medford

Well of course, if it was any more it would have to be called Hooters; I don't think that is owned by Hershey's however.

I'm not sure what the above is trying to say.... I'll just add that when I ride with my youngest kids I always make sure they have their seat belt strapped on first then I do mine. The employees do a great job of checking this (and frankly it is overkill on most, if not all coasters) but it gives me peace of mind knowing that I checked it myself as well. As far as getting kids on coasters, I recommend letting them set the pace with perhaps some gentle nudging where appropriate. I'll never forget taking my niece one day for her first trip on The Beast. As she got off, she looked to her right and asked "What is that?" I told her it was Vortex and she promptly asked if we could ride that. I proceeded to ask her if she knew that it went upside down... She immediately replied "yes" so off we went and she rode Vortex. My 3 kids were different; oldest has ADHD but has never really minded waiting in lines. We tended always go mid week in the evenings when he was growing up, so the park was never super crowded, but as a 4 year old he was on Drop Zone, Beast, Vortex, etc.... If he was tall enough, he wanted to ride. Our daughter was always scared of coasters. She is 9 now and finally took her first ride on Mystic Timbers and The Beast this summer. She has always been very hesitant, so we've gently nudged her a few times, even offered bribes but she wasn't biting that apple. She has finally learned that she loves a lot of the rides she was too scared to ride the summer prior (though with that being a Covid year, she only went once). Part of the reason why she is more willing; our youngest was still 5 last summer and he was the kid that at 3 was ****ed he couldn't ride the bigger coasters at Dollywood or KI. Thankfully both parks had lots of options, but even on their Dragonfly (similar to FAAC in concept (though much better) at KI) he rode it happily while our then 7 year old daughter stood at the exit side of the station and watched. I think she realized she's too big for much of Planet Snoopy and she couldn't have her little brother showing her up. Neither have been upside down yet, but if the now 6 year is tall enough for anything that will take you thru a loop, he's going to ride it and my daughter will probably grudgingly follow along.

Thanks. That ride looks like it would be really low capacity. IIRC, it took them a lot of time to get Firechaser express up and running correctly, perhaps there are no maintenance issues since its been going. Either way its a ton of fun. Day I was there, it rained pretty good for a couple of hours early in the morning but once things cleared up the park was empty and everything was practically walkon. Only had to wait a few min for Firechaser express at most, Wild Eagle was complete walkon with less than full trains dispatching. Only thing with a semblance of a wait was Lightening Rod. I do love Lightening Rod and thankful that it was open and running while we were there, worst thing a ride can be is unreliable; don't want a major attraction to be down when someone has traveled several hundred miles and doesn't get a chance to be on it.

I was born in 77 and have lived around the park my entire life. Ghoster Coaster is the 1 coaster coaster I have no recollection of. It existed from 1998 thru 2005, which is probably the period of my life that I visited KI the least (would have been a junior in college at Dayton up thru living in the Cincy area then eventually back in the south Dayton area towards the later stages of his existence) but had no kids at the time, nor visiting the park with people who had kids so I likely didn't even enter PS during that time frame. I know I was in the park during its existence because I definitely rode SOB its first year of existence, plus at least once (and I think more than once) post loop. My son was born in 2008 and we started getting season passes as a family in 2010 and have had them since. I've never been able to find a POV of this ride, would love to see it if anyone has a link. I've seen the pics on RCDB, but that is about all I have. anyhoo; I'd love to see a fire chaser express clone in PS, or at least something for the 44" or 46" plus crowd, another tweaner coaster for kids to short or too scared to ride The Racer or The Beast, but ready for something else besides FAAC or Woodstock Express. Fire Chaser express is fabulous, but my be a maintenance headache and not worth the investment (or maybe it isn't a headache and totally worth the investment) Relocate Linus' Beatle Bugs and use the space occupied by Planet Snoopy and the petting zoo/stage area. A nice sit down resteraunt and a tweaner coaster plus some other improvements would put that area back up in line with what Dollywood built a few years ago at Wildwood Grove.

What makes you so confident that its not going to happen? I would think it would take more than $60 per share, but I have no clue at what point the major holders of CF stock would accept such a deal. Lets say it were to happen, would it be a good thing for KI, or a bad thing; perhaps even negligible? If you have an opinion either way, why do you feel that way? Would love to hear people's thought on a potential Sea World takeover and how it would affect KI and other CF parks. Seems like a potentially death blow to King's dominion, I don't think there are any other parks in direct competition. TIA

"many believe" is not FACT, is is speculation. Record breakers are for "fan boys". I get that we are all "fan boys" to one extent or another, but the average KI guest doesn't walk into the park and decide to ride one ride or another simply because its 10 feet higher or 10 feet longer. Cedar Pointe has long been a park that caters to the Fan Boys because it is very dependent on the clientele that will travel from 500+ miles away to spend 3-4 days in the park. KI is a park that very much caters to its niche market, families located within a 50 mil radius of the park who make a handful of trips to KI every summer. KI and CP serve 2 very different clients. CP gets more bigger investments because it needs those investments to keep the fans boys in Missouri coming back every couple of years for a couple of days. KI gets more family oriented investments cause it needs that family that lives on the 275 beltway to come back 3-4 times each summer. To get to 3 removals, you have to include SOB. I'd hardly call that fair to call that abomination of a creation CP's fault. So if we are talking about a +3 over 16 years, that is right on par with the typical 5 year development plan you will find at Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland and Kings Dominion, and far better than Valley Fair or numerous other parks in the chain. You see what you want to see. KI is far more than just rollercoasters and if the Execs are doing anything less than working to unlock the most potential out of each of their parks then they are doing both the company and themselves a disservice. As I said in my prior post, these are no longer the days of Dick Kinzil with a very specific interest in Cedar Point, many of the execs today didn't grow up on Cedar Point specifically, their goal is and should be the company as a whole. I'm pretty sure there would be more than 1 large investor (not to mention SEC regulators) that would be a little more than miffed if it was discovered the executives were doing something other than aiming to provide the best return on their investor dollars. Top level execs typically have stock options in the company, that affects their personal bottom line as well.

Thanks for that info, that is quite an operation. Do the large "eye" wheels like the London Eye operate on a similar premise? I imagine that would make sense. I could definitely see a scenario where there was something less than a full ride and future riders continually waiting in line.

Wont argue that point, which is likely why they haven't built on. The return on investment would see to be very low on such a project. Seemingly, it would only work if you had a fancy light package that could be used on it as part of the night time ambience of the park/area it sits in. I've never been on one of those revolving eyes, how do those work loading and unloading? Would it be possible to install such a "ferris wheel that could just continually slowly rotate, such that you unloaded on one side of the platform as a worker got in and made sure everything was cleaned out, and a new riders would enter the other end of the platform a few seconds later. Kind of like how Boo Blasters never really stoops (or I guess rarely stops). Would that improve capacity? Everyone gets one really slow spin around, and the light package is added for nighttime display?

The notion that the top execs at Cedar Fair want something less for any of their parks so as to ensure they don't outshine Cedar Pointe is kinda silly. If you wanted to accuse Dick Kinzel of that, OK, I'd get that a bit, he grew up in Toledo and first worked at Cedar Pointe before eventually working his way up to CEO. He has a house just outside its property. Kinzel has since been replaced by a man that grew up in NY, became an accountant and worked for Disney for a number of years. He was later replaced by a man who grew up in Kansas and worked his way up thru the Virginia side of the parks. Meanwhile, there have been rumblings that management is looking to move headquarters out of Sandusky and down to Charlotte. From a pure business stand point, financially I see how that makes sense, its probably much easier to recruit and retain top level employees if they are based in Charlotte rather than Sandusky. One could certainly maintain such a move would take the heart out of the company, but I've digressed from the main point. The simplest explanation is that CedarFair (not Pointe mind you) game Kings Island a budget and a roughly guideline on what to install. and left it to Kings Island management to take that budget and guidelines and tweak them to what they envision the parks best interests to be. It is in both KI's best interest as well as Cedar Fair's best interest for the park to thrive in the best way possible. CP and KI are two similar, yet very different parks with very different clients. The more complicated explanation is that top level Execs are scared CP would lose its luster to a park 300 miles to its south and therefor prevent that asset from delivering the best return possible.

I don't know how to cut and paste in photoshop, but using googlemaps, it appears the wheel at Cedar Point would fit rather nicely where the Kill mart building is, next to the 'Tiques and swings

Seems like we have this debate every offseason now. 1) its not illegal to fly a drone (or a plane) over KI, as KI doesn't own the air space. I believe this point has been put to rest multiple times. 2) KI does not want drones flying over their property, even during off hours to limit any work leaking out to the public before they desire. 3) KI does not want KI Central to allow any posts or links (?) to site of said drone or photo evidence of things going on in the park that have not been made public by KI. 4) KI Central has agreed to this request from KI Points 1-3 are I believe fact and not up for debate. Point 4, if the choice of those who run and manage this site, while you may or may not agree to their choice, unless you own or run this site then you get very little say in the decision. 5) Can we just pin this information somewhere to point to the next time this debate comes up?

I agree, they have a chance to continue reforming/reshaping that area. With the "darker" themed Banshee and Bat names, they could have repainted Drop Tower something 'darker" and perhaps renamed it something to fit in more with a mid-evil theme. Heck, even the Drop Tower name could have been used, just add some castle theming to the que area.

Melt at CP had a bunch of the old "you must be this tall to ride this ride" signs around the restaurant. The ones that played up to the them of the ride and were personalized for each ride, rather than a generic "48" marker or whatever height is required. Used to be great as a kid when you could stand next to them eager for when you finally reached the height of whatever character was marking the requirement. I'd love to see those come back to not only The Beast, but many other rides as well. Doesn't have to be similar to the original ones, but something more creative and fun. Specifically to The Beast, other than some TLC, I'd love to see the water mill work again, at least in some capacity. I also wouldn't mind having its neighbor back as well. Ol' lady was rough (or was it just me) but she was still a site to behold even when they buried her in the ground.

I don't live too far away (30 min) but far enough away that I wouldn't make an hour visit just to grab a bite to eat and maybe a ride. However, if I lived in Mason, I could totally see my family swinging in 2-3 times a week for dinner and a quick ride or two in the middle of the week or sunday evenings.

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/six-flags-dining-pass I apologize if this have been posted before, not sure how old this article is. Man got as much value out of his $150 meal plan as possible. I know there are some on here that have snuck in for lunch and headed back to work.

Is something like this different enough from The Scrambler that it would be a good add for KI? I don't do spinny flat rides, but the breakdance clips I saw looks similar to The Scrambler, but upped up in spinny fun by like a 100 x. Seems like something that could be a good fit, say somewhere themed as a flight simulator program...... If we only knew a park that was hinting at such things

100% Beastie. Bring back the tunnel!

I believe that is the first time I've ever seen FAAC described as very very rough. I've always found it silky smooth and sneaky fun. Its aim is the 4-7 year old kid and their parents, so I get the boring in comparison to your typical coaster. I've always found it fun. My worst coaster... Excalibur at ValleyFair! or Cedar Creek Mine Ride.

just watched a POV of the ride in question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_BX3IJdy3o frankly, I have no clue why that ride even has a weight limit, or at least a weight limit of 200 lbs. Doesn't seem like someone would be in any sort of risk riding that if they weighed 300 lbs. Tunnel of Terror is a 2 person slide, though possibly (and likely) they allow singles to ride.

90 kg is a shade under 200 lbs. That seems like a pretty low max weight capacity for a ride. I do have an issue with the paper calling it "fat shaming". 200 lbs is pretty big for a 13 year old girl (my 13 year old son is roughly 5-10 and certainly not skinny, weighs roughly 160-165 lbs) but non the less; its about safety and ride manufacturer recommendations. I'm sure the parents and paper would have been fine had the park allowed 200 lb visitors to ride and one of them fell off the slide and got seriously injured (or worse).

I doubt they have ever officially said "it will never run backwards again". Perhaps something to the effect that there are no plans to run it backwards again, but it wouldn't be good PR to paint yourself into such a corner with the words "never" on such a subject. It may not have been designed to run backwards and PTC instructions may instruct them to only run it forward (though I've always felt this was a dubious claim, instructions were likely how to mount it with no mention or thought to ever reversing the seats on the train. The ride had a rather lengthy history of running one side backwards with few to no incidents that I'm aware of. I doubt it would be that hard to have an engineer or design professional form an approval letter for running it backwards again if that is all it takes. Its always been my belief that PR's claim that they turned the far side around was primarily because that is the way it was intended and originally ran to bull. I believe the main reason they turned it around was so that both ride experiences were essentially the same and on slow days or at park opening, they could keep one side running, and the other side down and not take anything away from their guests. I don't recall if ridership (at least when I was there) was significantly less on the backwards side or not, but that could potentially play a role as well if the general public just didn't like the backwards experience near as much. Personally, I always loved the backwards experience and it always gave me a reason to ride it twice on each visit.

I get where Coaster Salley is going. Its certainly not legally the parents fault, but if it was me, that would be of little solace cause I'd still blame myself. Personally, I've never really thought much about it, I always check my youngest kids seastbelts before doing my own, but that is mostly a function of just helping them get the mechanics down. My oldest (13) I never check and trust me if it was learned that he was injured or killed because he thought it would be 'cool' to sit on top of the seat belt rather than be secure I'd be besides myself. Similarly, without knowing the height requirements nor the height of the child, it is entirely possible that the kid was old enough to ride it without an adult, with perhaps an older brother or even by him/herself. My 5 year old is tall enough to ride The Beast and Mystic Timbers by himself, but I wouldn't let that happen as I'd want to keep an eye on him. However, I've let my then 9 year old ride The Racer by himself while I watched my then 1 year old in a stroller and my wife and middle daughter rode The scrambler together. Again, I'd certainly be kicking myself if something had happened to my oldest on those occasions. Blame is 100% on the ride ops, but the feeling of guilt will remain with both the ride ops and the parents for the rest of their lives.

How is the capacity on Jersery Devil? POV makes it look like they could run a 4 train operation, 3 at least, do they have that many trains? Do they ever run it that way? I assume Great Adventure gets large crowds, and if they can make it work there from a capacity standpoint, then I think something like that could work at KI. Can the Raptors do launches? Imagine what they could do with that plot of land and cutting thru the forest with a multi-launcher raptor. They could make one heck of an awesome ride. With that said, have there been any rumors of what will replace Wicked Twister up at the Pointe? If Raptor's are the rage, I could see something similar to Jersey Devil working around the rumored board walk themed area they will create around Wicked Twister's plot.

In the last 20+ years, there have been 2 Stand up rollercoaster installed in parks. One is a clone of KI's King Cobra that was relocated from Canada's Wonderland to some park in Italy. The other was relocated from Kentucky (Chang) to Six Flag's great Adventure. The odds of a completely new one (or even a relocated one) being installed at KI is very, very small. Heck, I'd say the odds of a new one being installed anywhere as very, very small, and a relocated one being only a tad less small.

Congo Falls.....best air time in the park Even on hot days when I've been this summer, on sunday's since mid week wasn't possible for much of this summer like it has been in the past for my family, Congo falls rarely had much of al line. It does tend to eat lines pretty quickly even with only 2 boats running like it seems like it usually does. My kids love it, I love it, but I do agree that its location is no longer ideal and I'll assume its somewhere near the end of its service life (though for all I know, those things could run forever with minimal maintenance, I just know its been around for a while). I'd love to see it relocate elsewhere in the park, but that seems unlikely/expensive relative to what, if any increase in customer satisfaction it would provide elsewhere. I'd love to see something similar to it takes its place elsewhere in the park to make room in that spot, along with the removal of Invertigo and perhaps Timberwolf for a B&M dive machine. I know some don't get all that excited for dive machines, and with Cedar Point getting their not all that long ago, I suspect KI would have to wait another 10 years or so, but that is an ideal location for a B&M dive machine. Station back by the lift hill for Congo Falls, hold/drop/dive facing out towards the entrance where Invertigo's lift hills, loop back towards the front of Invertigo/congo falls, loop around with some interaction with the plaza area, etc... Just not sure there is enough room there for all of that w/o eating into Timberwolf's spot (which wouldn't be much of a loss in my mind)