CoastersRZ

Yes, the general public`s first chance to experience Kings Island in the 2009 season is Saturday April 18th, when the park will be open from 10am until 10pm. (This past year, the latest the park was open any day in April was 8pm!!)

Well, Beast1979 is a youngin`. So I wouldn`t necessarily give him credit as sounding like the Interpreter. No offense meant by that, just that he is still young and has a lot of things to learn. Further more, until otherwise stated, that entire rumor is nothing more than something made up by someone with nothing better to do with their time. If the weather cooperates, they hopefully will be able to get a lot done. However, when I was out and about shopping today, I did hear the dreaded S word mentioned on the radio during the forecast for the upcoming work week. Now they can do some work in the snow. But if the winds are still whipping around like they were today, they cannot lift multi-ton pieces of track and supports in the air. It would not be safe for the equipment, ride hardware or the safety of the iron workers who are rigging the Diamondback.

Besides the lack of marketing that resulted in bad attendance at Hard Rock Park, it seems that the park opened in one of the worst years possible as far as the economy goes. It will certainly be interesting to see what the fate of that park is. It would be ashame for the park to be redeveloped or sold off in pieces, both of which are possibilities. Speaking of redevelopment, has anything ever been developed on the old Myrtle Beach Pavilion site?

No. The park will be open 10am to 10pm on Saturday, April 18th. The park will, however, be closed Sunday April 19th for a private event. The park will be open Friday, April 17th for a gold pass holder preview party likely from 5pm to 10pm, although the hours of that day have not officially been released yet.

I sure don`t know where you heard that rumor from.

Yeah. We`re just more than a month into the offseason! We haven`t even reached the dreary months of January and February after the Christmas season!

Interpreter, did you get that error code when logging in, like with the previous error messages?

How is your post even remotely back on topic? This is the Diamondback construction thread, not hypothetical names of all the drops on Diamondback thread... Who even cares what nick name there is for each drop? To me, its just the first drop, second drop, etc.

Your statement could be contrived as a rather bad joke if taken in the wrong light. I understand you mean in terms of capacity, but in light of the SFKK incident, it is perhaps in bad taste.

Not to mention that A) they likely won`t even open the parking lot until 4pm and you should not skip school just to camp out in the parking lot at Kings Island to be among the first to ride Diamondback. Even if you were to show up at 6pm, you`d likely still be able to experience Diamondback that first night. As long as Diamondback isn`t tempermental like Son of Beast was on its Friday night preview back in 2000.

Actually, I don`t think the final helix is about to go up. The reason is that the crane is resting on its tires, and not on the hydraulic levelers. If the crane were getting ready to do some lifting in that area, some or all of the wheels would be off of the ground, due to the hydraulic levelers. These levelers keep the crane level and prevent it from tipping over if the load would become unbalanced. And yes, there are two helices on Diamondback. The first one is right before the mid course break run. The second and final helix is right before the splash down and right next to the Crypt.

The season pass preview day, open to all gold and platinum pass holders, on the 17th of April will likely have the same hours as what Friday the 24th has. Friday the 24th, the park is open to the general public and all pass holders from 5pm until 10pm. People that are planning on showing up to the park much more before 4:30 will likely be disappointed, as they likely won`t open the metal detectors and front gate until 4:30 or 4:45. And I`d imagine that come opening time on that first day, they may very well have security walk people back to the ride entrance in an orderly manner when the park opens at 5pm. I`m sure they do not want to have a stampede. Wal Mart found out what happens when you have a mob of people waiting for a store to open the hard way...

Just because you haven`t seen any from the webcam does not mean that there haven`t been any trucks or pieces being moved around by the crane.

Well, there are track and supports that will be placed right by the cave entrance to the Crypt. It could be moving some of these pieces off of flatbed trucks and/or installing some of them.

Thanks! I`m more than glad to share what knowledge I have about the construction and design process. After all, I am currently enrolled in the number 2 graduate architecture program in the country, behind only Harvard. That is according to just released rankings by Design Intelligence and their 2009 design rankings. In 2008, UC`s MArch program was ranked 7th, and in 2006 and 2007 it was ranked second, behind Harvard. For more information on UC`s design rankings, check out the press release from UC here.

Track ties?

Well, if you read the blog like you claim you do, you would know that Don stated track work should be completed between Christmas and New Years. See this blog entry and the Q&A section. Now that being said, weather delays, such as not being able to work due to heavy rain or high winds, like the last two days could push back that target date some. But rest assured that they likely have some weather delays built into the construction schedule. And not all progress is measured by the amount of vertical steel that is placed. There are other things such as electrical work that are virtually undetectable from the webcam, and would be even almost undetectable to the untrained eye inside of the park!

Yep! And he lived to a nice old age as well! Think of all the rides that you have ridden that were designed by Karl Bacon or his company, and all the rides that are possible because of Arrow`s development of the tubular steel rails for the steel roller coasters!

And you, Skaterboy, need to leave the moderating to us moderators! Ok? Good!

Most notable is the comment about park attendance in the last line. Disney park attendance is down 4% for the current quarter.

Yeah. Open International Street up through the Starbucks area so that guests can use that and the Cinnabon location, which could translate into higher guest spending. Its not like they would need that much more staffing of security to man the additional ropes, and how difficult would it really be to schedule employees in those locations a half hour earlier?

Now if only they would bring back the 11pm close on Saturdays in the peak season, especially days like the 4th of July.

Yep. I know that they did that back in 2000 when Son of Beast opened. Not sure if they have done that since then!

I see a couple significant things with the 2009 calendar. For one, the park will be open on the two Saturdays in April until 10pm!! Typically they were only open until 9pm or even 8pm on Saturdays in April. And further more, if you check the August calendar, the park will be open EVERY day in August. Yes, every single day in August the park will be open. In fact, daily operation will not end until Labor day, September 7th. That last week of weekday operation the park is open from 12pm to 7pm. Of course, that is subject to change. And Skywriter, you might want to check that fact. August 17-20 and 24th through 27th the park is open 10am to 8pm, not 10am to 10pm.

No, I believe that he was referring to the fact that Mr. Shapiro mentioned that SFMM is slated to receive a new coaster in 2010, in addition to the GCI coaster next season.