CoastersRZ

Excellent video Bill!

Yes, several rides were having "issues" today. Face Off was having issues with the train not catching the lift at the end of the ride. Delrium is still being a little tempermental. Also, whan I was there today, IJST was having some sort of issues. And Plankton`s Plunge was also having some issues. Most of these are bugs from the rides reopening for the season, and will be (hopefully) ironed out in a couple of weeks.

The reason there are no picnic table behind Wings is because for WinterFest, they had large generators back there for the Holiday Illuminations show. Most likely they haven`t brought them back. On the subject of Flight of Fear. In the exit hallway, they put up new FRP panels. Those are the same type of prefinished panels you often see in restaurants, with the connecter piece running vertically every four feet. I think those were installed to reduce vandalism, which is ashame. Also, on one of Flight of Fear`s trains, it no longer has black seats, but orange seats, much like the lapbar color. The headrests are still black on both trains, and only one train has the orange seats.

Well, why not run one train, like they normally due except on really busy days. The more rides you have down, the more crowded the other rides become. The more crowded the other rides become, the more you have people stuck in line instead of out on the midways playing games or buying food.

Well they only had the Spongebob side open when i was at the park today. From 10:00 until 2 o`clock only the Spngebob side was open.

Yeah, some ocst cutting measures were visible when I was at the park today. Primarily, the long lines waiting to get into the park because of the new gates open at ten thing. (They actually opened the gates at about 9:50, but I was already in the park via the side entrance for the ACE walkback.) As far as staffing goes, some rides seemed understaffed with new people still getting trained. Some rides had staffing that seemed less than enthusiastic to be there. But, on some rides, like The Beast and Vortex, they actually had sufficient staffing. Four people checking bars on The Beast, and three on Vortex. The only other gripe I had was that the Christmas Trees in Swan Lake ARE STILL in the lake. They just pushed the barge off to the corner of the lake so they aren`t as visible. I think they will be staying there for the rest of the summer! Also, when leaving the park today, they only were letting people exit on the right side of the metal detectors, by the will call building. Kind of inconvenient if you parked in the Gold Pass Lot (which wasn`t completly blocked off when I entered it this morning.)

Another thing no one has mentioned is employee name tags. They now are sporting name tags that have their picture on it and clips onto their caller. They are almost the same size as a season pass.

Smurfgurl1984. I have a comment about your signature. You could not have worked FearFest at Kings Island in 1999, because they didn`t start FearFest until 2000.

You mean that the WinterFest trees are still in Swan Lake?

Yes, it is about time. The colors were starting to fade quite a bit. With Face Off getting its coat of paint last season, it was only logical that Drop Zone would get painted soon. The maintenance workers could also be checking the bolts that hold the sections of the tower together.

Yes, Maureen Kaiser confirmed in the Cincinnati Post article that Nights of Fire will be back this year. The reason they did not shoot fireworks off the side of the tower last July is because they just repainted the tower last April. Fire and paint= burn marks. But, they did have fireworks off the top of the tower for WinterFest, so maybe they will have some launch off the tower this year. PKI`s Nights of Fire is one of the bigger Fourth of July displays in the Cincinnati area, or at least it has been in past years. (PKI uses Rozzi`s Famous Fireworks.) However, Rozzi`s flagship event is RiverFest in downtown Cincinnati every labor day. There is nothing like being down on the river with half a million other people to watch a thirty minute firework show! And then deal with rush hour type traffic at 9:30 on a Sunday night!

I`m not so sure there will be any new buildings at the front gate area. Rather, I think they will be utilizing the unused windows to the right of the season pass windows, and to the left of the will call windows. I do believe that is where they were selling walk up tickets from for WinterFest in December.

Yes, Son of Beast used to be part of double ride Tuesdays. And yes, the early ride times used to start at 9. But in all reality a half an hour of early ride time is more than enough. You could always get more several rides in a matter of minutes. I`m kind of surprised they are not having a Rivertown early ride time like in years past with The Beast, TR:TR and The Vortex.

Yes, the restaurants and old Skyride station have received major upgrades to their facades. They now have a more modern look, which is also in line with Nickelodeon. I think the new look to the buildings gives the area more energy and emotion, especially some of the colors they used. I love the gradient that they used on the Spongebob attraction, very cool paint job!

Yes, I knew that some Six Flags parks had the Spongebob film. What I meant was that the PP have exclusitivity for the areas surrounding their parks. IE, SFKK and SFoG as you mentioned above in the past haven`t been able to show competing films.

Yeah, I ride The Beast everytime I go to PKI, when it is open. I was at the park last September for a commercial shoot and The Beast wasn`t part of it! Other than WinterFest visits, that was my only visit all season long when I didn`t ride The Beast. I rode it 108 times last year.

Good point, from the pictures of the Golden Kingdom, I do recall that they did a fairly good job of theming it. And actually, the only Six Flags park I have been to when it was owned by Six Flags is now no longer owned by them (SFWoA). I visited Kentucky Kingdom, but that was back in 1996 before I was really into coasters and before Six Flags became owner of the park.

I`m assuming though that the Paramount Parks still have exlusitivity for the Spongebob film? Like SFKK couldn`t show the Spongebob film? Probably they dropped the exclusitivity because of the sale of Paramount Parks.

Really, SFKK has that ride in their Iwerks theater this year? Did they just get it this year? Trying to compete with PKI I guess.

Six Flags, and theming? Granted some of the parks have theming, but I can`t recall any rides to be heavily themed or tied to the theming like at the Paramount Parks, FoF, TR:TR, IJST, the new Survivor ride, and the Nickelodeon areas. I know the SF parks have the Marvel comics as well as the Looney Toons characters themed in most of their parks. But IMO, the theming isn`t anywhere near PP. That said, of the seasonal theme park operators (not including Busch Gardens for BGW/E) I believe that Paramount Parks is among the best, although they need to figure out how to maintain the theming so it looks brand new, whether after a year, or ten years.

Yes, the Skyline on International Street will be back in 2006.

Having attended FearFest at PKI when it was a sperate gated attraction and this past year when it wasn`t, I`d have to say that this past year was the best year for FearFest in terms of thrills and chills! The Cornstalker`s area was great, and the theming throughout the park was much better than when FF was a seperate admission event. Even the Scare Zone they put up over near Slingshot was fun and entertaining, albeit not scary.

That is the one thing that makes Cedar Point consistently ranked for one of the parks with the best capacity. They staff theire stations very well, and are very efficient in dispatching the trains and making sure that there are no empty rows. They regulate how many people are in the station platforms so that as many people as possible are leaving on each train. Also, they have people at the greeter position checking heights. Part of the problem with rides like The Racer, is that they have to pull people out of the seats and height check them. If it would be done at the entrance, then there would be no delay in the station. But from what I have heard, rides that had greeters in the past at PKI, may not have any this year...

Well on the bright side, PKI was running their tram most weekends I was at the park last year. They even added signs at the toll booths saying whether or not the trams were in operation.

People ride it because it is a fun ride. If they rode it because they had nothing else to do, there wouldn`t be lines for it. It is a classic coaster that is still fun more than 25 years after it opened.