Rivertown Rider

I would love to see Hugo's somewhere in the park as well. It would be nice to have some different food options in the park like the calzones. If the Sweet Tooth location is coming back and put in the Subway location, I would prefer they just do the Ice Cream there instead of the Ice Scream Zone beside Banshee to help reduce the bottleneck in that area beside Banshee. I doubt they would do it but just tear down the Ice Scream Zone location and put another indoor Coke Freestyle location there to spread out the crowds off the Action Zone midway.

I'm sad to see Mac Shack go away. That was one of our favorites at CP.

The Facebook version also shows the Coke Marketplace

My wife and I will be there as well.

Now the top part is a yellow color above the light blue.

I do wonder what they are doing with the stripped basketball game. While that game generally gets pretty good business, I am curious if they would be better off just using the one down across from Zephyr (which has seemed to be open less the last couple years) as there are fewer bottlenecks there compared to this one. With The Racer exit, traffic coming from Marketplace, as well as the additional foot traffic that will be coming to and from Adventure Port that is a lot of traffic that would have to dodge errant basketballs. While you could make the case that foot traffic would be better for the game's success, it is also going to stick out like a sore thumb when everything else around it is going to well themed.

Sorry I was referring to the Carnival games storage building directly behind the Coke Marketplace.

The door in the Carnival storage building has now been painted as well.

I agree that I don't see us getting Psycho Mouse. When CGA closes, I think Psycho Mouse will become a parts donor to the same models at Valleyfair and Michigan's Adventure. I could eventually see us getting one of the Zamperla Wild Mouse models though. You could easily theme it to Bavarian Beetle.

Initially I had thought that they were painting the building brown but after I have looked at this more on a bigger screen, it almost looks like it is a new hole in the building as opposed to brown paint so it looks to be lighting from inside the building causing it to look brown. If it is a new hole, could they be putting in glass and turning that building into a ride operator's building or something else as the spot in the builiding in question looks well framed/sized. This spot wasn't earmarked for anything in the original concept art.

The Mystic Timbers notice doesn't look like it was filed until August 18, 2016 which would have been well after clearing had started so I think there is a still a chance we could see another notice later this year for 2023 and 2024 modifications. I could easily see the coaster not coming until '25 because Carowinds, Wonderland (I'm not counting the family coaster they are getting this year), and Knott's all received their last coaster installation before we got Orion. With CF's focus on WOF this year, potentially Dorney next year, one would think Valleyfair is due something as well in the next couple of years (although I could see them getting Railblazer eventually when CGA closes). I will be very curious to see what is going on with the Timberwolf site and if anything happens with the old Son of Beast station. I know a lot of people think The Vortex site is the most likely area but I think that Action Zone needs it more than The Vortex spot does. AZ still has a lot of the Paramount feel to it (aside from Banshee and it's plaza area). Getting rid of Timberwolf and the SOB station would allow them to potentially build a shorter path to The Bat and an additional coaster would cause people to stay in that area of the park longer (which takes some strain off Rivertown and Area 72). With them taking out the other three upcharge attractions (the old Go Karts, Dinos, and Slingshot) it isn't that crazy to think of Skyflyer going as well since it is nearing 30 years of age. With Adventure Port being added there are finally some family rides in that area of the park besides VF, Congo, and The Bat but Action Zone needs some love and re-theme in the worst way. As far as the coaster type I do love the idea of a Mack ride likes Time Traveler or Copperhead. They both have the same capacity but a Time Traveler like ride would give the park a unique type ride and the spinning isn't super intense. A different manufacturer gives a different feel since they have lost some manufacturer uniqueness with Firehawk and Vortex leaving. I know other places have mentioned a Velocicoaster type ride but I don't know that CF wants to work with Intamin anymore. But any of those ride types (TT, CS, or Veloci) would be fantastic additions to the park. As far as B&M you can't discount that CSF is closer to KI than anywhere else and B&Ms are super popular (both here and elsewhere).

Hershey has removed their Whip. It will be interesting to see if it ends up being sold somewhere else.

Cargo Loco construction is moving along.

The Windstarz planning plans have now been approved. The building permit is now in processing. There still hasn't been word on what is getting removed.

It looks like they are working again in front of the games building behind Marketplace as well inaddition to behind.

I was thinking more about the potential ride removal in the California's Great America thread and it got me to thinking more about the Adventure Port concept art and the land movement that we can see from the live web cam. In the original concept art the two trailers behind the Coke Marketplace were still there and they have recently been removed (they look to be the trailers currently in front of the basketball game on the webcam. When looking at the webcam and with the land movement last week, it does make me wonder if something else is coming. Looking at the concept art it appears that the exit from Adventure Express will be staying the same (while the entrance queue as noted in the press release is changing). Doing the measurements online thru Google Earth, Berserker (a Bayern Kurve), Centifuge (a Schwarzkopf Calypso), and Peanuts Pirates (a Huss Breakdance 4) would each fit in that space. Of the three, Centrifuge probably makes the least sense since it has a very similar ride experience to Cargo Loco being just a short walk away, but the other two make a ton of sense. As we know KI likes nostalgia and Cargo Loco and Sol Spin are sort of spiritual successors to Der Spinnin' Keggers and Skylab respectively. The original Bayern Kurve was roughly where Delirium's queue is now so Berserker would be a great fit in that spot. From the Google Maps image below, if you started behind the basketball game to about halfway across the old ladder game, you can get one of those rides to fit. Will it happen? I don't know but it is curious that the permit for the ride addition (of Windstarz)/ and subsequent ride removal at CGA was just published on January 12 and the ground movement at KI for that section was taking place right around the same time.

According to the Santa Clara Permit Center, CGA is planning to install a Zamperla Windstarz ride. https://aca-prod.accela.com/SANTACLARA/Cap/CapHome.aspx?module=Planning&TabName=Planning&TabList=Home|0|Building|1|Fire|2|Planning|3|PublicWorks|4|CodeEnforcement|5|Services|6|CurrentTabIndex|3 The Parcel number is 104-42-019 (you can search under the planning section). In the description it says "Modification to existing ride to replace with a new ride, "Windstarz" including improvements of ride installation, new fencing, shade structure and electrical routing ad other supporting site improvements." It will be interesting to see what ride is replaced and if that ride is relocated anywhere. Several of the CGA flats would fit in well at KI like Bayern Kurve, Centrifuge, and Peanuts Pirates. All of these could easily fit in the Adventure Port area (either behind the Coke Marketplace or the other area would be between the Age and Weight stand and Festhaus) and be re-themed pretty easily to that theme as well. KI's original Bayern Kurve was originally in that area of the park.

Looks like they are working right now.

I received my copy of the book in the mail today. Excellent job Barry Hill and @Shaggy! It was great seeing so many rare photos especially of a lot of the defunct rides from the 70s and 80s. A wonderful companion to @KIghostguy's book.

Definitely agree with a lot of what has been said. There are plenty of places in the park they can use existing land more efficiently. Using the Timberwolf spot or the Invertigo spot for a new coaster would be a much better use of that land. There is also the big tan box spot as well in addition to The Vortex spot.

I would expect Invertigo to leave before The Bat would. It seems like it has the most downtime of any of the coasters and it has bad efficiency because of its design. Also the Invertigo area being flatter would be easier and likely cheaper from a future construction standpoint.

Flying Ace is getting some painting done.

I'm excited to see a new color scheme as well. Hopefully whatever they select fits the aesthetics of Rivertown better than the current color scheme does. I am also very excited about Adventure Port and it is something the park has needed to do for years in terms of adding family flats. I do think that there is a good chance that 2024 sees the next coaster added in Action Zone. I know most are set on The Vortex plot but by '24 it will have been 10 years since anything was added to AZ. We have seen the park improve areas close to the next coaster location before. They moved the WWC entrance and built the new funnel cake building in '16 before adding Mystic. They used part of the Dinos area for the Antiques in '19 before using a lot of the rest of it for Orion. They are improving the gateway to Action Zone with Adventure Port. Banshee needs a Valravn to Raptor 1-2 punch in Action Zone to keep people in that area of the park longer. I'm not saying I want a dive but another big coaster (If it has to be a B&M either a floorless or wing would be preferred.) in that area will help disperse crowds better. If I were to do a five year plan it would be: 2024: New coaster in rethemed Action Zone with Timberwolf (removed prior to '23 season) and an improved queue line for The Bat. 2025: Planet Snoopy becomes Camp Snoopy. Boo Blasters becomes a new version of Phantom Theater. 2026: Soak City improvements. 2027: Family flats added near BLSC. Reworked BLSC queue. 2028: New coaster on Vortex plot.

I would love to see a Gryphon come to KI. I really enjoy Apollo at Dorney and it is nice to see Zamperla has started manufacturing a ride similar to that.

This is what the Zamperla site says: Open air, suspended passenger vehicles give riders the sensation of flying sixty feet through the air at 25 miles per hour. This is what it says on the KI web site: Climb aboard these open air, suspended passenger vehicles to experience the thrill of flying 60 feet through the air at 25 m.p.h. My thoughts: It just looks like a few words were changed around. I would expect based upon KIs desire for high capacity that we will get the 48 person model.