silver2005

^She looks beautiful. How are the Banshee, Beast and Vortex crews doing?

Well...this is only preview night. Maybe they'll improve for tomorrow? silver2005- crossing his fingers in hopes of a good Diamondback crew this season.

I'm super impressed by the new food venues and options. I'm hoping this new attitude food department just sweeps over the entire park over the next few years improving all the food stands. EDIT: Stacking is when all the trains are in the station or on the previous block sections. It indicates they are taking long periods to dispatch. I hope this isn't a season long thing...

More Freestyle Machines!

I'd love to be there, but I've got some school work now that will allow me to go tomorrow. Have FUN guys!

I know most on this forum come from the north on I-71, but if anyone is coming from Cincy or KY, you will need a detour. Construction crews are tearing down an old railroad bridge around the Clifton area. I-71 will be closed downtown up through Dana Ave from 10 pm tonight until Monday at 6 am. You'll need to switch to I-75 and get back to I-71 via the Ronald Reagan Highway or I-275, or get off at the Tylersville Road exit which takes you straight to Kings Island.

Wow there's a lot of over-generalizing on this page. 1. I don't see why Kings Island couldn't support 2 dark rides. BBoBH is hardly the pinnacle of what dark rides can accomplish. 2. We have Matt Ouimet at the helm instead of Kinzel. I'm sure there will be some sort of quality control in giving a bunch of these to the chain. He's done wonders so far. Remember, he's a former Disney guy. He gets dark rides.

Didn't they offer lifetime passes for those who were stuck when the Skyride stranded riders? I would think some sort of season pass system was in place then...

I went by the park today after classes at UC Blue Ash just to get a look at the park before opening day, and saw them. I agree with following the speed limits, just letting people know. I also saw a crew working on top of the overpass where Kings Mills Road crosses I-71. Not sure if they'll still be working on it or not on Saturday.

They've been switching the forecast to having a chance of rain, to sunny, then a higher chance for rain, then back to sunny, plus they've changed the high temperature all over the place. This all within the last 5 days.

I may or may not like Happy by Pharrell due to the fact its kind of fun to play. In terms of the 2015 season at the Hartland, I'm full on expecting a train wreck.

With how many times the forecast has changed, I'm waiting until Friday evening to check it, maybe even Saturday morning. Also, be mindful of your speed around Kings Island. I've seen a lot of speed traps by the Warren County Sheriff around the Mason/Kings Mills area.

If a new dark ride is going in the Crypt building, I would like to hope it would have additions to it. A tracked dark ride there, with the current building, would be fairly short all things considered. Its got size in terms of height, but its not a lot of floor space.

I guess we'll just agree to disagree on our stances about Boomerangs. I honestly think they're fine rides. I don't understand why they're loathed. Anyways, the Backlot thing was just an idea.

Invertigo at least has some things going for it- it has the unique seating arrangement, its the only coaster in the park that you get to ride backwards, and its still one of the most intense rides in the park. Lots of big parks still have Vekoma Boomerangs or a shuttle coaster of some sort.

Firehawk is lower on the list because of its slow loading procedure. Some guests need assistance getting everything on properly, it has to lower and raise in the station, you have the switch track, etc. It all adds up. The reason I brought up Backlot is because I don't really feel it fits the park anymore. Kings Island is not a park themed to movies anymore with the departure of Paramount, its capacity isn't the greatest, and I honestly think that whole area behind the Eiffel Tower could use something else there. I see it as untapped potential. You could get 3-4 rides in that area w/o Backlot.

36 years ago today, The Beast was unleashed for the world to ride.

Actually, I've been thinking of what coaster Kings Island would remove first, and my thoughts immediately dwelled on Backlot. I think that whole area behind the Eiffel Tower has tons of potential without it, perhaps potential for an entire new area.

Also great tips how not to run an amusement park.

If it weren't for that link about the red track going to China, my next guess would have been Dollywood.

Well, I imagine there's some effort to request copyright for music when there new music is coming out all the time and parks want to play what's popular.

Eh...I just like talking about stuff around the world, too. There's some amazing stuff across the ponds.

There are 2 other Dive Machines opening in Europe this year- Baron 1898 at Efteling in the Netherlands, and Oblivion- Black Hole at Gardaland in Italy (both with some decent theming I might add) with those smaller track gauges as well. B&M offers 3 variants in terms of seat arrangements- 6 across like the small ones, 8 across like SheiKra and some of the early DM's, and 10 across like Griffon. The later 2 use the wider track. I will concur with the post above in guessing the red track is bound for China.

B&M now has smaller gauge track to use on smaller Dive Machines now. Check out Krake at Heide Park.