Kenban

Considering how early passes go on sale traditionally, there is a lot of wiggle room for when a merged pass system could work chain wide, and cause minimal problems. Everything from January 1st, to before the majority of the Cedar Fair parks open for 2025 seems fine to me. Obviously Knott’s is open year round so having everything ready January 1st would be for the best. This is the problem with reports like this. Even if the information they received was real, it might actually mean very little. I am reminded of when Disney made a nationwide annual pass good at both Disney World and Disneyland. It was so expensive that effectively there was no savings, you could have just purchased two passes, one to each resort for the price. The resorts systems were developed separately and were not compatible, so how did they make a pass good on both coasts? They cheated and just made a plastic card that had two passes on a single crowded card. Customers with the pass still had to have an account with both Disneyland and Disney World. The reality was guests actually had two annual passes just with a fancy exclusive plastic card. Selling a merged annual pass is honestly not the hard part. Making all the systems work together is difficult. I am wondering how they will handle the legacy products like the old Six Flags memberships, a lot of promises surrounding those had been made. 50% off of all merchandise, meal plans with no time limits, that include a snack, free drink bottles, and a lot more. Plus free months which start at cancellation, combined with the months due to charging while parks were closed due to COVID, I am betting there are members with more than a year of free membership they are owed. The top tier memberships costs less than a prestige pass and has better benefits.

Here is the enamel pin.

They have plenty of shirts, I doubt they are limited to 100 like it was reported. They also have sweatshirt, enamel pins, and cheap plastic cups. The enamel pins are really nice.

My understanding is the sign was removed later that same day. It was the first day of pass holder previews for their new coaster. I suspect it was a concern over possible crowding. If what I heard was accurate, it did not even last one full day.

I used to say Great Escape was not renamed, except I found out a few weeks ago, it was. In 2022 it was renamed to Six Flags Great Escape. I was at the park last year and that is not how it’s named on the sign out front. But when anything new is made, or it’s digital, it now says Six Flags Great Escape. Although I think they can leave the Six Flags off of merch still. I suspect Kings Island will be renamed eventually. But likely not anytime soon and if it happens that it will be a long slow transition. All it will take is a CEO who wants the name on all the parks. My understanding is the only Six Flags parks without Six Flags in the name currently, before the merger, is La Ronde and Frontier City.

As a warning, I suspect it will not be that difficult for management at the park to figure out your identity. But you likely knew that before you made your post. I agree with you. The park has handled this incident terribly. The park being more transparent would have done no harm to the parks reputation. I have spoken with a number of people about the accident and everyone I have spoken with has placed all of the blame on the individual. The park should have made a statement when the accident occurred basically saying that an individual entered a restricted area, and was injured and transported to a hospital. The ride has been closed to perform inspections and that the state will inspect the ride before reopening. The park could also wish for a quick recovery, etc. The park could have said something and shown some humanity, instead of trying to bury its head in the sand and act like nothing happened. Personally I have had minimal interactions with Chad, but what I do know, makes me think he is the wrong person for the job.

Renegade is fine, it was designed knowing this area of the park floods. It can actually be operated with minor flooding, it’s just this is a little too high.

The city of Mason and the park have made this almost too easy. The park is filing permits with the model name of the attraction, which can now be easily searched for. Then the city makes the documents filed along with the permit available to download, meaning no need to even drive over and take pictures of the paper blueprints.

This may not be accurate, but I have heard it was Banshee and it sounds like a guest was in a lockout area.

For Big Thunder Mountain, both Disneyland and Disney World, had the original rides built by Arrow. Disneyland had the coaster retracked a few years ago by Dynamic Attractions. This thread is about Paris though, and that is the version built by Vekoma. What is special about Paris is not the manufacturer, but where the ride is located. The park does not have Tom Sawyer island, but it still has the river, island, paddle boat, etc. There is a drop out of the station into a tunnel that takes you under the river and the lift hill and the ride itself happens out on the island. At Disneyland Paris the park has I believe four roller coasters, and three of those are built by Vekoma. I always thought their version of space mountain was the most unique. It is the only version of space mountain with a launch and inversions.

Spoke with someone in the arcade, sounds like it should open a little later today.

Seasonal amusement parks are exempt from paying overtime, and neither Kings Island or Cedar Point pays overtime, it makes zero difference how long a shift is or how many hours they work a week.

As far as I can tell the offical written policy is Without explaining how. That was copied directly from the accessibility guide on the Kings Island website because that’s the only place I could really find anything for the dry park. But I did find a reference to straps being required on the slides in the water park. Personally I thought that a glasses strap was required on rides like Banshee and just rarely enforced. I say rarely because I have had ride ops check before, and have more than once been on a train where a guest lost their glasses on Banshee.

The city of Mason website? Its permit BLD24-0364, the description is Kings Island HUMAN CLAW INSTALLATION, just go do a building permit search and search for that record.

Pretty sure it’s for a human claw game. Cedar Point is in the process of installing one right now, and Kings Island filled a permit to install one a few weeks ago.

I was at the park yesterday. I think the back of the pad will line up with the solid fence, so effectively the park removed a curb, part of a chain link fence, and is extending the concrete to a location which I think was previously just trees and grass. It’s directly on the midway, it really looks like it is for a store, small building, etc. Which to me, based on all the other work, and the lack of water/drainage, screams bar. For this to be for a haunt, new ride, or just about anything else, it pretty much has to only be an entrance way. There appears to be a dirt path behind this pad but it might just be from the heavy equipment that cleared the space. There is no indications of a concrete path. There is tons of room back there, so it’s possible we will see more. But at least right now, it looks like this concrete pad, is all the space that is needed, and it’s just not that big.

I purchased mine from Canadas Wonderland, and have received zero pass perks so far this year. I visited Kings Island more than 4 times last month so should have received that. Previously pass perks only worked at the park the pass was purchased from and that appears to still be true.

The rumor I heard was the problem was with the electronics that power and control the lift motor. The story made it seem like the motor itself was fine. Either way, if it’s the motor, or not, these parts are not that special. They are not custom components, they are off the shelf industrial items. It might take a few days to source, and ship, but it’s likely not going to cause a lengthy closure.

I feel like this is not getting enough attention. At 38”, when accompanied by an adult, the only coaster that allows for shorter guests is Great Pumpkin Coaster and that is only two inches lower at 36”. This coaster is literally between Great Pumpkin Coaster and Woodstock Express. Woodstock Express is 40” and Woodstocks Air Rail is 44”. At least for coasters the next step up is 48” and that’s like half the park. I frequently have heard how Beastie, Woodstock Express, or whatever other name people know, is their first big coaster. With a lower height requirement, I expect this will slowly change and will in a few years start hearing about people who their first big coaster was Soap box Racers.

I am not sure if I had different experiences or memories then you did but frankly I feel it’s more reliable than before the changes. Before it was replaced the ride frequently opened late and occasionally never opened at all. Once the control system started working for the day it seemed reliable so you might have attributed the downtime to regular maintenance but from speaking with people who used to work on The Beast, the control system replacement was necessary.

I got a ride in the back row. Overall I enjoyed it, the ride is very smooth and looks fantastic. The restraints are very comfortable, there is no seat belt. It’s basically what I expected. I want to try it again in the front but I figured wait until sometime later in the season. The back does not really go up the spike much and I am wondering how the double up on the spike is from the front. I really like the appearance of everything in camp Snoopy. But it does not feel like Camp Snoopy. At other Cedar Fair parks it feels like you’re leaving one land and entering another, at Kings Island it just feels like more Planet Snoopy. I am happy the park received the “land” and the coaster. The Vekoma family suspended, now called Woodstock’s Air Rail, might have the best paint job in the history of the ride. But I hope the park receives something more in Camp Snoopy. Because it needs less concrete and more rock work, a water feature, and more trees.

Check this link, it’s the info page for Gravity Group precut track. On the left side of the page is a picture of a trailer loaded with track, does that look similar to the trailer you saw? I am unsure where the factory is located but it is in the Cincinnati area. https://thegravitygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/TheFuture.pdf

First both parks are very good, either one would be a good choice, so don’t think that there is a wrong choice. The thing about Kings Dominion is it’s easy to add on more parks. Carowinds is basically on its own, sure you can likely hit Camden park on the way, but that is basically your only easy choice. You mentioned spending two days and my first thought is one day at Kings Dominion and one day at Busch Gardens Williamsburg which is just over an hour drive from KD. Having said that individually, I prefer Carowinds, and if you’re going to spend two days at a single park and those are the choices, I would spend it at Carowinds. Although I do recommend breaking up the drive with a short visit to Camden park, it’s small, only has 3 coasters, but it’s an experience.

The rumor about the wheels that I have seen was not issues with the lining wearing down and the hubs being sent out too often but that the wheel itself, the actual metal had a crack form. Which could if not caught and it progresses might lead to a wheel essentially exploding, throwing shrapnel off the vehicle at high speeds. The speculation is that the road wheels need redesigned to better handle the stresses the ride is exerting. Maybe they found some manufacturing defect in the wheel, that makes them more confident in the other wheels. Maybe they examined the other wheels and everything else looks good. Maybe they think it is safe enough until new wheels can be produced if they examine the wheels more frequently. The problem is this goes back to rumors and speculation. There is almost no chance the park will make any official statement except to say the ride is operational or not. Most likely the ride will just suddenly reopen with no signs of what changed.

As far as I know all Coke freestyle machines, new and old, use those cartridges, the different shapes of machine are just where did they hide them. At Kings Island the bottom half of the machine is a door and they are all located down there. The secret to the whole system is the sweetener is separate. The calorie free sweetener is located inside the machine down near the bottom typically, and the High fructose corn syrup is a traditional bib located in the back room. The machines might appear to be free standing except for the water, power, CO2, but in reality they still have one traditional bib not in the machine.