CoastersRZ

Well, according to what it was designed to go, it goes 78.382 mph (design speed). Although I have heard that it actually has been clocked going 80mph when it first opened.

Well, I went up to the park tonight. Much different than what is seems Friday night was. There was a decent amount of cars entering the parking lot when I entered around quarter till 8. Also, they only had about five or six turnstiles open to get into the park, so there was a line for that. One interesting thing I noticed, and am not sure if this is new or not, but when my pass was scanned, my picture appeared on the gate attendant`s screen! I believe that this is new, as they used to look at your pass and then you, to make sure that the pass is being used by the person it belongs to. Upon entering the park, I noticed that they have begun to build the platform for the ice skating rink. The smell of fresh wood lofted above International Street. To my amazement, there were about five guys up at the top of IS in the fountain working, by spotlight! They have up past the last pedastal built. Essentially, they are using what appear to be fork lift skids with a solid top to form the platform that the rink will sit on. These skids are elevated above the lights and nozzles. They have also added a ramp off of I-Street over by the Nickelodeon store. The last bit of an update, is that the park has added another scare zone. I noticed this last week. Between Slingshot and the Guess Your Weight game by the Festhaus, they have set up another scare zone, complete with props, a fog machine, and a chainsaw wielding scaracter. Definantly this and Cornstalkers make the overall atmosphere of FearFest better. On a side note, it seemed like there were less scaracters in Cornstalkers and less fog than in previous weeks.

Yes, that made for some fast loading. The last couple of seasons, the ride was really starting to show its age. I wasn`t surprised to see it removed. I knew that they would either be having to renovate it or remove it soon. Its always sad to see rides go, but we got quite a unique installation with TR:TR.

I don`t know. I know when they held Winterfest last time, that the lights for the tree extended in front of the tower. (They had the path under the tower closed, as the lights extended all the way into the grassy area in front of the supports and across the midway in front of the tower. At the base, of the strands, if memory serves me right, they had large concrete cyclinders to anchor the strands of lights. The conduit could be for the lighting. But I also heard that they may have some other special lighting effects on the Eiffel Tower other than the giant tree. (AKA backlighting the structure or something along those lines.

No, you didn`t get as wet on KCKC as you do on Thornberrys. Especially with the added effects of the coconuts and that darn elephant. BTW, it is Kenton`s Cove, not Keton`s.

They had the Dodgems open for the final Winterfest in 1992. Paramount had decided to extend the operating season through the end of October (as opposed to the middle of October) and thus they deemed that they would not have time to properly set up for Winterfest. This year, they are bringing in outside contractors to help transform the park from FearFest to Winterfest. Preparations have already commence with the fountain, and even some work has been going on at The Eiffel Tower, in the form of some new electrical conduit showing up on the front two support legs.

Right, if they were running the ride at full capacity, they would need to use both drops to allow for safe clearance between the boats at the drop. Naturally, the boats will travel faster at the drop, so it was a safety feature. They almost rarely used both drops the last couple of years, because they weren`t using all of the boats.

No, no one was ever killed by the Monster at PKI. There were three deaths in the park on black Sunday, as previously discussed. Two people were electrocuted in the Oktoberfest pond due to an improperly wired aerator pump (it was installed prior to updated electric codes that required GFCI recepticles near water.) The other death was on Flight Commander. That "pond" for White Water Canyon is actually a man made pond, and acts as the resevoir for the WWC water. I believe that when they built WWC, they built it in or next to a creek. (They drain the pond every winter once WWC closes). That shack is the location of some valve or pump either related to the ride, or the resevoir. BTW, FoF/Z 4-ever, last night was the season finale of Ghost Hunters. Didn`t they just start showing new episodes about a month and a half ago?

They has a survey about a museum a while back, although I believe it was more history of roller coasters related than Kings Island and Coney Island. Yes, Kings Island and Coney have had a long history, dating all the way back to 1886 when Parker`s Grove was just a apple orchard and picnic grove accesible only by steamboat.

TR:TR will apparantly be unable to operate this Winter due to some extra "maintenance" being performed on it, or so I`ve heard. In past Winterfest`s they also had the bumper cars open. It would be nice if they opened those up and FoF, but for this season anyway they don`t plan on doing so.

Yes, I know the Smurf`s are possible, because I have a picture of the inside of the Smurf`s Enchanted Voyage on my site. The below image I have with some other images of PKI rides, on my website. Most of the images though are not directly of the park but have me in them. The link to my site is in my signature.

I thought the same thing when i saw this thread. I haven`t seen any pictures of Vortex construction. I have seen several of The Bat, and a couple of The Beast. I imagine they exist, but the park might be the only place to find them, and I doubt they will just openly give them out.

On the subject of WiFi, there are more places in the Cincinnati area that are getting WiFi. Most of UC`s campus is already WiFi accesible, and I believe that Sawyer Point and Fountain Square are, or will be WiFi accesible by the spring (Fountain Square when its renovation is completed next fall). I know that my local Frisch`s has recently installed WiFi service, and I believe that all Panera Bread locations already have WiFi service.

Yes, I think that it would provide an intense and fun ride experience. While it would be intense, its short layout would not scare away too many guests. The one concern I would have, is that is the hydraulic launch technology reached a relliability that Paramount Parks can live with?

Yes, I was referring to the now retrofitted Arrow in England, and the questionable fate of XLer 8er at Astroworld. And, it is not like there were an incredibly large amount of this type of ride constructed to begin with.

No, but just because there are inversions, does not mean that it would not appeal to a large demographic. Keep in mind that in that the Paramount Park surveys about new rides, roller coasters with a loop were prefered by a majority of the people when asked what type of roller coaster they would like to see.

Yes, Top Gun was the last Arrow suspended coaster built, meaning PKI had the last and the first ones. Hopefully, PKI will keep Top Gun around for years to come as it is still a fun ride. Not nearly as fun as the Top Gun at Carowinds, but it is becoming a more unique ride as more of the arrow suspended dissapear.

WOW! Now that is a ride that could fit nicely at PKI with some theming, the ride would provide a good thrill, but not be too intense or intimidating for younger riders. Also, since there is not a lot of hardware, the park could spend some money on theming the ride (Or even enclosing it in a building if they wanted to go with the Addams Family mansion theme.)

Well, I would imagine that they will have the heat on. That is also why I believe they opened up a Skyline on International Street. So that there is an indoor heated area for the dining tables.

Either that, or how they might have shown the B&M versions of Top Gun that resides at Carowinds or Great America (as others have already said). Really this is not that surprising, and generally, the general public won`t notice these subtle glitches in their marketing campaign. PKI and Paramount Parks are generally pretty good about not recycling images for their advertisements.

I heard that there were around 36,000 people in the park on Saturday!!! That is quite busy! I left around 4, and the lines were starting to get ridiculous. (And no Backwards Racer?) By comparison, today there were only about 4,000 people in the park! I wish I had gone up there today, but I decided to watch the Bengals on tv.

Screamingnight, we won`t be seeing any large coaster in the 2006 season. As I`m sure you are aware, the park is introducing Nickelodeon Universe, with a couple new rides and attractions and a small family oriented roller coaster to replace Scooby`s Ghoster Coaster. The other new attraction for next season will be a new movie in the FX Theater to replace Spongebob Squarepants 3D. So don`t be looking for a major coaster or Addams Family ride next season. 2007 might be the year though, what with PKI hosting the ACE con and it being their 35th anniversary. But PKI has not been one to install an attraction just to celebrate any of their anniversaries, so who knows. I will say, it has been a long time (since Son of Beast), since they installed a roller coaster purely for the thrill seekers. Yes, IJST is a fun little ride, but as others have said, it is geared towards families.

I actually had a lot of winners at the Basketball game right across the midway from the Zephyr. More winners than I thought I would have. And in response to your earlier post, IJST is a thrill ride. And as GigglingGreenGhost said, Kings Island makes a lot of money off of families with little kids. They have an award winning children`s area, and the only way to continue to gain recognition for it, is to continue to invest in it to keep families coming back and spending money in the park. I am sure that PKI will build another roller coaster, it just might not be a major Intamin or B&M coaster. Although it would be cool if they did and they themed it like they did with IJST. But I don`t see that happening anytime soon.

Well, I have a season pass, so I can visit FearFest as many times as I want. (Not to mention that I got a VERY good deal on Winterfest tickets in September ($12.50 a ticket, which is cheaper than advanced specific day tickets and season pass tickets!). I`ve thought about buying another ticket, but haven`t yet. I`ve done all the haunts this year except Maze of Madness (well I went through it at Beast Bash) and Massacre Manor.

I was amazed to find out how much money some of the games bring in, when I volunteered in the games department Friday! Lets just say that the all time high for one day revenue from games was quite impressive (I was shocked when I heard the amount, which I am not going to reveal). I`m sure from my experience at the games, that while families fontribute a lot to game revenue, a significant portion of the revenue also comes from adults and teens playing the games. Especially teens after the basketballs (BTW, the most popular basketball was Spongebob).