CoasterJack

I agree with this. The blaster portion is what keeps people coming back, and makes it competitive. Phantom Theater was usually close to a walk on (part of this was because of the crazy good riders capacity with all the cars), but I think also, while enthusiasts loved to ride this over and over again, to the GP it got boring after a while if you're a repeat rider. But this would be a great idea, incorporate a bit of both. But the man thing I want to see is either way, for the ride to get some love. The animations not working and the blasters not working sometimes is understandable, but the thing that just kills me is the fun TVs in the queue. At least add something to bring back some attractiveness to the queue, Maestro gave people something to look at while in line, or the Scooby and Shaggy pop-ups. Just at least something to keep guests entertained would be nice.

There's also a KiTunes Player on KIE. Sadly, it's flash. But it if your struggling to get Google Drive Files to play, it's a great alternative. http://kiextreme.com/kitunes.php

Agreed! Sometimes I wonder if in an alternate timeline where paramount continued to own the park up to today, how much the park would be different from today. Would we have more dark rides and heavily themed attractions, or would paramount add more first of its kinda coasters? And would we have a B&M by now?

That's exactly my point. The Beast can easily outlive the current steel coasters, giving it the opportunity to reclaim the longest coaster record from Steel Dragon 2000.

Well I don't know for sure, but if the team can keep The Beast running for a while, The Beast could take back the record as World's Longest Roller Coaster once the steel track wears out on Steel Dragon 2000 and the Ultimate. Who knows if they will build another coaster longer as the price of steel and wood keep going up. It'd be pretty cool to not only be the longest wood coaster, but as wood usually tends to outlast steel coasters, we could one day have the record again.

I mean, we also should be able to claim the record for world's tallest and longest final brake run. It'll be interesting since I already consider the Leviathan brake run insanely long, but also, I wonder if operations are good, will the train fly through the breaks, or will it always kill all the speed, It looks to be quiet a slow gradual stop like the other B&M Giga brakes, because I could see a bit of airtime if the brakes don't fully engage.

Great questions. For Mystic Timbers. there's a holding area right as your're entering the shed for the train. You've gotta look really closely, because they did a good job of hiding it. I've never worked The Beast, but I'd have to say they're probably used to load trains into storage, or they're to keep the speed of the trains consistant going into the lift hill. You'll have to double check with another employee. Clear and All Clear is a required procedure, to make sure each ride OP has completed their task, and and the train can't be dispatched until an all clear is issued. The all clear can only be issued after everyone else has given the clear. It's mainly for safety, and most rides have green buttons that each side and operator must press to give the clear. It's basically a double check to make sure the train is 100% ready to pull out of the station. It's also used on normal rides, and flat rides that have two or more booths or control areas, everyone must always give the clear before an all clear can be issued to start the ride cycle. They don't do it one a few rides, such as Boo Blasters, because it would be impossible to keep up with the omnimover system, as it just moves to quickly. However we do still check to make sure, you're in and secure, as the car will lock as the operator is walking aside you, they make sure you can't get out and destroy set pieces. I have a friend who works Haunted Mansion at Disney, and you wouldn't believe when the ride stops, how many people will try and get out on their own, hence why they always make announcements to remain seating, and wait for the ride to resume.

Also he might have meant with a chain lift, because Intimidator 305 & Millennium Force use cable lifts instead of chain lifts. So that would make Orion the 4th tallest with a chain lift.

I can agree with that, my iPhone 6 fell out of my pocket twice on Firehawk. I've never had a lose article fall out on any other ride. It was just the funky loading system and weird trains. Somehow, my phone survived the fall twice, and I'm still using the same phone

The bigger question is why was it removed from one park, but not the other Eiffel Tower at KD.

I agree with almost all of that, Madame Fatales uses the theming so well, it's always been my favorite maze. Also, some haunt mazes need a little help, cleaning up some older mazes might help free up more scare actors, allowing for maybe a new maze or two. Maybe since the trains will be used less, they can do another WWC haunt. A haunted train seems like a great way to use the forest, the only problem is you'll still hear Mystic Timbers, but that might also make it even more creepy. I'm also wondering about Field of Screams with Orion, will they reroute the paths, but even then, it'll ruin the theme with a giant towering Giga over the corn maze. It'll definitely be interesting this year.

They never quite said unused, rather, I think they meant a few years before another major coaster. However, they might be doing something else short term, such as the discussion of Monster Jam. However, I wish they would have refrained from flattening the terrain. Interactions with the terrain is usually one of my favorite elements on a ride.

Kings Island International Street - There's something magical about walking through the front gates... At least we have the official Kings Island playlists for International Street and Rivertown. It'll help you picture better being in the park. Got a little excited, they have a new playlist for Orion opening weekend, sadly however, there's no new IMAScore soundtrack in sight, yet . Can't wait though

While I would wish for something else, what if in order to fill the gap since Vortex's removal was unexpected, could it be a possibility that Cedar Fair would relocated a Floorless to Kings Island. What if The Vortex came from Carowinds and we had another Vortex, of course that would confuse the GP. But since the park just spent $30M on a new giga, a relocated Floorless might not be a bad idea, kind of like relocating Dominator to KD from Geauga Lake. It would get new life at a different park.

Not necessarily retracked, but I've experience a few rollbacks this year. The Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion has had a rougher time than it's KI counterpart . It was closed basically all of 2006, and it's always been more rough in my opinion. I do agree with that video though. That welding job looks awful.

I haven't seen the actual animatronics during Haunt for a couple years, but when the display used to be out they were already looking kind of rough. I can only hope they've been given some TLC and have found a nice home somewhere in park storage. It would be a shame to see them thrown out, especially after all the time that went into making them. Maestro on the Organ was always really impressive and set the mood of the ride as a child, and surprisingly I wasn't terrified by his laugh.

If they do recycle the animatronics from Phantom Theater, they will definitely need a refurbishment. Maybe combining older Phantom Theater animatronics and creating some more modern animatroinics. Maestro was looking pretty worn out and tired the last couple years of the Haunt display. But I do like the idea of doing sort of a combination of the two. If there's one thing I miss about both Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion and Phantom Theater was the pre-show. Now it's just FunTV, but I miss the better days of the pop up ghosts, scooby, and Maestro playing the Organ were such a better use of the queue, and it made the line feel faster looking up at Maestro playing and chuckling.

Got to give a hats off to Cedar Fair on this one. 10 years ago, no one would have guessed Cedar Fair would reach this level of theming. While its been a progression from Dinosaurs Alive to Forbidden Frontier to Area 72, they've really started taking it up a notch with Mystic Timbers and Orion. While it's still not quite the level of the KECO or original paramount theming (90's & early 00's), I think they're really showing their dedication to this park. While still a small area, this is going to be one of the better themed areas in the Cedar Fair Chain. It'll be fun to see how it turns out, but I 'm already hyped (FF Queue extension, IMA SCORE!!!, Prop Building, backstory, "themed" food stand). This is really gonna be interesting, but I hope it convinces them to keep up the good job with theming and continue to try new things like this.

Agreed, the only problem being that the older coaster some parks have are located at smaller parks in the chain where they need to keep the coaster for capacity reasons. But I do agree, Kings Island has gotten the short straw in terms of coaster removals. But I think Kings Dominion has gotten worse luck and they might be in for more trouble with Anaconda. But I do hope to see Bat and Invertigo stick around for some time. Also I love the idea of a new film and renovated Action Theatre. That section is really lacking after the absence of Vortex, with basically just Wind seeker and Antique Autos.

So they only have special weeks or weekends where they offer this. Most of the time its posted last minute (like a week or two in advanced). It's a couple times it's been $14.99 per guest during Haunt. I took guests last year, however I only tried once, so I don't know if it works multiple times or only once per season. This year all regular season Wednesdays it's $21.99 per guest according to the Kings Island Website. Make sure to check the website often, they usually have lots of frequent offers for bringing guests.

Definitely Agree, Backlot and Adventure Express serve as great family coasters for those looking to move out of Planet Snoopy. Also the flame effect is always nice for the Haunt Fog. But I also agree that having the water effect return would be really nice. I know all the water effects and barrels were turn off on the second brake run, but does anyone know why they removed the final water splash or the on-ride audio system. Was there a water problem for the splash down or couldn't they have just made generic car noises and action music after the loss of the licensing?

Even though Back Lot Stunt Coaster is no where near a favorite coaster, at least we can be thankful we still have the fire effects. While it's nothing compared to what the theming used to be, we could always not have an effects, and have burnt out cop car lights, weeds and trees growing between the rocks. While something else would potentially look better in the plot of land, it serves it's purpose as a decent family coaster. At least our version is still the best kept out of the rest of the chain.