Kenban

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.

I don’t really trust Screamscape. This might be true or it’s complete garbage. That they are throwing dates out but unwilling to discus the actual problem is weird, if anything it should be the other way around. I will say this, the rumor I have heard is the train is rubbing the LSM stators. I have also seen pictures of the stators with tape on them and dates stating when it was taped. Which suggests to me they are looking for evidence that the train is striking the stators. They are not cheap and the train should never touch them. No clue if it’s an alignment issue or a problem with the train moving around too much. That’s my best guess as to what’s going on. Might be totally wrong, and maybe even there is more than one problem. Not going to try to claim when it might reopen, who knows.

I wonder if it has something to do with camp Snoopy. The construction appears to be finishing up and there was the ad saying it’s opening the 25th. Typically camp Snoopy at other parks has included water features of some kind, and I was surprised to not see any, maybe it’s going in tower gardens instead. Rock work of some kind? Maybe a company working on Camp Snoopy that could be also doing a project in tower gardens? ACE is at the park this weekend… could they be presenting a new plaque? The park might be setting up for it in advance to be unveiled this weekend? A paver or sign with details on the 2024 season is being installed that includes something not announced yet? Replacing broken pavers and installing the 2024 stone and just trying to draw attention to it?

I have wanted another Coke freestyle location, hopefully with more than 3 machines for some time now. When people mentioned the permit, and I saw the price tag, $354k, if I remember right, I was pretty confident it was more than just some water misters. But it does seem like there is a lot of drainage for a some drink and icee machines. The park needs more freestyle machines and more icee machines. This feels like a good start but I hope we see more in the future.

Not that I am aware of, the first perks I saw for Kings Island were for visits in May.

No one should have received perks in 2024 yet. Your visits in May count towards a total and then you receive the perks for use in June. Here is a quote from the Kings Island website. Also you don’t get all of the perks, you get one perk unless you have prestige then you get two, one regular and one enhanced.

The lounges were built to a budget not a quality level. The parks with nicer lounges reused existing infrastructure. Just renovating an existing building is a lot cheaper than building something from scratch.

The wait time posted in the park was 4 hours. I do not know anyone who waited through it so no clue what the real wait was.

You’re right, but the amount of work needed in Action Zone is exactly why I would not touch it for now. You can’t just drop a new ride and call it a day. Decisions about the theme of the land, the remaining life span of the majority of the attractions, even the appearance of the entrance of the park, have to be made. The problem is these kinds of decisions are likely exactly what Planning and Design does not want to do right before a merger. There is a reason discussions about Action Zone and being rethemed to DC Comics keep occurring. Want to work on a project that has a chance of happening if the merger goes through? Vortex replacement or Tomb Raider replacement. Neither one is as badly needed, but frankly if they do a grand redesign for Action Zone it’s extremely unlikely it would ever be built.

The USA Today 10 best lists are a terrible listing of the 10 best anything. They are little more than a popularly contest and really just show how fanatical the fans are. But that’s the problem, Kings Island has almost always over performed, because of the parks huge fan base. Kings Island placed first for the best Halloween event at a theme park a few years ago beating Universal, Busch Gardens and a lot of frankly better events due to the strength of its fan base. A fan base who seems not willing to go vote for the park like they did only a few years ago.