CoastersRZ

^Yeah, I`m sure that was it! LOL.

I highly doubt that it was in the contract to not have Winterfest for x years after Paramount bought the park. Why? Because for starters, Paramount owned the parks in December of 1992, when Kings Island last held Winterfest. Secondly, why would KECO mandate that Winterfest not be held for x years after the park was sold? They had nothing to gain or loos by PKI having or not having Winterfest.

Here is a link to rcdb. There are a couple of pictures of the Pepsi Python from 2002, the first season i worked there. The past two seasons, it had a blue and green train, and not the purple train like it did in 2002. Also, those pictures were taken before the ride opened that day and if you look closely, you can see the mechanics (Larry and the head mechanic Tom) inspecting the ride. To my knowledge, those are the best pictures online of Coney Island. I drove by Coney yesterday on my way home from UC, and they have cut down a number of trees by Lake Como, particulary by Moonlite Gardens and the pedal boat dock. I know last year a couple of those trees looked pretty sick.

Yeah the 4th of July the park is packed. I too went up for a couple hours last Easter and the park was dead. Notice in that shot that The Vortex had one of its trains not running and there was still no line! I believe that The Beast was also running only two of its three trains and still had no line.

I don`t know when season pass day (or night) will be I would assume Sunday would be, and possibly Saturday (the 2nd and 3rd), but I have received no information from the park, either through email or the mail about when and if there will be a passholder preview day. Also, PKI has yet to update their website with a list of passholder and gold passholder perks. They will probably be doing so in the next week or two, as opening day and April 2nd and 3rd are rapidly approaching!

I know that the park officially opens to the public on Saturday April 9. Mix 107.7 out of Dayton is giving away tickets for a sneak peak at PKI on Friday April 1st from 5 to 10pm. So will Saturday and Sunday be season pass holder/dryrun day? Or will Saturday be dryrun day for employees` friends and families with Sunday being the official season pass preview day? Last year I seem to recall the Sunday before opening day being the season pass preview day. Anyone know the date of a season pass preview day, if the park even has one scheduled? EDIT: Not only is Mix 107.7 in Dayton giving away tickets to the Friday April 1st preview, but WGRR, and Q102, (both owned by Infinity Broadcasting, which is owned by Viacom) are also giving away tickets for that preview day. It seems radio contest winners will get into the park first, but when will pass holders get into the park? The entire weekend? Less than one month to opening day! Regardless of when and if there is a passholder day.

Unfortunatly, I am not an employee at PKI. I will be working this quarter at K4 Architecutre in downtown Cincinnati, so my weekends will be free to go to PKI and not sucked up by the place that is known as DAAP. Now its time to get back to studying 200 buildings for my history final on Monday.

The fire effects from what I have heard, will indeed be real fire, most likely fed by natural gas. The main reason they did not have real fire inside TR:TR is because of all the extra ventilation requirements that come when you bring fire indoors, which would have added significantly to the cost of the building. Since IJST is outside, they do not have to worry about the quality of the air. It would not be incommon for employees to get to test ride IJST first. At Disney World, employees at the individual park are first to test ride a new attraction, followed by employees at the other parks and resorts. Then they soft open it on select days for an hour or two to get the public`s feedback on the attraction. Then they open it to their pass holders for preview days before finally unveiling the ride to the public. Aparantly PKI will be doing something similar with IJST and having soft openings to test the ride and get public comment before it opens around mid-May.

Didn`t he say though that the park doesn`t officially allow it but that they won`t try and stop anyone from doing it?

The link was most likely removed because he was not supposed to show the pictures or information he was linking to. It is against the contract Paramount Park employees sign to divulge any information which is not public knowledge. Violation of that rule can get employees fired and maybe even legal action taken against them. I`m sure when the park is ready to show us pictures of the helicopter, they will.

That website does not seem credible to me at all. If you look at the page on Paramount`s Great America, there are numerous misspellings and grammar issues. It seems like this website is trying to look after theme park goers, but the wording on the website is very odd and they don`t seem to have any verifiably information. There is a lot of numbers and polls but they don`t say how or when these polls were conducted.

According to what I have heard, the park does not officially allow snapping. I heard though if someone is snapping they will not try to tell them to stop snapping.

Paramount has done custom jobs with B&M before. Look at Top Gun at Carowinds, a fabulous inverted coaster. There is also Vortex at Carowinds and Top Gun and Vortex at Paramount`s Great America, all custom designs by B&M. I really don`t see PKI adding any B&M products in the near future.

I bellieve Citigraph does the map design for Paramount Parks, or at least they did a couple years ago. In fact, Citigraph has done park maps for a lot of parks, Michigan`s Adventure, Dorney Park (Cedar Fair), Hershey Park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Six Flags parks, and Universal Parks. I`m not sure who does Disney, but those two maps are near identical in their graphical layout. I`m not sure if Citigraph is still responsible for the Paramount Park maps. (A couple years back, the maps said "Copyright Citigraph, Inc." But that hasn`t appeared on the park maps for several seasons now. I have park maps for every season I have had a season pass (1998, plus all the Fearfest maps dating back to 2002. It is really kind of odd to look at the 1998 park map and see how very different the park was back then when compared to now!

I would imagine that the queue line will be to the left of where the cars "break" through the billboard and enter the splash pool area. The old Eagles plot may in fact be used by the new Happy Days Cafe, perhaps, as the ride does not go close to the old Eagles spot. The rides is looking quite nice. The park still has a lot of theming work to do on the ride though! The ride is looking quite fun! Opening day for the park and the ride can`t come soon enough!

Winterfest ran from 1982-1992. The park transformed into a Winter wonder land. On the floor of the Royal Fountain, they set up an ice skating rink. They decked out the Eiffel Tower to look like a big Christmas Tree by stringing lights down it. Also, they had various holiday displays. They had a couple of ride open, such as the Carousel, Dodgems, The Train, and the Smurf`s Enchanted Voyage (now Scooby`s Haunted Castle).

$100?? Yikes! I would not pay that much. When the park charged about $20, it was not any where near as crowded as what it was since they made it free. It was definantly a wise decision on the park`s part to include it free with park admission and to season pass holders. Which is something that Kings Dominion is doing this season.

Yep, the cars have to change direction quicker (time wise and track wise) on IJST. On MF, the train may be going faster, but it also has more track in which to turn. That turn does look pretty fun!

First of all, Cedar Fair doesn`t name their parks after the company like Six Flags or Paramount, or Busch or Disney. In fact they are one of the big amusement park operators that don`t. Look at Geauga Lake, when Cedar Fair bought it from Six Flags last year they renamed it from Six Flags Worlds of Adventure back to the traditional Geauga Lake. IF Cedar Fair were to buy Paramount Parks (which I doubt will happen) they would simply drop the Paramount moniker from all the parks` names.

Judgind by the construction pictures, the helicopter scene is going to be barricaded by the shipping crates. So unless you are on the ride, or in the Eiffel Tower, you won`t be able to see that scene. Also, there is a good segment of track that is in the tunnel, which for obvious reasons can not be seen from the midway. Yes the trains are a little more advanced than normal trains. There are electronics on board, which require extra wiring to run the headlights and the subwoofers under the seats. Apparantly, from what I`ve heard, and this could be totally fictitous, but there were apparantly two trains that were not destroyed in the fire. So there is apparanatly a train at PCW and PKI so that they can begin preliminary teting of the equipment and the theatrical theming. I`m looking forward to the park opening and to this ride opening.

I`m not shure about the pushed back opening being related to the recent weather, although today`s weather could contirbute. I think another factor might have pushed the opening back and we might learn some more specifics really soon.

But Flight of Fear is in a climate controlled environment, so it could operate in sub 50 degree weather. (As an aside, Vortex has operated in weather colder than 50 degrees). Now if only they could bring back the lights on the IS buildings during the summer at night, like they used to until a couple seasons ago. IS still seems dark and odd at night withought those lights. Hopefully they decide to have Winterfest this season. I think it would be really popular, and not just amongst us enthusiasts.

Six Flags? I don`t think Six Flags could get enough loans (they are already around $2 billion in debt) to purchase Paramount Parks. The estimated cost is $1 billion. Definantly beyond the money that Six Flags can spare.

Thanks, I guess I missed the obvious there. But sometimes, the pictures are taken a couple days before they post them to the website.

That buy a cup for 4.95 and get refills for 95 cents the rest of the season is a good deal. It beats shelling out $2.75 out for a 20 oz every time! But you do have to lug it around the entire time.