Scooter4Ever

SOB is rough but I will never complain about it ever again after riding Mean Streak this past weekend. I can not believe CP would subject anybody to such abuse. There was not one moment that I wasn't experiencing pain.

A lot of the rides in "old" King's Island were just glorified carnival rides. I think today's KI is much better.

I doubt we'll see anything themed to Aeon Flux. The cartoon was filled with excessive violence and sex. And while I am sure the movie won't be anywhere close to the cartoon, it's always a risk to theme an attraction to a new movie. If it bombs you have a ride that reminds people of a really bad movie. Thank God there was no Catwoman:The Ride! Even Universal stopped plans for a Van Helsig ride after that movie did not perform well last summer. It is much safer to make attractions to tested and proven characters/movies. Adams Family lives on reruns on cable. The Italian Job was a steady performer at the box office but did even better on DVD. I would say an attraction themed to Mean Girls is ten times more likely than Aeon Flux.

I don't think Star Trek will be used for a while. Paramount (by way of UPN) has said the Star Trek brand needs to take a rest for while. And if Chalize Theron wears the actual Aeon Flux outfit from the cartoon, I highly doubt they will be theming a family ride to that. But I did find this article interesting: http://www.fool.com/news/mft/2005/mft05050...m?ref=foolwatch Marvel has hooked up with Paramount for developing movies. There's no mention of licensing the characters outside of the movies but maybe Paramount could work something out.

Not quite sure about the SpongeBob ride. If it's the same SpongeBob ride mentioned on the recent survey, I would doubt they would install it PKI. The Italian Job is billed as a "family" type coaster. The Spongebob ride looks to be in the same vein but intended for families with even younger children. And while PKI is a family park, this could be seen as caterering to them too much. I think '06 could be the year for just some general park improvements.

Was Magic Carpet also known as the Giant Slide?

A lot of parks do a "gay day" (PKI, SFGaM, Busch Gardens) etc. Disney World does an entire Gay Weekend with two hotels on Disney property being "all gay". The Magic Kingdom has a Gay Day on Saturday but Friday through Sunday, there are parties at night. The past years, party promotors have rented out IOA, Typhoon Lagoon, MGM, and Universal Studios. The city of Orlando says the gay weekend at Disney is one of the top three revenue generating weekends for their city.

Wasn't there talk of the cars having doors that open? I can't really see that judging by the picture.

It probably is a sign that Hanna-Barbara is being phased out. But this won't affect Scooby's Castle. That is a licensing deal through Sally. Sally holds the license for that ride featuring that character and can put it into any park they want. Evidenced by Scooby's castle at Six Flags parks. They also can now do it for Marvel characters. And while Top Cat is not shown on Cartoon Network, I am sure Paramount would rather promote their own characters from networks they own.

While these are only estimations, looks like PKI had a strong summer. From Columbus Dispatch: Ohio’s two major theme parks had very different results. Attendance at Cedar Point bucked the national trend, falling 4 percent to 3.2 million from 3.3 million in 2003. Cedar Point spokesman Bryan Edwards attributed the decline to poor weather and the park’s introduction of the Top Thrill Dragster ride in 2003, which boosted attendance that year. Meanwhile, Paramount’s Kings Island’s attendance increased 7 percent to 3.5 million as it introduced Crocodile Dundee’s Boomerang Bay Water Park Resort. link to complete article: http://www.dispatch.com/business-story.php...-02.html&chck=t

Isn't Kinzel (sp?) retiring from CF soon? He could have been just visiting a friend. In any industry it is quite common to have friends who are also competitors.

I highly doubt PKI executives are sitting around saying "The public is demanding a B&M coaster so let's build one." Outside of the people on this board, I doubt anybody could name a coaster manufacturer. I'm sure PKI has an idea of what they want and will allow several companies to present to them. Also I just got back from Universal IOA and all I have to say is .....WOW! They can take the most average ride and make it exciting with theming. They don't have any world record breaking rides yet I would choose IOA over Cedar Point anyday. I am happy to see PKI kind of going to the direction of Universal. Besides, even if PKI builds your precious B&M hyper, floorless, flying, tallest, launched etc. coaster, most of you would still complain that it's not good enough.

While The Bat was good (and yes, I did ride it), I will always miss Skylab. Much like Delirium now, Skylab was fun to watch and ride. Yeah, there are other Enterprise rides still around, but Skylab was bigger and really made an impact.

The least popular ride of the past had to be Tumblebug. Loud and ugly. There was a never a line for this thing.

Can't be 100% sure but isn't the lake pictured on the map the former location of the canoe ride? I remember Haley's Comet being near where the current entrance to Vortes is but I don't recall a lake being in the area.

Because of "topics" like This or That and The Guy Above Me I don't visit this site as often as I visit other PKI sites. These "useless" (my opinion) topics make me look at this site as not being very serious. And it really feels like there are four or five posters who see this as "their" site and use it for personal communications and only respond to each others' posts.

Back to the flyer topic... Where is the proof that Paramount ever wanted fliers in all their parks? Many people have stated this but it is always "I heard somewhere" or "somebody told me". There has never been proof. Also look at the timing of all the coasters. In 2000 Paramount opened Stealth and SOB. Then SFWOA put in X-Flight in 2001. In Stealth's first year, was it so problematic that Paramount said "no more" and Six Flags was able to pick it up, clear land and have it ready for 2001? So was Paramount going to install the flyers in PKD and PKI in 2001 along with Hypersonic XLC? The timing just doesn't fit. Also how many of you have ridden a flyer? I rode S:UF at SFGAM and I was not impressed. It had nothing to do with the layout. Flyers are just below average inverted coasters with a gimmick. And that gimmick quickly wears off. Flyers are the new stand-ups. Nice at first but not as good as a sit down or regular inverted. This is a low spending year for all the Paramount parks. The flyer at PCW is cheap. At PGA, Bommerang Bay will draw more families than Stealth did. There is also very little water park competition in northern CA. PKD is getting Scooby, installed in an already existing building. PKI is probably getting the most exspensive install but I would guess it is going to cost a lot less than a major coaster. PCW is getting a relocated ride. Although it could always change, I highly doubt we will see a new B&M or Vekoma flyer at any Paramount Park.

I would love to see a floorless but I am not sure if they will go with that. SFWOA has a floorless and I have never seen PKI install the same coaster as another Ohio park. Yes, Iron Dragon and TG are similar but TG has some okay theming and I think it's a better ride than ID. If they do a floorless, I am sure it will be different than any other. Look at their history: Vortex could have been just another Arrow looper until they "upped" it more. Same with Beast, SOB, and even Runaway Reptar was unique when it first opened. I hope they get a floorless that is just huge! That would make me really happy. I know a lot of have asked for a flyer but I have to ask...how many of you have ridden one? I rode S:UF at SFGam, and I was not impressed. When you initially go into the flying position, it is cool. But the thrill wears off. And a flyer is really just an inverted with a little trick. And to actually hold your head up in that flying position is not comfortable. I really hope they don't go with one.

I don't recall a lake ever being there. The Bat was there before Vortex. And before that, I believe the majority of the area was wooded with the Hayle's Comet ride near the current entrance to Vortex. The sinking rumor has been going around for a while. There's even the rumor that Magnum at CP is sinking. It got so bad that CP evern addressed the issue at one point on their website. But as others have stated numerous times before, Vortex is not sinking. If it were, it would be closed.

At one time, every large corporation was a "mom & pop" operation. McDonald's, Starbucks, even Disney were companies that started small and grew. It's easy to criticize the big companies because they are seen as faceless, money driven machines. Why did these compaines grow while similar ones faltered? It's because they did things right and were willing to take risks. The event at Americana was very touching. And I don't think they lost much money on giving your friend that toy. But how many times did they just give away stuff? After a while, that adds up. And Americana had lots more problems than just giving away stuffed animals. Find any article on the park and you will see labor problems, broken promises, poor upkeep of the park, and many other factors that contributed to the downfall of that place. And while the generosity of that game op created a warm fuzzy memory for you, that don't pay the bills. Did you go back to the park? Did you continue to support the park? Probably not. Why? Because PKI is a better place. It's easy to portray Paramount as the bad guy and question if they have enhanced or destroyed King's Island. But ask yourself this, why did the former owners sell? Did they feel like they accomplished everything they wanted and felt it was time to move on? My guess, Paramount gave them lots of money. Are they evil because they made money? Nostalgia and warm memories are great and everything looked better when we were younger. But like I said, memories and nostalgia don't pay the bills. In happens everywhere. In Columbus this week, it was annouced that the Downtown Lazarus was closing. Suddenly all these people are reflecting on their memories of how great the store was, yet they now shop at bigger and closer stores. The downtown store never changed and is now paying the price. Same as those "treasured" Mom n' Pop stores. They may have been good at one time, but if you don't change and adapt as the years go by, you will fail. While there are some independent parks (i.e. Kennywood) that perform well, don't be fooled by their "homey" spin. They want your money. Just as much as Paramount. They are just better at better at putting a nice, smiling face in front of it.

I wouldn't mind seeing the cars go and the spot would be good for a showcase ride. But I think the cars still draw a decent crowd. I rember as a kid, I couldn't wait until that first summer when I was tall enough to drive the car. This may sound cheesy, but I think PKI holds onto some of those of the "tamer" rides so families can experience them together and make memories. A lot of parks have the cars but the majority of the population does not travel to other parks. I think the cars are a neccesary component of any amusement park, along with a carousel. I don't think they will get rid of the cars anytime soon. They got rid of Sunshine Turnpike several years ago and closed down the other side of the antique cars. If anything they might do something with the closed section of the antique cars but I don't see an entire removal of the ride.