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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/06/2016 in all areas

  1. Another great article from @bkroz on TPT... http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20160302/31662/son-beast
    6 points
  2. Firehawk FIRST. Unless you want to spend needless time waiting, waiting, waiting... First thing after the park opens. Really. And you will get a LOT more replies if you stop the public poll nonsense. EDIT: Public Poll turned off. Thank you.
    5 points
  3. Been there. Already did that. It was a...dinosaur.
    5 points
  4. I think in the very very beginning it was a proposal. After analysis, they probably thought it wasn't feasible. I like the current proposal if their intent is a two lane continuous right exit at Western Row to north I71. That would eleviate much of the south KI drive congestion especially at park closing time.
    5 points
  5. I think that Soak City Drive is supposed to have exits directly to I71 north via stop light with left turns to KI drive south. Now whether that is completed and ready for use by opening season is the question.
    5 points
  6. Especially for those (like me) who read and heard first hand accounts of the dismal level of service provided by those who staffed and Managed the various food service establishments within the park last year. Those accounts were enough to make me pass on the $135 upcharge for All Season Dining on my pass this year.
    5 points
  7. And some of us were asleep or we would have told 'ya. David's awesome. Every time HW refers to its own PR person as a deity, I cringe. (Note that would have NEVER happened when a Presbyterian minister and former nun graced the park management.) David was not and is not a self-aggrandizer. He quietly went about his business as the supreme, confident. competent, humble, highly respected professional he was and is. The media love, adore and respect David Mandt. He's awesome.
    5 points
  8. Looks like a nice pretty sign is coming to the entrance of the new toll gates! Also, by the way. About the path that is going through the parking lot, it's possible that it's an exit to the parking lot and it's connecting to the Soak City drive.
    5 points
  9. Please Matt Ouimet... Please. A highly themed, high capacity RMC. I'll stop making fun of Cedar Fair I promise!
    4 points
  10. I'm guessing that the 2017 speculation begins at the old funnel cake stand.
    4 points
  11. If wooden coasters were given literally just another year or two to mature, who's to say what Son of Beast could've been? It also would've required that Paramount Parks was willing to pay premium prices for Intamin's product, and that Intamin would've had any interest in designing and building Son of Beast to begin with. Worth noting is that while Colossos is now the tallest wooden roller coaster in the world (197 feet tall), its actual drop is quite a bit shorter (159 feet). El Toro is not physically as tall as Colossos (181 feet) but it drops further (176 feet). So El Toro is taller than Colossos depending on how you're defining your categories, and it's definitely faster. Goliath at Great America is the shortest (in terms of height) of all three (165 feet) but it has the largest drop of all three (180 feet). That said, I'm so confused about what we group into the "wooden" category anymore that I don't know if that's worth counting or not. If rides like Goliath count at wooden coasters, then Colossos will be the 6th tallest in terms of drop when Lightning Rod opens at Dollywood and RMC's Wildfire opens in Sweden this year. It makes you wonder which matters more: the physical height that the ride reaches, or its greatest single elevation change? Of course, that and the "is it really wooden" argument are all arbitrary classifications anyway. Neither here nor there, but interesting stuff.
    4 points
  12. That's the first I've heard of that, crazy. The food prices down the street does not change on a "busy day".
    4 points
  13. I've posted this before, but I cant find the old thread that was talking about the improvements. https://youtu.be/oT8ndixalr0 I could've sworn that northbound access to I71 was going to be added for the regular parking lot exit. I never heard of Soak City drive getting one. (That light will have semi close access down where I71 N gets off.) Apparently this page does not tell of such an addition by the KI exit, or it won't be happening. http://www.imaginewesternrow.com/projects
    4 points
  14. Fluctuating food prices doesn't negate the quality of the food or food service, in fact it might turn people away from eating in the park. If something seems too expensive to begin with, a raise in price on a given day could cause guests to leave to eat and once out of the park they may not return.
    4 points
  15. http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/31742-project-2017/page-9#entry713956 rcwizard13, reminding you that those who talk don't know, and those who know, don't talk.
    4 points
  16. For those without Twitter. https://twitter.com/kingsislandpr/status/706233701487792129 My question is; what is going in at the old WWC entrance/exit, funnel cake stand if not the Soccer game? Sent from a signal coming out of the Vega system.
    4 points
  17. Direct your hatred towards Six Flags, not RMC. They're just being paid for a job.. and they're doing a fine job IMHO.. minus aesthetics, of course[emoji14]
    3 points
  18. Terp is right Firehawk first, then immediately after ride Flight of Fear. It will save you a lot of time.
    3 points
  19. I really enjoyed SOB when it first opened but even then it felt that the pacing (I didn't know this word at the time) get off. The whole ride felt like it was a race to the finish. And maybe with that height there was no way to burn off speed and energy efficiently. I remember the feeling of coming out of the first helix into the straight a (brief?) tap of the brakes and then going down into the loop and back into a helix. That's the only part of the ride that felt real good. The rest felt like the train was going to fast to enjoy anything. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    3 points
  20. Or if Kings Highschool loves loud construction noises[emoji14]
    3 points
  21. Quite a different person from the current PR person for Carowinds(Larissa Thompson), both my wife and I have met her.....I have personally met most of the Carowinds PR people since Scott Anderson took over, Larissa was very rude to both of us, in the park. Another reason why my fansite has shifted away from Carowinds. I'm wondering what the situation was in which you met Larissa. That's not at all what I would have expected. I'm just going to come out and ask it - was it media day for Fury? I have heard things about how the enthusiasts were acting...
    3 points
  22. It's definitely interesting that few coasters these days even come close to the stats of Son of Beast. Interestingly enough, the only currently-operating coaster that comes close to matching Son of Beast in terms of height, speed and length opened just one year later at Heide Park in Germany and was built by Intamin. Colossos is 197 feet tall, has a top speed of 68.4mph and a length of a little over 4400 feet. Even then, nobody else has dared to go higher or faster.
    3 points
  23. Thanks for posting this! As with the Tomb Raider article, it seems like the Son of Beast piece is doing really well and earning a lot of discussion and comments on social media, which is really what I'm in it for. Great to hear people's stories, to see friends reminiscing, and see strangers agreeing. All good stuff! An interesting story for a very interesting ride that probably is unlike anything we'll see again.
    3 points
  24. Agreed right after Wizarding World opened the wait was a station wait. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    3 points
  25. Kind of like a Terp This or That: An ice cream cone with the best ice cream ever or see the best sunrise you'll ever see: "Which is objectively better? Please explain your work."
    2 points
  26. Definitely Firehawk first, then Flight of Fear. Everything else is a lot less important for what order you hit it, but those are low capacity and quite popular, so you want to do them before lines have time to develop. As for which is better, that is an absolutely impossible question to answer objectively. They are my two favorite coasters at the park personally, but they each have a very unique set of forces compared to one another and which you'll enjoy more greatly depends on what you look for in a ride.
    2 points
  27. All I'm going to say is that they better have a go-kart track themed to Mario Kart. And not an antique cars-type ride like Tomorrowland Speedway, but an actual racing track with racing karts. Too bad there's no practical way for the last-place driver to throw a blue shell and take out the leader.
    2 points
  28. What a great read. I still think Son of Beast is one of my favorite rides! The last time I rode it was opening day 2009. It is crazy to think that was almost 7 years ago!
    2 points
  29. Exactly! I thought the soccer game would be going where World's Greatest Funnel Cakes once stood. Hmmm.... -MDMC, who thinks 2016 will be a season for speculation!
    2 points
  30. There is just over 647 acres total. The missing acreage? Great Wolf Lodge. And the lands Carl Lindner retained when he sold to Paramount. There is a thread here about it. Kings Island Company in the assessor's records. http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/12296-park-acreage/
    2 points
  31. I know they own about approximately 770 acres at least as they sold some of the land they bought in 1972 for other ventures like the Great Wolf Lodge and such. *exits stage left for somebody more knowledgeable*
    2 points
  32. It is just the land the park takes up right now
    2 points
  33. That would make sense if true. The ride seems a little dated at this point. When it opened I had never been on an invert before so I thought it was the coolest thing ever. But even then lines were short, so I was able to ride it about 6-7 times in an hour, maybe more. Now that I've been on some amazing inverts plus the fact that they don't duel any more, that coaster seems about as ordinary as it gets. And since Hogsmeade opened, that is pretty prime real estate these days. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk
    2 points
  34. Great article, a coaster I loved for sure. Just maybe a bit ahead of its time.
    2 points
  35. I'm used to poor hygiene as I work in a prison, but man did I feel like I got stuck behind every stinky person at the park last season. Ironically, I show a hygiene film from the 80's in my classes. Super cheesy and unfortunately ineffective as well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Along the lines of the "Mister Bungles" PSA that they showed on HBO's Peewee's Playhouse, no doubt. The conundrum of stink is that those that stink are used to it.
    2 points
  36. Looks like it was David Mandt at the time: http://www.enquirer.com/editions/1999/08/26/loc_kings_island_taking.html - mentioned as KI spokesperson in 1999 Further research indicates he later went on to a similar role at Carowinds in 2003, then VP of Communications for the IAAPA in 2006.
    2 points
  37. I love that photo of Son of Beast with the tower framed within the loop. It's so iconic. Do we know who took it? Was Don our PR guy back then?
    2 points
  38. How about that map on the first page? King Cobra but no Vortex, so it must be mid-80's.
    2 points
  39. Making everyone enter there makes more sense. Making people drive all the way down to the old entrance just to drive back the way they came is a bit ridiculous, and it also gives more room for traffic entering from the south, helping relieve possible backups on I-71.
    2 points
  40. ...which means many of those refillers will no longer be jumping lines and clogging up lines at food service locations. Great move, Kings Island!
    2 points
  41. I don't think the issue is with the actual games, it's with the people who don't know how to act respectful with their prizes. Granted, the bouncing is annoying to my ears but that's just a personal pet peeve of mine, not anything I'd be making a real fuss over. However, as mentioned by another poster, I've seen balls hit people, knock food out of hands, etc. I'm not trying to suck the fun out of anyone's experience, it's just that their right to fun ends when it violates the rights of others. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk And on this, I agree with you. I wish more people would respect the rule of respect. I think in my case, (my big fuss budget is body odor), I let myself get angry and peeved over something that, though it would be nice if they used some super strength deodorant, or in one case of standing in line of FOF, perhaps decided against that onion bloom the night before, it's just not in their personal upbringing to do.I love the Ephemora A/V Geek section of archive.org. Just like everyone else, And laugh the same as everyone else at the 1950's personal hygiene films. But part of me wishes those instruction films were still in circulation. I'm used to poor hygiene as I work in a prison, but man did I feel like I got stuck behind every stinky person at the park last season. Ironically, I show a hygiene film from the 80's in my classes. Super cheesy and unfortunately ineffective as well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  42. Tilt-A-Whirl, Ferris Wheel, Whip, Skyride, Parking lot trams, Dodgem Cars that run at more than 30 percent design speed, turnpike, classic dark ride....
    1 point
  43. In the face of this news, SEAS closed down NINE POINT TWO PERCENT!: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0VY2UA The market certainly does not agree with Mr. Goble. I'd not be surprised if criminal charges were filed.
    1 point
  44. http://meadvilletribune.com/local/x1303519145/County-officials-Amusement-park-must-come-up-with-tax-payment-plan-or-face-public-auction-in-September Poor Conneaut, such an interesting place.
    1 point
  45. I would love to be able to get up there this summer, it just likely won`t happen. I still kick myself for not getting up to Americana when it was briefly open several years back.
    1 point
  46. Sad news. This would mean that both of Mrs. Gator's childhood home parks would be gone (the other being Idora). We've been hitting a different park in PA every year for the past several years... if Conneaut is open again this summer, it's time for us to go there this year. "There's not much amusement in the closing of an amusement park." - Tin Man, The Wiz
    1 point
  47. The beginning of the end was many years ago for CLP. The weather in the CLP area (NW PA) the past 2 summers has been fantastic for outdoor activities (above average temps, below average rainfall). If the park cannot generate enough interest for people to visit with that type of weather, when can they? Unless a miracle comes through, this will probably be the final nail.
    1 point
  48. This park has been struggling for years. As sad as it is to see parks close, you have to wonder when is enough enough? The park has had countless people volunteer to try and right the ship (even having people volunteer and paint the Blue Streak). But there comes a point where if people still aren`t coming, and the debt continues to grow, then something has to be done. Don`t get me wrong, I do not want to see the park go anywhere. But they have had troubles for years now.
    1 point
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