medford

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Ze9T40gqg I can't ever figure out how to embed youtube videos. I know its easy, but always forget, sorry its a link.

If I was unawares, that article would definently make me NOT want to ride Steelhawk, particularly the last bit that highlights the history. Sometimes the facts, given simply as facts paint a more ominous picture than the truth; this is one of those cases. Ironic that they can't get it up and running b/c of "high winds".

From what I've heard, the train does not need a capacity boost. My family, and I rode the train Monday, and we talked to one of the ride ops at the end of the night. He told us that over 20 thousand people had ridden it that day, and that they are always one of the few rides that gets over a million riders a year. As the spiel goes, its the 2nd most ridden attraction at KI behind The Racers. I guess I'm not neccessarily thinking about a boost in ridership, just an opportunity to give riders a different perspective on a ride around the track. It wouldn't change all that much from a normal experience though; don't even know if its feesible, just popped into my head for my brief trip backwards on the Train.

A couple of observations from our 1st trip this year (I'm sure some, if not all of this has been covered, but I haven't read thru this thread, nor will I at this point...) The walk back to Banshee along the path that takes you past the KI Theater may now be the prettiest part of the entire park. The paint job on the supports of Delerium match in so well, and the amount of canopy in the short walkway really makes them "pop". Considering that this is likely the route many will take when they 1st enter KI this season (to get on Banshee from the start presumably) it is really going to make a wonder 1st impression on people that have never visited KI or haven't in a long time, or at least for those that choose to start their day in Action Zone and take that particular route. It all just comes together wonderfully. The patio area at the back of the Festhaus was certainly a nice touch. I think it gives the back enterance a cleaner look and helps re-enforce the charm of that particular path. Speaking of the Festhaus the chicken Fingers and even Burgers looked enjoyable. We had the pizza as part of the season long plan, but in the past, I wouldn't have even considered those choices. Could be the difference b/w when we typically eat (middle of the week, later in the evening vs yesterday at noon during the lunch rush) or it could be an improvement to the food; if its the later, job well done by the chef they brought in over the offseason (or was it last offseason) to improve the quality of the food across the park. We had the pizza, so I can't comment on the taste, but it certainly looked edible which is far more than I could have said in seasons past. I realized I'm raising "one of those people". While in line for Woodstock express, a grandmother was behind us telling her grandchildren about the rides and the park when she had taken their mother (or father) however many years ago. She proceeded to ask me if they still had The Beastie, I informed her that this was actually the same ride it had just changed names (and I guess removed the tunnel) since her last visit. My 5 year old then proceeds to tell her that it was originally called the Scoobie Doo and was there when the park was built, along w/ The Racer and other park trivia she didn't ask about. Cute at 5, annoying at some older age. Park was packed, we had to park out in BFE, furtherst I've ever parked, so we avoided taking the 5 year old on any bigger rides and instead stayed in Planet Snoopy most of the day so he could ride some of the smaller things with his 2 year old sister. Aside from Boo Blasters, the wait time wasn't too bad for anything over there. Actually had to wait a cycle for a train car the station was so crowded, but got to experience the train (engine included) move backwards. Only about 5-10 feet, but got me to thinking it could make for an interesting experience to have the engine push the cars the the track backwards for a day. Don't know if if could make it up the grade pushing the cars vs pulling it or not, perhaps just in those early season days b/w the water park opens and it runs limited cars. Could help boost attendance on those days.

What Ape said on parking, the first time we got season passes about 3 years ago, we bought them online, they made us pay the $10 for parking, but gave it back as soon as we processed our passes.

It is possible to organize the hotel in a manor that would offer enough attractions to visiting guests to keep them occupied when the park is closed, multiple restaraunts (buffet, family style and perhaps something a little nice), put put and/or video arcade to keep the kids busy, a stage for live shows, etc... If they were just building a hotel, I agree that the park isn't big enough to entice people to stay multiple days with regularity, however if they build a hotel with built in attractions, they give parents an incentive to show up on a saturday, leave on a sunday and visit the park both days of their trip while enjoying the ammenitites of the hotel in the evening.

I believe "great" was the key word in his phrase. I enjoy Outback, especially their fish, but The Precinct it is most definently not.

I'd love to see them get together with Schmidt's in Columbus and incorporate that into the festhaus. For those that haven't been, Schmidt's offers a wonderful German buffett, and the cream puffs are only slighly smaller than one's head (ok, more than slightly, but they are huge none the less). Or considering the success of Christian Morlein's lager house near the ball park, perhaps relocate the Christian Morlein Beer Garden over to the festhause in a redesign, perhaps split the building into two, one half expose to the perimeter with lots of seating in a sit down style service, and the other half can serve the chinese, burgers and pizza (but what to do with the shows?) What I expect them to do in the next 2-3 years is a front entrance redesign/upgrade that will offer ADA approved access to the restaurant up there, perhaps make it available year round for weddings/business meetings, make a room w/n the building rentable near the end of the evening for prime firework viewing, etc... The front entrance is in great need of an upgrade, more eletronic kiosks, etc.... and I believe somewhere CF management indicated that the success of Gate Keeper has propelled them towards more front gate updates. With the Tower being the main focal point, I can't envision a ride swooping across the front gate the way Gate Keeper does (nor would I want it, I'd like that to be unique to CP as a goal towards more uniqueness at all of their parks, not 3 similar coasters all being installed at the same time at 3 parks in the chain). Making the restaurant a dependable moneymaker could help them recapture their investment beyond improved effieciences in ticketing/processing. I suppose some of that may depend on the viability of the Reds Hall of Fame Grill. I loved the place when I ate there, just don't know if they're getting their expected (or better) return on investment or not. I certainly hope so, I'd love to some a few more things spread across the park like that.

Best advice I could give anyone regarding stocks, start early, as soon as you start making money (even from a summer job as a kid). The single best thing a younger person has is time. The "magic" of compounding interest can easily make you a millionair in retirement with little effort (money) invested up front provided that you start young enough. http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/04/02/the-extraordinary-power-of-compound-interest/ one of many examples around the web.

A few thoughts, you used to be able to purchase a share of disney that could come with a stock certificate that you could frame to mount on a child's wall in their bedroom. My sister and I did this for our twin nephew/niece for their 1st birthday, they are now 12, so don't know if that program is still available. I think the certificate actually came framed, but its been a while. That could be one thing to look into. I don't know specificially about Disney, but many large companies offer a DRIP (dividend re-investment plan) which requires you to send them money to purchase your initial share(s) of stock then automatically reinvest all dividends back into the company's stock. DRIP plans differ from one company to another, but I'd be shocked if Disney didn't offer one, you can likely find that info on their investor relation page. As for the cost of Disney stock, pay less attention to the price of the stock, and more to their P/E (price to earnings ratio) compared to historical records. While the stock may be trading near its 52 week high, that doesn't neccessarilly mean its trading near its all time high, or at the higher end of of P/E ratio (ie the companies earnings could have outpaced their share price over the last couple of years, I don't know specifically about Disney, I'd venture that their current 52 week high is also close or at their all time high, but that is just a guess based upon the companies history). Also keep in mind, when you are buying Disney, you are also buying into ESPN/ABC (amongst other things), which is another thing your son may relate to well as he grows up. It wouldn't surprise me if ESPN was eventually spun off into its on seperate company. The glossy reports are not dead, at least not year. Warren Buffet sent me one about a month ago which I need to get around to reading (although Berkshire's annual report has never been particularly glossy), I've also recieved them from LVLT and TAXI w/n the last month, so they are still floating around. KI-org-employee touches on investing in your 401(k) to the max first, but I'd caution that to definently invest up the maximum that your company will match (if at all) then anything beyond that look into the benefits of a Roth vs the 401(k). In theory (ie unless congress changes the rules) you pay taxes upfront in a Roth, you pay the taxes on your 401(k) when you take the money out later in life. Depending on where you are financially and where you expect to be during retirement, it may be better to pay the taxes today (when you know what the tax rates are) than in the future when you can only speculate on what the tax rates (as well as your income during retiremtent) may be. Hydra, its in your best interest to see what your money is going towards. I know one of the fears is being made "to look stupid" in front of your HR person, but I'd put the shame aside and investigate. It depends on where you work and your plan, but one note of caution are the people who had their life savings tied up in the company they worked for, in this case ENRON, only to see the company collapse under corrupt management and see their savings dissapear. I don't know where you work, but I'll use P&G as an example of a company where many employees buy P&G stock thru their retirement plan. P&G is likely going to continue to be a well run company for a long time, but there is no garuntee, so make sure you've got more in your retirement than just the company you work for. As mentioned above, you need to diversify yourself no matter how good that 1 company may be. You don't have to know the inside/out of your retirement plan, but having a general feeling for what you are invested in will serve you over the long term. I read a book by Peter Lynch many years ago. One of the things he talked about was investing in what you know, the consumer is often going to spot the smaller company poised to grow before wall street catches on based upon their own personal experiences. When McDonald's spun off Chipotle, I considered purchasing stock, my wife mentioned it a couple of times, but at the time, that $43 stock price looked a little high, if it fell into the low to mid $30s I would have picked up 20 or so shares. At the time, Chipotle was still fairly small and not overly saturated with plenty of room to grow. Had I thrown the $1000 at it then and just planned to purchase more if/when it fell to the price I liked, I'd be sitting on over $11,000 today as it approaches $500 a share. There are many Chipotle type companies sitting around, if you can find them, make a small investment, pay attention and buy some more down the road as the "story improves". I've thought of buying Cedar Fair for a while, mainly as a dividend stock. Kept waiting for it to fall back a bit, it has yet to fall back "a bit" under Oimet's leadership. I really like what he brings to the table and the 6% dividend would have been nice (not 5.6%).

This is why the ride going up in Canada is of interest to me. One of the claims, IIRC, was the ride was customizable and if I read things right, could operate on many different programs thru the day if the operated wished for that variety. I immediatly thought of Boo Blasters and all of that "extra" space that goes to waste (well other than storage) for the regular operating season. I envision a kid friendly version of an indoor shooter/dark ride experience (or whatever CW has in store) for the regular season, then during the haunt, a kid's friendly halloween version of the ride during the day, and an adult version during the evenings when the haunt is in full effect.

I don't believe its been posted on here yet, and it kind of surprises me, but for those that are saddened whenever KI clears out a group of trees, prepare yourself for the large clearing they created this offseason at The Beach. I'm not sure if that is where the zip line will start (would make sense as that is near or at the top elevation of the park) or if they are doing something else in that area, but they have cleared out a good chunk of trees just north of the "large" red slide by the highway.

While I've never been to Kings Dominion, I found myself very jealous of their list of refurbishments they released slowly over the winter all directed towards bringing back prior aspects of the park (talking/singing mushrooms were one of the things, amongst other things, mostly, if not entirely they were relatively small features, especially compared to the cost occured repainting/rethemeing The Bat, let along Banshee). Anyhoo, since I recon Ki won't see any major installations this summer (not that I would complain if one came their way) I'm hoping for an offseason with several similar announcements at KI. Bringing back the vine(?) tunnel that slowly grew over at the start of the season, the talking tree, Flying Eagles (seemingly on everyone's list amongst our members here), etc....

My son has allergies to shell fish as well as cashews & pistachios, but not peanuts (thankfully, I think that is much harder to avoid for a 5 year old) so I'm not much help. Brining wipes would be handy, but most importantly be sure to bring his epi-pen. I would imagine its a pain to carry that around, we have a 1 year old as well, so we just throw it in the diaper bag and don't worry about it too much; definently harder when you have to carry it on your person all day. I'd also recommend getting to know where any medical facilities are. There is one near the exit of boo blaster just as you get into Planet Snoopy, I'm not sure if there are any other medical locations. I don't recall KI selling peanuts individually like you'd see at a baseball game, but you may want to check what kind of oils they cook the fries and what not in. As a general rule, you don't see many people eating things while in line for a ride. Perhaps an icee, ice cream, or frozen leamonade, but I don't recall seeing anything else (though I'm sure it happens)

^^^ Thanks gator, I'll add it to the list.

I never had that experience (forcing our 5 year old to ride). From the moment he's been tall enough to ride anything, he's always been more than willing. However, after riding drop zone several times last year, all of a sudden he became convinced that he was too scared to ride it, or it made his stomach feel funny. I don't ride Drop zone, but Mom loves it, so she was always with him while I waited with our youngest. Since she is pregnant this year, I guess he gets a reprive as I'll only jump on if he insists and talks me into it, he had to force me on Drop Zone rather than vice versa 1x on that thing was enough for me. We'll see if he stays on past seasons pace and grows the next 4" before the summer is over to ride Banshee. Of course, then we'll have to see if Mom will let us, since she's ride free this summer. There was a comment in there about the best time to go with small children. One little tidbit, and its not going to work for everyone, but if you kids can stay up late enough, the last hour in Planet Snoopy during the middle of the week is often empty. Since my wife is a teacher and the kids are out of school, they generally stay up a bit later in the summer since they can sleep in and take longer naps. You can get a bunch of ride cycles in b/w 9:00 & 10:00 in Planet Snoopy. Another thing to note, is pay attention to what you kid can ride, you may not think they're tall enough to do much of anything, but there are some things in there. Our 1 year old was on the obvious rides that most parents would think about, the Train, Merry Go Round (x2), Boo Blasters, but she was also on The Monster, and whatever they call the mini-Whip it last season. Neither have a height requirement. My wife said she didn't look like she enjoyed the Monster, but she loved riding Whip It with her brother last season. I'm not sure if she's 36" this season or not, she'll turn 2 in a few weeks, I'm sure she'll love Charlie Browns Wind Up, The Red Baron and a bunch of the other 36" tall rides in Planet Snoopy.

thanks railrider. I assume he is driving since he'll be away for so long, but I don't know for sure. He'll be staying at his parents house in Florida for most of their trip, but I think they plan on staying on Disney property while they are there, not 100% on that.

Sorry, should have included that part, Florida. As a side note, I'd love to visit Disney, Japan someday after seeing the trip report on this site, that place looks amazing.

That is great, if its actually operating when you are at the park. What if you planned a trip to ride this a week after it was suppose to open? What if TTD is down the 1 time a year you visit Cedar Pointe (or Diamondback at KI a few years ago, or Vortex that season before that, or Son of Beast for numerous seasons)? I appreciate that these are machines that will fail from time to time, and need work, but unless its a park you visit on a regular basis, regular down time increases the odds that the park's headache becomes your headache when you actually show up to ride the thing. Imagine if Banshee was still not operating? Think there would have been more than a few people ****ed off that they travelled from all over the country and in some cases different countries to ride that during its opening weekend/media day? That is the problem. Reliability is a huge part of the equation. One can get the thrill of a lifetime jumping off the top of the Empire State Building, but if they don't have a life safety device, odds are they won't be seeing that same thrill again.

Then perhaps they are overcomplicating it. It sounds like there are forces being applied to these mechanisms that are causing them to fail, and if I understand it correctly, they are failing in the early stages of testing with no people/dummies/weight installed on the ride that would mimic the real live load it was designed for, in other words, its seeing as small a load as it will ever see under real life conditions and it is failing. That is a huge problem. I realize parts fail, things happen, but Firehawk works "most of the time", there should be nothing neccessarily more complicated in that than there is in Firehawk and its been how many years since that was designed? Plenty of time to improve upon that design. That is my crux, it seems like they've taken an element that could potentially have a relatively easy application to accomplish a relative easy task (getting the rider to change position 90 degrees) and overcomplicated it leading to failures and delay. If they were attempting to reach new heights like on TTD I can appreciate the unexpected complications that could arise from that scenerio and I applaud their effort to take us higher and faster than before. As I said, I have the same opinions of WindSeeker, that should have been a relative "easy" design, and its been messed up so badly that Cedar Fair should be beyond angry.

Because that is not my line of work. I am an engineer, but a different breed and too far entrenched in my field to switch courses. Besides there are millons of people much, much smarter than me that could fill the same position and would tell them to learn the #1 rule, KISS. Besides, its not like this is a 1 time thing. Engineers make mistakes; we all do, and if this was their first problem area then it would be easy to forgive, however their constant problems tell me they likely have a cultural problem in their company. Why doesn't B&M constantly run into problems when they design coasters, but they use engineering methods that have been tried, tested and succeeded in the past, there is no need to re-invent the wheel to accomplish the same task that has been accompleshed elsewhere in the world thousands of times. The mechanics of this ride really shouldn't be all that more complicated than any Drop Tower in the world. Sure there is an exciting 90 degree adjustment, but that manuver shouldn't be all that different than Firehawk going from vertical to on your back when the ride cycle starts.

Actually, its not for me, but a friend who is going with his family in a few weeks. I know there are several on here who know a ton about Disney, and I've seen many website suggestions on here, but with the evolving world of the internet, I thought it would be best to ask for the best sites for him to visit rather than going through old threads that may contain a website that isn't that great any more. He's planning on going in June, I actually think he's going for a good chunk of the month to visit his parents (he's a teacher, I believe his wife can work from him/road, so getting away for a long chunk of time isn't as hard as it is for some people). They have 2 kids, ages 6 and 4. Any recommendations of websites for him to visit prior to setting his final agenda would be appreciated. TIA.

Im not picking at your post, actually in wholehearted agreement. Lack of consistency is Intamin's major problem, which is probably why they change everything all the time. I am no engineer either, but I would imagine some would argue that a lack of consistency is a sign of poor engineering. This is what I was trying to get to. Like i said, I don't know about the height aspect of the ride and how that could impact things, but the operation of Falcon's Fury should be relatively simple as it should operate in a similar manner as many, many Drop Towers around the world. The repositioning of the seats is just a twist on the concept that makes the ride much scarier to the average person, but shouldn't be some engineering marvel. Rotating a seat across an axis 90 degrees isn't exactly building the Hoover darn.

Well I'm not entirely familar with every aspect of the ride, but I envision it as a.. You go up high (been done numerous times, though I don't know if this tower is taking riders up to heights rarely done before, which would present some new challenges), then drops you straight down, which has been done numerous times. That aspect of the ride is not a prototype and should be simply executed (though that doesn't sound like where the challenge is). The swinging of seats so the rider is facing straight down should be a relatively simple mechanisim compared to the engineering of raising it to full height, dropping it and stopping it before hitting the ground. Really, that aspect should be one of the easier things to accomplish, it could be done as simply as a lever to swing the seats. If they overcomplicated it, that is poor engineering. Sound engineering calls on trusted, tested and reliable solutions to such a seemingly easy problem. An engineer should only think outside the box when no common solution has been successfully excuted to perform a similar task before. You can walk into a thousand foundaries and manufacturing plants and find mechanisims that will alter the direction of a cart 90 degrees. As far as WindSeeker goes, I don't consider that a truely new design either, and frankly Cedar Fair should be ****ed with all of the problems they have had with that ride across the country. Up, down swing around, it should be complicated. That it has had so many issues, is a poor reflection on the company that built/designed them. I don't know about the height aspect of it, in the amusement park world, height changes things outside of the tried and trusted methods of the past quite often. TTD is a different animal. Sure there have been launched coasters, but to my knowledge there was never one that required a launch to such heights prior to TTD. That would potentially require an engineer to think outside of the box and develop a solution that hasn't been used before.

That's not really true, by purchasing the season long meal plan, you are also agreeing to follow the rules of said meal plan. It may not be exactly clear, but there is probably some disclaimer written in small language somewhere inside the park or on the web that is agreed upon when purchasing the deal. Kind of like, when you purchase a ticket to the park, you're not agreeing to pay to get in the park, then ride whatever you feel like, in whatever order you feel like, you are also agreeing to follow many rules inside the park, riding only rides you fit the safety guidelines for, only smoking in designated areas, not throwing things off the top of the Eiffel Tower, no line jumping, etc.... Some rules are monitored and enforced more strictly than others, but there are a host of them that you have agreed to when buying a ticket/season pass. Probably the same thing with the season long dining policy.