bkroz

Cedar Point's Planet Snoopy pretty much plays KidzBop CDs. Haha. It's a lot of contemporary, Hannah-Montana sounding songs. Nothing Peanuts related that I've ever heard. Just kind of general kids area music. And this fall, it played a lot of Howl-O-Fest sort of music, like "If you wanna be a monster you gotta be fuzzy" sort of stuff. Kids eat that up. Or so I'm told.

Either way, I doubt there are any other theme park operators clawing at the chance to have Hanna-Barbera characters. A few scattered parks around the world use them, so it must not be an expensive thing to do. And even if it did expire in 2008, they certainly used the characters this year at Howl-O-Fest.

Like all things in Cedar Fair parks that have water effects... Sort of. Hahaa.

Okay, so maps don't matter. Well if you're an everyday customer, a member of the general public (which, by the way, most visitors to Kings Island are... Yes, it's true, most people do need a map to navigate, and use it to judge which attractions look the most thrilling, etc.) which of these maps would you prefer: OR Most people would find the second map more informative, viewer-friendly, and realistic. In much the same way, Cedar Fair's map style looks very cartoony and offers little real information. Notice all the big open spots, like by Backlot Stunt Coaster (if you can even find it in the mess of drawings... And even if you can find it, I wish you luck in figuring out it's a coaster!) and the fact that, apparently, Grizzly is sitting in a large, open field. It's all fun and games until Kings Island receives this map overlay and suddenly The Beast is sitting in a big field... Then we'll see if anyone's upset over first-timers getting the wrong impression. The fact of the matter is, they print tens of thousands of maps because people use them. Even people who casually visit the park once every couple of years likely couldn't make their way from The Beast to Son of Beast without significant effort, and its for that reason that they pick up a map as they enter and consult it through the day. The Cedar Fair style maps are a jumble of information, over- (or under-) exaggerated rides and no differentiation between themed areas. It 100% for certain has an impact on the visitors to the park, perhaps more than any other single aspect besides rides and food.

I think Son of Beast is a whole different tamale. It surely was a high-rated coaster in the beginning of its life. And yes, Tomb Raider started to fall about during Paramount. I guess that gives Cedar Fair the right to write it off and continue its downfall. Under that banner of thought, Flight Deck WON'T be receiving a repaint. Why should it?! Cedar Fair, isn't the one who ruined it. In fact, they might as well TRY to rust it and make it worse, they can always say "Well Paramount started it by not taking care of it, so we figured we'd just take it the rest of the way." I disagree with some of the things Cedar Fair has done, yes. I think we all got our hopes up back during the "Universal is looking at the Paramount Parks" days. I expected some out-of-this-world movie studio with a history of theme park successes to come in and fix Tomb Raider, repaint everything, re-brand things, build new E-Ticket rides... Instead, I got an Ohio-based amusement park operator whose only history in theme parks comprised of closing at least one classic dark ride at each park in its chain. So was I a bit let down? Yes. Have a had a bad taste in my mouth since? Yes. I didn't expect a chain of parks with themes arguably just under Universal Studios quality bought by an amusement park operator with exactly two dark rides in its arsensal (see, Disaster Transport & Calico Mine Ride). Or, more interestingly, to not have any INTEREST in dealing with the themes. Why buy theme parks if you only do amusement parks? (Granted, they have gotten better.) And Peanuts are no more unfamiliar than Hanna-Barbera characters. Let's suspend reality for half a second and say that the Peanuts are on TV five times a year, and you're anywhere between 5 and 10 years old (some of Planet Snoopy's main audience). Would you willingly say, "Hey, I've never seen this cartoon before! I think I'll sit and watch it," while five channels away, the new-fangled fast-paced action-filled cartoons of Nickelodeon are familiar, and actually grab your interest? Or better yet, if your mom or dad puts on the Peanuts specials and says "Oh, I loved these when I was a kid!" Well now the kids are interested, right? And about the map, I just think it shows another step towards "amusement" park. Kings Island is a theme park, and has been since it was created. Sometimes the themes lose, like Action Zone, but it still works as a "colorful, fast-paced backlot where an action movie might be filmed." It's that sort of fine detail that will slowly disappear with a new un-themed map. At Kings Dominion, there are no physical barriers between areas (like how we don't have more than a "blending" pathway between Coney Mall and Rivertown, Action Zone and Oktoberfest, etc). and without having those barriers on a map, the themeing is unknown to visitors and essentially blends into the backround, the park becoming a big amusement park. And what in the world was wrong with names like Drop Zone and FACE/OFF? I think it's fair to say 70% of the world has never heard of either of those names as film titles (I know I hadn't). And Drop Zone: Stunt Tower admittedly works better than Drop Tower. And FACE/OFF is a cool play-on-words to describe the nature of seating on what is now Invertigo. I had never heard, and never expected to hear, even one person say "FACE/OFF? That's the name of a movie! How lame..." Most people didn't connect the movie title if they ever knew it to begin with. And you're right, I bet I'm the only person who has some issues with Cedar Fair for things like Son of Beast and The Crypt. I bet no one places even a slight amount of blame on them for anything. And anyone who does clearly HATES Cedar Fair and is just using weak arguements to express it. It's not like most people on here don't gang up against Paramount, seemingly forgetting that without them we would have all of about five roller coasters, if not be in about the same boat as Australia's Wonderland.

Crypt. Maybe I could do something with it to fix it up!

I thought that Delerium was meant to be themed to "The Core", but lost its budget? Either way, I imagine we'd eventually get some sort of B&M, perhaps a dive machine / hyper in Rivertown, or perhaps a hyper back in what's now X-Base, colored green and themed to "Cloverfield" or "Iron Man" or something. I'd be cool with either, but am just as happy with what we have now. Though I miss Swan Lake.

If you have heard of the e ciggarets, the one who use vater vapor, they are allowed to smoke those everywhere. They are hard to spot. I think it would be a far-cry to say that all, or even some, of the people smoking outside the designated smoking areas are smoking E-Cigarettes. That is one thing I would love to see, an increase in the smoking policy enforcement. However, when the workers who actually walk around the parks are teenagers and older folks, you don't really expect them to approach the mean looking teenagers who are smoking all over the place. It's their job, yes, but it's a little bit difficult to enforce when the employees walking the streets aren't exactly big, frightening enforcers. They're just kids. Most of the a-holes who smoke anywhere they please would respond to their "Please smoke in a designated area" with "What are you gonna do about it?", or they'd throw the cigarette on the ground, walk around the corner and light up again.

Technically, holding down the trigger throughout the entire ride sends the laser out continuously. That's what I always did. Just hold the trigger down and swing the gun around wildly, you get quite a few targets hit that way!

Exactly, which leads many to wonder (myself included) why Peanuts were chosen for the Cedar Fair conversion. It was my understanding (and I have yet to be corrected) that the former Taft parks have the rights (not exclusively) to feature the Hanna-Barbera characters for their lifetime. It seems to make sense considering we saw the Jetsons, Flinstones, and Scooby Doo (outside of the dark ride) during Taft, Paramount, and Cedar Fair ownership (see, Howl-O-Fest). So I guess my question is, why not explore the cheap (see, free) options that exist within the parks? Cedar Fair used Paramount's season pass system, which effectively revolutionized theirs, so why not explore the OTHER things that come with the Paramount Parks? 1) Hanna-Barbera Land could make a return. We could debate for years, but certainly Hanna-Barbera characters are just as well known (probably moreso) than the Peanuts gang. People's argument for why Peanuts are still recognizable by kids is because Snoopy is on a Metlife commercial, and the old movies air throughout the year. Similarly, Flinstones, Jetsons, etc. are still all over in marketing, and arguably are far more modern and accessible. Besides, the Cedar Fair and Paramount Parks do not need to carry thorough themes - if they did, we would have Soak City, or Cedar Point would have Boomerang Bay, neither of which translates well between parks the same way many doubt Snoopy will translate to Paramount Parks. 2) Have an exclusively themed Scooby Doo area, perhaps named "Coolsville, U.S.A." or something. The variety of Scooby Doo villains alone would allow each and every tide to be uniquely themed. Change everything orange to purple and you'd have the perfect Scooby area - purple and green lamposts, "gothic" fence work, etc. and it could all be structured around an upgraded, improved Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle. With the variety of villains, each ride could be so very different, like they were under Nickelodeon, and capitalize on what has been a literally timeless show. As far as I can see, these would BOTH be near cost-free change-overs and would retain the former Paramount Parks identities as "theme" parks vs. Cedar Fair's "amusement" parks. The two have different lineages, different customers, and different traditions - they do not need to be unified to such an extent. Let their individual legacies shine through, and Hanna-Barbera is the one to do it! Whether you like it or not, chances are the Cedar Fair won't own the park in 10 - 20 years. So here's hoping that the next owner realizes the potential of these already well-known figures and capitalizes on it! Meanwhile, 2010 could potentially be the close of two $20,000,000+ rides from the last ten years (Son of Beast & The Crypt), a conversion from a current, well-loved kids channel to a "timeless" classic that children are seldom familiar with, and more than likely, one of those HIDEOUS Cedar Fair style maps with no foliage, cartoony rides, no themed area differentiation, and one big fat fence surrounding the whole park (see here). Aren't you pumped?! I am.

^ Well as true as that may be, in all fairness you've got to admit that kids won't say to themselves, "*GASP* Lucy is soooo sarcastic and crabby in the comics... What a perfect name!" More than likely, a good number will wonder who Lucy is, even if they're familiar with the character of Snoopy. It's no surprise really that there would be some suck-tastic names, a la Character Carousel. I mean, we ARE talking about the people who allegedly had no luck thinking of a better name for a Drop Tower than "Drop Tower." Stunt Dive? No way. ForceFall? Nope. Stunt Tower? You wish. Even their already copyrighted tower names "Dominator" or "Power Tower" would be a smidge better than Drop Tower. And really, I've said it before and I'll say it again: You can't tell me with a straight face that a group of creative consultants (or even members of the general public, for that matter) sat around a table, thought and thought, and couldn't come up with anything that beat "Flight Deck." Stunt Flight? No. Afterburn? Not for ours! Cedar Fair owns the rights to the names X-Flight and Silver Bullet, BOTH of which would be perfectly reasonable names for the ride formerly known as Top Gun. Quite literally, I can't think of many flight related names WORSE than Flight Deck (save ****pit) , much the same way you really can't screw up the name of a carousel more than Character Carousel. In many ways, I look at it as if we were facing the opposing situation, and Cedar Point was now officially renamed Paramount's Cedar Point. No matter how elaborately the signage outside Maverick says "The Beast," it will ALWAYS be Maverick. That's something Cedar Fair seems to not grasp. Completely ignoring the whole "they don't know who Snoopy is to begin with" thing, kids who visit Kings Island a few times a year know the Avatar ride, and aren't going to just magically fall into "Hey, it's Snoopy's GR8 SK8 now!" the way Cedar Fair is hoping. To be fair, kids probably wouldn't adjust any easier to Paramount placing Nickelodeon in Planet Snoopy (though I bet it would EXCITE children to unexpectedly see Dora and Spongebob at Cedar Point, where I feel many children will be INHIBITED by seeing Snoopy all over the rides they recall, even vaguely, as originally being devoted to their Nick Jr. favorites).

^ True, there are some discrepancies, but I doubt they'll go to the sign maker and ask for five seperate designs when there are quite a few rides that can be called "Snoopy's GR8 SK8." And yes, Character Carousel... Maybe that's one that could be solved with a naming contest, just like the Flight Deck problem might've been... Snoop-Go-Round. There ya go. Even that's better.

Click here. And in so doing, it appears many of ours have been revealed as well. Notably: Runaway Reptar --> Flying Ace Aerial Chase* Blue's Skidoo (?) --> Flying Ace Balloon Race* Little Bill's Giggle Coaster --> Lucy's Crabbie Cabbie Avatar --> Snoopy's GR8 SK8 Lazy Town Sportacopters --> Woodstock's Whirly Birds Fairly Odd Coaster --> Woodstock Express (That's not to say ours won't be Beastie again, just that Carowinds' is Woodstock Express..) Backyardigan's Swing Along --> Charlie Brown's Wind Up Nick-O-Round - Character Carousel Please note that all of these names are Carowind's renames, but I've gone ahead and attached the Kings Island equivalent of the ride in question. For example, I don't know that their kid's swings were the Backyardigan's Swing Along's, but I'm working under the assumption that Kings Island's will be renamed the same thing. We'll likely see soon enough. Meanwhile, Spongebob 3-D and Scooby Doo & The Haunted Castle remain unchanged at this point, for those of you wondering. * So much for those of you who said there was enough Snoopy material to not repeat names. Appears that the geniuses behind Flight Deck were brought back for Project: Snoopy!

To be honest, the old 8-flip Crypt left me feeling a little woozy each time I rode it, and a few of my friends opted to sit out the second time. However, Kings Dominion's Crypt has the same program (I believe... Theirs may flip an additional time) and I was fine on it, leading me to believe it has to do with the sheer size of our massive top spin trying to perform those intricate flips with suo much weight and force behind it. That being said, that's the only ride I've ever felt even a little bit sick after. My mom, in comparison, can barely stomach the yo-yo swings without Dramamine, and laughed at the very idea of Delirium.

^ Too true! Besides, Universal has the rights to amusement park related Wizard of Oz things... Of course, their park in Japan also has a Snoopy themed area and coaster... But Wizard of Oz? Doubt it. If a beloved park icon who was already well-established and whose liscencing doesn't expire for quite a few years was kicked out of the mansion, it's likely due to Snoopy not wanting to intermingle with other cartoon characters... We'll likely see nothing but the Scooby characters removal, perhaps with a few carboard cutouts of those Howl-O-Scream characters with the big eyes. I can't imagine much more than that.

The BLSC picture is from Kings Dominion's, if you want to get really picky... Ours has black lap bars. And of course, The Crypt page is riddled with error... Employees barely know all the stats on it, so I guess it makes sense that the website would still call it a "struggle against the fury of nature’s polar opposites in a desperate effort to escape!", say the ride is 2:55 (in what dimension?!), and flips four times. Interestingly, that means it hasn't been updated since before the Crypt even came around. Though technically, the image on The Crypt's page does only show two rows. (Speaking of which, I know quite a few accomplished graphic designers who all say that they can't imagine what kind of designer would NOT tilt the image of the two rows, or at least make it LOOK like something interesting is going on... To have two rows parallel to the images frame "gives no sense of movement." I think anyone can see that.) Interestingly though, upon viewing the source material: It appears someone at CFHQ actually decided to straighten out the image so it wouldn't be tilted! After all, can't have people getting the idea that there's orange fog on the ride! Another thing that bothers me about the website... The stats on the rides aren't in a "grid" format. Look at the Drop Tower page... Whoever made it just pressed the space bar a bunch of times to line things up. I know it's small, but if you have one graphic or web designer friend, ask them... It just shows a lack of professionalism. Terpy hit the nail on the head when he said they view the internet as a "toy," when in reality, it's how a majority of visitors get information. And of course, everyday visitors don't necessarily notice things like the Crypt's statistics or the odd formatting... But it does look less-than high quality as an overall presentation, and says something about the professionalism the park is conveying.

No. I only deleted the sentence about the "announcement" that it was becoming Charlie Brown at the Haunted House. That's the only sentence I changed. I probably should've gone back and made the paragraph run more smoothly haha. But hey, it's Wikipedia. And how many people who aren't Kings Island fanatics are going to be looking up the Scooby Doo and Haunted Mansion page? Regardless, I think we can count that as our good deed for the day!

Not true. I actually deleted it from the Wikipedia page earlier today. There have been (and likely won't be til late winter) any press releases about Planet Snoopy's names. More than likely, the first we'll hear about new names is either with the park map's release or with a website overhaul, such as what happened when the Paramount names became Cedar Fair (Tomb Raider --> Crypt, Top Gun --> Flight Deck, etc) back in January 2008.

I believe it was the park's opening day, and thus the first time the public could get close to Son of Beast. So it was in essence, Opening Day 2000 that was meant by the video's opening caption. The logo placement was coincidental.

You know, you make a good point... When you think about it, our current Crypt is a slower version of a Screamin' Swing which just happens to flip twice! If we could get people to think of it that way, perhaps it'd be more enjoyable!

I am totally for this, and I think a few fog machines scattered in Boomerang Bay would increase the sheer size of Halloween Haunt by unprecedented proportions. I doubt it would happen, though, as it would require more staffing, more lighting, etc. And just off the top of my head, I'm sure there would be at least some issue with the material that the ground of water attractions are made from, and lack of traction or something like that. I just think it wouldn't be as easy as it seems, or we'd have seen more places try it... Sounds awesome, though! At the very very very very least, CornStalkers could easily and successfully be setup inside White Water Canyon's trough. That's what's done at Cedar Point for their Werewolf Canyon, and it's VERY well executed. Plus, imagine, creepy farm setup all the way down the queue line of White Water Canyon, and then you set down into a corn "maze" inside the trough... That would be wicked.

First, it's not only rude, but ridiculously absurd to equate someone's singing and dancing skills with whether or not they're in "cummunity college." Also, it's spelled community college... If you're going to try to insult someone's intelligence (or, their dancing skills which are somehow related to intelligence... err..?) then you might want to spell an educational institution correctly... And about them not making it in Hollywood, I bet a lot of people said that about some of the original Kings Island performers... What was that one's name again.? Oh yeah, Carmen Electra. And let's see, a five-weekend show at a local amusement park? It probably is just a "hobbie" (sic) for most of them. If only we could get some of the 50+ year old grand dames of Broadway to play sexy vampires at a small-town Ohio amusement park's seasonal show.

That's usually how it is later in the month. I was in the same situation, with a 2.5 hour wait for The Beast. Even Adventure Express was an hour. At that point, I knew it was time to leave. That was last year, though...

As Interpreter said, we need to know which you mean: 1) Saturday during the day before Haunt 2) Sunday during the day before Haunt 3) Saturday during Haunt 3) Sunday during Haunt So far, no one can answer 2 or 4 because the first instance of it happening is today. And it all depends on which weekend you go...The earlier the weekend, the better. Lines can be a bit daunting during Haunt. It can sometimes be less crowded during the day before Haunt actually starts.

I'm not sure how many of you are somehow involved with art, but I'm going to post some of the pieces I've done that relate to Kings Island... Granted, I don't have them with me, so I'm kind of going off of images that my mom took at my high school art shows for many, so you'll just have to use your imagination for now. Soon, I'll get them all edited and take good pictures. That is my whole art display at my high school art show. You can see a Kings Island map, an image of the goddess Durga, the Eiffel Tower, the Crypt sign, the Brahma god from the Tomb Raider queue, etc... Yeah, I really like Kings Island. A close up, with a young me in it! (Young as in, that was a year ago.) My mom took this, clearly having no photography skill. Haha. Again, I'll upload a better image later. This is a "comic book" page of The Crypt. And yes, it's actually not the Crypt, it's Tomb Raider... But you know how those North-Eastern Ohioans are... Clueless! The (pre-Diamondback) map of Kings Island. Durga from Tomb Raider: The Ride. This one is hard to photograph as it's mostly graphite so any sort of light reflects. Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland. I just love it. Old logos. An off-the-top-of-my-head version of the Drop Zone logo. I was obviously very off, but I like it, still! As you can see in the top images of my entire board, I have others not seen here that I'll upload ASAP if anyone's interested. Ex. the Crypt bat distorted and stretched (for a distorting project) and a close up of Durga as a strobe flashes. Thanks for viewing! Post your own!