John Peck

The GP will eat the Super Loop up. This will also make the third upside down "thrill" (non-coaster) ride at the park following the Cyclos and Enterprise, so I'm sure it will be a winner for the park. I'm excited to see what other two rides are being built for next year in the kiddieland... since they have some of the "premier" Larson rides (Skycatcher and Flying Machines), I wonder if they will go with a Tilt A Whirl, since Larson builds them now. (Note: Cedar point has a Tilt A Whirl in its Camp Snoopy) Anyway, Kudos to KK and their great team.

Wait... so what exactly happened with the gliders? I wasn't there. If they are moving fast enough, I can snap the Larsons very well... I have had some of the most intense rides at the Columbus Zoo.

I think they are going for record breaking again... "The world's tallest, fastest wood coaster will rein again at Cedar Point" (if that is-they market it as a wood coaster)

Very cool about the addition, though I was hoping they could have used that enormous footer where windseeker was and have funtime design a 300' star flyer using the existing footer. Oh well. Glad that Knotts is getting into the thrill market again after a needed few years of refurbishments and family attractions.

Also to note...the Giant Wheel is 136 feet and was built in 1972, so it remained higher than all coasters built in the park prior to Magnum in 1989. The "other" high ride in the park would have been the Sky Wheel and that stood at 90 feet. On carnivals, it's known as the "King of the Midway"

I think having "loose millions" is why Six flags spent so much and the park failed.

Hart was very aggressive in the 90's to get people from out of state to go to the park. In 1997, we got free tickets because we were Ohio residents. That was about the time they had the largest rides going in as Chang opened that year. I know he wants a new B&M to get more out of state people, hopefully, this will be closer to his goal. As for Storm Chasers cost, I don't know the exact amount, but I would think maybe around the $10 million mark. Does that sound right?

Park got a great attendance increase this year: http://www.wtvq.com/2016/09/28/attendance-increasing-kentucky-kingdom/ Attendance increasing at Kentucky Kingdom LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Officials at Kentucky Kingdom say attendance at the amusement park keeps increasing. Operators of the park in Louisville say an estimated 800,000 people visited during the 2016 season, beating last year’s attendance by more than 200,000. Officials credit much of the increase to out-of-state visitors and park upgrades that included the addition of a fifth roller coaster. Kentucky Kingdom CEO Ed Hart told The Courier-Journal (http://cjky.it/2cT61Kc) that Kentucky Kingdom is established now as a regional attraction and he hopes to reach 1 million visitors as early as next year. The park just finished its third season under the leadership of Hart and his partners. The previous operator, Six Flags, filed for bankruptcy and closed the facility in 2009.

One amusement park book I highly recommend is called "Step right up folks" by Al Griffin and it's about the disappearing amusement parks in the late 60's and 70's. It's an old book going back to 1974, but it has some neat black and white photos and lists of parks that are now gone. It's not a photo-heavy book, but it's quite an interesting read.

As an Arrow fanboy, Viper just seemed a bit of a "meh" coaster to me the few times I have ridden it during my only SFMM trips in 2002 and 2008. Its smaller brothers at SF Gr Am and Sf Gr Adv were always more intense to me and more fun. Maybe Viper at one time was more intense, but the thing is just too over-braked and maybe I was expecting more from it. I would be sad to see it go, like I would with any Arrow, but something new will be better.

If some of you never saw it, I did a Trip report of Conneaut Lake back on August 22nd. And I showed off the clean water in the slide pool. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=72327 Clean, filtered water

I agree, you may want to look into friday nights with a chance of rain

The public have created an online petition to save WWK. If only they visited in greater numbers instead the last 9 years, we wouldn't be having this conversation. What hurt worse, is since GL was the place I grew up, the outcry seemed to be lacking (or much less) when the ride side closed in 2007. http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/portage-county/more-than-1500-sign-petition-to-save-wild-water-kingdom/315564404

Are we 100% positive that this is going where that old plaza was?

Hi everyone. Sorry, i was out of town this last week. Let me answer some questions: 1. Yes. They still have Mini Golf, but I wasn't paying attention to see if anyone was playing. I didn't see any attendant at the booth, though. 2. Yes. they still have a lovely kiddieland 3. I added an additional picture of the theming along the train. 4. The gift shop, is actually 1/2 the size it used to be. The interior is lighter and they have mostly all Conneaut lake merchandise. I didn't see any GL or other park stuff. The store was clean and organized, but not air conditioned. The old half looks like it's an employee break area or an office. 5. I would say 90% of the Blue Streak tunnel has had its roof fixed. A few open areas, but mostly all fixed. More pics... kiddieland the wife with connie otter kiddie boats. note the classic kiddie carousel behind more train themeing train station gift shop in this corner. maybe a 600-700 sq ft space

^ Thank you for enjoying. We were there on Saturday the 20th, which I put in the subhead (but that may have been too subtle). Yes, it did feel lie Blue Streak could come apart at any moment. I forgot to mention, but even though there are still holes, they spent a lot of money putting a new roof on the tunnel, which was missing last time. For further comparisons to the progress, check out my side-by-side comparison of the park in 2013 and 2014 that I posted a couple of years ago: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=68846&p=1491766&hilit=conneaut#p1491766

I've been trying to get back to Conneaut Lake a little more often so after skipping last year, we headed back this year. Though it doesn't seem like much, the park is vastly improving. You won't see new hundred-thousand dollar rides, but there are areas where you can tell they spent thousands of dollars and a lot of elbow grease on. The most noticeable thing aside from the waterpark now open for the first time since (I think) 2010 which is very fresh and bright looking was the hotel lobby (we didn't go much further into the hotel) and the hotel bar/restaurant (we did not go to the main dining room) The park was pretty busy compared to what I've seen in the past. Other things to mention is I finally got my first ride on the train in 10 years and I was told the Music Express was open for the first time in the last 6 years. (not sure if that's accurate) Now... onto the photos... welcome to conneaut Lake, Bit**es there was a collapsed house here last time being removed slides look great crisp, clear lake-free water (it was probably just filtered) previous home to yo yo (before that flyers) two sets of footers... the edges were for the original 10-tub flying scooter. the three in the middle, the yo-yo noted Trabant looking rough running good. Note the lazy river open behind it nerd shot open and running pretty good most games open this was open-space last time. Ultimate trip building before that which collapsed where the Super Round Up was (it only had a section remaining last visit) lots of $$$ to refurb this bar/restaurant hotel lobby painted the bookcase white and lightened the colors. new furniture, too and TV brighter charm charm charm i love the wrap-around porch setting up for a wedding busy beach love it former fence belonging to the Toboggan boardwalk beach bar charm charm charm toboggan replaced with potty's (a toss-up to which is better) old ballroom site old non-working ring machine charm Streak down to 3 cars... first drop great... upward climb...big jolt take the tunnel (i was in the station... I put my camera away prior to riding.. it will take loose articles) train! clearer shot of new wood the bunny hills were great. themes along the way on the train back side from the train take the tunnel... part 2 flyer tubs repainted... but the sails had weird white texture on them. charm busy waterpark charm Paratrooper old Ferris Wheel Site fountain working Toboggan racked in back of parking lot. Thanks for reading.

While I did enjoy the WWK park, I'm really not that surprised. They just couldn't get the numbers in with all that expensive land as overhead (wwk acreage). I am glad though that they announced this before the season ended, I can at least go and say my final goodbyes.

A closer look...

^ Really? I swear I saw it somewhere that PTC rebuilds the trains for them every year. Anyway, I've been to the parks on enough cold days in october to where it took well into the late afternoon before the steel coasters could run but all of the wood ones were operating, so naturally, I'd figure the park would at least have those operating. But if winterfest is a afternoon to evening event, it could be warm enough. Just thinking, people.

Kings Island sends their wooden trains back to PTC every off-season, so I wonder if they couldn't have them back in time. But again, other parks are able to put these winter events on with limited rides. But yes, I think having a major E-Ticket ride open will help gain more traffic to the park during this time. We'll wait and see.

Cirque Imagine is a great show. I saw it several times at Kings Island in their theater. Will this be an outdoor show?

Well, Paramount did build 4 coasters named "Vortex" within 5 years... so we lost a Vortex and got a Patriot. Also, I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but the press release said that this was the oldest operating stand up coaster in the US... are they forgetting Iron Wolf/Apocalypse? Anyway, great change.

I think the early entry is not available on weekdays.

I'm noticing on the website that the Magic Carpet/1001 Nacgt is closed. I would think it's been closed for a while because they are problematic rides. Is that true? Also, are there any other rides that have had significant downtime?