KIBOB

Awesome video! I have always found Invertigo to be the most mechanically impressive coaster in the park, with FoF at a close second.

Yup, I guess that I forgot to mention that rather important detail. It was occuring on the forums, but now all seems well. Maybe there was a lot of web traffic to the web server this afternoon?

The errors that I was getting were the 500 internal server errors, which happened randomly when I clicked to link to a new webpage.

My, how the tables have turned...

Is Invertigo's loop one of them?

I found a three pronged bush in Boomerang Bay!

I agree, but I like the Eiffel Tower on KD's map much better than the one on KI's map, which looks rather awkward. EDIT: Also, the KD map does contain some of those 3-pointed shrubs, it would be nice if we had just a few of them.

What is this "thing" that was supposed to open in 2000? There is "nothing" at the park that coincides with the year 2000. Especially not some sort of huge roller coaster.

Although I had never ridden The Crypt - 2008, from what goodyellowcorn and tombraiderFTW said, as well as the physical scale of the ride, I can only imagine how forceful the ride must have been when it was running the KD Crypt cycle. Just the thought of the already problematic braking system being put through all of that stress is pretty unnerving. It is hard to imagine how many times the main control computer "freaked out" while the braking system was continuously being activated to control a 30 ton gondola moving around with immense torque. Here is a video of the 2008 cycle that I found on youtube, I don't know if it has ever been posted on here before. It is kind of freaky listening to the roar of the ride, and the screech of the brakes in the video, let alone on the actual ride. If only there were some way to "upgrade" the braking and control system within the ride.

Why even go to the park anymore? And why hit enter completely randomly, not even at the end of sentences? Just type a paragraph... Sorry, that's bothered me. A roller coaster isn't always the answer. Some on here may think you're Mr. Kinzel in disguise, as just about the only thing that makes you happy is taller, faster, bigger roller coasters. Love it or hate it, we have a one-of-a-kind flat ride. May not be the best in terms of thrill, but it's the only indoor one in the world, it's the only Giant one in the world, and even with its current cycle it has potential given the ride atmosphere, lighting, disorientation, etc. It's clear that you're unhappy with... Well... Pretty much everything except Diamondback and Raptor. So be it. Maybe you have a valid point about The Crypt. But recognize that when you complain about everything, no one takes it seriously. "Choose your battles," they say. If you yell at your kids every day for dropping Cheerios on the floor, they won't take you seriously when you yell at them for walking out into the street alone. When you complain about every aspect of Kings Island, no one will listen when you have a valid point... Also, you say that the ride ran like a charm in 2008, and that Kings Dominion's is "pretty decent, too." 2008 Kings Island Crypt = 2005 - present Kings Dominion Crypt. It's the same cycle with precisely the same flips. Just an odd comment I thought I'd make... As others have said, we really need a like button on here. I like the rides that we have; are they all extreme thrills? No. A park is not only about thrills. I would rather have a well kept park, with exciting concepts and a welcoming one of a kind atmosphere, containing only a small handfull of thrills rather than a park built entirely on high speed roller coasters. Just my opinion. Also, I have always loved Kings Island, not because of the thrills (which I had gotten over a fear of the majority of the coasters a few years ago) but for the atmosphere.

I agree 100%. If Cedar Fair keeps this up, Kings Island can and probably will be as great as it was in the 70's and early 80's. Thank you for focusing on the park's atmosphere KI management & Cedar Fair!

Yes, it is the door from the preshow room to the ride chamber. Where the original door was removed and you could see the ride operating . There is also hope for the circular door from the antechamber to the preshow room, as another twitter picture showed the circular door partially closed. Maybe we will have both doors back.

It looks like they are installing a new "manual" door. Great job KI! Even if the topspin itself is not being changed, it is still nice to see some TLC being given to the ride, plus the possibility of having an actual theme once again. Just the thought of having a nicely themed ride would make me enjoy this attraction %150 more.

(crosses fingers hoping this is real) If this is real, and some great aesthetic /thematic/ride improvements are being made, I will take back any negative "neglect" comment that I had said about CF. Seeing that the Crypt may finally be getting some much needed attention; possibly major improvements to the current "themeing" makes me just as happy as it would if I heard that we were getting a new thrill ride. Actually, this positive outlook on the Crypt, as well as the other improvements in the park make me even MORE excited about this season than if we were getting a new coaster. Hopefully, at KI, the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." as well as the "If we build it, they will come" will be replaced by "Take care of what you have before adding more." and "You don't know what you got till' it's gone." *It appears as though a lot of the old wall paper (which was starting to peel off the walls and look really bad) is being replaced, as there is a big chunk of what looks like it covering the styrofoam blocks that were thrown around the queue.

In regards to the lack of theme areas being clearly marked; it is a pet peeve for me, and probably the biggest pet peeve that I have with the CF style maps. However, the only two areas in the park which are not kind of "obvious" are Action Zone, and Oktoberfest. Coney Mall, Planet Snoopy, and X-Base all have signs. Rivertown may no longer have any signs, but it is clearly marked as nearly every restaraunt in Rivertown begins with the name Rivertown. The water tank on top of the Trading Post is another good indicator. All in all though, Oktoberfest might as well just be merged with I-Street as it no longer has its own identity, and Action Zone seems to be the "ehh" section of the park anyways. I noticed that the majority of the errors on the map are all centered around Action Zone (DT-DZ spiral, no loop on Invertigo, the car game, which is close to the AZ border, and the AZ bathrooms are probably around 100ft long). Aside from this, I do like the new map.

Happy April Fools Day!

I find it funny how Diamondback is as out of "bounds" on this map as the previous map. I do like how the layouts of the coasters are dynamically improved on this map (e.g. Flight Deck, Beast and Vortex) but others (Adventure Express) I'm not so sure about. I like the map, but I find it very awkward looking at Kings Island without any trees.

Awesome! What an excellent find. Thanks for posting! This fits nicely with the PBS documentary on Kings Island.

If and only if it were Paramount, and Paramount alone to make the decisions. If it were either today's Viacom or CBS still running the parks, I'd bet on it that the park would not be in as good of shape as it is today. In fact, I shudder to think what the park would be today if it were still under CBS. Perhaps it would no longer be in existence. Cedar Fair has shut down SoB due to safety concerns. The ride also casts a dark reputation upon the park, especially once any type of injury report made it to the media. I do think, however, that a complete overhaul of the ride would be pretty nice, but I am going to stop there as I don't want to turn this thread into another viral SoB debate. Also, Cedar Fair may not be the best in terms of theming, but they are certainly getting better; just look at the things CF is doing in their parks today as opposed to before the Paramount Parks aquisition. A good example would be just over a year ago. Many on here were speculating that with the Snoopy transition, SDatHC would be either demolished, or used as some sort of storage building, as it had been thought that Cedar Fair hated dark rides. Look at what we got though, Boo Blasters may be a general theme, but it is well done. Cedar Fair is even bringing Planet Snoopy areas to their smaller amusement parks, and promoting them as "kid's theme parks". I am not trying to be rude, and I do wish that we did get some more nicely themed attractions. DA is a nice little touch, and time will tell if new CF management will open the doorways to more state of the art attractions. EDIT: With me typing this incredibly long post, I just realized that Terpy beat me to it...

Ok, thanks for the verification. I didn't know that SOB_TOM had at one point worked for maintenance at the park, you learn something new every day! So.......my question is, is the catch car on DT also used as an elevator as well as the internal elevator? Although I am completely terrified of drop rides such as DT, I am fascinated by their engineering. The same can be said for WindSeeker.

I'm not trying to contradict anyone, but I don't really think that DT has an INTERNAL elevator. My reasoning is that unlike WindSeeker, Drop Tower does not appear to have a platform at the top around its "checkered box", whereas WindSeeker has a platform that looks similar to a circular enclosed porch/patio for its topper. Also, notice how on Drop Tower, there is a platform with stairs on the actual catch car mechanism. Perhaps the catch car is also an external elevator, and once it gets to the top, maybe there is a ladder of some sort that allows access to the "box". Just speculating... Also, I've always wondered, does anyone here on KIC know(and yes Terp, I know that SOMEONE knows) if DT's motors reside in the "box", or if they are down below with some sort of pulley system that runs through the tower?

Just curious, is the top piece of artwork a rendering of the rumored "cityscape/citywalk" that Paramount had planned to re-theme International Street into? I think that this would have been neat, if and ONLY if the Royal Fountains and Eiffel Tower were planned to remain in place.

I have been searching the forums and found nothing on this, so here we go...... Many on this site may know about this, but for those who didn't know, in 1985 Taft Broadcasting had opened another theme park; Australia's Wonderland in Sydney, Australia. The park was the sixth in the KECO chain, and was built upon many of the same design concepts as Canada's Wonderland. Australia's Wonderland proved successful during its initial years, and was viewed as the largest theme park in the southern hemisphere. Although the new park lasted through the final years of KECO, it did not pass ownership like the rest of the family. In 1992, when Paramount Communications bought KECO, they decided that they would not include the Australia park as it was "too far of an investment", since the other parks were all in North America. With this in mind, while the rest of KECO became Paramount Parks, Australia's Wonderland was left to defend for itself. With rising prices within Australia, such as insurance for the park, and with a decrease in travel, Wonderland began to enter a state of being financially unstable. In 1997, the park was purchased by Sunway Group, and rebranded as Wonderland Sydney. Although plans for park expansion were made, they never prospered, and the park eventually failed financially. In 2004, the park closed for good, and was later completely demolished. As the rest of the former KECO parks prospered, the Sydney park was sadly being driven into the ground. Australia's Wonderland could really be thought of as the "forgotten brother" to the other parks. If you would like to read more (although it may not be completely accurate), I posted the link to a historical site about the park, as well as the Wikipedia article below. http://wonderlandhistory.net/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderland_Sydney If you have any other information about this park, please spread the knowledge. I am sure many others might find this as interesting as I do....

The fact that Viacom wants to build new theme parks makes me wonder............ Did Viacom really want to get rid of the American parks because they were an "already established, unecessary asset", or in reality, was it more like "These seasonal theme parks that we already own are regional, and are not structured to be the ego boosting mega-resorts (cough-Disney-cough-Universal) that we want them to be?".

Absolutely fantastic! Thanks for your effort, and thanks for posting!