RingMaster

We're still reeling from the headache Cedar Fair kindly renamed as Firehawk, thank you very much.

Speaking of which, take a look at this, courtesy of Screamscape.... Park News - (7/24/07) We’ve heard a few rumors about this year’s FearFest at Kings Island. There will be changes this year to the event, though many of the haunts will return to the same locations, only with new names and themes. We’ve also heard that a Circus themed attraction will be kid friendly in the daytime, but upgrade into a full haunt at night. We’ve also heard that a new haunt attraction will be coming this year to “a part of the park that has been begging for a FearFest attraction.” It sounds almost too obvious that he's been checking the KICentral forums for these FearFest rumors. But still, this batch of rumors sounds neat. First off, sounds like the Circus of Horrors is coming back and is staying inside the old Enchanted Theater, but is pulling a Two-Face with a kid-friendly circus romp in the daytime (Sat. mornings & possibly all day Sunday), and transforming into the Circus of Horrors at night. The only question is if CF will completely redo the layout and scenery of Horrors to match this possible setup, or if they'll just leave the layout as it's been since 2001? From what I've heard (just rumors again), both PsychoPath and Headless Hollow may not be coming back this year. It makes almost perfect sense that PP is not returning because of Firehawk this year, and the fact that it would be total chaos come October when the lines for Flight of Fear, Firehawk, PP, and The Asylum happen to run into each other. It just seems a little bit awkward for HH to disappear this year, even though there were insane lines for both the train AND the maze; the idea that you had to get off the train and walk back to the main park was pretty cool. Finally, on that "new haunt attraction," I've got no clue as to what it's supposed to be, but I can only guess that either Action Zone or Nick Universe will house this attraction. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, Nick Universe would be perfect with that Nick Theater as a possible location. Perhaps a scary storybook-themed maze? Hopefully I can get all the details on what's going down on Friday at the Rehire Auditions, but that doesn't mean I'll spoil the entire event for you guys.

I'm going on the 27th as well for rehires, even though I haven't worked FF since '04 in Curse of the Crypt. I hope they'll let me back in as a Rehire, though; if not, then I'll be there on the 28th for regular Hires. I SO want to be a street monster this year.

Well, since Firehawk was installed during the offseason last year, and since KI was under CF management then, they should have put misters in the line along with more/better awnings. I definitely do NOT want to sound or be mean about this, and this is just an estimate, but don't you think that, after the almost 20th time a guest has fainted while waiting in line for Firehawk, management would be smart enough to install misters and fans in that line? And that one fan that was placed in the line a while back did NOT help either (there was a simple electric fan placed on the outskirts of the line by FOF that did nothing to ease the summer heat). EDIT: I'm sorry, I forgot to put this in there, but I hope the man, along with your daughter, will be alright.

Now by they, do you mean Paramount, or Cedar Fair? Because up until CF bought the parks, Tomb Raider still had a majority of their effects intact....you know, save the broken door and some of the lights on the Durma statue not working. Heck, even the FOG was still working last year, even with CBS at the helm. But now that CF's in charge, it seems as if they're just making excuses to get rid of every last bit of TR's theming and maybe just destroy the building along with it, making it a plain outdoor Top Spin like Firefall at Kings Dominion....without all the theming. Now can you understand the importance of theming when it comes to rides like Tomb Raider and Italian Job? Has anyone ridden IJ this year right after it opens back up from breaking down? All of the effects are shut off temporarily, along with the entire helicopter scene. That means you just sit there, for a good ten seconds, with NOTHING going on around you at all. No gunfire, no explosions, no water cannons, no NOTHING. I can only imagine how IJ and TR will ride at the end of the season if they decide they're not going to fix the effects or sound on the rides.

Name: Maniac Mansion Type: Indoor/Outdoor Roller Coaster/Dark Ride Style: Eurofighter (Gerstlauer) Speed: 49.62 mph (guestimate) Max. Height: 105 ft. Length of Track: 5,368 ft (guestimate) Length of Ride: 3 min 43 sec (guestimate) Location: Italian Job: Stunt Track/Swan Lake Area Slogan: Ready To Go Crazy? Description: Once a grand and beautiful Scandinavian mansion, and once the site of the popular children's show, Woody's Maniac Mansion, the show is now cancelled, the home now a dilapidated mess, and it now comes complete with a curse of an unusual sort, and is populated by creatures of a quite....different nature. Take a not-so-whimsical tour of the mansion now run by an owner of a completely different color-Woody the Pseudo-Homicidal Maniac-passing through one meaninglessly macabre room after another. It's a classic dark ride with a modern twist (several twists, to be exact!), and is something no person can pass up. Just like Woody says.....Ready To Go Crazy? Ride Storyboard: Coming soon .....I'm just really, really bored.

Yeah, just like there are only three Beemer Flyers in operation (Tatsu at SFMM, Superman: Ultimate Flight at SF:OG, and Air at Alton Towers), and, strange as it is, they're made by the most popular ride manufacturer out there, besides Intamin.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the ice.....

It's just sad how many coasters Cedar Point has and how little the other parks have (not counting the Paramount Parks). I mean, even though Great America hasn't broken the 10 Coaster Barrier, it still kinda fits in evenly with the other four Param. Parks....unlike Worlds of Fun, Michigan's Adventure, Valleyfair, Dorney Park, and Knott's Berry Farm amount which pales sorely in comparison to CP's 17 thrill rides. Note that Geauga Lake doesn't count because they need to downsize anyway. But, back to the poll, I would like to see Great America receive a new coaster; they need one BAD. And that Survivor Disk'o doesn't count.

If one was on Firehawk on Saturday with me, Amy, UncleHenry, Bill, and some other KICentralers on the ride, then the best part was the multiple ups and downs in the station. Dude, it was better than SpongeBob doing that.

I have no photos of Firehawk, but I can confirm that there are lockers that guests can put their items in by the ride. They took out a section of Flight of Fear's queue line and installed a few sets of lockers next to Hawk's entrance. Secondly, I noticed that both trains had their seats in the full upright position, so I'm assuming they've got the mechanics of the seats all down pat since they were doing test runs periodically. Finally, the Firehawk sign has been installed in front of the ride photo building, and some nice plants have been potted around the queue and entrance area. Oh, and those weird looking tarps have been put up too in the queue, like the ones in Tomb Raider's queue. It's really something look at; the entrance area looks beautiful even when you're 15 feet away behind the security gates.

Neither do I. That just sounded wrong on all accounts, so I'll shut up now.

The majority of gravel in the ride area is used as maintenance roads for the trucks to get back and forth to the station easily. And, trust me, there's very little gravel in the ride area....compared to the insane amount found on IJ. A few of us from P. Services had to help clean up around the ride area today, namely any large pieces of trash and excess pieces of metal off the ground. It was cool and scary being that close to the ride, as well as seeing how tall it is. Oh, and on the that final flyover before the double twist, the track gets very eerily close to a set of trees on the other side of the area, and also gets pretty close to the ground on the helix. So that should put to shame any doubts of Firehawk having no scenery interaction. PS: Hey Ryan, if another kid in a bright yellow shirt with glasses and black shoes walks up to you and passes idle chat and watches Firehawk testing alongside you, don't worry. That wasn't me. EDIT: Sweet. 500. 'K, I'm done.

EDIT: UncleHenry beat me to it, dangit. Well, the Cedar Point fanboys are about to receive their own Son of Beast-style loss, as the OnPoint! blog just dropped the ball and said the heartline roll portion of the ride has been axed in place of a simpler banked S-turn. Link goes here: OnPoint! Blog-May 17, 2007 Even though SOB is rough, the ride has gone SIX YEARS before finally having to give up its big ol' loop for a smoother ride. Maverick has YET to open and already it has to lose one of its inversions to give it a smoother ride through. Chalk that up as another hit against Intamin (Top Thrill Dragster, Kingda Ka, now Maverick) that I know of personally. Also interesting how many people complained about the threat of Firehawk not being able to make its Memorial Day weekend deadline, but automatically assuming that, OK, since it's Cedar Point, we know for sure that Maverick's going to be up and running once the park opens up. Even though Screamscape (whom you can't really trust most of the time) hinted at a possible delay three months ago but was knocked off too.

I take it gratuity's not included either, huh?

The Beast. At night. After a good raining. And foggy. QUITE foggy.

Plus, at the very end of the commercial for Firehawk you can get a good look at the X-Flight logo on the front of the train as it runs through its helix. Even though it races past kind of quickly, it's pretty easy to see. At least, for me, it is.

No they worked longer than that. ....like, three or four days. Give or take a day, if you rode it during its technical rehearsals.

This would almost be near impossible to attempt (at least I'm afraid it would be), but what if, using the track available if possible, to completely re-design the ride so that it resembles more of a merge between The Beast and The Voyage & Legend at Holiday World. You know, an out-and-back and twister combo with romps in the forest and dives in and out of its structure. I want to try and design this myself on paper and maybe recreate it in NoLimits once I buy the software. Doing it in RCT3 would be torture due to its severe coaster design limitations. Oh, and one more thing: would it be alright if the lift hill was cut short? I know that would kill its record of being the tallest on the planet, but I think it's thought and ingenuity behind the layout (blind turns, head-choppers, helixes, etc) that make a coaster great, not just the fact that, oh, it's the world's tallest coaster so that automatically makes any other coaster that doesn't come close to its height or speed inferior and not worth riding at all. Just look at Thunderhead, The Raven, The Legend, The Voyage, the upcoming Renegade at Valleyfair (I think), Zeus, Colossus, and Hades at that Karts & Koasters park.

I think he means the wires that were hooked up to the speakers that kinda used to work back in the day. Of course, I could be wrong.

OK.....bonus points for IJ 'cause they own an evil helicopter that enjoys taking pot shots at oncoming guests while riding.

Hey, at least Top Gun has TREES......

Ummm.....no. Just because it doesn't go over 100 feet or last longer than two minutes doesn't label it as a "mild roller coaster." And, if I may add, you forgot Face/Off, Drop Zone, Delirium, Flight of Fear, Tomb Raider, Coolangata Racer, and Tasmanian Typhoon as rides that have hordes of people clamoring to their entrances, even long AFTER their first season.

*cough*any Disney theme park you can think of along with Islands of Adventure and any theme park in Europe*cough*

I was under the assumption that the reason for the bright lights in the hangar were to keep people from line jumping when the room blacks out. Plus, the fact that TR's queue is so dark is that it helps with the theme of the ride. You would be surprised to hear how many people would complain about the flood lights being on ALL the time. But, yeah, they actually DO need to brighten up the cave with some atmospheric lighting like in the preshow room or the antechamber.