CoastersRZ

Well there are two rides that I know of that are gone forever and will not be part of NU. One has been discussed about before. The other might have been mentioned before.

The only problem with that would be that the elevation change is insignificant, and unless you were in the parking lot, or a far distance from the tower, you wouldn`t even really notice a ball dropping that much.

They removed that, becuase too many people were tripping and getting hurt on the curb of the "street." Plus why renovate it now. They have some really nice mature shade trees lining either side of the fountain, that they did not have back then.

Well, it was late 70`s early 80`s engineering. Yes, the shocks wore out rather quickly from what I`ve heard. This is based purely on rumor and not confirmed by the park, but I heard that they had to replace the shocks about once a week because they would wear out that quick.

I would say that it was at Carowinds, as the theme of the buildings seems to fit with what smurf Island looked like. I`m fairly certian that it wasn`t at PKI.

I heard that the mine themed building will be staying. The Nick Universe will encompass the former HBL and the current Nickelodeon Central. No more room will be taken from Rivertown, with the possible transformation of Wings into a Nick themed (or some other theme( restaurant).

Actually, the pedestals were painted when they redid the fountains in 2003. And when they did a lot of new concrete work when they renovated the fountain.

No, to the best of my knowledge the park has not (and will not) release any concept art or details about Nick Universe until after Winterfest in January. They will then have renderings of the new area from Keith McVine(sp). He is the guy that does the animations on Badnitrus over on Coasterbuzz. I believe he also did the Italian Job and Boomerang Bay movies and renderings.

I don`t know if those images are from PKI. The first image looks like it could be from Rivertown, if that once had a basketball game. Otherwise, it could be one of the other Paramount Parks (former Taft or KECO parks).

All of International Street, The Festhaus, Bubba Gump`s, the Carousel and the Paramount Story. Additionally, Rivertown (with the train) will be open and connect to Hanna Barbera Land with Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle, the HB Carousel, Topcat`s Taxi Jam and Pixie and Dixie`s Swing set being open. Also, the former Animation Station shop (the original skyride station) will be open as Santa`s workshop.

Yes. But that is what Jeff was saying before the final ride of the season. I`m just relaying what Jeff was saying! Like you said, a lot of the revamps they did were necessary revamps. Things only last so long before they have to be replaced. And yes, ice cream at a winter event doesn`t mix. Hot coffee, though does. In any event, they brought back Winterfest, and it is evident that they had been doing planning work on it for a while, (whether it was a year or longer) based on the images from the park this week!

Kings Island`s Trabant (Wheel of Fortune as seen in the Brady Bunch episode) was sold to Fantasy Farm. However, that park closed in 1993, and its rides were sold at auction. I`m not sure where the Trabant ended up at. Coney Island purchased their Tilt-A-Whirl from the Fantasy Farm auction.

All of the decorations from this year`s Winterfest are brand new. The old decorations were either donated to local communities and organizations or scrapped. The park has had this in the works for a while. Did you notice they renovated the fountains on International Street in 2003? And did you notice that they installed an all new sound system on International Street? Not to mention adding more venues on International Street with indoor seating (Graeter`s and Starbucks). Yes, the park has seemed to not skimp on the decorations for Winterfest. They are far outshining my memories of the original Winterfest! Hopefully the actual event will be aweseome! I`ll be up there one week from now to find out.

From what I have heard, that will be debatable. We`ll know more in January!

I can add that the movie screens in the Festhaus will not be returning next season. Jeff Siebert at the final ride of The Beast a couple weeks ago mentioned that they were gone, and the Festhaus will remain witht he festive banners for next season. The only difference from the look of the Festhaus the last couple of weekends of this season and next year will be that there will not be any holiday decorations up next spring. Other than that, the days of the old Festhaus are back. He didn`t mention anything about the possibility of live shows. He said what killed the live shows was peopleeating their food in there, and there was no room for people to sit who just wanted to watch the show. So it sounds unlikely that they will return a main stage production in there. But you never kknow.

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.