silver2005

^That's one of the reasons I highly enjoy my October trips. September is usually packed with stuff, like school starting, band filling my schedule and the like. When I do get to go in October after all of that, it just feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders for those few hours. Its like a pressure release on all the stress, especially when I take a seat on a coaster.

This theory may sound ludicrous, but its the only thing I can think of for an explanation. Could Ed Hart be making comments to show, in a way only Mr. Hart could think of, that the park is tougher on its crime problems? Not that its smart by any means.

I just looked at the new rides list for 2015. If that $7.5 million over 2015 and 2016 is correct, then it sure looks like they're dumping a lot of it just for 2015. I mean, you have a new train (trains?) for T3, 2 new fairly large flats which will cost lots of nickles, and the re-opening of 2 rides already on the property, plus I imagine some park improvements on top of that. They are decent additions for 2015, though how T3 turns out is up in the air. I would think that would eat up a large majority of that money figure right there. The question becomes if T3 is enough to bump attendance over 2 years, especially with what they have to put up with from the competition (FireChaser Express, Banshee and Thunderbird and then whatever, if anything, comes to those parks in 2016). If they don't meet their own expectations, what happens in 2016? Beyond? Hopefully, they've hired actual PR and law personnel by then as well. If they continue those fiascos long term, they'll be in a bigger mess.

Maybe that person mistook the characters for Smurfs because they were blue?

I would love to, but UC has a game that night.

Well, if there were, I sure didn't see any, and I was actively trying to find them.

KI's Flight of Fear caught fire as well.

Let me clarify what I was trying to do before in starting with this site for info. I agree that I was trying to use this thread as a 'jumping off point' to get that started. I hoped that I could get a consolidation of that by a few people here more knowledgeable than I am on the KK situation. I was up for a nice intelligent debate with some of my enthusiast friends who are still have the rose colored glasses on. However, I was short on sources. I trust the info from members here, but a lot of it was hearsay. The links I did find on this thread were either expired, or with Business Courier, sent to a archived server which I didn't want to pay money for. I do agree that this year was...decent, and obviously they have a lot to improve upon, especially going into year 2 and beyond. 600K for attendance was certainly more than I expected. I can make sense of the political situation, but I was also hoping to get info on things like park operations, PR, etc. and how the GP may have perceived that which would also affect the park's future,especially due to the fact I don't live near KK, haven't seen ads here in Cincinnati (trust me, no one in Cincinnati knew about KK opening outside enthusiasts, we have gotten ads in the past, I remember the ones for Chang and Twisted Sisters/Twins), and never went to the park this year, thus I consider myself not to be in a position to make too many judgements, hence why I came here to try and pool that info and then make sense of it.

I see. Things are a lot more intertwined than I first thought. Wow. I think I'm just going to give up on that synopsis. Boy, my head hurts.

I'll try to condense what I want to ask then. What things have they done this year that translates to the challenges they face from year 2 and onward? I understand the political stuff that's been discussed, but if we are to give them the benefit of the doubt in that particular aspect, what else is involved? I keep hearing people go on about how this year was supposedly a 'success', but is it really?

Alright, I'll make due with what I can find. Thanks.

I have a favor to ask. I'm trying to put together a synopsis of why KK will probably fail, but going through this thread to find what I want is a bit overwhelming. Particularly, I'm looking for sources about the loan and using the Commonwealth owned land as collateral, any evidence of the bad practices that will hinder the Hartland after this year, and anything else relevant. There's a lot I'm having a hard time trying to connect the dots with things. I keep hearing arguments this year being billed as a success as well as not by some (here and elsewhere), and while there's some merit to that (600K is higher than I thought they'd pull to say the least, even though they projected 1.1 million). I do trust what I'm reading here, but I need the actual source of information for some, I'm having a hard time finding it on the interwebs.

The other thing nice about Hershey's Coal Cracker is how it meanders through the Comet Hallow area. There are some excellent views of Great Bear and Sooperdooperlooper to be had. Still a bit irked they dwarfed Comet though. I don't care how good Skyrush may be, but before its arrival, Comet and the area around it was, IMO, one of the most beautiful areas of any amusement park ever. But alas, the power of Intamin compelled Hershey. The area still looks pretty good, but Skyrush just sticks out like a sore thumb. You may now return to your current Kings Island log flume topic.

During the last 2 Fridays (10/10 and 10/17), I found Vortex to be running as usual, that includes no weird sounds.

Trip Report- 10/17 This was certainly an interesting trip, but for kind of the wrong reason. I had a great time and every ride ran in top form tonight, but there was a little snafu in Diamondback's line that I witnessed, something which required that KI security be called up and escorting said people out of the park, possibly being dealt with by Mason PD. I won't elaborate any further on that. It did tack a good hour on to my intended stay, but hey, it was in the name of justice. Other than that though things went well. It was certainly more crowded than last week's brisk rain visit as it was really nice weather, thus, there was a decent crowd there. Didn't wait more than an hour though despite what the Fun TV wait times said (Fun TV showed DB's and Beast's lines at double the wait time from what they actually were). I compromised and went with seat 1-2 on The Beast as there was a 10-12 train wait for the front seat. It did deliver on the night ride though- had a nice foreboding overcast night sky with a slightly crimson hue, and I also prevented myself from bracing for the turns and let the laterals do their thing. As of right now, my odds of going the final operating day with KIC have improved slightly. Got a lot of work to do next week to make it happen.

This is rather heartbreaking to learn about. Chalk up another reason I now hate Paramount.

1. Beast, no doubt. If I could have Beast for the first hour with minimal lines, I would be soooo happy. 2. Other- I honestly have no clue what ride will leave next. 3. International Street- This was a toss up between Rivertown and I-Street. Rivertown does have my 2 favorite coasters of each type and the area feels pretty laid back, but the overall charm and regal aspects of International Street win me over.

Kings Island Trip Report- 10/10 Tonight was a bit of a gamble. It was raining most of the day here in the Queen City, and with another cell on the way, it seemed iffy to me. However, the rain was light enough for my liking, and I really enjoyed visiting tonight, along with the company of malem, ohiocolts, and others. I'd even go so far as to call the rain cleansing. The biggest downer was that Banshee wasn't open until 3 hours into our visit, but boy did the wait pay off!. Lots of short lines and walk on rides this evening, a much needed release valve to the stresses of 4 straight weeks of band performances and school at UC. Beast and Racer in particular ran superbly tonight. I do have to note the lack of scareactors tonight though. Even I-Street had few of them, and the ones there didn't really do all that much from what I saw. I guess they were anticipating the lackluster crowds. Going next week as well in hopes of slightly better weather, plus I gotta end my season with my last Beast night ride in the front seat.

Just checked the forecast for Friday, and while rain would be fine, t-storms in there as well aren't in my best interests in going. I'll be going the 17th.

Question to those privy about crowds in October- Is the Columbus Day weekend really that much more crowded than, say, the next weekend? I'm debating with myself on whether to go this Friday and/or next Friday, but if its that big a difference with Columbus Day weekend, I'll probably go next Friday (the 17th).

Yeah, I've talked to a lot of enthusiasts through the years, and their unanimous opinion on T2 is that its one of, if not, the worst of the Vekoma SLC's.

The statements put out by Six Flags America are a bit eyebrow raising as well.

My thoughts on the T2/3 paint.

Twisted Colossus looks like it'll have a rather unique pre-lift section. http://www.thecoasterguy.com/2014/09/28/twisted-colossus-pre-lift-track-hills/ Pictures courtesy of thecoasterguy.com. I'm hoping there's a good drop out of the station to give the trains enough speed to really get the right affect with all those little banked humps before the lift. Might turn out awkward otherwise.

I finally got around to seeing photos of T2 in that atrocious all red paint, and next to it Chang in all yellow. All I gotta say is- yikes.