CoastersRZ

Backlot? I think I went up in the Eiffel Tower and rode the train more times this year than I ever have before. Of course, don`t forget that I was up on the top of the Eiffel Tower for TWO hours to get the four seconds of footage of the actual jump from the tower!

Well, those outside interferences could be snow and winter weather. We already have a "Winter Storm Alert" for a potential winter storm that is expected to come through Monday night, and leave Wednesday morning. Of course, that doesn`t necessarily mean anything either. The last time the National Weather Service issued a winter weather bulletin for Cincinnati warning about a couple of inches of snow, we got nothing! But freezing rain and snow could put the skids on placing the final pieces of track on Tuesday.

Well based on last year`s early ride times, I would say the gates will open at 9:30am, and the early ride times will commence at that time. And no, Diamondback will not be a "rite" of passage, right?

Yep, at one point in time River Downs was part of Coney Island. In fact, it was originally named the "Coney Island Race Course." It opened in 1925. In 1926, ownership of the race course was reorganized, as Mr. George Schott, who was involved with Coney Island, severed all ties with the race course. In August of that same year, legal issues over peri-mutuel betting at the race course caused the closure of the race course. It would remain closed until 1933.

Your wish is granted. Sounds like you have a very exciting summer ahead of you! Good luck on the service trip!

So I take it that Knott`s did not receive the new ticketing system that Cedar Point got for this past season? I know that Cedar Point got the same type of ticketing system that Kings Island got, in part so that Platinum passes could be scanned right at the gate, without having to go to guest relations to get a comp ticket.

That is because a lot of the maintenance jobs are full time positions. Some of the seasonal maintenance jobs might already be filled. As far as rewarding experiences, I know I`ve shared some of my ride op experiences from Coney Island on these boards before. Back when in my second or third year of working at Coney, we stayed open after a big storm rolled through around 4 in the afternoon. We stayed open because several kids from Big Brother and Big Sisters were coming to the park. I was operating the Spin a Ree (which is now in storage at the park). Once the children started showing up, one of the kids face lit up when I let him into the ride area. He turned to me as he entered and said "I remember you from last year. You were that nice guy running the helicopter ride!" As he walked in to grab a seat in a tub, he had a big grin on his face. That right there is what makes being a ride operator so much fun to me, even if the pay is not the greatest. If I`m having a bad day, all I have to do is think about the fact that the people that are visiting the park may only get to visit once a year. I need to be friendly and courteous to them, because they are here to have fun and hopefully make wonderful memories. Hopefully, some of my enthusiasm for my job shines through and they can share some of the same fondness to the subject that I have. Even though I`ve never officially worked at Kings Island (I have volunteered in the volunteer program in foods and games on numerous occasions), I can say the job can be very rewarding, although stressful at times. I speak with the experience of seven years at Coney under my belt.

Yes. I agree that this ride is looking more and more awesome. I think that many of us here will have a new favorite ride come this spring!

The webcam view shows that they are getting ready to put the final support for Diamondback into place! They might be close to completing all the track work today, or by early early next week!

Well, saying that Cedar Fair units will be trading in the single digits is hard to predict. However, it is clear that given the current situation, Cedar Fair is considering reducing their cash distributions in order to reduce their debt levels. Is that necessarily a bad thing? No. Will it hurt the unit price? Undoubtedly. But in the long run, it may be better to issue less in terms of cash distributions if that is best for the long term health of the company. If they do opt to lower their cash distribution, it would mark the first time in many many years in which they not only did not raise the cash distribution, but actually lowered it. They have prided themselves on the number of years that they have been able to raise their cash distribution.

Time is running out to buy 2009 season passes to Coney Island for the cheapest price possible. After January 30th, the price goes up. A single season pass costs $89.95 (ages four and up), and includes access to Sunlite Pool and the new Twister water slide. A season pass also includes access to Coney`s classic rides including the River Runner and Turtle Parade, new in 2008. Additionally, pass holders receive free parking, and free golf at Famous Fairways miniature golf on weekdays (a $1 ball deposit per ball still applies on weekdays). But time is running out to grab Coney season passes before the price goes up! Visit Coney`s official site here for more information on season passes.

Well, a few clarifying items. Technically, Cedar Fair units are down dramatically over a year or even two years ago. Today, they closed at $13.30. Yes, that is up slightly from where they were a few weeks/months ago, it is still a far cry from where they were. At one point in time, the units were trading near $30! Secondly, while Knott`s Berry Farm is a year round operation (as is Castaway Bay in Sandusky), that doesn`t mean that Cedar Fair is making money during the winter months. They have to pay all their administrative staffs, and full time staff during the winter months at ALL their parks. Additionally, the winter months is when they do yearly maintenance on all their rides, so there are expenses incurred there. That is why Cedar Fair typically logs a loss in the first quarter (January through March). Because with the exception of the year round operations, there is only one or two weekends at the end of the first quarter when other parks are open. Finally, the season pass sales are amortized over the entire year. In other words, if they sell 90% of their passes in the first quarter, they break it down to be 25% every quarter of the fiscal calendar. During the economic downturn, Cedar Fair could be well poised to weather the storm. They have parks near major metropolitan areas, that are within a days drive. The big destination theme parks like Disney are going to be hurt as less people want to spend money on long and expensive vacations. Families may cut out the Disney vacation, and opt to spend a day at Kings Island or other Cedar Fair park. If the Cedar Fair parks continue to offer value to the customers, then people will continue to visit the parks. However, depending how bad things get with the job market, eventually even Cedar Fair may start to see the economy impacting their bottom line.

MikeJenkins1, this year, if you have a Gold or Platinum pass and are a member of a card issuing coaster club, you will be allowed to participate in the pass holder early ride time. If you are not a pass holder (like mentioned above), then you will be able to show your membership cards to participate in the early ride time. The early ride time will be on Diamondback, but could also feature another ride. The exact details of the times and what other rides, if any, that will be offered has not been released yet. The old way of being escorted and the first to line up for The Beast or other rides is essentially now gone. You will be participating with the pass holders` early ride time. Which is better than just standing in a line waiting for the ride to start at 10, right?

It may in fact NOT be the entrance that is used to park for our event... Rest assured, we are currently fine tuning details and will let you know all the specifics as soon as they are finalized, including where to park.

Well, had Taft not spun off the parks into KECO, and held onto control of the parks, they would still be under different ownership today. Taft Broadcasting was bought by American Financial and Carl Lindner in 1987. Then Taft became known as Great American Broadcasting before becoming known as Citicasters. Citicasters was sold to Jacor, which was later bought by Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel is in the television and radio business. In 2008, it jettisoned its television wing to Newport Television, although it still controls the radio channels. I know that history is a little complex, and there are no longer any traces of the original Taft Broadcasting. So had Taft not spun off the parks, they likely would have eventually been sold off to another party anyway by this point in time. How the parks would have been different had Paramount not stepped in, we will never truly know. Just like we will never truly know how low the parks could have sunk if CBS had not sold them to Cedar Fair but had owned them as long as Paramount/Viacom had.

I doubt we see "McDisney" happening as the end of the article states. There are a lot of reasons why Disney would be interested in the Busch parks, including having another park in the Orlando area for guests to visit, all while staying on Disney property. Its hard to say if Disney will be willing to fork over the hefty sum of money that inBev is reportedly asking for the parks. But like the article stated, it would be a fine time for Disney to take over some of its primary competition here in the states. But then again, what changes would Disney make at the parks? The article also mentions Six Flags as a potential suitor, but as the article mentions, they are in NO shape to be taking on any more debt right now. In fact, there current debt load may already have done them in as it is. Of all the park operators out there that will uphold the beauty and integrity of the Busch parks, I would think that Disney would be the best match. But that comes from me, who has never set foot in a Busch park before. The article was definitely a nice read, and it will be interesting to see how this exactly unfolds.

That station is looking mighty fine! Once the final helix is up, it will forever change the look going back to The Beast.

And the reason that Beast Canyon building is not there, is because it takes time to model buildings in 3D. Why model a building if it will only be seen for a few frames during the movie? Not to mention that the animation could have shown the existing paths as they were without any potential changes because at the time the animation was created, the park was not sure of the design or scope of the changes to The Beast entrance plaza. Just saying.

As has been stated elsewhere, the Ruth Voss Memorial walk back for all card carrying coaster club members is changing in 2009. Since all Gold and Platinum season pass holders to Kings Island get access to the Diamondback early ride times, members of the coaster clubs that have a season pass will obviously be able to participate in the ERT session. Those members of coaster clubs that do NOT have a Kings Island Gold or Platinum season pass and use a general admission ticket to enter the park will be able to participate in the morning ERT session on Diamondback, provided that proper credentials are displayed (ie you have your membership card for the particular club that you belong to). There may be other rides that are offered in addition to Diamondback. Diamondback will have ERT offered every morning that Kings Island is open in 2009. The exact times and details about the ERT have not yet been released. Stay tuned for further information.

Well, never fear even if you aren`t actually at our event on the 31st, I`m sure that there will be many members that provide PTRs. In addition, I`m sure us staff members will update the site with full coverage in the photo galleries as well. KICentral is the place to get all the latest information on Kings Island!

Well, thanks for finally posting! It is unlikely that the height requirement for Diamondback will be anything less than 54". After all, that height requirement is set by the manufacturer, B&M, and not Kings Island. In due time, she will be 54" tall. Testing should begin sometime in early March. And, since today is the 19th of January, there is just about three months left until Kings Island opens in 2009 and Diamondback is officially released on southwestern Ohio!

With Disney owning 43% of the project, I wonder exactly how much capital that Disney is posting for the $3.5 billion project. It might actually be less than 43% of that total project cost since Disney is supplying their licenses as well as design expertise at designing such a park. But we likely will never know the exact financial agreement reached between Disney and the Shanghai government.

Yes. Although, since lap bars were added to Flight of Fear it has typically had long lines. Although before the introduction of Firehawk, you usually could grab near walk on rides to Flight of Fear until 11am or later. Not with Firehawk around, unfortunately. And what is wrong with the Nickelodeon garbage, Beast1979? Granted as I`m 24 years old, I do not venture too often into that area of the park as I am still single and don`t have any kids, but I find that area to be a nice area for kids, having been to the park with some young cousins before. And a themed kids area, regardless of the them is always beneficial. But it is more magical to kids when they can identify with the characters that they see on television.

Well, one of my earlier years at Coney, the ride op working the now defunct Kiddie Circle Freeway did not inspect all the cars before opening the ride. And they should have. Because a squirrel had decided to use one of the cars as a deathbed! Needless to say, a parent was a little infuriated to find a dead animal in the car their kid was about to get into!

Well, I think it goes without saying that there will be an update at the bare latest within two weeks. The 31st of January is when our event occurs at the park. But assuming that track work is completed before then, we might be greeted with an update when the final piece of track is put into place.