RingMaster

I got a chance to peek inside Cowboy Carnage early this morning, which is inside RVT Mining Company, and they pretty much have it almost finished in terms of construction. Although I must admit, it's a bit smaller than when it used to be inside the White Tent. Rumors are circulating that two mazes/midways could be overtaking Action Zone, and that the Paramount Theater could be a houser. Remember 2000's Pirate Jack and the Legend of Halloween? My guess is a new maze will debut in it's old spot. Of course, these are just rumors, and I could more than likely be wrong.

and note that the caption with the image notes the park name: Kings Island. That is all. That has been there since FearFest's incepteion in 2000, so it doesn't mean anything about Cedar Fair dropping Paramount from the park.

An idea for an admissions tax has been brought up before in the past by Mason, but if I'm not mistaken, they're already taxing Kings Island to begin with. Not to mention they put a restriction on PKI having fireworks after 10pm. Apparently, the town doesn't want loud noises after 10, which doesn't make sense, considering a good three-quarters of Mason lives far enough to where they can barely hear the fireworks. This is why last year, even with 11pm and midnight closes, the fireworks would only go off at 10. Of course, I could be wrong with all of this.

Go ride Joker's Jinx at Six Flags America, then come back to Kings Island and ride Flight of Fear, and you'll see how theming plays a big factor into the overall ride experience. I disagree with Italian Job's space as much as the next guy does; I would have rather seen it go in either DOT's place or where the Helicopter Pad is beside FOF. I also disagree with the overall theming and they could have done a much better job with it, or at least given the ride a nice, abstract view of L.A. But the fact that people bash it up and down because it doesn't go fast enough, or it doesn't go high enough, or it isn't long enough just ****es me off because everyone wants to jump on the Cedar Point/Six Flags bandwagon and say that every park should have a 300 foot Beemer racing through the park, and complain about each and every themed attraction built at PKI. God, I sound like a CP flamer now, but it pretty much sickens me that every coaster the 'Point builds gets tremendous praise for everyone (particularly those ACE folk), yet there have been numerous other coasters built with ingenious layouts and great uses of theming that are put aside by people who explain that, "Oh, this coaster can't beat Millenium Force because it doesn't go 300 feet," or, "Man, this coaster's fast, but it should be as fast as Top Thrill Dragster or Kingda Ka." And, sorry to reiterate this again, but, any one coaster in Europe, along with the coasters found in the two Busch Gardens parks and smaller, lesser known parks, are, in my opinion, better and more intuitive that Cedar Point's or Six Flags's brand of thrill rides: - Nemesis, Alpengheist, Montu & Black Mamba > Raptor & Batman: The Ride - Air > Tatsu - Stampeda, The Voyage, Raven, Legend, Hades, Lightning Racers, Thunderhead & Gwazi > Mean Streak & El Toro - Timber Tower, Tomb Raider: THE RIDE & FIREFALL, Ripsaw, Blade & Tower of Terror > Power Tower, maXair & SkyHawk ....okay, NOW I know I'm going to be hated by everyone here.

You know Cedar Fair usually contracts jobs like those to outside companies, and they actaually get done. No chair races at Cedar Fair parks. If that's the case, then there's no excuse for why they can't renovate Disaster Transport and repair the theming on it, let alone waste over a billion dollars buying five more parks with half of their attractions themed and themed well....for an amusement park of that caliber, at least.

How's THAT for a completely random topic? ...on a more serious note, recently I've been working the restrooms in Action Zone, along with the one at the entrance to Coney Mall from Bubba Gump's, so I always get a taste of the really awesome soundtrack the Shrimp Shack has to offer. So my question is this--other than "American Woman", "War", and "Fortunate Son", what are the other songs that are played at the Shack, particularly the Intsrtumentals/Blues that have me getting down with my bad self on the blacktop?

I've got a bad feeling that next year the park will see a big drop in attendance, now that School of Rock and the Nick Parade are gone, two of the BEST shows ever produced at Kings Island. Not to mention the threat of having the theming on IJ, Tomb Raider, and Flight of Fear diminished to "Cedar Fair standards". But I guess no one cares, now that everyone's crossing their fingers for a 300-foot Beemer or Intamin Rocket to ruin the skyline of the park and destroy an entire forest, instead of listening to some live rock 'n' roll or watching a really cool parade.

Not to mention we lost Bill Belfour, a key player in the Entertainment Dept. and the guy behind FearFest at PKI. Now management is having a fit over where to put The Asylum at (originally Maze of Madness), either under the Eiffel Tower or in the old red barn by FOF. Also, CF is good at having a TON of shows at Cedar Point, but it doesn't mean that any of them are.....well, good. I've got a hunch that next year we'll be seeing a ton more shows at the park, but not up to the quality we've seen from Magic of the Movies, School of Rock, Nick Celebration Parade, and Tuned In! I can only hope they really expand on our FearFest and make it better than its ever been.

Well, with Cedar Fair running things now, I highly doubt FearFest will be considered "family-oriented" this year. CF is the king of make-up artistry, making some of the most gruesome-lookin' monsters around, scarier than what Universal can come up with for their Halloween Horror Nights. I went every weekend except for the last weekend of the event, and I must say only Headless Hollow and Fear Street Nights disappointed me. Well, that and Line Control for PsychoPath. Other than that, I thought last year was the best Fest I had ever been to. ....... ....I just thought of something. Now that CF is at the head of the event, is there a possibility for blackouts within the maze as well as the ones at the entrance and exit? Blackouts are a key part of any Halloween Haunt maze, as they stand in certain sections and make certain the line of people coming through remains moving at a constant speed.

Better yet, see if you can go on Sneak Preview Night (or as I like to call it, Shriek Preview Night). Last year, there was almost no one there, so we went through every maze they had (a whopping nine, counting cornSTALKERS) at least twice. I can only hope that I can get some better footage of the mazes this year, like get some extended time in a certain spot in a maze, where I won't be seen by regular guests, but I'll still be able to catch them getting the crap scared out of them on film. But I don't think Management would allow it.

This probably explains why Geauga Lake had their Halloween Haunt stripped away from them, and why Valleyfair is now getting all of GL's spare parts in the form of ValleySCARE, because HH apparently drew people away from Cedar Point's HalloWeekends. I don't want to be a part of the 'I hate Cedar Fair' bandwagon, but a lot of their decisions are ones that I personally disagree with. Like the whole flagship park deal, for instance. Yeah, it's great that there's a park with a ton of coasters to ride (Cedar Point, duh), but if you add coaster after coaster every two to three years at one park, and you own other parks that get one coaster within a 4-5 year span, then there's something wrong. Another prime example is the debate over Knott's Halloween Haunt and Cedar Point's HalloWeekends. The Haunt has been around for 34, 35 years now, and it just keeps getting bigger and better, with very original concepts and ideas. Meanwhile, compare the 13 attractions that occupy the Haunt with the measly three at CP, yet upper managment feels that it should be necessary to rid Geauga of their first attempt at a Halloween event simply because they don't want to innovate CP's event. And I don't think budget/finances should be a problem here. If Cedar Fair can come up with $17 to $22 million every two years for coasters at Cedar Point and continue to innovate ONE Halloween event every year, then they certainly have enough money to repair the theming on the rides from the five parks they were able to cough up $1.24 billion for (off-topic, I know). Of course, I believe it was apparent that Cedar Fair was a little in debt prior to the acquistion of the Paramount Parks. But I doubt this little spiel of mine made any sense, so I'll shut up now.

And it's also pathetic how Cedar Fair has five other parks they didn't just buy recently with loads of space (more like four if you want to get technical) for 200-300 foot B&M hypers that seem to be the new 'IT' trend this season.

Pssst....I know. I saw pieces to Massacre Manor and some of the scenery areas to Coney Mall. Along with some new props I think might be for PsychoPath. Still, though, it's not entirely official that, just because there's cornSTALKERS parts over in CM, that it WILL be in CM. Last year, there were tons of spare parts to Curse of the Crypt in the white tent over by the Picnic Grove, but, come to find out, they put them up in the Maul as wonderfully done garden sets. It will be interesting what Cedar Fair will do with our FearFest. Right now, it's almost too late to pull a Halloween Haunt by building up the mazes right now (although they're beginning to clear out some building space right now). So they had better not make a HalloWeekends clone by only having three measly attractions (albeit using their White Water Landing as a maze). PKICentral.com -- Because PKI.com isn't informative enough.

Psst, guess what? Those "maniacs" that keep overtaking the Asylum are back at the Tower again. Found out yesterday on me birfday that cornSTALKERS is going in the red barn next door to FOF. Don't believe me? The white hangar tent thingy by FOF (where they originally held the Nick Parade floats) is now storage for cornSTALKERS set pieces. Basically, everything's in there except for some of the really BIG pieces (ie: cornSTALKERS sign, some of the big wagons). Massacre Manor put the axe on Fear Street Nights as Manor is now in the games building in Coney Mall. Apparently, either they're going to use Fear Street's old facade (and make it scarier) or make an all-new facade that will look similar to the Halloween Haunt's 13 Axe Murder Manor facade, a truly GORGEOUS house to look at: 13 Axe Murder Manor Review -- Theme Park Adventure Got a peek inside the Mining Company building. Completely empty. And dark. It's a large, yet small, space for a maze, like the space used in Festhaus for the Circus of Horrors 3D maze. There's still talk of possibly using Wings as part of Cowboy Carnage, though. But with Massacre Manor and cornSTALKERS now in Coney Mall, now there's a rumor that PsychoPath and Headless Hollow might switch spots. Although I would doubt it, seeing as how they pretty much leave the PsychoPath pieces up along that trail year-round. As for the other two mazes/midways, I still have no idea where those two are going. And it's still up in the air over whether or not Action Zone will become a scare zone. Any ideas from anyone else that "knows" what's goin "down" at the "Fest"?

And then take the same area. Rip out all signs of vegetation. Toss some gravel, concrete and steel in and you have Italian Job. Ohhhh The Humanity! How could we have sacraficed one of the most beautiful areas of the park to put that ride in! Repeat process to all of the park. Take out almost all of the trees and add concrete walkways and 300-400 foot tall coasters with major downtime to the mix. Include bad entertainment (excluding the Halloween Haunt at KBF) and high season pass and parking prices. And what do you get? ....shouldn't be TOO obvious.

Yeah, the themed version looks MUCH better than the one with no theme to it. Where exactly did you find that, or is that confidential information? I only hope that if it is a themed attraction, Cedar Fair won't try to ruin it by de-theming the ride in any way just because they don't like the idea of mixing roller coasters in with special effects and neat theming.

...of course, some of Entertainment's decsions for this year's FearFest have left me somewhat disappointed. But at least I have an idea of what's going where, what's new and what's coming back. Trust me on this one, FearFest is gonna be HUGE, maybe even the size of the Halloween Haunt at Knott's Berry Farm. Perhaps there's a chance for another (and hopefully better) attempt at SHRIEKshow this year?

The reason for them being open on only weekends is due to them hiring minors (16 and 17-year-olds), who can't work past a certain hour on school nights, usually midnight. And due to what I had to go through when working in Curse of the Crypt in '04, it's almost certain that a majority of people won't get off work until 1 or 2 in the morning. All they would need to do is raise the age to 18 years of age and then they'll be able to open up during the week.

This is the reason why I'm scared of Cedar Fair and their mentality towards Cedar Point. It is eerily similar to Six Flags and their mentality towards Magic Mountain as MM was, in a sense, their flagship park. Both parks have added major coasters every two years, I believe, with the exception of this year, as CP is preparing for a new coaster in 2007: 2000: -Millenium Force (CP) -Goliath (MM) 2002: -Wicked Twister? (CP) -X/Deja Vu (MM) 2003: -Scream (MM) 2004: -Top Thrill Dragster (CP) 2006: -TATSU (MM) But, unfortunately, extreme debt and severe drops in attendence has caused SF to put it up for sale. Just like Combat said, CP's suffering a slight attendance drop over Kings Island, and I've even done research and found out that CP's water park has received a drop in attendance the past two years over Great Wolf Lodge's indoor water park. Ten years ago, yeah, it was all about higher, faster, bigger, and better. But, I believe, 1999 changed all of that. Three words can explain what I mean: Islands....of....Adventure. The perfect blend of high-speed thrill rides (HULK, Dueling Dragons, Dr. Doom's Fearfall) and groundbreaking themed attractions (Spiderman, Poseidon's Fury, Cat in the Hat, Ripsaw Falls) is what caused the gigantic switch from just thrill-seekers to almost just families. Disney, even, is keeping a close eye on their "thrill rides" so that they're not too intense so that it'll only appeal to one particular audience (Expedition: EVEREST, Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, California Screamin'). So what if it's a two-minute joyride? I had more fun going through an ancient Temple of the Forbidden Eye with a certain Indiana Jones, dodging spike traps, fire, and the occasional boulder in two minutes, than riding in a regular coaster car around a bunch of concrete for two minutes. And I only had to wait a little over an hour just to ride Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland. It was a good two and a half hours to ride Millenium Force the day we went, just going back and forth in a boring line. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lastly, you'd be surprised just how many kids watch Nickelodeon. It's unheard of. And the reason for Hanna-Barbera Land's passing was due to their contract being up in 2009 or 2010. They HAD to change kiddie land, and it just so happened that Nick is a VERY popular franchise. I see more families that come back to the park than I do thrill-seekers. And I've worked at the park for three years now (although there are those here who have worked longer, so I'll shut up on that part). And, trust me, you would NOT want to ride Tomb Raider outside in the heat that we had today; the heat index was 105 degrees. And it would be a completely different experience for Flight of Fear if it was all outdoors. Drop Zone and Face-Off have hour-long waits every day during the week (longer waits on the weekends). ....and that's all I got. Sorry for the big long post. I go bed time now.

^ Or three other spots on the site. ...and then maybe go to a different thread with the same topic, and then they'd go, "Wait, I just read this!" And then they'll go back and forth between three different threads over the same topic and be all confewzuled and stuff like that.

You can actually go to PKIAsylum.com and they have a massive database of songs from Kings Island, including the ride soundtrack to Tomb Raider, both with and without the voice-overs and added effects, the soundtrack to Flight of Fear and Top Gun, and last year's Nickelodeon Celebration Parade. *NOTE: The songs are for personal enjoyment only. So no making attempts to sell the songs to other peeps on the Net. This explains the random flashes of light from where the fog's supposed to come out when you're hanging upside down. Can someone explain to me why they have yet to add the fog back into the ride? And none of that "they used it all up during FearFest" crap; the School of Rock show uses fog for their performance (too much if you ask me).

Again, no point in tearing apart your post, 'cause, to me, it sounded right. You'd actually be surprised. Kings Dominion had COTC as well, and I believe they got rid of it as well to support Sleepy Hollow. Um, I've got some ideas of my own, but it's gonna be a really BIG list, so forgive me right now. Headless Hollow (Picnic Grove) 200 years after Washington Irving's infamous tale of the Headless Horseman, the legend of Sleepy Hollow lives on. The once quiet and pristine Western Woods are now covered in blood from grisly murders both old and new. The nearby Van Tassel estate serves a disturbing collection of decapitated corpses, including the distraught cornfields inhabited by possessed scarecrows and farmhands. And a familiar enemy stalks his old prey and new arrivals foolish enough to trespass his haunting grounds, on foot....and on horseback. ^ A little description of the Picnic Grove area. -Basically, the main path into PC would house cornSTALKERS, which would also include monster pumpkin-monster-thingys and evil corn. Don't ask, I just make these things up as I go along. -A somewhat new maze, but it's acutally a maze from Kings Dominion's FF, entitled Blood Shed, would be in that first big shelter you see as you're walking along the path (Fred or Scooby-Doo shelter), and its facade and building shape would resemble a big red barn (obviously). -Massacre Manor would be towards the end of PC, but not at the very end (Jetson or Quickdraw shelter) and it would have a massive facade in the form of a Southern Belle mansion all torn-down and bloodied up. -Then, the woods area (have yet to come up with a name for it, any suggestions?) would take up the very back of PC and go through the maintenance road in between River Adventure and Runaway Reptar, to help keep Guest Control down a lot, what with people entering HH through cornSTALKERS and then leaving through the wooded area. More later, my brain just fried.

I'm stuck between the Son of Beast and Beast signs. I would enjoy SOB's sign better if it was animated (the box started moving and shaking, lights start going off, fog erupts, and two red, glaring eyes appear inside the box).

The only reason they don't have 15 year olds work FearFest is because of severe minor violations. They can't work past 7:00 when school's in session, and I remember several times when we wouldn't get off work until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.

No point in tearing apart StXsteven's post 'cause, to me, what you said was right. Excluding Massacre Manor, cornSTALKERS, that Gauntlet thingy, and the Maze of Madness monster, FF 05 was a dud. I blame the majority of it on maze management for thinking that having one huge line go through the entire maze was a good idea. This, of course, happened in Maze of Madness, Headless Hollow, PsychoPath, and that Fear Street Nights maze (originally House of Darkness). Manor was darkened down last year, but that made it an even scarier experience. Of course, it was still as beautiful last year as when it opened the year before, you just couldn't see a lot of the maze interior. Really, the idea of Sleepy Hollow as a theme would have been scarier had they innovated more and not stuck to cheap gags (I.E.: monsters with their throats slit). I, for one, would have LOVED to see the Headless Horseman ride on an actual HORSE through Rivertown, though it would be nearly impossible to pull off with the October crowds. As for Headless Hollow, it would have been better if they moved the train stop up to the Boomerang Bay station rather than have it at the Pumpkin Patch station, and had utilized the Picnic Grove path as the backdrop for HH. It would cut the wait for the train in half. See, my idea would be to have the Picnic Grove be the location for Sleepy Hollow, utilizing both the Picnic Grove path and the employee path in between Nick Theater and River Adventure as entry/exit points for the zone. This way, several of the Picnic Shelters could be used for mazes; they're certainly large enough, aren't they?