Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
TR: Kings Island 04/27/2013
230 views
Skip to first unread message
Dave Althoff Jr.
Apr 28, 2013, 11:43:51 PM4/28/13
to
Trip Report: Kings Island
Mason, Ohio - 04/27/2013
=========================
"I thought they gave up on that crap last season!"
Winter has been long, aggravating and unprofitable. My general
misgivings about going to Kings Island on a Saturday were overridden by
my desire to go SOMEWHERE this weekend. Since Kings Island is closed for
a buy-out on Sunday, Saturday it is. Now I had already gotten off to a
late start, but as I drove through Cincinnati to pick up Dave at his
residence, I noted that an automobile on the northbound side of IR-71
was fully engulfed in flame, leaving the road shut down. So our return
to the park was further delayed by having to use an alternative route,
along with a large collection of other Cincinnati-area motorists. As I
drove up Montgomery Road, I noted how poorly executed the road was, as a
nominally two-lane route repeatedly and unpredictably zipped down to one
lane, only to regain the second lane on the other side of an
intersection. This happens with such frequency on this route that I am
amazed that my fellow motorists are so inept at handling a simple zipper
merge. In other words, we were suffering from a sub-optimal design,
combined with seriously deficient operations. Little did I know at the
time just how much of that I would encounter this day.
When we reached the park, we used Dave's season pass voucher to get
through the parking toll booth, then began the protracted hunt for a
parking space. It was around 1:00 in the afternoon, and the enormous
parking lot was nearly full to capacity. We literally parked in the old
"Bam-Bam" section at the extreme Northwest corner of the parking lot.
Walking through the lot to the park entry plaza, we noted a large
assortment of buses in the livery section. So far, it was looking a lot
like a Saturday in mid-July, only without the benefit of a functioning
water park.
Dave had purchased a new season pass on-line, so he went directly to the
season pass center processing line, a line which extended out of the
building and snaked around a serpentine queue, then stretched out across
the plaza all the way back to where the tram circle used to be. I was
simply going to renew my platinum pass, so I entered the much shorter
sales line at the front of the building. I had waited so as to avoid the
online processing fee. After a brief wait, I approached the window, and
handed over my cards. "I'd like to renew this," I said, presenting my
season pass card, "using that," sliding a credit card through the
window. My expectation, of course, was that the agent would scan my
pass, swipe my credit card, print me a receipt, and send me to the gate
with my freshly-renewed pass. Instead, she handed me a receipt and a
thermal-printed voucher and sent me to wait in the pass processing line.
What? Some 40 minutes later, I was inside the building, where an agent
led me to a computer terminal where she scanned my voucher, then had me
type in my name to look up my account. Then she proceeded to do
something wrong, then walked away. Three more agents came up to the
terminal and processed pass vouchers, then my agent called me over to
another terminal, where she scanned my voucher again, had me look up my
name again, then scanned a new pass, kept my four-year-old photo, had me
sign the new pass, the sent me on my way. My new pass looks exactly the
same as my old pass (except for the bar code, of course). I can't for
the life of me figure out why it was necessary to subject me to that
protracted wait along with the general confusion in the pass processing
center when the first agent I talked to should have been able to process
the renewal of my old pass without bothering with doing a card swap.
We finally entered the park. Dave noticed that Windseeker was listed as
closed today, so we started by heading in that direction to see what we
could find out. On our way, we noted that the park was mobbed with
people. the line for the Racer filled the queue house and spilled out
onto the midway. Even the flat rides had ridiculously long lines.
Finally, ee arrived at Windseeker. My early speculation that the
evacuation system wasn't on site yet proved unfounded, as I could see
the bright yellow booms peeking out from behind the fence behind the
Windseeker site. The access port was open, but there was no activity on
site of interest. We noted that bottled Coke® is now $3.75 in the
machines. The line for Vortex only extended out of the designated queue
as far as the Troika exit, so we got in line.
From the entrance bridge, I noticed that Vortex now has spring-applied
parking brakes on both the running track and on the storage track. I
don't know if those are new this year, but hey are a relatively new
addition. Vortex also has a notable subtraction this year: on the
loading side of the station, most of the queue railings have been
removed. So now, the two entrances (regular and Fast Lane) converge at
the back of the station, where an attendant then controls the flow of
people from the two lanes into the now open space which leads to the
boarding shotguns. The bad thing is that the attendant was doing a
particularly horrible job of letting people into the station. He was
attempting to assign seats (which just plain doesn't work at Kings
Island) and to have only one trainload of riders waiting in the shotgun
for the next train. Of course, this kind of negates the whole point of
clearing out all that space in there in the first place, not to mention
the problem of keeping enough people in the station that the trains go
out on-time and fully loaded. Because of the way the attendant was
loading the station, train loading was taking much longer than
necessary, and trains were going out with empty rows, even as people
waiting in line complained that the line wasn't moving as quickly as it
should.
I understand why they have added this attendant position, this allows
for regulating the flow of riders between the Fast Lane and normal
queues, it also serves as an ideal position for the official
height-checker. But they are making the job far too complicated,
torpedoing capacity and making customers angry in the process. The
attendant should be enforcing the regular/Fast Lane queue ratio using an
"N from group A, Q-N from group B" approach, merging the two lanes of
riders into the station much more quickly, and keeping at least two or
three, and preferably between three and four trainloads of riders on the
platform. That maintains the desired service level for Fast Lane
customers while maximizing ride capacity and not assigning anybody to
sit anywhere.
Vortex itself was running pretty much as Vortex always does, delivering
a decent first half, then slamming to a near stop on the block brake so
that it can beat everybody senseless in the second half.
We peeked quickly into the Juke Box cafe or whatever it is called. That
food joint has received a minor makeover. Now, you enter through the
center doors and place your order with one of the two cashiers just
inside, then proceed to the counter and await your order. Four Coca-Cola
Freestyle machines provide the expected enormous assortment of drink
options. The new arrangement is very much like that used at Coasters at
Cedar Point and a bunch of other places.
On down the midway, the Bowler Roller game adjacent to the Beast exit
has been removed and replaced with a generic souvenir joint. As for The
Beast, its line overflowed the queue almost all the way out to the
arcade. We kept on walking.
The restaurant across from the flume ride has received an extensive
makeover, appearing this season as the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame
Grill. It got off to an inauspicious start. As we walked by, a couple
asked the two employees stationed at the entrance about eating there and
were told that they were not seating anyone at that time. We peeked in
the windows and noted a large number of empty tables, suggesting that
perhaps they were understaffed to the point of not being able to operate
at capacity. That is a bit of a shame, as the Hall of Fame Grill
represents a return to Kings Island of something they really have not
had for about a quarter century: a full-service restaurant. I'll keep an
eye on this one.
While we were standing in front of the Hall of Fame Grill, the line for
Diamondback grew to meet us. At 3:40 pm, we declared ourselves to be "in
line" for Diamondback. We figured that Nader normal circumstances, even
going back to the very first day it was open to the public, a full queue
for Diamondback is about a 40 minute wait, and we were perhaps another
five or ten minutes from the actual queue entrance.
Nearly two hours later, we boarded the brown train, which shuddered,
shook, vibrated, and in general gave one of the roughest, slowest, least
memorable rides either of us has ever experienced on Diamondback.
Combine that with a wait that was more than double what we expected
based on the length of the line and past performance, and we were not
very happy when we got off. So what went wrong?
Well, again, as on Vortex, it was the attendant at the top of the stairs
who was gumming up the works. Since I didn't have anything better to do,
I watched the ride from the queue. The first thing I noticed was the
extended dispatch interval. Most of the time, Diamondback runs on an
interval of about 85-90 seconds. That means that trains generally don't
wait on the brake opposite the station, they simply roll down to the
holding brake immediately uptrack of the station. It's been that way
since the ride opened...on its first day of operation, Diamondback was
running on a 96-second interval, moving 1,200 PPH. Today it was running
at a consistent 118 second interval. That's nearly two minutes between
trains. I realize that's still fast for Kings Island, but for
Diamondback it was downright pathetic. That should yield an hourly
capacity of 976 PPH, which is the lowest I have ever seen on
Diamondback. But to add insult to injury, most trains were going out
with empty rows, often as many as six rows of the train empty. So couple
the low theoretical capacity due to slow operations with all of those
empty seats, and you realize the coaster was only running at about 75%
of its operating capacity. That means Diamondback was moving, on
average, only about 750 PPH, or only about 60% of the capacity it was
running on the day it opened. This is clearly unacceptable. And with the
operating queue overflowing, what possible excuse can there be for
operating the ride with empty rows? Mind you, I am not talking about
empty seats here, I am talking empty *rows*, meaning there was nobody
waiting to fill the seats when the shotgun gates opened.
When we got to the platform, we could see the source of the problem. As
at Vortex, an attendant was allowing only one trainload of riders at a
time into the station, taking some from the FastLane queue and some from
the standard queue. He was trying to assign riders to empty rows, but
because of group preferences and the amount of time required for people
to actually get from the top of the stairs to the boarding shotgun, when
the train arrived, there were not enough people in the station to fill
it. The other in intended consequence is that single riders tended not
to get paired up. Under normal circumstances, single riders (who are
most often simply the Nth member of a party of size N, where (N/2) <>
int(N/2)) simply grab a seat near the rest of their party, and
frequently pair themselves up with another single rider who is preparing
to ride in the same row or an adjacent row. With only one load (or less
than one load) of riders in the station, this self-pairing process does
not happen, resulting in a greater number of single empty seats leaving
the station.
In short, while the 'traffic cop' is necessary at the entrance to the
station, the way the job has been implemented at Kings Island is
actually resulting in significantly reduced ride capacity in a park that
needs all of the ride capacity it can get. I'll return to this point
with one final observation later.
The weather had been overcast all day, and as the day turned into early
evening, it became a little chilly. After exiting Diamondback, we exited
the park HD made the long trek to the car for jackets. By this time, the
crowd had moderated a bit, and I was able to move the car to a much more
reasonable parking space. We returned to the park, and this time turned
let at the entrance and headed off into the Action Zone. It is here, of
course, where the most glaringly obvious change has taken place, with
the removal of the colossal 200' timber structure once known as Son of
Beast. That Kings Island will be getting something to fill this space is
pretty much a foregone conclusion...they could have otherwise left Son
of Beast standing indefinitely. Inside the park, a fence has gone up
around the perimeter of the old Go Kart track covered with posters
warning of audio and video surveillance in the area in an attempt to
learn what is lurking in the area. The wording on the posters sounds
more like an attraction for October than for May, that or a feeble
attempt at setting up an Alton Towers-like backstory, something about a
publicity stunt by a local amusement park promoting their latest
attraction. When we start seeing weird crop circles, this could get
interesting. For the moment, there isn't much to see. We didn't
investigate closely enough to see what kind of work is going on behind
the fence, but it looks like it has been planted for grass for now.
The suspended coaster presented us with an unexpected surprise. The ride
is running as nicely as ever, although it does lose some of its visual
impact with the wall of wood removed from the far turnaround. The big
surprise, though, is that the safety belts have been removed from the
train. I never quite understood why they were added in the first place,
given that it is probably a "Class I" ride, and noting that such belts
were never installed on Iron Dragon. It is only the second time I can
think of when Cedar Fair actually *removed* safety belts from a ride.
Another nice surprise awaited us in the old Oktoberfest Gardens. The
trellis has been removed from most of the beer garden patio, but more
important, a large menu board indicates that you can now get bratwurst
and mettwurst from the bar. We tried to get a couple of brats and were
denied, it seems the cooking equipment for the bar has been ordered but
has not been installed yet. Kings Island deserves some credit as well
for stopping service when they realized they could it deliver expected
product quality. So this improvement is more one to look forward to
later this season.
Over at Adventure Express, we ran into another queue attendant gumming
things up, although the smaller crowd at this time of day resulted in a
smaller impact. As with Vortex and Flight Deck, the ride gave a nicely
familiar performance. Adventure Express may well be the one ride most
drastically impacted by the removal of Son of Beast.
We attempted to take a ride on the Troika, but the ride went down while
we waited. We discussed possibly trying for a ride on The Beast, but
with what still looked to be a long wait and no evidence that either the
mechanical or operational parameters have changed since last season, we
skipped it and continued around the circle.
We returned to the Hall of Fame grill and took a moment to look at the
menu. It looks to be a similar selection to the Game Day restaurant at
Cedar Point. It's the sort of food (and price) one would expect from a
casual dining restaurant outside. SonKings Island's experiment in table
service dining will sit in that middle ground between the fast food crap
found all over the midway, and the fine dining experience (and price) of
the old International Restaurant.
We decided we could try for another ride on Diamondback, but Diamondback
had other ideas, as it had gone out of service. We proceeded to Planet
Snoopy for rides on the junior woodie and the dark ride. Woodstock
Express seems to be in fine shape, apart from being the only ride of its
kind to be equipped with a trim brake. I can't say the same for the dark
ride, as it was out of service when we walked past.
We crossed over to Coney Mall and decided to check out Flight of Fear.
While nobody was waiting in the outside queue house, we walked through
the tunnel and discovered the hanger queue house to be totally full of
people. We skipped this one, and checked the other capacity nightmare in
the neighborhood, Firehawk, which happens to be one of Dave's favorites.
That line didn't seem so bad, so we waited it out, exiting the ride at
about 9:50pm. A brisk walk across the park put us in line for
Diamondback just as the ride was about to close for the night, so we
were able to get a final ride. This time, because the ride entrance had
been closed down, the attendant at the station entrance simply opened
the gate and let people flow into the station. We still had about a
fifteen minute wait, but I noticed that the dispatch interval had
improved to about 90 seconds, and while the trains still had a few empty
seats, they no longer had empty rows. So the capacity nightmare I had
witnessed earlier wasn't caused by a bunch of greenhorns trying to run
the ride on the first day of the season; clearly the blame can be placed
squarely on the station filling procedure which was intended to maximize
capacity in a Fast Lane enabled world. The obvious conclusion is that
the procedures put into place to accommodate Fast Lane are having a
severe detrimental impact on ride capacity, and need to be revised
immediately.
Our final ride on Diamondback's red train turned out to be far better
than our earlier ride had been. Apparently there is some variation
between trains. In any case, it was much more like hat we expected from
Diamondback.
In all, it was a kind of a mixed day at Kings Island. The park turned
out to be much too crowded to be enjoyable, and there was a lot of
evidence that even though opening day has been pushed back a week from
previous years, the park really isn't ready yet. But clearly the
customers are ready for the park, and if the park can step up to the
capacity and customer service challenges, they could be set to have a
really good season.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
/XXX\ /X\ /X\_ _ /X\__ _ _ _____
/XXXXX\ /XXX\ /XXXX\_ /X\ /XXXXX\ /X\ /X\ /XXXXX
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\_/XXX\_/\_/XXXXXX
NEW! When emailing this account, include the 'canonical magic word' in
the body of your message for a quicker response.
Mason, Ohio - 04/27/2013
=========================
"I thought they gave up on that crap last season!"
Winter has been long, aggravating and unprofitable. My general
misgivings about going to Kings Island on a Saturday were overridden by
my desire to go SOMEWHERE this weekend. Since Kings Island is closed for
a buy-out on Sunday, Saturday it is. Now I had already gotten off to a
late start, but as I drove through Cincinnati to pick up Dave at his
residence, I noted that an automobile on the northbound side of IR-71
was fully engulfed in flame, leaving the road shut down. So our return
to the park was further delayed by having to use an alternative route,
along with a large collection of other Cincinnati-area motorists. As I
drove up Montgomery Road, I noted how poorly executed the road was, as a
nominally two-lane route repeatedly and unpredictably zipped down to one
lane, only to regain the second lane on the other side of an
intersection. This happens with such frequency on this route that I am
amazed that my fellow motorists are so inept at handling a simple zipper
merge. In other words, we were suffering from a sub-optimal design,
combined with seriously deficient operations. Little did I know at the
time just how much of that I would encounter this day.
When we reached the park, we used Dave's season pass voucher to get
through the parking toll booth, then began the protracted hunt for a
parking space. It was around 1:00 in the afternoon, and the enormous
parking lot was nearly full to capacity. We literally parked in the old
"Bam-Bam" section at the extreme Northwest corner of the parking lot.
Walking through the lot to the park entry plaza, we noted a large
assortment of buses in the livery section. So far, it was looking a lot
like a Saturday in mid-July, only without the benefit of a functioning
water park.
Dave had purchased a new season pass on-line, so he went directly to the
season pass center processing line, a line which extended out of the
building and snaked around a serpentine queue, then stretched out across
the plaza all the way back to where the tram circle used to be. I was
simply going to renew my platinum pass, so I entered the much shorter
sales line at the front of the building. I had waited so as to avoid the
online processing fee. After a brief wait, I approached the window, and
handed over my cards. "I'd like to renew this," I said, presenting my
season pass card, "using that," sliding a credit card through the
window. My expectation, of course, was that the agent would scan my
pass, swipe my credit card, print me a receipt, and send me to the gate
with my freshly-renewed pass. Instead, she handed me a receipt and a
thermal-printed voucher and sent me to wait in the pass processing line.
What? Some 40 minutes later, I was inside the building, where an agent
led me to a computer terminal where she scanned my voucher, then had me
type in my name to look up my account. Then she proceeded to do
something wrong, then walked away. Three more agents came up to the
terminal and processed pass vouchers, then my agent called me over to
another terminal, where she scanned my voucher again, had me look up my
name again, then scanned a new pass, kept my four-year-old photo, had me
sign the new pass, the sent me on my way. My new pass looks exactly the
same as my old pass (except for the bar code, of course). I can't for
the life of me figure out why it was necessary to subject me to that
protracted wait along with the general confusion in the pass processing
center when the first agent I talked to should have been able to process
the renewal of my old pass without bothering with doing a card swap.
We finally entered the park. Dave noticed that Windseeker was listed as
closed today, so we started by heading in that direction to see what we
could find out. On our way, we noted that the park was mobbed with
people. the line for the Racer filled the queue house and spilled out
onto the midway. Even the flat rides had ridiculously long lines.
Finally, ee arrived at Windseeker. My early speculation that the
evacuation system wasn't on site yet proved unfounded, as I could see
the bright yellow booms peeking out from behind the fence behind the
Windseeker site. The access port was open, but there was no activity on
site of interest. We noted that bottled Coke® is now $3.75 in the
machines. The line for Vortex only extended out of the designated queue
as far as the Troika exit, so we got in line.
From the entrance bridge, I noticed that Vortex now has spring-applied
parking brakes on both the running track and on the storage track. I
don't know if those are new this year, but hey are a relatively new
addition. Vortex also has a notable subtraction this year: on the
loading side of the station, most of the queue railings have been
removed. So now, the two entrances (regular and Fast Lane) converge at
the back of the station, where an attendant then controls the flow of
people from the two lanes into the now open space which leads to the
boarding shotguns. The bad thing is that the attendant was doing a
particularly horrible job of letting people into the station. He was
attempting to assign seats (which just plain doesn't work at Kings
Island) and to have only one trainload of riders waiting in the shotgun
for the next train. Of course, this kind of negates the whole point of
clearing out all that space in there in the first place, not to mention
the problem of keeping enough people in the station that the trains go
out on-time and fully loaded. Because of the way the attendant was
loading the station, train loading was taking much longer than
necessary, and trains were going out with empty rows, even as people
waiting in line complained that the line wasn't moving as quickly as it
should.
I understand why they have added this attendant position, this allows
for regulating the flow of riders between the Fast Lane and normal
queues, it also serves as an ideal position for the official
height-checker. But they are making the job far too complicated,
torpedoing capacity and making customers angry in the process. The
attendant should be enforcing the regular/Fast Lane queue ratio using an
"N from group A, Q-N from group B" approach, merging the two lanes of
riders into the station much more quickly, and keeping at least two or
three, and preferably between three and four trainloads of riders on the
platform. That maintains the desired service level for Fast Lane
customers while maximizing ride capacity and not assigning anybody to
sit anywhere.
Vortex itself was running pretty much as Vortex always does, delivering
a decent first half, then slamming to a near stop on the block brake so
that it can beat everybody senseless in the second half.
We peeked quickly into the Juke Box cafe or whatever it is called. That
food joint has received a minor makeover. Now, you enter through the
center doors and place your order with one of the two cashiers just
inside, then proceed to the counter and await your order. Four Coca-Cola
Freestyle machines provide the expected enormous assortment of drink
options. The new arrangement is very much like that used at Coasters at
Cedar Point and a bunch of other places.
On down the midway, the Bowler Roller game adjacent to the Beast exit
has been removed and replaced with a generic souvenir joint. As for The
Beast, its line overflowed the queue almost all the way out to the
arcade. We kept on walking.
The restaurant across from the flume ride has received an extensive
makeover, appearing this season as the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame
Grill. It got off to an inauspicious start. As we walked by, a couple
asked the two employees stationed at the entrance about eating there and
were told that they were not seating anyone at that time. We peeked in
the windows and noted a large number of empty tables, suggesting that
perhaps they were understaffed to the point of not being able to operate
at capacity. That is a bit of a shame, as the Hall of Fame Grill
represents a return to Kings Island of something they really have not
had for about a quarter century: a full-service restaurant. I'll keep an
eye on this one.
While we were standing in front of the Hall of Fame Grill, the line for
Diamondback grew to meet us. At 3:40 pm, we declared ourselves to be "in
line" for Diamondback. We figured that Nader normal circumstances, even
going back to the very first day it was open to the public, a full queue
for Diamondback is about a 40 minute wait, and we were perhaps another
five or ten minutes from the actual queue entrance.
Nearly two hours later, we boarded the brown train, which shuddered,
shook, vibrated, and in general gave one of the roughest, slowest, least
memorable rides either of us has ever experienced on Diamondback.
Combine that with a wait that was more than double what we expected
based on the length of the line and past performance, and we were not
very happy when we got off. So what went wrong?
Well, again, as on Vortex, it was the attendant at the top of the stairs
who was gumming up the works. Since I didn't have anything better to do,
I watched the ride from the queue. The first thing I noticed was the
extended dispatch interval. Most of the time, Diamondback runs on an
interval of about 85-90 seconds. That means that trains generally don't
wait on the brake opposite the station, they simply roll down to the
holding brake immediately uptrack of the station. It's been that way
since the ride opened...on its first day of operation, Diamondback was
running on a 96-second interval, moving 1,200 PPH. Today it was running
at a consistent 118 second interval. That's nearly two minutes between
trains. I realize that's still fast for Kings Island, but for
Diamondback it was downright pathetic. That should yield an hourly
capacity of 976 PPH, which is the lowest I have ever seen on
Diamondback. But to add insult to injury, most trains were going out
with empty rows, often as many as six rows of the train empty. So couple
the low theoretical capacity due to slow operations with all of those
empty seats, and you realize the coaster was only running at about 75%
of its operating capacity. That means Diamondback was moving, on
average, only about 750 PPH, or only about 60% of the capacity it was
running on the day it opened. This is clearly unacceptable. And with the
operating queue overflowing, what possible excuse can there be for
operating the ride with empty rows? Mind you, I am not talking about
empty seats here, I am talking empty *rows*, meaning there was nobody
waiting to fill the seats when the shotgun gates opened.
When we got to the platform, we could see the source of the problem. As
at Vortex, an attendant was allowing only one trainload of riders at a
time into the station, taking some from the FastLane queue and some from
the standard queue. He was trying to assign riders to empty rows, but
because of group preferences and the amount of time required for people
to actually get from the top of the stairs to the boarding shotgun, when
the train arrived, there were not enough people in the station to fill
it. The other in intended consequence is that single riders tended not
to get paired up. Under normal circumstances, single riders (who are
most often simply the Nth member of a party of size N, where (N/2) <>
int(N/2)) simply grab a seat near the rest of their party, and
frequently pair themselves up with another single rider who is preparing
to ride in the same row or an adjacent row. With only one load (or less
than one load) of riders in the station, this self-pairing process does
not happen, resulting in a greater number of single empty seats leaving
the station.
In short, while the 'traffic cop' is necessary at the entrance to the
station, the way the job has been implemented at Kings Island is
actually resulting in significantly reduced ride capacity in a park that
needs all of the ride capacity it can get. I'll return to this point
with one final observation later.
The weather had been overcast all day, and as the day turned into early
evening, it became a little chilly. After exiting Diamondback, we exited
the park HD made the long trek to the car for jackets. By this time, the
crowd had moderated a bit, and I was able to move the car to a much more
reasonable parking space. We returned to the park, and this time turned
let at the entrance and headed off into the Action Zone. It is here, of
course, where the most glaringly obvious change has taken place, with
the removal of the colossal 200' timber structure once known as Son of
Beast. That Kings Island will be getting something to fill this space is
pretty much a foregone conclusion...they could have otherwise left Son
of Beast standing indefinitely. Inside the park, a fence has gone up
around the perimeter of the old Go Kart track covered with posters
warning of audio and video surveillance in the area in an attempt to
learn what is lurking in the area. The wording on the posters sounds
more like an attraction for October than for May, that or a feeble
attempt at setting up an Alton Towers-like backstory, something about a
publicity stunt by a local amusement park promoting their latest
attraction. When we start seeing weird crop circles, this could get
interesting. For the moment, there isn't much to see. We didn't
investigate closely enough to see what kind of work is going on behind
the fence, but it looks like it has been planted for grass for now.
The suspended coaster presented us with an unexpected surprise. The ride
is running as nicely as ever, although it does lose some of its visual
impact with the wall of wood removed from the far turnaround. The big
surprise, though, is that the safety belts have been removed from the
train. I never quite understood why they were added in the first place,
given that it is probably a "Class I" ride, and noting that such belts
were never installed on Iron Dragon. It is only the second time I can
think of when Cedar Fair actually *removed* safety belts from a ride.
Another nice surprise awaited us in the old Oktoberfest Gardens. The
trellis has been removed from most of the beer garden patio, but more
important, a large menu board indicates that you can now get bratwurst
and mettwurst from the bar. We tried to get a couple of brats and were
denied, it seems the cooking equipment for the bar has been ordered but
has not been installed yet. Kings Island deserves some credit as well
for stopping service when they realized they could it deliver expected
product quality. So this improvement is more one to look forward to
later this season.
Over at Adventure Express, we ran into another queue attendant gumming
things up, although the smaller crowd at this time of day resulted in a
smaller impact. As with Vortex and Flight Deck, the ride gave a nicely
familiar performance. Adventure Express may well be the one ride most
drastically impacted by the removal of Son of Beast.
We attempted to take a ride on the Troika, but the ride went down while
we waited. We discussed possibly trying for a ride on The Beast, but
with what still looked to be a long wait and no evidence that either the
mechanical or operational parameters have changed since last season, we
skipped it and continued around the circle.
We returned to the Hall of Fame grill and took a moment to look at the
menu. It looks to be a similar selection to the Game Day restaurant at
Cedar Point. It's the sort of food (and price) one would expect from a
casual dining restaurant outside. SonKings Island's experiment in table
service dining will sit in that middle ground between the fast food crap
found all over the midway, and the fine dining experience (and price) of
the old International Restaurant.
We decided we could try for another ride on Diamondback, but Diamondback
had other ideas, as it had gone out of service. We proceeded to Planet
Snoopy for rides on the junior woodie and the dark ride. Woodstock
Express seems to be in fine shape, apart from being the only ride of its
kind to be equipped with a trim brake. I can't say the same for the dark
ride, as it was out of service when we walked past.
We crossed over to Coney Mall and decided to check out Flight of Fear.
While nobody was waiting in the outside queue house, we walked through
the tunnel and discovered the hanger queue house to be totally full of
people. We skipped this one, and checked the other capacity nightmare in
the neighborhood, Firehawk, which happens to be one of Dave's favorites.
That line didn't seem so bad, so we waited it out, exiting the ride at
about 9:50pm. A brisk walk across the park put us in line for
Diamondback just as the ride was about to close for the night, so we
were able to get a final ride. This time, because the ride entrance had
been closed down, the attendant at the station entrance simply opened
the gate and let people flow into the station. We still had about a
fifteen minute wait, but I noticed that the dispatch interval had
improved to about 90 seconds, and while the trains still had a few empty
seats, they no longer had empty rows. So the capacity nightmare I had
witnessed earlier wasn't caused by a bunch of greenhorns trying to run
the ride on the first day of the season; clearly the blame can be placed
squarely on the station filling procedure which was intended to maximize
capacity in a Fast Lane enabled world. The obvious conclusion is that
the procedures put into place to accommodate Fast Lane are having a
severe detrimental impact on ride capacity, and need to be revised
immediately.
Our final ride on Diamondback's red train turned out to be far better
than our earlier ride had been. Apparently there is some variation
between trains. In any case, it was much more like hat we expected from
Diamondback.
In all, it was a kind of a mixed day at Kings Island. The park turned
out to be much too crowded to be enjoyable, and there was a lot of
evidence that even though opening day has been pushed back a week from
previous years, the park really isn't ready yet. But clearly the
customers are ready for the park, and if the park can step up to the
capacity and customer service challenges, they could be set to have a
really good season.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
/XXX\ /X\ /X\_ _ /X\__ _ _ _____
/XXXXX\ /XXX\ /XXXX\_ /X\ /XXXXX\ /X\ /X\ /XXXXX
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\_/XXX\_/\_/XXXXXX
NEW! When emailing this account, include the 'canonical magic word' in
the body of your message for a quicker response.
Rastus O'Ginga
Apr 29, 2013, 10:56:35 AM4/29/13
to
What!? No footnotes? And some spelling errors? Are you getting old, Dave?
-R
-R
skiguy777
Apr 29, 2013, 3:34:51 PM4/29/13
to
>
> read more »
I can't believe you coaster geeks arrive so late. 1pm? That's rush
hour at the park.
The big news is the new coaster for next year. No, it won't be some
family ride. I'm hoping for an Intamin Launched record breaker.
They can take it all the way to the "Little Miami River." When
looking on maps.google.com, they've got a ton of space. And it looks
like it will be ready next year (for Spring Break) since they're
starting now (pictures of footers are on Screamscape). The be all
end all coaster would be a combination of TTD, MF, and Maverick all in
one with a dual loading station and 7 trains.
Dave Althoff Jr.
Apr 29, 2013, 9:09:58 PM4/29/13
to
Rastus O'Ginga <rast...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What!? No footnotes? And some spelling errors? Are you getting old, Dave?
>
> -R
Really, Rastus? Top-posting, untrimmed quotes? This is USENET you know!
> What!? No footnotes? And some spelling errors? Are you getting old, Dave?
>
> -R
Actually, any spelling errors are probably because I wrote it using
Pages on an iPad with a virtual keyboard (as my Psion quit working
decades ago) and I wanted to get it posted as quickly as possible.
Didn't need footnotes this time, but trust me, should the need arise, I
won't hesitate to use them! 8-)
-- Dave Althoff, Jr.
Mike Kallay
May 2, 2013, 5:22:13 AM5/2/13
to
On Monday, April 29, 2013 12:34:51 PM UTC-7, skiguy777 wrote:
> The be all
> end all coaster would be a combination of TTD, MF, and Maverick all in
> one with a dual loading station and 7 trains.
Are you talking about California Screaming? :P
> The be all
> end all coaster would be a combination of TTD, MF, and Maverick all in
> one with a dual loading station and 7 trains.
/m
Surf Dance Chris
May 2, 2013, 12:03:11 PM5/2/13
to
If the park was only to be open on one day that weekend, wouldn't it
be expected to be extra busy, since anyone who planned to visit Kings
Island that weekend would be forced to go on Saturday? I would think
that basically 2 days worth of guests would be squeezing into the park
on one day, as opposed to naturally spreading into 2. If it was me, I
would think to avoid that weekend and simply visit the following
weekend, which I would expect to be more normal crowds, if that is a
reasonable option.
be expected to be extra busy, since anyone who planned to visit Kings
Island that weekend would be forced to go on Saturday? I would think
that basically 2 days worth of guests would be squeezing into the park
on one day, as opposed to naturally spreading into 2. If it was me, I
would think to avoid that weekend and simply visit the following
weekend, which I would expect to be more normal crowds, if that is a
reasonable option.
Mike Kallay
May 2, 2013, 11:11:19 PM5/2/13
to
On Thursday, May 2, 2013 9:03:11 AM UTC-7, Surf Dance Chris wrote:
I can't think of a visit I've had there in the past 10 years that hasn't been just a clusterfuck of people. I've been going to KI since 1984 so I know pretty well the patterns of crowds over time. KI is in desperate need of the Canada's Wonderland cap/ex of the last 5 years. They draw CP or SFMM type crowds with a fraction of the total throughput needed to handle it. I hope to hell that next year's ride is a B&M, which I assume it's going to be (Invert), and I think they need another B&M in 2014, maybe like CW just got, just to catch up to its attendance. I'm personally not going back to the park until they add at least another 3,000 pph to their capacity.
/m
I can't think of a visit I've had there in the past 10 years that hasn't been just a clusterfuck of people. I've been going to KI since 1984 so I know pretty well the patterns of crowds over time. KI is in desperate need of the Canada's Wonderland cap/ex of the last 5 years. They draw CP or SFMM type crowds with a fraction of the total throughput needed to handle it. I hope to hell that next year's ride is a B&M, which I assume it's going to be (Invert), and I think they need another B&M in 2014, maybe like CW just got, just to catch up to its attendance. I'm personally not going back to the park until they add at least another 3,000 pph to their capacity.
/m
Rastus O'Ginga
May 3, 2013, 8:46:13 AM5/3/13
to
King's Island on Saturdays has always been hell. All parks were like that back in the glory days of the mid 2000s, but most have gotten reasonable. King's Dominion was fairly dead 2 weeks ago, with perfect weather. But KI is horrible, even early season. And it's instant. As soon as the park opens, there are hour waits everywhere somehow.
But I remember waiting 3.5 hours for the Beast during its SECOND year, so things have always been that way.
-R
skiguy777
May 3, 2013, 10:23:32 AM5/3/13
to
to the thrill factor. The hypers are air time machines (SFoG), BGE,
SFNJ. The question becomes how cool the flyer is compared to an
inverted. They're both going about the same speed, going through
objects (tunnels and keyholes), and basically the same elements.
I keep saying I'd like to see a hyper inverted, otherwise it would be
the same cookie cutter ride found elsewhere. Even though the seats
on the flyer are out to the side, you're still sitting. Just means
the people behind the front can see more.
What really gets me about most B&M designs is the first drop always
curves back the other way. I want it to be like Kracken where it
goes straight down, then continues over another hill before turning
around. The first drop on Kracken is really like a drop tower ride
(Sheikra).
What I really want is the flyer trains on the layout of Goliath from
SFoG. A hyper flyer.
David H.--REMOVE "STOPSPAM" to reply
May 3, 2013, 7:19:05 PM5/3/13
to
You're talking about wing coasters, which are completely different.
It's unlikely that you're going to see extreme forces on wing coasters.
Extreme coasters would put far too much force on the outstretched arms to
be safe in the long term. The trains would be far more likely to break.
"With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censured,
the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us
all irrevocably." -Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
"The Drumhead", _Star Trek: The Next Generation_
Dave Althoff Jr.
May 6, 2013, 11:18:31 PM5/6/13
to
Columbus that was open, and (b) that this has been the Winter That Won't
Quit?
I think you are right about having a double crowd that day, and
furthermore, the fact that it was their opening weekend would have added
even more to the crowd load.
The whole idea of having a buy-out day on the second day of operation
really seems very strange to me.
-- Dave Althoff, Jr.
Dave Althoff Jr.
May 6, 2013, 11:35:22 PM5/6/13
to
First is the waterpark, which they about doubled in size last year with
the addition of the second wave pool and some other stuff.
Second, the easiest way that they could add a few thousand PPH of
capacity to that park would be to get their operations under control.
Last time I actually counted, Diamondback was the only ride in the park
that could move more than 1,000 PPH. But the reason for that is all
about operations. The Beast ought to be able to move 1,200 PPH with
those big trains, but they have to reduce the station headway. Vortex
should be moving about 1,400. Adventure Express should be well over
1,000 if they would bring back the third train. Racer ought to be doing
2,400 PPH easy. Flight of Fear was designed to run four trains, they
ought to be able to run three without the long delays we have become
accustomed to. Certainly the park has been "blessed" with an assortment
of inherently low capacity coasters (Invertigo, Firehawk, Flight of
Fear, Stunt Track), more often than not in that park, the low capacity
demon is self-inflicted.
That said, I am hoping that Cedar Fair will take capacity seriously with
any future installations, in just the same way that they have been
systematically ignoring it for the newest rides at Cedar Point.
-- Dave Althoff, Jr.
skiguy777
May 7, 2013, 8:26:11 AM5/7/13
to
>
> That said, I am hoping that Cedar Fair will take capacity seriously with
> any future installations, in just the same way that they have been
> systematically ignoring it for the newest rides at Cedar Point.
>
> -- Dave Althoff, Jr.
gets to pay $65 on peak days, more than the entrance ticket itself.
They learned this from HHN down in Orlando, who have been doing the
same thing for years. The fast past costs more than the ticket into
the event.
The way around this is to do the early entry thing. Both KI and CP
let season pass holders in early for 2 rides. This is a huge
advantage, because not only do you get on the 2 major attractions, but
you're already in the park when it opens. At CP the hotel guests
also get in early, and they'll sell you a discounted ticket. So I
check into Breakers Express, buy my tickets, and get to the Magnum
entrance at 8am.
For CP I'd still do the same thrill ride tour.
Maverick, MF, GK (new), Raptor, TTD. TTD opens when the park
does. Will be interesting to see what the early rides are since
one of them will be GK.
At KI the early rides are Diamondback, and the Beast. Rush hour
at any park is from noon to 4pm.
I will agree the parks have become lazy with the number of trains they
run, like they don't care about the back up of people into the
midways. Or they start with less trains, then add them as the day
goes on, but this takes 30 minutes and causes a back up. They need
to start with max trains on peak days.
Dave Althoff Jr.
May 7, 2013, 8:50:14 AM5/7/13
to
skiguy777 <skig...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>> That said, I am hoping that Cedar Fair will take capacity seriously with
>> any future installations, in just the same way that they have been
>> systematically ignoring it for the newest rides at Cedar Point.
>>
>> -- Dave Althoff, Jr.
>
> They take capacity seriously. It's called Fast Lane and everyone
> gets to pay $65 on peak days, more than the entrance ticket itself.
> They learned this from HHN down in Orlando, who have been doing the
> same thing for years. The fast past costs more than the ticket into
> the event.
No, FastLane has very little, in fact practically nothing, to do with
>> That said, I am hoping that Cedar Fair will take capacity seriously with
>> any future installations, in just the same way that they have been
>> systematically ignoring it for the newest rides at Cedar Point.
>>
>> -- Dave Althoff, Jr.
>
> They take capacity seriously. It's called Fast Lane and everyone
> gets to pay $65 on peak days, more than the entrance ticket itself.
> They learned this from HHN down in Orlando, who have been doing the
> same thing for years. The fast past costs more than the ticket into
> the event.
getting serious about capacity. Getting serious about capacity is
running Diamondback at or near the 1,200 PPH I've seen it run or even
pushing it to the 1,600 PPH that it should be capable of. The only
impact that FastLane has on capacity is that the way it was being
implemented on opening day this season cut the capacity of the ride in
half...and the FastLane queue was moving so slowly that I saw people
jump out of the FastLane queue and into the regular line so that they
could get onto the ride faster.
The issue isn't how long the lines are, or how long it takes to get on
the ride. The issue is how many seats are leaving the station each hour
with butts in them.
> The way around this is to do the early entry thing. Both KI and CP
> let season pass holders in early for 2 rides. This is a huge
> advantage, because not only do you get on the 2 major attractions, but
> you're already in the park when it opens. At CP the hotel guests
> also get in early, and they'll sell you a discounted ticket. So I
> check into Breakers Express, buy my tickets, and get to the Magnum
> entrance at 8am.
hours away. I find that I don't have to resort to any weird games to get
all the rides I want in that park. I'm remembering that newspaper
article some years ago, where the reporter got to the park when it
opened and spent his morning riding Raptor, Millennium Force and Mantis.
I got there the same day after he finished riding Raptor and spent my
morning riding every other ride in the park, ultimately skipping Mantis
and waiting 40 minutes for Millennium Force (at the time the latest and
greatest thing in the park) and 20 minutes for Raptor.
> For CP I'd still do the same thrill ride tour.
> Maverick, MF, GK (new), Raptor, TTD. TTD opens when the park
> does. Will be interesting to see what the early rides are since
> one of them will be GK.
>
> At KI the early rides are Diamondback, and the Beast. Rush hour
> at any park is from noon to 4pm.
stay until park closing. Most days you can get lots of rides on it in
the last hour.
> I will agree the parks have become lazy with the number of trains they
> run, like they don't care about the back up of people into the
> midways. Or they start with less trains, then add them as the day
> goes on, but this takes 30 minutes and causes a back up. They need
> to start with max trains on peak days.
it. For instance, if the ride isn't running, the queue entrance needs to
be CLOSED. The ride needs to open at full capacity and get knocked back
if it isn't needed, not the other way around. Needed capacity needs to
be defined by the number of people entering the queue, not by the length
of the line. And platform procedures need to be streamlined. If you're
going to tug on every seat belt, for instance, then put enough bodies on
the platform to do it quickly. When the train stops, open the gates,
don't wait for the last person to get off the train and collect his junk
from the bins. Keep things moving!
BaSSiStiSt
May 7, 2013, 10:46:15 AM5/7/13
to
On May 7, 5:26 am, skiguy777 <skiguy...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I will agree the parks have become lazy with the number of trains they
> run, like they don't care about the back up of people into the
> midways.
No better advertisement for a "Fast Lane" type program than lines out
> I will agree the parks have become lazy with the number of trains they
> run, like they don't care about the back up of people into the
> midways.
of the queues...
Surf Dance Chris
May 7, 2013, 10:59:49 AM5/7/13
to
>
> > At KI the early rides are Diamondback, and the Beast. Rush hour
> > at any park is from noon to 4pm.
>
> At Kings Island, the best way to get lots of rides on Diamondback is to
> stay until park closing. Most days you can get lots of rides on it in
> the last hour.
>
> > I will agree the parks have become lazy with the number of trains they
> > run, like they don't care about the back up of people into the
> > midways. Or they start with less trains, then add them as the day
> > goes on, but this takes 30 minutes and causes a back up. They need
> > to start with max trains on peak days.
>
> This is where the real problem lies. And there are tricks for managing
> it. For instance, if the ride isn't running, the queue entrance needs to
> be CLOSED. The ride needs to open at full capacity and get knocked back
> if it isn't needed, not the other way around. Needed capacity needs to
> be defined by the number of people entering the queue, not by the length
> of the line. And platform procedures need to be streamlined. If you're
> going to tug on every seat belt, for instance, then put enough bodies on
> the platform to do it quickly. When the train stops, open the gates,
> don't wait for the last person to get off the train and collect his junk
> from the bins. Keep things moving!
>
I agree with both Dave and Robert about the number of trains that need
> > At KI the early rides are Diamondback, and the Beast. Rush hour
> > at any park is from noon to 4pm.
>
> At Kings Island, the best way to get lots of rides on Diamondback is to
> stay until park closing. Most days you can get lots of rides on it in
> the last hour.
>
> > I will agree the parks have become lazy with the number of trains they
> > run, like they don't care about the back up of people into the
> > midways. Or they start with less trains, then add them as the day
> > goes on, but this takes 30 minutes and causes a back up. They need
> > to start with max trains on peak days.
>
> This is where the real problem lies. And there are tricks for managing
> it. For instance, if the ride isn't running, the queue entrance needs to
> be CLOSED. The ride needs to open at full capacity and get knocked back
> if it isn't needed, not the other way around. Needed capacity needs to
> be defined by the number of people entering the queue, not by the length
> of the line. And platform procedures need to be streamlined. If you're
> going to tug on every seat belt, for instance, then put enough bodies on
> the platform to do it quickly. When the train stops, open the gates,
> don't wait for the last person to get off the train and collect his junk
> from the bins. Keep things moving!
>
to be ran for the day need to be up and running from the start. This
will help keeps lines to a minimum from the start.
While Robert does have a point to getting there early and doing as
much as you can, I side more with Dave of getting there later and
staying all the way until park close. This applies to just about any
park. If open to close is not an option, I'd much rather choose
getting there later and staying until closing (literally closing),
rather than getting there at opening and leaving prior to closing.
Plus you get night rides (if its open after dark).
FastLane and other line cutting systems encourage parks to run less
trains to increase lines to increase the desire to line cut. I am one
who refuses to participate due to the cost, and because I think its
wrong in general. I know people will say I'm cheap for that but oh
well. I did fine without it prior to these systems existing, and if it
means less visits to parks due to lack of interest due to frustration
with lines that crawl then so be it.
Also, I've been to (P)KI a bunch of times over the years, always
during the week and always late May/June. The rides were always at
full capacity and lines were relatively short--- I was always under
the impression that KI was pretty good with throughput. Beast never
more than a few trains wait (Always just in the station), Adventure
Express- walk on every time, Beastie 2 train wait, Vortex walk on,
OL:FOF about an hour my first visit, just a few trains if that other
visits, Top Gun always a walk on, etc. My visits were 2 days in early
June '97, 1 day in late May '01, 2 days in June '03, and the Con in
mid June '07. Have things changed this much? Or is it simply the
weekday experience? have I just been extremely lucky???
skiguy777
May 8, 2013, 9:17:14 AM5/8/13
to
> Also, I've been to (P)KI a bunch of times over the years, always
> during the week and always late May/June. The rides were always at
> full capacity and lines were relatively short--- I was always under
> the impression that KI was pretty good with throughput. Beast never
> more than a few trains wait (Always just in the station), Adventure
> Express- walk on every time, Beastie 2 train wait, Vortex walk on,
> OL:FOF about an hour my first visit, just a few trains if that other
> visits, Top Gun always a walk on, etc. My visits were 2 days in early
> June '97, 1 day in late May '01, 2 days in June '03, and the Con in
> mid June '07. Have things changed this much? Or is it simply the
> weekday experience? have I just been extremely lucky???
the coaster season is all of July and the first two weeks of August.
Anytime in there is going to be packed. Look at the hours of each
park and that gives you an idea of when they are busy. When they're
open late, they expect huge crowds. May and June is still early
season, even if the kids are out of school. That's why the parks
close early, and they usually don't have fireworks or night time shows
running yet.
Agree that going until the park closes is a good idea. Whenever I
visit BGE, I'm always riding AC until they stop running the train.
I actually do both when visiting parks. I show up early 1 hour
before they open. I leave from noon to 4pm, go back to my hotel,
take a nap or drive to another park. Then I visit at night until
closing or I've done everything I want.
People remember when a park doesn't have all trains running when they
open. In my case it's SFNJ. They have the tallest/fastest coaster
in the USA, yet they don't make the top 10 in attendance. Why is
that? Because they don't have all the rides open in the
morning. I flew my entire family up there and nothing was
running. I had to go back later that night and wait 3 hours for my
KK ride. We had maintenance workers come in here and defend the
park, saying they purposely open El Toro around noon, same with Kingda
Ka. I haven't been back since. Some SF parks get it, like SFoG.
They have the coasters near the front of the park running early, and
everyone can get a ride before the rope drops for Goliath. But SFNJ
is completely clueless on how the early ride stuff effects people.
If they had a clue, they'd have KK, El Toro, Superman, and Nitro
running as the park opens. But noooo, that's when the workers show
up to start inspecting the rides. I'd like to go back and ride KK
again, but I'm not happy about their morning policy. I'll eventually
get back there, but I'll have to plan a morning and evening
visit.
krr...@gmail.com
May 8, 2013, 2:17:05 PM5/8/13
to
On Monday, May 6, 2013 11:35:22 PM UTC-4, Dave Althoff Jr. wrote:
Flight of Fear was designed to run four trains, they
>
> ought to be able to run three without the long delays we have become
>
> accustomed to.
Dave, Dave, Dave
Flight of Fear was designed to run four trains, they
>
> ought to be able to run three without the long delays we have become
>
> accustomed to.
Flight of Fear physically can't run 4 trains. It was SOLD with 4 trains. It was not really DESIGNED for 4 trains.
Dave Althoff Jr.
May 11, 2013, 4:45:53 PM5/11/13
to
krr...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Monday, May 6, 2013 11:35:22 PM UTC-4, Dave Althoff Jr. wrote:
>
>> Flight of Fear was designed to run four trains, they
>> ought to be able to run three without the long delays we have become
>> accustomed to.
>
> Dave, Dave, Dave
Somehow back when I typed tht I figured it might pull you out of the
> On Monday, May 6, 2013 11:35:22 PM UTC-4, Dave Althoff Jr. wrote:
>
>> Flight of Fear was designed to run four trains, they
>> ought to be able to run three without the long delays we have become
>> accustomed to.
>
> Dave, Dave, Dave
woodwork again... 8-)
> Flight of Fear physically can't run 4 trains. It was SOLD with 4
> trains. It was not really DESIGNED for 4 trains.
loading and unloading. Once train 1 clears the first inversion
everybody could move up, and that ought to get the transfer table clear
before the train passes the mid-course, but that's such a short time
that it wouldn't be possible to unload train 4. There is an added
problem that the people in charge at Kings Island seem to be deathly
afraid of trains coming back from a block, so the usual "n trains
requires n+1 blocks" rule doesn't completely apply to any ride in that
park, especially not to this one.
The ride has five blocks, but the design inconveniently forgot that what
on a more conventional ride would be the lift block actually starts in
and includes the load station, so a train can't be brought in there
until the train ahead gets far enough that it can't come back, so the
timing doesn't work out. So I concede that while it might have worked in
theory, in practice it isn't possible. That doesn't change the fact that
it ought to be able to run three, but the loading process is so
intolerably slow that there would be no benefit to doing so. THAT is
something that should be correctable.
(I'm trying to remember if there is a holding block uptrack of the
unload station separate from the transfer table. I know the transfer is
uptrack of unload, then there is room for a train in the tunnel between
unload and load, and the ride is bisected by the midcourse brake, so
that's the five...)
0 new messages