CoastersRZ

I have had a full time job (usually 8-5), since 2010. My visits often are in the evenings after work. I tend to avoid weekends, except for pre and post season when the park is weekends only. A couple of years ago, I worked at the park during Haunt. That made for long Friday`s when I worked 8 hours at my full time job, then worked another 8 or so hours up there. My visits to Kings Island have become less then they used to. I attribute it more to both getting older, and getting a beautiful wife. She loves roller coasters too. Almost all of our trips and vacations involve roller coasters too. We went to Disneyland on our Honeymoon! (And on a recent trip to Memphis to see her brother and their new baby, I managed to find a small roller coaster at an FEC in Cordova, TN. I still average about ten visits a year. I am sure that number may increase once we have kids, which is something that will likely happen in the next couple of years.

Which means at some point the cars were replaced.

That is really amazing! Thanks for sharing. Very impressive! Usually on July 3rd for Balloon Glow one of the B&B riverboats will still make the trek up to Coney bringing passengers to the park. Many parks were trolley parks (Kennywood among them) in the early 20th century. Coney was not a trolley park but a steamboat park.

Pilotank, At some point they did install a central rail. See this image (date unknown):

I don`t think we have heard anything about them since the initial update. It certainly does not appear that they found anything to add to any Cedar Fair parks for this season. KI is getting a water park addition. Carowinds is also getting a water park addition. Cedar Point is getting Valravn. Kings Dominion is getting a Delirium ride, although I think that it is not a Huss model, but maybe a Mondial? It lists a height of 115 feet, while Kings Island`s Delirium swings up to 137 feet, per the park websites. Knott`s is getting a renovation to Ghost Town and a retrack and new trains on Ghost Rider by GCI. California`s Great America is getting a new 4D attraction based on the EA games Mass Effect. Worlds of Fun is getting some new rides in their Planet Snoopy area of the park. Valleyfair is getting a set of Flying Eagles and a renovation to their outdoor ampitheater for the All Wheels Extreme show. Canada`s Wonderland is getting a set of Flying Eagles, as well as a Skyhawk flat ride. Not sure if this ride is a result of the pickers or not, but it looks crazy intense. It is similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ride in the Mall of America. That leaves Dorney and Michigan`s Adventure. As far as I know, these two parks have not announced anything new for this year yet.

Wow. That is pretty scary stuff. Hopefully the victim is able to make a full and total recovery. It is sickening to thing what some people will do out of anger. The company/bosses probably had a good reason for letting him go.

It is a fun ride. It can be disorienting. Not something I would recommend after dinner, although we have only have a few protein spills on it. We get more protein spills on River Runner and Round Up.

While Trabant was a fun ride to ride, there were several reasons that resulted in its removal. The restraints were a pain to open/lock for one. There was a good reason it was removed, but I won`t go into the details. The only bad thing about the ride that replaced it is that it only holds 12 people per cycle. Trabant was almost double that. Most days that is not a big deal at Coney, but on July 3rd or Fire Up the Night, that capacity is a killer.

I think a ride like this would be a big hit at Coney if it were installed again. It would fit the demographic they are going for nicely. I still miss the Antique car ride at Kings Island as it was a ride that could be enjoyed by people of all ages. Young kids and grandparents alike.

Didn`t they fix the music on it this year? Or were you referring to the face of the organ which could use a freshening up?

Based on the timeline, and the color of the cars, would these not be the prototype trains that were tested on the Voyage? It is hard to tell, but it looks like it could be the Voyage in the background of those images... Wooden Warrior was the first coaster in the US to open with Timberliner trains and it opened in 2011, and only has 6 rows for a total of 12 riders. The Twister at Gruno Land in Sweden also opened in 2011, a couple weeks after Wooden Warrior opened, and also features the Timberliners. I believe that these were the first installations of the Timberliner trains. So is Gravity Group the one selling this train? Did Holiday World ever have the train purchased, or was it still Gravity Group`s train when they were testing it on the Voyage?

I am all for safety. But I dislike metal detectors at parks. People can still get stuff into the parks if they really wanted too. And part of the problem, at least at Haunt at KI this past year, is they were using the hand held metal detectors and did not have enough staff manning them, so it took nearly thirty minutes of waiting in line just to get into the park.

I see this as a way for Cedar Fair to gain more money since the VR is an upcharge. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I am curious as to what other coaster they are debating adding this too.

Just to put things into comparison locally, the Tidal Wave Bay wave pool at Kings Island holds 650,000 gallons of water. Sunlite Pool holds about 3.1 million gallons of water. All the water is fed into Sunlite pool from underground wells.

There have been tons of weddings in the last two seasons at Moonlite Gardens. Almost every Saturday this past year in July and August there were weddings/wedding receptions at Moonlite Gardens.

You were talking about the wrong Moonlite. That fountain (and the building in the background) is Moonlite Pavilion, not Gardens. Yes, that entire area by that fountain looks really nice now.

Pilotank, what water fountain near Moonlite Gardens are you talking about? Also, the old roof that used to enclose Moonlite Gardens is not the roof for Moonlite Pavilion. The roof for Moonlite Pavilion was built specifically for Moonlite Pavilion (when it originally housed the Whip, Dodgems and Cuddle Up rides). Yes you can make out parts of the original midway, which terminated at Moonlite Gardens. It had been slightly obscured by the small hillside between Tilt A Whirl and Moonlite Pavilion, but with the addition of TopSpin this year, it became more readily apparent. TopSpin, Scream Machine, Carousel, and Famous Fairways all sit on what used to be the midway. The old Shooting Star station is approximately where Fender Bender sits today.

So what changes were made to the ride after this incident to keep similar incidents from happening again in the future? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So why if the rent payment had not been paid in over a year, is the owner of the property just now forcing them out? What kind of disagreement did they have with the operators that made them want to get ride of them?

Exactly. About the only thing that has appeared to change is they made a one row bench car, versus a two or three bench car. It also looks like they might have made the cars articulated (so that the front of a car is actually supported by the back of the car ahead of it (much like on most steel coasters, although Flight of Fear, and Backlot, and Adventure Express are exceptions). Just look at the Millenium Flyers and Timberliners. Those trains look a lot more advanced and the overall ride experience is a lot more enjoyable (I haven`t riden a ride yet with Timberliners). Rhyano, The Beast`s Landmark status was given to it as a way to acknowledge a ride that has had an impact on the industry. It would not be taken away if Beast ever gets new trains. I think you are thinking of the ACE Classic designation, of which The Beast does not qualify for since it has seat belts.

Yep. Both Tomb Raider and Flight of Fear were built with the building and structure built first, and then the ride was constructed inside of the building. See, the benefit of doing that is that once the building is built, the ride can be constructed without having to loose any construction time due to weather delays from Southern Ohio winters.

That is very true. When I visited Southern California back in April on my honeymoon, I loved Knott`s and Disneyland/DCA. Six Flags Magic Mountain just seemed a little odd when we were out there. It was probably the least favorite of the parks we visited when we were out there. But yes, those parks need to keep adding things so that they can try and lure paying customers to keep coming back to their park so they are not upstagged by one of their competitors.

To be fair, the water fall that was removed from the area that was once known as Tower Gardens was looking pretty sad the last few years from years of no upkeep. It was quite an eyesore the last couple of times (with the underlying foam that was used to create the rock work showing). The difference between Diamondback and Banshee`s station is quite striking. To me, Diamondback`s station is a pretty simple station. While Banshee`s station has a lot of cool architectural elements on it, including the trusses in the station area. This is an example of placemaking, which is something both Matt Ouimet and Rob Decker (the corporate designer for Cedar Fair) have been trying to implement in the parks. The other factor behind Knott`s getting those upgrades is it is the one park in the chain that is open year round, and can bring in revenue every single quarter for the company.

I saw a similar press release/article today. Other than the ark, what other attractions are going to open with this next season? I am still not sure if there is enough of a draw/attraction to make this profitable. Not to mention how will they attract repeat customers?

I never made it up to the original incarnation of Fear Fest in 2000. And 2003 was the first year that season pass holders received free admission into Fear Fest. It was a separate upcharge in 2000, 2001 and 2002. In fact, one of those seasons, they cleared the park of guests before letting in the paying Fear Fest customers. They used the old season pass holder entrance as the exit for park guests so as to avoid the main gate and the guests coming into the park.