SonofBaconator

People are going to have their own opinions on the matter and that’s completely fine. Just remember that there are people who do feel strongly about stuff like this, otherwise they wouldn’t be taking the time out of their day to speak about it.

@Tr0y, regardless of how people choose to believe the credibility of the post, the issue still remains- this incident wasn’t addressed appropriately. As @Orion-XL200 shared, this issue happened at another Cedar Fair park nearly 10 years ago…same type of ride….same type of accident. This post was made the DAY OF the accident. If you want to cut the PR team some slack by saying that “our incident occurred at night so let’s give them a grace period”, thats fine. Let’s see what the park posted the day after the Banshee incident, this would be on June 20th. I’m not seeing any official statement from the park’s Facebook page like we saw with Cedar Point. If anything it looked like the park avoided making any posts between June 19th-June 22nd. There was a statement made by the PR team acknowledging the incident but nothing coming from the park’s official accounts that I noticed. It just seems weird why the park wouldn’t want to directly communicate with their guests on this type of matter.

Hershey has been going full candy these past few years be retheming sidewinder to Jolly Ranchers and the new Candymonium. It makes me wonder how they balance out what rides they want to theme to candy and what rides don’t.

It’s so weird how I had to reread the first part of hour response because…well…”Six Flags.” Regarding what @CorkscrewMcPuke said, I think it all comes down to how much a legacy the coaster has had in the park: like Loch Ness Monster. Also, and I’m no engineer, but I think if it’s purely a retrack, and it’s a popular coaster, a park will make an effort to preserve it. I’m not sure if supports are as easy to recreate as opposed to track- perhaps they’re easier- like I said I’m not an engineer.

I don’t pretend to know everything on the subject. As I mentioned, I went to college for a lot of this stuff, and this whole debacle seems like something we would study.

Especially if you had already publicly made a statement from the beginning; which the park did not. If something newsworthy happens at your park and you don’t address it in a timely manner, you’re liable to have other employees speak up because people want to know what happened. In my opinion, not releasing a statement as soon as possible is an insult to the bystanders who were involved the incident: riders, associates, etc. When you’re in charge of being the bridge between the park and the general public, you want to address this as soon as possible. When I was in college, we were given scenarios where we worked at a company where something went wrong and we had to write up a PR response to the incident. Responding to incidents is textbook PR practice…if you’re not taking the time to address issues your company is having, you shouldn’t be surprised when other employees speak on behalf of the park- because you certainly didn’t.

I’m sure there are no photos of this considering it was covered up during the day IIRC and of course recording devices are not allowed on rides. I’d like to know what prop they used. @TOPGUN1993?^^

I always thought that Congo Falls was expendable-it’s no where near other water rides to make it appealing. At least if you got wet on Kenton’s Cove, you could ride White Water Canyon after as well as the former Wild Thornberry’s. Cedar Point had the same thing going with having Shoot the Rapids, Snake River Falls, and Thunder Canyon all within the same area. I wish all 3 of our water rides were in the same place.

It would be cool to see this somewhere in the woods when you’re riding The Beast

If you look at how most people view SFA compared to other parks, the reviews are not great. Not saying it needs to be axed but I’ve also heard that the land value is pretty high.

I know the population density on the east coast is large but I have a hard time believing that Six Flags America will last in this new chain.

I was this park was talked more about

I’d argue you could utilize a larger footprint:

Millennium Force is 1,274 feet longer than Orion. If you’re going off of height and speed, Orion’s a short ride. I actually prefer riding Diamondback at times because while I’m going 10 mph slower and dropping 85 less feet than Orion, I feel like I’m getting a better value in my ride experience so to speak. In terms of ride duration, I feel like Millenium Force has the better value: If you look at these two POVs, you get about 12 seconds more ride time on MF than you do Orion. That might not be a huge difference to some but I know I’d enjoy Orion even more if it had 12 seconds more of ride time. I understand why we got what we got, I just think Millennium gives you more bang for your buck.

With the merger potentially reprioritizing future projects and the need to replace Vortex, I have this hunch that Invertigo will be gone by 2030 a the latest and not replaced given its overall size and capacity. If they did decide to replace it, they’d need to remove Congo as well.

You’re absolutely right. Someone broke park rules, trespassed, and paid the ultimate price for it- that’s not on the park. If I was in charge of PR, I’d want to get the facts out as soon as possible so that media personnel don’t have to speculate. “At approximately (insert time) last night, a park guest entered a restricted area in the Action Zone area of the park and was struck by the Banshee roller coaster. At this time we are unable to provide information on the condition of the individual nor the riders who were on the ride at the time of impact. We are working with the state of Ohio as well as local law enforcement as they conduct their investigations into this matter. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the individual and their family, as well as the riders on the train, park staff and others who were involved. We will provide more information once it becomes available. All inquiries should be directed to info@visitkingsisland.com.” What I said was transparent and to the point. It took me 5 minutes to come up with that and it A.) acknowledged that an incident occurred. B.) Provided information. C.) Expressed cooperation and sympathy. D.) Redirected inquires to the park’s email.

Double post but I’ve made it known that I don’t like when a park has the name Six Flags slapped over it: Magic Mountain, Great America, Great Adventure, and so on. There are some, however, that work: St. Louis, Georgia, etc. Which CF parks would benefit from a Six Flags name slap?

I’m no wood coaster engineer but it looks like Renegade’s toast if it’s sat in water that long

Even though we joke(r) about DC being in a lot of their parks, with CF leading way I like to think that they’ll be strategic with DC/WB IP.

That’s an interesting question if you really think about whether or not it could be classified as a powered coaster. According to Wikipedia: The only reason why someone would argue against this is because all of the ride vehicles take up the entire length of track and maintains constant momentum unless stopped by a ride operator as opposed to Thunder Run where a single train runs through the course and stops. I’m not sure if you’re being sincere in your question @TOPGUN1993 and I don’t mean to detract from your quest for more Phantom Theater media @BryanJay because I want to see more to but I have to ask…..Could Tumblebug have been considered a powered coaster or does it fall into the Surfdog/Larson Loop category? https://KICentral.com/forums/topic/32820-kings-island-coaster-logos-of-old/

I’m curious how people think other chains like Sea World, Palace Entertainment, Herschend, Universal, and Disney reacted to the Cedar Fair/Six Flags merger. Are there chains that feel legit threatened, chains that are indifferent, or even chains that see this as a win for them somehow.

I’ve often thought about what a Six Flags park would look like under control of Cedar Fair. This is an example: Six Flags New England gets rebranded to New England’s Riverside. You see the park drop the WB and DC IP in favor of Cedar Fair names and standard Six Flags names. Ride names like Flashback, Great Chase, Pandemonium, Thunderbolt, and Wicked Cyclone would stay. Superman would be rethemed to Patriot and receive a blue color scheme with white supports. This would use the current CF IP while being an indirect tie into the New England Patriots. Batman-The Dark Knight would be renamed Revolution which is a name Six Flags owns and plays on the American Revolution and repainted red and blue. Gotham City Gauntlet Escape from Arkham Asylum would be renamed Paul Revere’s ride (in grasping at straws here) Joker would be renamed Total Mayhem and given the orange, red, and black color scheme the Great Adventure model was supposed to get Catwoman’s Whip would be given a generic name like Taxi Jam Riddler Revenge would be something generic like Flight Deck Flat rides would have their names altered to remove DC and WB IP. The kids area would be a Camp Snoopy. The generic names can be more personalized but I’m doing this as if they have a year or so to change the names over like CF did with Paramount. This is just all for fun and nothing is based on any form of speculation or rumors. This is also a scenario where the WB and DC IP had to go- this will likely not be the case.

3 years have gone by and I’m still curious as to why it shut down. I know nothing about what the weather does in Kansas City during the winter but I always assumed conditions fluctuated just like us so I don’t know how much weather played a factor in the event’s demise. Looking at the map, most of their coasters were closed; which makes sense. The one thing that confuses me a little is why they chose to close down their train ride. Most holiday events that feature a train ride are pretty popular: Winterfest, the Zoo’s Festival of Lights, Busch Gardens, Dollywood, etc. I’m not saying not running the train was a defining factor, but it helps- maybe it was a maintenance thing. Another possibility is staffing issues but I don’t really know if thats a reasonable thought considering they’re able to staff both an amusement park and waterpark during the busy summer months. Whatever the reason, it’s a shame it got shut down. I felt like the one thing WoF had going for it was its size. It’s not nearly as big as Kings Island so they could really pack the park full of lights and decorations.