bkroz

Something else to consider: What we know: Action Theater will be operating this year, according to earlier reports from the park Despite that, it was removed from the park's website Spongebob 3D is getting old What we should consider: This. As soon as Cedar Fair purchased Six Flags: Worlds of Adventure, they changed the park's simulator from "Mission: Bermuda Triangle" (a Seaworld installation) to I-Werk's "Dino Island II: Escape From Dino Island." The Dino Island franchise is one of iWerks more famous simulator franchises. It would be entirely logical that Cedar Fair would bring this successful film to Kings Island to replace our aging simulator ride film. Both "Spongebob 3D" and "Dino Island II: Escape from Dino Island" are made by I-Werks, and thus the simulator we have could almost certainly be synchronized to either film very simply. And if Cedar Fair still owns some of the props that they had in Geauga Lake's Dino Island queue, then they have big, themed tanks designed to look like the ride-vehicle shown in the pre-show, a Son-of-Beast-esque shaking metal box with roaring coming from within, etc. Because ya'll are right - it's either really late or really early to hint at (much less announce) either a 2011 or 2012 ride. But a simulator film switch-out? Why not? The focus is on Coney Mall this season, anyway... It's fast, it's cheap, and it's marketable. The more I think about it, the more I'm convincing myself. It's just so simple, and makes so much sense... We shall see.

Have to agree with Browntggrr on this one. They didn't make a big spectacle and marketing hooplah out of Son of Beast's first major refurbishment under Cedar Fair (which they obviously thought would be successful, or else they wouldn't have done it), so I highly, highly doubt this is Son of Beast related.

Given the fact that Paramount Parks patented the entire Tomb Raider experience, I would imagine your source is spot on. Not only were the Tomb Raider namesake and theme in question, but literally everything down to the fog and loose item pouches used during the ride are included in Paramount's patent. I'm no lawyer, but I imagine Cedar Fair's hands are tied, and they could do very little themeing even if they wanted to. What a great find. I'm salivating. It's also a testament to how ambitious Paramount truly was concerning this ride. Even when the ride ended up with half of its intended effects years later, it was still light years ahead of any other ride in Ohio, and definitely top-tier for any American seasonal park. It also seems that perhaps they didn't know the effects of the lack of weather-proofing at the time, since the patent mentions fog (and even fine mist) in nearly every effect - hanging over the pool of lava, sprayed amid the icicles, etc. They also mention the ride's capability to perform varied cycles - they mention a "G-rated," "PG-rated," and "R-Rated" cycle that may be programmed for the daytime, afternoon, and "after 10 PM" respectively that increase the ride's length, intensity, effects, etc. including adding flames for the "R-Rated" cycle (which is contrary to all that I've heard about the building not even being coded or ventilated for open flames, much less having the ride able to withstand the heat). And it's also nice to read about the "high-powered halogen" lights which "scanned" the gondola from the goddess' eyes. It's that sort of thing that you just forget over time... Interestingly though, the patent was filed March 31st, 2003... Nearly a year after the ride opened (and doubtlessly years after it was first designed or conceived). Is that typical of the industry? Or was that perhaps done in preparation for the corporate shuffling that followed, and ultimately lead to the sale of Paramount Parks? Anyone know more, or have a timeline that may be more helpful?

Oh look, The Beast is sitting in an open field. And there are no trees at Kings Island Amusement Park. The plusses? There is no solid tan fence around the perimeter of the park, and there are no three-pronged pointy bushes (I'd rather have the park sitting in a pastel-green open field than have those darned three-pronged pointy bushes). Never once have I understood the appeal of these maps. I can't argue that it was likely time for a change in the map style. Perhaps to view the park from a different angle so that International Street points towards the top left instead of the top right. Maybe something that looked more artistic and photorealistic, like the Disney maps. But these "Cedar Fair style" maps hold no appeal for me. Based on Kings Dominions and the other parks that have them, they make the parks look awkwardly laid out with incredibly compact regions and big, open, wasted-space areas. The rides are so simplified, cartoon-ified, and exaggerated, they appear abstract (see Kings Dominion's Backlot Stunt Coaster), and the tiny, cartoon pathways are so convoluted and so covered by the exaggerated rides, the last thing the map is good for is navigation. I'll reserve my final judgement until I see the finished product. But I have never seen the appeal. I think anyone with half a brain towards design or urban planning or even illustration would look at these maps and scoff (or vomit), and personally I'm surprised they ever made it to the public eye at any park, much less chain-wide. Perhaps I most dislike it because, like Cedar Fair parks in general, every ride seems to be competing for attention.

You make good points, but I feel like most were already addressed - the ride (allegedly) cannot have a theme even mildly related to Tomb Raider. That means no "adventure," no "quest for an ancient treasure," no "attacking goddess," etc. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has the right to use the Indiana Jones franchise in its amusement parks (a license which they purchased from Paramount, ironically). I shudder to think what it would cost them to bring him to Kings Island. And again, our Giant Top Spin seems to be a failure. As I said, it is not simply a matter of reprogramming it to be more thrilling. Remember that it did flip nine times. It doesn't anymore. While the reason was not officially stated, I challenge to you to imagine what that reason might be - because they wanted a more family friendly ride (in which case, they would've marketed it as such, and reduced the rider safety symbol from a 5, which they did not)? The ride system was already faltering when performing its Tomb Raider: The Ride cycle. As you may have read, it's a very complex machine made of a system of breaks and motors. Basically, motors power the giant arms (and breaks slow them), while holding breaks can grasp the gondola, locking it in place (or release it, and allow gravity and the choreographed motion of the arms to flip it). Naturally, there are sensors located at every step of the machine to make the ride is exactly where it's supposed to be. For Tomb Raider, the problem occurred as it entered the "hangtime" scene over the lava pits. For whatever reason, the braking of the gondola could never catch quite right, the computer would freak out, and the ride would go into manual mode (which, I have come to understand, just means that the computer tries desperately to get the gondola back into the right position by trying out a variety of locking and unlocking and moving slightly back and forth - sort of the same elongated process you see as The Crypt's current cycle ends and it tries to find its home position to unload). So again I say, our ride system is faulty. It doesn't work the way it originally did. My guess is exactly what I said - that it was meant to be nothing more than a three-rowed, tiered theater that just happened to hold you upside down a few times. In an effort to make it more thrilling, Cedar Fair removed a row. While I'm sure HUSS oversaw that change and approved it, it still put a much different stress on the already-taxed ride. It held two-thirds as many people, had a different center-of-gravity, and was performing cycles meant for much smaller, more aerodynamic models. As far as I can imagine, that alone brought the internal systems of the ride to such a point that it simply cannot do more than its current two-flip cycle and still stay reliable. If they could add in even one more flip to increase the ride time and rider satisfaction, don't you think they would? But they don't... I hate what the ride has become. I'd do almost anything to get another ride on Tomb Raider. I think we were blessed by the roller coaster deities for ever being lucky enough to have such a ride in some little seasonal Ohio park. I think that not having it (and indeed, having the Crypt instead) makes the entire park feel different to me. I hate that I can be so close to the lava pits and the goddess and the rolling door. I think some people don't understand - imagine your favorite roller coaster being torn down. I know Terpy has been there. It's awful. But imagine your favorite roller coaster getting renamed, re-painted, losing the aspects of it you loved the most, and getting old, refurbished TOGO trains. I mean, really. That's how it feels. But with a ride that barely works, I wouldn't invest money in unnecessary theme, either. It'll break down just like the ride does. Plus, as Terpy said, the water killed the ride, and the building isn't capable of having open flames. Altogether it seems to add up to The Crypt just not going on much longer. We know it. They know it. Kings Island will not have the same Crypt in 2021. It just won't. So why funnel money into it as is?

To me, Maverick's tunnel is one of the coolest things on any roller coaster in Ohio. First the flashing railroad lights, then the LEDs that go from red to blue to white and "stretch back," creating an even greater illusion of speed... And then the flood lights turn on just as you slam onto your side. Truly one of the better moments on any roller coaster experience outside of Florida. So why is it always off? Such a shame... Whenever I bring first timers, I don't even bother mentioning what will happen midway through the ride, because I know chances are that it will not be functioning. It's ridiculous to me. It makes no more sense than that couple of weeks when the lights were on in Backlot Stunt Coaster's tunnel. It truly is no more difficult than flipping a switch. I can't imagine a viable reason why the lights in Maverick's tunnel should be turned off. I really can't. It's just haphazard. They're on when they want them to be, and sometimes they just forget. It truly irritates me to a point that I'd rather not even get into (which is a pretty good indication that I'm a loser). Hahha.

Besides that, at least the ride does have a synchronized light show, a bit of music, disorientation effects from the darkness, and a sense of mystery. As an outdoor ride, it would not only be setting way back from the path and angled right at The Beast's break run (woohoo?) but it would also be painfully obvious to onlookers just how slow it is. If you think it's a boring ride when it takes place in darkness with pulsating lights, surrounded in a fake volcano, under the eyes of a still-visible Hindu goddess, and after a reasonably fun build-up in the queue, imagine how awful it would be with no one laughing, no one shrieking, no one riding, facing off into the woods a good fifty feet from the nearest onlooker. Again... woohoo?

Thanks bud! I have arrived. I don't know that any of us here are privy to the exact specifications of the transaction that went on between CBS' Paramount Parks and Cedar Fair. One story that I was given by a high-ranking employee at Kings Island (whose position was not seasonal in nature - no Dippin Dots guys) is that for whatever reason, when it came to Tomb Raider: The Ride, the transition from a ride with an intellectual property to one without meant not just a change in name. Perhaps because Tomb Raider was so intricately themed, that particular transformation required not just a simple removal of the film props, but near-abandonment of the very concept of the ride: an ancient temple, a search for a lost treasure, a deity. The new, Cedar Fair version of the ride was required to lose not only the movie props, but the idea of searching for something; of excavating a tomb; of a goddess and ancient powers. Again, I would consider my source reliable, but by no means do I claim that that is that only (or even most important) reason for any switches that occurred. But if that is true, you must admit that they were actually pretty smart about it... How do you take a ride in a cave with a temple-like structure in its queue and some obvious rock work and columns in the ride chamber and remove any sort of connection to an ancient culture or a religious temple or an adventurous expedition? In all fairness, the idea of a "crypt," or a haunted burial chamber, is truly about the best idea I can imagine... I certainly couldn't come up with anything better that uses as much of the old ride as possible while also removing as much as needed. I personally made a discussion thread on Kings Island's Facebook page for people to really post realistic, cheap ideas about how to improve The Crypt. We came up with a very succinct and reasonable list. Whoever it is at the park who operates the Facebook page even got in contact with me concerning some of those ideas and gave me a phone number to call. I called. That's as far as that went. I think every other problem that the Crypt has is a direct result of the terrible ride system. I'm not sure how much you know about the mechanics behind the ride, patsum, but our Crypt is the world's only Giant Top Spin. It's manufactured by a company called HUSS that also built Kings Island's Delirium (which is also from their Giant line of attractions - it's a Giant Frisbee). You've doubtlessly seen plenty of outdoor Top Spins in your travels or just browsing through trip reports. Many parks have them. Most models hold between 46 and 50 riders in two rows. Ours held 77. It was far less acrobatic and much larger, taller, and heavier than the other models, which was a-okay, because it didn't do as many flips as other rides. If you rode the original Tomb Raider, you know that it was actually very tame, only flipping upside down four times. In comparison, (one of the smaller, suspended models) flips nine times, which seems pretty standard for most Top Spins. Though we certainly can't claim causality (thanks Terp), we know that the same season that the themeing left, the ride's front row was removed (lowering its capacity to be far closer to a normal top spin, but still maintaining a much greater arm length and height) and it began performing that same nine flip cycle that many other top spins have. It would seem (though we do not know the reasoning for sure) that the much-more-intense nine-flip cycle placed some sort of stress on the ride that was not anticipated, and may or may not be the reason for its current two-flip cycle. As you know, the ride now operates with a ride cycle that is very, very tame. It also has none of the effects left over from the Tomb Raider days (which, understand, were faltering even in the last years under Paramount - upkeep of effects was never their strong point). That same source at Kings Island who told me the story of its transformation also reminded me: "there is a reason that they only built one [Giant Top Spin]." The ride mechanism itself operates today with two-thirds its original capacity, and arguably the most dull cycle of movements of any top spin on Earth. There is a reason for that. If our ride had little downtime, and operated the way it was supposed to, I really truly think that the themeing would've been a priority. After all, look at Firefall at Great America, which Cedar Fair oversaw the theming for. But when the ride is barely operating, all of the theme is just one more thing to worry about. When the rising wall wouldn't open, or cell phones fell in the "lava," and lights went out... It's more trouble than its worth when the ride itself is barely operable. Perhaps if Great America closes, their Top Spin 1 (Firefall, which I linked to above) will find a new happy home in Rivertown, Ohio.

You did nothing more than prove my point. I said that people want a well-themed immersive experience (read, Paramount, Disney, etc.) with cleanliness, friendliness, and a well-rounded collection of attractions (read, Cedar Fair). I made the case that Paramount and Cedar Fair represent extreme (and opposite) ends of a spectrum. Put another way, Paramount focused on well-themed, medium-sized rides. Cedar Fair goes big, or goes home. Neither is right or wrong. My question was clearly stated: instead of arguing over which is better, why can't we say that being in the middle certainly wouldn't hurt? Sure Cedar Point does fine with big rides. Always has, always will. Disneyland does all that it needs to with small, themed rides. Always has, always will. Some people want it one way, and some want it the opposite. Meeting in the middle (see, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Universal's Islands of Adventure, Alton Towers, Tokyo DisneySea) seems to have some pretty spectacular results. I think that's pretty clear even in our own case: when Cedar Fair entered its "flat ride" era and decided to focus on the family as much as on the roller coaster, it was well-received. The attempt at theming on Maverick was noticed, as was it on Shoot the Rapids. When Kings Island finally received some thrill over theme with Diamondback and Firehawk, it was well-received. To be thrill-centered is fine. To be theme-centered is fine. But it never ever hurts to move towards a happy medium. And in fact, not once did I make a point of saying that "all" people want it one particular way or the other. Though that didn't stop you from implying that I did... I think it's clear that Cedar Fair has a firm stance on the value of theme. It's no more right or wrong than Paramount's very clear stance on how worthwhile a ride is if the ride didn't market its products. To quote my own post: I didn't suggest that one was right. Nor did I suggest that either was wrong. Clearly, Disneyland and Cedar Point have been absolutely fine remaining pretty close to the extreme areas of the spectrum. My suggestion, as I clearly highlighted above, was that certainly meeting in the middle has been created incredibly successful results, and might be something more parks should make an objective. I also wouldn't dare bring parks like Waldameer or Kennywood into this debate. I would say that large, corporate thrill parks and large corporate theme parks are more closely related to each other than they are with any smaller parks, be they themed or not.

It's too bad that all seasonal operators (excluding SeaWorld Parks, if you would call them "seasonal" operators) can't seem to understand how simple it really is: people want a well-themed, immersive experience (which may or may not make use of intellectual properties - Flight of Fear, Boo Blasters, DarKastle, Corkscrew Hill, etc are all great rides without them, and The Crypt certainly could be) with cleanliness, customer service, and well-rounded investments as a priority. Theming, immersion, attention to detail, intellectual properties, appropriate music, well-rounded experiences. Cleanliness, costumer service, "big" rides, emphasis on thrill, "record breakers," unrelated food and shopping and ride experiences based on themed areas. Why must it be one or the other? Why can't there be big, well-themed rides? Record-breaking thrill parks with an emphasis on immersion? Both original and liscenced properties that work in sync? A clean, friendly park that also has in-character ride attendants? Universal has it. Busch Gardens has it. So why did both Paramount and Cedar Fair find the two concepts to be at odds?

The same, of course, can be said of all of Action Zone. The red & white plaza around the watertower is faded pink. Delirium is faded. And Invertigo looks canary yellow and pink, where it used to be one of the most beautiful combinations of colors I had ever seen on a roller coaster - a vibrant and deeply colored ride to really welcome guests to the park. Flight Deck, of course, will be freshly painted this year, but not the maroon it once was, and Son of Beast? Well... Poor Action Zone. :\

One thing that I'd really love during an "off" off season (when there aren't any big capital rides built) would be to renovate the park's lighting. Coney Mall could be really a beautiful place if the lighting on the rides, games, and paths was more interactive and bright and spectacular. If the remaining three sides of the Eiffel Tower got the same treatment as the Starlight-facing side, it would be beautiful. The Fountains, too, seem to go from yellow to pink to blue, and lack the more choreographed, appealing hues that I remember them having. None of the roller coasters are lit well, either. Think of Raptor at Cedar Point, which has bright spotlights to really illuminate the entire structure at night (and even has LEDs pointed at the cobra-roll, which fade out as the train approaches, then re-illuminate as it passes). What makes me think of this in relation to this thread is the concept art released before Delirium. As far as I've known, the ride has never looked quite that cool, though I'm sure it could. There are floodlights on it, but some cool LEDs would be incredible, and a flashing strobe a la Cedar Point's maXair is both disorienting for riders and really visually captivating for onlookers. If all of Action Zone (and indeed as I've said, the rest of the park) got a lighting overhaul to have brighter, more vibrant, more interesting looking rides, imagine how different the park would feel at night! And since we're lucky enough to have later operating hours than many sister parks, we could utilize that time...

This may be entirely incorrect (or perhaps I'm just amalgamating this story with Kings Dominion's Drop Zone and Volcano), but I had heard that some of the seats on Delirium were old seats from The Crypt after the latter's front row was removed. Not sure why that would even be practical, but perhaps some of the seats on Delirium were more worn out than the ones from its indoor, weather-proof cousin? Again, that may be entirely incorrect and I'm absolutely sure someone here can correct me.

I think that one thing is certain: No one will ever ride the Son of Beast of 2000 again. No one will ever ride the Son of Beast of 2008 again. The chances of the ride ever operating as it did during those eras seems so incredibly slim that it's not even worth discussing. The people who are in power now have said that they are unhappy with the ride experience, and even if new power should be instated, I simply can't imagine any case in which they'd review the ride's history and decide to open it as-is anyway. New trains? New track? New structure? New layout? New empty field? Who knows! To me, I'd sooner bet on the return of Nickelodeon Universe than on Son of Beast being on the 2011 park map, much less actually operating on April 30th...

BUT, isn't it true that Cedar Point in particular has used its most-coasters claim-to-fame as a logical business marketing plan? Not saying it's anywhere near a good reason to add a coaster alone. But certainly the idea of having more roller coasters than any park on Earth is not just a title that Cedar Point has kept quiet about. It's often a very key point in their marketing.

I can't help but wonder if the word "Asylum" will remain in the ride's name. Sure, it's based on a comic book location. But as Cedar Point knows all too well, special needs population and their friends, caregivers, and peers do not enjoy words like "asylum" that draw on uncomfortable history and unfair treatment. Perhaps it's appropriate for a comic book that is based on a dark and dangerous superhero world. But would some object to having an "escape" from an asylum be the apparent theme of a family roller coaster at a family park? Would if be different if it were indoors like other Six Flags Park's Dark Knight coaster, and featured scenes from within said asylum? Should that make people see it differently? I don't personally have a problem with it. I just think some people will, and it will be interesting to see if that population gets verbal about it... We live in a very politically-correct society after all.

To me, the colon is implied by the logo. That's why I don't think it's a terrible name. Not genius by any means. But not laughably bad once you see the logo and the spacial orientation. I find it no more annoying than that roller coaster at Kings Dominion, which apparently uses a comma in its name instead of a colon. I can't think of a worse way to set off an appositive in a roller coaster's name than a comma. Then again, maybe they felt a little colon-crazy what with The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear, Drop Zone: Stunt Tower, Tomb Raider: Firefall, and Italian Job: Turbo Coaster also riding in that park at one time or another. Much like those rides, this new wild mouse will probably drop its subtitle in common speech. That is, if it isn't just called the new roller coaster and nothing more.

I'm not entirely sure on the Department of Agriculture's role in the theme park industry... Could someone clear that up? I know of their involvement with Son of Beast, but my initial understanding was that that was only to check the strength and treatment of the wood (which makes sense given the department's name). However, I know that they also were involved in the Firehawk incident, which has very little to do with agriculture. Is the Department of Agriculture just an umbrella under which entertainment industries are handled in this state?

^^ Which brings me back to the rather lengthy post I typed a page ago. To say that Son of Beast should be demolished, and any potential budget that might've gone to its reconstruction be spent on a new ride is not even applicable. The cost to remove the Son of Beast structure would likely be extraordinarily high. It isn't as if they can say "We're done trying with Son of Beast. Take it out and we'll put in an Intamin Gigacoaster." The cost to disassemble, demolish, collect, transport, and dispose of Son of Beast's structure would swallow up a lot of that money - hence why I elaborated that the situation may most appropriately be (with the numbers being arbitrary here, but the difference between them being notable) "$8 million for a guaranteed grassy field, or $15 for a shot at a successful roller coaster." ^ And only observationally (without having ridden it or really read any specific statistics) it's clear enough to say that the Iron Horse track for Texas Giant not only changed the ride experience, but the way in which the ride operates. Of course it's smoother. But what of the friction changes? The new trains? The re-profiling? For example, having a steeper initial drop changes the pacing of that drop, and with it, the pacing of every element after it. Adding an overbanked turn where there wasn't one effects the speed and thus the force experienced on the rest of the ride. From an experiential point of view and (with any luck for SIX) a marketing point of view, it's a brand new ride because every single element is either new, or experienced much differently than it was before. Of course, legally, it's the same old ride. That will be a problem in Son of Beast's case... I agree with what's been said about Son of Beast's name itself being worth reviving. In fact, I'd wager that if the ride opened, unchanged, for the 2011 season (which would be an absolutely awful decision on the park's end), I believe it would continue to have just as much ridership as it did prior to its closure - no more or less than any other ride at the park. Son of Beast was never a walk on. If the ramps didn't have people waiting, then the station did. I don't think people were scared to the point of aversion. If anything, it's reputation attracted many people to it. That being said, I don't think it should re-open as-is, if only because we are (unfortunately) a sue-happy society and because there are solutions that I think could really make it a world-class ride. It would be nothing short of ridiculous to open the ride as-is when probable solutions exist (if Cedar Fair is willing to pay, which I have wagered it will have to do regardless).

Also remember that B&M's big thing is reliability. Their rides are renowned for opening on time, staying open, requiring little more than preventative maintenance, having excellent fabrication, keeping great throughput, and remaining incredibly smooth over time. The reason for that is that they take very few chances. Most of their rides have one moving part - the lift hill. Intamin takes far more chances, for example, and their rides are more temperamental as a result. I was surprised by B&M's foray into flying coasters, which require a lot of moving parts. So to me, the flipping, rotating fourth-dimension style coaster would be the last thing I'd expect from them. But, we shall see!

But with X2, the seats rotate throughout the ride. What that involves is actually a third guide rail that is spaced in between the two that the tires ride on. It's an entirely different ride system. Both this and Intamin's Wing Rider models are really more like traditional, floorless coasters whose seats just happen to hang off the track on either side. It certainly makes for some unique sensations (probably not unlike being on the edges on B&M's 10-seat Dive Machines), but it doesn't do (and wasn't made to do) what Arrow's Fourth Dimension coasters can...

I really hope this pattern continues to Action Zone next year And I'd love to see some of the other improvements to Coney mall that you mention - even just a change to the music could help bring a different feeling to the area. Whats Wrong with the music? There was a time when each area of the park played its own, appropriate music, not unlike a Disney Park. There was German music (and food and entertainment and rides) in the Oktoberfest area, and really extravagent, grand orchestral music (and movie scores) on International Street, for example. Now, with the exception of Boomerang Bay, all of the park plays the same music at the same time - generally, a playlist of light pop-hits from the last 5 - 10 years. It's not altogether unpleasant or inappropriate.... It's just not very thematic and is yet another small step towards an amusement park where a theme park used to be.

What a fun, graceful looking ride. On this and Intamin's Wingwalkers (or whatever they are), the inversions always look so smooth and fluid... I would love to have the opportunity to ride one of these. The concept art showed a splashdown. Anyone see any scoops? Would they even be possible on this sort of ride? EDIT: I suppose it doesn't really show a splashdown... But hopefully the area around the ride grows a bit to look similar to this artwork! And maybe a water element will make an appearance.

Yeah! Maybe someone out in the park decided to carve The Beast's footprint in the snow and tweet it just for a little off-season activity. Maybe they intended it to appear to be something that it's not to generate hype. Maybe they are again surprised by how much can be made of a small thing. Who knows! And of course, I've been saying that Cedar Fair was doubtlessly watching New Texas Giant very closely (if not for Son of Beast, then for some of their other roller coasters...). Maybe those at Kings Island are assuming that that transformation for Texas Giant will be successful now that the videos have been released, and are hoping for the same. A paw print is harmless enough, right? It can mean any number of things. And come a year from now, it'll mean different things than we think it means now!

Interesting, but not all too relevant. That is almost certainly response to the notion many had that Action Theater would not be open this year due to its aging ride film, its removal from the website, apparent disinterest with updating it on the park's end, and the addition of WindSeeker right where the ride's entrance used to be. Son of Beast may be removed (though I personally think it very unlikely this season), but not due to the addition of WindSeeker.