1 hour ago, silver2005 said:

I will say the hills around DB's splash could use some touch up on the paint. 

I think the entire ride could use a paint touch up to be honest. Also according to Baynums website racer was painted in 1996 

http://www.baynumpainting.com/completed-projects/

They did paint the rails of Diamondback in the splash down area.  I think it was prior to the start of last season.  It went from just before the splash down to the track at the top, right before the final brake run.

On 3/10/2019 at 8:06 PM, CoastersRZ said:

They did paint the rails of Diamondback in the splash down area.  I think it was prior to the start of last season.  It went from just before the splash down to the track at the top, right before the final brake run.

Maybe you an confirm or deny, but I had always heard they have a special type of paint in the splashdown area to compensate for the water.

This could be a right and wrong thing. Paramount spoiled the heck out of KI and arguably KD while neglecting parks like Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland, and California's Great America.

Without Paramount we would have never gotten iconic rides like Delirium, Flight of Fear, Invertigo, Drop Tower, and Son of Beast. While Son of Beast was easily their greatest failure, they put a lot of effort into our park while letting others bleed.

You could argue if Paramount was more generous with its other parks, we wouldn't be where we are today....

Very true @SonofBaconator. Paramount did keep KI alive and well despite some of their poor choices. I’ve read that they considered KI their flagship, until around 2005 or 2006 when they decided Carowinds was going to be. No idea how legit that is. Someone mentioned in the 2020 thread how they should have invested their money into nicer coaster additions, like B&M and Intamin. Since they were trying to be an “immersive” park, we got TRTR and Backlot. Really their only good movie related immersive rides.  

I grew up only knowing KI as PKI. I was 12 when the park was sold, but I spent most of my summers there (grew up off Tylersville less than 2 miles away) so I remember the late Paramount days. 

They got FoF, Action Zone, and Nick Universe right. Everything else they did, unfortunately, turned to crap. 

3 minutes ago, Sorner said:

Very true @SonofBaconator. Paramount did keep KI alive and well despite some of their poor choices. I’ve read that they considered KI their flagship, until around 2005 or 2006 when they decided Carowinds was going to be. No idea how legit that is. Someone mentioned in the 2020 thread how they should have invested their money into nicer coaster additions, like B&M and Intamin. Since they were trying to be an “immersive” park, we got TRTR and Backlot. Really their only good movie related immersive rides.  

I grew up only knowing KI as PKI. I was 12 when the park was sold, but I spent most of my summers there (grew up off Tylersville less than 2 miles away) so I remember the late Paramount days. 

They got FoF, Action Zone, and Nick Universe right. Everything else they did, unfortunately, turned to crap. 

By “flagship” they were probably referring to where the corporate offices were located, which were related from KI to Carowinds. 

Paramount’s flagship park was Carowinds. It had been the flagship park of that group since 1986, when KECO moved corporate HQ to Carowinds from Kings Island.

20 minutes ago, KIghostguy said:

Paramount’s flagship park was Carowinds. It had been the flagship park of that group since 1986, when KECO moved corporate HQ to Carowinds from Kings Island.

Can someone tell me why KECO did this? They hadn’t sold Kings Island yet. Hard company to research to be quite honest.

10 minutes ago, Ben43065 said:

Can someone tell me why KECO did this? They hadn’t sold Kings Island yet. Hard company to research to be quite honest.

Carowinds was centrally-located to their parks and was deemed to have a strong transportation network, making it a good spot for corporate headquarters. The main reason was that four of the seven KECO corporate executives were from North Carolina.

3 minutes ago, KIghostguy said:

Carowinds was centrally-located to their parks and was deemed to have a strong transportation network, making it a good spot for corporate headquarters. The main reason was that four of the seven KECO corporate executives were from North Carolina.

I assume some of those executives came when Taft bought Carowinds in 1975? Also I don’t know if you know anything about this but was there any major reason why Kings Island was sold to Linder? I assumed it had something to do with the fact he bought out Taft that same year.

Good: Flight of Fear, Drop Zone, Kids Area(s), Royal Fountain,  recaR, Park Map, Fearfest, Production and Presentation of shows. No pay to cut system. Waterworks to Boomerang Bay. Season Pass prevews. TRAMS! 

Bad: End of Winterfest. Loss of Flying Eagles, Italian Job

Ugly: Son of Beast, Tomb Raider: The Ride. Park cleanliness and upkeep (later years). 

Hypothetically speaking- I wonder how KI would function as its own independent park as opposed to being part of a chain in today's world. Would it produce awesome rides and prosper or would it crumble?

I don't think it would do as well as without the help of Cedar Fair. 3 (soon to be 4) of our best coasters have come in the past 10 years because of Cedar Fair.

7 hours ago, Ben43065 said:

Also I don’t know if you know anything about this but was there any major reason why Kings Island was sold to Linder? I assumed it had something to do with the fact he bought out Taft that same year.

Exactly. Great American Financial bought out Taft, who had a 30% stake in Kings Entertainment Company. At the time, KECO was not looking for another corporate partner and the two companies got into a debate. The way to resolve this debate was to sell Great American Kings Island, with the stipulation KECO would be left on to manage the park.

6 hours ago, KI Guy said:

Good: Flight of Fear, Drop Zone, Kids Area(s), Royal Fountain,  recaR, Park Map, Fearfest, Production and Presentation of shows. No pay to cut system. Waterworks to Boomerang Bay. Season Pass prevews. TRAMS! 

Bad: End of Winterfest. Loss of Flying Eagles, Italian Job

Ugly: Son of Beast, Tomb Raider: The Ride. Park cleanliness and upkeep (later years). 

Totally forgot about Boomerang Bay and Fearfest. Those were good additions, even if BB was a retheme of the existing Waterworks. I don’t believe they were responsible for the trams or recar, and I wouldn’t give them the royal fountain since it was already there and they refurbished it. The park was disgusting in 2006.

6 hours ago, KI Guy said:

Good: Flight of Fear, Drop Zone, Kids Area(s), Royal Fountain,  recaR, Park Map, Fearfest, Production and Presentation of shows. No pay to cut system. Waterworks to Boomerang Bay. Season Pass prevews. TRAMS! 

Bad: End of Winterfest. Loss of Flying Eagles, Italian Job

Ugly: Son of Beast, Tomb Raider: The Ride. Park cleanliness and upkeep (later years). 

Backwards Racer, the Royal Fountain, and trams were all under Taft.

I really think the water park could use a redo. It is so spread out and nothing it worse walking on that hot concrete to get to the next slide. 

15 hours ago, flightoffear1996 said:

I really think the water park could use a redo. It is so spread out and nothing it worse walking on that hot concrete to get to the next slide. 

Yeah we are in desperate need of a great raft/tube thrill slide for 4 or more people, whether that be a Colossal Curl clone, water coaster, or toilet bowl/funnel.

On 5/24/2019 at 6:44 AM, KIghostguy said:

Backwards Racer, the Royal Fountain, and trams were all under Taft.

Yes, I'm aware. I meant keeping them. Cedar Fair has not.

46 minutes ago, KI Guy said:

Yes, I'm aware. I meant keeping them. Cedar Fair has not.

The Royal Fountain is still there, it’s just improved and reimagined.

20 minutes ago, KIghostguy said:

The Royal Fountain is still there, it’s just improved and reimagined.

It's definitely reimagined.

Something I applaud Paramount for was the ability to make cloned rides cool. Our 2nd suspended coaster had the exact same layout as Vortex at Canada's Wonderland, albeit smaller, but they themed it well to Top Gun; especially considering the ride was already set to debut before Paramount bought the park. They made clones with Flight of Fear but put it indoors and made it super exciting, the same can be said with IJST. 

I'd argue SEAS sorta does this to this day with their cloned rides. Their Sky Rocket IIs all have different names, themes, and color schemes that make them stand out from one another despite the fact that they're clones. I know Cedar Fair doesn't like to clone but I would be 100% alright with it if they made the theming, name, and color scheme completely custom to KI.

I'm not saying give us nothing but clones but I'd be interested to see KI theming mixed in with a small scale ride that isn't anywhere near us.

On 10/5/2017 at 10:10 PM, CoastersRZ said:

And Paramount did add some B&Ms.  They added what is now known as Afterburn at Carowinds (formerly Top Gun) in 1999.

Forgot where I saw it on YouTube but their is a video showing a B&M invert called Top Gun coming to Kings Island. We got the Arrow suspended coaster.