KIghostguy

Looks like the turnaround has been topped off, or at least gotten another piece or two of track.

Sounds like some great changes and additions! Snake River Expedition sounds very intriguing.

He's at Intamin now.

To add to that, Walt Davis (Kings Island's maintenance and construction director 1978-1982 and operations director 1982-1984) was the vice president of the American branch of Togo. The last coaster he had a hand in was the Manhattan Express/Big Apple Coaster.

Yes, I agree. I believe it would have been a dark ride/coaster hybrid.

The area behind the counter and the counter itself is gutted. I would say there will be something interesting in there, especially since it will be used as the entrance.

This is a great story and it’s one I used to love, but it’s not true. Everyone always points out that Anthony Esparza worked at both Paramount Parks and Herschend when they did Mystery Mine. In reality, Addams Family was developed after Esparza had left the company.

“Height clearance needed to be increased through that pathway for future expansion opportunities,” according to one of the main people behind the change. That’s all the info I have.

It was removed to increase the height clearance.

The forwards side’s hill was removed prior to the 1996 season. The hill on the backwards side was removed after the 1996 season. The modification was done in-house, so they had limited staff and time to work with, so they were removed at different times.

The reason why was to increase the height clearance.

It has long been said that the hill was removed to create the path to Flight of Fear. That path had been there for a while for maintenance, the reason the bunny hills were removed was to increase the height clearance due to the increase in pedestrian traffic. I'm not an expert in OSHA laws or anything, so I'm not sure if that was required by law/necessary or not. I do know that I, too, would like it back!

Yes, there was a building labeled “Quonset building” and “prop building” on the blueprints, and you can see it on the virtual POV. I haven’t heard anything more specific about it, but I do know generally speaking the ride will be pretty heavily themed.

The “extended queue” in your post will be the ride photo booth for Orion.

The ACE event was fantastic! The construction tour and presentations were great. My presentation went extremely well. Here is the book trailer that I debuted today.

I can't say I've been a fan of a lot of stuff Disney Parks have been adding lately. This, though, is absolutely incredible. The videos are jaw-dropping; I can't imagine what it would be like in person!

I will be doing a presentation on Kings Island: A Ride Through Time for the ACE Holiday Party at Great Wolf Lodge on December 7. As part of the presentation, I will show the official book trailer!

Yes, it's sold at Emporium.

The one disappointment I do have is the flags are gone from the International Street buildings. Why was it necessary to remove them? I was so happy to have them back over the summer and now they’re gone again. So sad to see one of the “three Fs” of Gary Wachs removed yet again. At least temporarily replace them with the old green and red striped ones and not just remove them altogether.

I appreciate the park made the extra effort to add the lighted frames back instead of just leaving the rink empty like at Kings Dominion and now, Canada's Wonderland. Overall, I do prefer the pedestals during Winterfest and the fountain sans pedestals during the main season.

I noticed last night the ride safety sign has been removed.

A couple things to note from the Weatherbug camera: They have been adding the lighted frames formerly on the pedestals to the Royal Fountain this morning. The flags on the buildings were taken down and have not been replaced. There are new lighted snowflakes on the side of the German Building facing the front gate.

I’m just saying that’s what happened in this particular case.

Practical, engineering aspects come before theming. The theming was done around the completed design of the ride.

Dennis Speigel was not with the company at the time of the development and construction of Adventure Express. Both Jeff Gramke and Bill Ossim have told me the reason why it ends with a lift hill, but again, that is something I’m saving for my book. Thanks @Gordon Bombay for linking my article! You are correct. John McCann was killed in Section 2, which was the internal name for the lion section. Post 5 was a guard tower, I believe.