fryler87

PKI has received the Golden Ticket for Best Kid's Area for a number of years, I believe. They also do have the world's tallest gyro drop; the tallest, fastest, and only looping woodie; the longest woodie in the world which is the longest coaster (of both steelies and woodies) in North America; the world's first LIM launched coaster, a coaster that broke the inversion record when it opened, the coaster that a heaping percentage of enthusiasts say sparked the second golden age of coasters, and a polethera of just darn good rides. (Please excuse the language, but emphasis is needed.) PKI is Paramount's flagship park. I'm thankful for having such a sweet place so close to where I live.

Even though that I don't care that much for Arrow coasters, they seem to last what seems like FOREVER. It is too bad they went under.

Redo the track? Put in a new track? Replace the whole thing? Not if it was my decision. It would cost money to redo the track in any way, shape or form. Arrow coasters seem to last a long time, even though they may not be terribly comfortable. They also seem to me to be fairly reliable, although I have no proof or statistic for my statement. Vortex isn't going anywhere for at least another 15 years. I agree with Bradb...Vortex is an icon. I can remember coming home from Reds games and seeing the chaser lights that go up the lift hill. Chances are that if a ride changed the horizon content of the park, it's there to stay for a while.

Heh, that's a good one. GrandSon of Beast. It's The Beast's son's son. I like it. It's a serious classic, and I'll bet that PKI is going to keep it as long as physically possible. As for a replacement...they may try to do a comlete overhaul of the ride SOMEDAY. If PKI adds another coaster and the name has ANYTHING to do with The Beast, I'm going to be a little disgruntled. The Beast is here to stay. His family is small and will not grow again. I vote "Maybe."

I'm betting that BB construction will be fine and that it won't be delayed. I'm also hoping for a few days of cancelled school for snow days. I live in Centerville (south of Dayton) and we have VERY few cancellations. I want snow. Now. BB will be A-OK.

I've heard that the first few steps to build ANY COASTER go a little something like this: 1) Park decides it's time for a new ride. They try to think what would fit there the best (like stand-up, sit-down, flyer, etc.) and have SOME idea of what they would want it to look like. 2) Call up different coaster companies. The park says, "...listen, we had this idea..." and the company says something like, "...that's cool, we could build something like that..." and they make a design and modify the park's idea a bit. 3) Get the bids. The park chooses which company to go with and the price. 4) Hire the contractor, sub-contractor, etc. and build, build, build. Again, this is just what I've heard, so this could be all wrong.

I also don't forsee another B&M standup coming anytime soon. Sure, I'll bet that there is a possibility that some park in the future may buy one just for kicks, but the race for record breaking standups is over. I think what we're going to be seeing next will be a sit-down.

As for the funding, I don't think funding for a smaller park would be a HUGE problem. Although $2 million may be a stretch for Coney Island (I've never been there) I'm sure it would be a good investment for something like Americana (or whatever it's called now...I've never been there either). It looks like a good "developer" coaster for the smaller parks.

Funny funny funny, cept the last part doesn't rhyme. Oh well...I like it.

Togo's last ride was/is Fujiyama, which was in the mid-late 90s. I think we've seen the last of Togo. King Cobra's melted scrap will soon be another coaster's track.

Although this ride looks fairly innovative and somewhat cool, I don't think PKI will be putting one in by itself. I doubt it costs that much, but I think PKI wants to keep its reputation for being a somewhat world-class park. Sure, you do need the smaller rides, without them, the park is nothing...however I think PKI would rather do something bigger. Screaming squirrel could come as a packaged deal with another nice ride down the road if S&S proves this ride is of good quality. Otherwise, this kind of ride reminds me of fitting in maybe a smaller park. I just can't see it fitting into PKI as well as a B&M speed coaster or Intamin hyper.

I'd love it if that happened for our newspaper, Pursuit. But it's not going to happen. As for you, go do what you want to do...I'm not sure how many other people in the school are going to like it, but it's more than worth a try!

LOL What a shocker to any PKI fans who ever used to go there.

So with a new sign and Boomerang Bay going in (the only two big projects), I can't wait to see if PKI spent some good time and money on making the park look great. If it does for next year, a huge ride for 2005 would sure make PKI a revitalized park. Let's see what happens...

Speaking of wipeout beach, does anybody know what causes all of those hot chicks to magically lose their tops? Or is God just smiling down upon all males at the water park?

This is a waste of a topic, but I know of two things that we are getting. One: Boomerang Bay (and the more obvious yet overlooked one...) Two: A new sign...wheeeeee!!! I can't wait to see what it's gonna be like, I hope it's sweet. P.S. I really don't care if this topic is closed or deleted.

PKI is an amusement park/theme park, and will probably never be any exclusive shopping center. It's there for people, like us, to go to and ride rides, like Delirium, Drop Zone, Son of Beast and The Beast. Profit is going to new rides and experiences. That is what will win over the people

Ah, so my first estimate was pretty close. Thanks Bradb.

A second theme park? I doubt it. If they COULD, PKI may try to build something elaborate like Great Bear Lodge or whatever it's called. THAT place is sweet. The problem is that other than PKI, there's really not much else to my knowledge to do in Mason. PKI is gonna stay as is for a while, unless attendance, revenue and profit really take off.

OK, I'll again admit I don't know exactly how big a parking space is, but 8x10 ft seems a little small to me. A GMC Yukon Denali XL will fit in a standard parking space (though it'd be a tight squeeze.) According to www.consumerguide.com, this monster is 219 inches long (a little over 18 feet) and 79 inches wide (about 6.5 ft.) If one needs about 2 feet feet (about 1-1.5 feet to the line) to open the door, then the space would have to be at least 18 feet long and at least 10 feet wide. So I was off. New calculations...with 11,000 spaces and each space being 10x18 ft, the area that could acutally park cars is almost 2 million square feet. The thing is, you have to have extra space between rows of cars so you can drive your car up and down the lot and get to a parking space. This COULD make that figure 1.5 times larger. I'll guess that the parking lot is about 50 to 65 acres.

So I did a few calculations. If you figger that the average parking space is about 15 ft by 25 feet, with 11,000 spaces, the parking lot is about 4,125,000 sq. ft. This amounts to about 95 acres. Quite a large amount of space, if you ask me. Again, I don't know the dimensions of a parking space, so the size of the lot may in fact be a bit smaller.

Just a tidbit, when Gemini at CP was built, it was designed before computers (1970s) could help create coasters with physics and stuff. I've heard that the second hill is barely short enough to let the trains successfully get up and around them. I've also heard that the trains have to be "warmed up" a certain way in the morning, or they do valley at the bottom of the hill - in which case maintenance has to come, dissconnect each car and run them around the rest of the track somehow. At the end, the cars are re-assembled. This process has been said to take up to a few days to complete.

I still think PKI is a theme park with my Office Space analogy. I'll admit, AZ isn't that great in the way of scenery and environment, but that stuff costs money. Not only that, it's fairly well-themed in my opinion - It's got that water tower thing and the movie poster things and the names of the rides fit, too. Sure, the scenery isn't great, but I like it. Rivertown is great. It feels like you're in the woods kinda. Not very "high-tech" on the outside and kinda gives me the western/countryside feeling. I give PKI a pat on the back for at least trying. Hey, our park could always be like something from Six Flags and have coasters built in the parking lot.

Speaking of Huss, is there any other competition against them? I know S&S makes a few flat rides and the very popular space-shot ride, I can't seem to think of any other competitors to Huss.

So when PKI says they're a 300-some odd acre park, what do those 300-some acres contain? Does this include the parking lot? What about the PKI resort and camping place? I'm going to go bananas if I can't get this straight...