Kenban

I believe some of this was previously handled by Elaut. At least that’s what the shirts worn by the arcade maintenance said. I know the company manufactures claw games and most of the ones at the park were made by them. Wonder if this will have any effect on the game cards.

On its own an LSM is unable to stop or hold a train. An unpowered LSM acts as a trim brake by generating electricity. Just like in permanent magnetic brakes the amount of braking force is proportional to the speed, and effectively reaches zero before the train stops. So what happens if a ride loses power how do you stop the train, easy, use the design of the ride. The launch track on Pantheon is slightly inclined. The LSM’s will slow the train to a crawl by acting as trim brakes and then gravity does the rest, with the train actually valleying. There is always something else, drive tire, pinch brakes, or gravity.

Great America was the test park for Winterfest. At first it was the only park in the chain to have the event. From what I have heard this is being tested and might expand to more parks. The rumor I heard is this will be a project of similar size and scope to Winterfest, and will be an expensive project. My guess is if this does well we might see it instead of Haunt next year.

I saw the crate when I was at Winter Chill Out. It’s a real crate and I am pretty sure it really is from Intamin, but I am also almost certain it just contains parts. I asked a member of maintenance and he stated it was a shipment that was needed to rebuild the Millennium Force trains for the season and it was already 2 months late which is why it was shipped Air Freight. Why am I certain the shipment is real? It has real shipping and tracking information, and stickers. Millennium Force is serial number T-411, Maintenance was rebuilding the Millennium Force trains just like normal.

I find this report strange. First page says “The purpose of ODA’s investigation was not to determine the cause of the accident.” Then who will be? Whose job is it to fix the design to make sure it never happens again? Is Intamin going to do it or would Cedar Fair have to hire an outside engineering firm. Unless the park already told the state it’s not reopening. Really surprised at the lack of any recommendations, engineering analysis, etc. It’s a 620 page long report of fluff. The majority of the report is just copies of inspection and employee reports that were collected. It has to be one of the worst accident reports I have ever seen. Why is there nothing from Intamin in the report? I do not see anything about changes to inspections, design changes, etc. I am really questioning the future of the ride after seeing the report.

Thinking back to the changes to Racer, a lot of the track movements were to make the arcs parabolic. Before this work the track was a gentle downward slope with a sudden pop up which I believe was due to the terrain before the left turn into the tunnel. My guess is the dip was not a parabola or they just wanted to smooth out the dip. I felt this was the roughest spot on the ride last year and remember the train just jack hammering right before the tunnel.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-01/seaworld-said-to-make-3-4-billion-takeover-bid-for-cedar-fair According to Bloomberg SEAS has made a $3.4 billion dollar all cash offer to purchase Cedar Fair which works out to $60 a share which closed at $49.63 yesterday and was up sharply this morning. Outside of Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg there is really no competition between the two, and it feels like the chains should be pretty compatible. Really makes a combined chain wide annual pass even more valuable. Wonder if we would see a Sesame Street area at Kings Island, and would they expand Snoopy to other parks? This kind of change could see the return of Intamin to Cedar Fair parks as well.

In conjunction with Snake River Expedition at Cedar Point last year I remember a remember a Cedar Fair executive talking about how they wanted unique rides and experiences at other parks in the chain. Basically they talked about how the ride was obviously custom for Cedar Point and they wanted other parks to get their own unique experiences which would also play into the history of the individual park. That the mug has the Cedar Fair logo and not the parks logo screams chain wide initiative and not something occurring at just Kings Island. My guess is making each park its own unique experience, and trying to not just duplicate each other. In short making each park have its own soul. I am just guessing here based on what I have heard in the last year. If I am correct I could definitely see Kings Island getting a new ride out of this. I have my doubts about it happening this year. But I also remember Jason McClure being asked about a ride for the 150th back in 2019 and his response was basically of course the park is getting a ride. It was supposed to be Snake River Expedition. Kings Island getting something smaller, and possibly unique tied into the history of the park somehow, feels appropriate and could be done quickly without months of clearing and work, so 2022 could be possible still depending on what the park would be receiving. I could also be trying to tie completely separate items together and making assumptions based on frankly almost nothing. This could be tied to one of the other projects, adding more seasonal events, or new and upgraded dining. I might be forgetting something as well. I just doubt this is targeted specifically at Kings Island.

People need to understand that Disney World has a huge number of resellers and scalpers. There are people who have essentially turned shopping at the resort and selling the items online into a full time job. The resort has been trying to fight this by introducing purchase restrictions and canceling annual passes, but there are still a huge number of people doing this. This popcorn bucket is just the latest item which was immediately posted on eBay. There are literally hundreds of these already listed online, and they can sell for more then a hundred dollars. The long line was a combination of people trying to make money, and people who actually want it for themselves. Just take a look at this photo and understand the purchase limit was 2 per a person.

No time limits on the snack, it’s basically usable all day and you could pick it up at the same time as a meal if you want. NOTE: This is the Six Flags meal plan, not Cedar Fair/Kings Island meal plans.

Six Flags has two meal plans, a regular one which is one meal and a snack. Then a deluxe meal plan which is two meals and a snack. Both allow you to substitute a snack in place of a meal. I really want a deluxe meal plan at Cedar Fair, I am willing to pay extra to get a snack every visit.

Rumor is the flywheel launch on Montezuma is being replaced by either LIM or LSM. There is a similar ride in Europe that had similar work done a few years ago by Gerstlauer, they used LIM’s on that.

According to the parks own Facebook page. They claim to have a demolition permit and they started tearing down the ride the morning of the fire. It sounds like the fire was to dispose of the wood from the coaster and it got out of hand and burned other buildings. How did they get a demolition permit and how did no one find out? It all seems strange.

Six Flags Mexico removed a gay couple from a line for kissing, part of which was videoed and posted online and I included below. Which prompted a pretty swift backlash. Removing the policy is corporates response.

Don’t focus on the parking impacts, this is not the primary parking lot. The design goes through the South parking lot, the hotel parking lot, and the dining and shopping parking lot. The main parking for the park is across a major road and will not be impacted. The parking garage appears to be for the hotel, but might be big enough to make up for all of the lost parking. The design is giant, looks a good deal bigger then Fury 325, around the same height but a longer drop due to a tunnel to go under a road to a parking lot. Around 320-325 tall, 347 foot drop, and I have seen estimates of track length of 7,000+ feet. Might be just enough to hit 100 MPH. With the parking garage this looks to me to be a $50+ million dollar project.

Here are the rules straight off of ACE’s website. The coaster must use traditional lap bars that allow riders to experience so-called airtime, or negative G's (that sensation of floating above the seat!). Individual, ratcheting lap bars do not meet this requirement. ACE Coaster Classics allow riders to slide from side-to-side. A coaster with any restraint or device that restricts this freedom is not eligible for ACE Coaster Classic status. ACE Coaster Classics allow riders to view the upcoming drops and thrills. Coasters with headrests on every seat, or the majority of seats, restrict this view and are not eligible for ACE Coaster Classic status. On ACE Coaster Classics, riders are free to choose where they sit. Some parks' operating procedures assign seating; these coasters are not eligible for ACE Coaster Classic status. That’s it, every single rule has to do with the train or operations. Removing a tunnel makes no difference.

I might be wrong on this, but I believe it was the addition of seat belts. There are a number of rules and everything from head rests, seat dividers, and even something as simple as assigned seating prevents the ride from qualifying. I believe the rule in this case was you are required to be able to slide from side to side.

Landmark designations by ACE are permanent. It is purely to highlight the coasters historic importance. Parks can modify the coasters or even remove the coaster and it’s designation will not change. Big Dipper at Geauga Lake joined the list after the park was permanently closed but before the coaster was torn down. ACE also has a coaster classics list which can be rescinded and is intended to highlight rides which operate in a classic manor. Woodstock express used to qualify and it has since been rescinded.

The bottom of the drop occurs inside the tunnel. If you move that point to be earlier in the tunnel the drop becomes more steep and you enter the tunnel lower, but the total height of the drop effectively remains unchanged. Either way unless something more is done to the tunnel or the lift height the total change has to be negligible due to the limited space to move the track. It is always possible the trim could move or be removed. But based on the post and specifically calling out the changes are not intended to change the rides speed or thrill makes me assume the trim will remain. I would love for the ride to receive the work necessary for all the trims to be removed, but I don’t feel like that’s a priority of the people who make the decisions.

My guess is me neither, the angle of the drop does not change the speed gained, which is a product of initial speed and difference in height. The trim is there to reduce speed. I think this is a really important quote from the post by Don. It reads to me that all they are doing is trying to make the ride smoother and likely reduce future maintenance. I know there has been speculation that these changes are being made to remove trim brakes. The trims have been there since day one, and I think people do not realize the top of the lift hill to the bottom of the turn up towards the second lift hill is a total height difference of 201 feet. Without trims the train could be going close to 75 miles per an hour or more at that turn. I just cannot see the trims ever being removed without much more significant changes being made to the ride.

I think your misunderstanding the problem. It’s not the amount of sway, it’s that it is not consistent. The rigidity of the bents is changing in this area causing the bents to move different amounts. The goal is not to reduce sway, it’s to make it so that it sways together a similar distance which will produce a smoother ride. I think you are correct they are separating the structure but I am still confused about exactly what the new design will look like. I really do not understand what the line about “the lower bents will be upper bents until the tunnel” means.

Parks rarely comment on bans publicity, since the individuals are minors it’s even less likely. I doubt we will ever really hear much about what lead to this. I guarantee there is more to this story then what was published.

This is common when resetting the route is difficult and running the parade more then once is needed. For instance the Disneyland Christmas parade runs at 3 and 5:30 this year. The first showing is forwards, the second is the same route but in reverse. Not sure the attendance at Kings Island can justify running the parade twice a day, and with how many performers are also performing in shows around the park it would limit the parks ability to put in shows.

It’s not just getting through the gate, and I am not sure all of the ones people are mentioning are big enough without removing trees or parts of buildings. You also need space to park the floats. Ending the parade at a gate large enough for the floats with a behind the scenes parking lot would be better. The route already passes a location like this. Eliminate the last stop, and never even make the turn down the second side of International street. Between the restrooms at the entrance to the park is a large gate. There is a small employee parking lot located here which is easily large enough to temporarily store the parade for a few hours. Just reset the parade after the park closes. It would not be that expensive to build a storage structure here either, I believe it would be roughly 20 parking spaces which would be lost.

I have to go from facts to rumor and speculation here. But I have heard that there are differences between the 4 and 3 bench trains that could not just be cut off. For instance I have heard that the steel is thicker on the 4 bench and that means The Beasts trains weigh more and are stiffer then a regular 3 bench PTC train. I have tried to get an answer to this before. But, I have never been able to get a straight answer. It’s also possible, none of the people I asked, know the answer. I remember one time the answer was basiclly the cuts were very careful and they made sure they got the geometry correct. The problem is that does not really answer the question of what differences remained between the modified trains and a train that started as 3 benches. It might be that only PTC knows the answer. How different are the trains then a standard 3 bench PTC? Are those differences causing more damage to the track, or do those differences lead to a worse experience for quests? If so they should really be replaced. I will say this, I have heard that something is happening. Replacement? Rebuild by PTC? We might find out when we hear more details about the retracking.