CoastersRZ

They removed the Spin-A-Ree because its former location was needed to install the River Runner. I don`t know. While the Twister is a large investment, I`d imagine Coney will still add something in 2010, even if it is a very small addition, or just general park improvements.

Yep. Just visit the park on a weekday in the summer, and compare the rides side to the Sunlite Pool area, and you will really understand that concept!

Have you been to Coney before? They have some pretty unique and thrilling rides. I know that Gordon Bombay can attest to the intensity that can be achieved on the Rock-O-Planes when someone controls it who really knows how to spin the tubs (like someone who has worked that ride numerous times). This is the first major addition to the Sunlite pool area in several years, and it will surely be a hit with the general public.

Well, keep in mind that they could start building it in early March, which gives them three full months to get the slides built by the end of May. Just look at how much work has been done on Diamondback in three months! And these new slides are not as complex, and do not cover as much area as what Diamondback does.

Attendance at Riverbend Music Center and the new National City Pavilion was up 61 percent this year. It also makes Riverbend Music Center the 11th most visited outdoor ampitheater, according to Pollster`s third quarter report. That is up from its 26th ranking in 2007. Read the article from the Cincinnati Enquirer here.

Well, for those of you who get the hard copy version of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the article appears on the front page of the local section. There is a rendering provided of the slides there. Unfortunately, the Enquirer did not include that image on their website.

Sort of. What I`m saying is that the diagonal support was likely being partially supported by a crane, until they put the top "keystone" piece into place. Once they put the keystone support (the top support) into place, the lateral thrusts of the two supports (in equal and opposite directions) balance each other out, providing for lateral stability.

If I had to guess, there is a very logical reason why they are still working. This particular support might have presented a case of "once we start, we can`t stop." In other words, once they placed that first large diagonal support on the right side of the lift, they couldn`t stop until the entire support is completed. This is likely due to the fact that the support on the right is severely angled, and in order to provide some stability for the lateral thrust created by that support, they had to complete the support by connecting it to the other side, which was achieved by placing the support on the top.

This topic has run its course. All discussions about The Twister should now occur in the thread dedicated to The Twister, found here.

Coney announced today the addition of The Twister water slide complex. The complex features four water slides; two body slides and two tube slides. Construction is set to begin in the spring on the $2 million project, with the slides opening with Sunlite Pool for Memorial Day weekend, 2009. Read more from the Cincinnati Enquirer article, here. Be sure to continuously check ConeyIslandCentral for the latest updates on Coney Island and the Twister construction. And to see pictures of the Zoom Flume demolition, be sure to check out these pictures.

The banner below was placed at the Zoom Flume the final weeks of the season, before the Zoom Flume met its fate with the wrecking crews.

Well, the seat belt thing goes back to the old saying "better be safe than sorry." Furthermore, I`m sure that some of the seat belt additions were stipulated by Cedar Fair`s insurance company and/or Cedar Fair could secure better liability insurance if these were installed on the rides, saving them money in the long run, not to mention the fact that they keep park guests safer, and can prevent future injuries or harm to riders. Injuries on rides can have an adverse effect on the perception of the park, which can result in decreased attendance and a real hit to the bottom line of a park. (However, I was a bit perplexed when I went to Cedar Point last year and both Troika and Iron Dragon did NOT have seat belts, when the comparable rides at Kings Island had seat belts installed last year). In regards to the operators saying "check" when checking the restraints, it is intended to keep the operators alert, while also signifying to the guest that there restraints have been checked. Cedar Fair would rather build extra safety features into their operations than risk all the negative publicity that comes with accidents. And most accidents are typically the result of rider misconduct. In the state of Ohio, there are laws which govern rider responsibility on amusement park rides. Part of the law states that riders must not act in a way that will contribute to injury of themselves or others. Furthermore, the law states that riders must abide by all posted and verbalized rules and warning. Failure to do so is technically breaking the law. While some of these extra safety requirements do not directly address the rider conduct laws, part of the increased safety features are to build in redundancies, and hopefully prevent "stupid people from doing stupid things." And not all the rides that Cedar Fair has been installing have featured seat belts. Behemoth features only lap bars, and presumably, Diamondback will also feature just lap bars without seat belts.

And part of the problem with Winterfest in `05 was the pricing structure that the park had in place. They simply priced themselves out of the market. Hard to compete with The Beach`s holiday event, when they let in their pass holders for free and general admission was half of what the gate price was for Winterfest. However, having personally experienced both The Beach`s event and Winterfest `05, the difference between the two events was like night and day. The live entertainment KI had for Winterfest was top notch. Santa`s Toy Factory was a superb production. The other thing that I wish were introduced again in the peak season at KI is street performers. At Winterfest, they had roaming musicians and magicians, which provided for spontaneous entertainment, right in the middle of the street. KI`s entertainment lineup has been wonderful the last few years, we just need to get some of the live energy back in the park that groups like the Kings Island Clown Band provided.

I was down at Walt Disney World in early September for research related to my thesis topic (sure can`t go wrong with that type of research). I haven`t had the time to upload my trip report from the five days I spent at WDW. But as you can clearly see from this wonderful trip report, Disney is a very magical place to visit. I`ve been to Disney World twice, this past September and back in June of 2004. If you have the chance to go, I HIGHLY encourage that you go. You will NOT be disappointed. The overall experience at Disney is bar none the best in the industry. Hopefully, I`ll be back at Disney sooner rather than later, and I certainly hope its not another four years before I get back down there.

Well, I can`t pull anything out of the black hat. However, I can offer the below image, which I took aboard the KI&MV Railroad on Sunday of the "hammerhead" turn area for Diamondback.

And how do you know that there is only one more piece of straight track before the ride is topped off?

Coney still owns the Spin-A-Ree, and the ride is currently in storage on property. Will it return in the future? I don`t know, but there is always that chance, as they did not completely get rid of the ride. Coney needs to continuously upgrade the various areas of the park. The last two years they have added things to the rides side of the park. The last thing to be added to the Sunlite pool area was the Cyclone slide into the deep end of the pool in 2006. Besides, water slides and attractions are among the hottest thing in the amusement industry right now. Not to mention that the Zoom Flume was thirty one years old, which is fairly old, considering it was built before both the Beach and Kings Island`s water park even opened!

Feel free to ask any other more technical questions. I might know some of them, as I am a grad student at UC majoring in architecture and have had my fair share of structures classes.

Dang it! I knew I flubbed something up. Helices instead of helixs as I posted in my post above! It`s been a long day.

The lift supports are angled to provide lateral stability for the structure. They also combat against lateral loads, which in this area consists primarily of lateral wind loads (which was important about a month ago when we had the strong windstorm remnants of the hurricane blow through, knocking out power to 90% of the Cincinnati area.) And lets admit it, B&M`s support structures for their coasters just look awesome to, the way they engineer their supports so elegantly. In other areas of the ride, like in the helixs, the diagonal supports are to resist the lateral gravity loads caused by the train. Depending where the diagonal support is placed, the support would be acting in either compression or tension. Steel is great in tension but lousy with compression. (You have to be concerned with buckling with steel.) As an aside, while steel is great in tension and terrible with compression, concrete is the exact opposite. It is great in compression and has little or no tensile strength on its own. Both concrete and steel have the same thermal properties, which is why steel reinforcing bars are used in concrete; they compliment each other.

The shop over in the Action Zone right next to Drop Tower and Xtreme Skyflyer was selling t-shirts for $5. Not sure what kind as I didn`t go in, but did see the signs advertising the sale. Not sure if these were the novelty t-shirts you were referring to or not.

That little bend in the support is supposed to be there. That little "bent" portion is plum (true vertical) as opposed to the rest of the left half of that support which is angled. The support becomes purely vertical to align with the center line of the lift track.

Because they are skilled ironworkers and know how to put together rides like Diamondback. They might be doing prep work on all the track pieces to complete the lift (ie putting in the stairs and the chain link netting), so that when they put the big lift support up, they don`t have to worry about bracing it for long times when they prep the track, like they`ve done with the current lift support that is tied off to other areas. They know how to put the ride together, and in what order they need to do it in to hopefully, complete the ride on time.

He is correct, that the tallest support is the one that has had one piece installed for several weeks now. The footing that is located right in front of the old time photo will support the support that supports the first drop, and is slightly smaller than the tallest lift support.

The death that occurred at Great America on the ride then known as Drop Zone occurred late in the season of 1999 (I believe around the middle to end of August). It was a small boy who some how slipped out and fell to his death. I believe he had autism, although I do not know what the official cause of that accident was. After the incident, Kings Island`s Drop Zone was closed the rest of the season. That first season Drop Zone was open at Kings Island in 1999, there were no seat belts connected to the bars. The ride reopened in 2000 with new seat belts attached to the bars.