KIghostguy

What about Orion/Megabyte

"Swoops" is the only word italicized on that sign--it seems like they wanted to draw emphasis to that word in particular.

Thank you for sharing this. This is a topic I would LOVE to have more information on. Just about everyone I spoke to couldn't recall a lot of details about this ride pre-Top Gun, other than it was already contracted prior to the sale and was going to be built under the Swoop name. I was told that it would have been bird-themed and that a sign/logo had been designed (which I would love to see). That's about all the information that I was able to get, unfortunately. No one had any blueprints or color schemes or anything like that. I think these are likely the cars being built when it was going to be that name. I'm sure that more exists out there, somewhere, but as far as historical archiving at the park, a lot of stuff is either scattered around or was thrown out. If anyone has any further info, I would love to see it. I've looked around various places at the park but have not been able to turn up any more information. By the way, I still think Swoop is a great name for a coaster. Unique, easy to say, and to the point. It would have been an awesome name for Rapterra.

Passholders have been trained that the mazes are included with the event. I can't see this really ending well, unless the goal is to limit attendance in the mazes. Similar to Winterfest 2005, when they forced passholders to pay for the event, nobody came. At the very least, I'm sure there will be very long lines at Guest Services. The Conjuring is different--as more of an escape room-type experience versus a standard maze, I think people will want to do it and be willing to pay for it.

They were always headquartered in Charlotte. KECO moved their headquarters from Kings Island to Charlotte in 1986. When they were bought by Paramount, that office building remained the Paramount Parks corporate headquarters.

I had the chance to ride this during Associate Previews, and it is a great ride. Very smooth, great airtime, and the on-board audio really ties everything together nicely. I really hope parks buy more of these. I was surprised by how much the ride feels at home at Cedar Point. To me at least, it didn't feel like a ride that was supposed to go to two other parks. And yes, I would support building one of these as The Vortex replacement!

Plague Productions built Ghost in the Machine at Dorney Park, which is absolutely stunning. It would be great for them to build a house at Kings Island!

If this post was made in the future, I would have to say the cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory or a delicious flame-grilled Whopper at Burger King.

They were removed because it was felt that the curbs created a psychological barrier that prevented people from going in and spending money in the shops and restaurants.

I visited this park in 2022, when I was working at Hersheypark. I rode Superman next to a boy who was visiting from Britain...he wanted to visit an "American theme park." I told him it was a pretty poor representation of the parks here. I wonder if he ever went to another, better park during his trip!

Dean Nahrup. I tried to reach out to him through several different avenues when I was writing my book and never heard anything. So I would like to chill out with him so I could finally interview him!

Oh, interesting. I am not sure when that changed. The GMs of the resorts have reported to a corporate resort VP for at least a year at this point.

Resorts reports to Corporate, not to the park GM.

Great post and especially great photos. Thank you for sharing!

It ran at Kings Island from 2017 to 2021.

I agree with this; I also enjoy it mainly because it was featured in the Partridge Family episode. The worst bathroom in the park is the one inside of the Festhaus. Walking into that bathroom is like walking through the Portal to Hell.

This idea is the perfect thing for Mason, now that Club Splash is defunct (RIP The Beach Waterpark).

Hersheypark isn't owned by the chocolate company, it's owned by Hershey Entertainment and Resorts. They have to pay a licensing fee every time they use candy products in theming, etc.

They have a Burger King at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I saw it when I went there in 2018. I have to say, just seeing it enhanced the guest experience at that park!

Magic Mountain has returned its original logo to the outside marquee. Sure would be nice if other parks also regained their unique logos. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19qYdjfyFA/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I agree with you on this 100%. Everything is just Gibson Bold on a white or plain background, with a picture of a Gold/Prestige/whatever pass. This recent example from Kings Dominion has to be one of the worst ads that I have ever seen from a park. What about this ad tells the audience anything about the 50th Anniversary? What in this image compels the audience to purchase a pass? Make a visit in 2025? https://x.com/KingsDominionVA/status/1875270505097523311 Nothing about this ad connects to the audience on an emotional level. For a theme park company, it's such a shame that the branding/messaging is so consistently bland and boring.

It says the new area will feature five rides, and currently, Thomas Town has five rides. I imagine that it will be a new theme for the area, versus rides being removed.

I attended Christmas at Kentucky Kingdom tonight. I really enjoyed the sledding hill, and especially enjoyed that their Larson Drop Tower was open! As has been pointed it, there definitely is room to grow the event's footprint in the combing years, but the buildings that were covered in lights looked very nice. However, I was very disappointed that Kentucky Flyer was closed our entire visit. I asked and was told that the minimum operating temperature is 32 degrees (it was 31 degrees when I asked). I assumed that it would be a lot lower than 32 degrees considering I have ridden Mystic Timbers in considerably lower temperatures. I understand it's a different manufacturer but...really? Roller coasters in Europe operate in the snow all the time; I find it very hard to believe that a wooden coaster would be unable to function just one degree colder than 32 degrees. I noticed that a ticket price at the gate was about $40. This seems unbelievably high to me. I got in for free with the Kings Island employee reciprocal agreement, but I could not imagine paying $40 to ride the sledding hill, ride some flat rides, see lights, and find out that the only coaster they run was closed with absolutely no warning outside the park.

I can forgive the lack of notice when the decision to remove a ride might have happened after the ride was already closed for the season. However, Berserker is still open this weekend. I don't understand why they wouldn't post something, considering that Kings Dominion knows this is the last weekend ever for it.

Not necessarily. AlpenFury has a huge price tag; I believe it will be the largest investment in a single ride in Canada's Wonderland's history. Iron Menace and its accompanying land at Dorney Park last year was the largest investment in that park's history. Rapterra is a very expensive ride and there's also a significant amount of money being invested into Kings Dominion this year for the surrounding area/50th anniversary-related projects.