Browntggrr

And, even though accidents are ultimately bad, the amount of buses that Disney runs combined with the amount of people transported, probably rivals most cites in the amount of miles/ people transported. It would be nice to see some investigative reporting done instead of throwing Disney under the bus. Oh wait....

I love when people say that seeing pictures can give a good enough description of what something looks like and form a legitimate opinion. "I don't need to go to the Grand Canyon, I've seen the pictures." "I don't need to ride that coaster, I've seen the POV."

Let's hope this goes in a positive direction. If not, the new group could easily close more parks.

New Peanuts comic strips ended on February 13th, 2000, yet are still are printed in a majority of newspapaers 6 New Peanuts cartoons have been released since Feb 13th 200, then, most notably on iTunes: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2008/11/02/2008-11-02_peanuts_goes_hitech_with_animated_comics.html Some were direct to video, others were broadcast: http://www.fivecentsplease.org/peanuts-tv.html#COMPLETE-SHOW-LIST

^^^ I really don't know if a modification like is currently being done to TG can be done to SoB. Coasters are designed to withstand certain amount of forces in certain amount of areas in certain directions. When you change the dynamics of that design, the forces are also changed. The ride could end up folding up like a deck of cards. And sure, engineers can test for things like that- but the engineers that have worked on SoB so far have not done such a bang-up job. Look at it like this: say you wanted to move your house, and the foundation of your house is currently on rock. If you were to move your house foundation to a sand base, that would change how your house sits. The forces & areas that kept your house upright on rock may not be used anymore and those same forces would be transferred to another part of your house that may not be able to handle the pressure. Another angle is return on investment. SoB has already been a $30 million failure, and this type of change will be a practical reconstruction. Is the current ride worth it? TG's modification is about $10 million. The ride origionally had a price tag of $5.5 million, and TG was a decent ride- at one time considered one of the best coasters. Is SoB worth another $15 million? Or can that money be used toward another ride that does not have the history SoB does? I've said it before; you can take a piece of crap, shine it up real nice, and then what do you have? It's still a piece of crap.

Yeah, those people really are annoying. They are almost as bad as the people that think SoB will be opening this summer! I'm sure during the next 12 months of SBNO will help the ride out immensely. Don't doom the ride yet fans, as it has produced such positive memories over the last 10 years! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIdMjgkMaAs

The last incident would be the common: "straw that broke the camel's back".

That is true, during the very early stages of the testing period, there were no trims, and the ride was unbearable. Video of Beast testing in 1980: I purchased this beta video sometime ago off E-Bay, found a old beta player, and converted it to VHS. Someone that I sent it here at KICentral to posted it to youtube. Anyway, you can see that the ride is still being built, the trains are still painted different colors, and you can also see the skid brake locations down the first hill and the straitaway- but not on the 2nd hill. Now here is a video from 2006 that show the same brakes including the 2nd hill: As you can see, the brake locations have not changed. In "Riding History to the Limits" http://www.cetconnect.org/KingsIsland/videos.aspx Dennis Speigel, Assistant GM of the park when Beast was being built, explains what Beast was like w/o the trims being there. Go to the Rivertown video and the comments he makes are at the 5:02 mark. Now there have been numerous reports of events where Beast did not have the trims. But as you can see in the videos, the trims are not easily accessible. Until the park comes out with an official statement of a Beast trimless ride, I consider the myth of riding a trimless Beast is something like: "Magnum is sinking". I understand your thinking as I used to think the same way, but, the third train cannot leave the station while two trains are on the circuit. So basically even if you would have a longer station for loading/ unloading, the "new" passengers would still have to wait in the station until one train is behind them in the station and the other train is past the MCBR. It would actually cost the park more money to position employees to make the longer station, and then those same employees would be standing around waiting.

Throughput would still be the same even if the station was longer as the "loaded" train in the station cannot move forward until the train on the circut is past the MCBR.

So true. What started in 1999 as a great amount of anticipation has now ended with a great amount of disappointment. It is time to end the misery and move on...

^ Would you consider this to be normal flooding, and how much property has been ruined?

Article from Sunday 3/14 predicting river would crest on Wednesday 3/17: http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20100314/NEWS01/303140002/Rain+to+bring+river+flooding Lets's hope it will not get too bad.

Mantis at CP is an excellent example of this. Mantis ran 3 trains, but due to slow load/ unload time, always stacked trains. Now Mantis runs 2 trains, and still has the same throughput.

So are you saying the thousand people that were on the ride were the only people in the park? Because if not, there would be no way of knowing how many people did not go on the ride due to the elephant element. And yes, Enchanted Voyage did have a hill. And I never worked at the park! And I wasn't alive until 88, three years before it became Phantom Theater, and I didn't live in Cincinnati and had never been to KI until after it was Phantom Theater. I also seriously doubt there are many people that refuse to ride because of the elephant except during pre season and post season. On extremely hot days people love to ride it because it cools them off without getting them as wet as WWC or Congo Falls. "Extremely hot days" would be the key phrase. If the elephant was not spitting out water, people would be more likely to ride it on cooler days, mornings and evenings.

So are you saying the thousand people that were on the ride were the only people in the park? Because if not, there would be no way of knowing how many people did not go on the ride due to the elephant element. And yes, Enchanted Voyage did have a hill. And I never worked at the park!

http://www.blooloop.com/ViewNews.aspx?ID=10836 It is nice to see US infrastructure plans like this in the works, but it would be nicer to see a US company get the contract.

Vortex has lighting, and so does Racer. CP has lighting on many of their coasters due to their location on the midways, and, you can see all sides of the coasters from many locations in the park. KI does not have that luxury, as many of their coasters are somewhat secluded. I actually like having the coasters not lit up at KI. It gives the coasters a different "ride" at night. Not to mention the bugs all those lights attract at CP. The bugs being near the lake is bad enough, with the lights, it's worse. It is so bad that I will refuse a front seat ride at night.

So you quizzed the people standing outside the queue line that refused to ride due to the elephant? That is what I call a multi-tasking effort for a employee that obviously knows it all!

We should all hope it is like this ride. It is fantastic! It is MUCH different, and better, than SDatHC, the video does not do it justice. And if anyone has the opportunity, it is located on Clifton Hill in the "Canadian Midway". CM is much like a Dave and Busters I'll take that bet. Sure, kids love to get wet, but family memories last a lifetime. My kids would rather enjoy that particular ride with everyone and get then get soaked on AF. I don't see people that can intelligently argue that. The elephant took away from all family members enjoying the ride.

It really sucks when a company has to eliminate things that many have been used to for years to save money. For instance, the company I work for has eliminated the annual summer family picnic for financial reasons.

Nice pics! What kind of camera do you have? I particularly like this pic as it reminded me of that idiot that claimed it to be a safety issue.

Yeah, that's it. It is going to be REAL strange driving up the causeway and not seeing DD this year.

Not the KI skyline, but still a great pic. Notice anything missing?

Please tell me you are kidding. 5 questions is more than enough, especially when people are asking things like "Is Vortex sinking?" And for the "good" questions that were not answered, chances are those questions have already been answered a previous day. People just need to do a little leg work and read through them.

For 2010. Not for 2011 and beyond. Just like we did not see that much change when CF first took over.