disco2000

That's the great thing about reviews....everyone has an opinion...just not all carry equal weight LOL. Some people are negative all the time. Some of the reviews might be fake. Some people are happy regardless of the hand dealt to them. Then you have to read all these and decide for yourself. If I went by the reviews of KI, I would never go LOL...

Sad to hear. He he was always gracious with his time.

Yeah I know you have been around long enough to know the story lol, but we have many here were not here and do not know who he is or the backstory, which was why my attempt at a joke a few posts up fell flat LOL. But it is also a lesson for the youngsters to not do what had happened that ended up making this an inside joke here LOL.

https://www.wcpo.com/john-matarese

Nope LOL, just another worn out joke that flew right over the heads of most that were not around during the Orion decoding....so you don't waste your money

There is a worn out inside joke around here that comes to mind LOL...but I will refrain from posting it LOL

I don't think anyone is saying the park being closed after 8pm on that icy/snowy night so that guests and employees could get home safely was the wrong call. The park will never say if the 3 hours they were open that night justified opening at all. Information was in hand that they could have made the call to not open at all, but it is kinda like the school closings, some will be ticked off no matter what they do. But they made the decision to close early BEFORE the park opened, so it would have been just as easy to not open at all. They must have made the decision that a low turnout would still be worth it. I get this is the Winterfest closings thread lol, but the point that Super is making is often times it isn't because of weather. Let's toss this ice/snow event out and look at the summer season. Up until recently I never recall the park closing early during the summer season and have been at the park far worse days and they stayed open and certainly could have closed early due to the rain and so few guests than some recent years where the threat of rain had passed by 2pm yet they closed early with a decent crowd. I think they closed early 5 times in summer season in 2022, and had a few days where just Soak City closed on top of that. One of the days I remember it rained around 4:30 or so and cleared the park out. About 6pm they made an announcement that the park was closing at 8pm due to weather. But the weather had passed and nothing was on the radar and the sun was out and rides opened up around 6:30pm or so. For the few guests that stuck it out, they had the rides to themselves for a little over an hour. It is hard to argue in that situation that it closed because of weather. I too have experienced traveling to another CF park to find they closed early despite the rain had passed. I totally get they are a business, but they had stayed open in the past with far fewer guests on rainy days...but back then people actually had to pay for meals if they stayed in the park and many would grab skyline or LaRosa's and wait it out in the FestHaus, whereas now the business model is different with all the meal and drink plans... KI used to tweet out "with rain in the forecast, today is a great day to get rides in with lower crowds" or something to that effect and then would later have to tweet out park is closing...so I doubt we will see any tweets like that anymore...

It says at the end of the video "A new formula for thrills"...could this be a hint it will break the speed record of Formula Rossa...

@BeeastFarmerposted in another thread they tried to make a weekday reservation online and it wouldn't go thru and when they called Camp Cedar, they said they are only booking weekends until further notice. When I tried what you did, it was only RV spots that showed up in a half-dozen attempts I made in Jan thru March. The actual cabins were not available until April.

Nah it will just turn to the Summer 2023 closings thread when they close early even though the rain is gone by 8pm....or renamed KI closely early again....

And yet New York City can do it every NYE.... Granted KI is not New York lol, so the expense may not warrant it, but it isn't that hard to plan - you cover the stage and let the patrons fend for themselves LOL. At least at KI they can have umbrellas unlike at Times Square...

Canada's Wonderland only goes until 9pm on NYE... And as you pointed out, the other parks you mentioned are governed by different permitting authorities than in Ohio.

There are so many things that come into play here. What do they pay for the permits? Is it a lot cheaper that it is only for 8-9 months? Is the additional expense worth the 1 hour into the following calendar year? Doesn't it mean it can't be done, but it isn't as simple as saying "I don't get this" or "GWL and the Zoo and Scene 75 and blah blah blah" run year round. Everything comes down to cost.

Yep, I posted here the original language when this change was made. Now the question will be will they do that the Lounge areas, and will they end up limiting the one-time use FastLane ride to so many per day? Remember in the Paramount days when they had the two-ride Tuesdays where you could stay in your seat if you got one of the available cards they were handing out? It was a limited number and first come first serve.

Park closed today...

Thread already started...

Carriage Rides LOL

It also has an ' that isn't there LOL... Last I checked we are Kings Island, not King's Island... That tends to make me think this was done at the corporate level and simply called it Camp Snoopy since that is what other parks are...

That would be 8:30pm

Or purchase at the park...

Don't worry, they will mysteriously go down again lol...and I don't know if I would call it a color change...

All is well in the webcam world.

There is a big part you are missing, and that is service life and repair costs of steel coasters compared to wooden coasters, and that is why we see things like Vortex, Firehawk, and King Cobra disappear, and eventually The Bat will leave...that plays a much bigger role than "community" opinion or a "debate of do we fix an old coaster or just build a new one" on when a steel coaster is removed. And don't mistake a paint job as it means it will be around a lot longer. King Cobra was repainted and was gone a year or two afterwards. Slingshot was painted and then removed without re-opening.... A wood coaster can last longer because it is easy for the parks to buy lumber in bulk and the type of laborer needed and access to the piece that needs replaced is easier than for a steel coaster. Our wooden coasters are walked daily and if you visit enough, there are times you can see a piece of wood has been replaced mid-season as a result of these daily inspections. And then sometimes we get off-season sections replaced as we have seen recently. Due to the design of the wooden coasters (walking paths the entire length) and the type of laborer needed for wood (compared to a welder), it is cheaper to maintain wooden coaster than a steel coaster. While steel is stronger than wood, it is subject to higher loads, fatigue and as such has a defined service life. Sometimes the service life is shorter than expected, and sometimes it is longer. So many factors come into play. Maybe it got bad steel; or the stress loads were higher than anticipated; or the temperature of the location of the ride impacted the steel more while it was being operated. Steel can only handle so many cycles before it starts to fatigue and it typically deforms and weakens at the welds. Steel coasters are subject to annual non-destructive testing inspections for the integrity of the welds. Other testing such as holiday testing, ultrasound, and several other methods are used to detect imperfections that are not visible to the naked eye. At some point these inspections provide how much longer the ride is able to operate until wide-scale fatigue failure occurs. Sometimes is matches up with the intended design life, and sometimes it doesn't. Part of the maintenance of steel coasters is repairing any welds that are beginning to fatigue. This is extremely expensive. The ride manufacturers require certain methods, type of welds, materials, etc. to be used on their rides. Plus, unlike wooden coasters with a walking track the entire length, steel coasters usually only have that on the lift hill, MCBR, and final brake run. So now you need cranes or other equipment to hoist the laborer and material in place. With a wood coaster, you can carry a couple of pieces of lumber with you to the location. The specialty labor required for a steel coaster weld repair, along with the parts cost is orders of magnitude greater than for a wooden coaster. You may be asking well why don't parks re-track and replace components yearly on their steel coasters like they do for wooden coasters? Again, the answer is cost. Depending on the nature of the repair, it could cost more to repair than a new coaster. Same thing with automobiles - sometimes the cost to repair a vehicle after a crash is more expensive than just buying a new car. Or restaurants. Many times it is cheaper to demolish and rebuild on site than it would be to remodel and get it up to current code. The initial build and fabrication of the steel coaster is always cheaper in the factory and onsite in an open field than 30-something years later. Access is more difficult, more levels of approvals are needed. More specialized laborers are needed. The cost of the materials are more expensive, etc. Further, by the time the ride has reached its original design life, many of these rides will have lost enough ridership as they have aged that the ride's popularity would not justify replacing all the steel components needing replacement, especially if it would be cheaper to simply build a new coaster. As it relates to The Bat, it does have going for it that the segments are bolted instead of welded like older Arrow coasters, so if there were sections that came back that were more fatigued than others, it could be possible. But there is still a lot of welding on The Bat. Does that mean that no steel coaster is ever rehabbed and track replaced - no - it has happened and will continue to happen on a case-by-case basis. But for something like The Bat, I could only see KI keep it around beyond its service life with rehab if ACE provided funds to do so to "preserve" an Arrow Suspended Coaster and I just don't see that happening...

^They are cheaping out LOL - Vortex had 7 cars

But the lighter colors shouldn't fade as quickly as a darker color.... Based on what is visible now, the supports look a little darker, but that is compared to the faded yellow so it could be close to the original.