coasterrz

Actually in that CSI episode, not only did Grissom mention Son of Beast, but he mentioend that his favorite was The Beast! Pretty cool for Kings Island and two of its roller coasters to be mentioned like that on a very popular show! Of course it probably helped that CBS is owned by Viacom which owns Paramount Parks which own Kings Island. You can`t base popularity off of a ride`s capacity. Face Off has an extremly low capacity, and can`t push through a lot of people. However, most days when I am there it has a long line. I would say in a heartbeat that Face Off is a more popular ride than Adventure Express.

Magic of the Movies was produced by an outside company for the parks, right? Or am I just imagining that?

Its a little confusing then. So PPDE doesn`t do anything show related. That is up to the individual parks? Was the Nickelodeon Celebration Parade a PPDE production?

I must have been thinking about the entertainment. Don`t you mean that the entertainment is no longer in house? PPDE is part of Paramount Parks, so if they aren`t doing the shows, then it would be outside and not in house. Yeah, I guess they are still around, just not dealing with the shows and entertainment anymore. Technifex worked with PPDE on TR:TR. I don`t know if Technifex is involved with IJST, or if PPDE is, but it seems like it woould be since it is still around apparantly.

I remember hearing a while back that Paramount Parks Design and Entertainment department was closed or scaled down. Does anyone else remember hearing this? As far as I can tell, PPDE is still in charge of the theming and design of new attractions. Or am I just simply thinking that PPDE is no longer in control of designing the shows for the parks because they now outsource that? The reason I ask is I interviewed an architect today, who helped design Flight of Fear (she helped design the station, the UFO and the inside of the hanger). Any way, she no left to pursue residential architecture, and she said during the interview that Paramount Parks no longer has an inhouse design team. Does anyone care to shed some light on this subject if you know anything?

My memory is when I used to be scared of The Beastie. Then one year I rode The Racer, and then rode The Beastie, and it seemed so small and slow. I also remember riding the Sunshine Turnpike with my Dad, when I was too short to drive by myself. Then the year I was tall enough to drive by myself, 1994, the Sunshine Turnpike had been removed, to my major disappointment. I remember seeing the broken pavement with green "gak" bubbling up from the broken pavement.

In all seriousness, it is kind of hard to judge which is better Eagles and Antiques or IJST. The reason is that we haven`t seen the finished product for IJST. We could be blown away by the experience. Personally, I`m happy about a highly themed roller coaster, but am saddened by the loss of two classic rides.

Personally, I could really care less if they merged or not. It would be more convenient to have only one board, because then you could go to one spot to check out all the discussions on PKI. However, I could see some people leaving either board if they merged. Personally, I would not be against a merged board simply because of convenience. For the usernames and number of posts. Unfortunatly, the username I have on PKIC is different than the one I have here (its CoastersRZ with an s in it). So I created a new one that is the same as here, minus the capital letters. If they were combined, would the names be case sensitive if they were combined? I`m looking forward to the changes on here and PKIC. Keep up the great work on the excellent sites!

Well, they managed to build Top Gun on rather hilly land. So they could expand by being rather creative. There are still some relatively flat areas that the park can expand onto. I think that of the rides listed Congo Falls would be the first to go. I only see a line for that ride on busy, hot days. As others have said, I don`t foresee any more ride removals for a while. PKI has removed quite a few over the past couple of years. King Cobra, Phantom Theater, Kenton`s Cove Keelboat Canal, Antique Cars, Flying Eagles. While the park has expanded over the past couple seasons, the amount of rides they have has remained relatively unchanged. (With the exception of Boomerang Bay)

While it is sad to see the Eagles go, it was a decision Paramount Parks made, and we have to live with it, happy or not. Thhe Eagles was perhaps one of the lowest capacity adult rides in the park with the exception of maybe the Monster. There were only 10 tubs, and only about 20 people maximum could fit on the ride. Whiie I would have liked to see the Eagles fly over to the Flight Commander spot, Paramount Parks must have a grander plan for PKI, of which IJST is just the beginning. True, we may not see a new addition to Coney mall in 2006, but 2007 might mark the return of a new attraction to Coney Mall. To quote a PKI executive in an article about six years ago "Times change. The park will be different in the future, we just don`t know what shape it will take." Those aren`t his exact words, and I don`t remember his name, but that is essentially what he said.

I know back in 1996 or 1997 Vortex was down the day I visited and had a huge cran next to the lift. They have removed the piece of track at the very top of the lift. This was before the days when I was a season pass holder, or really into coasters so I paid little attention to it. I do know that they have replaced track on Adventure Express. Remember the mist that used to spray right after you left the station? Well, it was removed for good reason. Apparantly, the mist caused a great deal of rust in that section of track, and they had to replace it and removed the mist to prevent the track from deteriorating. I believe that is what Shaggy claimed as the reason for the removal of the mist a couple years ago. As with most cars, they have an average shelf life. You can keep replacing parts, but eventually, the parts get harder to find or more expensive, or so many things are failing, that it becomes cheaper just to buy a new car. The same goes for steel coasters.

EmoNun, PKi used to have Winterfest, from 1982 to 1993. There were very few rides open. Primarily, the Smurf ride, Antique Cars, both Carousels, the train, and I believe the last couple of seasons they opened up the Dodgems as well. It could return, but I doubt they open any coasters except for maybe Flight of Fear due to the cold. If they did have a coaster open, I would imagine it would have long lines.

Both Adventure Express and Vortez are huge capacity eaters. I don`t foresee them leaving anytime soon since apparantly, maintenance is not an issue. Ever wonder why these two rides don`t have any turnstiles, just the line up to the station? It is because the line moves fast enough due to the high capacity. I don`t imagine that thopse two rides will be leaving anytime soon, but PKI has surprised us in the past with removals.

It is a small park near Paramount`s Great America. And PKI Punk, Paramount Parks did not purchase Bonfante Gardens, they entered into a management contract with Bonfante. Essentially, Paramount Parks manages the park but does not own it. PP has introduced several tie ins with Paramount`s Great America such as using PGA passes to get into Bonfante Gardens.

While Paramount Parks does not own the park but manages it, I still found it interesting that Bonfante Gardens is introducing a Holiday Light display this season. Could this just be related to Bonfante Gardens? Probably. But, it could be an experiment for Paramount Parks to test the feasibility of returning Winterfest to PKI in 2005. The one thing that I found interesting is that if you have a BG season pass, you get free admission to the Holiday display. That coupled with the fact that PKI said expressly in their advertisements that season passes got free admission to Fear Fest THIS year has me wondering. Could Fear Fest not be back next year or in a limited nature so that the park could prepare for a reincarnation of Winterfest? Possibly. However, in reality, this is probably just me looking way too much into the entire situation.