bkroz

You won't find such appreciation for another Mr. Eisner's signature... Not in the Disney Parks, at least!

Busch Gardens in Virginia closed for capacity this evening at their Dark Side of the Gardens event. They forecasted on their Twitter throughout the day that patrons arriving late should check the website for updates. They ended up closing the gates at 5:00, and re-opening around 8:00.

Universal is already working on their Halloween event for next year. Kings Island might not be that proactive, but they certainly didn't just toss it up in early September!

I heard somebody jumps out at you, but I can't remember which house it's in... Just be ready for it, I guess.

What's the obvious answer? For one thing, it was located miles outside of the tourist-friendly areas of Myrtle Beach and more or less off the beaten path. Secondly, it had a rigid and overpriced admission price without few discounts, few specials, and (as I recall) no child pricing. The second owner tried to implement tiered admission schemes, free kids' tickets, and multi-day options just to try to get people in the door. And that apparently didn't work, either... EDIT: Later, of course, manufacturers, licensers, vendors, and investors came out of the woodwork suing the park for this and that... Keep in mind this was all circa 2008's financial crisis, too.

Because some people here are expecting that the demolition of Son of Beast will occur concurrently with the construction of whatever is going to replace it. It's just fun to watch, you know? And only a little sad to see the overwhelming disappointment when... EDIT: (Via Twitter) @lafuntimes: Is @KingsIslandPR planning a new coaster for 2014? http://ow.ly/e8Wt1via @screamscape @kingsislandpr: @latimesfunland Not looking that far ahead.

Building a park of any decent "regional attraction" size, I think, is just not feasible. Just the cost of obtaining and preparing dozens (or hundreds) of acres of land; creating miles of plumbing, kitchens, bathrooms, infrastructure, pathways, employees... You've crossed millions of dollars before you've purchased a ride. And one might argue that you won't find a regional-draw amusement park that doesn't have at least one larger roller coaster, which can run $8 - $25 million dollars alone. Who's marching around these days with the hundreds of millions of dollars that it would likely take to bring a full-sized, regional amusement park to life, even in phases? And if they could, where would they build it? Even Six Flags and Cedar Fair, whose main business is park operation, haven't built a park in decades. Acquisition was the name of the game, and that is over. There's nothing left to acquire, for the most part. The last attempt to build a park from scratch, as far as I can recall, was Hard Rock Park... Another part of the equation, I think, is the expected scale of these projects. If Kings Island of 1972 opened in 2012... Suffice it to say, these are different expectations for a park in 2012 than there were 40 years earlier, for better or worse. Kings Island 1972 would cost millions and millions of 2012 dollars, but would even then would not meet the "requirements" that many have come to have. That being said, I think that there is room for small, local parks like the one proposed here. It would be nice if Geauga Lake could be the family picnic grove with a few coasters, free from the expectation that it should have record-breaking rides. The problem is, who's willing to operate it? But I don't know. That's all just my opinion.

The smoothest part of the ride! And I've always loved that photo because it really shows how massively tall the loop is... Taller than the first hill of almost any other roller coaster there at the time...

Maybe he meant, "Nevermore!" Those who petition for the end of Halloween Haunt (or who call for it to be minimized or budget-slashed) ought to read this topic carefully!

Logically so... Paramount (under CBS and Viacom) had pretty extensive resources in branding, advertising, and themed-element production. Even outside of film properties (which were under the Paramount Pictures umbrella, separate from Paramount Parks even if they shared a name and common owner) Viacom / CBS's partnerships and complex connections defined the park. Coca-Cola? MTV? Star Trek? Nickelodeon? Mach 3 razors? A web of connections and transactions there...

People on other fan sites moan about Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom losing their Sky Rides. And when the parks had their Sky Rides, people complained that they allowed views of the rooftops and ruined the "magic!" In other words, there's always something to complain about if you choose to look hard enough.

The track inside the tunnel there very closely resembles the surf-curve style track that swerves between the police cars earlier in the ride. Then the track dips below the ride's first launch section and pop up through the third launch out of the billboard. Nothing special happens in there, despite persistant rumors (again, don't read the park's Facebook page) that it goes upside down in the tunnel. It's just a tiny stretch of track that's indoors. I only know this because two summers ago, it was apparently the "cool thing" to leave the lights on in there for absolutely no reason. Let me tell you, that detracts from the ride experience.

This, I would say, is very different from Son of Beast. Son of Beast encountered more than a few truly dangerous situations, physically hurting riders and allegedly causing chronic problems for some - this apart from the recorded time that an entire train's worth of riders went to the hospital thanks to a piece of the ride's structure literally failing... That could've been catastrophic. For some people on that train, it might've been. The ride was uncomfortable, unpleasant, unsatisfactory, and in the eyes of many, unsafe. WindSeeker's problem is different. Faced with a misfiring sensor or whatever it is that caused the issues, it did exactly what it was supposed to do. Systems engaged and maintenance followed the prescribed process for getting riders off safely. The problem, though, is that that process - even when enacted appropriately, apparently - took a heck of a long time. Too long. Unforgivably long. That, according to the articles posted here, is the normal, standard procedure for that ride, and maintenance crews followed the instructions given to them. So in WindSeeker's case, everything post-breakdown went "right" in the eyes of the manufacturer, but felt "wrong" in the eyes of the public. I'm sure that Mondial and Cedar Fair are trying to resolve the issue and implement a better system. I can't imagine you'd see six towers scrapped over this. The public was wary of WindSeeker after multi-month delays, then marginally confused when it turned out to be less of a "thrill" ride than advertised, but I hardly think people will now avoid it like the plague. People rode Son of Beast before and after each of its highly-publicized incidents, after all... EDIT: And to step back and look at Cedar Fair now... Once so invested in tried-and-true technologies, things have changed. Up North, it brought it on itself. At Kings Island, it inherited a sticky situation or two, and then brought on a new issue.

Or so it was said... Lots of people here argue that there was (and continues to be) plenty of room for the Flying Eagles. If not in the exact spot where they were, then at least elsewhere in the park. Another camp insists that Backlot Stunt Coaster is in the wrong place, either A) because it does something irrevocably negative to that area of the park independent of the Flying Eagles' removal or B] because it should fit like a puzzle piece into the Thunder Alley plot of land in Action Zone, where it would also thematically make sense as a "backlot, stunt" coaster.

And if I recall, the big hubbub about the WindSeeker compared to the competitors' models was that WindSeekers' steel arms allowed them to operate in much higher winds, and at much higher altitudes (an absolute must for Cedar Point's windy peninsula and for the astounding 300' height, apparently...) Ironically, the old chain-and-chair versions offered by competitors seem to be, at least, no less resistant to heights / winds. In other words, it seems like the WindSeeker model had a whole lot of hoopla (music and lighting packages) and innovation for the sake of innovation (metal instead of chain arms) that are not proving themselves very worthwhile...

Soon, there won't be a place in the park where you can't see the demolition!

Disney's California's Great Adventure. Six Flags Over California Adventure. California's Disney's America. Disney Great Six Flags Californian American Adventure. So many ideas! I've got to get back to designing parks!

It was the on-ride photo booth. Wax figures to welcome you to the attraction?

An article from a theme park site: http://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20120919/12142/disney-lend-13-billion-disneyland-paris-ease-debt-concerns

That opening shown in the picture above (between the queue and preshow room) was Tomb Raider's "rolling" circular door with the Triangle of Light inscribed on it. That door hasn't been closed since The Crypt (and even before, since the park suspended Tomb Raider's pre-show after only a few seasons). The boarded-up wall was between the ride and the pre-show, or roughly where that photo was taken from. It will be interesting to see if The Bat comes alive with its raspy, high-pitched growl that is actually quieter than its pneumatic motors. A pleasant enough sound for dinner time! Interesting, too, that the pre-show room has been almost entirely unchanged. I mean, the lights, the set pieces, the animatronic... GYK, trying to imagine that same room as the prelude to Tomb Raider: The Ride, but with the current golden chandelier suspended overhead. How times have changed.

From the park's Twitter a few days ago, if you hadn't seen it:

Don't know how I missed this! Looks like a fantastic time! Thanks.

It makes sense to pair weather with travel (that's what I use weather.com for most of the time, thinking back). Interestingly, for years when you visited weather.com's home page, the search bar prompted: "Search Zip, City, or Place (ie. Disney World)" Earlier this summer, that changed to: "Search Zip, City, or Place (ie. Cars Land)" A very recent reformat of the site seems to have removed either example. I'm not alleging that The Weather Channel is in cahoots with Disney - in fact, it's owned by NBCUniversal and the Blackstone Group, who own and operate Universal Orlando - but it is strange how tethered it has been to Disney's properties... A pretty penny that might've cost The Walt Disney Company? EDIT: Browsing the site, I see that at least at http://www.weather.com/forecast, the Cars Land reference remains in the search bar.

The list of the top 10 most visited Amusement Parks, I think, would be exactly identical. GYK, 1) amused at both; 2) imagining that most people use the terms interchangeably; and 3) aware that even those who don't use the terms interchangeably can't quite decide what qualifies - Universal Studios, some would say, is NOT a theme park; some would say that Kings Island most certainly IS.

Third row on B&M Dive Machines will also surprise you. The experience of a Drop Tower is nearly incomparable to the experience of a Dive Machine. I also think Dive Machine's are as beautiful as they are functional. They're kinetic, graceful, and intimidating. Griffon and SheiKra both compliment their areas and create a dynamic landscape. Plopping one down in Action Zone would really miss out on an important part of the ride. As for if Universal bought Kings Island (dream on!) and if office positions would change: Probably. People who were bred to understand Universal's policies and procedures would probably take their places. Cedar Fair's 2006 acquisition of Paramount Parks was referred to often as a "merger." How many people from that era continue to work at Kings Island or Cedar Fair...?