CoastersRZ

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.

Actually many many years ago (it was likely 1999 or 1998) I was in line for the Kings Mills Log Flume (that was the name of it before the Thornberrys moved in). In the rock area right beside the splash down and next to the queue line there was a snake slithering along the rocks! And don`t forget about the other smelly creatures that have been known to frequent both Kings Island and Coney Island! Once, after a ride on Drop Zone, we were not released from our seats at the conclusion of the ride because a skunk had entered the ride area and they were afraid everyone getting off the ride would startle it and cause it to spray. Luckily, it ducked under the fence by Skyflyer after a minute and we could exit the ride. At Coney, we have had a skunk in the women`s restroom by the picnic grove before. And my first year at Coney, a skunk had gotten down in the covered trench of the Scrambler that houses the main drive to power the ride. Well, the operator for the day started up the ride for the test runs and was greeted by a very foul smell and startled creature. That area of the park smelled like skunk for months after wards!

Yeah, the spiders on the Ferris Wheel at Coney are rather large. One dropped onto a co-worker this past year in the middle of the afternoon, and she screamed bloody murder! Generally, the spiders on the wheel won`t bother people in the cars though. And it is extremely rare to see them out any other time other than at dusk/evening.

Well, stay away from Coney Island`s Ferris Wheel right around dusk. That is when the spiders that live on the wheel like to come out! Every morning, we have three or four cars that we have to clean out the spider webs that were made overnight!

Summer Showcase and Rock On were definitely held in the International Showcase right beside the Eiffel Tower at Kings Island. I believe that Santa`s Christmas Wish was in deed at Kings Island for the final season of the original Winterfest in 1992. I am not sure about Super Stars. It appears as if it could be in the American Heritage theater, but they would have had added the additional stage projection that comes out into the seating area, as that is not a built in part of the stage in that building. Snowdrift Inn was definitely at Kings Island, as the introduction to the video states. It actually might have been located in the Festhaus, and Santa`s Christmas Wish would likely have been in the American Heritage Theater. Snowdrift Inn, reminds me of the shows I saw at Dollywood for Smoky Mountain Christmas last month. It seems like that show was really well put together! Too bad that Winterfest is no longer around, and that entertainment isn`t as core of a focus as it used to be. However, the last few seasons have seen remarkable progress with the quality of Kings Island entertainment. Hopefully, the entertainment continues to get bigger and better as it has done the last few years! Nice find by the way!

Yes, the restraints are there to keep you securely in the car. Especially through the corkscrew where the forces are not necessarily directly into the seat, but also sideways. So I assume you believe that the restraints on The Crypt do not catch us either? I certainly never get bruises from the restraints on The Crypt. (Although, the same can not be said from the original Son of Beast trains when I rode it nine times in two hours one night during its inaugural season!)

Oh, our final ride on Thunderhead was at a bone chilling 40 degrees. Which with the weather that Cincinnati has had the past few days seems down right balmy. However, it was quite a chilling ride. The Diamondback area sure has changed a lot in the last year. Below is a picture of what the Diamondback site looked like on the fourth of May as seen from the Eiffel Tower.

Yes, the ads on here are not supposed to make any noise. I personally have not witnessed said advertisement yet. What was it advertising?

Yes, B&M machines, like BMW cars, are highly engineered designs and typically do not need major design revisions once a design is settled on. Altering the side of the track that the catwalk/lift stairs is on is not really a major design change as Aaron mentioned. However, to play devil`s advocate I will bring up a rather famous example from another manufacturer. Even in this day and age of computer design and simulations, Intamin designed an element for Maverick that after physical testing of the ride began was determined that it would be too intense for riders and place undue stresses on the trains. The result was that the heart line twist was removed from the ride.

Not sure about pay rates, but don`t expect much as most positions offered will be seasonal in nature. Additionally, as most positions available are seasonal, there is a chance that he could work more than 40 hours a week (potentially up to sixty if he wanted to). Since it is seasonal work, overtime rules do not apply. The best option if he is really interested in the job would be for him to check out the park`s website related to jobs here.

I seem to recall that it is that way, at least on the weekdays. Its not like there is a mad rush right at park opening to ride White Water Canyon.

And my guess would be that you would think the same thing about Dollywood right? A couple hours and then you`d be bored? I made my first visit to Dollywood a few weeks back at the end of December. I went with fellow member Cory Butcher. We spent three hours at the park the first night and most of the next day at the park. We took in most of the shows at Smoky Mountain Christmas, and really enjoyed the atmosphere of the park. Even though they have a small handful of rides, we both had fun. In fact, three shows we watched consumed 2.5 hours of our time (and that was actual show time, not sitting in the theater before the show started!) In fact, I can`t wait to go back to Dollywood later this year with my season pass, even though they are not getting anything new in 2009 (well, I guess you could say they are getting a slightly reconfigured parking lot, but that doesn`t really count). Another example is from when I went down to Disney World in September. My sister and I watched the Festival of the Lion King show at Disney`s Animal Kingdom. It was a wonderful production, and well worth our time. There is a lot more to parks than just roller coasters and thrill rides. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you will be able to better enjoy amusement parks and the big theme parks and appreciate all that they have to offer.

Why is Six Flags even mentioned in that article as asking for the sales memorandum? Six Flags is going to have a difficult time staying afloat the next several months by itself, without taking on any additional debt. Not to mention that Six Flags would likely destroy the atmosphere of the Busch Parks. It would be interesting if Disney became a bidder, seeing as all of the current Disney parks have been developed from the ground up as Disney parks. Additionally, since Busch Gardens Europe is seasonal, it would be interesting to see if Disney wanted to pursue the Busch Entertainment parks. I think that Disney would be a nice fit for the Busch parks though. The article mentions a rather hefty price of up to $4 billion for Busch Entertainment. That is a huge sum of money (especially in the current economy). Remember, Cedar Fair bought Paramount Parks for $1.24 billion in 2006. And given that no one submitted a bid on the Hard Rock Park (where the minimum bid was a paltry $35 million, I have to wonder if anyone will seriously enter a bid that is anywhere near what Anheuser-Busch InBev wants for Busch Entertainment. Given that, I would think that what the article calls a "demerger", also known as spin off, might end up being the end result. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens. I unfortunately have never been to a Busch Gardens or Sea World park yet.

I don`t know. Prowler is a GCI coaster. I rode Thunderhead at Dollywood, my first GCI coaster, just this past December and was really impressed with the ride. I wouldn`t be sounding so sad. If Prowler is anywhere near as good as Thunderhead, you are in for a real treat!

Yep. I believe that I mentioned that somewhere in the dozens of pages in this thread! Yes, all the remaining track work will likely be completed with the smaller, more maneuverable white cranes that actually have wheels.

It all depends on when they get all the electrical work for the ride connected, tested and ready to roll. Likely March, as Beast1979 pointed out, but that blog entry was from October. A lot of things can change in three months.

Just to clear some things about that optical illusion of the potential trim brake location as seen from the wecam. If there were to be a trim brake, there would be a catwalk type structure around the track where the trim brake was so that maintenance could inspect the mechanical systems of the brake. For an example of this, I direct you to this image of Behemoth. You can clearly see the location of the trim brake on the ascent after the hammerhead turn.

Yep. Although, travel just a few minutes north on 71, and you are back into the country setting once again. While it is excellent to see how the park looked back then, the one thing that the park has now that it did not necessarily have back then is mature trees. Yes, there have been several trees that have been removed, particularly in the Action Zone area of the park, and a few have been removed in Rivertown for Diamondback. But, on a whole there are a lot more mature trees within the park now that can offer shade to guests than there were when the park opened in 1972. Look at International Street as a prime example of that.