Well I was going by the RCDB.They never said that Rebell Yell was turned back around.

It was. All Cedar Fair wooden coasters that had a backwards side no longer do...

And it doesn't help that the KD official website's pic of Rebel Yell still shows one side backwards.

Give Cedar Fair some time to rehab the former Paramount Parks websites. They've only owned the parks since July 2006. After all, it's not like most of their young, avid thrillseekers and their relatively young mommies and daddies get their information from the web or cellphone text messages.

Terpy, it seems like that last comment was dripping with something, but i just can't tell what it was! ha

Hey CF, how come they get all this cool theming!? Volcano's queue looks AMAZING. Their FOF's queue/entrance looks so much better than ours, and don't even get me started on their Crypt. Great PTR/VTR, as always.

That's because KD always had that theming throughout much of the park to begin with.How was grizzly running? I'll be going on saturday to get my first laps of the season in since the ride has been closed for maintenance the first two times I've visited this year.

Grizzly was running great! It was very smooth for an old woodie and I was pleasantly surprised by the air time throughout the whole ride. It has a well-placed tunnel, so I applaud the designers for that one. So few rides utilize tunnels correctly.

When I return next week, I will definitely be riding it again. Maybe again and again and again.

While some may lament the lack of themeing KI has compared to KD, the fact remains that CF chose to locate their most innovative coaster yet at Kings Island. If I want a theme park, I'll go to Disney or Universal. An earlier post correctly mentioned that CF was in the amusement park business, not theme park business. I hardly count a little waterfall in the DB splashdown themeing. Paramount was able to do themeing at a relatively low cost due to the built in movie and TV properties it owned (no license fees). CF has never had the desire to compete wih that. I like the fact that each CF park has a different style to it--it encourages people to try each one. If I want cookie-cutter parks, I'll hit one of the Six Flags parks.

That's one thing that annoys me about the former Paramount parks. Especially KI/KD, as KECO did it too. They have many similar or identical rides. Flight of Fear and Backlot Stunt Coaster are identical. Their Drop Towers are practically the same. Rebel Yell and Racer are similar, as are Anaconda and Vortex and Shockwave and King Cobra (though that one doesn't count so much anymore). Grizzly felt like it was trying to be a smaller version of The Beast, though it was a great ride in it's own right. There are only a handful of truly unique rights at each. KD has Ricochet and Hurler, KI has Son of Beast and Flight Deck. Cedar Fair has added a lot of variation by just adding Dominator, Firehawk and Diamondback into the two parks.

Grizzly was in fact loosely based on Wildcat from Coney Island (as was, supposedly, Grizzly at what is now California's Great America...yeah, right), while The Mighty Canadian Minebuster at Canada's Wonderland was loosely based on the Shooting Star. Neither is in any way trying to emulate The Beast. If anything, Legend at Holiday World is trying to emulate that legendary coaster (and not even coming close to actually doing it).

Dominator and Firehawk were both purchased by Six Flags. Cedar Fair gets credit for saving them and moving them.

Glad you had fun at KD. I have only been once and I loved Volcano!! The launch is amazing, and definitely not what I was expecting.

Grizzly was running great! It was very smooth for an old woodie and I was pleasantly surprised by the air time throughout the whole ride. It has a well-placed tunnel, so I applaud the designers for that one. So few rides utilize tunnels correctly.

When I return next week, I will definitely be riding it again. Maybe again and again and again.

The tunnel on grizzly always gets me no matter how many times I ride it.....how did you get video in the FOF station? I got reprimanded by the ops just for taking a photograph of the train on opening day.

They said no flash photography when the person in front of me pulled out a camera but said it was just fine to shoot flash free video. So I did.

violakat,

Does it bother you also that Universal and Disney have many similar or identical rides?

violakat,

Does it bother you also that Universal and Disney have many similar or identical rides?

Yes.

I am going to KD on June 15-16. I have never been before. I found a hotel in walking distance for just 80.00 a night. Any trip tips or comments? I am excited for Volcano and a ride on Doninator, post Geauga Lake days. Also how are the woodies at KD?

Which hotel? If it is the one on park grounds, there are better choices, though walking to the park and not having to pay for parking (if you don't already have a Platinum Pass) has its own advantages.

The woodies at Kings Dominion vary from great fun (Grizzly) to mildly vibratey (Rebel Yell...sorry, but it is), to OH.MY is it supposed to be like that? (Hurler). The junior PTC woodie (Scooby Doo's Ghoster Coaster) is fine...and is technically older than Kings Dominion, since it opened before the park did!

Terpy, who loves Volcano: The Blast Coaster, Avalanche and the park in general...

^ I thought the same thing.Diamondback has a waterfall going into the splashdown, if you didnt know

You know, the little waterfalls and streams over there by Rivertown Junction, well back when it was Wings.

Grizzly was running great! It was very smooth for an old woodie and I was pleasantly surprised by the air time throughout the whole ride. It has a well-placed tunnel, so I applaud the designers for that one. So few rides utilize tunnels correctly.

When I return next week, I will definitely be riding it again. Maybe again and again and again.

I managed to get in a couple of night rides on saturday's trip but was suprised to see that the lights were on in the tunnel,I ohh so hope that's not gonna be permanent even though I still had to drop my hands during that part of the course.

Beast's tunnel lights are on occasionally. If you ask the ride

ops to turn them off, they probably will if they have a way to. On Flight of Fear, occasionally, if you ask super nice and it isn't too busy, they will turn on the lights in the spaghetti bowl.

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