International street makeover

[BeeastFarmer]

Ok, I'm still on team pedestal, but what can I say besides "wow." International Street is incredible. The fountain looks much better than I pictured.

Thank you, Kings Island for listening.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[139Signal27]

6 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

Ok, I'm still on team pedestal, but what can I say besides "wow." International Street is incredible. The fountain looks much better than I pictured.

Thank you, Kings Island for listening.
 

I don't think the nozzles and lights have anything to do with things said here. Just parts that weren't delivered or installed in time.

[BeeastFarmer]

I don't think the nozzles and lights have anything to do with things said here. Just parts that weren't delivered or installed in time.

Not specifically here, but what people have asked for over the years.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[sixohdieselrage]

Here is the beloved pedestals before the renovation. This was from January 5th. 

[Sorner]

20 hours ago, sixohdieselrage said:

Here is the beloved pedestals before the renovation. This was from January 5th. 

I miss those pedestals! The fountains look great though! The new nozzles have greatly improved them. I am very impressed with the way they look now. @BoddaH1994 keeps hinting at more and I am patiently waiting to see what else they could possibly do to improve them! 

[KI Guy]

@BoddaH1994 any chance the pedestals come back? 

The fountains are nice,  but to me they're just generic in comparison to the iconic pedestal fountains. 

Also the higher spray height mists people on International Street.

 

[coasterfanatic83]

I was able to visit for the first time this weekend. I believe that it is an upgrade, but it is different. I love the new colors on the buildings and the new pavers. I like the potential for some really cool things to happen with the fountain. I  will wait to see what happens with the fountains, but for now it feels kind of meh. They feel underwhelming right now. And I am consistently pro-tree in amusement parks, so I will miss the fully mature trees that we had. Especially during Winterfest.

On an excitement scale of 1-10, I currently give the upgrades a 6. It looks good, and we will see what happens once everything is up to speed.

[BoddaH1994]

3 hours ago, Sorner said:

I miss those pedestals! The fountains look great though! The new nozzles have greatly improved them. I am very impressed with the way they look now. @BoddaH1994 keeps hinting at more and I am patiently waiting to see what else they could possibly do to improve them! 

The park has made their intentions abundantly clear about a choreographed show starting Memorial Day weekend.  I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that I've seen a concept video or anything like that, but I am familiar with a lot of the products used in the creation of the new Royal Fountain and I can tell you that what you're seeing now is pretty much just the old program through different nozzles.  People have been disappointed - and rightfully so, I think - but I would encourage you to hold your judgement until after the project is completed.  Imagine buying a brand new 4k TV and there are just old episodes of "I Love Lucy" on TV.  That's where we were last week.  Yeah, it's different, but you might as well have kept your old tube TV.  This week is like when you finally got your DVD player to work with it.  Yeah, it's better but whatever.  Memorial Day weekend you're dropping in a BluRay and the surround sound is blaring. That's when you can see what this puppy can do!

3 hours ago, KI Guy said:

@BoddaH1994 any chance the pedestals come back? 

The fountains are nice,  but to me they're just generic in comparison to the iconic pedestal fountains. 

Also the higher spray height mists people on International Street.

 

Hard to answer a question that starts with, "any chance?" because forever is a very long time.  

Are they coming back to the Royal Fountain?  High unlikely.  I mean, maybe in 20 years they would put new ones in as a nostalgic thing, but not anytime soon.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not defending their decision to remove them.  I'll miss them too.  I wish they could be integrated into the new setup, but clearly they couldn't be.  Life goes on.

Also, to squash any other rumor that may arise from all of this: the pedestals were not removed because of the ice skating rink.  They were not removed for cost cutting.  They weren't removed because they needed to be refurbished.  They also weren't removed because Koontz, or Scheid, or Ouimet, or Zimmer or one person's preference.  The fountain was renovated.  They went in a new direction.  The pedestals had to go to make way for what they wanted to do with the fountain.  Any other reasoning can be quashed. 

[BeeastFarmer]

I have exciting news!  I have got an exclusive video of what the new capabilities of the Royal Fountain are!  See the video:

Disclaimer:  This post is, of course, parody.  Video credit to William Coldiron.

[Sorner]

1 hour ago, BoddaH1994 said:

The park has made their intentions abundantly clear about a choreographed show starting Memorial Day weekend.  I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that I've seen a concept video or anything like that, but I am familiar with a lot of the products used in the creation of the new Royal Fountain and I can tell you that what you're seeing now is pretty much just the old program through different nozzles.  People have been disappointed - and rightfully so, I think - but I would encourage you to hold your judgement until after the project is completed.  Imagine buying a brand new 4k TV and there are just old episodes of "I Love Lucy" on TV.  That's where we were last week.  Yeah, it's different, but you might as well have kept your old tube TV.  This week is like when you finally got your DVD player to work with it.  Yeah, it's better but whatever.  Memorial Day weekend you're dropping in a BluRay and the surround sound is blaring. That's when you can see what this puppy can do!

Still awesome to hear! I cannot wait to see what they will look like Memorial Day weekend. I expect lots of videos from everyone, I can’t make it back to the park until probably mid June. 

[TombRaiderFTW]

16 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

I have exciting news!  I have got an exclusive video of what the new capabilities of the Royal Fountain are!  See the video:

[video]

Disclaimer:  This post is, of course, parody.  Video credit to William Coldiron.

Your post reads like a joke. As a HUGE fan of KD's Crypt, I don't understand.

Excuse me while I daydream about us having their Crypt... I'd even take it on top of the Royal Fountains if that's the asking price.

[BeeastFarmer]

4 minutes ago, TombRaiderFTW said:

Your post reads like a joke. As a HUGE fan of KD's Crypt, I don't understand.

Excuse me while I daydream about us having their Crypt... I'd even take it on top of the Royal Fountains if that's the asking price.

I don't ride those kind of rides, but I LOVED KD's The Crypt!  The music, the fire, the water, just the atmosphere was fun.  In the long term, I think KD was the winner with this ride.

[riptombraider]

17 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

I have exciting news!  I have got an exclusive video of what the new capabilities of the Royal Fountain are!  See the video:

Disclaimer:  This post is, of course, parody.  Video credit to William Coldiron.

and now I'm depressed. I will never comprehend why on earth KI got rid of this ride just to let the building sit empty. #RIPTombRaider

[BoddaH1994]

1 hour ago, riptombraider said:

and now I'm depressed. I will never comprehend why on earth KI got rid of this ride just to let the building sit empty. #RIPTombRaider

They didn't get rid of it just to let the building sit empty.  They got rid of it because it was a mechanical mess.  It experienced a lot of downtime, and the original ride program was hell on the actual inner workings of the ride.  

The debate as to what to do with the building is a valid one, but the ride itself had to go.  I miss it too.

[Stoan]

On 5/6/2019 at 4:36 PM, BoddaH1994 said:

They didn't get rid of it just to let the building sit empty.  They got rid of it because it was a mechanical mess.  It experienced a lot of downtime, and the original ride program was hell on the actual inner workings of the ride.  

The debate as to what to do with the building is a valid one, but the ride itself had to go.  I miss it too.

I thought the mechanical issues really only came up after they removed the back row of seats? I really did enjoy the original ride though, it was a nice change of pace. You get all the flips and chaos but not the super g-forces.

[lifetimecoaster]

The last row of seats was removed to try to fix the extreme forces that the ride was experiencing. If I recall correctly, the ride wasn't in such bad shape running as Tomb Raider, it was more when they switched it over to Crypt, and it was doing more inversions, that it was trying to shake itself apart. 

[Creed Bratton]

It definitely started with Tomb Raider. 

[lifetimecoaster]

"During the ride’s first season as The Crypt, guests were stunned. The front row of the three-rowed vehicle had been chopped clean off, reducing the capacity to be a bit closer to a typical, carnival Top Spin. That, we can imagine, was on purpose, allowing the once lumbering, theatrical vehicle to instead perform the more agile, nauseating nine-flip ride cycle of a carnival ride. And it did, flipping around in total darkness with no special effects to the “uncha-uncha” of electronic club music."

 

source: https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20160207/31467/tomb-raider-how-one-americas-best-ever-themed-rides-was-buried-good?page=3

 

I thought I had read somewhere that the third row was removed during Crypt. This info could be false, as all info from the internet is. 

[TombRaiderFTW]

The row was removed during the transition from Tomb Raider: The Ride to The Crypt, yes.

The ride's mechanical problems pre-dated that. If I'm not mistaken, the ride spent a significant portion of one season waiting for parts from HUSS in Germany? (Or was that Delirium? I dunno, it was in the years before I got into the coaster life.)

Based on the changes The Crypt underwent over its 4 seasons, it would appear that the original plan was to give it an intense cycle not unlike what Kings Dominion's Crypt currently does and turn it into a thrill ride. It kept that cycle for a little over a year before it changed to a MUCH tamer cycle where the gondola itself barely did any swinging. It would rotate like a Ferris wheel, then lock the gondola for one rotation so you went upside down, then stop and repeat in the other direction. That was it.

The Giant Top Spin was kind of a maintenance disaster throughout its existence, but I'd speculate based on the changes that the intense Crypt cycle definitely didn't help things.

Still weirdly miss hearing the resistor bank screech while waiting in line for Beast, though.

[lifetimecoaster]

 That ride was fun at TR:TR. I don't think I ever rode it as The Crypt. 

 

 I'm just currently really amped, because in 10 days, I get to make my first visit for the season. With all the buzz this year, I'm really excited to get to see the park again!! 

[teenageninja]

5 minutes ago, TombRaiderFTW said:

The row was removed during the transition from Tomb Raider: The Ride to The Crypt, yes.

The ride's mechanical problems pre-dated that. If I'm not mistaken, the ride spent a significant portion of one season waiting for parts from HUSS in Germany? (Or was that Delirium? I dunno, it was in the years before I got into the coaster life.)

Based on the changes The Crypt underwent over its 4 seasons, it would appear that the original plan was to give it an intense cycle not unlike what Kings Dominion's Crypt currently does and turn it into a thrill ride. It kept that cycle for a little over a year before it changed to a MUCH tamer cycle where the gondola itself barely did any swinging. It would rotate like a Ferris wheel, then lock the gondola for one rotation so you went upside down, then stop and repeat in the other direction. That was it.

The Giant Top Spin was kind of a maintenance disaster throughout its existence, but I'd speculate based on the changes that the intense Crypt cycle definitely didn't help things.

Still weirdly miss hearing the resistor bank screech while waiting in line for Beast, though.

I think you are thinking of Delirium.  However, TR:TR and The Crypt suffered a lot of downtime in general.

[KIghostguy]

Tomb Raider: The Ride did not have as intense a cycle as 2008 The Crypt, but the gondola had an extra row which made it heavier.

It had a very large maintenance cost, lots of downtime, and it was ultimately deemed to be a potential safety hazard by management and closed. 

[BoddaH1994]

13 hours ago, KIghostguy said:

Tomb Raider: The Ride did not have as intense a cycle as 2008 The Crypt, but the gondola had an extra row which made it heavier.

It had a very large maintenance cost, lots of downtime, and it was ultimately deemed to be a potential safety hazard by management and closed. 

To be fair, no one has ever said that it was a safety hazard. Downtime, maintenance, and the long time viability of the ride were all factors in its removal. 

I have friends who worked in maintenance who told me that the ride would skew (arms being out of sincere) because one side was heavier than the other. When talking to others at the park, the consensus seemed to be that the ride was too heavy in general. Removal of part of the gondola was supposed to remedy that, but clearly it didn’t work.

Did anyone on here ride it in 2008? The front row was so intense that it made me black out. The “new” ride program the next year was very disappointing. 

[befat]

On 5/9/2019 at 3:06 AM, BoddaH1994 said:

To be fair, no one has ever said that it was a safety hazard. Downtime, maintenance, and the long time viability of the ride were all factors in its removal. 

I have friends who worked in maintenance who told me that the ride would skew (arms being out of sincere) because one side was heavier than the other. When talking to others at the park, the consensus seemed to be that the ride was too heavy in general. Removal of part of the gondola was supposed to remedy that, but clearly it didn’t work.

Did anyone on here ride it in 2008? The front row was so intense that it made me black out. The “new” ride program the next year was very disappointing. 

When Tomb Raider opened, the gondola held 77 seats.  After a few seasons, around 7 seats were removed from each row on the unload side of the gondola in an attempt to balance the gondola.  Since this didn't completely solve the issue, the entire front row was removed.  Changes were frequently made to the ride program but the intense maneuvers would ultimately cause the ride to fault even after all of the changes to the gondola.  Basically, it was a top spin that couldn't top spin so it was removed.  The ride itself never lived up to pre-show anyway.

[TOPGUN1993]

So International Street, has anyone posted about the ongoing updates week to week? 

These new details on the Spanish building (sweet spot) just showed up last weekend. The new hand painted signage looks amazing, great job KI.

Looks like the old sign that use to be in that location.

[standbyme]

I love all of the detailing...thanks to everyone at the park responsible.

[brent]

Great detail, but please relamp the edge lighting. LEDs should last longer than they seem to be. I’m also a bit surprised that the light cords  weren’t “cleaned up” a bit more with cord covers and generally disguised a bit more since I assume they were removed to paint over the off season?  Also a bit more decorative waste cans would’ve looked great. Like  go back to the original designs just on I street. 

[FoF96"]

On 5/9/2019 at 3:06 AM, BoddaH1994 said:

To be fair, no one has ever said that it was a safety hazard. Downtime, maintenance, and the long time viability of the ride were all factors in its removal. 

I have friends who worked in maintenance who told me that the ride would skew (arms being out of sincere) because one side was heavier than the other. When talking to others at the park, the consensus seemed to be that the ride was too heavy in general. Removal of part of the gondola was supposed to remedy that, but clearly it didn’t work.

Did anyone on here ride it in 2008? The front row was so intense that it made me black out. The “new” ride program the next year was very disappointing. 

It was definitely hard to ride that year.  There is actually a video of that cycle. It’s a bit hard to see but when the gondola gets under the light you can definitely see “oh crap that is forceful”

The 2008 cycle

[Imperial79]

Has there been any new flowers or shrubs planted near the fountain yet?  Since the park has started work on the floral clock and other things, just wondering what it looks like and anyone can take pics. 

[Number5IsAlive]

The fountain "upgrade" was certainly botched if you ask me, I would much rather look at the old (actual) fountains. They took something majestic, and made it look like a pond at an apartment complex.

 

I don't want to be all negative, so I will say that the new antique cars looks incredible.