CoastersRZ

From many years of experience, Ferris Wheel`s are great rides that can please all members of the family from small kids to grandparents. It is a nice addition to Kings Dominion. One thing I do know from operating an Eli Bridge Ferris Wheel, is that Ferris Wheels are NOT high capacity rides due to the fact that only one (or a few on larger Ferris Wheels like at Cedar Point) can be loaded at a given time. Hopefully, Kings Island will receive some nice classic flat rides such as a Ferris Wheel (or even a new set of Flying Eagles) for the Coney Mall area of the park. While those rides may not be the most expensive or thrilling rides around, they are cheaper to install than rides like Diamondback and can appeal to a larger age group than roller coasters. This larger appeal can help the parks attract the older demographics who might not want to tackle the white knuckle rides anymore.

As has been mentioned before, Snowland is a winter event being held next door at the Great Wolf Lodge. The GWL has also been advertising with radio spots for the event as well. It is not related to Kings Island. Kings Island is advertising for it on their marquee because of the marketing agreement that GWL and Kings Island.

But in order to put the crawlers and a cab on a flatbed truck to move it, they would have to remove the boom of the crane.

Yes, I do believe that Clifford`s work on Diamondback is not yet done. Likely, the crane could not safely crawl down in the valley and make it up to the other side, so in order to get the crane to where they needed it, they had to take it apart and move it piece by piece. Additionally, they might not have wanted to roll the entire crane over the new asphalt maintenance path for fear of damaging that path and having to replace it.

Because any one can edit wikipedia, it is not an ideal source for credible information on topics. The only real benefit of wikipedia is using it as a starting point to gather bibliographies, if they are listed. This will give you a selection of books or article to read that can help inform your topic with factual and accurate information. You simply cannot trust everything that is on wikipedia.

That is the only song that I know for sure was featured in the parade. Whenever I hear this song played now, I think of Winterfest and that parade!

I too have encountered that forbidden screen when logging in, both from home and when I`m over at UC. Every time I see that, whenever I go back to the main page and click on forums, I`m logged in, no problem. And I have noticed at certain times the site is running slow. This would be a Dane related technical issue, I`m sure.

This, my friend is OLD news. See: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15627

There is a likely reason for the lack of updates to the Diamondback site from Mr. Helbig. Head on over to Onpoint!, the Cedar Point blog, and find out that representatives from all Cedar Fair parks in various departments have been up in Sandusky for meetings this week. So naturally, if Don is up north, he cannot be providing construction pictures or blog entry updates on the progress of Diamondback.

Not going to happen because theming tie ins to movies is no longer of paramount importance at Kings Island.

Keep in mind that what you are seeing on the station is simply the structural steel that supports the roof. Siding and finish materials are not added until the basic structure and roof are completed. In other words, I would not expect to see any finish materials on the exterior of the station until after the Christmas season. And it most certainly is not an un-modified NoLimits station...

Keep in mind that I believe they also own and operate a hotel at Knott`s. Why would Cedar Fair be interested in owning hotels adjacent to their parks? Because it gives them the chance to capture out of park revenue, while offering a service to resort guests. Translation, the hotels provide Cedar Fair with additional revenue that capitalizes on the success of the park which Cedar Fair owns.

Well, as the Interpreter himself pointed out, I did correct him when he misspoke once. Everyone is bound to make a mistake once in a while. Even I will sometimes post something that is incorrect. When that happens, I note my mistake, apologize and move on. Nobody can be perfect. And I don`t know what you`re talking about FF EKU dawg 4 life. Fairly Odd Coaster is fairly smooth. But then again, as other posters have said a coasters` degree of smoothness is based on personal tastes so it is different from one person to another. Which is why if you ask a simple question like which is rougher Son of Beast or Beast, you will get some people that say the father and some people that say the son. What can be agreed upon though, is that generally B&M coasters are known for their smooth ride experience.

Skaterboy22101, why are you playing devil`s advocate with Diamondback not being smooth? With the exception of a few B&M coasters, most of which are older models/stand up coasters, what B&M coaster is not glass smooth? I have ridden my fair share of B&M coasters (although no hyper coasters), and every single one has been extremely smooth and very rerideable. Saying that the trains will make the ride rough is like saying that Kings Island will be open year round next year. It simply defies logic. B&M rides are known for their precision engineering and superb riding experience. That is not something that will suddenly change with "rough trains."

That ride pictured by Beast1979 is not the same ride as Head Spin/Carolina Cobra! And as others have mentioned, the white paint is likely just the primer paint and not the finish coat of paint for the ride.

Actually, I believe that Hurricane and Son of Beast had different track gauges. Hurricane I believe is typical wooden roller coaster track gauge while Son of Beast is extra wide. I believe that Kings Island modified the Gerstlauer trains to fit the larger track gauge of Son of Beast.

There was another wooden coaster that contained the same Premier built trains that Son of Beast opened with. I want to say it was located in England or Europe. Not sure which park, but it opened a year or two after Son of Beast. As far as I know, there has not been a test of Son of Beast`s top speed that it got its Gerstlauer trains. I`d imagine that the top speed is less than what it used to be with the Premier trains. For one, the the Premier trains featured thirty riders the last season, while the G trains only feature 24 riders per train. Secondly, the Premier trains were built very hefty with lots of tubular steel structure in them. The G trains utilize a lot of fiberglass and likely weigh a lot less than the old trains.

Because they were moved off of the station floor so that workers could work further on the station. They simply put them there so that they were out of the way for station construction and readily accessible for when they do future concrete work.

SonofBeast07, see my post from yesterday morning in which I explain what those tarp like things are that are hanging off of the catwalk outside the station. (Also I provided a detailed description of the concrete curing process yesterday, but will not go into detail about that again here, you can find that post by searching back a few pages if you desire).

Very true. The band organ on Kings Island`s carousel is sourly missed by me. Since we are on the topic of carousel history, I`ll through in some history about another PTC carousel that used to operate in the Cincinnati area, besides the one that is currently at Kings Island and originally operated at Coney Island. In 1918, the Cincinnati Zoo purchased carousel #45 from PTC. It operated at the zoo for 56 years until 1974. In 1974, it was purchased by the Marriott Corporation for use at Great America in California. It operated there until 1996. From there it was placed in storage until eventually being donated to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle Washington. The ride reopened in a new pavilion on May 1st, 2007, and it continues to thrill guests to this day. Ironically, several years ago the Cincinnati Zoo decided to once again operate a carousel, and purchased an animal themed carousel from Chance Morgan Manufacturing, which is not anywhere near as elegant or majestic as the PTC that once operated at the park.

Did you not see my post above? I do not think that Cedar Fair would be in a position to acquire this property given their own debt load. Not to mention that Cedar Fair, as Interpreter noted, passed up the opportunity to own a minority stake in the property when they purchased Paramount Parks from CBS.

Well, as someone who has done a lot of research on indoor water park resorts (that`s part of my thesis topic), I can offer some insights. The Sandusky area has a LARGE amount of indoor water park resorts. They have Kalahari, the largest indoor water park resort in the country, the Great Wolf Lodge, Cedar Fair owned Castaway Bay, and the now bankrupt Maui Sands. Those four (now three) attractions definitely over saturated the Sandusky market. Keep in mind that the Sandusky area only has a population of nearly 60,000 people in the winter. Certainly not enough to sustain all those indoor water parks. And keep in mind that the Kalahari Sandusky has over 170,000 square feet of indoor water park space. By comparison, Great Wolf Lodge at Kings Island has 78,000 square feet of indoor water park space and Coco key has 50,000 square feet. And from the numbers that Great Wolf has released for the Mason property, it is certainly making money for the company. It`s just that GE Capital, the lender that owns the mortgage was not wanting to extend the time period, due to the current state of the economy. I would not say that Great Wolf is about to loose the lodge. Secondly, it would be even more unlikely for Cedar Fair to acquire the property, due to the large debt load that Cedar Fair has from the Paramount Parks purchase in 2006.

I was referring to the fact that during this off season, Kennywood has hired Morgan to fabricate all new track (to match the layout of the existing track) to replace the old Arrow track that still remained from the original Steel Phantom. Ie, the lift hill, first drop and part of the second hill and drop are getting new track this off season.

Well, The Vortex is being taken out... eventually. We just do not know when that time will be. Whether it is two years from now, five, fifteen or thirty years from now, we simply do not know. But steel coasters, unlike wood coasters cannot last forever, without substantial maintenance and replacing sections of track/supports. Look at Phantom`s Revenge at Kennywood as a prime example of maintaining a steel coaster.

It all depends on the temperature. There will be concrete blankets placed around the supports to keep out the cold weather. If it is cold enough they will provide space heaters to keep the water in the grout from freezing (which would be a very bad thing because then the grout could not cure correctly.) The process of concrete and grout curing is an exothermic process. That means that when they cure, the chemical reaction releases heat. So the concrete blankets are keeping the heat from the chemical reaction in to keep the water from freezing. Water does not evaporate from concrete. Instead, the water chemically reacts with the cement in a process called hydration, which is when the heat in the curing process is produced. Is that enough technical information for you on concrete and the curing process?