medford

Terp, just playing the field.

How did that guarantee work out for you?

I once had someone tell me they dislike Gemini because they aren't fans of wooden coasters. Tongue firmly planted in cheek, I asked them how that was at all relevant to Gemini, and they looked thoroughly confused. I don't understand why people have such a hard time grasping that Gemini, Mine Ride, Adventure Express, and the Texas Giant aren't wooden... Its pretty easy to see why people have trouble grasping that Gemini, AE, etc.. are not wooden. Most people in the park don't give a flip who the manufacturer is. Most don't care about the specific dimensions, length, etc.. on a coaster. They only care about what they see and what they experience. The experience side speaks for itself, but the "what they see" side of things on the coaster you mentioned are not so clear cut. You look at Adventure Express or Gemini from a distance, and what do you see? A coaster sitting on a wood frame; lots and lots of wood. You don't examine the track itself, you don't really even care about the track itself, all you think as you walk up to the ride is the layout in front of you, supported by a multitude of wooden supports and its a clear cut wood coaster in their mind. The average park attendee simply does not care about the subtle differences b/w a ride like The Racer and Adventure Express even though they are neighbors. This applies to most everything in life. The more passionate you are about something, the more time you spend learning the small details about that passion. Someone who is passionate about baseball probably knows a good bit by now about on base percentage, slugging, whip, etc... A person who goes to 1 or 2 games a year and watches another couple dozen on TV (like my wife) only cares that hits are good, homers are better, what the hell is OPS?

I miss standbyme's thread on old pictures overlapped w/ new pictures taken from roughly the same spot and in the same direction. That is the thread that hooked me into this site, I wish he was still around.

Pop ain't free at Holiday World, its included with admission, a slight difference, but a very, very huge difference. I doubt I can just drive by someday, walk in, get a soda and leave w/o paying anything. If you want no charge on your pop inside of KI, expect to pay more to walk in the door as no park is going to eat the cost of soda. Petting zoos are kind of smelly, I'm happy to see it there for the haunt, as it fits in the theme, but a hot day in July? No thanks. Open 24/7, good luck with that, not much demand for roller coasters at 3:00 in the morning, especially if they did all season long. A once a year thing, might be cool, but I'd worry about the safety of operations w/ people working at the wee hours of the morning that are accustomed to being in bed during that period. Bring back Winterfest, I agree with that one, provide the park can make money doing so and not affect off season maintanence. The trams, or some of them anyways, are still there, you just have to know where to look. I prefer to just walk from my car at any rate. Agree w/ the german food, I've advocated several times getting Schmidt's on board and use their expertise at the german buffet. TR:TR isn't coming back any time soon. As originally designed, it tore itself apart. As later modified it was a poor ride. Never hurts to dream though I certainly wouldn't change the name of the place. Kings Island fits just fine.

Intamin can only give a discount up to a certain point, if they can't turn a profit on the design/installation of a new ride at HW (or anywhere for that matter) they'll go out of business quickly. The amount of a discount they can provide HW w/o completely eroding their profit margin may not be great enough for those at HW to overlook past transgressions. I've never been to HW, though we tried this summer, but the boy was just floating on the 48" line and we didn't want to risk that he wouldn't make the mark for their coasters this season, so we pushed it back to next summer. What exactly happened w/ Pligrimage's plunge that ticked off HW?

thanks.

Will they need clifford once the lift hill (and all that goes w/ it) is installed? If not, they could plan to get thru the supports now in place, then finish up the steps on the lift and finish that out this week. Take down clifford and get it out of the area, restage lift and track on site, or bring it in from CSF if it lies there, then start on the dive loop and the loop around the lift hill next week.

The above picture is probably why high steel workers don't get much excitement on a coaster.

I've never noticed this before, but they have supports and track all the way across the valley. I wonder how long they plan to stage that out there, seems like it will be a while before they get to the preztel loop thing (or whatever you want to call it), which I presume that stuff is for since that is on the outskirts of the ride.

well, the yellow & black crane (bumblebee) stil has a bucket sitting up near the peak of the hill, presumably with people inside making the attachments of the track to the support structure, so they are not "done" for the day, but if your asking if they're going to start putting up more steal? I doubt it at this point. Its getting late into the week/day. It will take time to put away and store tools/equipment, I doubt they put up anything major b/w now and then.

Mostly, but expect some twists and turns along the way

and up it goes (I think)

Riiiiight.....

Wut.............a tree? Yup, a tree. An evergreen tree to be more specific (generally), or a "Christmas" tree for those that are not quite sure what an Evergree tree is. Don't know if they do that in coaster construction, but its very common in steel erection. Generally placed on the highest piece of steel to go up, which in buiding construction is generally the last major piece of steel installed. They obviously have a ton more steel to go up, so the tradition may no carry thru.

I wonder if they'll hang a tree or flag up there, now that they're as high as this thing is going to go.

The yellow crane, to the west of the construction has been extended most of the morning. I've been wondering why they had the arm on that all the way up, but it would be a logical place to tie off the cords balancing the support beams until they are connected together.

perhaps its just superman's latest job.

I've never been to Valley Fair, but a guess is that KI produces a lot more revenue. In last year's annual report, Mr O stated that the goal was to use a certain % of revenue on park improvement/ride additions. I don't remember what that % of revenue was, but if all things were fair across the board, the amount of revenue generated at each park would dictate how much capital improvement that park would see over a set time period. Now, not all things are fair. Cedar Fair likely sees cetain parks that allow them better revenue generation down the line w/ big capital improvements than they might see elsewhere, so they will likely use revenue generated at one park, or a portion there of, to provide capital improvements at another park above their "fair share" over the chain's cycle. If Cedar Fair believes the return on capital improvements is going to be smaller at Valley Fair, then they are not going to see big capital expenditures at the same rate as Carowinds, Kings Island, Cedar Point, Kings Dominions and Canda's Wonderland.

The next coaster may well go in Planet Snoopy (at least I hope so), the next big one, my guess is Action Zone which still has a ton of room or as part of an X-Base expansion. But back to the topic at hand...the web cam really plays tricks with your eyes based upon the angle its at. Watching it yesterday, it sure looked like 90% of the latest piece of track was sticking out beyond the support, made me think for sure they'd be putting up the last lift hill support and transition piece to the descent to get it all tied together. however, driving home, the piece of track they put in yesterday is hanging roughly in the middle (which makes sense thinking about it). This ride is going to look nice dring past KI.

If I'm counting correctly, I see 4 cranes in operation at the moment for the work they're doing right now. That's a heck of a lot of coordination.

Nah, that's just Gravity doing its thing.

My wife got the chips with her meal and they were good, as were my fries. Don't know about your order Darth, but seems like many like them, perhaps you did just get a bad order.

Ate there in early August on my only trip there w/o the kids. Both my wife & I enjoyed our meal greatly. Prices compare pretty favorably to prices you'd expect at any sit down chain type restaurant in the area, quality of food compares favorably w/ your typical sit down chain restuarant in the area. Then to top it all off, if your a Reds fan, the decor is outstanding. Overall, they have done an excellant job with the place, we went pretty early (11:30ish) middle of the week on a fairly light day, so I'm not sure what the crowds have been like. My hope is that the restaurant is killing it and leads to the redevlopment of the international street restuarant above the main gates along w/ a main gate renovation.

Don't all parks want to increase attendance? I never said they would "need" to have one since other CF parks have them, but there is no denying that giga's are popular rides at their parks. I'm sure Cedar Fair would like any new installation to be popular (amongst other things). In a lot of ways, Banshee was exactly what KI needed. KI was one of the few major amusement parks with out a full circuit invert. KI was also suffering PR (and monetary) hits w/ the demise of Son of Beast and the slow death of The Crypt. While neither were built under the current ownership group, the park wasn't living up to its potential it would have had with both of those rides operational (and enjoyable) Banshee fills a hole in their coaster lineup, looks spectacular, should be reliable and will bring people into the park, it will be a home run. So what would fill a similar hole as a major attraction when KI's turn comes up again in another 4-6 years? A giga is an obvious choice, not because other parks in Cedar Fair have one, but because they are extremely popular and major draws. There are other choices as well. A wing coaster could fit back in X-Base, it may be time for a 4d coaster by that point if B & M remains the vendor of choice, another monster Woodie if RMC's latest rides prove successful perhaps or perhaps if Cedar Fair's relationship with Intamin is restored. There are many choices that could work. There will be smaller attractions added b/w then and 2015 no doubt, but a Giga is going to be an option when the next major attraction comes about. If it works in Canada, and proves to work at Carowinds (if that is the direction they go) then more insentive to try it at KI.