bkroz

And notably, the large plume of fire that shoots up as you launch is also not working. The two others off to the side do ignite still, so we still have that better than Kings Dominion's and Canada's Wonderland's. But just as I've said with the Crypt, the saddest part is this: When a light goes out, when an effect stops working, when a speaker shorts out - they will not be replaced. They just won't. One effect at a time (as we've seen with the fire this year) the ride will stop working. It's just one of those things that Cedar Fair doesn't focus on, for better or worse. Sure, once in a while they decide to appease us and we get a re-invigorated effect on Adventure Express. And it's great to have it back. But the point is, every time a light shorts out on The Crypt, it's simply one less light that the ride will operate with. I'm not saying Paramount didn't operate the exact same way. Just that it's something we as a park have had to deal with for a long time, and it's sad.

Very cool! And also very strange! That means, for the next year, only people over the age of 13 need to pay (I consider $5.00 "not paying") to get into SeaWorld. I can't imagine that would help profits... But then again, maybe this will bring in a ton more families now that they save like $40 per kid. Haha. This is probably either the dumbest or smartest thing a park has done in years. We shall see!

As highly professional as that sounds, I doubt such a blaring error would make it past... well... anyone.

Right, but I'm saying... I would use Spiderman, and not Transformers. If Spiderman can't be used, so be it. But Transformers wouldn't be my second choice, either.

But then again, all of the movie properties you named either didn't really succeed, or are being used far better now than they would've been at Paramount Parks. For example, I'd rather have Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland than Adventure Express having Indiana Jones themeing. And I'm personally shocked at Universal using Transformers for their new ride. To be honest, I feel like the "Transformers" movie franchise is over and done with. It was "fun" and now it's over. The movies weren't spectacular, the premise wasn't great, and it was just another remake of an old cartoon. To use it in place of the immensely popular Spiderman theme is a little silly if you ask me. But considering the Marvel deal was only for Islands of Adventure, I can understand why they looked for a replacement. But Transformers? War of the Worlds wasn't a big smash hit with audiences or critics, though as you said it would've been a great replacement for Earthquake. But I just think if these plans are "official" and Paramount / VIACOM is in a deal and these are official, press-release images, they wouldn't be using "placeholders." If these are official, I honestly can see Disney threatening legal action as they did with the daycare... It may be a "wonder of CGI" type film like you said, but I still doubt Disney would lend their library.

It is Eve, from the movie Wall*E. It doesn't matter if it's Wall*E himself, it is a character that it's owned by Disney and Pixar. If it were a Universal or a Warner Brothers character being shown, I could say "yeah, park's license out each other's movie's all the time." But Disney? No one, and I mean no one, is as fiercely protective of their respective trademarks and characters as Disney. Must we bring up when Disney threatened legal action against a daycare for a painting of Mickey on the wall? (Notably, Universal stepped in and offered free use of their own Hanna-Barbera licensed characters to gain publicity - and succeeded). I can almost guarantee that Disney will never have any of its Pixar characters placed in any park, attraction, film, or other media that does not carry the Disney or Pixar name. Besides, these "plans" do not even appear to obey the laws of physics. What is that roller coaster hanging out at the top? If this is a proposed, real attraction, I would be surprised.

Or you're the only one who will admit that they don't like it... keep in mind all the other exaggerations that some people make ("I was on the Dropper Zone when the girl's head got cut off! Then I went over to Flight of Fantasy and it fell off teh traque!"). I doubt if some of them even rode it. Whether they rode it or not, the point is there - Son of Beast has no lack of fans. There are the enthusiasts and the (for lack of a better term) middle-aged people who do get beaten up. Yes. But to say that everyone hates Son of Beast is simply not accurate. I took a group of friends in early 2009. All seven thought it was easily one of the best rides they'd ever been on (keep in mind, I'm not the ride's biggest fan, and did nothing but talk about how rough it was beforehand). I took my friend who is 6'2" and suffers from many back ailments and said it probably wasn't a good idea that he ride Son of Beast. He did, and still holds it in higher regard than The Beast. I went last weekend with a friend who had never been, and she simply could not stop marveling at the structure and saying that it looked like an incredible ride and she was angry she couldn't ride it. The same can be said from many school-aged folks, I believe. I know that, even four hours away in my Akron, Ohio high school, I heard talk of Son of Beast, and not in a negative way. Not at all. Is it "rough as hell?" Yeah. But do people despise it? No. Those who absolutely think it's the worst thing on Earth are the same one's who care about the name "Flight Deck" and care about the antique cars - normal, everyday visitors simply haven't heard all the fuss or just don't care. A first-time group of teenagers to Kings Island doesn't care what that suspended coaster is called, what used to be where Backlot is today, or how low on the coaster rankings Son of Beast is rated. I'm not justifying the ride's roughness. You cannot deny, it is too rough, and could be vastly improved. My point is simply to counter what some have said: The ride is not ruined just because of its name. If the ride were torn down completely and a new company was brought in to build a new ride with a new layout and it had absolutely nothing in common with the ride currently known as Son of Beast except for sharing the name, the queue would be full. On the other end of the spectrum, if the ride opened tomorrow with no changes, the queue would be full. Many of us here would be the one's standing in line. There might not be as many of those "middle-aged" folks in line, but maybe there never should've been.

I was VERY impressed with Boo Blasters. I knew I would be. It barely even resembles Scooby Doo come the second half, and I have trouble remembering what exactly used to be there. That's how good it is! It is a LOT scarier. Even around nine or ten I'm sure I would've been unsettled during the skeleton room. The strobe, the eyes, the fact that they move... And above all, the screeching! They scream at you, and not the usual "ah!" scream in haunted houses... They're screeching, and loudly! The fog screen, of course, was very cool. I wish that the car would turn away from it until the last minute so you didn't see the car in front of you passing through, but I understand that our omnimover system is somewhat limited in its speed, precision, and capabilities. So be it. The same can be said for the finale. I would've much preferred the other park's finale with Boocifer sinking into the ground, covered in fog and the room physically "changing" from evil to good in front of your eyes. Unfortunately, our ride system cannot accommodate that, either. But, it's still a fantastic ride. As was said, the only problem I can see is the audio. Having in-car audio would be the best. I don't know if its realistic, and they certainly won't rehab the ride after its first year just for the sake of adding a convenience. But the ride would be better if you could understand the story. I made everyone in my car drop the guns and we just looked at things. Boocifer says some really cool stuff, and there's a real story there! Turning the guns down would do it, but I don't know if they can or will. Overall, excellent ride. Really. I am just literally hoping and praying it stays that way... I wouldn't be surprised if next season or the year after, the fog effect stops, the animatronic at the end loses its luster, and the guns are all dead again. I would love for that to not happen. We shall see.

Right. And there are rides that can be removed. To many, Flight Deck may be one of them. I'm simply pointing out that we don't need to get rid of Flight Deck, even to access that area of land. Should a roller coaster station be built near Action Theater (next to Eurobobble?), or near Son of Beast, the ride could enter dozens of acres of land without expanding the actual area of the park at all. If you ask me, the cost of dismantling, disposing of, re-evaluating, and re-configuring the land under Flight Deck would far outweigh the three or four ride operators required to run it. I could be (and usually am) wrong.

I meant twinkling in respect to the tower lights. The lights on the front certainly don't "twinkle". I'd be interested in seeing what this new system has in store for guests... I believe the Tower will be equipped with the same LED lights as the plants. At least, it looks that way from the back of the Tower, which has already begun to be dressed in lights... And I suppose I would rather have the Tower just be white. It looks classy. Driving down the highway (as I do - I live four hours away and usually arrive Friday nights with friends) the Tower is simply not very striking when it's deep purple, and about the last color I'd ever chose to illuminate the Eiffel Tower is yellow. It looks... strange... To say the least. That's what I loved about the park - the nice, bright Tower with complimentary fountains. If that was back when there were only white lights, then yes, I prefer the white lights. It always looks nice, of course... But a yellow tower and pink and blue fountains? Just odd choices if you ask me.

The constant notion that we will never again receive a noteworthy ride that "beats" a Cedar Point counterpart is really out of hand. Will we get a 500 foot tall coaster? No. But honestly, Raptor is 16 years old, and has been beaten in both quality & size by quite a few inverted coasters around the world. Cedar Fair would be foolish to absolutely write off ever having an inverted coaster taller than Raptor just so Raptor can continue hanging around the middle of the height charts... What I mean to say is, there is no spotlight on Cedar Point's Raptor left to steal, and it would be a ridiculous and unfounded business decision to avoid building a ride of the same kind just because of Cedar Point's proximity. I know Paramount had completely different plans for the park. When we got Flight of Fear, there was a sense of confidence that Cedar Point would never have a ride that could compete on all levels. We knew that, for better or worse, Cedar Point would never have a ride like The Italian Job, or Tomb Raider. That "exclusivity" is gone; I think the fear is that now since our only option is a plain-and-simple-no-add-ons-no-storyline roller coaster, people think our ONLY option is to get poor-man versions of Cedar Point rides... I don't think that's the case.

First of all, the B&M Invert thing is something that has been floating around for a number of years. "Tear down Son of Beast / Top Gun, use that area for a B&M Invert. It would be so cool on that terrain." Besides the fact that, as was stated, that area is very hard to construct on and would need a lot of advance preparation (not just half a season), and besides the fact that Flight Deck is still a moderately-well attended ride, I think there's been a loss of realism on one thing - Kings Island is one of very, very few parks in the Cedar Fair chain with untapped land, and a lot of it. To be frank, we should be the last park that needs to adopt a "to add, you must subtract" policy. Yes, much of the land is gone from the years before Paramount, but consider that we still have over 300 undeveloped acres, yes? Is it easily accessible? Not all of it. But we certainly don't need to tear something down to put something new in the way that Cedar Point or Great America has to. I would love a B&M Invert to go in the park, or even back there (since apparently suspended coasters are reaching the end of their "service life" ). It's true that Action Zone could use some major re-invigorating. What was once the park's premier, thrilling area is now what, three or four rides? Not the draw it once way. But I don't think Flight Deck should be removed for the sake of making room. For other reasons, maybe. But not because we need that area.

WALL*E is on the 3-D screen. These images hardly seem professional, much less realistic or sensical... I don't think it's a real proposed thing.

*Unbump* http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21298&pid=374575&st=0entry374575

I am so excited for the lighted tower. Covered in twinkling LED lights? That sounds incredible. At the park today, I could see some of the lights in place on the tower. To be completely honest, our current lighting systems are starting to show a lot of age. Only one side of the tower is illuminated, and usually unevenly. Plus, the two colors I see the tower illuminated in the most often are yellow (why?!) and purple (too dark to be striking). It would do a tremendous amount of good to have nice, bright, LED lights.

Not sure if this has been mentioned somewhere else, but Racer Cam is now live on Kings Island's website!

Perhaps during the years that Cedar Point gets Shoot the Rapids and Kings Island gets Planet Snoopy... But in the year that Cedar Point got Planet Snoopy and Kings Island got Firehawk? Or when Cedar Point gets a new interactive water fountain and Kings Island gets Diamondback? Recall that, for seven years, Kings Island saw a larger expansion than Cedar Point had even dreamed of - Flight of Fear, Drop Zone, FACE/OFF, Son of Beast, Delirium, Tomb Raider: The Ride, Scooby Doo & The Haunted Castle, Nickelodeon Universe, and The Italian Job... In seven years. Has there ever been a time when Cedar Point added six record-breaking thrill rides in six years, and also updated kids areas & installed new family dark rides? At the very least, we were on par with Cedar Point in the thrill ride category those years. For quite a while, people looked at Cedar Point and said, "Sure it has lots of roller coasters, but what about everything else?" And that "everything else" was here at Kings Island. One might say that two of the three Giant Frisbees in the world are in Ohio because Cedar Point knew that Kings Island was creaming them in the flats category and needed to compete. Of course, now Cedar Point also has Skyhawk, and Kings Island is sans-Flying Eagle. And one of our amazing flats became The Crypt. So for all intents and purposes, we're tied with Cedar Point in the flats department (a dark day indeed - flats is where we used to shine). I'm not disagreeing that Cedar Point focuses on thrills and oftentimes Kings Island focuses on families... But what about the years when the opposite is true?

Haha to everyone, I know they won't close the park. That's why I "winked." Yes! They "recommend" that you process your pass at the park you purchased it from, and it may take a few minutes for the processor to figure out what's going on, but it will work. Yep! I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that the processing center is open until park closing. This whole week (when the park is not open) pass processing is open from 4:00pm to 8:00pm, and I believe it'll be open til 10:00 on Friday... At least, I'm banking on it, because that's when I'll get there. Literally, minutes. If there's no wait, it will take minutes. They scan your e-ticket, take your photo, and the pass comes out of the machine. Last year I had a Cedar Point pass. There was no question on whether or not it was valid, but apparently e-tickets for Cedar Point Platinum Passes hadn't been scanning all day. They entered the code from the e-ticket manually and there you go.

VERY cool! Thank you! It's awesome looking.

I believe (see, "my opinion is") that the reason the ride is still closed is because many of Son of Beast's elements do not work. The ride was found to be structurally safe. However, it's not open. That means that the quality of the ride is in question. I personally enjoy the ride, and know more people who do than people who don't. However, there's no denying that the rose-bowl is an area that needs work. The lack of a loop has gotten many people down - I don't know that that could be rectified, but for those who experienced the loop and those who didn't, the current track that replaced the loop is easily read as a "something was supposed to go here." It's dead. It feels as though it's supposed to be the climax of something, and it's not. That disrupts the pacing of the entire second half of the ride, too. What we have today is essentially the remnant of a "good idea." I'm sure on paper, the ride looked incredible. In photos, it's majestic and intimidating. In person, I don't think it ever played out the way anyone anticipated. The layout is so severely lacking in interest. It's essentially one big hill, four helices, one little hill, breaks. Again, I really like the ride, but there could be so much more to it than slamming on your side the whole time. I don't know what to make of the ride's history - Paramount & RCCA fighting over this and that and egging eachother on to get bigger and faster and better and taller and looping. Who knows. What I know is this - if Son of Beast can be economically re-designed into something more notable (see, out-and-back-coaster) or at least stabilized via the hybridization used for Texas Giant, it may work! If not, honestly the best thing I can imagine is its removal and replacement in a number of years with an Intamin pre-fab wooden coaster. It would be epic. And (just throwing this out there) if anyone would tackle the world's first successful wooden loop, it would be Intamin. The question is, would Kings Island for it? Son of Beast: Reborn. And you can always use that incredible marketing campaign after the ride's 2000 hiccup: "Son of Beast was a real brat. But now, he's on his best behavior." Is it possible? Sure. Likely? I don't think so... But we needn't even mention that the #2, #3, and #4 tallest, fastest wooden roller coasters on Earth are Intamin pre-fabs, do we?

... Kentucky? And to be fair, we don't know how much a rebuild or a demolition would be. Consider that it's the world's largest wooden structure... Within feet of two other rides... Flammable (therefore, no explosives for deconstruction)... Chemically treated (non-reusable or burnable)... And forget not that once those 2.5 million board feet of wood are on the ground, they've got to go somewhere... Where? How? That's not free. It's not even cheap. I'm confident that Cedar Fair, Kings Island, and anyone else involved will carefully examine all options from financial and logical standpoints and make a good choice. But as has been stated before, it's useless to consider what the ride as cost "so far." That money is gone. If the ride is $8 million to demolish and $10 million to build, then the question is between $8 million and $10 million. What the ride as already cost is not a factor - that's something learned in most any business class. For all logical intents and purposes, that money is gone and can not come back. Period. Any decisions made in the future should be separate from it. Will they be? Probably not.

And as was recently proven, we shouldn't assume that they will.

Touche! GYK, who just had to.

Speaking of shuffling back and forth, check out this video of the next Six Flags coaster allegedly heading towards the Texas Giant redo... Around :35 seconds. Via Screamscape.

I can't stress enough how sick I am of people saying "BURN IT! BONFIRE! LOLOLOLZ." It's honestly as annoying, unclever and unhelpful as those who say "Put the loop back! It was better before the loop was taken out!" You are not the first and will not be the last to jokingly suggest that they burn it down. It isn't funny anymore now, and won't be funny next time. And if you were honestly suggesting that they burn it and not just joking, your answer is right above. I swear I'm not mean and awful, I just am so sick of people going "worlds largest bonfire bahahah."