CoastersRZ

I have to agree, those ducks landing on the ice were rather comical. And back on topic, it seems as if they have begun to place the bar joists for the station roof. And if you check the webcam, those things hanging on the side of the catwalk immediately outside of the station are concrete blankets. These blankets protect the concrete from the cold (and preventing the water in the concrete mix from freezing, which would produce bad concrete) during the curing process. Also, they are pouring some footings near the Crypt and have added another piece of track and support for the second hill.

People were waiting in line two to four hours just to see Santa? How many people was this place attracting? It sure looks (based on the pictures) that people are getting ripped off and that the place is clearly not worth the price that guests are being asked to pay.

What are you talking about it never snows here anymore? I got stuck in a major snow storm last March heading home from UC. We got about four to six inches of snow!

Coney, aka Taft Broadcasting did not purchase Coney Island until 1968. Until Taft Broadcasting bought Coney, there was no formal discussion of relocating to another property. Hence, they did not begin the purchase of land for Kings Island until the late 1960s, not the 1930s as you stated. And yes, as you mentioned, the deed probably has some restrictions on future use of the land and continued upkeep of the property. Which is why Kings Island likely cares for and maintains the cemetery.

As you can tell from that link, the cemetery is no longer active, and has not been active for more than 100 years! It is not a simple process to un-inter a grave. Not to mention it would be difficult to locate the offspring and descendants of those buried in the cemetery. It is easy enough for KI/Cedar Fair to mow the grass in the cemetery than to try and do something with it. Besides, its not like KI is hard for space, especially when they can use the grass field to the south of the Deep South parking lot.

You, obviously have never had to drive in Cincinnati when there are a couple of inches of snow on the roads. Cincinnati drivers freak out if there is even a couple inches of snow on the ground! I`ve spent several four hour drives in my car going home from UC or my co-op jobs downtown. That`s four hours for a normal twenty five to thirty minute drive time, all because people insist on going super slow for just a couple of inches of snow! Trust me, its not fun when you leave UC at 3:30, and don`t get home until 7:30, and you`ve only traveled 16 miles!

Excellent photo trip report! Glad to see you and your kids had fun. I actually went to the Newport Aquarium this summer with some relatives who were in town from Pheonix, AZ, and we had a fun time there. As an aside, the Newport Aquarium is now owned by Herschend Famil Entertainment Co.

I wouldn`t really call the tactics that Disney uses "spirituality." The Walt Disney Co. is a really good marketer of their products and creating strong demand among children around the country and the world to visit their theme parks. Do I believe that Disney is using spirituality in a negative way? No, because I do not believe that Disney is using spirituality to bring people to their parks. Yes, Disney markets their parks to children. Yes, they promote their parks as a place where child hood dreams can come to life, right before the child`s eyes. At the root of what Disney does though, is it creates and sells memories. While some people may only make one pilgrimage to Disney World as a child, which may give the park a form of awe and spirituality to the child, I wouldn`t say that Disney is exploiting this. They are simply marketing the memories and quality family time that visitors can have at their parks. And the synergies that Disney has between ABC, the Disney movies and the parks help to promote and market all the Disney brands. Not everything that Disney does is good. But they are a well run and operated company, especially in the category of running world class resorts and theme parks. There are scores of books that critically look at Disney, from the "Distory" (the Disney edited version of history presented in such attractions as "The American Adventure at EPCOT), to the way that Disney has pursued developments and pitted local communities against one another in order to secure the most lucrative deal so that the company did not have to pay for large infrastructure improvements that the theme parks required. You can read more in the many critical books about Disney and its theme parks (a quick amazon or google search will turn up many). Having done quite a bit of research on the history and development of Disney`s theme parks for my thesis topic on entertainment architecture, I have read several of the critical books about Disney. In summation, I do not think that Disney`s marketing strategy implements a spirituality or higher meaning for the Disney brand in the eyes of the children. What Disney does do well is successfully market their products to children, and makes a tidy profit off of it. I would not say that Disney is corrupting the minds of children though. I think that this cleric has better things that he could be arguing for than how Disney is corrupting children. How many people today still do not have basic literacy skills, or lack proper education and schooling? Not to mention children that lack proper shelter, food and medical care around the world. Sure seems like he is picking a trivial cause to stand against compared to those more serious issues facing the human race today. Further more, as mentioned above, he is out to sell and promote his book. And the topic that he has chosen will surely guarantee that papers and people talk about his work because of the sensationalism of the link he created between Disney and the corruption of children. In the end, he hopes to be able to make some money off of his book, and likely does not want to stop the corruption of children by Disney.

It still some what boggles my mind that Paramount (and later Viacom and CBS), never put much value on the marketing potential of the former Paramount Parks. Now Paramount Pictures wants to build new parks overseas? While those could be growing markets, I still think they really missed out on their chance to market to millions of Americans with their former parks. They really did not exploit the synergies of being owned by a media company like Disney has done with its parks.

I`m fairly certain that Cedar Fair installed speakers in Firehawk`s queue to play music. And many of the queue TVs have begun to disappear.

Well, for parks like the Great Wolf Lodge, I can some what understand that practice. January and February are typically slow times for the tourism industry in certain areas like Cincinnati. As a result, room bookings are likely way down at that time of year. And since Great Wolf Lodge only lets guests that are staying in their hotel rooms access their indoor water park, why keep it open if there are only a handful of guests staying in the hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in January and February?

I`ll throw in some information on the Ferrari theme park. For one of my classes, I had a guest lecturer from Jack Rouse Associates, the Cincinnati firm that is designing many of the elements for the Ferrari World theme park. That article mentions the park will open next year. However, at the lecture, they mentioned it will in fact probably open in February of 2010. (The building it is housed in, is already under construction). Another interesting tidbit, is that the park will feature a drop ride. They had to install the drop ride first, and then build the building around it. Additionally, almost the entire park will be inside for climate control. The actual drop ride, and the coasters (a dueling/racing coaster with LIM launches, and another roller coaster will be located outside. And did I mention that the park is in a flight path for an airport runway approach?

Well, the Voyage cost $6.5 million, not exactly a cheap ride, but not extremely expensive like the $22 million Diamondback.

Well, to be technical about it, construction of Twister actually started back in September when demolition began on the Zoom Flume. Construction will likely begin in the spring.

I was a little shocked to hear about this article. Seems kind of odd that they fined both Kings Island and Coney on the same day. As far as the number of hours worked by minors according the Fair Labor Standards Act, the hourly stipulation only applies to 14 and 15 year old workers. 16 and 17 year old workers, per the FLSA, do not have set requirements for the maximum hours they can work. However, certain states do have requirements for hours that can be worked by minors. For example, in the state of Ohio, minor workers must receive a thirty minute rest period after five consecutive hours of work. See the U.S. Department of Labor`s, Fact Sheet #43 on Youth Employment Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Ohio`s Department of Commerce, Division of Labor and Worker Safety Minor Labor Laws fact sheet. Any idea what service the vendor Midwest Beverage Co. provides at Kings Island?

And for those of you following along to the many pages of this thread, I answered one of the questions which Don answered in the blog today (about the wide flange beams that are mounted to the bottom of the support acting as a shear key). Beast1979, what you thought was line gates is actually just temporary fencing that was installed where the station platform meets the edge of the track for fall protection for the workers. Additionally, the corrugated steel that is comprises the bottom "form" work for the concrete is shiny and corrugated, which can appear like lines. I`d look for the exit to be on the right side, with the load side of the station being on the left. The queue rails, and automatic gates are installed AFTER the concrete floor has been installed, and are generally among the last things to be installed, in part because I believe that the park installs some of the queue rails themselves, and does not utilize the general contractor building the stations for such services.

Gee, I have class here at UC up until 5pm on Wednesday! At least my Wednesday evening class was canceled and I commute so I don`t have far to go to get home. And besides, with yesterday being mostly washed out with the rain, that only leaves today and tomorrow for the work week, not a lot of time to get anything substantial done.

To answer your second question, I believe that you must process your Platinum Pass at the park at which you purchased your Platinum Pass.

Sure looks like Manta track for Sea World Orlando. Manta

That wide flange beam that is mounted to the bottom of the flange which fits into the pocket of the footing, help to tie the steel support beam into the footing. Doing so ensures that the support and footing act as one structural piece, successfully transferring all of the gravitational forces to the ground.

Besides the lift hill, I`d look for at least some lights in the mid-course break area. Those lights, just like the lights on the lift hill are there for safety reasons in the event the ride shuts down due to mechanical reasons and guests need to be evacuated.

No, I was not contesting the terminology of footing as you implied there TG1993. As Jesse and Bill can both account for I was offering quite a bit of information on the construction process throughout the tour. In the picture above I was explaining how the steel bearing plate of the support is held a couple of inches above the top of the footing, and then they come back later and pour in expansive grout to monolithically tie the steel from the support into the concrete of the footing to more evenly transfer the forces that the ride creates. If I were you, I would wise up a bit and not poke fun like that. After all, I have been known to spread my knowledge on architecture and construction on these boards fairly often. If you notice however, I have not brought up the whole footing thing in quite some time, and have not made a point anymore to call people out on using the slang term "footer." That is just another one of the many reasons why KICentral is THE site for Kings Island fans. I can offer some insights into the technical side of constructing rides that can`t be found on most other sites. And KICentral has wonderful users like Avatar. They take time and create wonderful trip reports like this one. Not only does he write his trip reports well, but he selects thoughtful images and movies to accompany them. Furthermore, his trip reports come from the viewpoint of a father who is not only experiencing the joy of Kings Island for himself, but able to see his own daughter experience the same magic that he has whenever he visits the park. Add to that the fact that he lives a couple hours from the park, and his trip reports are always a must read and a true work of art. While us staff members keep the site running, it is users like Avatar posting excellent trip reports as these that help keep KICentral the tremendous site that it is today. Keep up the nice work Jesse!

No worries. During that Diamondback tour, I was sharing my construction knowledge with everyone, as seen in that picture.

You forgot to mention me in your thank you to KIC staff! All kidding aside, this is another one of your excellent photo trip reports Jesse!

It almost looks like its protective plastic to protect the track in the station area when they pour the concrete for the station floor. It actually looks they may have already poured the concrete for the station floor. Its hard to tell with the resolution of the webcam though. EDIT: With the sun now out, you can clearly tell that they have not poured the concrete for the station floor yet. (You can see the corrugated sheet metal reflecting the sunlight when the sun is out. That being said, they probably aren`t that far off from pouring the concrete for the station slab.