BlondyRidesOn

Sorry about the length of my list: The Racer- "Beautiful Sunday" by Daniel Boone, "Into Something Good" by Hermans Hermits, "Save the last dance for me" by The Drifters, "The Stroll" by The Diamonds, "Mr. Moonlight" by The Beatles, "Why do fools fall in love " by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, "Hair" by The Cowsills, "Everyday" by Buddy Holly, "Unchain my Heart" by Ray Charles, "Jive Talkin' " by The Bee Gees, "Love Roller Coaster " by The Ohio Players, any Elvis song. Adventure Express- "Raiders March" by John Williams. The Beast - "The Exorcist Theme " by Mike Oldfield, "The Shark Approaches" and "The Empty Raft" by John Williams from "Jaws," Night on Bald Mountain" by Mussorgsky. Banshee- "Threatened" by Michael Jackson, "Quints Tale " by John Williams from "Jaws," "The Murder " by Bernard Hermann from Hitchcock's "Psycho." Viking Fury- "Beer Barrel Polka" by Will Ghalé. Grand Carousel- WurliTzer 157 band organ. Eiffel Tower/International Street- "Gabriel's Oboe" from "The Mission" by Ennio Morricone, "Romantic Flight" from "How to train your Dragon" by John Powell, "Main Title/ The Winton Flyer" from "The Reivers" by John Williams, "Hoedown" from "Rodeo" by Aaron Copland, "Sabre Dance" by Aram Khachaturian, "Pirates" from "The Pagemaster" by James Horner.

Wouldn't Son of Beast have been a dangerous cadidate for an Iron Horse conversion because it was sitting abandoned for years? And don't wooden coasters from RCCA have flimsy structures, I thought I heard that somewhere.

I don't think there is a reason for Kings Island to Iron Horse any of its wooden coasters. The Racer is the coaster that essentially brought back the coaster. It's an icon in Coney Mall and is a salute to Coney Island's old iconic Shooting Star, even using the original Shooting Star trains. It's a bumpy ride, however the park does have teams of carpenters, possibly from Great Coasters International (I may be wrong), come out and replace sections of track every so often. The Beast is the longest wooden coaster in the world, and uniquely placed in the parks back terrain instead of along the midway. There isn't a real need for giving either woodie a Rocky Mountain conversion, as they are both ACE landmarks.

It rained all day on April 29, 1972. An Enquirer photo from that day can be seen at this link. The photo shows crowds on I-Street scattering, trying to find shelter from the falling rain. http://retro.cincinnati.com/Topics/Gallery/Kings-Island-Construction#Bashing The Bubbly

I would invest my money in making it an Alpine lodge resort again. A lot of wall replacement and major fumigation would be needed for the restoration project.

Was it GCI who has been coming out and retracking The Racer? I know the coaster has been retracked a few times, but is there another method they need to take to make the ride more comfortable for some? Edit: didn't want to unintentionally sound rude from my first post.

Maybe it's just me, but that seems like not much change for the $$$ it would cost... I think it'd need a little more to it than that to justify the cost. Truthfully, I could see The Beast getting Rocky Mountain'ed before Racer, and personally I would be more curious to see it on The Beast. Blasphemy, I know, but I think it would be far more interesting and unique IMO. But I'm not sure either has a high probability of happening. My guess for why someone made an RMC conversion of The Racer instead of The Beast is probably because of the hype from Twisted Colossus, the conversion of Colossus at Magic Mountain. Another possibility is that many younger people might not realize how legendary The Racer actually is compared to The Beast. If it weren't for The Racer, the coaster that brought back the coaster, there would be no Beast, which is a wooden coaster built within the terrain instead of having airtime hills. However, like you said, it would be interesting to see someone convert The Beast on NoLimits. In reality, both should be kept the same, in my honest opinion.

Yes, they are the same. I was just pointing out the major risk it is, at both parks, to use textured lighting in the fountain show, I probably worded it wrong. One person may not be affected by it, however another might.

If the park does do a fountain show in the Royal Fountain, it might go in the order of 10 PM Fireworks first, then fountain show, only because it would not be dark enough before 10 to do it the other way around. Looking at the Canada's Wonderland show, the tectured lighting would probably be a poor choice to use, if a show ever is done at Kings Island, because of the dangers of epileptic seziures caused by flashing bright lights.

To answer KIfan73's response of a reimagined version of The Racer, someone made one on YouTube on NoLimits (I do not own this video, it belongs to someone else):

The Racer is incredibly iconic in the amusement industry and an ACE landmark. I don't believe the coaster will be removed or altered.

I saw that video as well a while back. I was also confused at why he said that. It's possible that they were trying to advertise both parks, since they were both owned by Taft/KECO at the time.

The International Restaurant, which opened in 1973, is not above the gates, so it is safe to say that photo is from 1972. I have always liked looking at that photo because it shows how much the park has changed.

Isn't there a newspaper photo of the theater structure after collapsing in the snow? I know I saw one somewhere online.

The park is renovating the Funnel Cake stand in order to decrease wait times in line. I believe that is why the park is renovating it, from what I remember them saying.

As long as it still looks like, for the most part, a German building, I am alright with this change. I don't think it could be too difficult to match the addition to the building to the current structure. When Kings Dominion built the Fountain & Floats restaurant in the Latin American/ Spanish building on their International Street last offseason, the new expansion matched the themed architecture of the existing building. I tried posting the photo I found of it, but it wouldn't load.

I remember the park logo being on the top up until a few years ago or so. It wasn't that long ago that they stopped adding it.

I may be wrong, but isn't Goliath at Six Flags Great America a scratch built RMC Iron Horse coaster? If so, then I could see the park doing something similar. However, I do not see the park giving the Iron Horse treatment to The Racer or The Beast, because both put Kings Island on the map. However, a scratch built one could possibly work and would be cool if they played with The Beast family tree, like "Steel Beast," or "Iron Beast." Realistically though, as some people have mentioned, Cedar Fair probably will not work with RMC because of the Texas Giant death in 2013.

If the housing development doesn't take shape, I would like to see a little shopping district with restaurants, something similar to what is being built in Liberty Township, but smaller.

The park does wel for the Mason economy, so I would hate to see it go downhill because of this. Like most have said, it's already bad enough that they have complaining neighbors to worry about.

The only time I think the park would ever do a major upgrade to the fountain is if they have to completely replace the whole pool because of a leak. If I remember correctly, didn't they do that to the fountain back in 2003?

True, the pool at Canada's Wonderland continues to the base of Wonder Mountain, however the buildings on their International Street do not continue. The reason why building a bridge dead center in Kings Island's Royal Fountain isn't feasable is because of how close it would be to the pedistals, which spray water pretty far, soaking anyone crossing it. Building it near the back of the pool, however, would be a different story.

The bridge over the Wonderland fountain, however, is at the back of the pool, and far enough away from the water. Since it is at the back of the pool, crossing the Wonderland bridge is the equivalent of walking all the way around the Kings Island fountain to get to the other side.

There are also many sanitary reasons why not to build a bridge. It would make it easier to throw garbage into the pool, causing a clean up nightmare for the park.

I have been checking the weather camera on top of the entrance facing International Street, and it doesn't look like much has changed. The new Starbucks in the Swiss building still has its ThrillSeeker storefront color scheme, and from the look of it, the Spanish building where Sweet Spot will be located still looks the same. However, I am able to tell that something is happening inside the buildings. I'm sure the exterior work will soon follow, but it might not be major changes, maybe just some new paint. It is very nice and exciting to see the new Starbucks get its old Alpine lodge look to it. There is no doubt it will be different while walking down the walkway, but I believe that it will be very similar.