TombRaiderFTW

^^ I'm seeing the 2013 map with Board to Death, Backwoods Bayou, and Delta Delta Die... Maybe I didn't notice this last year, but Wolf Pack is supposedly located in the middle of the field where Son of Beast used to be.

I have been on it. It's less than half as exciting and half as forceful as The Great Pumpkin Coaster.

^^ I'm with you. Hades 360 is the only wooden looping coaster in existence.

The logic actually is sound, IndyGuy. The steeper the lift hill, the more weight from the train that the motor has to carry, and the more tension there will be in the chain. The cable lift does the same job quicker without requiring as much structural support for the weight of the chain. I don't know if this is the truth, but I'd speculate that it might even be able to pull the train up without as many moving parts. What I want to know is how he knows that the chain would break if B&M made the lift any steeper.

Really? What kind of chain does Leviathan use? I do some designing with industrial chains, so I'm always interested in advice from experienced engineers.

I think Boo Blasters is a decent dark ride, but there's nothing particularly unique about it, much like with Scooby. They both were successful at appealing to the target audience, but both experiences feel sterile to me, if that makes sense. There's no story or pacing attached to either ride, so the entire ride feels pointless. "Shoot targets to defeat an ambiguous bad guy" is not a story, especially since you see neither bad guy until the very end of the ride. Why should I care about defeating Boocifer? What did he do to become so evil, and why does defeating him make everything bright and cheery and colorful? How does my shooting the targets affect him in any way? Why is he in control of skeletons and ghosts? Why does he evidently unleash hordes of skeletons on me after I pass by his extra evil washer and dryer? Yeah, the pacing picks up at that point, but what did I do to land myself in this themelessly black room with the skeletons? I could keep going on and on. We could do worse (Den of Lost Thieves at Indiana Beach, I'm sorry, is really unimpressive), but we could do better, too. Boo Blasters in particular feels like a compilation of props meant to hint at the idea of a theme just to maintain the status quo from Scooby, only without Scooby himself. Since it's from the Kinzel era, I'd expect nothing less, since that's pretty much a common theme with every themed anything from that era. The "theming" on Diamondback and Intimidator 305 says "We don't want to spend much money on anything besides the ride, but we'd feel kinda weird about building a plain gray building, so we'll just add some pieces of wood/checkered patterns everywhere. Y'know. Snakes/racecars and stuff." The end result is an experience that feels like it could exist at any other park ever. For me, apart from the splashdown, Diamondback and Nitro might as well be the same ride. Theming-wise, Millennium Force and I305 might as well be identical. (Yes, YoungStud, Intamin made the rides themselves unique compared to each other, unlike B&M. There, I saved you a post.) And up until around the time the shareholders staged their revolt, it worked for Cedar Fair. But for people who even remotely cared about the smaller details, myself included, the transition from the more detailed Paramount theming (yes, I know it didn't work for long) to vague Cedar Fair pseudo-themes was incredibly awkward. Without yapping on forever, this is why I'm excited for the Ouimet era. He's mentioned a commitment to giving each park its own identity, which is something they REALLY need. And, better yet, he seems to be acting on it, which is why I'm incredibly excited for Wonder Mountain's Guardian and the 40th anniversary celebration for Kings Dominion. Where else are you going to find those? They won't be Disney-level theming, but it's doing a lot to give people reasons to visit each individual park. Given that Boo Blasters was just created three years ago, I'd be very surprised to see it go anytime soon. However, if management wants to give KI an additional, distinctly Kings Islandy dark ride with the new ride technology, I'm not complaining... Stepping off my soapbox now.

Raging Bull. Those guys were very aware of how long it was(n't) taking them to get trains loaded and sent, in part thanks to the station countdown clock. But seriously, they were rocking it in July. Shoutout to the Gatekeeper crew, too. They were doing really well each time I rode that ride. Noticeably speedier than even the rest of Cedar Point, which has maintained its already superior operations from years past.

Out of Camden Park*, Cedar Point*, Coney Island Cincinnati, Coney Island New York, Conneaut Lake Park*, Dollywood, Hersheypark, Holiday World*, Indiana Beach, Jungle Jack's Landing at the Columbus Zoo*, Kennywood*, Kings Dominion, Kings Island*, Michigan's Adventure, Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America, the Six Flags of Great Adventure, Great America*, and St. Louis*, Stricker's Grove*, and Waldameer*, where asterisks indicate that I visited that park this year: Best Theme Park - Kings Dominion. Best Amusement Park - Six Flags St. Louis. Best Wood Coaster - Boss, SFStl. Best Steel Coaster - Intimidator 305, Kings Dominion. Best Flatride - Falling Star at Michigan's Adventure/Indiana Beach OR the Flying Scooters at Stricker's. Best "New" Ride - Boss or Mr. Freeze at SFStl. Props to Haunted House at Camden Park for scaring the bejabbers out of me for all the wrong reasons. Best Park Food - Dollywood. Most Beautiful Park - Dollywood/Six Flags St. Louis. Best Water Ride - Race for Your Life Charlie Brown, Kings Island. I was also really, really impressed with the Dinosaurs Alive equivalent at the Columbus Zoo, but I don't know if that counts. Best Waterpark - Splashin' Safari. Best Park Staff - Dollywood/Six Flags St. Louis. Best Kids Area - Waldameer. Best Live E - Eh... Besides, Holiday World last year, I've only seen shows at the corporate parks, and they may as well have been identical. So we'll give it to Holiday World. Cleanest Park - Waldameer, Dollywood, or Kennywood. Best Halloween Event - Halloween Haunt, Kings Island (Still the only one I've ever been to!) Best Carousel - Grand Carousel at Kings Island. Best Dark Ride - Scooby Doo: Mystery of the Scary Swamp at SFStl. VASTLY underrated. Best Walk Through - Noah's Ark, Kennywood. Best Park Rail Road - Dollywood Express. Best Ride Operations - Cedar Point. Best Christmas Event - Wildlights, Columbus Zoo. And yes, I've been to Dollywood's Christmas event, though I've never seen any of the shows. Best Observation Tower - Eiffel Tower, Kings Island/Kings Dominion.

There's some speculation that Volcano's improvements will involve a second loading station, a la Storm Runner or Kingda Ka. As it stands, that has "unload" and "load" stations, like Millennium Force or Flight of Fear. I've heard that ride doesn't have great capacity, so any improvements will be appreciated, I'm sure. (I've only been to KD once, and we hit up Volcano early enough that it was practically a walk-on, so I don't know much firsthand about its capacity. It's been three years, and man, do I miss that ride...) I also have to wonder if Intamin has any improvements for the launch systems that would allow that ride to function with its original length trains. It originally had one or two more cars than it currently does, right?

Wow, I'm impressed. https://www.kingsdominion.com/celebration Includes (paraphrased): Blue ice cream returns to the park. Renovation of the Royal Fountains. Sounds like KD's equivalent of Wonderland's updates. Reintroduction of Candy Apple Grove, including new ride lighting packages, return of candy apples along the midway and other surprises. Congo becomes Safari Village, and Volcano and Anaconda will both be receiving improvements. I do like the direction of this new Cedar Fair... I think I might need to go to both Wonderland at KD next year. I'm a little jealous something like this didn't happen at KI last season, haha.

Thank you for posting your photos! They're very good, and I appreciate you putting together this very interesting PTR. Unfortunately, I'm going to be "that guy"... I was at the park on Sunday. The employees manning Wolf Pack did not say the bolded portion of your post: They said no photos whatsoever during the tour. I'm not an administrator, so it's not my job or right to tell you to remove them. However, I'm going to politely ask you to please reconsider posting them. You were here during the fiasco a few weeks ago, so you know how the park reacts to rule breaking when it's connected to KIC. For the sake of maintaining the type of relationship that allows KIC to have events at the park at all, please reconsider posting them. That's all!

Nope. Viking Fury is Intamin. I *think* Ocean Motion at Cedar Point is a HUSS.

Oddly enough, I was thinking about this for a few hours a few days ago. I don't know how much of this is true, but it's worth a shot. From Arrow's first coaster through Magnum in 1989, Arrow track was reportedly bent (and welded, I'm guessing?) at the construction site. If you look at the shape of the track from that era compared to any modern coaster, or even a Schwarzkopf, the track has a very Roller Coaster Tycoon-ish shaping to it. Most banking transitions are on track that's relatively straight, when viewed from above or beside. A lot of what I've read indicates that Arrow, particularly from the mid-80's to 2002, kind of rode the line between today's B&M and, say, today's Premier Rides. They had their reliable models that they sold plenty of (loopers, especially with standard loop/corkscrew layouts; also mine trains), but the models didn't usually cost the roller coaster equivalent of a Mercedes. Every once in a while, they'd come up with something fairly unique which might or might not have some quirks to iron out before becoming successful (suspended coasters, standup trains, X). But none of these things--with the exception of X--had a price tag anywhere near most B&M installations. I'm fairly new to engineering (I graduated with my BSME in April), but it's pretty constant amongst any industry that the more you have to do to create a product, the more the product will cost. A lot of my engineering career experience has involved designing formed steel products, though none of them are on the same scale as a roller coaster. Even then, fabrication of the products takes quite a bit of time, and next to none of it is ever done at the construction site. For the price point and complexity of bending fairly thick steel tubing on that large of a scale on site, I'm guessing it was just a whole lot cheaper for Vortex to be shaped the way it is. Of course, I don't know the specifics of how Arrow bent its track at the site, but I can't think of any way trying to both bank AND bend the track simultaneously would be easy, cheap, and accurate. The only exception to this train of thought is the first hill after the drop on Vortex. That one does bank and crest simultaneously, and I can't speculate with any certainty why that is (if I've been right at any point so far.) My only guess is that the banking transition is so gradual that they were able to bank each piece gradually, but I truthfully don't know. I mean, if that's right, why couldn't the turn into the loops unbank more gradually, instead of being this violent twist? Did Toomer just like karate chopping people in the neck? I don't know. The more Schwarzkopfs I ride, the less I buy the "they didn't have computers" thing. Take a ride on Sooperdooperlooper or Tig'rr and tell me about the need for computers. We don't need no stinkin' computers! Also, while I (again) don't know for sure why Arrow did all the things it did, I do know that having all the wheels in contact with the track at all times would increase friction between the wheels and the track, which would both slow the ride down and wear out the polyurethane on the wheels unnecessarily fast. Why hold the upstops against the track if they're going to wear themselves out more than they're going to stop any upward motion? That is an interesting thought about the wheel size, though, thoe124. TL;DR: Maybe it's cheaper for Vortex to be as rough as it is? IDK. (Sorry for any spelling errors or not making any sense. I'm tired, and that was typed on an iPhone.)

I've done none of these things, but I've redesigned Tomb Raider and other rides a thousand times in my imagination... Does that count?

Just a random thought: could Hart be subsidizing admission and concession prices with advertising? Could he be taking Six Flags' approach by posting ads around the park? That could play a part in why he believes his business model will work.

Proof that eventually a ride op* will, in fact, know what ride is coming to the park next year. * (I can't remember what job Kinzel originally had at CP... It was ride operations, right? Or something? Hopefully I was somewhere close, or else the whole joke fails.)

I don't know the inner secrets of the WindSeeker issues, but is anyone else kind of surprised that someone else bought a WindSeeker, if only because of the bad press? If Screamscape's recent post about Worlds of Fun's Steel Hawk getting terrible press is true, I'm really surprised that a park relatively close to WoF is getting an identical model.

b&m have probley figured out whats wrong with the restranties and probably have it fixed on Banshee And they're just the cutest little restranties, too!

If you all are referencing me: I am acting like they are just as human as me. I am also acting like the somewhat introverted individual that I am and expressing how to overcome said introversion to others who seem to have similar issues with just walking on up to someone and saying something.

Wouldn't that topic be called "KICentral Single Riders Line"?

^ Oh, really? Who'd you see?

Good TR! Thanks for sharing. I know how you feel about trying to spontaneously walk up and talk to someone. I've never met Don personally, but he seems like a very friendly guy. Next time, don't worry about what you're going to say; just say something. Speaking from experience, it's getting the gumption up that's the hard part. Once you're past that, your natural conversational habits will probably kick in, and you'll be fine. Of course, this is coming from the guy who saw a former Amazing Race contestant at the Columbus Zoo yesterday evening and was too surprised to say anything, so...

If the park's going to be part of some major park chain, I don't know that I wouldn't prefer Herschend, or even Parques Reunidos. Of course, I haven't been to The Great Escape, so I don't know how well Six Flags does with that park. Just not Cedar Fair, please. Not that I think they're willing to go further into debt to acquire Holiday World, anyway.

^ Ordinarily, I don't think I'd think of TTD much. I work in an office with several people who consider amusement parks something you visit once every decade or so. Talking coasters with them almost always results in discussing Cedar Point, which turns into "what's the biggest ride there", which turns into "have you ridden it". I don't think they see much point in riding anything else once you've ridden the tallest and fastest coasters. They don't seem to see the attraction in going to places like Holiday World, apart from the amenities included with admission. (Once I started going to places like Conneaut Lake, Waldameer, and Camden Park, I think they gave up trying to understand why I go to the parks I go to.) If it's any consolation: if I start thinking about coasters spontaneously, I tend to think of CCI. Sooner or later, I usually start thinking of NAD. Lately, thinking of NAD tends to lead to me thinking about the lights on the front of Century Flyers and how they could be protected from breaking (if that was actually the problem with them, which is what I've read.) If it weren't for the fact that GCI, The Gravity Group, and PTC have the market basically saturated with one-bench, articulating wooden coaster cars (not to mention that PTC has the patent to the design), I'd love to design a modern equivalent of Century Flyers.

Two-bench PTC cars. The presence of headrests and the color of the cars tends to change from day to day. And if the person saying the words is in/from Ohio and doesn't know much about roller coasters, I tend to think of Top Thrill Dragster, because chances are it's going to be part of the conversation eventually.