TombRaiderFTW

I concluded my riding season with a so-called "zen" ride on Patriot at Castles 'N' Coasters.

A little. Why spend money on removing the queue for no reason other than to get rid of it? What profit could that bring the park?

Jet theming as in...? Is the flight deck tape removed from the brake run? Have the logos been removed from the trains?

^ This is a first. Terp's using CoasterBuzz memes. Not that I mind. I just had to point it out.

Those were actually there on Friday. It does look like they've got a lot of loop track lined up beside Clifford, though.

^ Please do! I'd like to see it.

Here it is in color, which makes the lights around the ride kinda look like fire:

In due time.

It's funny you guys are mentioning stacking on Diamondback... I was there last night, and around 5:00pm, they were actually doing better than I've seen all season. (Of course, I don't ride Diamondback that much, so there's not a lot I'm comparing that to this year.) Trains were usually leaving the station as the preceding train was entering the Crypt helix, or even sooner at times. I'm not a huge stickler about crews unless they're doing extremely poorly when I visit [cough cough, Indiana Beach in July 2010, cough cough], but DB's crews seemed to be effective enough last night for me. Or could they theoretically have sent the trains sooner? I feel fairly confident in my understanding of ride blocks, but I could very easily be wrong about the time aspect. Would one of you guys experienced in actually operating the rides please explain when it's safe to send a train?

From KIC's Facebook:

^^ Very true! I'd forgotten about that. That does seem to lend itself to the idea of Action Zone (or at least Flight Deck) getting some love in 2014.

I noticed the props were gone the Sunday before last. Hadn't noticed those doors were opened. Thanks for the photo, ohiocolts. Add in The Bat rumor posted on KIC's Facebook, and I wonder if that new Bat logo could actually be worth something. I'm pretty sure that would be a pipe dream come true for me, in case my excited flailing during The Bat teaser "leak" wasn't obvious enough. If there's anything to this, I wonder how much money the park would spend on a Bat retheme since they've already spent a record amount on Banshee. Ignoring the financial aspect, if I were retheming Flight Deck, I'd probably paint the track orange, at the very least. There's also new/repainted train shells, new signage and/or paint and/or theming for the station, and any potential additional theming to be considered. But when you do figure in the financial aspect, I don't know how much of that would be possible, regardless of how different the new management is.

Because it makes the park A LOT of money. Big crowds who can't exit and re-enter - crowds who get hungry and thirsty and fork over money to buy things, including the all new Fright Lane for the members of the crowd tired of waiting in said crowd. So, if all the things said about the event in the past couple years are to believed: the park is more concerned about essentially trapping a rough, rowdy group of wallets in the park for a couple hours to make a profit than it is with ensuring that both guests and employees have a safe, enjoyable time*? Sad. * That's not a comment on the quality of the security officers the park currently has. If the security staff is shorthanded, is there nothing at all that could be done to entice more people to work in security?

I personally miss the blue carts that used to roam the park around 2008/2009. They usually had a variety of sodas, but they also had this tasty lemonade in clear plastic cups. It might have been squeezed... not sure. It didn't taste like it came from a pop machine, anyway, and it typically had a lemon slice or half in it. That stuff was good. I bet it brought in the bees like crazy, though.

I was at the park yesterday, too. It was a rougher crowd than any other time of the year, per usual for Saturday nights for the last five years. Seriously, why is Haunt one of the cheapest times of the year to enter the park?

^ So how do Ice Scream Zone's lights and ice cream machines, Wolf Pack's props, and Delirium's control panel and lights work?

True, I hadn't considered that. I suppose a second one would be more desirable to me, then.

^ Great photos! Thanks for sharing. On an unrelated note, I wonder if the park has considered moving the Banshee cam or adding a second webcam. I like the current view and am thankful the park has a webcam for construction, but it would be neat to see some of the finer details, too. I imagine the tops of the Ice Scream Zone, Son of Beast's station, or the Delirium operator booth would have good views.

Correction, everyone except BB1. You work at Holiday World?

That's actually where they stored supports for Diamondback during the 2008 season, too. Must be easy to access. Either that, or it's one of the few places on park property that's relatively flat and isn't within guest reach. Or maybe both? On a similar note, I noticed on Sunday that part of the parking lot to the west of the sign has been blocked off. I wonder if that's a temporary drop-off location for track and supports.

^ They officially pulled the plug a few months ago (early August, I think.) It's on the HoliBlog.

Dang it, you stole my answer, Browntggr. Gotta be faster on the snarky remarks these days.

I think it would be neat to have the camera be at the point in the in-line twist where the train is upside-down. Realistically, I think it will be at the bottom of the first drop.

^ Are you offering? Because I'm down for a trip to Tampa.

Most zero-G rolls I've been through (Raptor, Sky Rocket, Bizarro, Great Bear, three Batmen, and [kinda] Maverick, among others) had little sense of airtime. They were more disorienting than anything else.