RingMaster

...with Canada's Wonderland raking in the most people in the world, I believe. Or not, but I don't remember.

Remember, WWL just recently got torn down so CP can start up on their 2007 project. And yes, WWL was a maze, known as WEREwolf Canyon. They pretty much used the ride portion of it so guests could walk through its trench and get the crap scared out of them by werewolves. EDIT: Oh, NOW you decide to edit your post, TOPGUN.

Which was a reason why I didn't want CF buying Kings Island. I doubt anyone knew about this, but Geauga Lake had a Halloween event of their own named the Halloween Haunt (as a nod to KBF's Haunt) that had its first-year run last year. Unfortunately, the higher-ups decided to axe the event after last year because they believed the HH would stray too many people from HalloWeekends at Cedar Point. Pretty much, CF's Halloween events run exactly the same as Cedar Point being their flagship park--Knott's Scary Farm is the flagship Halloween event and the other events lack in KSF's amazing attention to detail and number of mazes (HalloWeekends has an astounding THREE mazes...make that two now that White Water Landing is gone). Which is why I was originally rooting for CF to buy the parks, because I figured that the guys who made the Halloween Haunt amazing would help make our FearFest one-of-a-kind.....until I saw what they did with CP's HalloWeekends and getting rid of GL's Haunt. Don't believe me (I know I don't make any sense right now)? Look up pictures of both Knott's Scary Farm and HalloWeekends, and see where the money and attention to detail go.

But one question still bugs me: Can we at least be certain that CF will maintain and upkeep Paramount Parks' themed attractions (Survivor, IJ:ST, Tomb Raider, Hollywood Stunt Spectacular, etc.)? From what I've heard, Cedar Point's Disaster Transport is utter crap now. Will this mean they won't even bother to fix what was wrong with the effects on TR:TR, IJ:ST, and FOF?

Two of the BEST live shows I've seen at Kings Island, duh.

"But I'm not saying that the ride ops suck for not doing that. All the ride ops are cool (props to Beast and Vortex crews); I'm just, you know, lost on the whole cleaning up bit." ^That's why I put that in there. Nearly every ride operator is very friendly and cool, unlike a few members of Ecology. "...except get a couple of ladders and some Swiffer broom thingys and clean up the UFO." Hence, the reason for the long reach of the Swifer broom thingys.

It's probably because the hangar area is too dark for guests to see where the trash cans are located at. Either that or they're just lazy. The ride ops at TR:TR may need to add a few cans inside the cave portion of the queue, that is, of course, if they aren't already in there. It would help reduce the amount of trash in there dramatically. ...Pending the guests have gotten smarter in their trash-throwing abilities.

For the record, that area gets cleaned every single day. Obviously the gum and coins cant be picked up every night, but any trash down there is from that day and that day only. You could've told me that before I said anything, yo.

....but you still gotta admit Avatar is one heck of a ride.

From a technical standpoint, the Eco sups tell us not to, and that it's the responsibility of Rides to clean up the queues, but it really doesn't stop the few of us that actually care about how a ride looks.

And I'm surprised the ride ops at TR:TR don't bother walking through the cave with a pan & broom and sweeping up all the trash that's accumulated over the years. Or why the ride ops at FOF don't do the same thing in the hangar, except get a couple of ladders and some Swiffer broom thingys and clean up the UFO. Or why the ride ops at Racer don't bother walking through Racer's brake station with chewing gum remover and scrapers in their hands either before the park opens or after the park closes. But I'm not saying that the ride ops suck for not doing that. All the ride ops are cool (props to Beast and Vortex crews); I'm just, you know, lost on the whole cleaning up bit. I would love to stay after the park closes and actually help clean up TR:TR and FOF considering I'm in Ecology, but I'm fearful that I might get in trouble or no one else wanting to help out. I'm almost tempted to walk into TR:TR's cave and sweep up myself once our crew gets assigned to the area, but I think I might get in trouble for that as well.

Like Bodda mentioned, I never knew that the Durma statue was supposed to light up to form an evil glow until I saw both Opening Day photos and videos from the Travel Channel. Technically, turning off all the light and audio effects happened about three weeks ago on the Sunday where it was raining off and on. I had gotten off early because we only had less than 2,000 people in the park, and had ran over to TR:TR before the park closed. They had both the triangle door and secret entrance door open so peeps could just walk all the way through the queue. Then the ride ran and for the first ten seconds they had the fog lights on and the music and effects off. Me and my friend yelled for them to turn it back on, which it did right before you're about to do your first backflip. Unfortunately, they still had the fog lights on, which ruined the experience. All in all, even though there were hardly any people at the park (and there were only 9 of us total on TR:TR), it still bothered me that they pulled a stunt like that. Think of a person who rode it for the very first time in a condition like THAT, and everyone else had told them the ride was awesome with pitch black areas and cool music and a cool pre-show area thingy.

Entech Creative Industries ^THIS company. Premier built the coaster track and the majority of its scenery, Entech is the one who set up the helicopter attack sequence. Entech Portfolio ^Portfolio of some of Entech's past projects leading up to IJ:ST. ...so you're saying that one company started production on IJ:ST, and then Premier fired that team and hired a new one, therefore screwing the ride up? More like how many commercials for Cedar Point's SkyHawk have you seen lately, and compare that to how many commercials for Kings Island's Nick Universe have aired lately? EDIT: RZ beat me to it.

Ummm, thats not what is broken first off. Second, let me hit a few rides that are "falling apart": Express: Modifications have been made over the last two offseasons to that ride to make it sound almost as good as TRTR. FOF: Except for the vandalism on that ride, really the theming has not gone down at all. Minus of course the modified video. So stop throwing stuff on top of the saucer and we will be alright. IJST: Dont get me started on this POS. Maybe if the origional installers actually did their job (outside contractors BTW)..... NU: Its a kiddie area. Not many kiddie rides are perminently installed anyway, so whats the beef? TRTR: Expense. Lets just say that the companies decided to use the "top of the line" Grade A cr*p on that ride. So basically to get a basic effect to work, the park needs to spend 5k for the part. Im done ranting now. Time to go back to my hole. Would you believe that the guys behind the special effects for IJ:ST are the same ones behind the special effects for MIB: Alien Attack, Jaws AND Jurassic Park: The Ride? PPI is cheap, and it shows with past projcts from ride manufacturers and landscapers. What ****es me off is how much money and effort they put into TR:TR and then discarded it to save money. TR blew people away with the amount of scenery and gadgetry it had. Now, there's possible threats of all of the preshow being axed and guests just walking single file through the still beautiful interiors like waiting to ride any other PKI attraction. And all it needs are some new light fixtures and more fog! (From what I've been told, last year's FearFest used up all of the fog from both IJ:ST and TR:TR; they're just too lazy to buy more, or make new, fog.) And what happened with IJ:ST to the point where they gave up on fixing the attraction? What I mean is that the subway stair effect which, I'm guessing, was supposed to be installed last July, has been axed completely, along with attempts to fix the onboard audio and headlights/tail lights, and the helicopter that, instead of flowing smoothly like a real helicopter, moves like a badly-assembled robot that needs some WD-40. Granted, this was the same attraction the park overhyped on, putting the spectacular School of Rock LIVE! show and the amazing second season of the Nick Celebration Parade behind them. (Technically, Fearfest also suffered from being pushed behind the overhyped Winterfest, yet FF had tons more things to do than December's holiday event.) Son of Beast and TR:TR are two perfect examples of why PP needs to take risks when coming up with attractions. The ideas worked, and they need to do it more often. Unfortunately, it's too late now, so I hope that whoever buys PKI cares more about the quality of an attraction more than how much it costs to actually make it (even though it takes money to build a ground-breaking attraction ). PS: One more thing, then I'll shut up; for those that say that the fact that they have five parks to manage is the reason why their budget's screwed up, look at Disney. They have twice as many parks as we do (11 to be exact), yet they pulled off the beauty that is both Expedition: EVEREST and the ENTIRE Tokyo DisneySea. And both Disney and Paramount are multi-billion dollar corporations as Alien Seed put it.

Completely Random Topic: I found the group who produced some of the scenery items in Nick Universe, a company called Heavy Industries: Heavy Industries Now I know that Paramount Parks is cheap when looking at some of the past projects HI has done, and the items that they did for PKI (most noticeably, the facade for Jimmy Neutron and pagoda for Avatar).

Second that motion. Either a re-theme to Soundwave (with emphasis put into rock and roll, of which Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, AC/DC come to mind) or War of the Worlds (the original 60s flick or book to avoid licensing rights with Steven Spielberg) would do well for me.

....I heard that the park is going to be open this Saturday and Sunday.

WARNING: The following post may offend some by the use of retheming certain attractions and areas, or removing certain attractions and areas. Hollywood Plaza (Int. Street) 1) Retheme the front gate area to resemble the entrance to the actual Paramount Studios, with a big fountain and statue of a movie crew (a'la Universal Studios) in front of the entrance. 2) Re-open the International Restaurant and rename it the Hollywood Dine-In. 3) Re-do the facades of the I-Street shops to resemble those of the actual Hollywood Boulevard/Rodeo Drive. 4) Take out the Emporium, Funnel Cakes, Woodworks, and Festhaus and replace it with a SDATHC-esque dark ride called Magic of the Movies: The Ride. 6) Take out the Paramount Story and replace it with a retheme of Viking Fury to the Titanic film (sans DiCaprio and Winslet) with a cool pre-show and queue area. 7) Put in the movie stone-thingys from Paramount Story in the new pathwork along the plaza. Well....that's all I've got for now.

....dang flaw-noticing fanboys.

...Will it be themed as "The Olsen Twins: 21 & Totally TRASHED!"?

They gave descriptions of the different attractions, but failed to mention where they actually were on the map, which was stupid. I don't think the vast majority of people that went last year even realized there had been more stuff added to it. It was probably due to the hype of Winterfest last year.

This may be a bit stupid-sounding, so any form of harsh criticism is accepted : International Street Re-name the area to Hollywood Plaza. Re-design the front gates to resemble more of the entrance to the actual Paramount Studios, with a nice, large fountain on the circular patch of land in front of the metal detectors. Transform the old International Restaurant into a Kings Island Museum of sorts, giving a history of the park from its inception in 1972 to the present day. Have the shops/eateries on I-Street changed to look like the buildings on the real Hollywood Boulevard and Rodeo Drive. Add a bridge connecting the opposite ends of I-Street from Graeter's to the Woodworks. Move the Grand Carousel to Coney Mall (more on that later) and put in a dark flat ride similar to SDATHC w/o the light guns where Paramount Story/Oktoberfest Restrooms/It's Fried/Sports Store are, with the name "Paramount's Magic of the Movies: The Ride." Re-theme Viking Fury to the Titanic flick (sans Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet). Re-theme the Festhaus to the Back Lot Diner being put in over at PCW. Finally, add in more foliage to make up for lost scenery, and put the movie markers originally in Paramount Story along the main paths in Hollywood Plaza as a part of re-paving the paths. Umm....I'd have more, but I haven't come up with anything else yet for the other areas of the park yet.

...It's like saying Italian Job: Stunt Track is better than FOF because it cost more to build and has all these neat little bells and whistles that go along with it. ....well, ALMOST like saying that.

1) Along with new shows and new additions to seasonal events (can you say bigger FearFest this year? ) 2) Don't forget the Avatar coaster--the grown man's reason to stay more than 20 minutes in Nick Universe. 3) Dude, you just totally forgot the most important ride added in over the past several years...Ghoster Coaster. Seriously, though, SOB is a great ride, along with TR:TR, Delirium, and FOF. 4) Also known as "The Area With Little To No Shade In The Form Of Trees That Has Some Of The Wildest Rides On The Planet." 5) Which now looks beautiful with the added scenery, and will look even better once the foliage grow into fully-sized adult trees. 6) Props to us Ecology folk. Don't forget the recent addition of two of the best shows I have seen that haven't come from Disney or Universal--School of Rock LIVE and the Nickelodeon Celebration Parade. Based on all the rumors being speculated and the looming shadow of PKI's 35th anniversary and CoasterCon XXX (at least I think it's 30), 2007 proves to be the year for one hell of a coaster experience.

....um, SOB had been closed down since mid-October last season, and they had said that the ride was undergoing re-tracking and wouldn't open up until the end of Spring. It surprises me that guests complain about SOB being too jerky and too rough, and then they complain when it's not open or not working. Geez, the reason it's closed is because they're making the ride BETTER so that guests won't have to complain about the ride being too rough.