CoastersRZ

Right. And other than the fact that your cousin is an employee who talked to someone in upper management, you have no reason to believe X-Flight is coming. Also, I would venture to say that upper management won`t just disclose future plans of the park to seasonal associates (assuming your cousin is a seasonal associate). What you heard is about as accurate as what someone reports hearing from the Dippin Dots guy. But you never know what plans the park has up their sleeves for next season.

Well, it is the barking of the games people that help bring in money for the park. Some of those games bring in a lot of money. I have had the chance to work in games a couple times at FearFest as part of the volunteer program. You`d be amazed how many people will spend up to $20 on one game in the hopes of winning a prize. And most of the times, these people don`t even think twice about spending this money!

Yeah. Or you can simply ride the Bumper Boats at Coney Island. The smell of gasoline is pungent in the air when those get filled up. You can always tell at the Ferris Wheel when they are refueling them, based on the smell alone.

Especially if they ditch the whole "Paramount`s" concept from all the Paramount Parks. Then, KI`s website would also likely get a new URL.

I don`t think it will be the same type of situation as the Astrodome and Astroworld. Baseball teams play 81 regular season home games from April through September/early October. That coincides almost directly with amusement parks` operating schedules. That and there are a lot more home games for baseball than there are for football leads me to believe that this will not be a repeat of the problems suffered in Houston. I think, it could actually mean good things for PGA. They will get exposure from all the football fans visiting for the 49ers, and may get some visits from people who make a weekend trip to Santa Clara, going to Great America on Saturday, and the game on Sunday. Not to mention that there would be a chance that any network games might show shots of the park during their telecast. (I know that when ESPN has covered the tennis Masters Series at the Lindner Family Tennis Center across from KI, that they have showed some shots of Kings Island).

As I`ve said in other threads, in Cedar Fair`s latest conference call, they expressed that they will detail the company`s plans for capital expenditures in 2007 later this month. In other words, if they are spending money at one of the parks above normal maintenance costs (ie for new rides/attractions) they will likely at least detail what those expenses are being used for, if not a direct announcement of a new attraction with all the specific details.

Well, if a ride isn`t coming next year, than what do you think is coming? It will be interesting to hear what plans Cedar Fair has laid down for their capital expenditures for next year. Hopefully, as they said in their conference call, they will release all these expenditures by the end of this month, then we won`t have to guess if and what the park is getting.

PKIBeast, I wouldn`t say the "no one knows" what Kings Island is getting next year. Yes, things may change, and as the Interpreter noted, they certainly changed the plans for Flight of Fear last year. Also, Paramount has changed their minds before too. Orginally, the Eagles were supposed to be moved to the old Flight Commander spot as KI. But, apparanately because of budget issues at Carowinds, they opted to move the ride to Carowinds. And I wouldn`t be surprised if Cedar Fair/Kings Island makes their 2007 project public before too long. Cedar Fair said in the conference call that they would detail all the 2007 capital expenditures at their parks later this month.

Well, I have to wonder if Herschend Family Entertainment Corp. was interested in the Paramount Parks. I have heard that there was another competitor to Cedar Fair interested in the parks, but that competitor has never been named. Very interesting news. I am a little shocked at the prices that were offered. I mean, Cedar Fair paid $1.24 billion for five parks, plus a management contract at another park and the Star Trek: The Experience. Granted, the Paramount Parks are likely leaps and bounds ahead of some of those Six Flags parks in making money, and customer experience.

Well, it certainly seems like they will be moving away from "The Best of Hollywood Entertainment, now playing" motif at the Paramount Parks. Also, based on the fact that the show was designed to be portable (and hence why it was built in Wonderland`s parking lot), I would imagine that had the parks not been sold this year, this show would have eventually made its way to all of the other Paramount Parks. Could this be an indication as to where Cedar Fair stands with keeping the Paramount licenses as well? Only time will tell, but that is interesting news that the show no longer fits in with their current plans for any of their parks. (I heard that the stunt show wasn`t the greatest thing ever, and certainly not on par with Disney or Universal, but I never saw it in person).

Well, as far as a capacity standpoint, it makes the lines for the other rides in the park a little longer when the ride is down. Granted, their might not be a lot of people in line for it, but it will pull in some people out of the other lines. When you work at a small park like Coney, when one of the major rides goes down for mechanical reasons, it will have a big impact on the lines of the other rides.

Well, hopefully, KI will get a B&M creation sometime in the future. Now that Cedar Fair owns the park, we at least have a chance to see the graces of one of their masterpieces. Especially since the shop where they make all the track in North America is just a short hop down I-71, 275 and S.R. 32 from the park.

Well, maybe not a replacement ride for that location, at least not in the immediate future. But I`m sure they would still add a new attraction in a couple years that would help offset the loss of that ride. Assuming they do decide to not deal with all of its problems anymore. I`m sure they have a lot of options, and are evaluating them. But from a liability stand point, as well as from the state`s standpoint, I`d imagine they can`t do anything with the ride until the state`s investigation is concluded about what caused the accident in the first place.

Surhiles20, good grammar goes a long way with expressing your thoughts to the rest of us on these boards. It will certainly be interesting to see if any information comes out between now and opening day regarding this ride. I`m sure the park wants to reopen the ride, but it will become how much are they willing to pay to insure the ride. At some point, it will be cheaper to tear it down and build a new ride than pay for the upkeep and insurance costs for the ride.

You can definantely tell that Wonderland Australia was developed by Taft. I mean, just look at this logo for the Bush Beast!

The train display in the CG&E building is FREE. There is no cost. In fact, they often will hand out cookies (also free) for people waiting in line to get a closer view of the trains. The train display has been occuring annually for I think sixty years now! I am still captivated by model trains, and I`m 21. I work downtown right now, between Ft. Washington Way and the River. I have to be honest, I haven`t visited the square since it reopened. But hopefully, it will do the city some good and attract more visitors to downtown.

Yep. That is Top Gun from Great America. Carowinds` Top Gun has blue supports (not black) and a white/silver track

Well, the fact that there are more announcements to come is not really news. In the conference call on the first of the month, they said that they would be further detailing their capital expenditures for 2007 later this month, as that article mentions. Only time will tell what, if anything, is announced for improvements to Kings Island for next season.

7-1 (or seventh car front row) means that it is the front row of the seventh car. Not the front row of the train. Occasionally, you will hear the driver of the coaster come on over the PA and say 5-2 for example. Usually, when they do this, they are letting the operators on the platform know that they have to check a kid`s height in that specific row. Some of the park`s coasters even have the cars numbered (Racer, and Beast come to mind off the top of my head).

Well, WinterFest might not be back, but there is plenty to do in December. The Beach has Holiday Fest (a family of four can buy admission for only $32!!) There is also the Cincinnati Zoo`s Festival of Lights, the new and improved ice skating rink on Fountain Square, the model train display downtown at the former CG&E headquarters building, and other holiday displays throughout the tristate area. It amazes me how in the early afternoon`s during FearFest how empty the park is. Then, like clockwork, people start to flood in around five and six o`clock in the evening. By the time eight rolls around, the park is packed. While this would never happen, it would be interesting to see how attendance at this year`s FearFest compared to the first three when it was a separate attraction. I seem to recall when it was a separate attraction (the first three years) that it wasn`t as highly attended as it was now. That being said, I am in a way, surprised that Cedar Fair canned the other Fest without trying to make it work. But maybe in due time. They have enough to struggle with five new parks and a much larger debt load than what they started the year out with. They will be watching their pennies very carefully the next couple of years until they can reduce their debt load some.

Vortex, last time I checked, Kings Dominion didn`t have Boomerang Bay. They still have the old name of their water park, WaterWorks. Although, from what I`ve heard, that may change next season...

Well, Screamscape is often wrong with its long term plans for the parks. As with weather forecasts, the closer the events are to happening, the greater the accuracy that they can be predicted with. Which is why the predictions that Screamscape makes in the near future sometimes turn out to be true. But, as with Cincinnati meteorologists, even when something seems like a sure thing (such as a dusting of snow), we end up with a foot of snow. The only people that really know what is going on at Kings Island for 2007, are those in upper management at KI, and then the management team at Cedar Fair corporate offices in Sandusky. The rest of us will just have to wait and see what, if anything, the park is getting in 2007. Hopefully, that will be sooner rather than later.

Supergreek35, why do you think that Cedar Fair will probably rename all of the themed areas at Kings Island next year? The only two I can see possibly being renamed are the Paramount Action Zone, and Crocodile Dundee`s Boomerang Bay Water Park Resort. Depending what Cedar Fair does with its Paramount license will determine the fate of these areas. But in all liklihood, they will simply loose the Paramount refrencing suffix from their respective names. I think that Nick Universe will be here to stay for a while at the park. All the other themed areas are fine as they are. Why fix something if it isn`t broken? The name Maverick by itself does not imply a western theme. However, because of the ride`s location in Cedar Point, that does imply a western theme, which is why Cedar Point is theming that ride in that manner.

Yes, I don`t think they ever released their schedule before new year`s before!

Thanks PKIBeast for the kind comments. I`d also like to say that the rest of the staff, ZosoBeast and Dane know a lot too (without Dane`s web knowledge, this site would not be where it is today). On behalf of the PKICentral staff, welcome to the boards.