befat

I played a crazy game of connect the dots with plots that are under used/vacant. I’ve thought for a while that the area behind the Eiffel Tower is under used and unimpressive compared to the rest of the park. We have Backlot which detracts from the area around it with its shipping containers and faded billboards which face away from the midway. We have the old dolphin stadium plot and a tiny random drink shop that’s never open. We have an over sized dining area for Skyline, outdated Tower Gardens, and an old air brush shop. Expand that to Vortex and Crypt (I know that’s a stretch) and the possibilities are definitely endless. Room for multiple flat rides and coasters. I would want to give the Carousel plenty of room to breath though to keep the area quiet and peaceful. If Backlot stays, I’d really love for it to be rethemed/refreshed to interact better with the area around it.

Six Flags unveils The Riddler Mindbender roller coaster It's pretty cool to see a park invest in an old steel coaster.

I also hope the Son of Beast station finally comes down. It's interesting that one of the two purpose-built maze buildings isn't being used this year (Blackout, the other being Slaughterhouse). Also interesting that Action Zone has no haunted houses this year at all. If I remember correctly, there there was a time that there were three mazes in that area at the same time (Club Blood, Wolf Pack, original Slaughterhouse).

This thread is "off the rails" so maybe try to get back "on track" by bringing back some rides that had just that. Delirium - King Cobra Mostly vacant land - Baba Looey's Buggies Snoopy vs. Red Baron - Boo Boo's Baggage Claim (Snoopy vs. Red Baron would be relocated somewhere else.)

Backlot Stunt Coaster was placed in the perfect spot in the park. So glad it replaced the original Antique Cars.

It’s wild that the model outlasted the ride itself, in its original form at least.

Best of both worlds idea: Peanuts in Boo Blasters and Phantom Theater in the old Crypt building.

Interestingly, Space Buggies is the only ride with a space themed name. And the cars could be rethemed with a simple paint job. The names of most of the rides actually fit the camp theme better than the space theme. Joe Cool's Dodgem School still has space ship themed cars as a hold over from Nickelodeon Universe. Those could be rethemed easily as well. Having spent a day in Planet Snoopy this year, the paint jobs and signage are looking pretty worn. My guess is that we'll see a refresh of the entire area in the next few years since we're not really seeing them repainting the rides one by one. It would make sense to add a ride or 2 at the same time but I don't see us getting another roller coaster in that area. My vote would be to retheme Boo Blasters instead of adding a ride though.

recaR was used widely on this forum. The park never used that officially, as far as I know. For the Ride Ops, it was and still is Racer North and Racer South. When I was a kid, we simply called it backwards Racer. The only place I can think of where the backwards side would have been addressed would be the signage where the queue was split at the entrance. Anyone remember what those signs said? I think it was just "forwards" and "backwards."

Now the question is, will Orion always be the tallest? Or, how long will Orion be the tallest?

These were the first 3 parks I thought of to compare to KI: Six Flags Magic Mountain - 8 (tied with KI) Kings Dominion - 6 Carowinds - 3 (interesting since they opened a year after KI)

Having operated all of the original KI rides that were still around when I worked at the park in the early 2000's, the Grand Carousel was on a different level. Even though it wasn't the biggest or most exciting ride, it was a joy to operate for hours at a time and take in the history and beauty. Do the ride operators still have a spiel that indicates the age of the carousel? I always enjoyed announcing that before the start of each ride cycle. The park has at least one extra horse and they would consistently have one in the shop, year round, refurbishing and repainting it. They had them all on a rotation. I don't know how many are original, but an educated guess tells me that it's the majority of them. (They don't build 'em like they used to). From my experience, the entire maintenance team really took pride in taking care of the carousel. For example, when the band organ would go out, they would lobby for the resources to get it back up and running. Which seems to still be a continuous battle. (That band organ is finicky and fixes can be costly and time consuming). The operations crew really took pride in it as well. I recall one of the supervisors would bring newspapers from home to clean the mirrors since they wouldn't leave streaks behind. Oh and the lights that were added during Winterfest are terrific!

The waterpark addition is finished! https://www.kingsdominion.com/blog/2020/coconut-shores-construction-update-october It's interesting to see how these attractions were built on top of the old wave pool, vs a total demo and new build. Also, goes without saying, it's crazy that back in August of 2019, we couldn't have imagined that Kings Dominion wouldn't open at all in 2020.

My guess: Frozen Chicken Tenders. They probably did more fresh food in 1972 and didn't need as much food storage. At some point, they decided they needed a walk in freezer. Trends and needs change over time. I doubt the removal of the pathway was taken lightly. Someone has to make the hard decisions. What has been removed and repaved? Paramount and Cedar Fair have both removed a ton of asphalt from the park and replaced it with concrete (nice stained concrete with the Nickelodeon project), or pavers. Sure, more modern materials have been used but you're not going to find the same building materials that you did in 1972.

Low capacity coasters haven't done well at KI in the past. See Ghoster Coaster and Firehawk. Backlot does okay now, but the lines for that thing were atrocious when it first opened. While KI and Kings Dominion are sister parks, Kings Island was the leader of the Paramount Parks when it comes to annual attendance and is a leader in the Cedar Fair world. I say keep the low capacity Mouses and 4D Free Spin types away from KI and save up for full scale coaster models. A low cost/capacity coaster might be more of a possibility now because of COVID though...

I don't blame management changes for the removal of the covered walkway. The original vine covered archway suffered from poor placement. The archway was mostly removed and the pathway cut off to make way for the walk-in cooler and service area behind Snoopy Grill, which you can see in the photo posted by SonofBaconator. The rest was removed because the plants were starting to die and it probably wasn't worth the investment to replant on a dead end walkway. It's always great to see the love that the old archway gets because it holds a special place in my heart too. I always made my parents go out of the way to walk through it. I'm glad a new one was added in White Water Canyon's new entrance and I hope it grows in fully soon!

If there are more markers on the other side of the entrance plaza, it would almost certainly point to utility work. The power lines and sewer follow Old Columbia Road. Fun fact #1: The power lines were partially buried in 2012 when Tidal Wave Bay was added. This is why the area seems kind of removed from the rest of the waterpark. Fun fact 1.5: Tidal Wave Bay is Kings Island’s only expansion into the parking lot. Fun fact #2: There are 2 structures that pre-date KI on Old Columbia Road which are still standing today.

Does Candymonium have a mid-course brake run? If not, that would be a welcome evolution!

Unpopular opinion? SOB had a boring layout. The drop and the loop were great, everything else was filler. The rose bowl was one of the main attractions of the ride and cause for the most issues. It was supposed to be a bigger and better version of Beast's helix but failed miserably. I don't think there's much RMC could have done with the rose bowl to make it better other than completely tearing it down and have the ride go a different direction at the top of the second hill. Or leave the rose bowl alone and just shore it up, keeping the same layout. I'll take Banshee with the hope of a ground up RMC someday any day. With that being said, if we had gotten Iron SOB, some sort of barrel roll at the top of the second hill would have been epic and could have changed my mind on the whole subject.

It's hard to believe that iphones were a relatively new thing back in 2008/2009 which is why you probably don't see any in the box. I believe there was also a concern of guest's trying to break into the box so expensive phones weren't used. It is my understanding that all of these phones went through the lost and found procedure and went unclaimed, so none were actually from 2009. The box is there more for safety, and less for concern about your phone. Part of Diamondback's initial testing by management before the park opened was riders intentionally dropping things from the ride to see where they would land. The placement of the nets that you see around the ride today are a result of these tests. Since Firehawk didn't travel over the midway, a box of this type was never placed there even though it threw a lot more items from pockets on a daily basis.

I meant to say oldest in reference to Invertigo, but you obviously knew what I meant. I edited it in my original post. That is an interesting tid-bit on Tim Fisher. I believe Tim Fisher was GM when SOB was added so maybe he's helping making up for that mistake.

The loss of Vortex definitely modernized the Kings Island skyline. The oldest steel coaster over 100 feet is Invertigo. In the back of my mind, Invertigo doesn't really count as a major part of the skyline, so after that it's Diamondback. Which is just... wild. On another note, since Vortex was pulled down in narrow sections, I'm hoping they were able to drop it within the ride path and preserve the sections of trees.

Alright, it has obviously been a very long time since this topic has been discussed! Does anyone have any more information, stories, or pictures of the Boat Tag attraction while it was at Kings Island? This page shows it opening in 1994. Anyone know what year it cosed? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_Kings_Island_attractions

I drove by late this afternoon. No new supports or track have been erected from what I could see. Pictures of the most recent work have already been posted here by others.

Anyone else read the title of this thread as Webcam "Outrage" Discussion?