CoastersRZ

Mullimann, and how would you know that Vortex is showing its age based on ride counts? From what I`ve seen, Vortex always had a steady line this season. Keep in mind that it and Adventure Express are two of the best rides in terms of capacity in the park. The train is the king of capacity when they have all six coaches on.

No, it will still be called Paramount`s Kings Island to the best of my knowledge. Yes, it appears that they removed the Paramount logo because of the nightly tree lighting "effect" and that the Paramount logo will return in the spring.

The main brakes on Drop Zone. The hysraulic brakes only glide the gondola to its final soft stop. Magnetic brakes, cannot stop a ride vehicle to a complete and total stop. If you watch Drop Zone do a test run, you will notice the magnetic brakes slow the train down to a certain speed. Then the gondola "glides" down to the bottom until it hits the hyraulic pistons.

Great update guys!! There are TONS of pictures! The park is really looking awesome with the shear amount of decorations. The decorations are not just limited to Internationsl Street either! It seems like every railing or building has either garland with lights or a wreath or some other decoration! The train ride looks pretty good too with those new sets and speakers. I must admit that it seems as if PKI is doing things right with Winterfest! It looks like it will be a HUGE success!! Only eight days until it opens to the public! I wonder why they decided to add those two ride? If only they could have added another ride, like say the Dodgems like they had at the final Winterfest back in 1992. But that segment of the park won`t be open. It is sad to see the kiddie tumblebug go. However, are they keeping the miniature train ride back in the South pie? Also, in one of the winter rehab pictures, it looked like there was the central hub for Dick Dastardly`s biplanes. Are both of these rides from South Pie going to be in the new Nick Universe?

Yes, the tower structure will be lit with those high powered lights that you are talking about. They were located around the base of the Eiffel Tower and showed up the last weekend or two the park was open for the regular season.

Yes, I do believe that the Southern Ohio Region of ACE will be holding an event in the International Restaurant in February.

I believe the restaurant was closed before 1997. Although I am not sure of the exact dat it ceased normal operations. Part of the clean look of the restaurant is due to the fact that it hasn`t seen all the wear and tear from the public like other places in the park have seen that are in constant contact with the general public in the peak seasons.

Yep. When International Street first opened, it was kind of like a miniature version of what World Showcase is now at Epcot (although obviously not at the same scale or detail as what Disney has done).

A boom? While it is a cool idea in theory it is too expensive for the park to implement for only a one night event, which could be a slow night for Winterfest.

Well, the park isn`t open until midnight on New Year`s Eve. They close at 9. And plus the Eiffel Tower is decked out as a Christmas tree. I would imagine that the mood in the park that evening would be festive anyway since it is the new year`s eve.

Yes. That is one awesome find there Vortex! This video, although somewhat low quality is a rather lengthy video, featuring tons of clips from The Bat, both from the ground and on ride video! I definantly reccomend people heading voer to coasterfanatic.com and signing up for their forums just to see the awesome Bat video! The severe swaying from side to side is one of the problem`s that led to The Bat`s downfall. Yes, there were some rather violent looking transitions, and parts where the care were almost swinging 90 from horizontal! Another problem with the trains, the brake fins on the bottom of the trains, can be seen in the video.

Yes, they occasionally have special groups that eat meals up thee. I believe that there have been several coast enthusiast events held up there before (BeastBuzz was one of them).

That related back to the original emphasis of International Street. That statue is on what was once called the Spanish Building.

Yes, if you have a parking pass for next season with your season pass, you WILL have to pay the $5 parking fee at Winterfest.

Really? I wonder what they will be serving in there. I would like to go up there, simply for the view of International Street. I have never had the opportunity to go up in the restaurant.

Offensive adds can and should go (I personally haven`t seen any). While some adds may be annoying (like the before mentioned camera one) they do help offset the expense of running the site we all frequent!

Yes, the last few years KCKC was open, it was looking like it needed a little TLC. As I remember it, the Kings Mills Log Flume stood SBNO most of the 2000 season, although they did remove the part of the trough that was eventually replaced with stainless steel by now defunct OD Hopkins by the end of the 2000 season. KCKC was SBNO as well the final weekends of the 2000 season, when it was cold and most people would not care to ride on a water ride.

Great find TopGun1993! It seems like just yesterday that traveling stunt show was at PKI. If I remember correctly, it was like the Nick Parade, and made stops at all the Paramount Parks that year.

Umm, definantely a no with that one. Why were you hoping for a bobsled type ride? Isn`t ice skating and all the other festivities the park has planned enough?

I want to say 2002? Or was it 2003? I can`t remember. I want to say it was the same year as Graveyard Shift?

Yeah, they finally updated the times of the happenings of Winterfest (although I knew the times, and the parade route, for the past week now). Jeff Siebert was discussing stuff like that before the final rides on The Beast for the season.

Because they are probably expecting lots of people to attend the show. Also, this way, people will be guaranteed a seat in the show, and can spend their time not waiting in line for the show, but enjoying the other treats of Winterfest. I remember from one of the Winterfest`s I went to when I was little (around 1990 when I was 5) that the show in the Parmount Theater had LONG lines. They had the metal barricades set up in the plaza in front of the theater as a makeshift queue line for the show. I remember the line being quite long, and people moving the barricades to cut in front of some of the huge line (not a very good memory about PKI) I`m sure they remember the popularity of this show, and are just preparing for the demand that it will produce.

One of its biggest obstacles, and perhaps the reason it eventually closed, is size. Quite simply, there was not a large enough seating area to allow enough guests through to turn a profit. That and guests would take their time eating and drinking as they enjoyed the view and the air conditioning. Not enough throughput hurt the profits of the restaurant, which ultimately led to its closure as a restaurant. It would be nice if they opened it up in the offseason, as a place to visit the park and be able to get a glimpse of the activity in the park during the off season while grabbing a meal. But that will never happen. Heck, look at the Machine Room Grille at Great American Ball Park that was supposed to be open year round. That is now, and has been, closed in the baseball offseason.

An important note about Santa`s Toy Factory Musical. The show is open by reservation only. Reservation tickets may be picked up on a first come first serve basis at the Reservation Booth on the left side of International Street. I believe this will be the Return Visit Booth, or one of the buildings nearby it. I would imagine this system will be similar to the system in place when IJST first opened the first couple of weekends.

What`s with all the i`s in alright?