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Project 2017?


Oldschool75
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For Sea World, it helps that their new CEO, Joel Manby, is the former CEO of Herschend.  I am sure he had some contact with B&M when they installed Wild Eagle at their joint venture property with Dolly Parton.

 

I have yet to ride Fury 325, but Leviathon was a fun ride.  And a vastly different ride experience than Behemoth.  I would enjoy the ride at KI if they went with a B&M that was 300+ feet high.  However, that would rival the height of the park`s Eiffel Tower.  I don`t know how I feel about that.

 

WindSeeker? Drop Tower?  I think a 300ft coaster would look just fine.  :)

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Except Drop Tower and WindSeeker are singular towers.  A coaster that is 300 feet tall has a bigger dominance on the skyline.

 

Yes, there is a former GCI ride down in Tampa.  However, it didn`t exactly have the best reputation or upkeep, in my opinion.

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I would like to think that Busch Gardens will be planning something big once that big ol SBNO Gwazi is removed and opens up a huge portion of unused land. I hope they do something to fill that hole because filling that hole would make the park much more navigable.

 

I think 2017 will be something in Rivertown.

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I imagine whatever is going on with the moving of WWC entrance and exit has to do with the big brown box. Which makes me think that we're gonna see a revamp of ole River Town. Something ala Banshee plaza / Action Zone revamp. Although personally I'd like to see some Coney Mall refurb.

Hmm that actually makes a lot of sense. It would certainly seem like they wouldn't move the entrance just to make the walk to the station slightly shorter, or rearrange things just for the sake of rearranging them. Perhaps there are other motives indeed...

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But they would to install a game that could generate $$$$. Just think Soccer game $$ right next to the family dryer $$= $$$$
I don't think the $$ generated by this new game will be projected to move the needle enough to warrant this grand rearranging; in fact I'd be willing to wager my own $$ that there's more to come shortly down the road (like in a year or 2) and this is just "phase 1" of the process.

I'm not saying that every time a park makes a few minor changes it means a giga is right around the corner, but this one seems extra suspicious...

Of course I could be wrong. Certainly wouldn't be the first or last time. Just trying to make an educated guess.

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I don't think it's suspicious. As for the moving of the funnel cake stand....why not move it closer to other buildings plus the moving makes it a shorter walk for the employees to take trash to the compacter (behind the fence under the DB lift). 

Adding a soccer game to where the WWC entrance/funnel cake stand use to be.....better than leaving a dead zone of asphalt (see Six Flags Great America next to Demon).

Moving the entrance to WWC.....makes the walk shorter for the guests, plus could potentially bring ridership numbers/capacity up. 

Sometimes I think we get to involved in thinking there is a huge reason behind "simple" changes to the park but to me Kings Island is a business and they have to make smart business decisions to improve overall satisfaction for both guests and employees. I'm not saying it's not related to a bigger project or it's not worth speculating over (because I too love to speculate) but sometimes we have to look through the eyes of a business. 

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I was looking at the map earlier (to get an idea of the size of the BBoBH building) and I'm not certain the new entrance will even shorten the line all that much. It's a little hard to judge with the trees in the way, tho. I'm looking forward to seeing it in person to tell better.

I'm very interested to see how things develop. I don't think this is just about modernizing the funnel cake building or putting in a new game, but I definitely don't have a clue where they're heading yet.

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I keep thinking back to that tweet with the photo of Rob Decker.  I think about the major additions that Cedar Fair has installed over the last 10 years - Maverick, the B&M coasters, the GCI coasters, the Triotech rides, etc. - and they all seem to have these things in common:

  • they were installed in areas towards the "edges" of the park, towards the outside perimeter (the only exception to this I can think off-hand is Wonder Mountain Guardian)
  • they were installed in areas of the park with comparatively little foot traffic
  • with the coasters - nearly all of the installations have been set away from the other more recent big coaster additions.  Behemoth/Leviathan, Intimidator/Fury325, Maverick/Gatekeeper are all on opposite sides of the park from each other

I keep coming back to this list when I think about a possible Rivertown setting for an attraction.  A dark ride in Rivertown makes a ton of sense - it gives the park another indoor attraction, it has a lower height requirement so families can ride together, and it is a nice option for non-thrill seekers to ride while other members of their group ride the coasters in that part of the park.

 

Having said that - I don't believe a Rivertown location for a B&M gigacoaster makes any sense.  It fails the last two "tests" - there's plenty of foot traffic there now that Diamondback is there, and setting up another large coaster essentially right next door to Diamondback would only congest the area even more.  I don't see why the park would want to use that area for that purpose.

 

There's one location I can think of that does currently meet all three "tests" for a gigacoaster - the Coney Mall area in between X-Base and WindSeeker/Vortex.  The ride queue entrance could be where the Dinosaurs Alive entrance is currently sits.  The ride itself could run back behind Firehawk all the way out to the land out by the SOB rose bowl.  I'm pretty sure that there are no significant elevation changes or obstacles that would eliminate that potential routing, and there are some access roads already in place if the satellite imagery is correct.  That location would:

  • be out on the perimeter of the park where's there's room to work, passing test 1
  • definitely bring a lot more foot traffic to a part of the park that doesn't see much now, passing test 2
  • form a nearly equidistant triangle between Banshee, Diamondback and the new ride, passing test 3

Just writing this post gets me salivating over the potential of having a B&M gigacoaster at Kings Island.  Fury 325 and Leviathan are both amazing coasters, but there are no trees surrounding either ride to enhance the sensation of speed.  A gigacoaster at Kings Island - particularly some lower to the ground sections - would have plenty of trees to add some atmosphere.  Just imagine the possibilities! 

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See gad198's post.

An area near one he mentions, though otherwise ideal, has not proven usable for big tall things in the past.

That's interesting! I never knew that. Is the bedrock in that area really far down, or just nonexistent altogether?

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Very cool info! It's interesting! I never knew that bedrock was that close to the park

Hanna Barberra Land had Bedrock, it was fun to drive around too!

I'm honestly in the dark on this one, but I'm going to have to think out of the box for this one. Just remember kiddies that 2016 we got no "true" dark rides, but 2017 looks promising. Now if instead we got a shoot the chutes water attraction back in Coney Mall that would be incredible where Dinosaurs Alive! resides today. It would also fit in with the nostalgic theme that Kings Island has somewhat perpetuated in light tones here and there.

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I wonder what the construction flags popping up around Diamondbacks helix before the drop into the splashdown has anything to do with Project 2017? Someone showed me the pictures that were loaded to the KI PR Twitter account or Instagram... IDK... I don't have a membership to either account or I would post a link here. Lots of pretty little pink flags and a marker that says "Big Bend" or "Bic End" or "The End"... Check it out and post a link if you can.

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Here's the picture in question:

ki%20markings_zpsiufqj4lq.png

(From KI's Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/kingsislandpr/ )

 

After viewing this picture on my computer, it appears the one stake says "Blc end." Some Google searching revealed that Blc stands for basic locative construction and refers to figure-ground relationships in terms of objects and space around them. The location of this stake is right at the edge of the dirt and the midway, which I guess would mean the "Blc end" written on it would make sense if the stake is marking the boundary/edge of the midway. 

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It should be noted that the Instagram caption also contains "#NewFor2016," so one would assume that this is not related to anything coming in 2017, if anything is coming in 2017 to begin with.

 

Given the odd location and short timeline, I doubt it will be anything like a new ride, but it's fun to imagine the possibilities. Maybe a (small) new shop? Since it got posted with a teaser-y caption, it'll be something interesting. This is the level of fanfare that Cirque Imagine got before it was announced, so I'm sure it'll be something we'll talk about this season.

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I wonder what the construction flags popping up around Diamondbacks helix before the drop into the splashdown has anything to do with Project 2017? Someone showed me the pictures that were loaded to the KI PR Twitter account or Instagram... IDK... I don't have a membership to either account or I would post a link here. Lots of pretty little pink flags and a marker that says "Big Bend" or "Bic End" or "The End"... Check it out and post a link if you can.

Maybe it's one of the new basketball games that was announced on the food blog?  That'd be my guess.

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It should be noted that the Instagram caption also contains "#NewFor2016," so one would assume that this is not related to anything coming in 2017, if anything is coming in 2017 to begin with.

 

Given the odd location and short timeline, I doubt it will be anything like a new ride, but it's fun to imagine the possibilities. Maybe a (small) new shop? Since it got posted with a teaser-y caption, it'll be something interesting. This is the level of fanfare that Cirque Imagine got before it was announced, so I'm sure it'll be something we'll talk about this season.

A BRAND NEW...Dip n Dots stand. 

 

At least that's what the Dip-n-Dots guy told me.  :)

 

...Flies off into hiding to avoid the oncoming tomatoes.

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