disco2000 Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 5 minutes ago, FUN&ONLY! said: I am starting to question if Diamondback will be ready for Opening Day. I drive past Kings Island every once in a while, and it appears that no progress has been made on Diamondback’s repaint in a few weeks. The lift hill supports are still yellow at the top, and the drop is still two shades of red (half of it being the older color). No other hills appear to have been touched at all. It looked the exact same the first week of March. I know that crews could be focused on painting sections of the ride lower to the ground, but there are only so many elements that cannot be seen above the tree line. Right now, it seems like 90% of the ride still needs fresh paint, which seems like it poses a threat to Diamondback opening in less than 30 days. Maybe poor choice of wording or deliberate, but in the passholder preview announcement they do say look at Diamondback (and not ride), but they do say ride the new Racer track...I guess we find out soon which it is LOL... Gold, Platinum and Prestige Passholder Preview Day also offers the first look at newly painted attractions like Diamondback, first rides on the south side of The Racer which received over 1,000 feet of track replacement work over the winter, new food items, games and merchandise. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUN&ONLY! Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 One thing that I find crazy is how Kings Island is not making as big of a deal about the new track on The Racer, the supposed new signature restaurant replacing Skyline on International Street, or even Diamondback’s repaint. I know Adventure Port is opening this year, but these park improvements could probably generate at least some buzz. I remember when Kings Island retracked Blue Racer’s TURNAROUND and the local news was buzzing with stories of a smoother ride experience even though it was a relatively small improvement. It also seems like there more more blog posts about retracting updates in the past. When Kings Dominion announced Grain and Grill was replacing Panda Express, they released concept art. I feel like if the park could generate a lot more buzz about improvements like these if it wanted to. Even though a repainted Diamondback might not make someone jump in their car and immediately head to Kings Island, it will at least put Kings Island in their head, and maybe they will think about visiting. I guess news stories about Kings Island “parting ways with a 27 million dollar attraction” make people think of Kings Island, too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robintodd Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 8 hours ago, FUN&ONLY! said: I am starting to question if Diamondback will be ready for Opening Day. I drive past Kings Island every once in a while, and it appears that no progress has been made on Diamondback’s repaint in a few weeks. The lift hill supports are still yellow at the top, and the drop is still two shades of red (half of it being the older color). No other hills appear to have been touched at all. It looked the exact same the first week of March. I know that crews could be focused on painting sections of the ride lower to the ground, but there are only so many elements that cannot be seen above the tree line. Right now, it seems like 90% of the ride still needs fresh paint, which seems like it poses a threat to Diamondback opening in less than 30 days. Hard to tell how much is painted. If it's only the lift hill supports, that could be done in a day or two. I think they can open it without the painting complete. Since KI is only open weekends for the first month or so there is plenty of time during the week to get it done. We will know soon enough when they start testing it in a week or two. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJSkyFoxx Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 It will be so nice to see Diamondback with a fresh coat of paint. I know I am not the only one who has been saying for years that it needed some love. And always great to see classic coasters such as The Racer get some TLC. I really hope next year that Banshee will be the next repaint though, especially with her turning 10 in '24. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klabergian Empire Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 Looking at the cam rn, the trains are out 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawaiian Coasters 325 Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 6 hours ago, robintodd said: Hard to tell how much is painted. If it's only the lift hill supports, that could be done in a day or two. I think they can open it without the painting complete. Since KI is only open weekends for the first month or so there is plenty of time during the week to get it done. We will know soon enough when they start testing it in a week or two. If I remember correctly Racer's repaint wasn't done opening weekend. In fact, I don't think it was completely done until like May and they kept operating Racer and used time the park was closed during the week to finish it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TombRaiderFTW Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 17 hours ago, FUN&ONLY! said: One thing that I find crazy is how Kings Island is not making as big of a deal about the new track on The Racer, the supposed new signature restaurant replacing Skyline on International Street, or even Diamondback’s repaint. I know Adventure Port is opening this year, but these park improvements could probably generate at least some buzz. I remember when Kings Island retracked Blue Racer’s TURNAROUND and the local news was buzzing with stories of a smoother ride experience even though it was a relatively small improvement. It also seems like there more more blog posts about retracting updates in the past. When Kings Dominion announced Grain and Grill was replacing Panda Express, they released concept art. I feel like if the park could generate a lot more buzz about improvements like these if it wanted to. Even though a repainted Diamondback might not make someone jump in their car and immediately head to Kings Island, it will at least put Kings Island in their head, and maybe they will think about visiting. I guess news stories about Kings Island “parting ways with a 27 million dollar attraction” make people think of Kings Island, too. You're not wrong, and it's making me wonder if something is going on behind the scenes at KI, CP, CF corporate, or all 3. The late announcement of Adventure Port plus the fact that it's not looking like it'll be ready for opening day makes me think that something shifted at the last moment in 2022 that made AP happen. Racer is getting a significant retrack and not much has been said about it, which is odd for the park. The International Street Skyline and Chick-Fil-A, which have been there for many years, are being replaced with... something, and that has never been truly addressed except passively by updating the food options on the website--Coney Bar-B-Que got more coverage, despite being announced super late, IIRC. It's like every change for 2023 has taken KI by surprise. Meanwhile, CP just had an enthusiast event where most of the announcements were, "Remember [thing]? Well, [thing] is going away!" If the oddity of 2023 had just been limited to CP, I would sooner guess it's something to do with their new GM... but it's not. I wonder if someone at the top of the chain changed recently. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivertown Rider Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 Log Flume update: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIghostguy Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 Looks great. Love the detail work. Now, let’s bring back the vintage logo on the front of each log! That would be a great finishing touch. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIDelirium Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 Diamondback track paint has entered the Mystic cam view. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEmoore Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 On 3/2/2023 at 8:29 AM, johnjniehaus said: I really hope Adventure Port is ready for opening day and if someone would like to fill me in on the reasons it wouldn't/the projects that still need to be completed I'd appreciate it. In my mind I don't see how assembling a few flats (which takes only a few days) and finishing the ques and walking paths could take very long. They have already repainted some of the buildings and as for AdEx they have kept it kind of hushed so I'm not sure what is going on there. I know this isn't 1971/72 but I believe that they moved all of the Coney Island flats, Bavarian Beetle coaster, Skyride, and Log Flume to KI in about a months time and then spent the next 5-6 months assembling it all. If they could do that 50 years ago I just can't see how two flats, refresh on restaurants/area theming, and enhancement on a coaster could take all that long.... The main thing that could cause it to open late is if the operations department is handed the rides too close to opening day, there is no way they could get the cycles required by state done and get everyone trained in time which could cause a delay, but hopefully it opens with the park or at most a weekend or two after opening weekend 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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