medford

Personally, I'm just glad its not green

having seen it in person, its definently not Diamondback red. I don't know that I'd call it purple, but definently not Diamondback red. No matter what you call color you call it, its eye popping. Its going to look great in that spot. Assuming the flying swing thing stays where its at, I hope they put a little money into painting the supports for that thing. Its mostly the color of rust right now and will be an eye soar parked right next to their new beauty.

If they work that direction, they couldn't do any of the queue work until nearly the whole coaster was built. Same goes for the mechanicals and wiring for the lift hill. It's not worth holding up all of that just to keep from having to move some equipment a little farther. or think about it this way. If clifford the big red crane can't fit under the tracks and out to the old water tower where it was brought in then its going to have exit the park behind flight deck anyways. It would appear that getting the track/support in for the lift hill, dive loop, loop around the lift hill would be tough if all that work had to be done from beyond the dive loop location. I don't know if there will be enough clearance under the track once its taken apart to fit Clifford under the track and out the way it came, but if not, I think they'll have to exit the park beyond flight deck no matter what order they put the track in. Remember, once that thing is on a truck bed, it likely has to fit under your standard bridge clearance (other wise moving it around the country would be a major, major hassle, though not impossible). From my perspective a week or so ago, it would appear that there is more clearance under the bottom side of the track and the ground level that this can be accomplished. That track is sitting up pretty high. Will they even use Clifford on the back portion of the track? Can they get that track up w/ the other smaller cranes they have on sight since the elevation in that area won't be so high? Or at least not as high as the lift hill/dive loop portions.

Correct if I'm wrong, and I'm sure somebody will, but I thought Cedar Pointe had lodging available for workers that were from outside the area. I don't believe King's Island has lodging available, which means you'd be on your own to find a place to live or somebody to crash with for the summer. Otherwise, I believe KI has a hiring fair sometime during the offseason. Best route for either place is to try and get some face/face time with somebody inside PR so that you're not just another application, but somebody they have a history with. As with any job, its often who you know, not always what you know, and since you're young, you probably don't have a ton of work experience to draw from that will scream "hire me" so its you verse a bunch of other young potential employees without a ton of work experience trying to get the same job. There are many people on this site who either work at the park or have worked at the park in the past; they may be able to help you get in touch with the right people.

Seems like they've been revamping some of Boo Blasters recently. Could just be part of getting ready for the haunt, but they were things that could stay there long term. I noticed more skeletons, and other various props that looked they had been updated or added. I wish the guns worked better. Seems like the outer right gun on 75% of the cars I've been on works terrible (and we typically ride at least once, sometimes more than once every trip w/ my son in the middle or far right and me on the outside) Cedar Fair shouldn't be attempting theming on a Disney Level. Different park, different audience, different budgets. However, they should attempt strong theming in small bunches and make it so that things are easy to maintain. Take Banshee for example, adding a couple of "graveyards" along the course of the track would be fairly low cost, and considering the nature of the ride, throw in a handful of tombstones, perhaps some low growing trees and there really is no maintance to that level of themeing. But do it right, so that you feel like you're flying thru a graveyard, perhaps during the bottom of the pretzel loop thingy and it would work great. Take it a notch above and add fog machines at night time, and all of a sudden you've got a ride that would be extremely popular at night.

First time in the park since supports went up, and I've got to say, this thing is gong to be beautiful when it's done, I think they knocked it out of the park in terms of the layout in relation to Action Zone. If the ride is half as good as it appears the layout will be, it's going to be a boon for the park.

meanwhile, the person standing there at the park, looking at the ride SBNO is bored most of all.... SBNO, no matter the designer does nobody any favors. I can look at a picture all day, no picture has ever provided me "the best day of my summer"

Been that way for awhile in regards to the gold passes bought early in the season.

I renewed our passes at the park last season. Don't now if you have the 9 month payment plan option or not doing it at the park, but I used our runperk rewards and renewed all 3 passes at once last year at the front gate (you had to redeem your fun perks rewards at the park)

Surf Dog would work quit well with a push, it just doesn't travel as far. You could push the great pumpkin coaster up the hill and it would complete a cycle, but you'd have to push it up the hill again for it to complete the typical 2 cycles it runs. How is that any different?

Its quite simple, the park says its a coaster, so there for its a coaster... but wait, there's more... the rides manufacturer currently lists a very similar ride: http://www.zamperla.com/en/zamperla-details-rollercoaster-disko_coaster Under its coaster section, there for it must be a coaster. browntggr, I doubt search would have helped him much. The only reason he created this was b/c Six Flags claims one of their parks is going to install a record 4th coaster in its kids area, while a park he loves to bash already claims to have 4. Search doesn't help much when your mission in life is to troll. At the end of the day, call it what you like. My wife and son love to call it fun. Personally I call it "I'm not riding it twice in a row for fear of getting sick, but that 1 trip is a lot of fun"

wow, that was inspirational. We went to WDW when my son was about 13 months (wasn't even walking on his own yet, until the very end of the trip where he took his first unassisted steps). He's now 5, and we've added a daughter who is about 15 months now. My wife and I had talked about going to Disney when she was around 5, our son would be 9 so that she could have a better memory of it, but this has inspired me to bump that up. I don't know how much my son actually remembers from his trip (he brings up stuff from time to time when he was 1 that we've completely forgotten about ourselfs, so I can't totally discount that a toddler is going to forget everything they experience prior to 2 years old), but maybe next summer, or now I'm thinking 3 at the latest.

Then tell that to Don and KI. Its not my job to decide what counts as a coaster and what doesn't; its not in your job discription either.

Great Pumpkin Coaster Woodstock Express Surf Dog Flying Ace Arial Chase Unless one of those you don't count as a kiddie coaster, the park claims all 4 as coasters, all have under 48" height requirements.

I see they claim one of their parks (magic mountain I think??) is putting in a 4th coaster in their kids area, claiming to set a new record. Last I counted, KI has 4 coasters in their kids area. The new woodie looks pretty cool.

yes, or so I've read on here; never inspected the inside of the track personally.

the next ride to be dismantled is more than likely a ride few talk about, something in Planet Snoopy perhaps to make room for new additions over ther would be my guess (may I recoment taking out snoopy junction and putting in a nice small family coaster?). As far as "major" or perhaps former major attractions the options at this point are probably... Vortex b/c of age (and though it beats the snot out of me, I hope it stays a long while) Flight Deck b/c of age, lack of similar rides left in use, perhaps making replacement parts harder/more expensive to maintain Congo Falls b/c of lack of interest, seems like the lines are often short. Two of those are in Action Zone, if one were to be dismantled, it probably has something to do w/ further improvements to that side of the park. Banshee is going to breathe new life into that area, especially flight deck.

Not that I can provide, but it appears like they may be going verticle on the final brake run support areas today, while clifford looks like its been built.

But that is my point, when Kings Island put in SOB, they put in a ride w/ even less reliability than your standard Intamin (or anyone for that matter). Not only did they spend a fortune to build it, and rework it, and then tear it down, SOB gave the park a lot of bad PR, it probably cost the park a fortune in potential business not only from its reputation, but also from the people who said "lets wait till next year, maybe SOB will be open and we can finally try it). the Crypt/TR:TR wasn't nearly the fiasco, but it definently had a less than ideal impact on the park. Toss in all the downtime for Firehawk, and is it any wonder that their last 2 installations have been from the company that currently sets the standard in reliability? The argument has never been that intamin rides are terrible, other than shoot the rapids, most of their recent, "local" installations have been popular. I'll assume KI knows it can get relatively the same amount of attention/profit from Banshee as they could from installing a TTD clone, but they probably feel more comfortable that Banshee will be up and running on a more regular basis and provide the average park attendee a better experience on any given day just by the assumption that it will be open on the day they are there. At this point in time, the last think KI can stand is another SOB or The Bat coaster, one that is both innovative and up and running for a much, much shorter time than you'd expect.

If Mr O's goal is to provide "the best day of their year" anytime a family shows up to one of his parks, I'll assume having all of his major attractions operational, safe and running is part of that mission. Cut it any way you like, but bottom line, any ride that is standing, but not operational is bad for a park's image. When that ride is one of your major attractions and a reason people show up at the park (as opposed to say like a scrambler type ride where having it down on the day you get there may be a dissapointment, odds are you came to the park for much more than riding the scrambler) is down, its even worse. Sacrafice reliability for innovation sounds great in a vacuum, but what happens when the lack of realiability happens on the day you're in the park? What if you have the option of going to a different major amusement park in the area, like say Bush Gardens Williamsburg if you had Kings Dominion as one of your stops on summer vacation? Thats a lose of business, that's a potential loss of repeat business from the same family that might decide to stop at the same park on this summer trip next year when they head to the beach again? Put your roller coaster nerdom aside, the average park attendee has no clue who B & M is, or Intamin is, who Huss is, etc... They do however look at a ride like Diamondback and think, wow that thing is huge, I'm kind of nervous to get on it. However, when they came to the same park last year, they probably felt the same thing when looking at SOB, then felt a sense of dissapointment when they discovered it wasn't working, hasn't been working for years, and "just how reliable are these other rides if they can't get that thing working?" ideas placed in their heads? How many people have held back from a trip to Cedar Point because of the recent failure of Shoot the Rapids? how many have held back from theme parks in general b/c of the tragic incident in Texas? Reliability issues are not just an issue for a particular ride or the park it resides in, its an issue for the industry as a whole and something that needs to be considered when one is about to dump $25 + mil on their next major attraction.

it was at least 2 truck loads of track. When I looked earlier, there was one unloading and there was another truck waiting by the old water tower. However many minutes later when I looked again, the original truck had pulled out and the one by the water tower had backed in waiting for the crane to lift the track off. Could have been a 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.... prior to that, can't say I've been watching all morning, but there were at least 2 loads of track dropped off today.

looks like a new truck load of track arrived recently. Can't tell for sure, is that track they're staging over by where the water tower is? If so, then I assume we'll start to see track going up by friday before Ki reopens for business. Edit, upon 2nd look, looks like its a 2nd truck load of track, can't tell if its been stagged, but my guess is its still sitting on the flatbed waiting for the other truck to unload.

thanks, should have realized that, storage shed, transfer, station.

Biggest doesn't always mean acrage. I think Jacksonville is the largest city in the US in terms of square miles, yet you rarely hear anyone refer to the Jaquars as being a Large Market team. Biggest could mean revenue generated, or total number of visitors, revenue per visit, or some other metric Cedar Fair finds important.

I've only ridden the KI version many years ago. I also have an aversion to anything that spins too much, so I never rode them much (actually once I was convinced to ride them, I found they didnt' make me sick, then they were removed) and I'm not completely familiar w/ the "snap" that people talk about/love. From what I understand, the newer versions are significantly tougher, if not impossible to snap like the old KI (current Carrowinds) version, which is why I think you see a lot of people mention that they want new ones for Carowinds, and KI to get their version back, rather than just installing new ones at KI. There is a thread around here somewhere that shows the snapping action and talks about pretty indepth. I think it was sometime early this spring or last winter.