CoastersRZ

If it has a capacity of 1000 people per hour (which seems a little high) it will have a decent capacity. It will be better than Delirium, where the line always seems to move.

RIP Flyers. They sure wasted no time in clearing out the site! I thought that they would have simply removed the Flyers, but they removed a lot of the concrete as well.

Talk about a short survey. It seems as if they were really only interested in knowing how people view the campground, as well as various themed restraunts. It seems like they also wanted to know if there was still interest in holding a Winter festival at the park. I for one hope that this means they are still considering reinstating Winterfest. That would be great if they had Winterfest in 2005, and would make the offseason shorter, even if they only had a couple of rides and no coasters open!

Thank you BuddaH1994, yes I meant to say 1993. Carowinds was not developed by Taft Boradcasting. Carowinds was developed by businessman E. Pat Hall. Carowinds would open in May of 1973. You can read more about the founding of Carowinds here. Based on my researcch of things, here is how Taft went about acquiring parks and how KECO and Paramount Parks figure into the equation. Based on the success of Kings Island, Taft executives set out to duplicate the success in Virginia. Kings Dominion opened in 1975. In addition to Kings Dominion, Taft entered into a partnership with Top Value Enterprises, a subsidiary of the Kroger Co. in early 1975 to purchase Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina for $16 million. In 1980, the partnership dissolved and Taft became the sole owner of Carowinds. Additionally, Taft built Wonderland outside of Toronto in 1981. In late 1983, a group of general managers at the Taft parks as well as several vice presidents at Taft Broadcasting, purchased two thirds of the parks. They then formed their own company, the Kings Entertainment Company. KECO would later enter into a management deal with Great America in Santa Clara California. Great America in California, along with the Great America in Chicago were both built by Marriot. However, the California one was sold to KECO, now Paramount, while the Chicago one became a Six Flags park. In 1987, KECO was reorganized as Carl Lindner purchased the majority of the shares of Taft Broadcasting, and KECO now owned 100 percent of the parks, except for Great America. Carl Lindner continued to let KECO operate the parks. However, the parks were rapidly loosing steam and money under Lindner`s direction. So, on July 30, 1992 Paramount Communications purchased KECO as well as Great America. In 1993, all five parks were rebranded as Paramount Parks, and now sported the Paramount moniker in front of their names. I`m fairly certain most of the above facts are correct, but some may be wrong, if anybody knows for sure (like Shaggy) let me know. I hope this clears some things up.

Well, to be technical, Paramount Communications bought PKI July 31, 1992 and added the Paramount moniker for the 2003 season.

As with last year, the park has dismanteled part of the Scrambler to get a head start on the winter maintenance. It is not leaving PKI. I too find it odd that they had only removed the cars and not any of the supports for the ride and were only using the Scrambler`s queue and not the ride area like last year, for the line for House of Darkness.

A Paramount Park season pass grants free unlimited access to all 5 North American Paramount Parks. A PP season pass does not provide free admission to Bonfante Gardens (managed by PP) or Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas.

I imagine that these rides are relatively inexpensive to maintain, when compared to the new wave of flats like Delirium, and they definantely cost a lot less than the modern flats. I just hope that PKI`s stay in PKI (in the same or a new location) for years to come. I think every Paramount Park should have a Flying Scooter ride. The only drawback to them is the capacity is really low.

I believe they play the Runaway Reptar episode of the Rugrats in the line for Rugrats Runaway Reptar, or at least they used to.

Yes. The rapids on WWC and any River Rapids ride are caused by pipes that are placed on the floor of the trough, to push the water up. It woould be impracticle to have guests walking in WWC trough.

Actually, it would appear as if WEBN is not sponsoring Fear Fest. Instead, it appears that Infinity radio is sponsoring Fear Fest. Infinity owns 97.3, B105, WGRR Oldies 103.5 and Q102 in the Cincinnati area. Additionally, Infinity Radio is owned by Viacom International. The Fear Fest site now lists Infinity as a sponsor of this year`s Fear Fest.

Are you sure that WEBN is sponsoring Fear Fest again this season? According to the park maps from this week, it has B105, WGRR Oldies and Q102 as the sponsors listed below the details of Fear Fest. The first two seasons the park had Fear Fest, it was sponsored by Q102. Then they switched over to WEBN in 2002 and had it again as a sponsor in 2003. KISS has never been to my knowledge a sponsor of Fear Fest.

Nope, I parked in the Goldpass lot. I rode Flight of Fear right around 7:30 which could have had something to do with its short line. I rode Son of Beast in seat 2.2 and had a terrible ride. I seriously doubt that I will ride that ride the rest of the season. I found myself hoping for the ride to end sooner because it was beating me up so bad. Aren`t roller coasters supposed to be enjoyable?

I headed up to the park today for a couple hours before the closing hour of 8. I arrived at the park around 5:30 to a moderately filled parking lot, nothing extreme but a little busy for a week day. Once inside the park, I headed to Adventure Express where there was a wait of a couple trains. It seems that this ride has returned to two train operation. The third train has been removed from the tracks. Why in the past couple of years does the park seem to barely ever have the third train running on this ride. On the Thursday, the day of the announcement, the line for this thing stretched all the way out to the beginning of the line. I assume that they removed it to get a head start on the off season maintenance, but how come they used to have all 3 trains on until October? After Express I headed to the forwards Racer. Nothing special, just the same old classic Racer, and they were Racing. The trim brake on the forwards side appears to be braking harder. Also, the tent structure that protected the Nick Parade floats has already been removed and all that remains is a large sea of blacktop. After Racer, I headed to Vortex, and perhaps one of the longest waits of the day, along with my wait for Flight of Fear. I waited about 15 minutes to ride, with the line starting at the stairs to cross over the tracks. I sat in the back seat and got to experience the massive air time that the back seat delivers on the first drop. While on board I saw that The Beast had a short line. So after about a 10 minute wait. The Beast is the same old excellent Beast. The crew was getting the trains out in a hurry. Most of the time, the train slowed down, but did not stop in the brake run after ending the ride. One curious thing I have noticed is that the park has installed a camera on the operators booth. They have then mounted a television to the right of the small kids pen that displays the view from the camera. I found this to be quite odd. I assume it is some sort of new safety feature but why you would need a tv displaying what the camera is capturing is beyond me. I next headed up in the Tower to check out any developments with the `Tiques. Nothing apparantly has happened to the site. All the cars still remain on the track with about four parked behind the wall like usual. Upon leaving the park, I noticed that the only visible sign the ride is closed is the temporary sandwich sign the park placed in front of the entrance saying that they were building a new Italian Job ride for next year on that location. The sign for the `Tiques still remained and the exit was not gated off in any way. It appears as if nothing visually has happened to the site yet since they closed on Sunday. After the Eiffel Tower, I headed to Son of Beast. I had a terrible ride on it. My back got really stiff while I was on the ride from all the slamming and sudden, forceful side to side motion of the trains. Either it was my particular seat or just me, but it seemed as if the ride was rougher than normal. My ride was excruciatingly brutal, and I heard others complaining about Son of Beast being the roughest coaster they`ve ever been on as I got off. I know the ride is still being fine tuned by the park, but they still have some major work to do. Normally, I have no problem with SoB. In fact, in 2000, I rode it 9 times in one day! After my ride on it tonight, I doubt I will take a spin on it again this year, and maybe for a couple of years. While I enjoy riding roller coasters, I don`t enjoy getting beat up and thrown around on a ride. After my painful experience on SoB I headed to a walk on Top Gun. After the short ride, I marched across the park to FoF. The line started at the entrance to the UFO. Flight of Fear is still one awesome coaster since they redid the bars on it. By the time I got off of FoF it was just about 8. I headed out to my car in the parking lot. For being at the park for only 2.5 hours, I got a lot of rides in. Overall, with the excpetion of Son of Beast, I had an excellent time at the park.

I woould hate it if the park decided to not relocate the Flying Eagles! Anyone else with me on that one???? I think a good spot for them would be where the Eurobungee was at. Just as long as that ride returns to the park, in its current location or another one, I will be happy. It will be a sade day when the Eagles disappear from PKI.

Well, the reason they moved the floral clock was because they had to move it when they built the International Showplace.

Did you see all the forms of live entertainment the park provided in 1974? If only the park still provided some of that entertainment.

How could they have this where Skylab sat? Skylab opened in 1986 and wasn`t removed until around 1996 or 1997.

The skid brakes were wet because of a heavy down pour. The skid brakes didn`t work well when they were wet. Anyway, there was a train in the station and another train slid into the train in the station at about 5mph. The operators were in the process of shutting down the ride due to the weather. While the skid brakes contributed to the accident, I have heard that there was some operator error that contributes. A couple people were taken to the hospital for precautionary measures. There were no serious injuries.

Yes I saw pictures of the Revenge of Mummy cars. I definantly think this ride could be a good success. Capacity still might be an issue with only 16 people per train. However, if they have a dual loading platform like the one down in Florida, it could ease the capacity issue. At any rate, 16 people per train is a lot higher than the 4 people per train on a wild mouse. The only other gripe I would have is I hope it would be longer than the Revenge of the Mummy. Those rides are only 2200 feet long. I`m excited to hear from PKI themselves what they have in store for next year. I think that this could be a really popular ride.

If it is a ride designed by Premier, I hope it has a somewhat higher capacity than what FoF has. Nothing wrong with a Premier. I just hope that it doen`t have only four or six to a car becuase that would result in low capacity and long lines. I can`t wait to hear the exact details onw week from today.

I wonder if the vehicle make ("BM"W) is any clue into the actual make of the ride, or if it is just Jeff Siebert up to his usual tactics of getting people to talk about the park. It will be interesting to see what ride is being built for next season after the press release next Thursday. More specifically, it will be interesting to see who the manufacturer of the ride is. Also, this might tie in with an Italian Job theme. Why? Well I believe that Italian Job is a movie that deals with cars. Also, when I visited the Italian Job website, the colors of the website were white, black and yellow. The yellow is almost the exact color used on that invitation to the press release.

Dane did you make that or did youreceive that from the park? I`m assuming that you made it? If not it is very interesting the choice of vehicle make on the ticket. "BM"W.

Actually, the last season that King Cobra operated was in 2001. In 2002 it was dismanteled and around August, the park started construction on Delirium.

The Beast has always been braked since it opened back in 1979. However, they installed the new magnetic brakes back at the beginning of the 2002 season, following a minor mishap at the end of the 2001 season caused by the wet skid brakes. For the most part, the magnetic brakes provide a more consistant ride. I don`t mind the magnetic trims on the first drop or the drop into the double helix, as they aren`t really noticable. However, the trim at the top of the second hill and at the end of the brake shed brake the train really hard. I don`t have a problem with them slowing down the ride some, to keep the ride from tearing itself apart. However, I wish that they could have slowed the train down a little more gradually as currently, it is a pretty rapid deceleration.