coasterrz

Yes, every wooden coaster that has been built in the last half century has upstop wheels. Only older rides feature trains without uptops, and then the design negotiated that the hills not be curved enough to cause the car to come off the track. In short, without upstop wheels, there would be no airtime on wooden roller coasters.

I was up at the park today. First, it was a beautiful day to be at PKI, with the sun out, and extremely light crowds in the park. I had a one cycle wait for Drop Zone when I arrived at 3. Anyway, after that I wanted to check out the new Paramount Magic of the Movies show in the renovated Paramount Theater. The new movie theater style seats in the theater are about the only high point of this new show. The two main characters in the show, tried too hard to be funny. There were jokes like the guy`s name being "Ben Dover" that were not funny. The audience participation only involves seven people. The first five participate in making sound effects for Sleepy Hollow. Then, after a break to change sets, in which they conviently showed a preview for the upcoming release of Spongebob Squarepants the Movie, they had the remaining two volunteers from the audience go on stage and do a scene from Titantic, using a green screen. The last part, and best part IMO, occured at the end, when they were transported (via the green screen) to the depths of the ocean to the home of Spongebob. There were bubbles blowing in the theater, but unfortunately, Spongebob is never seen at the climax of the show. All in all, I was dissapointed with this show. I thought that this show had the potential to be excellent. However, this show seemed to be more of an advertisement for Paramount movies than it did a show at PKI. Based on the show I saw today, I will not be watching another Paramount Magic of the Movies show in the Paramount Theater this season. I hope next season they introduce a truly good show in the theater since they spent more than a $1 million renovating it. Additionally, I would rather have seen another magic show in the theater or even the return of graveyard shift. At least in those shows, everyone clapped and was intrigued by the show. I wouldn`t reccommend spending a half an hour to watch this "show."

Spongebob Squarepants is still being shown in the left theater. I do not know what movie will replace "Secrets of the Hidden Temple."

The reason I believe that the Backwards Racer was running empty trains is I believe that last weekend the red train was not on the tracks. I know that backwards was under one train operation and that the second train was not parked on the transfer track. My guess is that the park was either doing its own testing of the second train, or was having the second train certified by the state to accept passengers.

Yeah, I remember seeing pictures of that. If I remember correctly, they cut the track so that they could use a crane to remove the trains from the rosebowl. However, I find it unlikely that SoB would have valleyed today, especially with the excellent weather and lack of strong winds today.

The only grip I have with their new website, is that somethings are still out dated. For example, they still have last year`s shows listed. Additionally, if you download a park map, it doesn`t download the 2004 one that is on their website. Instead, it downloaded the FearFest/park map from last October. Oh, well. I`m sure that they are bisy fixing quirks with the new design and will get the PKI site up to date soon.

The best night ride I had on The Beast was during FearFest 2002. It was a cloudy moonless night. In addition to it being a little cool, a dense fog had set in and arond The Beast, especially by the double helix. Even though lights shine on the doouble helix at night, you could not see it because of all the fog. Those were some awesome night rides because the fog obscured some of the lights.

I would have to say The Beast, because there iks no other ride like it in the world. I like how once you leave the first lift, you feel seperated from the rest of the park. In a sense, because The Beast sits on 35 heavily wooded acres, the ride is isolated from the midways. I just love the fact that throughout most of the course, you are blazing through the woods of PKI, without any indication to your wherabout in the park with relation to other attractions, except on the lift hills.

This has already been discussed in another thread.

Nice article Italianchef!

Yes, Scooby Doo. I agree that this topic has run its course. What happened is in the past. and to quote Pumba from the Lion King, "You have to put the past behind you." What`s done is done. We have many more, wonderful days to experience the park this season when everything will be in top notch working order.

Was that firetruck pulling the float not the firetruck that PKI has as part of their fire and rescue division?

Well, that is what I have always seen. I have witnessed one day when they had fireworks at 9, but that is a Sunday in September when Provter and Gamble rents out the entire park. Other than that, I do not know of any occasions in which they launch fireworks at any time earlier than 10.

They didn`t have fireworks this past weekend because the park didn`t close at ten or later. Which is the same reason why they won`t have fireworks on opening day. The reason I asked about the fireworks is because they are no longer mentioned in the April-mid-May park maps like they have been for the past six seasons.

Well, in years past, they have always done fireworks on 10pm closings or later. Usually they don`t start closing at ten until mid May anway. I don`t view the money they spend on fireworks as a waste. It is a classic way to end the park in the middle of the summer. PKI has been shooting off fireworks at park closing in the summer for its entire years history. Before that, Coney used to have fireworks displays. Back when Coney was open and now PKI (hopefully still) use Rozzi`s Famous Fireworks, which are based in Loveland, Ohio, just a stones-throw from PKI. Rozzi`s is perhaps best known for Riverfest everylabor day on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. However, Rozzi`s has also provided pyrotechnics to some of Disney`s pyrotechnical shows at its parks. IMO, it would be a HUGE mistake to discontinue the fireworks. Especially if cost is the only factor. Does anyone know why Kookabura Bay was not shown on the park maps?

I actually think that the water wheel was removed from the Thornberrys sometime in post season last year. I wish they hadn`t removed that, and I hope they plan on bringing it back.

I was slightly dissapointed that the park closed at 5, only for the fact that I was almost not able to go today at all because of that fact. However, I am glad that the park was open today, period, based on how cold it was. It could have been like in years past when the park wouldn`t open for another few weeks. Last year the weather was exceptional, and that fact combined with the combined season pass holders and free tickets was a nightmare. Thie year, the weather for pass holder day was the exact opposite. It seems the park can never win with this "preview weekend." Give the park a few weeks, and I`m sure the kinks will be worked out and PKI will be back up to the standards we have all come to know. From what I`ve heard, other than the power difficulties on Saturday, most of all the attractions were up and operating smoothly. That is one good thing about the gold-pass private party in May. Most of the rides` kinks have been ironed out and the crews are comfortable with running their rides. I do have a quick question. Is the Eiffel Tower going under some rehab still? I noticed a couple large panes of glass on a crate near one of the elevator doors, like they are replacing the glass on the elevators. The park also had the exits and queue line of the Eiffel Tower barricaded off with metal gates. Anyone know if they are doing some refurb. to the Tower?

I know the park isn`t open until ten. The current park maps go through the 19th of May. The maps from the same time period last year mentioned the fireworks display and this years don`t. That is why i asked if they had discontinued this tradition. Hopefully, they just didn`t print it on these maps as the fireworks are always the way the park has signaled the close of a fun filled summer day, ever since the park opened. I hope they just didn`t print it on the maps. Thanks for the quick responses! Also, an interesting thing I found on the park map involves Boomerang Bay. Did anyone else notice that Kookabura Bay is not shown on the park map, or listed in any of the hieght restrictions/intensity charts? I`m assuming they just left this attraction off of the map for some reason. Any one have any idea what is up with that?

Usually, (at least for the last six seasons anyway) the park mentions their nightly fireworks display in the park map. Usually something along the line of "Our fireworks display will occure when the park closes at 10pm or later." However, this year, there is no mention of the fireworks display in the park maps. Does anyone know if this tradition at PKI is a thing of the past? Or, did the park simply leave it off the park maps for some reason?

Yes, I did have fun during my brief stay at the park. However, my point was that the park only closed early because they were looking out for their bottom line. The reason Coney stayed open was because our GM wanted the guests to have the luxury of staying until the time we were supposed to close, even if that meant we would loose money for a couple hours. PKI, today cared more about closing the park rather than running the park for a loss (which is why they closed early, even though a majority of the rides were already closed because of the cold) and giving its season pass holders a good first impression of the park for the season, and allowing them to experience the park until its scheduled closing hour. Also, I did not witness any new effect on The Beast. I did see the many new signs, which are cool. However the speakers on the lift hills were silent. Additionally, there was no documentary video playing in The Beast`s line. Does anyone know why that video wasn`t playing like a newspaper article a while back said it would be? I was just kind of disappointed by the fact that the park was closing early. I had fun, but the decision to close the park early does not sit well with me.

I understand why the rides were closed. However, the park wasn`t exactly deserted. I was extremly mad when i found out the park would close at 5 instead of the scheduled 8. I understand that they did this becuase of the cold, and the fact that they wouldn`t be making enough money off of food and games to cover the expenses of an additional three hours. I don`t think that should be an excuse. I worked at Coney island one day last year when the park was deserted because it was cool, and drizzling. I was on breaks and only 2 people rode the pedal boats in half an hour and we only ran the Ferris Wheel three times in an hour as there were no picnics or anybody in the park. However, we stayed open because Coney`s GM said that 'we said we would be open to a certain time so we were going to stay open until that time, even if we loose money.' Other than closing early, which only enabled me to squeeze in an hour and a half up at PKI I still got six rides in. Inclusing two walk on rides at Delirium to end the day!

What time do you think the photos will be added to the site? Also, how crowded was the park? Tomorrow, I`m debating what time to go to the park. I have to go to CAC for about 2 hours starting at 2. So that leaves from either 10-1 or about 5-8. I am slightly concerned that if I go from 5-8 they might close down early with it being so cold tomorrow and the fact that crowds might be light.

From what I`ve heard that "hint" wasn`t really a hint. I`ve heard that some people mistook a blue train on The Racer as a new path way that was built behind The Racer. They thought that this was part of a midway expansion for the 2005 ride. While, the park may in fact do this, I highly doubt they show a path on the park map for a new attraction in 2005 this early in the year, unless there is a signifcant new land clearing, which there are none.

darkstar_skater_00, try checking your posts before posting. Your post was a massive run on sentence with bad grammer! Not to mention that your other two recent posts were scattered with errors/typos as well. However, it is nice to see new people around here posting!

I too wish that they would bring back Days of Thunder for a season on the non 3D side. Besides, if they brought it back, it would fit in well with their new push to have "Hollywood" entertainment. It has been so long since that movie left that i would like to experience it again, not to mention the popularity of NASCAR has grown tremendously in the past coupl of years.