Antique Cars and Flying Eagles are family friendly...

Unless your family happens to like roller coasters, or museums, or fishing, etc.....

There is always the possibility that the bigger thrills will stay a few hours north. KI is really more of a family park as it is currently constituted anyway. With an award winning kids area and a number of family friendly rides and coasters. There are seven roller coasters that one could argue are family friendly along with pretty much every flat minus Drop Tower, Delirium, and WindSeeker. Is it crazy to think that they may continue to embrace this aspect of the park and add something that isn't a shiny new B&M/Intamin monster? Isn't something more along the lines of Shoot the Rapids or a family friendly dark ride just as likely? I think Ouimet is very aware that in park spending is where parks are going to have to look to increase revenues, as attendance across the board has been relatively flat the last few years. Who spends the most in the park during their visits? Families.te

Crazy? Ofcourse not. As I stated, I realize family rides are better bang for the buck (return on investment), and I fully expect to see a lopsided ratio of family attractions compared to major thrills. That being said, me and everyone of my friends and family that I dragged to KI last year are thrillseekers, and believe it or not, we also spend money. I'm looking forward to another season of marathoning DB, however after this next year, I might be of the oppinion that the thrills seems stale. Also if their was another pristine people-eater (high capacity) coaster in the park, I might be able to bear with the weekend crowds.

I'd never thought of that, two parks offering different levels of entertainment. I guess I got lost in a cookie cutter theory. That would be a smart way to go, to have both parks have their differences, so close together.

That would be nice for people that live in the middle of the two parks, but Kings Island draws customers from parts of the country that Cedar Point does not, and vice versa. I know that in my home, which is an hour north of Kings Island and three hours south of Cedar Point, the mentality is why travel three hours when you can do basically the same thing an hour away? Even though this isn't entirely true, I am sure that my family is not the only one who thinks like that.

Personally, I feel that Cedar Point and Kings Island are two entirely different parks, and should each operate individually, rather than specializing on family at one location, and thrills at the other. If the parks were closer, then maybe that would be acceptable, but there are people Sandusky and Mason looking for both thrills and family-friendliness.

Personally, I feel that Cedar Point and Kings Island are two entirely different parks, and should each operate individually, rather than specializing on family at one location, and thrills at the other. If the parks were closer, then maybe that would be acceptable, but there are people Sandusky and Mason looking for both thrills and family-friendliness.

I agree with this. I think both parks are different enough and far enough from each other that they both have their own market areas. But at some point these market areas intersect and overlap, and if the two parks were able to operate in some sort of pseudo-competitive way it would be nothing but good for the parks and Cedar Fair.

And for people in my area that are 2 hours away from both parks, the free water park is the deciding factor. That is what wins a lot of people over.

That's a really good point. I love the coasters at HW but my fondest memories are of family time in the water park! Actually, that's what always comes up when we talk about HW.

Wow... What an old topic!

Almost sounds like... A diversion....

What are the chances we will see more theming hit the park in 2013? Little things like the LED's on Backlot, music on rides, and more lights would do wonders on a couple rides.

Something I learned from getting involved with too many projects at home. "If you can't keep up fixing the things you have you shouldn't expand"

I don't know where else to ask this.

Are Holiday World's Flying Eagles similar to the ones Kings Island had?

Sort of, except the tubs are far, far heavier. Snapping is not impossible, but it is darn close.

Both are Bisch-Rocco, but HW has a portable 8-tub model, and KI had a park model 10 tub. www.flyeraddicts.com has information.

What was the whole premise of moving the Eagles out of Kings Island? From what I understand, they weren't causing trouble here. It seems more of a trouble to relocate a couple states away versus in-park, anyways.

I couldn't really never get the to snap but I did enjoy watching others do it.

The then General Manager of Kings Island transferred to Carowinds. The Flying Eagles went with him.

Terp, choosing his words with care.

Part of me wishes he brought the 3-Point Challenge with him instead.

Sort of, except the tubs are far, far heavier. Snapping is not impossible, but it is darn close.

What are tubes?

Sort of, except the tubs are far, far heavier. Snapping is not impossible, but it is darn close.

What are tubes?

Tubs, not tubes. He's referring to the thing you ride in.

Oops. That makes more sense.

What are the chances we will see more theming hit the park in 2013? Little things like the LED's on Backlot, music on rides, and more lights would do wonders on a couple rides.

That would be nice. I love lighted midways. Small improvements wouldn't cost as much as a big mondo installation, either, and would still add to the park. I know I'm not the only one that gets mesmerized by watching WindSeeker's lighting.

Sort of, except the tubs are far, far heavier. Snapping is not impossible, but it is darn close.

Yeah, I got the ones at HW to snap on time. I even got it high enough to hit a tree limb, but once and only once. Nowhere close any other ride cycle. I think the wind was blowing at just the right time or something?

^Try as I might, I've never been remotely close to getting HW's to snap. KI's were the easiest, Stricker's were easier a few years ago than they are now (before they moved them between the two coasters), and Idlewild's would have been so easy to snap, but they had a sign warning riders not to do it, and not wanting to get thrown out of the park, I sadly complied.

I've crashed into a tree branch on Holiday World's, but nothing ever resembling a snap. I find KI's former Eagles (now Woodstock Gliders at Carowinds) to be the easiest to snap, though I also found Stricker's to be pretty good and of course, Knoebels' famous Flyer is a darn good one as well. Sometimes I'm surprised when highly snappable scooters turn up in small parks unexpectedly. For instance: SS Stingray (formerly Mission Macaw) at Columbus Zoo is insanely snappable. As are the scooters at Fun Spot in Orlando. And neither of them had operators that cared, so I happily snapped away on both.

Edited to add: I'm overly amused by how far this ancient topic has derailed. But hey, scooters are a favorite topic of mine, so I'll add to the erosion!

I couldn't really never get the to snap but I did enjoy watching others do it.

Here's a good video that shows someone doing it on the one at California's Great America:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fn2Xm3YnIA

It's mostly about timing - you wait until you're at the peak of the swing, then turn the handle the same way you're turning (so if you're flying to the left, you would push the handle to your left, causing the fin to move to the right and thereby generating considerable wind resistance). Then you wait until you're at the next peak and quickly turn the handle the other way, minimizing wind resistance and causing the tub to swing inward.

That video makes me sad...loved that ride. Had that move down pat.

I've crashed into a tree branch on Holiday World's, but nothing ever resembling a snap. I find KI's former Eagles (now Woodstock Gliders at Carowinds) to be the easiest to snap, though I also found Stricker's to be pretty good and of course, Knoebels' famous Flyer is a darn good one as well. Sometimes I'm surprised when highly snappable scooters turn up in small parks unexpectedly. For instance: SS Stingray (formerly Mission Macaw) at Columbus Zoo is insanely snappable. As are the scooters at Fun Spot in Orlando. And neither of them had operators that cared, so I happily snapped away on both.

Edited to add: I'm overly amused by how far this ancient topic has derailed. But hey, scooters are a favorite topic of mine, so I'll add to the erosion!

Speaking of Columbus Zoo, do they get mad if you snap them?

Thanks for the video, I didn't know it was snapping. I always called it "Driving my cousin crazy".

They really need to either bring back our Flying Eagles to KI, or buy a new set for KI. They should have never taken this ride away from us!

I've crashed into a tree branch on Holiday World's, but nothing ever resembling a snap. I find KI's former Eagles (now Woodstock Gliders at Carowinds) to be the easiest to snap, though I also found Stricker's to be pretty good and of course, Knoebels' famous Flyer is a darn good one as well. Sometimes I'm surprised when highly snappable scooters turn up in small parks unexpectedly. For instance: SS Stingray (formerly Mission Macaw) at Columbus Zoo is insanely snappable. As are the scooters at Fun Spot in Orlando. And neither of them had operators that cared, so I happily snapped away on both.

Edited to add: I'm overly amused by how far this ancient topic has derailed. But hey, scooters are a favorite topic of mine, so I'll add to the erosion!

Speaking of Columbus Zoo, do they get mad if you snap them?

I'd be impressed if you could snap those things.