the front gate for that perk. Once they are in the park, they do not have to fork over large sums of money for soft drinks, which make it seem like the park is giving them something for nothing.

Coney Island`s 2009 operating schedule has been released. Sunlite Pool is open daily from May 23rd through September 7th. Hours for the pool are 11am to 8pm except August 31st through September 4th when the hours are 11-6. Coney`s classic rides hours of operation have some changes in 2009. The rides are open May 23-25th from 11am to 8pm. Daily operation begins on May 30th and concludes on August 30th. Daily hours for the rides are 11am to 8pm. On Saturdays beginning June 13th, the rides remain open until 10pm. Additionally, on Sundays beginning June 14th, the rides stay open until 9pm. The final weekend of operation for the rides is Labor day weekend (September 5-7) with the hours of 11-8 on Saturday and Sunday and 11-7 on Monday. In the past, the rides have not typically been open until 10pm on Saturdays. See the official calendar here: http://www.coneyislandpark.com/plan_hours.php

All further discussions should be continued int the original thread.

As the Interpreter has pointed out, the search feature can be a powerful tool. All further discussions can be carried out in the original thread.

What???? Yes, Blazing Fury is a fantastic ride, but Thunderhead is simply awesome! It is one of my favorite wooden coasters now! It is simply amazing. My first visit to Dollywood was back in December for the Smokey Mountain Christmas festival, and I loved the place. In fact, I will be back at Dollywood this Satuday! The season pass I have for Dollywood is actually the first non-Kings Island season pass that I have ever owned. And yes, the shows at Dollywood are simply amazing!

Mine was Flight of Fear (Outer Limits: Flight of Fear at the time) back in the summer of 1996. That day was also the first day I rode King Cobra. I would have ridden Vortex, but it was down due to mechanical difficulties (I remember there being a tall crane next to the apex of the lift hill). That was also the day that we went to the Skyline Chili at Fields Ertel Road about twenty minutes before they closed (after a long day at Kings Island), and they ran out of chili! Yep. We couldn`t eat at a Skyline because they were out of Chili.

Well, I have never been to the picnic grove on P&G day. That being said, I don`t know if it was open or not. I do know that they didn`t have any food service in there though. I have been going to P&G day since at least 1994. I remember seeing the Nickelodeon "splat" bubbling up from the broken pavement proclaiming the arrival of Splat City in 1995.

True. But A) I don`t work at Kings Island, and B ) I am a big fan of The Beach Boys. But hearing Coney`s live shows multiple times in a shift can be mind numbing.

Very true indeed. Not to mention that Coney has a very catchy (and sometimes annoying) song to go along with their jingle. Just watch any live show at Lakeside Pavilion. They play the Coney song after every one! Which when you primarily work the Ferris Wheel, right next to Lakeside Pavilion, the song can get quite annoying. I mean, in any given shift working the Ferris Wheel, I could hear that song four to five times!

Most excellent use of a pun! Of course it does! Just what the "it" that Coney has is always a subject of debate among the seasonal workers at Coney. I began working at Coney before the current slogan was even instituted! Back when I started, the slogan was "Coney Island: Where fun is easy!"

Well, a discount that would offer across the board discounts on food prices for gold pass holders would actually benefit the per capita spending, Touchdown. Why? Well, it targets pass holders who are normally not going to spend lots of money on in park food because of the price. But if they got a substantial enough discount, they would be more likely to spend money on their many visits to the park on food items. Doing so ultimately increases the per cap spending. All season passes at Coney have typically included a 10% discount on all food and merchandise. And for those that purchase a Platinum pass (which is $40 more than a regular Coney season pass) the discount jumps to 20%!

Yes, but how much more do Gold Pass holders at Dollywood have to pay? It is a lot more than just the $5 upcharge that you get with a KI gold pass. Keep in mind that a regular pass at Dollywood does not include parking, but a Gold Pass does.

Well, given that every Sunday in June, Jule and August Gold Pass holders can ride EXtreme Skyflyer for only $5 a person, that is not a bad deal at all! Not to mention the early ride times on Diamondback and The Beast all season long (starting April 24th). That alone is a very nice perk! And this year gold pass holders get 15% off on ride photos, excluding Diamondback, which again is another nice perk!

Yes! (I`m not Terpy though!) Several parks have held similar endurance contests over the years. I believe one radio station out in California did one on the Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk about ten years back. I thought they also did something more recently than 1998, but I could be wrong.

Well, it has been closed now for at least a month! Which is a shame, because it is a great and thrilling ride (its even a little bit intense, at least more than what I expected).

Was the Skyscraper still closed? I know it was closed when we went there after the KIC construction tour back on February 21st. That ride can pack a nice little punch!

No need to shout the topic title! And as others have said, why would a park purchase a ride and locate it in such a way as to prevent guests from accessing an existing popular attraction? Flight Deck, from what I know, is NOT getting repainted this season. And with that, this topic has served its useful purpose.

I actually believe that the Cincinnati Reds (at least used to anyway) allow fans to bring in UNOPENED plastic bottles of pop and water into the ball park. I`m fairly certain this was in effect last year. There is a smaller amount of time when fans are actually at baseball games on any given day (two to three hours) versus the potential ten to twelve hours that guests can be at an amusement park. However, guests at MOST amusement parks during the regular season can leave the park and go out to their cars and re-enter the park (fans at baseball games cannot do so). In short, if amusement parks were to allow guests to bring in unopened pop containers, they would surely loose revenue from selling soft drinks. Now, the question becomes an economics issue. What is the right price to maximize profit margins? Raise prices too high and you will higher per unit margins, but you will sell less units. If prices are lower, than you will sell more units, but at a lower profit margin. Their is one price in which there is a profit maximization, in which the highest potential profit is being achieved by matching the supply with the demand, depending on the price.