CoastersRZ

Yes. Very true. It kind of blurs the line between what is a coaster and what is not a coaster.

Yes, the Sea Dragon is a John Allen design. I believe that it was his first design for a junior woodie.

Well, I believe that the KECO offices were in Cincinnati, since Taft Broadcasting was in Cincinnati. That is also why Cincinnati has become a hotbed for amusement and theme park designers. From Dennis Spiegel at International Theme Park Services to Jack Rouse at Jack Rouse Associates to Bruce D. Robinson. They all originally worked for Taft or KECO before opening up their own design firms. When Paramount bought KECO they opted to move the offices down to Charlotte. Not sure the exact reasoning behind the move.

Well, the park hasn`t been calling it a roller coaster. And it is not listed on rcdb as a roller coaster. It is sort of a cross between a flat ride and a roller coaster. Now Paramount`s Great America is refering to their Survivor ride as a roller coaster, and the only difference is the ride vehicle. It does have wheels and rolls, but is doesn`t really coast since it is powered. I would tend to say that the ride is a flat ride more than a coaster.

But while the maintenance crews are local and based at PKI, it all comes down to budget. If Paramount Parks doesn`t give PKI the budget to fix and maintain the theming, then it won`t be maintained. Without an increase in budget, they won`t have the personal to maintain all the theming, or to buy replacement parts for the theming. I just hope that they get the on board speakers working on IJST this season! The onboard audio added a lot to the ride experience, IMO.

You mean the sneak preview weekend for all pass holders? The park has not released any perks for pass holders yet. However, on the flash animation on the PKI website promoting the gold pass and a "special sneak preview for the all new Nickelodeon Universe." Most likely this will end up being the weekend before when they have "dry run" day. That is the day that they run things for the first times, and is meant as a day for employees to get a feel for their job before the park officially opens to the public. Employees recieve tickets for their friends and family to visit the park on these dry run days. I haven`t heard anything official with regards to a season pass holder weekend the weekend before the official opening day on Friday, April 14th.

Yeah, the double sides will definantely improve capacity. If the ride is as popular as the Frog Hopper at Coney, the ride will be a huge hit with kids!

And don`t forget that PKI brought back WinterFest this year. The event shows that PKI is dedicated to live entertainment still. WinterFest was a top notch event that will hopefully be a tradition for years to come. I don`t know if the Nickelodeon Celebration Parade surpassed Disney, but it was right up there with them. Hopefully, the parade will expand and grow throughout the years, as it seems to be a big crowd pleaser.

It`s Tommy`s Airtours. I wouldn`t be surprised if we see another update by the end of the week, based on the pace of vertical construction and changes to the area as they race to complete everything!

Looking good! You can also make out the new location of the Hampton car ride (the umbrella ride) which will be dubbed Go Diego Go.

Yeah. The Cincinnati Zoo should stick to the animals, as they have developed a successful breeding program for many species and their grounds are meticulously taken care of. Likewise, PKI should stick to the amusements and rides, and leave the animals to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. I remember hearing about the Zoo building an auxilary facility up in Warren County but haven`t heard much about that recently. As CombatStupendous said PKI is run by a for profit company. And unfortunately, zoos are not very profitable in terms of the capital it takes to sustain them, and to design and build them correctly. Zoos are better off when they are run by non-profit organizations, where all the profit is reinvested into facility. I remember hearing that the Zoo plans to add parking lots on recently acquired land adjacent to zoo property so that they can turn the current parking lot into new exhibit space and buildings. Not sure where the progress on that expansion stands. Secondly, Disney tried to incorporate a zoo into a major theme park. Even with Disney`s expertise in park design and its large budget, Animal Kingdom has had trouble attracting visitors. That is why they had to go and build Expedition Everest for the park. The animals (aka zoo part of the park) were not simply drawing the crowds that Disney wanted. The rides that the park has are top notch, especially there Safari ride. But PKI doesn`t have the capital or needed space to successfully pull off something of that calibar.

Marlfox 21, the deaths that occured at PKI on what is known as Black Sunday. It was a Sunday in June in 1991 (I believe it was the 11th of June, but am not positive on that date). Not 1992 like you say they occured. Secondly, even if it had occured in June of 1992, Paramount didn`t buy Kings Entertainment Company until July 31, of 1992. When the accidents occured, the parks were still under the stewardship of KECO. 1991 was not a good year for the park as their attendance dipped to 2.85 million. In 1990, the park attracted approximately 3.2 million visitors. And in regards to the accident on Flight Commander. The State of Ohio determined after an extensive investigation that it was the ride manufacturer`s fault which led to the accident. They cited the cars as being inadequately designed to allow a single passenger to slip under the restraint when riding solo. The problem was alleviated when riding two to a seat as there was no room to slide across the two seats and under the bar. Intamin, the manufacturer made modifications to the ride, including adding a seat divider between the two seats, and the ride reopened in 1992. Although, the ride did not get high ridership and was later removed after the 1995 season.

Well, it wouldn`t have to change the mall dramatically. Add a new flat ride where Flight Commander was at, instead of the upchrage attraction Eurobungee that they have there.

And from what I have heard, all of the Avatar track is at the park already, and soon (if not already) to be assembled.

Clermont Fabricators, formerly SOFCo (Southern Ohio Fabricators), based in Batavia is the North American manufacturer of B&M track. The track most likely got onto 275 at the SR 32 onramp from Batavia. It is not uncommon to see B&M track on Cincinnati area expressways heading from the factory.

Well, while it may not be as grand of a ride asthe elephant ride pictured on their website, I do believe that PKI is redoing Dick Dastardly`s Airplanes and putting on Blue themed cars as the ride is rebranded Blue`s Skidom.

As expected, it seems like things are progressing rather quickly! It will be nice to finally see some of the transformation and new rides in the latest batch of construction pictures from pki.com!

Yeah. That ride looks really good with its new paint job. The reason I was asking how old those photos were is that orange color MIGHT have been simply a primer (although doubtful based on how dark it was).

Um. Doesn`t help me. I tried searching in the search bar of the link you provided. It turned up no results for Smurf`s Enchanted Voyage or the Enchanted Voyage. Those busts are still there. They added red "eyes" to two of the four busts.

Excellent find! Nice to see some vibrant colors! Although, I`m not sure I like the earth tone colors of the frame of the Nick-O-Round and the Sporticopters. I wonder how old those photos are? It will be nice to see the finished thing in about four weeks! Hard to believe opening day is less than a month away!

The Smurf`s Enchanted Voyage was around from 1984-1992. Here are two images I have from the Smurf Ride. Smurf 1 Smurf 2

Well, technically, Paramount isn`t selling the parks. CBS is selling Paramount Parks, not Paramount.

Yes, I remember hearing something along those lines as well.

The photo booth on TR:TR was never turned into a snack stand. It is now used as storage (which migh just happen to be pretzel stands).

I believe that you can see a smoke stack from the old amunitions factory from atop Drop Zone and the Eiffel Tower if you look over towards Kings High School. It is a red brick smoke stack.