Delirium13

I think it's a great addition and makes for a more stately view upon entering the park. Nice to see that the park is giving the Flag a more prominent place in the park.

MLA also allows you to cite an interview, and I also agree that you should try to get an interview. A few years ago I was doing a research paper on a career path that interested me, which at the time was Marketing/Public Relations. I needed to interview in person, I got Mr. Helbig's number from the parks website and he very graciously took about 30-45 minutes out his work day to do the interview. Interviewed right beside the fountains, it was my first time inside the park while it was closed and they were setting up for Halloween Haunt, it was a very cool experience. So if in an interview is an accepted source, which I would think it would be, I'd recommend that you at least try, as Scott Evans said, the worst that can happen is they say no.

I believe it was to accommodate its original trains, which were made by Premier, and were essentially steel coaster trains(basically the same as the Flight of Fear trains), which were wider than most wooden coaster trains. Or at least that is what I have always heard as the reason, anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I do not know however if it is the only wooden coaster with such a wide track, I would assume that if it's not that is among a very small minority though. Hope that I'm right/this helps

I wasn't suggesting that people Google Son of Beast beforehand, I was just using it as an example of the rides negative image. When the ride first opened I found it very enjoyable, but I also noticed the ride getting worse as time went on. There was on occasion in which I remember just wanting the ride to end, something I had never felt on a roller coaster before, nor should anyone ever feel like that on something that is supposed to be fun. I remember feeling as if my insides were being rattled, my head beginning to hurt, and the lap bar crushing down on my legs (I had plenty of room when the ride first began). That was the point when I no longer made a point of riding Son of Beast every time I went to the park. I also like to think of myself as an optimist, but also as a realist. I have been one of Son of Beast's biggest cheerleaders, convincing people to give the ride another shot after it reopened, saying that I thought it was an improvement, but knowing deep down that the ride was still unbearable, just now unbearable without a loop. While I agree that some people visiting the park for the first time do not know of Son of Beast and its history, I would venture a guess that a good amount do know about it whether seeing news about the accident or hearing about it from a friend who has ridden it. And if a newcomer to the park were to ask the wrong person why the big roller coaster was closed and not on the map while in line for another ride, I can only imagine what they'd think... I've overheard many times people either exaggerating what occurred in July 2006 (as terrible as it was), and even claiming that someone died on it. While this is not true, it certainly does not make the ride look any better in the eyes of the public.

Once again, I have to disagree with you. You continue to make arguments including "facts" that you cannot possibly know or back up. I know many people, who are definitely not enthusiasts who refuse to ride Son of Beast because of its bad media attention, and no I'm not referring to the Discovery Channel or Travel Channel, I'm referring to the accidents that have received national attention, and also due to their terrible past experiences on the ride. A ride should not require that people "know how to ride it" (no I'm not saying you've made this argument but in the past this has been a common argument in favor of the ride). The people who visit Kings Island are mainly from Southern Ohio, Kentucky, and Indian, and as you said The Beast is famous in these areas, which takes away from your previous argument that most people do not know the difference. People remember their past experiences, the good and the bad, and the fact is that many people have had bad experiences on the Son of Beast in which they have decided that enough was enough and that they no longer would ride it. And I disagree that The Beast is not famous. It is about as famous a roller coaster you'll find Here's and example from across the country. The LA Times' top 10 wooden roller coaster list. What's the coaster pictured? While many among the enthusiast community disagree that The Beast is a top 10, it continues to be ranked by the national, non enthusiast related sites, namely because it has fame working in its favor. I do agree with you though that the Son of Beast, if it did open tomorrow (assuming the park was open of course), would have a long line. I wouldn't say a full line, but a long line, sure. But in my opinion I would say that this would be mainly due to curiosity (as it was after the ride reopened without the loop). I know that no matter what I say, you will disagree, but one only needs to type in 'Son of Beast' on Google to realize how much of a PR nightmare this ride is.

I honestly think you're underestimating people's intelligence. I can tell you with 100% confidence that I have never heard someone call the Son of Beast 'The Beast', and especially never the other way around. People are not that dumb, especially if you factor in that they both garner a lot of media attention (I would say The Beast is famous whereas the Son of Beast is more infamous). While you cannot say that everyone hates Son of Beast, although I do believe there is a pretty solid argument that it has been a failure. It is absolutely ridiculous to assume that most of the public do not even know the difference, especially with all the negative media attention Son of Beast has had.

I also feel that I see more Heinz than Red Gold. This change isn't too big of a deal for me. I will say though that if eaten right after each other (for example I had Heinz ketchup packets from Arby's took my food home, was eating my fries with the Heinz, needed more ketchup and had Red Gold at my house. HUGE step down.) But when eaten alone I don't find it bad at all.

Nice TR, sounds like you had a good time. Were the brakes in the middle of Flight of Fear still as strong as last year?

Like others have said, once people are offered something worth spending their money on (a reasonable amount of money) they will spend more money. Continuously raising prices is not going to solve the problem or make up for less people spending money it will only further discourage people. It seems the parks are simply ignoring competition from outside restaurants, etc. rather than using the competition as incentive to improve upon the product they offer in the park. Rather they continue to offer the same tired, low quality product from past years only at a higher price. This is just asking for people to take their money outside the park. Simple supply & demand economics would show that in reality the prices should be coming down. Granted I do not know the exact stock of food and other goods in the park but I would assume that there is no shortage, and with demand down, the logical thing would be to lower prices to encourage spending and also improve upon the quality of their offerings. If they do both then I could see the problem being a thing of the past. But this Is Cedar Fair we are talking about and logical doesn't seem to be their forte and unfortunately I can only see them continuing to jack up the prices.

I think it would be nice and add to the park's overall atmosphere at night if they had more lights, like the ones shown on the loop of Vortex for example, along the tracks of certain rides. Not overkill but a tasteful amount, although some rides (Beast & Diamondback coming to mind) are best left dark (minus lift hills of course). Just some thoughts. Nice videos by the way!

That article gave me a small headache... Is that REALLY a professional paper?!

Not only was it "the first stand-up coaster to do a loop", it was the first stand up coaster period. Huh? Anyway, yeah nice photos. Technically a fact is a statement that can be proved or disproved. Not trying to be a smart aleck, just sayin. I personally think a few people here are a bit sensitive. Sure unaccurate posts are annoying but cut him some slack he just contributed to the site very much. The ride you linked to opened in 1992, King Cobra opened in 1984. King Cobra And regarding the posts, his rumors/facts weren't only inaccurate, but also contained some extreme accusations. In my opinion people were right to address these comments as they were misinformed. The pictures were nice though, thanks.

I must admit, after seeing these pictures, I am A LOT less skeptical than I've been all off-season. The whole area really looks nice and worth checking out, can't wait to see the finished product!

^ Hopefully whoever the 'powers that be' are after 040810 see things from that perspective. As much as I love getting a new coaster, it's always nice to occasionally have something creative like Curse of DarKastle added.

I'm sure you're right, I probably jumped to conclusions on that one. Thank you, that leaves me feeling a little more optimistic

I'll wait to give final judgment once I have ridden the ride, as should everyone, but my first impressions are: - I am not a fan of the name - Not a fan of having to wait so much longer to find out we're getting the same ride as the other parks that also received the re-theme - This picture leaves me shaking my head, looks like they just 'whited-out' a Scooby reference... - After looking at the pictures all I am really expecting is Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle, without the Scooby Doo (but once again I'll have to find out when I take a ride myself) - Also, while 3D sounds cool; I, a) Hope it isn't extra charge & Wonder if that means we'll be seeing blurry objects if we decided not to ride with the 3D option (anyone who has ridden a ride with the choice between 2D & 3D care to give an educated guess?) I know this is somewhat anti-climactic, but I am still actually somewhat excited to check this out to see what has changed, especially after what I've read from the reviews from Carowinds. We'll have to see come April 17th...

Sounds like a good 5@5 question to me!

It's one of the categories listed after clicking 'Rides and Attractions'

I agree completely. I feel that as Cedar Fairs time in charge has gone on, Kings Island has in a way, developed more of a 'generic' feel to it. The same music playing in every area of the park, especially International Street, just takes away from the magic that was once there. The creativity that was once there seems to be gone and the new ride names, just seem like they were done in a hurry and modeled to look like the old logos in hopes that the General Public wouldn't notice. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until we actually have a chance to see Planet Snoopy in its completion. But in all honesty, from their other examples of theming (mostly talking about the Crypt here)I'm expecting Planet Snoopy to be somewhat of a step down from Nickelodeon Universe in most aspects. While the additions of Firehawk and Diamondback and the park looking as clean as ever are definite positives, my general view of Cedar Fairs time in charge of Kings Island so far is pretty negative. Fairly Odd Coaster will more than likely get a generic Peanuts name that is seen in just about every other Cedar Fair park, and SDatHC will probably just be Boo Blasters on Boo Hill, which is probably going to be nothing more than SDatHC minus Scooby Doo. I really hope I'm wrong though. And if somehow they did decide to bring back Phantom Theater, which would come as a huge surprise to me, I would not expect it to be anywhere near as good as it was originally. Sorry to be negative, it's just been one of those days, and it's only 2.

That's too bad that you missed out on Shockwave, but I must agree Titan is a very forceful and fun ride. Nice photos! I hope to get back to SFOT sometime this summer.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading that trip report! Did you ever end up reporting that to the Department of Agriculture? It does seem that they did away with the paddle boats (which have no place at an event in the middle of winter in my opinion) after that season.

I actually went to Holiday Fest at the Beach in mid-December, I believe on Saturday the 12th, and I might as well post my report here rather than start a new topic. I had a rather different experience: I was fortunate enough to receive two free tickets so I figured I might as well give Holiday Fest a shot. I got there and the first thing I noticed was how empty the parking lot was, especially with it being a Saturday night. I went up to the gates and was informed by the extremely friendly staff that I got two free ride passes per ticket, so between my girlfriend and I we had four passes. Basically you walk through the gates and into a long temporary building which was pretty warm and a nice break from the extremely cold weather. The building itself was almost empty, and when we finally went out to the main park area I was completely underwhelmed. I don't know if I was just expecting too much, especially since I hadn't been to the Beach in years, but from a Holiday event that I had heard about for years I expected more. All of the lights looked pretty aged and once again the place was a ghost town. It was pretty sad to see, especially with how friendly the staff was and with the Beach being a little family owned venue. The first thing I saw was the train display which was pretty nice, and then I made my way down to the toboggan slide. I was actually somewhat worried about riding it after watching several kids fly forward when their sleds would hit the hay bail walls, and a couple broke through the walls and they had to stop the flow of people to fix the walls. But I finally decided to give it a shot and had a blast although, I found it unsafe that they had no worker at the top of the slide guiding people. Rather, the people would just go when the light at the top of the slide turned green. But the slide itself was fun enough and I didn't find the end to be as intense as it looked. Total throughout the night I got to do the toboggan 3 times because my girlfriend wasn't as eager to do it and only did it once. Other than the toboggan slide we had a hard time keeping ourselves occupied. we didn't do the ice skating, as we had gone downtown just the weekend before and we could not find the carriage ride that was advertised. All we found was the pony ride (we didn't do it), which was depressing to look at because the pony were just sitting there in the cold with no riders, and the petting zoo area which ended up being the entertainment for the next 15 minutes of the night, mostly because of the variety of animals, but I agree with Coney_man, the animals did seem sad. After that there was nothing left to do but leave, and this was at most, only two hours later and we had done a lot of sitting in the warm building. The event itself was nice I guess, but did not seem as if it had been being done for years, it seemed more like amateurs trying to put on a holiday event for the first time. And I say that with a heavy heart because I really wanted to enjoy myself and I felt for the staff, but the event was lacking. We left and I was disappointed, but happy that I hadn't spent any money to get in. Overall I found the event to be lacking in not only people, but also in activities. I really wish it had been different though. Anyone else have thoughts on this? Am I being to harsh? Was I expecting too much?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think when that happens they lower everyone down slowly with the lift car? I remember seeing it happen once at least, so it could very well change from situation to situation depending on what the hold up is.

I think gold with white supports would look sharp... but knowing Cedar Fair's preferences in paint, I wouldn't be surprised to see the red paint job return.

How so?