TombRaiderFTW

Uh... did he just insinuate that Canada's Wonderland can't control and isn't responsible for controlling what goes on in Canada's Wonderland's parking lot? Isn't the whole point of park security to prevent things that "could happen anywhere" from happening wherever they are? Does Wonderland not patrol their parking lots the way Kings Island does?

^ That's actually the most logical reasoning I've ever heard for why parks like Canada's Wonderland and Cedar Point don't offer a mid-level Gold pass. They're pricing pass holder access to Haunt sky-high to keep undesirables out. I'd never thought of it that way before. That's pretty effective, too, based on the crowds at Halloweekends last weekend. I wonder why Kings Island doesn't adopt a similar system.

If they remove "great" and "to have fun," then yeah, I totally agree.

That's a neat idea. I like it. Just don't get rid of the paper maps, okay, Kings Island?

I have no comment on the quality of management at Kentucky Kingdom. I don't particularly like the way they've handled almost every issue they've dealt with this year. I think they're approaching each issue that's come up this year like it's never, ever happened in the industry before. But I'm not going to comment of the quality of the management.

Screamscape's latest update has a link to a Theme Park University article about the creation and design of Phantom Theater. It's a very interesting read, and it includes several pictures of Phantom Theater's various stages of design and fabrication, as well as an interview with Rick Bastrup of R&R Creative Amusement Designs. I think I've seen some of the pictures around here before, but there are a few (like one of a miniature painted model of the ride) that I haven't. Here's a link. According to the article, there will soon be a follow-up with a scene-by-scene analysis of the ride. That should be an interesting read, as any YouTube videos I've seen (or even the DAFE article about Phantom Theater) don't seem to get into much detail. EDIT: Actually, the follow-up has already been posted. Here's a link. There are actual pictures of the ride, and they're really great. Enjoy!

I've been there a few times within the last few Saturdays, arriving within a few hours after the start of Haunt. To give you an idea of how busy it was: the places we've parked were just about the closest you can get to Great Wolf Lodge in the Kings Island parking lot. That being said, both ride operations and house/trail operations were handled extremely well. The houses and trails would let larger groups of people in at one time, but the scareactors tended to break the groups up into smaller groups along the way by getting in people's ways. It was more effective than letting in a continuous conga line like the park has done in the past, as there actually was time for the actors to set the scares up between groups. I don't know that it worked this way for all houses since I haven't done them all each time, but Madame Fatale's Cavern of Terror, CornStalkers, and Tombstone Terror-tory seemed to handle it like this the most consistently and effectively. This seems to help capacity significantly. (Believe it or not, I don't think I've ever had to wait in the second queue for TTT, and I've done it just about every Haunt visit I've had this year.) The ride ops were just doing extremely well; Beast's line never seemed to have long periods of standing still involved. That being said, most of the first, all of the second, and half of the station queues were filled, so it was still a significant wait (i.e. 60-70 minutes, according to FUNtv.) Fast Lane never really seemed to negatively affect operations, but your mileage may vary.

If they can get that plan working, more power to them. If that's where I think it is, that's awfully rural area... There really isn't anything else drawing people to the area apart from Indian Lake itself. I'd think a mall would do better than an indoor waterpark, unless I'm assuming the waterpark would be bigger than it actually would be.

I chuckled at your TR... You and I have almost identical feelings towards SFGAm and Chicago, except Goliath wasn't there when I went, Viper and Batman were backwards and subsequently unpleasant, and I didn't like Demon as much. I'd probably say I liked American Eagle about the same as Racer, but definitely not better. There isn't much about the place that justifies a drive through Chicago for me, either. I'm curious to know what you'd think of Apollo's Chariot. That thing delivers abnormally violent airtime towards the end. It's better than Raging Bull for me.

^ I would check with the park to be sure, but I would think you'd be considered a new customer. You didn't have a 2014 pass at all, right?

Wasn't aware of that. I always thought Missouri Jane was just the name of the ghost that people claim to have seen at the park. I didn't watch the Ghost Hunters episode since that sort of thing doesn't do much for me. Yeah, trying to incorporate her into a ride would be disrespectful. Nix my idea.

I wonder how many people said the same things of Phantom Theater. I know it scared the pants off of me when I was of the age to want to stay in Hanna-Barbera Land all day. At this point, I'm of the opinion that Boo Blasters ought to be something more kid-oriented, and an adult-oriented dark ride should be added somewhere else in the park. As I understand it, the ride systems for Curse of DarKastle and the new Justice League dark rides will be similar (if not identical.) If those types of dark rides take off at SFStL and SFOT, I'd kill to have something like it at Kings Island. Obviously, Cedar Fair isn't about to spend Curse of DarKastle-magnitude funds on theming, but it would be neat to see Phantom Theater reimagined in the Action Theater building with that system. Heck, they could even make a dark ride based on the Fort Coney/Missouri Jane myth that they mention on the KI & MVRR.

Unfortunately for that park, I doubt it will keep people from booing the awful ride that is Ninja. Nor would it help me from boo-hooing as I leave Boss. (I really like Six Flags St. Louis.)

Adventure Express, because Adventure Express. International Street, because it's the only area of the park (besides Coney Mall) that's managed to maintain its original theme. A few years ago, I would have said Rivertown, just for the HUSS Giant Top Spin located there. I'm split between Vortex and Monster, so I voted "Other" on the third question. Monster is based on the removal of similar (albeit not identical) rides at Holiday World and Camden Park. Vortex is based on the removal of similarly-aged Arrow looping rides at NJFTP and Worlds of Fun.

I figured that, too, right at first... But it's been there 6 days. The fact that it even exists shows the difference between Dan and Will for me.

Per Dan Koch (@splashindan) on Twitter: "@SplashinDan: We are getting it done. Rampage rules! # SplashAdventutre" Attached is a picture of some maintenance employees and Pat Koch in what appears to be a new red Rampage car from PTC. Link to tweet: https://twitter.com/splashindan/status/520603083039326210 If you look a few tweets down from this one on Dan's feed, you'll find a somewhat awkward selfie. I suppose what he does with his Twitter is his business, but still...

^ same here. I have only stayed there once, but I thought it was decent and I really liked the fact that it was close but not expensive.

^ Wait, is there another one in the U.S. besides (I'm assuming) Great Escape? I always figured it was Great Escape and La Ronde that Six Flags didn't totally own, but since you specified Six Flags within the country, I'm curious.

^ Yeah, the baton slid to one end on Friday (or last Sunday--can't remember) when he was spinning it around his neck. The fire end was on his neck when he was meant to be taking the baton off his shoulder. He grimaced but passed it off as smiling. I totally couldn't have been that subtle about it, but he's obviously been doing that for quite some time. Between Cirque and Skeleton Key, my curiosity about next year's Cirque sequel is very high. I'm wondering what else there could be for them to do. Of course, I'm sure they're going to knock it out of the park with something that none of us are expecting.

Since there was some discussion of the music used in Cirque Imagine earlier this summer, I thought I'd share what Skeleton Crew songs I've been able to identify using the Shazam app on my phone. All of the songs listed here are available on iTunes, so if you're interested in owning them, you can find them there. If the song has a link, it will take you to YouTube. So, without further adieu: Before the show: Carmina Burana (O Fortuna) - Maxime Rodriguez (Album name: Symphonie Sur Glace)(This one comes across as "Cours D'amours: O Fortuna - Orchestre Philharmonique de Sofia et Georgi Robev et Choeur National[...]" in Shazam but redirects to the Maxime Rodriguez song in iTunes, which seems to be correct. Take this info with a grain of salt.) Beginning of show/acrobatics on hanging ropes: Electroshock - Seth Podowitz Nightmare (Original Mix) - Biometrix The fire baton/triangle act (which always makes me wince--I'd be too afraid I'd burn myself!): Teardown of the tower stacking act:Unholy Spirits - Kevin Michael Manthei The skeletons: Final bows:Ultraviolence - Cliff Lin (see earlier link) I do not have all the pre-show music identified, nor do I have the roue Cyr act or tower stacking act music identified. I have a feeling the roue Cyr & tower stacking music is custom. So enjoy! If you happen to identify any other songs not listed here, let me know, and I'll add them to this post. Disclaimer: If having this information available publicly is not okay with the park or the production company, please don't hesitate to remove this topic. I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble. I am posting this with the understanding that, since Skeleton Crew's pre-show announcement does not ban the use of electronics as a whole the way that Cirque Imagine's did, my use of the Shazam app on my phone to get the music information shown here does not conflict with the interests of Kings Island, Cedar Fair, or Les Productions Haut-Vol. Again, if anyone would not like this information posted, please don't hesitate to speak up and/or remove it.

^ We're saying the same thing, to a degree. Yeah, the people who purchase these are going to want to avoid being scared. I'm saying that these things could convert some of the "I'm not going to Haunt because I only want to ride rides" people into "I'll go if they won't scare me" people. "I'll go if they won't scare me" people could spend money that they ordinarily wouldn't spend at KI at all. I'm just saying that people might be more inclined to do it if there wasn't a pricetag included with this "benefit." Also, I'm not contesting the pricetag because I would use the service and just don't want to pay for it. I enjoy the haunts and the scares and would never purchase one for myself. I'm just saying that the pricetag could be off-putting. But that's my opinion. You do make a good point about the cost associated with creating and marketing the glowsticks, though. I hadn't considered that.

Some people actually enjoy getting night rides on roller coasters without being frightened between rides. There also are people that want to have fun with friends at Kings Island on the rides but don't get into Halloween stuff. This is targeted for these people, and it's been done at other parks before now. And as far as I'm concerned, it's a fantastic idea. With this, I might actually stand a chance of bringing friends who don't like Halloween stuff with me on a Friday or Saturday instead of being stuck with Sundays. I like the way Beast hauls at night more than not having to wait for a daytime ride on Sundays, and now I won't have to preface Friday/Saturday visits with "well, if you don't look scared, they probably won't come after you..." What I don't understand (or, more accurately, what I don't agree with) is why they're charging for them. You can't tell me that the cost of a glow stick couldn't be covered in the profit from admission. People who are there to be scared aren't going to waste their time with playing with a glow stick, because it's going to ruin their time--it's not the sort of thing I would imagine people would abuse. Make them available at Guest Services, add a pop-up during online purchases that informs customers of them, leave the sign up inside the park, and have ticketing cashiers tell customers about them during purchases. If you can get people who wouldn't ordinarily come to the park during Halloween Haunt to come if they can avoid getting scared, they might spend money that would be otherwise spent at the movies, football games, the mall, etc. Those people could be deterred by an extra charge. But that's my two cents.

And, if you consider the grand scope of Earth or the Milky Way or the universe as a whole, Vortex and Viking Fury really are in pretty close proximity!

...is a great example of an accident that would require track to be replaced, whether at a Magic Mountain or at that place where you can see the Woods by the Sea like a true Ravine Flyer! EDIT: This post made sense before Terp edited his post, haha.

^^ I wouldn't think so, unless whatever means of bending track that Arrow used has since become obsolete. I would imagine Arrow kept drawings of the parts to its coasters, including records of how to bend the track. They had to have had some means of communicating to their people on-site what they were supposed to be making. That's just how manufacturing anything works. I would imagine the bigger obstacle to replacing Arrow track is the price tag. If the ride has reached the end of its service life, you're going to have to replace a significant portion (if not all) of the track and supports. You're basically paying for a new ride, except you're getting the same old ride you always had, and none of your guests are going to notice the difference. And I seriously doubt that rebuilding an Arrow coaster to the same specs it was originally built to is going to make the ride any smoother. I'm not claiming parks have never, ever had track or supports replaced. I don't have inside information about the maintenance of roller coasters. I'm just saying that, apart from accidents or poor design, I can't think of a viable reason that they would need to.