PKIDelirium Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 Construction Tour Report, January 16 2004 We got an early start fro the construction tour, leaving the house at 8:45 AM. We made good time, getting off of 71 onto Kings Mills Road at about 9:20 AM, and went to McDonalds for a quick bathroom stop. Then we went to the mini mart by the gas station on Columbia Road to get a thing of milk, and then we went down the access road for the tour at about 9:45. Well, we got in the WRONG LANE! We ended up at Security Post 2, where the picnic grove and maintenance facility entrance is. So we had to go all the way back out, and back up the proper lane, and parked in the employee lot right next to the handicapped parking area, and went up to wait for Jeff with the rest of the group. It wasn’t overly crowded, but there were about 20-25 people there, so it was a decent crowd considering the cold. I mean, IT’S COLD! I didn’t recognize anyone there, so we just waited for Jeff. He got there about 10:05, and quickly introduced a couple ACE reps and Maureen Booth from Marketing, and then we were off! According to Jeff, the camera policy for the trip is that “You can take pictures of anything you want!â€, so we were off! We went through the security post and across the park executive’s parking lot by the administration building, then through the open gat onto International Street. It looks weird! There’s a full-sized tractor-trailer sitting in front of Mandarin Cuisine, and everything in the gift shop windows are bagged up. From there, we went to the right, past Scooby’s exit and then entrance, and over onto HB Land. Jeff did a quick spiel about the various winter maintancing of the HB rides, and then we moved on toward Nick Central. Man, it looks funny! Taxi Jam’s cars are piled up in the station; the Pixie&Dixie’s Swings are completely gone, except fro the base, and everything else is missing its cars. Through Nick Central, I continued to take pictures as we proceeded down the path toward Boomerang Bay. Along the path, the trains from the Kiddy train ride are piled up, as well as the third train from SoB, stripped to its frame, the same way it was on the Nov. 2 tour. Along the way, we stopped in the picnic grove, and got quite a treat! Most of the coaster trains are under the picnic shelters in various states of disassembly. Sonny’s two operational trains are sitting under the Yogi Shelter along with Top Gun, Vortex, one AE train, and the seats from Delirium, which had been taken off of the ring. The other shelters contained the other two AE trains, the train from Reptar, the Flying Eagles, cars from some HB ride I couldn’t identify, and the Monster tubs. Jeff described the PTC woodie trains as currently being “Boxes and boxes of nuts, bolts, and piles of lap bars.†After circling around the picnic grove, we moved on to Boomerang Bay, crossing the train track, and continuing past Bonzai Pipeline, and regrouping in front of the Coolangotta Racers tower. We then went over by the Lazy River, and Jeff explained that the hillside there had been ripped out and would be new, better landscaping. He also said that all of the old slides were receiving shade structures over the platform to shield the lifeguards and the riders from the sun. Moving on, we gathered by the pieces for Jackaroo landing over by the Season Pass entrance, we moved on, going by the new smoker’s lounge being built on the right side of Sharkey’s Eats, and all the HUGE parts for Tasmanian Typhoon’s slide section in front of Sharkey’s, and walked on past sections for Coolangotta’s curving slides, and actually walked INTO the wave pool (drained, of course), and gathered in front of Taz. There, Jeff explained about the aspects of the ride, including the conveyor system for the inner tubes. He also solved a mystery: When the temperature is below 40 degrees, they cannot use the special caulk used to obtain a watertight seal on the slide sections, which is why they have been using a space-heated tent to assemble sections of Coolangotta Racer’s slides. Next, we started back across Boomerang Bay, back toward the train track. Along the way, we saw workers putting the roof on the addition to Trader Jake’s shop. We went back a different way, crossing the train track, and then crossing the path to HB, and walking into the service compound, seeing a bunch of old signs outside-appropriately-the sign and carpenter’s shop. From there, we continued through the backstage area and back through the security post, where there was a Q&A session. There were several big things covered here, including: -SoB’s “Rose Bowl†helix is getting completely retracked using new construction methods tested on The Beast’s first turn. -Coney Mall is getting a makeover, including new paint jobs for Scrambler, which will be yellow, and Zephyr, which is getting the murals around the top restored. As Jeff said, “Your favorite rides will be different!â€. So then, after some more questions, we all headed out with full memory cards on our cameras after an excellent tour! Well worth the VERY cold weather! see pictures Right Here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Morgan Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Nice report! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunts Rock Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Very nice report! Enjoyed reading it and looking at the pictures. Really weird seeing the huge fountain drained like that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIDelirium Posted February 4, 2004 Author Share Posted February 4, 2004 Yeah, that was funny! You can't see all those lights under there when it's full! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flightoffear1996 Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 Im very angery not getting to go on any of these tours they sound like fun. One thing I would like to ask. How do you find out about these tours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoddaH1994 Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 Im very angery not getting to go on any of these tours they sound like fun. One thing I would like to ask. How do you find out about these tours PKIC found out because Jeff Siebert e-mailed me... I suppose he was hoping that we could get the word out to the rest of you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LvegAs51s Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 Wow those picures are great that make me want to go up to the park even more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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