CoastersRZ

Not sure when 2008 season passes will go on sale. It was about this time last year when they started selling 2007 season passes. What if any changes they will implement to the season pass program for next year remains to be seen. Once they announce pass sales for next year, we will likely know more.

Actually, Coney is partly in the city of Cincinnati. Another part of it is in Anderson Township. I should know, as I have to pay the city`s 2.1% income tax on the paychecks I get from Coney, because my time clock is located within the City. My brother, who works at Sunlite Pool which is in Anderson Township, does not have to pay city taxes! It will be interesting to see if anything materializes from the talks. I wonder what, if any, impact this will have on the future of Newport Aquarium.

Having spent six years as a ride operator at Coney, I have seen my fair share of protien spills. Especially since a lot of Coney`s rides can be considered 'whirl and hurls'. Believe it or not, I`ve had more people get sick on Coney`s Ferris Wheel, then I have on the Round Up! Interestingly enough, a couple weeks ago, I had a kid get sick in the entrance line to the Giant Slide!

Read the full article here. Herschend Family Entertainment is apparently interested in purchasing the Newport Aquarium from its current owner, Steiner and Associates. More details are set to be released tomorrow.

No, they are not illegal to run now. See the Interpreter`s post about the similar ride at Hersheypark. Theoretically, if Kings Island wanted to build a similar ride to KCKC, they could, if they wanted to pay the cost for it. But why would they want to do that? As the saying goes with most rides, you can build as high as your pocket can afford. (Obviously, in some parks, there are exceptions, like with local zoning codes). I believe that the boats could have 4-5 people in them.

As of Sunday, the only things that you were allowed to put in the storage bins were souvenirs/ cups. I know that at The Beast, they were requiring you to take ALL bags with you on the ride. However, there was an exception on Delirium, where they were letting you place all loose articles in the metal bins. Firehawk, as has been the standard practice since it opened, requires that all items that cannot be secured in cargo pants to be places in lockers before entering the line. Simply put, the park is not responsible for articles, if they become lost when you place them in the bins. The ride operators are not there to baby sit those items. However, if people have bags with them, like say they had been over at Boomerang Bay and have a towel and swimsuit in their bag, they should be allowed to put their bags in the bins. But Kings Island is just trying to protect themselves. By making guests take their valuables with them on the rides, there is not a chance that theft of said items may occur.

Well, I believe that at least the picture of the anchor bolt box was lifted from another site. CWMania has lots of pictures of the work that is going on at Canada`s Wonderland. Including, oddly enough this very same image!

Not to mention that when parks in Ohio request a permit for their rides for the season, they also have to list the last day that the rides will operate for the season. Now several years back, Kings Island used to tack on an added bonus weekend the first weekend in November. But seeing as how Cedar Fair reduced the number of operating days at the beginning of the season, I doubt that they will be extending the season of any of their parks much past the conclusion of October. Besides, after October, they can no longer attract people to the parks for the haunted events.

I also made a visit to the park on Sunday, August 12th. Lines were on the short side all day, which for a weekend, was rather surprising. I too rode Slingshot when I visited the park Sunday. It was my first time ever riding it (and I only paid $10 for it, not $15 because we rode it early in the day). If you had to choose between the two major pay attractions of Skyflyer and Slingshot, I`d say that Slingshot has a lot more thrill factor to it. And isn`t Max & Erma`s regional or national?

Personally, I don`t mind the brakes on Flight of Fear. By the time you get to the final corkscrew, the train is flying. Because you are indoors, and in mostly darkness, the speed that was scrubbed off isn`t as noticeable, once you get closer to the floor. And, you can look at it as prolonging the amount of time you spend on the ride.

Actually, to my knowledge no one has even posted anything with regards to answers on the scavenger hunt. Let alone a complete listing of answers.

It seems like Six Flags is really interested to hear what their guests think about their park experience. The last several years under Paramount Parks, the same could be said about Kings Island. However, since Cedar Fair has taken over, I have the impression that Cedar Fair, in general, is a little more out of touch with their paying customers.

Yes. Coney is connected via Riverbend by the fact that Coney handles the parking and concession sales for Riverbend. So while Coney doesn`t see a dime of the concert ticket money, they certainly make enough money off of parking and concessions. Not to mention the potential for people to come early and go to the pool or ride some of the rides.

I still find it comical the size of the queue they built for the helicopter rides. Did they really think that many people would want to pay to ride the helicopters at any given times?

Unfortunately, I will not be there. I have arrangements to meet some fellow college classmates at Kings Island tomorrow. If they have a bonus weekend in October like they did last year, I`ll be there for that. If not, there is always next year.

Likely, staffing will be an issue that week. Not just for Boomerang Bay, but the park in general. I know that at Coney, the rides will be under restricted hours that same week due to staffing issues. At Coney, the rides will be open from 1-8 pm, instead of the usual 11 to 9 pm.

Glad to hear you had such a good time. That is part of what I enjoy about running rides at Coney. Even in my sixth year there, I will occasionally work a kiddie ride for a little bit. (Last weekend it was the helicopters for thirty minutes). Explaining to the kids how to make their copter go up in the air, and then seeing their smiles and waves to their parents once I start the ride is an awesome thing to see. That is part of the reason why I have so much fun at Coney. Having worked at Coney for so long, I now have the understanding of how an amusement park works from the operations and employee point of view, rather than strictly a guests point of view.

Yep. There is a large drop below the track in the stations. On the transfer track, the mechanics can get better access to the underneath sides of the trains for inspections and replacing parts.

And if I`m not mistaken, they have removed part of that area to allow for room for this new building. Or, at least they cleaned up the old boneyard area some to allow for the staging area for the construction.

Well, I seriousely doubt that the park is very concerned with it. If you check the map on the website that you provided, the proposed pipeline location would be north of Lebanon. Lebanon is north of Mason. Which means that the proposed location of the line is no where near Kings Island.

And that "train" that was atop the building was not a real car from a Son of Beast train. It was a small sized replica of one of the trains. Speaking of trains, there used to be a small bone yard where they are currently building the new building by Top Gun`s entrance. It used to be home to one of the old Flight of Fear trains, that was never retrofitted to the lap bar restraints.

Yes indeed! Also, just listen to the comments made by guests at the exit of Son of Beast. I guarantee that you will her at least a couple of negative comments about the ride, primarily how rough it was. Compare that, with say a ride like Millenium Force. There, most of the comments made by the public seem to be very positive. I understand that the rides are completely different. However, the guests appear to enjoy Millenium Force far more than what guests do with Son of Beast. That combined with the presumably high maintenance issues with SoB, I`d have to think its only a matter of time before you can no longer ride SoB. I also think that it is only a matter of time before Kings Island get a brand new, signature steel coaster. Which will come first? Who knows.

I think that Kings Island will see a new steel coaster from one of the two major steel manufacturers before they see a new wood coaster show up at the park. That being said, stranger things have certainly happened before.

Well, considering that Cedar Fair has a large amount of debt, I doubt you will see them building any major record breaking coasters anytime soon. Especially, as you said, the return on investment just isn`t there to jusitfy building such expensive rides. That doesn`t mean that they won`t build any roller coasters in the future, just that they won`t spend millions extra to be able to call their ride one of the 'est' in the world. And personally, I was not a fan of Maverick. Yes the layout was awesome, but those restraints ruined the entire ride for me (both times I rode it) because of how painful it was in the transitions.

While the accident last year certainly didn`t help Son of Beast win more fans, it is the ride experience itself that has caused the rather negative preception of the ride to the public. That coupled with the large amounts of upkeep cost and time the ride requires, the ride might not make much sense to hang onto for years and years, as others have said.