Top Gun

[JAHill]

I've not been the one to be correct all the time, but I wouldn't like to see Top Gun go. It is rather fun, and the line can get short!

I like the idea of CF using theming, and I really like to fog effect at the station somebody mentioned

Overall, TG is a great ride and shouldn't be removed.. renamed yeah, but removed no

[DiSab]

I love Top Gun. That first drop is extremely fun, and the fact that the ride travels the contours of the land makes it even more exciting. I would really hate to see it go.

On the idea of "Downtown KI," do you realize how much money it would take to level that valley out enough to build a pavilion on it? Answer - much more than the park has. It just isn't very practical at all. But I would love to see the theming get an update and bring the station back to what it was when the ride first opened. I personally think that it is only a matter of time before Cedar Fair does so. Right now, I think they are more concerned with rebranding the park and making the necessary modifications to get the park up to speed (i.e. adding some food stalls, shows, and of course fixing SoB). But in a few years, I can see Top Gun get a nice face lift back to what it once was.

[Outdoor Man]

I was a bit suprised to see that CF did not do any painting to TG. It has been a few years since that twisted steel has seen any TLC. I would be willing to be that a re-theme is in the works though. I'd be willing to bet that the Top Gun theme (or at least name) will go away in time for opening day 2008. Moving the coaster elsewhere really isn't an option because it was manufactured to fit that specific terrain. I like the idea of a re-theme to "The Bat." get all the old theming gear out... and it is in the woods, so the area works too. Or go with the original "Thunder Road".... not sure I can visualize the theming there.

The whole "downtonw KI" idea is intriguing. But my thought is that Kings Island is not enough of a "vacation destination" to support such an investment.

[KIfan73]

It is kind of sad the condition that TG is in these days. I rode it a couple months after it opened. It was a really neat experience. Everybody in flight suits, all the effects that made the (2-story) queue look like a bomber, and, if I remember right, even fog??

[Vortex]

Give Cedar Fair some time with the TLC. Paramount did not do a good job keeping themes up. You think a movie studio of all places would. Kings Island is not that big of a park its about the same size as Disneyland. Kings Island still has alot of area in side the park with nothing on it. All we have to do is look up north too see if a down town area would work.

[WooferBearATL]

According to RCDB.com, Arrow made 10 suspended coasters. 7 of them are still operating. The 3 that are not are: The Bat- we all know the story behind it's removal, XLR-8- SF AstroWorld- the park has closed, and a park in Japan that has an "accident" and the ride never reopened.

http://www.rcdb.com/ir.htm?order=15&contact=6&page=5

Rides like TG have their place in the park. It may not be thrilling to all. But for some kids, one of their first rollercoaster experiances is TG. It's not intimidating like Vortex or SoB, but it's also not in NickCentral.

This big kid loves Top Gun.

It certainly has it's place at the park and I'm sure will for some time to come!

(I know, it's a run on sentence - but it's my B. Day! <G>)

[The Interpreter]

Give Cedar Fair some time with the TLC. Paramount did not do a good job keeping themes up. You think a movie studio of all places would. Kings Island is not that big of a park its about the same size as Disneyland. Kings Island still has alot of area in side the park with nothing on it. All we have to do is look up north too see if a down town area would work.

Kings Island is a LOT bigger than Disneyland. In fact, all the original Six Flags parks (except Astroworld) were bigger than Disneyland, and much closer to home! (remember that ad campaign?)

{The magic lands and public areas of Disneyland occupy only 85 acres.}

[corn4ahead]

It would be cool to see rethemeing of TG.

[Kennywooddude]

Here what they could do:

THey should give it a total rehaul, retheme it and purchase new Vekoma Floorless Trains. Chestingtons Adventure did the same with their Suspended coaster and billed it as a new experience. I know the the countour of TOp Gun, it could give a unique ride.

The TOp Gun themeing needs to go...it was an ok name seeing as most people knew what the movie was when it opened back in 92 but it's bascially a 25yr old movie.

[Braves0511]

I don't want to see TG go anywhere, I think theres enough room elsewhere at the moment to fill without getting rid of things yet...Especially "If it ain't broke..." However, if it did go, i think it'd be cool to have a nice terrain woodie back there...such as Beast, but it doesn't even have to be huge or record breaking...just enjoyable and exciting.

[ScootZilla]

Well you cant move top gun even if they wanted to right now.With SOB down and who knows if it will reopen.It would be a very bad move if so.I say retheme or add all the props back.For the retheme add the floorless cars back paint it black and the seats silver.Plus didnt it have florrless seats that faced each other when the ride opened in the 90s i think tit did when i rode.

[DeLorean Rider]

...On a buisy day in the summer, Disney World Resort can have over One MILLION people on property.

Just out of curiousity, how did you come up with that number? If all 33,000 Disney hotel rooms were 100% occupied with four guests each, and each park contained 50,000 people (different from those people occupying the rooms), and you add in 60,000 WDW employees (all at work at the same time) I still can't get anywhere close to that number...

Their attendance would be up around 300 million if that was so.

I said on a crowded day not 300 days out of the year.

Also if you watch the modern marvels episode about disney, at least when I watched it, when it went to commercial it said: on the most crowded days at disney world, how many people can be on property? Then when it came back it said that as many as a million people can be on property.

Also so you know the capacity of the parks is around 100,000 people each.<- that is from DisneyWorldTrivia.com. Also in 2006 Disney's Parks attendance, was:

1 Magic Kingdom (WDW) - 16.64 Million

2 Disneyland - 14.73 Million

3 Tokyo Disneyland - 12.90 Million

4 Tokyo DisneySea - 12.10 Million

5 Disneyland Paris - 10.60 Million

6 Epcot - 10.46 Million

7 Disney-MGM Studios - 9.10 Million

8 Disney's Animal Kingdom - 8.91 Million

9 Universal Studios Japan - 8.50 Million

10 Everland (South Korea) - 7.50 Million

13 Disney's California Adventure - 5.95 Million

http://www.connectingindustry.com/pdfs/TEA...ttendance06.pdf

Also a good friend of mine went to disney world on christmas last year, got to the Magic Kingdom at 7:30am and by 9:30 they closed the gates. Every park was at capacity and downtown disney was absolutely swampped.

[PKIVortex]

Well you cant move top gun even if they wanted to right now.With SOB down and who knows if it will reopen.It would be a very bad move if so.I say retheme or add all the props back.For the retheme add the floorless cars back paint it black and the seats silver.Plus didnt it have florrless seats that faced each other when the ride opened in the 90s i think tit did when i rode.

No Top Gun uses the same trains it did when it opened in 1993, with the exception of a few new cars because of what happened a few years ago, with a bucket truck. Top Gun never used floorless trains or cars that faced each other, you must be thinking of Face/Off.

[bear295]

I likewise would not want to see TG removed. It is such a fun ride. Myself, I like the constant changes in intensity of the ride. As far as I am concerned, it is a VERY viable ride that needs MUCH maintenance attention. Such as painting, cleaning up the station area and revamping the whole queue area.

I was out of the area when it was first put in, so I didn't see the original themeing. I have seen several photos. It looked great. Something similar, or reinstituting that theme, would be a great improvement. Whoever decided to paint the entire structure that gray/silver-gray should have been shot. The original red and light flat gray (only seen from photos) looked fabulous. I would bet that the single color scheme was a cost saving move. The whole thing really does need extensive refurbishing though. NOT REMOVAL!!

[hauntguy]

TG is probably the best suspended coaster one could ride. Why? It's FAST!!! TG is one of the fastest suspended coasters around. I know CP has a suspended coaster, but I've heard people say it's not as good as TG. I'll just have to ride it and see for myself. But I don't see TG going anywhere for a LONG time! -Hauntguy

[jzarley]

...On a buisy day in the summer, Disney World Resort can have over One MILLION people on property.

Just out of curiousity, how did you come up with that number? If all 33,000 Disney hotel rooms were 100% occupied with four guests each, and each park contained 50,000 people (different from those people occupying the rooms), and you add in 60,000 WDW employees (all at work at the same time) I still can't get anywhere close to that number...

Their attendance would be up around 300 million if that was so.

I said on a crowded day not 300 days out of the year.

Also if you watch the modern marvels episode about disney, at least when I watched it, when it went to commercial it said: on the most crowded days at disney world, how many people can be on property? Then when it came back it said that as many as a million people can be on property.

Also so you know the capacity of the parks is around 100,000 people each.<- that is from DisneyWorldTrivia.com. Also in 2006 Disney's Parks attendance, was:

1 Magic Kingdom (WDW) - 16.64 Million

2 Disneyland - 14.73 Million

3 Tokyo Disneyland - 12.90 Million

4 Tokyo DisneySea - 12.10 Million

5 Disneyland Paris - 10.60 Million

6 Epcot - 10.46 Million

7 Disney-MGM Studios - 9.10 Million

8 Disney's Animal Kingdom - 8.91 Million

9 Universal Studios Japan - 8.50 Million

10 Everland (South Korea) - 7.50 Million

13 Disney's California Adventure - 5.95 Million

http://www.connectingindustry.com/pdfs/TEA...ttendance06.pdf

Also a good friend of mine went to disney world on christmas last year, got to the Magic Kingdom at 7:30am and by 9:30 they closed the gates. Every park was at capacity and downtown disney was absolutely swampped.

Actually, the MK has a capacity of 100K...all four of the WDW parks cannot accomodate that many guests (Disney-MGM's capacity is maybe half that...) Here's the actual reference from the Disney trivia site:

"The Magic Kingdom has the capacity for 100000 guests, although Disney often will close the parking lots when 75000 guests have entered the park"

Adding up the total attendance for the WDW parks (#s 1, 6, 7, & 8) on your list above gives a total park attendance of roughly 44,000,000 which averages out to about 124,000 people in all four parks per day. (Keeping in mind that many resort guests visit multiple parks in a day...)

But, let's run the math to the extreme case...let's say that each park could hold 100,000 guests (and none of those 100K in any park visit any other park), and all 33,000 hotels rooms were 100% booked with 4 guests each (and none of the people in the hotels are at a park), all 60,000 WDW employees are at work at the same time, and there are 100,000 extra people at other random spots on the property....even with that extreme (and impossible) scenario, you still don't come within 400,000 of hitting one million people on property at a time. That would essentially be the same as putting the entire city population of Dallas, TX (and then some) in an area a fraction of the size (because while the WDW property is 29K acres, roughly only 20% of it is actually developed...)

I'm not doubting what you remember from a TV show, and I could probably believe 1M people on Disney property worldwide in a given day, but even if you run the math in the most extreme case it just doesn't add up to 1,000,000 on property at WDW at the same time. But, if anyone else can make that math work, I'm certainly open-minded enough to be convinced otherwise...

[AdventureExpresser]

I do love Top Gun, it gives me that rush of speed I need on a coaster, my biggest gripe about it and has been a gripe since I rode it on opening day back in 93 was the fact that it was too short of a ride. I guess The Bat spoiled me with 2 lift hills, but needless to say I hope they do NOT dismantle it, in the past you could almost always guess which rides were on the chopping block because they seemed to be the most neglected and here in the past couple of years I thought for sure that would be the one go, especially being so close to the campground and we watched it go bye bye. I know others do not agree with this but I absolutely hated the theming of the Action Zone, too much concrete and metal for me, I always thought the theming of Adventure Village was the best thing the park had going for it, from the restaurant and gift shops looking like actual African Huts, to the monkeys on the little island in front of the Screamin Demon, and landscaping for this type of theme can just go to extemes, and to be honest one of the greatest things CF could do for us would be bring back The Cobra, I don't want some worlds biggest standup with smoothness and speed, I like the original for its tightness of track and the attitude it had which made it a one-of-a-kind, but I know that is just dreaming.

[DiSab]

TG is probably the best suspended coaster one could ride. Why? It's FAST!!! TG is one of the fastest suspended coasters around. I know CP has a suspended coaster, but I've heard people say it's not as good as TG. I'll just have to ride it and see for myself. But I don't see TG going anywhere for a LONG time! -Hauntguy

Iron Dragon at CP is fun, but its nowhere near as fast as Top Gun. But it is a lot longer (2 lift hills), and the pretzel-knot finale through the mist in the lake is awesome. But Top Gun is better in terms of speed and intensity. Of course, Iron Dragon lost a lot of its thrill when Dragster was being built, as a lot of the trees along the fastest stretch of the ride were removed for the new station. Previously it had appeared as if the trains would swing into the trees, kind of like Top Gun does coming out of the valley and over by SoB.

[PKIVortex]

Iron Dragon or what other like to gall it Draggin Iron is a pretty good ride if you never rode it before, but it doesn't compare with the thrills of today's mega coasters.

[bear295]

TG is probably the best suspended coaster one could ride. Why? It's FAST!!! TG is one of the fastest suspended coasters around. I know CP has a suspended coaster, but I've heard people say it's not as good as TG. I'll just have to ride it and see for myself. But I don't see TG going anywhere for a LONG time! -Hauntguy

CP suspended is Iron Dragon. It goes out over a "lagoon" that used to have fog coming up under the train. Don't recall seeing it that last time I was there. Iron Dragon (ID) is slower than TG. According to RCDB, Iron Dragon lists at 40mph and TG lists at 51mph. ID didn't appear to have a lot of ridership when I was at CP last May. Circa 1987, it's usefulness may be about at an end. TG though, I find still a blast. Good to excellent ridership. I agree and HOPE that it is not going anywhere except to get new paint.

Bear295

[The Interpreter]

Iron Dragon, like the Big Bad Wolf AND Top Gun, is an excellent coaster to start the wee coaster fans on! I'd be very sorry to see any of the three leave us.

[ScootZilla]

Well you cant move top gun even if they wanted to right now.With SOB down and who knows if it will reopen.It would be a very bad move if so.I say retheme or add all the props back.For the retheme add the floorless cars back paint it black and the seats silver.Plus didnt it have florrless seats that faced each other when the ride opened in the 90s i think tit did when i rode.

No Top Gun uses the same trains it did when it opened in 1993, with the exception of a few new cars because of what happened a few years ago, with a bucket truck. Top Gun never used floorless trains or cars that faced each other, you must be thinking of Face/Off.

Sorry i rode TG back in the 90s when it first cam eout i was only 12 at the time sorry for the mistake.

[slyvoxjr]

I have rode both TG and ID. Both have their good points. I like ID for its length but it does not compare to the speed of TG. If TG was longer there would be absolutely no comparison, TG would win hands down.

[Browntggrr]

CP suspended is Iron Dragon. It goes out over a "lagoon" that used to have fog coming up under the train. Don't recall seeing it that last time I was there.

The fog effect that you refer to is sprayed out from the main support columns in the pretzel. The fog is usually not operating until warmer weather comes around, which could be the middle of June on the shores of Lake Erie.

There was rust spots on the columns themselves after the years of use, but was painted over by a violent Ronald McDonald and his crew.