Gordon Bombay

I was not referring to the flip down "buzz" bars once found on Beast and Racer but the individual restraints now featured on the rides. The individual restraints that replaced the buzz bars lasted untill 2005 and were replaced by newer, and more thick, individula restraints for the 2006 season. Towards the end of the 2005 season the last car of Beast's train 3 was outfitted with the newer restraints painted black. In 2006 they were on all trains and all orange.

The photos form last off season where everyone is taking pictures on and around the track was from the winter meet up the park held, people had permission to be around the track. I however, decided to stay inside where it was warm and there was food.

At first before I had read the article I thought "I bet the smokers are exaggerating and were unruly or something" turns out that really is the policy. No strikes, no tolerance, light up and your out... Glad to see a more firm stance on the policy but maybe this is a little too extreme? I personally don't smoke but often attend KI with people who do and who always go out of their way to get to the designated areas and do see a lot of people using them more than I used to.

Actually they are the same trains. Racer and Beast's current trains are built upon the original chasis that once supported the 4 row cars, they were just modified, given some newer parts that were manufactured by PTC. The fronts of the trains, the bumpers on the rear, and a lot of other things are all original. In 2006 both Beast and Racer received newer restraints.

The turkey legs at the park are very good, im glad to see KI offering these now. Dont forget they're also offering sausages in Coney Maul over across from X-base.

Does CF have the right to put Peanut's in the former paramount parks?

I got an email about this the other day and was really, really glad to hear the news. That drive-in is an excellent, cheap alternative to seeing movies in some of the larger places like the massive Springdale theatres and run down Hamilton ones. I like his ideas of showing classic movies and black and white movies, while still showing first run films on the weekends. He's also keeping up the tradition there for showing horror film classics! Its good to see that Ohio will not have yet another abandoned drive in like The Oakley Theatre in cincinnati... At one point Ohio had the most drive in theares of any state. If you haven't been to the Holiday Auto Theatre, I highly reccomend it. Its open year round! http://www.holidayautotheatre.com/

First off, I would like to apoligize for how late this topic is. These photos were taken back in August and meant to be up back then. However, my school's internet up in Athens doesn't like allowing me to upload to the KIC gallery. This means, i have to come home to cincy to do it. So it's 5 in the morning, I'm glad to be home and I have some interesting news to share with you all about a former KI ride... As many of you know, the Wild Animal Habitat once featured the "Lion Country Safari" mono rail ride built by Bombardier, which took park guests on a tour of various wild animals in simulated habitats. The monorail was removed in 1993 along with the rest of the Wild Animal Habitat in order for the area to be re-themed as "Adventure Village". In the mid 90's local businessman "Jungle" Jim Bonaminio, owner of Jungle Jim's International Food Market in Fairfield, Ohio, known for their unique shopping experience and use of theming as well as 12 animatronics withing the store, purchased the monorail cars along with some other items from Kings Island. For awhile the cars sat in a boneyard behind the stores shipping area untill 2003 when a major expansion of the store was complete along with the aquisition of aditional property. Jungle Jim has had plans for the monorail all along and those plans are no starting to take shape! In 2005 this building was completed.... -This will be the main station for the monorail and features 2 maintenance bays and a sidetrack area to accomidate the entire fleet of monorail trains. The new monorail station currently sits quietly with 5 trains on its sidetrack... ...while a 6th train was put on display right by Rt. 4: In winter of 2006, supports started popping up for the new monorail all around the parking lot as seen here... But it wasn't untill this summer that actual track began to spring up... Construction has been going on for quite some time, seeming to pick up then stop suddenly. When asked for specific dates as to when the monorail will open or specific detail; the Jung Jims website offers only this answer to this frequently asked question: Speaking of construction of the landing above starbucks... A friend of mine is having her wedding reception this December at the Oscar Event Center, a part of the Jungle Jim's complex. According to her, guests are instructed to park their cars out by the main monorail station at the rear of the parking lot (as featured in this topic's first photo) where they will board a special leather seat clad monorail for a ride to the entrance above starbucks... So we could potentially be seeing a piece of KI history alive again by December in Fairfield Ohio! Many questions however still remain, such as... -Upon it's completion, what times will the monorail operate? -Will there be more stations? -Is the monorail for the event center and its guests only? -What will the monorail be named? As far as when the monorail will operate and who wil be permitted to ride it (in terms of customers and event guests) is yet to be seen as the store will hopefully soon make details more clear. As far as more stations, I have heard multiple things. Back in 2005 I worked for my neighbor helping to paint the parking lines and symbols in parking lots. Jungle Jim's was always the biggest job we got in the summer as they always had a massive section of parking lot that needed to be painted each year. My neighbor and I had the oppourtunity to discuss with one of their managers some potential details of the monorail. According to him they were looking into doing a station above starbucks, the station out back by the rear parking lot, and a station that connected to the wine cellar area of the store. This could mean a third landing could be in the works although it should be noted that the wine area is not located very far from the starbuck's landing. However, as of the time this photos were taken the exact outline of the monorails path is yet to be seen. Hopefully I can snag some more photos since I'm home for the weekend. As to what the name of the ride will be, there seems to be two names! The train on display by Rt. 4 is painted orange and labeled as "Foodie Land". Seen here... *a "foodie" is a nickname for an avid shopper/enthusiast of the store. While two white painted trains out on the sidetrack have the names "World of Food" painted on their sides... I'm anxious to see some full details come from the store soon and hopefully get some of these questions answered! I cant wait to ride this KI classic in my own backyard. What do you guy's think about the monorail and expansion of Jungle Jim's? To learn more about Jungle Jim's check out their website here. To see the rest of the construction photos as well as another old KI friend who now resides at Jungle Jim's click here.

lol, well maybe you should read the entire post as some of your questions have been answered already. Brakes were never added to The Beast, just modified. The Beast has ALWAYS had trim brakes, just different forms. It used to have what were called "skid" brakes, these were removed in favor of using magnetic brakes to reduce maintenance costs. The magnetic brakes do brake the ride a lot quicker than the "skid" brakes did and regulate the ride to move at the same speeds. Where has it been said that Beast is getting worse? You work in ent. for HH not wood coaster maintenace dont you? The Beast has never been better.

Dont the ones at places like SFKK and Great Adventure though have other special effects? I didn't think they were the same iwerks theaters. Also, last time I was at Carowinds, 7th portal was playing, so we passed it up. I shtier iwerks theatre the same size?

I had no idea the zoo was even building such a thing. I remember the one at GL being pretty lame, that robots of mars movie was the hardest storyline i ever had to follow of any ride like that and it was just awful. Honey I shrunk the audience at Epcot is awesome though. I think this is a great investment for the zoo. The zoo has so much history and its great to see it expanding and still doing good these days. I like this quote from the article in particular... You really dont see any theatres similar to the one KI and Carowidns have. Makes you wonder how much long they'll stay around, especially after watching how aged films likve Elvira and Spongebob have become.

Actually I was not joking, the current Beast trains are still using the original chassis from 1979 and have been substantially modified over the years. A lot of the current parts on the trains are original and authentic.

Correct, the trains on Beast are still the original trains, they have just been modified over the years in many ways.

Speaking as someone who does a lot of filming and video editing, the public generally doesnt notice and if they do they dont hold any grief towards the park. It's not that they're too cheap but theres not really a need to do such a thing like go out and film Firehawk with its different colors, color editing effects can be used in programs like Adobe Finalcut Pro to make X flight appear as Firehawk, this was done in early ads for Firehawk. Was the whole commercial filmed at Geauga Lake? I dont get KI ads here in Athens.

Reminds me of when we went to GL in 05... Gordon Bombay... "Aww come one guys lets try it one more time! When are ever gonna come here again? Bill, I know your ribs hurt from the last rides, this time we wont sit on a wheel!" "Oh, you HAVE to sit on a wheel.....darn". I prefer the back seat on SOB with its old trains over Villain.

I really hope Cedar Point has found a success in Maverick both as a marketing tool to draw guests and as a successful attraction, id love to see a similar idea at KI. Maverick has become my favorite rollercoaster up there since visiting back in June. Its only negative point is those darn restraints doing a number on your neck.

I said this some time ago..I cannot imagine turning that into a stadium..I mean I lived right off the Lawrence expressway (off hwy 101) from 1988-1992, and that place was a traffic nightmare then. I cannot imagine moving the niners there...and let me tell you, back then it was a really big deal...the amount of support from the whole bay area....I am trying to imagine how it would work..seriously, except if it was 3 am, 101 is darn near impassible due to congestion from there clear to san fran. kwind, Judging from your experience on driving out there, is there room to expand the highway or improve the infrastructure? I know that may have been awhile ago but has it improved in recent years and do you think theres room to improve that stretch of highway? I liked in that article when he mentions the idea of an NFL theme park and getting Daniel Snyder (Owner of the Washington Redskins and Chairman of Six Flags) involved for an NFL theme park. If the NFL/49er's funded such a theme park do you think they would possibly try to reach an agreement with Six Flags to manage the park similar to how Paramount Park's managed Bonafante Garden's but didn't necesarily own the park? With the way Shapiro has been leading Six Flags, that could work out nice!

Cedar Fair, while they did do a few cosmetic improvements this year has not restored any of the theming better than PP did, Tomb Raider operated for about a month with the house lights on and no special effects working. IJ:ST still doesnt have the lightbulbs on the cars working. The helicopter on IJ had one of the machine gun lights burnt out as well as a main one on the billboard when Boddah and I went opening weekend of Halloween Haunt. Many of the animatronics at the end of Adventure Expres had their eyes burnt out last weekend and the main guy at the end had no sound or lights and hasn't all season. So what made you think CF fixed all that theming? Glad to see ya back Tuskin!

Back during opening weekend of Halloween Haunt this year, CoastersRZ pointed out to me that the price of soda in the machines has gone down since the begging of this year. He probably knows the exact price, I cant remember off the top of my head.

Most of the rides should be open, except scrambler as joe pointed out and TRTR which is closed for the rest of the season.

From what I understand, their plan will have them paid off in 2012. Something Jeff Putz over at Coasterbuzz has been saying. Take it for what it's worth. With all due respect to Mr. Putz and his site but where has this been confirmed by Cedar Fair? So far in their conference calls they haven't given an accurate estimate let alone much indulged us in what their exact plan is? While Mr. Putz could be right, I certainly dont see where he's getting that information from.

Where is tomb raider theming being used for HH?

Actually, as of now they are not testing any of the former GL wood coaster train on any KI wooden coaster.

Shelly, check your PM inbox, i sent you a message in regards to your question that will hopefully help. Also, theres no reason to type in all caps Check out the front page article where you can see photographs and video from the event that may offer you a taste of what you will encounter at Halloween Haunt.

Or even just a classic log flume would be a nice fit at that park. I'd love to see a nice wooden coaster or log flume appaer at Coney. Kind of turn Coney into a Holiday World that I can enjoy.