coasterrz

I like Fear Fest, and had a blast this past season as it was the first that i was able to enjoy all the haunted attraqctions. However, I would prefer Winterfest over Fear Fest simply because it would mean that the park would be open in the winter when it woould not normally be open. True, not all the rides would be open, lie for FearFest, but they woould still have a couple rides open. What better way to cure the off season blues than a spin on Flight of Fear (if they have it open) or a ride on Scooby in the middle of December?

That is basically what I remember about the train as well. I think the animatronics were removed around 1990 or so. I remember hearing from somewhere that they were old and fallinf apart since they had been there since the park opened. I even remember hearing that the animatronics` arms kept falling off. I guess the park decided it wasn`t worth it to maintain or update the animatronics so they pulled the plug on them and kept the left over scenery. I personally think that if they brought them back it woould make for a more enjoyable train ride, but I don`t think they`ll do that anytime soon.

I would also like to extend a happy and safe Christmas and Happy New Year, as well as happy holidays for those of other religions. Thanks for the above posts of good cheer! I hope that everyone makes it through the holidays safely and can experience a wonderful season at PKI in 2004! Happy Holidays!

I don`t know if I would like The Beast to have silver cars. The red color scheme has been the classic scheme except for the blending from yellow to red when it first debuted. Nothing against silver, but I just don`t think they`ll paint all the cars in silver. Maybe the first car of all three trains or the first and last cars like on Son of Beast could be painted silver for The Beast`s silver anniversary. That might look good, especially if they paint a 25th symbol on the front of the first car!

I don`t know how I provided him with any info either. I don`t know when or if the park will be holding a season pass holder preview day for this season. I know there was talk in a survey of having a pass holder preview to Boomerang Bay and Jeff Siebert mentioned having a preview for enthusiasts as well on the construction tour in November. I guess we`ll just have to wait and see what the park decides to do. Whatever they do, if they have anything special, I`ll be happy.

I know there was talk of a chat tonight, but I never heard anything else about it. I don`t know anything other than that.??

I don`t think that I needed to register to view the article. The article, while it doesn`t provide any new information, was a very interesting article. I like how they even interviewed Will Koch from Holiday World about their water park, Splashin` Safari. The one thing I have a problem with is that the article attributes the jump in Holiday World since Splashin` Safari was built in 1993 to the building of the water park. It doesn`t mention the two world class wooden coasters the park built during that same period. I do think water parks add a lot to theme and amusement parks. At Coney, people go there because of corporate picnics, or because of Sunlite pool and the surrounding couple of water slides. They don`t go just because of the rides.

But opening day this season is on a Friday. So will they have the pass preview night on the Thursday before opening day, or will they have an exclusive passholder day, like they used to, the weekend before? The season pass preview days used to be exclusively for pass holders and the crowds used to be light. However, they started giving away free tickets to the "passholder only night" to area radio stations. The result has been a mass of people, most of which ended up being people that weren`t passholders. I know the park recieved a lot of comments after the preview day this season and apparantly they are going to try and fix the problem. Whatever happens, will still be a bonus since they don`t have to do anything special for passholders. PKI treats their passholders pretty well.

Don`t count on new rolling stock, as that is very expensive, and they just retrofitted the trains for the new braking system that was installed two years ago.

I know what yolu mean about people throwing crap on the ground instead of the trash cans. At Coney, the line for the Scrambler had two trash cans by it. Instead, people insisted on leaving their trash on the rock wall or in the dirt for me to pick up. What is so hard about throwing something in a trash can? About the trash can biohazard thing, I don`t know if they had the similar looking biohazard symbol on them or not but they are some of the only painted cans I can think of in the park.

What is wrong with Son of Beast`s logo? I like the Son`s logo. I don`t think Son will recieve tunnels, at least not for this season. I`m sure the park will update the 20th anniversary stuff that is hanging in the station, and they might have a 25th anniversary logo. As for the biochemical hazard thing, it was smart to put it on the trash cans in the line, becuase those things would get nasty and smelly by the end of the day. The way it fits in is you board the PSV, perimeter survelliance vehicles, to try and capture The Beast`s son that through biochmical or something has escaped and gon e wild and its up to the riders aboard the PSVs to find and manage the rambunctious son. The theme had potential, but was not executed very well. They even painted over the tunnel (bridge for the maintenance road) that had Son of Beast Containment area and one of the biohazard symbols on it. Now that tunnel is just plain gray. I think they did that anyway, my brain my be failing me there.

Well, I was just trying to check PKI`s website and it says: "The Paramount Parks websites are currently down for scheduled maintenance. Please visit again shortly." Well, I did a bit of digging, and it seems that with the exception of construction pictures on Carowinds website, every other Paramount Park website, except KI, is online. EDIT: Well, it seems that the routine maintenance on the KI site is done, with no major changes.

What are you talking about PKI_man? The park replaced the 30 year old message board portion of the sign for this season. I believe they replaced it this past January. Obviously, they will now have to replace the entire sign, including what they just replaced this past winter. All I can say is I hope there is a sign that shows the time, temperature and the Kings Island logo when the park opens in April. It felt wierd leaving the park and not seeing the flashing lights from the sign.

I do believe Jeff mentioned some sort of enthusiast Birthday Bash to be held in July sometime to commemmerate The Beast`s 25th brithday as the world`s longest wooden roller coaster.

Yeah I know it was a nice day. I volunteered at the park that day and was at Subway dishing out subs from 12:00 to 7. Got a lot of rides in before meeting at the volunteer office at 11:30 too. That would be a great day to visit the park for an entire day as the lines were almost non existant, from what I saw. The only problem was the frequent rain in the afternoon.

I just hope that if they bring back Winterfest, that they also bring back the transforming of the Eiffel Tower into a Christmas tree. That is the main thing I remember about visiting WinterFest when in the late 80`s when I was young.

It is my understanding that the only reason they canceled it in the first place is so that they could prolong the postseason. In doing so, they wouldn`t have the time to set up for Winterfest so they decided to cancel it. I know the park conducted a survey exclusively about bringing Winterfest back a couple months ago. However, the survey also said that they might not ever bring it back. But it also said they might bring it back for 2004. Who knows, we`ll just have to wait and see. Next year this time we`ll know if they thought they should bring it back.

Sounds cool. I really don`t have a preference for a date as I`m not that busy this week. Next week I`ll be busy starting on Chirstmas Eve. I`ll look forward to finding out more information about the chat!

I know that not everyone that works at the park goes to UC. I do know though, that the park used to be open most of August in previous years. 1998 and 1999 the park was open all the days of August, except for the final two or three, before labor day. I think the reason the park is no longer open all of August is because schools are starting earlier and earlier these days, so PKI`s workers are having to report back earlier as well, leaving nobody to run the rides at the end of August on weekdays.

I sure hope they don`t take out any other rides for a while. I hope they add more because that will mean m ore rides, which will equal a greater capacity and hopefully shorter lines! I think it was the first four cars on Top Gun`s train that were totaled, not the last four. Only makes sense that it was the first four as those would be the first ones to hit something if there was an obstruction in their path.

Yeah, I wish they would have been open the last week in August this year too. Since UC doesn`t start school until almost the end of September, the last week of August would be a wonderful time to visit the park, much like the Friday before Labor Day was this past year. I know their calendar is subject to change. It seems as if they always change at least one thing about it. By the time October rolls aroound, it will look different. As you mentioned, they didn`t have the late closings in October on the original 2003 calendar when they first announced it last winter. Hopefully, the 2004 operating calendar will also include a change/bonus of having Winterfest added for December of 2004? One can wish, can`t he?

Does anyone know why they are open until midnight on some of the Fridays in June? Also, are they doing Fear Fest on both Saturdays and Sundays this coming year? The reason I ask is on Sundays in October they are closing at 9, an hour earlier than they did this past season. Maybe they are going to reopen FearFest on Fridays?

The 1999-2000 Action Zone expansion, was announced in the September 4, 1998 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer. (I have a clipping of that article hanging in my room.) You might be able to find a copy of it on the Enquirer`s website, which is Cincinnati.com. It proclaims that the two year expansion cost $35 million. I`ve heard that estimates put Son of Beast at around $15-17 million. Although, obviously, they`ve spent quite a lot of money maintaining it and trying to smooth it out. As far as that lawsuit after the Son`s first season, I read somewhere where they settled out of court, but I`m not positive on that one.

Yes, Flight of Fear did open in 1996. Water Works was expanded in 1997, and the wavepool was added.

It is true the park is opening on Friday April 9 from 10 am to 8pm. The operating season issue is slightly confusing, depending on the wording. For the park`s 30th anniversary in 2002, it was actually the park`s 31 operating season. So this will have been open for 32 years come the spring, but they will be opening for their 33rd season. I hope i made some sense as it is rather confusing!