As everyone knows, CF is obsessed with Intamins, and KI is a CF park. What do you think our first Intamin will be like?

KI all-ready has two LIM coasters, so most likely it wont be LIM. I would like to something like Fahrenheight, only taller and a stepper drop. The coaster could be in X-Base or Action Zone (maybe Thunder Alley will get removed?) What do you think?

I don't know if I would call it obsession. I'm sure Cedar Fair has an idea of what they want to do and B&M doesn't really go out and try new things as of lately. They seem to want to stick to what works and consistently, and they don't really push the envelope like they used to.

As for KI's first Intamin, I'd like to see a hypercoaster. Of course, there is the specualtion that KI will get a B&M hyper in 2009. IF that happens, then I'd like to see something like Maverick that stays low to the ground, but is very fast.

Couple of things:

After the many many incidents that CP has had with Intamin, their obsession may not last much longer. Of course, it is a business and they do understand that if they expect rides to be innovative, they're certainly not going to be perfect.

If KI were to get an Intamin, I'd want it to be their giga.

If KI were to get an INTAMIN, I'd want it to be safe, reliable, comfortable, open on time and be within budget. For at least some of those factors, that alone would break records!

I wonder how their marketing campaign would work for that:

"New for 200X! An Intamin -- And It Works!!!"

If and when KI gets a new coaster (you never know what else may show up from some defunct park i.e. Geauga Lake) I think it will be something totally different than anything else out there - regardless who makes it. So, start thinking outside the box!

Are we basing their reliablility and safety purely on Top Thrill Dragster? It must be since the Superman hypers MF, WT, and Maverick have all ran pretty consistently. Not to mention, no accidents on the latter two.

No. Maverick is down a LOT, and had design problems that delayed its opening and media day. Millennium Force has had significant downtime and problems with its lifthill system. Nor are these problems new. Paramount Parks was only able to open Volcano: The Blast Coaster months late, and with reduced seating during its first year of operation.

We won't even mention the ejections on Perilous Plunge, or the Supermen: Rides of Steel at Darien Lake or Six Flags New England...plus many other incidents not widely reported that will NOT be mentioned here...at least not by this writer.

And Superman at SFNE was down more than it was up last season...and there are reasons for that as well....along with many parks having one train operation on their INTAMIN hypercoasters more than they would like.

Our own poster here who was recently in Australia wanted to ride the Superman coaster there...guess what? It was closed the entire day.

I thought the accident on Superman at SFNE was not Intamin's fault. You are the first person that I have heard state that Maverick was down a lot. I know it had some late openings, but never heard about it being down for days (not saying you said that). As far as the late opening on Maverick, I don't see how that was Intamin's fault either.

Parks don't release information about why rides are down, but let's just say that INTAMIN representatives were present at Maverick for many, many days after it opened...and it was down a good portion of each day.

As for the incident at SFNE, note that the restraint system has been modified time and again on the Six Flags INTAMIN hypers, and the operational procedure has also changed. The belts have also gotten smaller and smaller on Millennium Force over the years...

There is a reason.

I thought it was the ride op that didn't check his restraint properly. Shortening the seatbelts was just really assinine.

The reason being a knee jerk over-reaction.

Really? It was a manufacturer's recommendation, and they even did it to their Drop Tower rides at the same time. . . .

Our own poster here who was recently in Australia wanted to ride the Superman coaster there...guess what? It was closed the entire day.

I'm still greiving.

Kings Island already has a Intamin ride in the park just look up not that hard to miss it.

More than one, actually....and look up to either....

And don't you mean it WOULD be hard to miss it?

I know KI has multible Intamin RIDES, i said COASTERS.

lol

^Common Mistake, I assume. It happens.

I would be SO excited if KI got a Millennium Force type coaster, only a custom one, with airtime and turns, and something that works into the terrain back behind Beast.

Well, the list of Intamin rides at Kings Island includes the Eiffel Tower, Drop Zone, Congo Falls, White Water Canyon, and Viking Fury.

You are the first person that I have heard state that Maverick was down a lot. I know it had some late openings, but never heard about it being down for days (not saying you said that).

I'll be the second person to say this then. When I was at Cedar Point last year for two days early in the season and one day mid-season I only got to ride it once. I'll only wait for so long and gave up most times that I entered the line because usually I wasn't in line 10 minutes before hearing "attention riders, Maverick is now down due to a mechanical problem...we are unsure how long this wait will be..." You know the drill. I have never been as frustrated trying to get rides on a coaster as I was Maverick and of course, Top Thrill.

That happened on SOB last year. And well the line was down to the tunnel, but then everyone decide to get out of line, it went form a 30 min. wait to about 5 min wait?

I have never been as frustrated trying to get rides on a coaster as I was Maverick and of course, Top Thrill.

So you never went to KI in 2000 to ride SoB? Cause I was at KI 8 times in 2000 and never was able to ride SoB until 2001.

While Intamin does have a reputation of rides not being on time, as well as many breakdowns, they are also on the cutting edge of many things as well.

I compare what Intamin does to the debut of a new model car. Sure it's nice and pretty, but it certainly is a pain in the butt to keep bringing the car back for recall work.

And many new coasters do have multiple issues when they are new. Start-up problems are not just exclusive to Intamin. I can remember numerous downtime issues with Magnum, Raptor, FoF, SoB and Griffon in their first years as well.

And from the glass is half-full idea- those issues do become limited as time goes on. Maverick's extensive downtime was due to a design flaw that was discovered during testing. Sure it was delayed 2 weeks after opening, but it ran rather consistant for a first year coaster after that (and the good thing about that is the park released a statemtent defining what was happening and how long it was going to take to fix the problem). TTD's issues were numerous and extensive it's first few years, but the ride had rebounded nicely (same goes for KK) to have over 1,000,000 riders for 2007. MF & WT issues were limited to rather specific issues: MF- the elevator lift cable broke a few times, and the park has since replaced the cable on a more frequent basis to limit downtime. On WT- once the spike supports were added, the track cracking issue was solved.

So sure, Intamin has had their problems, but they also stand by their work to fix them. More than can be said for other companies' coasters that are torn down after rather short life spans.

So I'll take the frustrations that Intamin coasters have early on because they do provide a fantastic end product, over having no Intamins at all.

^Very well said tggrr. I'd completely agree with you on that one. Knowing that Intamin rides have the tendency to break down often, the ride experience (in my opinion) more than makes up for it. For example, like you pointed out, Maverick is an awesome experience, even with the amount of downtime it suffered this year. The good thing is that it was fixed fairly quickly in most instances, rather than leaving it sitting until closing and then working on it. The maintenance of CF parks is great, and hopefully if Project 2009 does turn out to be an Intamin coaster, KI's maintenance will stay dedicated to it to keep it running with as little downtime as possible.