Outdoor Man

flight deck ever going to get some :"striking" colors- or will it be faded gray and rust for several more years?

i believe they call that "WindSeeker"

want to ride a giga... go north about 5 hours.

a classic instance of the medicine potentially worse than the illness. That image of the ladder apparently fully extended made me queesy just look at it, knowing they were 95 feet in the air for it: next stop, the ground! imagine the safety violations on that one today...

here's a flashback... why of all days does cincinnati.com post this??? http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=AB&Dato=20120123&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=201230802&Ref=PH

neither. if we get something new... don't let it be (and only be) something over 40 years old. Also, I have a feeling with the new direction of CF, the Hyper and Giga days may be over- for a while anyway. For 2013 I foresee a heavily themed family attraction arriving, and maybe plans for development of an area that may all of a sudden lose a large wooden structure. I think SOB was safe under the direction of Kinzel, who had a penchant for large, record breaking coasters. the new guy doesn't seem to be impressed as much by them. Cut the losses and move on.

I talked to a park employee back in November (not sure what department, but they were familiar with the "investigation") that said that all of the "usual" stories (Tower Johnny, ghost around The Racers, and the train path/White Water Canyon posts, etc.) got looked at. I am not for certain, but I thought they said they came during Haunt (through the week). They hadn't heard about the results.

the guy at Sears said it should have worked just fine...

new CEO putting his fingerprint on the organization

If not mistaken, Apollo was a Private Equity Firm that would have purchased the parks, closed the under-performing assets, bolstered the profitable ones and sold them off one-by-one.

i think you nailed most of it on the head. especially that part of "immersive environments, storylines, etc.." I remember on International street the had a glass blower in one of the shops. Are they still in there? And while we're at it- WHY do they serve American and Asian food in a German themed Festhaus... with Country Music anyway. I think something that could be looked toward would be a re-recognition of some of the themed areas. And though KI is a "ride" park (I agree with that)- if they did bring WinterFest back I don't think it would confuse anyway. When we went back in 2005, even though it was neck deep in the Paramount era no one was under the impression that they were going to ride Vortex in 20 degree weather. I think they could bring it back but they would need to do something radically different. I read an interview where the CEO said he liked "character" interaction with guests. I hope he's speaking of more than just peanuts characters. Hanna Barbera worked so well because there were scores of characters from about a dozen independent cartoons. Peanuts is just 1.... and they're kinda yesterday. either way, I'm looking forward to what he'll bring to the table. It will be night and day difference from Kinzel- which it should. he's a new leader brought in because he's different. In her mid-30's, my wife has already made me a lone coaster rider, and soon I'll need to pass myself (Vortex already makes me dizzy and my back can only take so much of the others). Look at the thrill ride lines, they're 75%+ teens and 20's. Those of us largely paying the bills are stuck in kidland, and by the time we break out- we're too old to enjoy the others.

A few thoughts. I think my tickets to Winterfest 2005 were $29.99. Wasn't Santa's workshop the same show that they had back in the 90's? I would be willing to bet that Winterfest is at least considered. It may have lost money, but the park was willing to attempt it again in 2006. I had my $14.99 tickets bought back in June of that year.

picture 1986.

I could see the name for the attraction: Concussion Blaster.

Ah, Terp... sometimes I'm not as good reading between the lines. Essentially we're traveling down two different paths to arrive at the same conclusion. Got it. I agree. I makes sense that if their experiment goes off that they would have 2-3 years of "new" attractions to disperse to the sibling parks. A $140 million purchase for the park only to see it closed is one heck of a gaffe. From where I sit, I'm not sure how a park in the middle of Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown- with Pittsburgh and Columbus not too far off- how they couldn't make it work. Granted, it is off by itself with terrible access points, but then again- Cedar Point isn't exactly right off the interstate either. I do wonder why they did not give any "official" advance notice that it was closing. It would seem that they would be able to get a good "last" payday from the park with a farewell month (or even week for that matter). However, I do think that the assumption that GL operated at a loss 2004-2007 is correct though.

I don't know if I buy that entirely. If they intended to do that, why operate it at a loss for 4 years?

are you saying you think they did buy it to close it? I do think that they tried to scale it down to be successful, but not so much as to dent the Cedar Point draw. And once it appeared to be sinking figured that if we can't make it work on our terms... no one is.

I would actually like to hear some of his views on what went wrong in the Geauga Lake acquisition. I don't believe for a second that they bought it just so they could close it like some think; empty parking lots and ride seats 2005-2007 tell that story, but it would be interesting to hear from a CEO perspective what he thinks went wrong.

Standbyme... your pictures have been the source of a ton of lost productivity on my part to relive these memories....

speaking of the monorail images from yesterday. I saw a truck with two of the cars on it on the I-275 ramp this morning at Rt. 747. They looked to be in like-new condition. I would have thought that they were headed to Jungle Jims... but they were on the "wrong" ramp... headed the wrong way. Anyone know what that might be from?

Great Pictures by the way!

doesn't really have anything to do with the topic, but I saw the picture and it reminded me of a question I had- maybe someone can speak to it. The "log house" on the train ride- in a random conversation I had with someone- not really sure how they were affiliated with the park at all- who said that this house was there before Kings Island was built and the park integrated it to the surroundings. I have no reason to think that this is true or false, just curious.

zero offense taken.

i stand corrected... with photo evidence.

Coasterz... I think the "footing" of the tower is actually gone as of last year. I went to go look for it last summer and, and someone can correct me, I think it's gone.