CoastersRZ

Last I heard was that Great Wolf Lodges had delayed their meeting with Mason until January, due to some issues with PKI that still needed to be resolved. Apparantly issues like if their will still be a campground, where is will be located and who will pay for the new campground are some of the issues I have heard that still need to be resolved. Also, an issue is whether Great Wolf will buy the land from PKI or lease it from them. I do not believe we will see the finished product until 2006. I do not know if the campground will be open for the 2005 season or not.

I know that Charles J Jacques Jr., the author of the very well written Coney Island book was working on a book on the history of Kings Island. Last I heard about the book he was collecting memories and pictures from peopl at two Hamilton County libraries back in August. Does anyone know the progress on this book and when the planned release date is supposed to be? I know his books take time to write because they are very well written. After reading the Coney book, I can`t wait until the PKI book comes out. Anyone know anything?

Sounds like a blast. I`m glad the park continues to make these kind guestures to us! Thanks PKI. Unfortunatly I have a lecture that day at 10 am, so I will not be able to make it. However, I`m sure this site will have excellent coverage of the tour!

I also just noticed that in the last picture, the Antique Cars are still parked on the pavement next to The Racer where they were moved after they removed them from the station of their former home. Could this be a sign that they are going to refurbish them and rebuild them in 2006?

Unfortunatly, a B&M is most definantly out of Coney`s price range! Yeah the Eli Bridge wheel is safe. Although there have been incidents on it caused by it becoming unbalanced (although no one was injured). I`ve operated it one time when a circuit breaker blew in the adjacent building and we had people stuck on the ride for ten minutes. The Wheel was my favorite ride to operate, in part because it is probably the oldest design ride that Coney has. I also liked the guest interaction it allowed, because you only loaded two or three people at a time. I had a wonderful three years at Coney.

The Python does have a little bit of airtime coming down the first drop. Yes, the brakes are on hard on the ride, and numerous people would ask me why the brakes were on so hard. I don`t know why, I`m assuming thats the way the rides was designed. The ride was built by Preston in 1996 for a pier in New Jersey. Coney bought it with the help of a sponsorship from Pepsi and opened it in 1999. Every year during the Pepsi picnic at the park, the ride opens half an hour early for Pepsi employees and their families. Yes, all the rides at Coney will operate in the rain, with the exception of the Super Slide. If it is raining a lot, the Ferris Wheel will close because the cable will become slippery, and won`t have good traction to turn the wheel. Most of the tall rides and rides on the lake close if there is llightning. If there is a lot of llightning or a huge torrent of rain, then they will shut doen the rides. Coney does not compete with Kings Island for thrills or even roller coasters. Instead, Coney claims to be a small family park where parents don`t have to be worried about dropping off their kids, or loosing them. I`ve heard a ton of families say how they really enjoyed their day at Coney, and even liked it more than Kings Island because of the smallness of the park, the friendly atmosphere and vitually no lines.

I believe that PKI`s record attendance was set back in 1996 when Flight of Fear opened. I believe that season the attendance was 3.6 million visitors.

No, two trains on Face Off is impossible. Unless they built another identical coaster next to Face Off.

As an employee who spent three years at Coney, the Pepsi Python is not that great of a coaster. Yes it is a good sized coaster for Coney, but it is anything but smooth. Ever notice that we never loaded anyone in the back row the past three seasons? Coney is a great park for families, and has a decent collection of flats. Also, to celebrate the park`s 120th anniversary, all memberships to Sunlite Pool include all the rides in 2005! The Ferris Wheel at Coney, which is an Eli Bridge, and was one of my favorite rides at the park to run, has been rumored to be leaving soon. Due to mechanical issues and the need to keep the wheel balanced extremly well. Rumors in the rides department have been aroud about the park adding more whirl and hurls, a new steel spinning mouse coaster or a log flume. I wish Coney the best of luck in the future. I will not be returning there for a fourth season as I will be in school at UC for architecture, and co-oping in the spring and fall!

Yeah, I was shocked that Canada`s Wonderland did so well. I guess it just goes to prove that roller coasters aren`t everything and that a well rounded collection of flat rides is popular among guests too. Although they did add the Tomb Raider Flying coaster this season.

Amusement Business announced the attendance at the top 50 amusement parks in the world. Attendance was up 2.2% in 2004 compared to 2003. Also, PKI`s attendance increased 7% over 2003 to 3.5 million visitors. PKI ranked 15th on the list and was the highest ranked seasonal theme park. 16th on the list was Paramount Canada`s Wonderland with 3.4 million visitors, an increase of 30%. Cedar Point came in next in 17th, with 3.1 million visitors, a decrease of four percent. You can read more, and the list of the top 25 parks here You can also read in the article how Amusement Business calculates the attendance figures! Way to go PKI! And I was a little surprised that Paramount Canada`s Wonderland did so well and had a 30% increase! Keep up the good work PKI and PCW! They must be doing something right if they were the #1 and #2 seasonal theme parks in North America!

Like the need to get the Eagles down to Carolina? I don`t know why the `Tiques would have been removed early though.

A tremendous update! The Winterfest video was very nice. Also, I really enjoyed the overhead construction shots of PKI and IJST. It looks like they are almost done with land prep. and ready to start the footers, with even a couple of the forms ready. One thing I did notice in one of the pictures, was that there was a cherry picker parked under the Eiffel Tower, close to where the queue line is. Could the Eiffel Tower be getting a paint job this off season? I look forward to seeing future "birdseye" construction shots of IJST in the future. Thanks for the great update!

It is my understanding that PKI has no ties to the former location of Galbraith field or the former College Football Hall of Fame. Additionally, if the Great Wolf Lodge is built, I would assume it woould be operated by Great Wolf Lodges and not PKI. Therefore all lifeguards and employees would be employees of Great Wolf Lodges and not PKI.

Yeah, I am looking forward to seeing the construction pictures, even though it seems that there is not a lot to see/any significant changes since October. I would have thought that they would have at least had footers either poured or prepared to be poured (hole with rebar in place). I am surprised that the one up in Canada is farther along than our version, of course the site for that one was from a blank lot and not home to two exisiting attractions.

Besides, even if they were adding a B&M coaster in 2006, which by all accounts and logic they wouldn`t be. Why would track already be in the park?

Yeah, right. And I`m pinnochio!

And why are you not sharing what you know?

From the rumors I have heard, 2006 may in deed bring a new Nick expansion, but it will also include a flat ride for the thrill seekers elsewhere in the park. Although anything aboout 2006 is purely speculation and rumor at this point.

None of the theming would change. Instead, they would reintroduce a new ride program. This would mean that the soundtrack for the ride woudl have to be reworked to correspond to the theming. From what I`ve heard, it is a legitamite possibility that it may recieve a new program in the future, although I`m not sure if that will be in 2005 or not.

Well, Monday is a rather long time away. There will be an update on Monday? Well, whenever you decide to put the pictures online, I`m sure they will be fun to look at and offer some information on what stage the construction is in.

No problem, having done websites for school, I understand how long and involved a process it is to update a site. I really appreciate v.3 of this site! I look forward to seeing the new history section when it comes online in the future.

I just know that on homes, they wait a week after the foundation and footers are poured before they start to build the rest of the house. I`m in my second year of architecture school at UC. After 24 hours, the concrete has cured enough so that formwork can be removed. I think it is something like 28 days and concrete has cured like 95% and is as strong as it will get, although it continues to cure forever.

Will it rival the history section that was put up on guidetotheisland.com by Sean Werley briefly, (the same guy who hosted coasterguide.com) before he took the short lived site down? I remember that the history section on that site was pretty awesome and fatured some pretty sweet construction pictures, like with the Eiffel Tower half built. I can`t wait to see the new history section when it comes online! Will it be ready by the new year? I understand that building new portions of websites takes time, and I`m sure you guys will do an excellent job!

Footers have to be poured at least a week in advance to allow the concrete to cure enough to be able to accept the loads that the steel will place on it. Just look at Delirium. They poured the footers for it in September and didn`t put anything else on those footers until January. I would imagine that they have started pouring footers by now, besides, wasn`t support and/or track supposed to start showing up this month?