CoastersRZ

One that say has roots in the Cincinnati area? And one that has lent its engineering expertise to a little park in Indiana numerous times?

GCI stands for Great Coasters International. They are currently building a wooden coaster, Renegade, for Valleyfair. They also built Thunderhead at Dollywood, and their Millenium Flyer trains harken back to the classic coaster trains from the 20`s.

Well, Mark Twain reportedly stated that "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times."

Believe me, we are well aware of what sort of things need to be updated on the site. They will hopefully be fixed sometime over the offseason.

Well, I think it will be a no brainer that Kings Island will, at some point in the near future, bring back a campground. That is another way for Cedar Fair to get more income from guests. However, plans for a new campground might have already been in the works prior to the sale to Cedar Fair. Although, we all know by now that Cedar Fair isn`t honoring all of Paramount Parks original plans for the 2007 operating season.

Yeah, that was in bad taste. And it wasn`t even very scary and was kind of sad to see what they did to some of the WinterFest stuff.

I do agree with you on the "Coffin pictures." I just found that totally gross and inappropriate for an amusement park. I don`t mind the gore in the attractions, but that thing really disturbed me. I think the concept of having a place to take pictures with the scaractors was a brilliant idea however.

I don`t think it was posted in a thread by itself. It was briefly mentioned in this thread about IAAPA. And I was only referring to the fact that the press release was dated the 17th of November.

Gee, I think I was at the park that day, when there was literally no one in the park like at 4pm, but yet they stayed open until the regularly scheduled closing time. I was shocked they didn`t close early as it was apparant that they were loosing money left and right. Yes, Cedar Fair did instill some new general managers at the Paramount Parks, like Greg Scheid, Kings Island`s general manager. As with any new position, there is a learning curve that comes with it. The general managers will not immediately know the ins and outs of their respective park. This is no different than when Paramount Parks would instill a new general manager at one of their parks.

The "colonial" place that is not completely accurate. When they were restoring Williamsburg, they selected which buildings to save and demolished others and pretend like they never existed. So if you visit Colonial Williamsburg, it is not an exact recreation of what was there originally. Another thing about the big three parks and why you never see basketballs or hear the bark of the games stand. They are destination parks and pull enough people through the gate/have unique enough merchandise that they get guests to spend money inside their parks. Also, the guests do not expect to find all those "carnival" games at these large scale theme parks, because after all, they did pay a pretty penny to get into these parks. Whereas parks like Kings Island and Cedar Point are not as big of destination parks as any park owned by the "big three." As a result, the games departments bring in a valuable source of income for the parks and Cedar Fair. Having volunteered in the games department several times at Kings Island, I can atest to the fact the amount of money the games bring in! Working 'Obey the Net' on Coney Mall, next to the Antique Treats Stand, I was amazed how many people would slap $20 to try and win a basketball. Often times, they didn`t make it in and walked away empty handed! You`d be surprised how much money some of those games can bring in in one day, trust me.

Well, as long as the parks are making money, I doubt that they will be selling any soon. Besides, its not exactly a seller`s market at the moment for amusement parks. Yes, they would be able to pay off a chunk of their debt if they sold a park or two, but then when their debt was terminated, they would be lacking the extra income that those park(s) brought in.

Uhh, this really isn`t new news. It is more than a week old.

Well, just because they are casting positions for a live band does note mean that School of Rock is returning. For example, just take a look at this picture from a Smurf show in the mid `80s at the International Showplace. They have a live band in that show. There is no reason why they can`t be casting a live band for a singing dancing type show in the Paramount Theater with a different theme than School of Rock.

Yes, I am glad you are not running th park. I mean, remove a ride simply because it is way too short and is set off the main midway some? Top Gun, while not a long ride, or as popular as other attractions like Drop Zone and Flight of Fear, is still a popular ride that is popular with the younger crowd of coaster fans. I personally enjoy the ride and the fact that most of the ride is kind of removed from the rest of the park, save for the portion that is near Son of Beast. I don`t see the ride going anywhere anytime soon. I mean, I would assume it is not a maintenance nightmare, as it rarely seems to have any major downtime. And its not like the ride is THAT old, it will be 14 years old this upcoming season, which is not terribly old. Keep in mind that The Racer will be 35 years old this season.

The Beach Water park in Mason, is fresh off the heels of their best Holiday event in 2005. They expect the crowds to return this year. And they attribute a lot of their attendance gain to WinterFest at Kings Island. Read the article in today`s Cincinnati Enquirer, here. The Beach spokesperson also hit the nail on the head why WinterFest`s attendance didn`t live up to expectations.

Yes, I would think that the station would be placed closer to the Flight of Fear midway. And with that last image, I doubt they will site the ride in that manner, because if basically obliterates the maintenance path that lead back into the woods. IF PKI is getting the ride, I would imagine that the station will be near or between the flight pad and the maintenance road. The lift would run either parallel with the maintenance road or parallel to the launch portion of FoF`s building.

Well, the figure of 1/5 of the guests are in line for Son of Beast is a bit of an exaggeration. However, if the ride is open, it will pull some people from other lines. Granted, this may only equate to about ten to twenty people on normal days, which makes the difference in wait times neglible. On busier days however, it will have an impact. But PKI is such a large park, that one ride being down has little impact on overall capacity. On a smaller scale park, like at Coney, if say the Python goes down for mechanical reasons, it will increase the lines of the surrounding attractions such as the Bobs, Slide and Dodgems. (The rides that usually have a line at Coney are the Pythoon and the Dodgems.)

Well, you might be waiting a while before Kings Island says anything about the 2007 season and what new, if any, products they will be offering. Keep in mind, that KI likes to make announcements when it can get its name out there to entice people to buy passes.

Well, you might be waiting for a while Beastfan11. I mean, they have all the way until April 21st until they open, so they have a lot of time to make an announcement.

Well, I`m in. Does anyone have any preference on dates? I know we should stay away from the first weekend in December, as they are offering free admission to all residents of Mason. So, it might be a little crowded that weekend.

I still think that KI is going to get a lot of complaints with regards to the lack of an option to put the parking pass on your season pass card. But it is nice to see them finally realize the geographic connection between the parks and offer a parking pass that allows for parking at all three of the Ohio parks.

Well, while we`re on the subject, keep in mind that the seat belts that were added to both The Racer and The Beast trains was a mandate from PTC, and not a decision by Kings Island, Paramount Parks or the state of Ohio rides inspectors.

Carson Williams is setting up his display at Heritage Park in Mason. They reconstructed two lifesize facades of his house there. Admission is only $15 per car (a little pricey), but you can get discount admission tickets at some Mason area businesses.

I don`t know why they tore down Sawyer Hall, one of the "Three Sisters." But I do know that they plan on renovating the other two. They are even going to have some architecture classes in there apparantely this coming quarter from what my studio professor said in the summer. For only being ten years old, the addition to DAAP is already almost full, due in part to Nancy Zimpher mandating increased program sizes. It is nice to have no construction fences up on campus anymore. The lights in question on Scooby are the ones that line the corridor right before the loading platform and right after the queue room, I believe. I can`t recall where the similar lights are at in TUC.

Well, relatively speaking you are a newbie. You`ve only been around these parts for about four months and made just over 200 posts. While not a very new poster, you haven`t been around as long as others, such as me. But over time, and with thought provoking posts, you can become a veteran poster here on PKIC.