CoastersRZ

Does Gemini have seat belts? I know that the height requirement on Adeventure Express (as well as on White Water Canyon) is going up to bring it in line with height requirements at other Cedar Fair parks.

Well, I hope that they don`t add seat belts to The Vortex, as it would hinder the load and unload process and negatively impact the capacity. But, if they added seatbelts to Cyclone, it makes you wonder.

Well, that is what will be interesting to see come October. Last year, that pathway under The Racer was a mess, and that was with just one major ride and two haunts back there. Throw in another major ride, and that pathway under The Racer will be terrible to navigate from around 7pm until park close. I really don`t see them staffing the asylum except for at FearFest. In my opinion, it wouldn`t work well (or as well) in the middle of the summer.

While theming could be nice, it still wouldn`t solve the quality of the ride, particularly the smoothness of the ride. It would be like trying to treat a broken arm with a band aid. While the theming would improve the overall ride experience, the actual experience provided by the ride itself would still be rough and bumpy.

Well, at Winter Soar Maureen did say that some of the maintenance buildings back there would be repainted to help tie them into the Firehawk theme.

Well, look at the bottleneck that used to occur at the entrance to the Action Zone in 1999 and 2000. That wasn`t partially resolved until they installed Delirium and made the entrance into AZ wider.

I totally missed the quote portion at the top of his post. I believe that those were taken on Wednesday, the 21st of March.

Those were taken a couple of days ago. In fact, if you look on page two of this thread, you will see that Topgun1993 posted the same images.

Well, it wouldn`t surprise me if they started putting up track on the ride this past week (more than just the station track).

Last year, it was located in the back of the games building adjacent to the Scrambler. That haunt in 2005 was called R.L. Stine`s Fear Street. Prior to that, it was known as House of Darkness. The white tent that they used to have in the field next to the International Showplace prior to 2005 was where the original Massacre Manor was located. This past year, they didn`t utilize that location, but instead had Cowboy Carnage in some of the Rivertown shops.

Thanks for sharing those photos and facts! I really enjoyed reading and seeing those pictures! Hopefully, the Kings Island and Miami Valley Railroad is here for years to come.

Well, in reference to down time, there are some things that are simply out of the park`s control. When a part breaks, and the park has to wait for a replacement part from the manufacturer, it is out of the park`s hands. That is what has happened with Millenium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, and Delirium. Heck, back in 2003, the Round Up at Coney had to be disassembled for several weeks while the mechanics waited for a replacement part for the ride.

Are you sure about the direction the front of the house? The main road that full timers take to get to their private parking lot used to be Columbia Road before the park was built. The parking lot border with the park is essentially where Columbia Road used to traverse. When the park was built, they bisected this road, and built Kings Island Drive to reconnect the two portions of Columbia Road. The road that is located to the west of Top Gun is the southern edge of the northern portion of Columbia Road. Got all that?

That is a common misnomer. The Beast, from the day it opened, has always had, and used trim brakes. Granted, before they switched to the new magnetic brakes, they could adjust how hard or light the trim brakes were applied, but they were applied. The Beast never reached close to eighty miles per hour. When they switched over to the magnetic brakes, the ride now runs more consistent then it used to with the old sled brakes. The only way for the park to adjust the trims now, is to physically remove them from the ride. They do remove some of the trims at the top of the second hill during the spring months when the ride is still being broken in for the year, and not running quite as fast as it does later in the year.

Yes, they are behind where they were when they were originally building the ride. But how much leeway did they have in timing when they originally built the ride in 2001? They may have had lots of time to conduct the testing and such. Granted, I think KI is going to be busy getting this ride ready to roll. That being said, I think that a majority of the ride will be in place, if not the entire thing, by opening day one month from today.

They still have a LOT of work to do in a little more than two months!

As I said before, I highly doubt that the trains are capable of stopping mid course. There is simply nothing (at least that I know of) that can stop the trains, other than the brakes that are mounted to the track.

Wouldn`t this mechanism, like buzz bars on The Beast and The Racer, only work when the train is in the station and have direct contact with sensors/electrical equipment in the station? Seems a little odd that a ride operator can push a button in the station and the trains out on the course will be affected. Granted, the Vekoma trains do have computers on board each train to monitor the ride throughout the course. But it still seems a little fishy.

Well, if they run the ride like they have been running IJST, they will not want to send a train out without an empty seat. But a train on Firehawk holds twice as many people as what the trains on IJ hold, so capacity may not be quite as critical as it is on IJ.

Yes, those are some valid points. However, the park has spent a lot of time and money on trying to make the ride a more enjoyable ride for guests. I mean, it was on its second set of lap bars, and they even shortened the trains to five cars in an attempt to make the ride more enjoyable and less of a maintenance nightmare. I think that if you were to ask the general public their opinions on the ride, a lot of them would say that they enjoy the ride but that it is just too bumpy and rough. Hopefully, the park can get Son of Beast squared away to where it is an enjoyable ride by the general public. As far as used rides go. I spent five years working at a park (and I might go back for a sixth year) that the majority of the rides are used rides. At Coney, other than the Bumper Boats and Pedal Boats, only the Frog Hopper and Scream Machine were brand new rides when they were installed at Coney. And you know what? The general public seems to love all the rides at Coney. Some more than others, The Ferris Wheel, coaster, and Dodgems seemed to be the big crowd favorites. But the general public really seems to enjoy them. Just a little tidbit, all four Cincinnati area amusement parks/water parks are getting "new" attractions this year that are actually used rides that once resided at other parks in the state of Ohio.

I have to say that I doubt we see any new roller coaster with the name of Beast in them at Kings Island. The park is still trying to recover from the whole Son of Beast situation.

This is already being discussed here. Please direct all comments to that thread.

That isn`t exactly breaking news. That has been the rumor for about a week now.

And see, that is why I see the park doing nothing to the sign until they come up with a permanent fix. They aren`t going to waste time and money on a temporary fix. Part of why it likely won`t be fixed for this season is that Cedar Fair is going to want to spread out some of these expenses over a period of time, as opposed to doing all the expenses at one time.

That appears to be a dead link. Not to mention the fact that it screws up the layout of the forums.