CoastersRZ

That has been posted before. Nothing really concrete or scientific with that website. But it does show that Son of Beast has quite a reputation of being a rough ride. I do find it shocking that a timber actually splintered. After hearing about the accident, that was the most logical thing that could have gone wrong. Although, I wonder if it was an actual piece of wood in the track lamination or if is was one of the supporting beams/ledgers that splintered. Certainly that poses some issues, and I`m sure the ride will be thoroughly investigated and be much safer when it reopens. I do find the news a little troubling though. There has to be a specific reason why the lumber failed. Was it a design flaw? Was the wood decayed in anyway? Was it just repetitive strain that caused it to fail? What could have been done to prevent this from happening? Certainly this does not look good for the park. People could think that they had shoddy maintenance (which I am absolutely sure is not the case). Others will refuse to ride the ride even once the state clears it to reopen. Worse still is that other may simply refuse to go to the park altogether. I have seroius doubts on whether the ride will reopen before the end of daily operation in a month and a half. But hopefully it does, just for park capacities sake. Could this be the final nail in the coffin of Son of Beast? Only time will tell. Yes, the site actually hit an all time high for must users online yesterday evening. There were 99 users online.

But look at parks like Holiday World, they get away with not charging anything for soft drinks or parking, and they were still able to spend more than $13 million this year on capital expenditures. I think that they might sell more soft drinks if they lowered the price a little bit. But they wouldn`t necessarily make more money by doing so. The increased number of units sold would only offset the difference in price. And the reason they don`t give free water from any stands is that those are bottled water that they are selling. Naturally, they aren`t going to just give that away at any of the stands either.

Based on what I saw in the morning, crews were working on the FIRST drop with a cherry picker. They were not over by the drop before the loop. I`d say the reason the ride opened late was due to a separate unrelated maintenance issue, but I`m basing that simply on what I saw them working on. As far as lawsuits go. I`m sure the park is sued all the time, we just simply don`t hear about it. I know for a fact that even Coney Island is sued frequently every year. And you never hear about any of those cases going to court or being settled.

Which is probably the reason why it didn`t open until the afternoon.

That is the thing that makes me sick with Cincinnati news. They blow everything way out of proportion. They predict six inches of snow overnight, they have to act like the whole world is going to stop and be covered by the white death. If there is a sever thunderstorm warning, they have to cut in to regular programing to use their super flashy Doppler 9000 extreme to show you all the pretty colors and what direction and streets are being affected by the storm. It gets old when they try and over sensationlize every news item or weather phenomenon.

The guy that both Channel 9 and 12 interviewed should NOT have been interviewed. He was the one that said he felt like the ride was "jumping the track." He was from Indianapolis and today was his first day riding Son of Beast. Why interview someone that has had no experience with the ride prior to today? I could have told you the ride was rough, that is to be expected with a wood coaster. Maureen Kaiser was shown on both Channel 12 and Channel 9, and stated that the ride would not reopen until the park was certain what had caused the accident was identified and fixed. I was at the park today in the morning, and left around 1:30. Son of Beast was closed in the morning due to maintenance issues. They had a forklift apparantly inspecting the first drop, and both trains were in the train storage area. The ride was not open by the time I left the park, although they had just begun to test run it when I was heading to the car in the parking lot. This was the one thing that this ride did not need. The park has worked very hard to make the ride a smoother and more enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, their efforts have mainly been in vein. I have to think that Son of Beast`s days as it currently stands are numbered. I either see it receiving some major modifications in the coming years (ie Intamin style track and trains) or the ride receiving a similar treatment that Hercules at Dorney Park received (replaced by a B&M coaster). I think it is safe to say that most people would not be dissapointed if that happened. Only time will tell how long Sonny is down. I hope all those that were injured today are feeling better and wish them a speedy recovery.

I believe that the park uses SpringDot to print out all their brochures and maps.

Well seeing as how tomorrow is only the ninth of July, I doubt they have anything that the maps on the tenth have, since the new maps are released on the tenth.

Yep. International Restaurant opened in 1973, a year after the park opened.

White Water Canyon depending on staffing, tends to open up around 12. The Paramount Action FX Theater has been known to open at 12 during pre and post season as well.

I was on the wonderful site CincinnatiViews today. The site has old postcards and pictures from all over the Cincinnati area. Any way, the webmaster over there has finally put up a page on Kings Island. Most of the shots focus on International Street, but there is one unique aerial picture I haven`t seen before. Also an image of the sky ride as seen from Hanna Barbera Land, as well as a picture of the Sunshine Turnpike. Kings Island Views

Well, when they made the announcement about buying the parks, they said that they would know by Labor day weekend whether or not WinterFest was going to occur for this season.

Well, keep in mind that neither Cedar Fair nor Kings Island have officially stated that WinterFest is dead. But I fear that its triumphant return it made last season will be short lived. As of the June 28th newsletter, they were still selling WinterFest tickets at the price of $9.99 (which they state was a limited time offer). Granted that was before the sale to Cedar Fair closed.

Yeah, I hope they give it a chance, at least for this year to try and iron out some of the mistakes they made last year. I mean look at FearFest, it started out with a lack of attendance problem. but when they included it with park admission, the thing was packed. Granted, all the rides aren`t open for WinterFest, but getting season pass holders through the gate for free would surely entice them to spend money on hot chocolate, to pay the ice skating fee, to buy that sit down dinner in the Festhaus. While they wouldn`t have gained the admission money, they probably would have more than made up for it in in-park spending.

Yes, a lot of the land was across I-71. The Tennis Center that is home to the annual tennis event was, at one time, part of the land that Kings Island had bought. They also developed the Kings Island Golf Center across the street before selling that off. That property is going to be bought by Mason I believe, to keep future developments from ruining a nice piece of greenspace and a recreational facility. Also, the Kings Island Inn and Conference Center used to be part of Kings Island land, and I would imagine the Showcase Cinemas was also once Kings Island land.

Why would they have WinterFest this year, even if it wasn`t as successful as it was last year? Because I think they learned a lot about the pricing of the event from last year. Which is probably why they were selling tickets for $9.99. One of the biggest mistakes the park made was not including WinterFest with the season pass. That way you would get more people through the gate buying the merchandise, and buying the food. Given the chance to thrive with the right conditions, I think it could make money, but I don`t know the exact numbers of last year`s event. Personally, I hope they continue WinterFest as it was one awesome event. However, as a Cedar Fair unit holder, if it was not making money I hope they get ride of it.

I don`t know about any mills. However, before Taft bought the land, it was home to some farmland. Some areas were more easily farmed than others due to the valleys. They bought land from realtor George Hinkel and individual farmers for a total of $3.2 million. That equates to about $2,000 an acre. They originally bought 1,600 acres. Today, the park is down to 773 acres, but that might be including the former campground site which is still owned by CBS/Great Wolf.

The original name for Kings Island came from the location of the park by Kings Mills. (Which is probably where Kings High School takes its name from). The Island portion of Kings Island pays homage to the tradition of Coney Island. When Taft was building Kings Island they held a name the park contest in which thousands of Cincinnatians took place. Some other names entered included Twin Oaks and Kings Mills Park. I used to know the name of the lady that sent in the Kings Island name, but I don`t remember it anymore. KECO originated in 1984 when several executives from Taft Broadcasting`s theme park division bought out the theme park business to form their own company. (Kings Dominion was already built by this time, and it was so named because of the success that Taft had had at Kings Island). Some of the executives included Nelson Schwab III and Jack Rouse, who was in charge of the entertainment at all the Taft parks. Jack Rouse later went onto form his own firm in Cincinnati, Jack Rouse Associates. Which, ironically have still been involved at Kings Island as recently as last year in designing many of the WinterFest elements, as well as Bubba Gump`s Shrimp Shack.

Here`s my theory. Since all the Paramount Parks will continue to be called Paramount throughout the rest of the season, there was no sense in switching signage and what not now. The bigger reason they probably switched it to say Paramount has to do with the website. They probably did not want to have to restructure the Paramount Parks website without the Paramount logo during the peak season. And since they didn`t want to do that, simply calling them out without the Paramount name could have caused confusion. So obviously, fixing the names on one map is easier than completely rebuilding five websites.

Any night the park closes at ten, they will have fireworks. (They will be open until ten through mid August). However, they do not have fireworks during FearFest in October when the park is open until midnight.

Yes, the Spirit Song concerts tend to draw quite a few people to the park.

But how many of these pre-existing medical conditions were unknown to the rider. Sure, if you know you have a pre-existing health coniditon that could be aggravated by the ride, then you won`t ride. But most of these people that die never knew they had the condition. They could have just as easily died jogging or riding a bike as they could have on a coaster.

But didn`t Great Wolf sell all but a minority interest in their Sandusky location to help fund the development of other Great Wolf lodges?

Yeah. Just like the ride photo booths are not directly park employees but vendors that run the booths.

But, I think it is pretty telling by what they have on their corporate website. There is no distinction between the former Paramount Parks and the former Cedar Fair parks.