Jeorby Nanpa

When I drove in on Tuesday 8/2, I saw big signs for $20 preferred parking for Boomerang Bay. There were separate signs for preferred parking in the ride park, so it looks like you must choose your preference! Sorta got me tweaked a bit that KI's new strategy to rake in the bucks is to shake down people for preferred services (OMG, see the other thread). The upside was that everyone seemed confused and there were many empty spots next to the cones on the free side.

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction! Not all the time, and I don't really have a percentage close at hand. Who here can vouch that there's *not* a solid gold link in there. Huh? Anyone? Without admitting innocence or trolling, I can safely say that it would be pretty hard to believe that story! I hope it was a fun read and it explains a lot.

Hi guise, I got the scoop on why it took so long to fix Vortex. It all has to do with the current economic situation of the country. KI wanted to purchase gold as a hedge against a sinking dollar (I know, boring stuff) but they are not allowed to purchase gold because they are an amusement park and not a broker. The workaround was that the replacement link for The Vortex chain was to be constructed of solid gold. It was smelted in Austria and shipped here in late July, at a weight of 13.1 pounds! You can see the GOLDEN LINK at certain times of the day, especially from WindSeeker. It's on the right side of the chain. If you ride in the front your chances of seeing it are better. Congratulations to KI for working around those $/gold trading restrictions! Gold is also a very strong metal and the GOLDEN LINK should hold up for a long time. Be sure to ask the ride operators about the GOLDEN LINK. edit: "ride in front" refers to riding in the front of Vortex, not riding in the front of WindSeeker. Oops.

1) A few of the trees by the International Street fountain have small signs attached to them at a height of approx 5.5' from the ground. The signs are oval, approx 4" tall and 6" wide. Some of them have numbers, or "start" written on them, others have what may be degree markings (240 deg). This is from memory so I could be slightly off. If you know what these signs/plaques are, could you please share? 2) Bonus question: how do you think they get the lawnmower onto the elevated islands that run down the middle of the Coney Mall? That grass looked so nice it was nearly edible. Or, how is this grass kept looking so nice? KI also has some great looking (and giant) elephant ear plants in one of the Coney Mall planters, maybe near the 50's diner. Stop and take a look at the random landscaping and you will be impressed. I really like the hosta garden near either Potato Works or the train or Whitewater Canyon (can't remember which). 3) Really diluting the original question with a third question: Some of the vertical hanging supports on WindSeeker have pieces of colored tape wrapped around them. Name the reason. This one is less fun, I know the answer.

If you're a geek like me and have your watch set to the exact time, you'll see that fireworks consistently start at exactly 10:00:00PM. They end at 10:04:20... give or take. Tuesday 7/19 they were late by 90 seconds and it freaked me out. Wet matches?!? I rode Racer that night because I thought that would be fun during fireworks. Not so much,

I should add more. The source of my information said that "before Cedar Fair" they kept a spare chain around. They implied that CF is a bit cheap, and somehow that spare was re-purposed in the time since PKI. A previous poster says a break per year is common? In that case keeping a spare should be a no-brainer. A heavy, greasy no-brainer.

Vortex: I heard from a good source that they used to keep a spare lift chain at KI. It sounds like they are waiting for parts to arrive from another park or elsewhere. Someone should check the daily UPS delivery. My suggestion was remove the bad links, splice it back together and live with a shorter chain. Suggestion not accepted. Good for you! Yesterday they couldn't get this right on two occasions (Beast and Boo-Blasters) when my ride pictures never showed up. Would I have purchased? Who knows? The workers were zombies in the heat.

We've diverged a bit here. Is Vortex working again?

It's one of my favorite fun verbs, and it makes its own onomatopoeia! Just think of all the times you rode Vortex and paused at the exit to figure out when WindSeeker would open. Now you ride WindSeeker to see the progress on repairing Vortex. FYI I'm a mechanical engineer with a background in controls. Although I'm not in the amusement business this stuff piques my interest. Engineering and controls is 98% of a roller coaster and the rest is fresh paint. Whenever someone dumbs it down "durrr, ride's broke, come back later" it's just going to lead to more questions. Plus in the course of quizzing the workers I learned what a 2-7 radio code is.

Aha, that was built during a little hole of time between age 15 and 38 when I didn't visit KI. My classmate John Dillon was supposed to have recorded the voice used in the queue for the ride. I found some pictures too: KI Central topic about Enchanted Theater The PDF was in a KICentral thread about a 5K race held in the springtime. The document is an amazingly detailed map of every building in the park.

Piggybacking on the Boo Blasters topic... I wondered how they fit the Haunt attraction in the Boo Blasters building? On the ride, you make the first big left turn and seem to be going along the south side of the building. Consulting the park PDF makes things a bit clearer: The haunt is set up in the yellow area. This looks like an auditorium with a 45' stage?

Seems like the third train was in the station, not in the parking area to the side. Maybe Beast and Adventure Express jinxed me, but I could have sworn Vortex had two lifts. Nope. I'd think if a chain link broke on one side (ya know, the "weakest link") then the unbroken side would bend, dragging the broken side against the walls of its trough. That would make quite a noise. But, interesting to see it's the chain and not the motor. I always wondered if that lift was under-powered because it took so long for the speed to settle to a constant.

I was surprised to see Vortex shut down today, Tuesday July 5. There was a mention elsewhere but no dedicated thread. Here's what I heard: > On Saturday Vortex is running > Lift chain suddenly makes a terrible sound. It's busted, and busted bad. > Everyone STOP. There's a train fully on the first lift near the bottom, and one stopped at the slow part before the corkscrews. That's where they sit right now. > From Windsinker, you can look down and see giant pieces of chain laid out next to the lift > oh yes, those people on the train before the corkscrews definitely did have to be evacuated > employees aren't supposed to comment on this stuff so don't ask Hopefully this kind of post is OK on here. Is the Rollercoaster Chain Store stocking Vortex chains? Is the KI machine shop at work making replacement links? Some insider info would be great!

I'm at the front of the line for WindSeeker where the ride op is assigning seats for the ride. Someone asks to ride in the front seat. /ok, it was me

Scratch that, they've dumped the "oldies" they play all afternoon. Of course I'm a fan of 70's - 90's music just as you will be a fan of music from your era when you're my age. I miss the oldies and the cool cool mix - so much so that I wrote them using the feedback on visitkingsisland dot com.

My original post starting this thread suggests that they usually play "oldies" 70's-80's most of the afternoon and somewhere near 4PM toss in some 90's and country and then by 5PM it's pretty much modern era music. I was there on a recent weekday, mostly high school grad classes, and they'd already jumped ahead to the 00's and 10's music which I didn't recognize. Time will tell if they follow the pattern they established last year and if they do I'm going to be more diligent about hunting down who programs the music. Speaker maintenance dude... where do those wires go? To that box? Who is in charge of that box? Right on down the line until I find the person who's dialing in the tunes on a well-stocked iPod.

I was at opening day last Saturday. It turned into a people-watching day instead of a riding-stuff day, but that's OK. I was reminded how cool the park background music is. It's always a mix of obscure and feel-good music all day long, mostly mainstream rock tunes (for lack of a better genre description) centering around the 70's. It never fails that I try to remember the songs to make a playlist on the iPod. Or, I'm writing down titles so I can hunt down some songs I don't have. Then, there's that transition about 4:30 or so where we go shooting through the 80's. By 5:30 we're on a more modern playlist with more R&B and rap and I'd be divulging my age to say that I don't recognize a lot of it. Even unfamiliar, the evening music is still very listenable and cool. Guest Relations (on several occasions) doesn't seem to know who programs that music. Who picks it? Is it a satellite station? Is it the result of years of focus group research? Is it the entertainment department? Because I'm always so impressed with the selections, I'd love to know who picked them. Inside information would be great... I've heard many guesses so far!

<br /><br /><br />Get one of those plastic halloween masks which is screenprinted on one side and white on the back. Do they still make them? They are generally in the shape of a face. Attach the mask to a wall and turn it backwards so the front/face is looking into the wall. Use a strong light on the mask from below looking up. Effect complete! Take a walk around and see how it looks.