RingMaster

Yep, that face is the logo from Knott's Berry Farm's infamous Doll Factory maze:

This is coming from a company that marketed the Halloween Haunt as an event "unlike anything you've ever seen before" and with "more blood, terror, and gore than ever before", even though all they did was rename several attractions and dump a couple of bathtubs of blood everywhere (minus three, every one of the attractions at the event are from the Paramount/CBS era, even if they are a simple re-theme).

With one Haunt already back by the entrance to Son of Beast (Club Blood), I severely doubt they're gonna want to add another one in that particular alley when Crowd Control is a big issue (look at X-Base during the Haunt and you'll see why it's a bad idea).

You do not know how hard I just laughed at that.

Fourteen attractions, eh? I can only guess another new location is being prepped and ready for a brand new maze. *cough*Peanuts Playhouse*cough* I am keeping my fingers crossed for a Doll Factory maze and/or the rumored werewolf maze replacing Tombstone Terrortory.

I'm still not completely convinced that both Fearsome Flights were set to be shipped to 'Winds and Wonderland. I'm more in tune to believe the idea of them getting the Soundwave retheme but went in limbo right after CBS up and sold off the parks (it kinda makes a little sense if a big wooden fence is blocking the path as that could have been made for an advertisement or something). I had also heard a rumor a long time ago that KD's FOF had a major mechanical problem in the offseason and was the reason why it was SBNO in the pre-season.

Actually, their last Invert just opened up two weeks ago at Walygator Parc in France: http://rcdb.com/4478.htm Not to mention the Goliath at Six Flags Fiesta Texas is an invert, and is only two years old. There's more inverted coasters out there than Montu, Alphengeist, and Raptor, people. Need I remind you of: Silver Bullet at Knott's Berry Farm Talon at Dorney Park Patriot at Worlds of Fun Afterburn at Carowinds Flight Deck at California's Great America Dueling Dragons/Dragon Challenge at Islands of Adventure Nemesis at Alton Towers Black Mamba at Phantasialand But I guess, since Cedar Point is the crown jewel of Cedar Fair, people forget that there are OTHER parks in the chain with inverts that may actually be better than Raptor.

Methinks the money that went towards the three new "residents" in the former preshow chamber (which adds up to over $7 grand) should have gone towards sprucing up the interiors of the queue...

Makes you wonder if lil' Barty thinks the same as his old man, or if he believes his own park is the best out of the bunch.

Rather, they act as if nothing is particularly wrong with their company and say that Cedar Point is the best park in the chain.

I agree. Looks like B&M is trying to do just about the same exact thing from that picture. What would be so stinkin' funny is if it turns out to be a hit design and then all the parks start to buy it instead of the Arrow/S&S 4th-D. The main reason would just be due to the name brand and you have to add B&M's amazing reliability. Well, that's pretty much exactly what happened when B&M came out with their version of the Flying Coaster after Vekoma unleashed a mere three Flying Duthcmans (four if you count the Stingray prototype in China) - Batwing, Stealth (now Nighthawk at Carowinds), and X-Flight (now Firehawk at Kings Island) - upon the country, while B&M has eight - Tatsu, Air, Manta, the three Ultimate Superman Flights of Fancy, and two Flyers in China (one set to open next year). And need I remind you of the Beemer Inverts (knocking out Arrow Suspenders and Vekoma SLCs), Beemer Standups (knocking out Togo standups), and Beemer Hypers (knocking out Arrow hypers) crushing everything else? Seems as if the only competitor to try and even compete with B&M would be Intamin, but as you've already seen in the past, not the best track record they have when it comes to reliability.

You must not go up to Kings Island all that much. I've ALWAYS seen families at the Island, even if it isn't the "family of four" that's supposed to be the standard these days. And I believed Paramount understood the family market was open all too well, otherwise the World's Best Kids Area award the park has had for close to ten years now would be somewhere else (although, to be frank, that was essentially more towards the younger set than the entire family) and we may have ended up like Worlds of Adventure with too many thrill rides installed in too few years without letting the general public get a chance to adjust to new surroundings. But I guess people just didn't like Paramount 'cause they wouldn't give us a Beemer or a Timmy.

Hey now, let's not make fun of good ol' Bon Bon Land, home of the Dog Fart Coaster.

And for that, a massive counterweight would have to be added to the opposite end of the arm to balance both ends out when it does go upside down. Now there IS a ride similar to what LongLiveKingsCobra is talking about, the Mondial Ultra Max: In fact, Mondial is the same company that built Delirium at Great America, known as the Revolution.

I used to think that it was the company as a whole that was the reason why most of the rides with theming have a majority of their effects broken or turned off. Now I believe it's the fault of the individual PARK as to why said rides have broken theming. Apparently, when Cedar Fair came in and started 'remodeling' areas and departments that they deemed needed to be 'fixed', they saw the one department in charge of repairing said special effects and said, "Eh, we don't need 'em!" (Although to be frank, said same department in the Paramount years was known for not repairing said effects, so you could say they let that department stay the same.) It makes less sense now that rides similar to ours with effects similar to ours from other parks (most notably the former Paramount Parks) have working effects or once not working/turned off effects now are on and fully working. Coincidentally, I remember that question someone asked on the 5@5 a while back about why the water splash effect wasn't on for BLSC, and the response was that you could see a much better one 50 feet away on Diamondback. Talk about a slap to the face involving an effect that's actually a part of the ride's THEME versus an effect that technically isn't even a part of that ride's theme (although, again, to be frank, there are snakes that wade through the water all cool-like, but I have yet to see a video of a snake snatching up a fish out of the water from up high like a bird).

I had a guy ask me a similar question underneath Diamondback, except he asks, "Do you guys sell brown pants?"

It's actually not Park Services but a maintenance crew (the name of the actual department escapes me, maybe Landscaping) that does the power washing in the mornings and at night.

And considering this is SpongeBob we're talking about, no brain is needed either!

Actually, both of those are nothing compared to Disneyland Paris' Phantom Manor: This is the best I could find. DLP's is very different as the second half does a complete 180 from what the stateside (and even the Asian) Mansions have. Instead of going through a graveyard and ending from there, Manor actually has you falling into an open grave and traversing underground catacombs before venturing through the underground town of Boot Hill (of which sank into the ground after a major earthquake).

Very true. But I don't think that FD should have new trains just take the money and dump it into the "new roller coaster for KI fund". LOL!!! There are those who think that is where the Flight Deck and Racer painting money went, along with the Son of Beast operations, maintenance and insurance fund... Last I heard, it was going into the CEO's paycheck. ^ No, the $4 dollar Cokes are going into the CEO's paycheck.

EDIT: Post deleted. Forget all what you've seen here.

Not to mention he went no sooner than it opened and everyone and their mother-in-law from Blairstown, New Jersey was there to partake in the Wizarding World. He does bring up an interesting point, though, about the lack of things to do in that area of the park. This isn't a full-blown theme park as some publicists have clearly misled a ton of people to believe; it's simply a re-theme of one of the islands and one brand-new attraction. Of course, that one brand-new attraction is ultimately groundbreaking and is set to "take theme park attractions into the next generation" (The same was said when Spiderman, and especially Indiana Jones, debuted. 15 years and only four clones later (six when you add in Curse of DarKastle and a Japanese knock-off), not so much.). This is essentially for the most die-hard fans of the book/movie series. Everyone else who either doesn't like the series or who haven't even heard or paid attention to it because they were too busy re-arranging furniture in their rock will just pass it off (save for the Forbidden Journey, which has to be ridden by everyone and their mother-in-law from Blairstown, New Jersey). But he also neglected to mention the fact that Disney only wanted to do a single attraction in their Disney parks and attempt to turn it into another corporate brand by installing clones at their other parks (see Star Tours and the Tower of Terror as perfect examples), to which J.K. simply said, "No." And I don't blame her; much to everyone's chagrin, I would've seen Disney run that franchise into the ground.

The thing is, what can they possibly do "bigger?" They hope this Fantasyland expansion will lure in the girls in the same way they think Harry Potter will draw in the boys. I think they're mistaken - Harry Potter is loved by boys, girls, adults, high schoolers, college students... Sure their Fantasyland expansion may be beautiful, but I don't think it's as marketable as Harry Potter. The other rumored that had swirled around for a while was that Disney was going to use the KUKA Arm technology to build a LOST ride. LOST is a great show, and a great adventure, but certainly not worthy of this multi-hundred-million-dollar technology. In short, what can beat Harry Potter? I don't know that many things can... Actually, Disney had planned for an Incredibles-themed ride centered around the KUKA robot arms back in 2005, but Universal gobbled up the exclusive technology for their own to be later used for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Plus, out of all of the properties ABC owns but aren't currently at a Disney park, LOST, IMO, just doesn't fit in with any Disney park. A series like that is way too mature and adult-oriented for families and/or children to comprehend/understand, much less hop on an attraction based off of it. That's like saying they should do a show based off of Desperate Housewives or Ugly Betty.

While waiting in line for Backlot Stunt Coaster, a girl hopped on the ride and didn't want to have to carry her bag. So, rather than give her bag to a ride op before they took off, she decides to give it to her friend waiting in line....as the car is taking off out of the station. Everyone in the station, ride-ops included, were just dumbfounded at what just happened. Another instance is where we were walking past Little Bill's Giggle Coaster (now Great Pumpkin Coaster) and we see a guy losing his hat over the purple rail and into the little garden area in betwixt the rail and the coaster. Rather than yell to the ride op that he lost his hat or find a Park Services employee to go get one of those metal pickers, he decides to hop over the rail to get the hat back. Unfortunately, he makes a misstep and falls head over heels onto the other side in front of hundreds of stunned onlookers (and before anyone asks, no, this isn't the same guy that hopped the Avatar fence to get his hat back before the ride began its cycle).

Don't forget Xcelerator, Sierra Sidewinder, and Pony Express. I also remember one of their old scare zones from their Haunt was drastically reduced when the Bullet came in '04 to a simple path (think what cornSTALKERS is now) because Reflection Lake was drained. I voted the two owners being equal to one another. Paramount/Viacom did a good job of theming their attractions and giving their parks some interesting new rides for their parks, even if they were prototypes and spent a good while sitting there broke (Stealth, Tomb Raider, Delirium, Hypersonic, etc.). Paramount also gave us such attractions as Flight of Fear, Drop Zone, Face/Off, Delirium, Italian Job, and the transition from WaterWorks to Boomerang Bay, along with FearFest and the short-lived return of Winterfest (even though they set the price too high and there wasn't that much to do, it was still an amazing experience to those who never got to experience it back in the day. Not to mention they added in another kiddie coaster to the kids area making it the best kids area in the world nine years running (soon to be ten if it wins it again this year). Cedar Fair did a really nice job of landscaping around the park, including getting rid of a majority of fencing around the park and making it feel much more open (aside from Rivertown's giant brown fence encompassing Diamondback, The Beast, and The Crypt). They also gave us two big-ticket coasters that have been a hit with guests and an attempt at revitalizing Tomb Raider by adding a new ride program and taking out a row of seats. Oh, and Planet Snoopy looks freaking INCREDIBLE compared to what it was when it was Nick Universe. And before I forget, to those complaining about Kings Island being dirty in the post-Paramount years, you guys are forgetting about how bad Cedar Point was a couple of years ago. Seriously, the Point from '02 to '07 made the Island look like Holiday World in comparison. Bathrooms were filthy, trash cans were overflowing all over the place, and very few Park Services employees were to be found anywhere. In fact, I remember the infamous pictures of one of my former managers standing next to a Point trashcan that was completely overflowing.