coasterrz

Browntgrr, there is a book written by Scott Rutherford. I forget the exact title of it, but on like the second or third pages there is an image of Coney Island`s shooting star. Anyway, later in that book is a picture of The Beast covering two pages. This picture, I believe from 1979, shows the unenclosed helix as well as the trains that went from red and faded to a yellowish green color. Secondly, I don`t think that image of The Beast is a fake. Those images are all from a picture book that Kings Island sold or gave out in 1979. I don`t believe that the image is a fake. If you click on the PKIarchive section and then the 1979 picture book, you can see that this book is a book that Kings Island published and distributed at the park.

Thanks for the superb link Delirium_guy!

While the pictures on this site don`t show the original color scheme, there are a couple of pics that supply a good view of the four row PTC trains. Beast Pictures

I remember in past Octobers having to wear winter coats, hats gloves and sweaters to attempt to stay warm. This year there haven`t been any days like that, which is good for the park, but not so good if you want short lines. I remember a couple years ago when it was about 45 and there was a light mist/drizzle falling. Lets just say that going 78 miles an hour on that day killed ones face!

For the final ride of the on The Beast, you must be outside of the entrance, by the benches by the sign by ten o`clock. Jeffrey Siebert will come and talk to everyone gathered while waiting for the line of gp to finish riding. During this time, Jeff will be teasing us with facts and hints of what`s in store for next season and down the road. Theoretically, you could arrive a little after ten and you should still be able to see a group of enthusiasts standing around. Last year, I`d say there were about maybe 85 people there. I seem to remember that it took three trains to fit all the enthusiasts on. Unfortunately, based on the weather forecasts, it looks like this weekend is shaping up to be a particulary busy one. Highs around 75 on Saturday and Sunday. Where is the typical cold, rainy, and snowy Cincinnati weather? I still think that the lines for FearFest stuff will be long, at least on Saturday even though it is after Halloween.

This is the wrong forum because this is the employee forum and the general PKI forum. Yeah, it will probably be busy since all 2004 pass holders got a free ticket for this weekend when they processed their 2004 season passes.

Sounds good Aaron! Let`s just hope the park isn`t swamped with people becuase of the exceptionally warm and beautiful weekend that is shaping up, not to mention all the free tickets the park gave to passholder for use on this weekend.

If the park did implement a fingerprint scan, i don`t think they would get rid of the ID card. The reason being is your season pass is good at all Paramount Parks, and just like the season passes, the fingerprint system wouldn`t work at any other Paramount Park so you would have to show your ID at Guest relations. It would be kind of hard to scan your fingerprint at a park that has no record of you being a pass holder of another Paramount Park.

Yes, originally The Beast used five, four row PTC trains, which resulted in 40 people per train. If you look at the station, you will notice that all the gates are in groups of four becuase of the original trains. I don`t know when or why they switched to 6, 3 row PTC trains, but my guess would be the new trains tracked better. I think they changed to the current trains fairly early in The Beast`s career.

Actually, most times I go, they make a point of looking at the ID then my face before they swipe the card.

Implenting a finger print scan system would be way too costly. Who knows, the park may do that someday. But I don`t foresee this happening due to the associated cost of buying and installing the system, let alone the chaos of scanning in every passholders` fingerprints. it will be interesting to see what comes out of their experiment and if any changes are made next season to the entrance setup.

Now that I think about it, I might have seen it once when I was waiting for an ACE walkback. That would not be a job someone who is afraid of heights would want to do.

Yes, you can see through the second tunnel of The Beast. Originally this tunnel was two underground concrete tunnels. For the second season, they combined the two tunnels with wood. As a result of the cracks between the boards, when you look to the right, you can see the trees and outside.

How often are the bolts on the outside of the tower inspected, since the elevator is on the inside? Unless the mechanics ride on top of the ring of seats (there is a ladder there) and ride it slowly up and back down, inspecting the bolts.

They used to have a parking number that they printed on the pass. Now they are just printing the word parking. It used to be that they never printed any parking pass on a season pass. Instead, they only have the parking decals that were applied to the windshield of the car. This wasn`t the best idea, if you could be going up in more than one vehicle over the course of the season.

Well, originally, they cut some of the trees down in 2001 so that they could build the access road to get to TR:TR. Then last season, sometime in September, they cleared out all the small shrubs and bushes between the final brake run and the access road. I don`t know their reasoning behind this, Jeff Siebert did make a fictituos refrence to at the gathering for the last ride of the year on The Beast last season.

Currently, they have two self scan gates, staffed by one person. Even if they have three gates per employee, they are still saving the pay of at least 2 employees at a rate of at least $6.50 an hour x about twelve in the summer, times the number of self scan gates times the number of days, and you get a hug cost savings. I don`t know if they will entirely get rid of admissions people. They will have to have at least a couple to ensure that people don`t use others passes or hop the turnstiles.

It is interesting that they are trying this out. I personally would like to see this implemented at the old season pass entrance, so that passholders don`t have to deal with the congestion that occurs by the current turn stiles and underneath the International Restaurant. Why did they get rid of the season pass entrance in the first place? It is still there, and if they implement the new self scan system (which simply relys on turning the existing computers around) they coulde keep staffing at this entrance at a minumum. The only thing they`d have to worry about is staffing the metal detectors (there are already detectors over there.)

When I rode the Pumpki Patch express last weekend. There was obviously a tractor over by the exit to the Helix. Also, from the parking lot, there was a tractor visable over by Wipeout Beach. I do agree that while construction has begun, i think it is probably just site prepartations, and possibly some footers have been poured. I think the tour will be more like Tasmanian Typhoon`s entrance will be here and the funnel over here by these markings. Obviously, they can`t have much to show so far. Heck, last year, Delirium had footers poured by the 24 of October and they didn`t assemble the ride until January.

I highly doubt that the "tour" will consist of the park playing avideo on the Festhaus screens. The quality is not very great, especially when the lights are on. Why would the park encourage people to bring cameras if they weren`t going to take them on an actual tour?

I think it was last year that they had "evening ride time" on The Beast and Son of Beast on saturdays in April and May. However, they did this in a bad way, and shut the lines down to the gp, two hours before closing. While this seems like a good idea, I never did it, and I think for the "ert" you were still left with the remaining line of gp, (they didn`t clear out the line of the gp). I think one night they should keep the rides open an extra two hours for goldpass holders. (This could be a logistical nightmare though.)

Another possible reason for possibly meeting at the Festhaus is that the Festhaus is heated, and based on weather reports for the rest of this week, unless there is a major warm up for the weekend, the Festhaus will be warm! Video or no video, I`m still excited on being given a tour of the construction. Yes, I woul much rather be going there to ride the rides as if it were next season, but we`ll all have to wait a while for that (almost a month after the park is open next year). The rickster, what are you talking about when you say a press release about it? All the information has already been released. It has been stated that Craig Ross has stated there will be additional anouncements, but I highly doubt that there will be any anouncement or press release on Sunday, the 2nd. We might gain some additional information about BB, like locations of attractions, and some new features that are not newsworthy enough for a press release.

I don`t really miss Phantom Theater because, IMO, Scooby Doo is a lot more fun to ride and makes for better rerides. Also, it is obviously more popular amonst kids and anyone who is a Scooby Doo fan. However, Phantom Theater was a ride that was unique to PKI. You couldn`t find a ride like it anywhere else in the world. Scooby as of next year will be at every Paramount Park except PGA as well as a couple of Six Flags parks. I think PKI`s might have the highest capacity Scooby ride, which is just a result of the leftover PT. Who knows, in ten seasons, Scooby may be out and a new ride in, at least thats been the trend with the previous three dark rides to inhabit the building.

When I went to FearFest on Saturday the 25, I tried the new self scan entrance. I noticed this a couple visites ago. There are two turnstiles that have the computer turned around so that you can see it. Also, there is a season pass pasted to the computer, so that you know what way to swipe your pass. There was also a worker there helping people out. The park also added a green and red light by the actual turnstile to indicate when it was unlocked. Does anybody know if this is just for season pass holders or if it is good for everyone. Also, does anyone know if this is an experiment ofr a possible change next year? Might they bring back the original season pass entrance over by the season pass processing building? I remember going in that entrance for something this year, but I can`t remember for what.

I also visited the park on the 25. I arrived right around 7:30, right as torrential rains arrived. Needless to say, we waited in the car until the rain stopped which happened around 8:00. Lots of people left the park whenit was raining. I had two things I wanted to do, the two mazes that I had yet to get to: Curse of The Crypt and Circus of Horrors 3D. First was Circus of Horrors 3D. The sign said about an hour wait. However, after about ten minutes in line, we were already to the 30 minute sign. After a total of 30 minutes, we entered. I liked some of the 3D effects, however, it seemed like there needed to be more clowns. The best part was the ending. After we finished there, we headed to Curse of the Crypt. The guy at the end of the line said the line was an hour and twenty minutes. Well, we waited, and in 15 minutes, found ourselves at the thirty minute sign. One disappointing thing was the group behind us consisted of two parents who insisted that they take there two small kids through with them (about four years old). They were screaming and crying even before they entered! My sister freaked out at the end, because some mummy was following her, repeating her name because someone in my group mentioned her name. I was laughing so hard because my sister was freaking out so much. I was laughing so hard that when we exited, I could barely stand up and I had tear in my eyes. Definately, a lot of fun, and I think the actor had a lot of fun scaring my sister as well. We then headed to The Beast. We grabbed a ride in the front seat. The ride was cold and eerie because of a light fog that had settled in after the rain. Also, it wasn`t completely dark, despite it being almost ten because the lights in the Action Zone (Delirium and DZ in particular) were reflecting off of the fog. A very smooth and fast ride, with a great atmosphere in the station. A quick ten minute wait for Drop Zone and I was going up to experience a very cold wind at the top. Definately a cold plummet back to earth. I had thought about the recent topic on DZ. After that, we headed to the car. As if to justify our decision to leave, it started to lightly rain as we started the car up. I`ll be back up there on Sunday for the construction tour!