Park History

[Chatter]

I enjoyed reading the Park History section of PKIunlimited's site.

I understand why some rides are eliminated, like the Screamin' Demon and The Bat. But why did so many of the Coney Mall and Adventure Land's rides get eliminated? Like the Bayern Curve (snowmobiles), the Rotor, The Zephyr, the Flying Dutchman, Skylab, the Bavarian Beetle, Hailey's Comet.............it just doesn't make sense to me that they didn't relocate these rides. Most of them would still be fun today and would give patrons more family type rides than they have right now. I always feel like PKI needs more general rides to compliment the Thrill Rides and coasters.

I still think that's what PKI is lacking. Sure, I'd like to have a HyperCoaster or something like it............but bringing back alot of these oldtime rides would still be fun. My kids rode the big Swings (not sure of the name) near the first hill of The Racer, last time and THEY LOVE IT! They also love the Flying Eagles.........and don't forget, these kids have ridden The Beast, The Racer, SOB, and other coaster...........but there's more to rides than rollercoasters. These other rides have something to offer. I even miss The Bavarian Beetle.

It would be supercool if Paramount created a new section of the park, by expanding into new land, and made it the Oldtime Park and brought back alot of these rides they eliminated. How nostalgic would that be? Bring back The Rotor, Hailey's Comet, the Bayern Curve, The Bavarian Beetle, The Bat, The King Cobra, The Zephyr, Skylab, etc., etc.........I think that would be cool.

Just a thought. I'm sure it's a pipedream.

[DragonLord]

The park does create flat rides, like the new Delirium and (hopefully) a new one next year in Coney. The flat rides are meant to compliment the coasters and to give more of a variety in the park because a lot of the flats are family rides.

What the park could do is push the campground back some, like by the river (which could open up other things like canoe trips and hikes and things) and use the land that is there. That would be cool!

[bignathan4403]

The park does create flat rides, like the new Delirium and (hopefully) a new one next year in Coney.

Hold on, what is Coney going to have next year?

[IcarusLives]

Yeah, it's kind of sad to see how many flat rides have been taken out over the years. But most of the flats that were removed were just carnival rides. You can see rides just like Haley's Comet, the bobsleds, and the Rotor at any traveling carnival that sets up shop in the parking lot of a closed Kmart. I think PKI has done a good job of keeping a classic collection of flat rides and adding major unique flat rides as well.

And Chatter, I don't think Zephyr is gone. Do you mean Zodiac?

[fyrfyter]

Skylab was removed because it was a maintenance nightmare, and in its later years, it had very costly and problematic breakdowns.

[Chatter]

I do remember the doors on Skylab would open or come loose and they'd have to shut down the ride or cut your ride short for safety reasons.

[fyrfyter]

Towards the end, I think they had a bigger problem, like a main hydraulic failure in the cylinder that made the ride rise up out of the ground, ultimately bringing in the demise of that ride. I remember this ride be discussed in previous posts, with other rides that were removed due to mechanical problems.

[FOF]

I enjoyed reading the Park History section of PKIunlimited's site.

why did so many of the Coney Mall and Adventure Land's rides get eliminated? Like the Bayern Curve (snowmobiles), the Rotor, The Zephyr, the Flying Dutchman, Skylab, the Bavarian Beetle, Hailey's Comet.............it just doesn't make sense to me that they didn't relocate these rides.

I'm pretty sure Zephyr is still there.

[StXBomber]

Zephyr is the name of the swings by the first hill on Racer. It is still there and running very well.

[DanielRadsgrl]

The ones by the walk back to Flight of Fear?

Thoose things can down to dust for all i care I hate them my parents arways tease me because I'm afraid of them but I love Drop Zone tto death.

[Chatter]

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"1973 -- Bayern Curve opens in Oktoberfest. Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal opens in Rivertown."

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Those were cool.........they just went in a circle, but they were really fast. I don't know why they removed them.......they were in the same vein as The Monster, The Scrambler and other oldstyle rides.

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"1974 -- Lion Country Safari debuts on 100 acres, featuring over 350 animals. The Bavarian Beetle opens in Oktoberfest as Kings Island's first steel roller coaster."

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I don't miss Lion Country Safari, although I do believe Cedar Point has some kind of Children's petting zoo in it.....that might be cool for the Kiddie Land.

The Bavarian Beetle is missed by me. It reminded me of the "mouse" rollercoasters on Rollercoaster Tycoon II. It was fun.

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"1975 -- Zodiac, a double ferris wheel, opens in Coney Mall. Also making its debut was Shake, Rattle, & Roll."

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I don't remember the Zodiac at all. I'm not a fan of Shake, Rattle, & Roll.....it makes me sick.......but please don't remove it....alot of people like it. Another classic type ride.

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"1976 -- The American Heritage Music Hall, now known as The Paramount Theatre, opens."

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I'm not a big fan of the shows put on at PKI. Their entertainment value isn't very high.....but hey, you can't expect everything to be great. You want a good show, go to the Aranoff.

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"1977 -- Screamin' Demon, a steel shuttle loop coaster, opens. The International Showplace opened after receiving a grant from comedian Dick Van Dyke, who was in the Park earlier in the year promoting the 5th Anniversary. This also was the last year for the Canoe Ride."

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I always thought the canoe rides were in the pond by the Eiffel Tower, not the pond where The Beast is. But, I'm getting old and my memory is failing me...lol. The Demon was a cool ride.....but it definitely is outdated and needed to be torn down. No problem there.

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"1979 -- The world famous Beast makes its debut where the former Canoe Ride used to be. Bavarian Beetle also makes its final run, as well as Haley's Comet."

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They tore down the Bavarian Beetle and Haley's Comet..........WHY? I always hated when they did that. Two classic rides that should have been relocated. I still think they need to get a "mouse" type coaster back. I miss it.

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"1980 -- Scooby Doo is renamed Beastie and receives a tunnel at the bottom of its first drop. The Sky Ride was also closed forever."

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The Beastie is a great ride for kids. My kids will ride it over and over if there's no line. The Sky Ride was a maintenance hazard if I remember correctly, but it was another classic ride.

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"1981 -- The Bat opens as the world's first suspended roller coaster. The Rotor also saw its final season in the Park."

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I flat out loved The Bat. It was supercool. I know it had alot of problems, but it was far better than Top Gun for a suspended coaster. I miss the Rotor, too.....another removed classic ride.

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"1982 -- Hanna Barbera Land gets a $2.1 million face lift. Among the new attractions were the Hanna Barbera Carousel, McScrappy's Farm, and the Jelly Bean Bowl. One side of The Racer is turned around backward, adding a new degree of excitement to the ride. Two new rides were also added to Oktoberfest, the Ferris Wheel and Viking Fury. Timberwolf Amphitheatre opens as well. This year also saw the debut of Winterfest, featuring the new Festhaus."

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The Racer backwards is classic. Great idea. I don't remember the Ferris Wheel. Viking Fury is fun......but not after Pizza. I think Viking Fury is located in a poor place. It doesn't get enough traffic to draw attention to it for riders. That whole area can get overlooked very easily, like Festhaus. I forgot it was there until we cut through there last time. It's so easy to go back and forth from the Action Zone to Coney Mall and not even go near the Festhaus. I think the Viking Fury would be another ride that would do well to be moved to Rivertown. It fits in with the water theme and if positioned correctly, would get more people to ride it. I really think Rivertown needs to be worked on after they do this new waterpark remodel. I love Rivertown and basically think it needs some more rides and some enhancements to the existing rides.....possibly relocating the Viking Fury and Congo Falls over there to go with the theme. The Train ride needs to have some targets set up that you could shoot at and get points or some idea like that to make it more interesting other than listening to some dumb old jokes by a train conductor (actor). Action Zone and the Coney Mall are entertaining....I just think if some redesigning of Rivertown were down and relocating of rides......it could be more fun too.

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"184 -- King Cobra, billed as North America's first stand-up looping coaster, opens. The Enchanted Voyage is also renovated and re-themed to the Smurf's."

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Removing KC was a bad idea in my opinion. Another classic ride that people really enjoyed. PKI seems to think they need to build bigger and better all the time.....but my feeling is, for example, that breaking records, like SOB, doesn't necessarily add up to a good ride. SOB is very uncomfortable and if you check the length of the line, it will tell you that people don't like it very well. A wooden rollercoaster that fast and that high create a very bumpy ride that requires ridiculous constraints to hold you in and make you very uncomfortable. King Cobra was a very comfortable, simple coaster that was still fun. Tearing it down for new ride didn't bother me.....but why not relocate it? They still have it in storage from what I read on RCDB.com.

I also miss the Enchanted Voyage.....and then the Phantom Theatre. New isn't always better. If people aren't complaining, why change? I never heard a bad word said about the Phantom Theatre. But then you hear complaints about how boring the Train Ride is, or not having this or that and they don't listen. Go figure.

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"1985-- White Water Canyon opens in the Rivertown section of the Park."

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My favorite ride in the park that is secluded for some dumb reason. They need to add a thoroughfare through there and add some rides to get more people over to view it. They could even build another Whitewater Canyon track to lighten the load on the line. Who knows? We have more fun on that ride than any other.

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"1986--The Park's 15th Anniversary brings in 3 new flat rides. Skylab, Zephyr, and Dodgems open in the Coney Mall area."

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I always thought the Zephyr and the Dodgems were there from the beginning, but I guess I was wrong. I guess now I know that the Zephyr is the swings by the first hill of The Racer. I love the Dodgem's, another classic ride. DON'T GET RID OF THEM!

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"1987-- Vortex, a multi-looping steel coaster, opens on the site of the former Bat. Screamin' Demon also makes its final run and is dismantled to make room for a new attraction."

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Great new ride. DON'T TEAR IT DOWN!

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"1988-- Amazon Falls, an Intamin chute-the-chutes water ride, opens on the site of the former Screamin' Demon."

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Another fun ride........but really there's more fun standing on the bridge than actually riding the ride. Still entertaining, especially on a hot day. I think this ride should be relocated to Rivertown.

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"1989-- WaterWorks, a 16 acre water park, opens."

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I guess it will be the 15th anniversary of WaterWorks......time for a remodel..lol.

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"1990-- Flight Commander opens on the site of the former Zodiac. Flying Dutchman closes."

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Essentially, we lost 3 rides since Flight Commander is gone too. Again, bring back some classic rides.

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"1991-- Adventure Express opens on the former site of the Flying Dutchman."

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My kids love Adventure Express.....the line is never long and it's a fun comfortable ride.....good family ride. Probably needed to be in Rivertown in terms of theming, though. In fact, a good place for it would be where the Country Show is......they could take it through the woods and down into the pond below which is useless. Good place for a "mine-type" coaster/family ride in Rivertown.

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"1992-- Phantom Theatre opens, replacing the Smurf's Enchanted Voyage. The Enchanted Theatre and Scooby Zoom also open on the former site of the Smurf's Enchanted Voyage. This would also be the last year for the Wild Animal Habitat Monorail."

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The Enchanted Theatre is stupid. My kids saw a Scooby-Doo play there and thought it was boring. We miss the Phantom Theatre. They should bring back some kind of petting zoo for small kids in Kiddie Land.

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"1993- Top Gun opens on part of the former Wild Animal Habitat Monorail. This also marks the beginning of Paramount's Kings Island."

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Top Gun is a fun ride, not as good as The Bat, but still fun......but again, there's no traffic down there and it gets very little attention. Poor space planning, IMO. They should let me redesign the park......they've made some serious bonehead mistakes in locations for rides or in terms of overall scenery and crowd flow. People want to be able to not only ride the rides, but watching them while you're passing by is fun too. I stand and watch the Drop Zone, Skyflyer, Slingshot, alot of them.....even watching The Vortex is fun.....or Whitewater Canyon (too secluded). PKI needs to make rides more accessable for viewing, IMO. It will bring more attention to the ride and make people want to ride it. Alot of people don't remember that Top Gun is even there.

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"1994-- Days of Thunder, action simulator, opens.

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I've never ridden Days of Thunder, action simulator.....is it still there? I have ridden the actual small race cars......but paying extra for it, totally sucks. Plus, when they blow the whistle to stop, there's always some wise guy that keeps going and then he slams into you.....that's what happened to me and my family last time......we got whiplash from being crashed into!

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"1995-- Nickelodeon Splat City opens, replacing the Sunshine Turnpike and the Scrappy Slide. The EXtreme Skyflyer opens in Adventure Village as well. Flight Commander also completes its final season."

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I've never paid to ride the EXtreme Skyflyer, but I think it's a great ride that is even fun to watch. My kids have never done Splat City. Flight Commander is missed by many, I know.......but I know somebody died while riding it intoxicated......so maybe that's why there axed it. I was there the night they had two separate incidents, totally unrelated, that lead to deaths......one on Flight Commander and the other at Oktoberfest in the pond.

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"1996-- The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear opens. Along with its identical twin at Paramount's Kings Dominion, it was one of the world's first linear induction roller coasters."

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Absolutely a great ride. Another one that is somewhat secluded, though. I think PKI needs a new big Walkway on the other side of The Racer's track that starts by Flight of Fear and works it's way back around the entrance of The Racer. Then add some more rides over in that area and draw more attention to Flight of Fear.

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"1997-- PKI's 25th Anniversary. WaterWorks doubles in size to almost 30 acres! Skylab is also removed after the end of the season."

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I know alot of people miss Skylab, but it had maintenance problems, from what I hear.

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"1998-- Hanna Barbera Land receives its largest upgrade since 1982. 3 new rides, including Scooby's Ghoster Coaster, appear. The older rides received new paint jobs, awnings, and names. WaterWorks also gets Wipeout Beach."

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Ghoster Coaster's line is always way too long and the ride is not worth the wait. They either need to add another one alongside it to lessen the wait or nix it. But maybe some people like it.......it just isn't that much fun for waiting in line that long.

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"1999-- 2 new thrill rides begin a two year $40 million investment. Face/Off, an inverted coaster, and Drop Zone Stunt Tower make their debut in the all new Paramount Action Zone (the former Adventure Village). Kings Mill Log Flume completes its final season."

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Great additions and design of an "Area". I'm hoping PKI begins redesigning and upgrading rides and Area's. I think they just have too many secluded rides that would get more attention if they were more visible. Hopefully Rivertown is up in the next couple of years. Tomb Raider is another awesome ride. Good idea.

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"2000-- Son of Beast opens as the world's tallest, fastest, and only looping wooden coaster in the world. Outer Limits also receives a name change toward the end of the season."

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I think PKI's ego's got the best of them on SOB. Should be listed as the World's most uncomfortable ride.

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"2001-- Kings Mill Log Flume returns completely overhauled and re-themed as a Nickelodeon adventure. Flight of Fear receives new lapbar restraints, replacing the old OTSRs making the ride more enjoyable."

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My family loves both those rides.....well, I'm the only one that will ride Flight of Fear.....lol.

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"2002-- PKI's 30th Anniversary. Tomb Raider: The Ride opens to the public as Paramount's Kings Island's most ambitious project to date."

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Another great ride........PKI is doing better except for SOB, IMO.

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"2003 -- Delirium enters."

"2004 -- ???????"

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I think PKI is doing better. But I think while adding all of these "thrill rides", they tend to forget about family's. I"m sure the teenagers enjoy all of that......but alot of kids won't ride those extreme rides.....and they need to remember that. Bringing back some of the classic rides would be nice, I've said it over and over. And relocating some other rides over to Rivertown would be smart which would allow remodeling of where they previously stood....like relocating the Viking Fury to Rivertown.....and Congo Falls to Rivertown would open the door for another new Action Zone ride (Congo Falls location) and maybe some more restaurant area (Viking location).

Overall, I think they're doing better in since Paramount took over. Son of Beast was a good idea that turned out bad because it is so uncomfortable. Maybe that's why no other park has bothered to build a wooden coaster that goes that fast.......because maybe they were smarter than Paramount and knew it would be uncomfortable? The Beast is still king after all of these years!

See you on Labor Day!

[monkeyman]

I still think they need to get a "mouse" type coaster back. I miss it.

i agree... like ricochet at pkd... that was fun.... never went on the beetle.... got taken out to early

[teenageninja]

Most of those flat rides were probably removed for space issues. KI probably didn't realise all the land they could have used, and some of the rides were most likely maintainence nightmares. I would like KI to get some new old flats. But where would they put them.

[mars1825]

But why did so many of the Coney Mall and Adventure Land's rides get eliminated?

Bad management at that time.

[DegenRider]

King Cobra was removed because it was getting old. Steel cannot be relpaced as easilly or cheeply as wood.

Bad managment during the late 80's is what caused alot of the flat rides to be removed.

King Cobra did pick off 2 also.

Lion Country Safari was in conjunction with the cincinnati zoo. I don't think they would ever wanna do that again. Apparently the relationship didn't end well.

Racer Backwards or recaR as some like to call it. It was put backwards due to the Bats downtime.

As for barvarian beatlle it was a galaxy coaster. If you want to ride one goto coney Island (cincy) and ride Pepsi Python.

Congo(amazon)Falls does fit the Action Zone theme.

Days of thunder was in the FX theater. It was the 1st movie

I think it goes

Days of thunder

james bond

7th Portal

Spongebob in 3d.

PKI dropped out of the coaster wars. The park is gearing themselfs towards families. Delirium is a good example of a thrill ride thats good to watch.

I don't think moving older rides around will increase popularity. Most of PKI's guests are locals. They have ridden it all and know what they like to ride.

As for the mouse. They were polled last year for 2003's ride. 2 options were Gaint Frisbee or Wild mouse ride. The Gaint Frisbee won by a large margin.

Alot of the history has been discussed at a Yahoo Group Called History of PKI

I am not sure how much of the archives has been wiped out by Yahoo's many glitches.

As for teenage ninja. HAVE I NOT TAUGHT YOU NOTHING!?

[mars1825]

As for the mouse. They were polled last year for 2003's ride. 2 options were Gaint Frisbee or Wild mouse ride. The Gaint Frisbee won by a large margin.

PKI showed a picture of a Wild Mouse Coaster and a picture of a Giant Frisbee. As you can see people picked the frisbee. PKI actually listens to their customers and that's what I think is a good descision.

[DragonLord]

sobrider... there isn't a coaster race (officailly) and if there were (officially) PKI would never say it was dropping out of it. You have to understand that we can gear towards families all we want, but we will still build big and bad for coasters when we get a chance, just not as often as we used too.

Maybe in '05 you'll be seeing a new coaster, again in Coney Mall, without the removal of anything this time.

As of KC, I loved it and never really got to ride it and enjoy it. I wish it were still around but they didn't remove it just to put up Delirium. It was removed because it was becoming unsafe due to metal fatigue. Why do you think it hasn't be reloacted to another Paramount park yet? Or sold to a local park? It can't be rebuilt with the original pieces.

[FOF]

The Current Dodgem ride may not of always been there, but there use to be a dodgems ride in the Green building next to Scrambler before that.

[Beastfreak]

sobrider... there isn't a coaster race (officailly) and if there were (officially) PKI would never say it was dropping out of it.

Actually, Craig Ross said to a large group of Food/Merch/Games supervisors back in February that PKI wasn't in the coaster race like CP and other parks.

Though that never makes it official, but rather common knowledge.

[Crispy1979]

removed

[SOB_TOM]

Actually, that maintenance road above the entrance to TG is to lead to the steel coaster maintenance. The entrance to the monorail was up towards the front of Skyflier.

Low ridership. Thats a big time reason why rides shut down. That coupled with another problem is why things are shut down.

[Crispy1979]

removed

[frankiejoe83]

King Cobra was removed because it was getting old. Steel cannot be relpaced as easilly or cheeply as wood.

Ok, yes King Cobra was getting old, but that was NOT the reason that it had been taken out. The company who built that ride, who also supplied parts or replacements to it, was an international company, which had locally gone out of business. It would have been possible to keep the ride there, and probably still have it running today, if the park could pay for shipping the parts that would be needed across the seas.

It was one of my favorite rides there, and though I wish they hadn't taken it out, after I found out about this, I somewhat forgave them for their decision.

[CYoung2003]

King Cobra was also removed due to problems with the manufacture kinda going out of business and parts for that ride were becoming very hard to find and the parts they did find were very expensive. And also maintenance had to weld that track like everyday, so its just like what was mentioned above: track problems. But I miss that ride, it was one of the best.

R.I.P King Cobra 1984-2001

[TheRickster]

King cobra was sold to a place in germany for 1 million 2 day's after it hit the market btw.

[CYoung2003]

well that "place" in germany must have gotten a refund because cobra is still at pki. and i think its still for sale, just nobody wants it.

[TheRickster]

Maby they just havnt arranged shipping or something yet. My friend gave me the site that that keeps track of coasters for sale and it sold 2 day's.

[mars1825]

He or she gave you the wrong site then because no one has bought KC and the chances of someone finally purchasing the ride are minimal.

Edited January 1, 1970 by mars1825

[IcarusLives]

The Current Dodgem ride may not of always been there, but there use to be a dodgems ride in the Green building next to Scrambler before that.

The current Dodgem as added in '86 along with Zephyr and Skylab for the parks 15th anniversary. The original one, next to the scrambler was pretty small. I don't remember what was at the location of the current Dodgem. Zephyr replaced the Giant Slide, which was cut in half and moved to HB Land, and Skylab replaced Tumblebug, which had to be the ugliest and loudest ride ever in the park.

[CYoung2003]

Like I said in a post before, King Cobra is just one of those rides that are too much of a pain in the butt to maintain. Thats the main reason why they took it down. Nobody wants a ride thats a pain in the butt to maintain and a ride that parts are rare and expensive for. Thats why the poor ride is collecting rust throughout the park.