CoastersRZ

The more details, the merrier! I`m sure as with any new place, there are plenty of kinks that need to be ironed out in the future.

But from what I`ve heard, Kings Island pass holders are going to be in for a very rude awakening, when they get ONE decal applied to ONE car for their parking pass instead of the pass being applied to an actual pass holders pass. I for one am not necessarily looking forward to this change. That is one area where Parmount did so well, with their parking passes and pass processing. I am, however, hopeful that they do remove the preferred and gold pass lots. The Gold pass lot was supposed to be staffed until like 5 in the afternoon, but often times, it went vacant by around three in the afternoon, leavinng a full lot when I arrive at the park. But, I think that parking attendants directing cars to parking spots will be a welcome addition, and harckon back to the day when the park used to do that. Needless to say, there will be many many changes at the park, both in parking and in the park itself.

Yes. If I recall, Scholl of Rock didn`t even last until Labor Day this past year. It closed down the weekend before Labor day, with the close of daily operations I believe.

Have some patience. I`m sure they will announce the show lineup for 2007 in good time. For Christmas, I received the book "Amusement Parks of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky" by Robert J. Wimberg. While I`ve only read the parts on Coney Island, the Cincinnati Zoo, Kings Island and Stricker`s Grove so far, the one theme, especially for Coney and the Zoo, is the amount of live entertainment they had in the parks. Especially from around the 1900s all the way up through the `60s. Every year they would have musical productions and shows, all throughout the season (which was essentially Memorial day through the earlu days of September). Some of these musical performances had casts of about 300 people and were rather big productions. From the book, they seemed to be as big of a draw as the actual rides themselves. The biggest festivities seemed to be on the 4th of July, when they would have huge shows and celebrations recalling war battles from overseas. It is really ashame that this kind of live entertainment, for the most part, has taken a back seat at Kings Island. True, times have changed, and people no longer want to go to an amusement park or zoo to see an opera (like they used to do at the Cincinnati Zoo until 1971 when the Opera moved to the newly air conditioned Music Hall). But it would be nice to see a remphasis on live entertainment at the park. Live shows can bring people in just as much as the rides. And, the shows can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Wheras some of the roller coasters will alienate the youngsters too short to ride, and the senior citizens who want calmer forms of entertainament.

And the fact that at the time the show was made, both CSI and Kings Island fell under the same ownership umbrella didn`t hurt either.

Well, I wouldn`t say that TR:TR is a waste of space. It is a rather unique ride, even if the theming isn`t maintained like it should be. I, as a local pass holder, will still line up for the ride every now and then. Kenton`s Cove Keelboat Canal was really starting to show its age the last couple of seasons. The park would have either had to tear it down (as they did) or spend some significant money into rehabbing it. I guess they decided that of the two flumes, the Kings Mills Log Flume (now Wild Thornberry`s River Adventure) was the better of the two flumes to save.

No, that is not a tunnel. As has been stated before those are merely "temporary" shelters so that workers doing retracking work are not exposed to the bitter winter winds and Ohio precipitation. While it would be nice if we someday got a tunnel on SoB, at this point in time a tunnel is the last thing they are concerned with with this ride. In fact, they probably haven`t even considered adding tunnels to it.

Well, it is more the price of copper that is in high demand right now, and hence why new homes that are under construction have been havin copper taken out of them. I don`t think they`d be too worried about people stealing the loop or any X-Flight track, should KI get X-Flight. I mean, unlike wiring in a new home, most thiefs wouldn`t be able to steal track or the loop structure without specialized equipmen, and then it would be hard to do without getting noticed by someone.

Actually, I believe that they are not "contouring out" the land behind FoF. But rather, they are likely using the popular mode of cut and fill to create a flatter site. They are likely cutting dirt away from the high side of the site, by FoF. They then in turn use this fill dirt to fill in some of the lower areas on the site to create a flatter site, more suitable for a ride.

Well, I`d like to second Dane`s comments about Seasons Greetings to all PKIC members! Hopefully, the 2007 season will be filled with many new memories at one of our favorite amusement parks. As always, excellent pictures Gabriel!! They sure are doing a lot of dirt moving on the site by Ft. Cooper!

Well, you have to at least give kudos to Paramount Parks for using the online guest feedback surveys. I know that they had at least a small impact on the way things were run in the parks. And, it was an easy way to get feedback from their guests, without having to poll guests as they exited the park. Its ashame that this practice likely will go by the wayside under Cedar Fair.

Well, I don`t have dial up, and I must side with Interpreter. With that many posts, it is burdensome to read, and they take up a lot of extra space on the page. And it is not like some of that stuff is buried deep on the first page or two of the thread.

Well, I rode Drop Zone once back around 2000. When we got back into the load unload area, they wouldn`t release our bars, because a skunk had entered the loading area from over by Skyflyer. Coney also has had a problem with skunks. One time a skunk was in the trench for the drive shaft of the Scrambler when the operator started his test run for the morning. Needless to say, the Scrambler gave some pretty stinky rides for a couple weeks after that. Also, they once had a skunk get into the women`s resrtoom by the picnic grove.

Well, at Coney, I know that if you`ve been there a while like me, you will know stuff about their future plans. For example, apparantely their 2008 project has already been decided upon...

I believe that the parking lot is considered part of the developed land. The park currently still owns 752 acres. Back when Taft purchased the land for Kings Island, they bought 1,600 acres at a total cost of $3.2 million. The land they bought included land on both sides of I-71. It comprised what is now the Golf Center at Kings Island, the Kings Island Resort, the Tennis Master Series complex, and the new Great Wolf Lodge. All of which are no longer affiliated with Kings Island. And trueTEXAN1990, why do you feel that the money won`t come from KI`s capital budget for 2007? Yes, they don`t have to disclose all their costs to their unit holders. But why do you think that you know the inner workings of the park and Cedar Fair`s budgeting and accounting practices? I`m not saying that I do know their practices either. But what I am saying is that if they are spending millions of dollars to fix the ride, I would think that they would have to allocate money to do that. Whether that comes from the capital expenditure budget or from some other budger I don`t know, and as you stated, we may never know for sure.

Well, for the most part, all the other Cedar Fair parks have really played second fiddle to Cedar Point, America`s roller coast. But, Cedar Fair has by no means neglected the other parks. I mean, most of them, save maybe Michigan`s Adventure and Geauga Lake, have recieved major attractions (like some sort of B&M installation) of some sort. While it may not be every year like we have been used to at Kings Island, I in no way think they will neglect Kings Island. KI draws from a large demographic area, and has the advantage of easy access to the interstate system for travelers. Based on the guestimates (which are not exactly accurate) from now defunct Amusement Business, Cedar Fair owns two of the busiest seasonal parks in America (Kings Island and Cedar Point) and a busy park in Canada (Canada`s Wonderland). So while Cedar Point may still remain the flagship of the chain, by no means do I believe that they will make Kings Island become the ugly duckling of the chain.

But the money to repair Son of Beast has to come from somewhere. I mean, it is above and beyond routine off season maintenance on the ride. Whether that money comes from the capital budget or elsewhere, Cedar Fair is committed to getting the ride safe for the general public and getting it back open.

As I`ve said in other posts. I wouldn`t expect to hear about an announcement until after the holidays and sometime into the new year. But, that is just my opinion.

I know. No worries. It is all resolved now. I was just letting him know what went on. If you had images lifted off of your site and someone else claiming that they were their pictures, you wouldn`t be the happiest camper in the world. I speak from experience on the subject.

When he originally posted that picture, he had covered up that tag with a black box. Doing something like that or cropping the image without giving credit where credit is due is a big mistake. That is akin to plagiarism.

Yes, I like the old school logo better than the Paramount logo. It was more individualized to the park, wheras the Paramount logos were all the same basic logo with the respective park`s name.

Actually, more than that is gone. Yes, the portion that you circled is gone, but they have also removed all the track to just about where the track crosses over the start of the lift hill. And, that black box in the upper left corner better not be the photographer`s tag. If it is, you should not have deleted it, but kept it and given credit to the photographer who took the above image.

It will be interesting to see if they revamp the Paramount Parks websites sometime this offseason. Currently, if you visit Cedarfair.com, they are listed on the map. However, if you click on 'Cedar Fair Properties' the Paramount Parks are not called out, with the exception of in the first paragraph, when they mention how many parks they own and in what states.

No, they don`t list off their parks at the end of the press releases in any particular order. In fact, each park has a slightly different ending to their press releases.

CoasterXtreme, there is still more track to come down from X-Flight. It is just not shown in the pictures. Essentially, they are working their way backwards from the brake run back to the station. They are currently at the turn right after the vertical loop, and still have a significant portion of track to take down. But, they have made a lot of progress in about a weeks worth of time. It won`t be long before the ride is completely gone from GL. I`d imagine it also won`t be long before they load the first batch of supports onto trailers for their destination at a yet to be announced destination.