PKIDelirium

The way Beast is running right now, I'm not in any hurry to take another ride on it!

TR: Paramount's Kings Island Saturday, April 29 2006 "Questionable" Okay, well I missed a weekend, so with the weather looking pretty decent this weekend, I went down to PKI on Saturday afternoon. The only thing on the closed rides sign is SOB and the train, so things are looking pretty good. Face/Off and Delirium can be seen running from the parking lot. The first thing I noticed upon clearing security is that the old ticket booths are indeed gone, replaced by a pad of the same tinted concrete used in Nick Universe. I make my way quickly into the park, where I headed straight to Nick Universe,checking my phone and calling Adam on the way. After snapping a few photos, I went over to the Eiffel Tower to meet him, and then we head back into Nick Universe where we walk around and get a bunch of photos of the area. We observe a bad Avatar line with the ride having problems homing, and see a short Beastie... err... Fairly Odd Coaster line, so we walk over and take a ride in the pink train. It's running pretty well, but the trim is on pretty good, which pretty much kills the ending. After getting off, we decide to take a ride on Lazytown Sportacopters to get some photos from above. We got in line, and Gabriel called, showing up a short time later just as we are about to board, and we get to the loading gate and are told three to a car. Uh, three? In a Caripro Pedal Helicopter, but whatever. We wedged into the car, and the operator was barely able to close the door, before the ride dispatched. We got a decent amount of pictures from the ride, and after getting off we continued the photo tour, getting a ton of photos of most of Nick Universe, then we headed over to I-Street and down Coney Mall, and headed for the Action Theater, with hopes of seeing The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. Well, we're in luck. SpongeBob is down and Funtastic is up. We walk directly into the loading chute for row 4, and a couple minutes later, hop into the motion seats and take it for a spin. After riding, I bought a Highway Robbery Coke, and we headed down to Racer sans Gabriel, where we take a ride in 5.2 where we get stapled and left in severe pain. After collecting Gabriel outside the exit, we proceed over to Action Zone where we see a short Delirium queue, so we hop in. A few minutes later, the ride unloads and goes down mechanical, and we decide to wait it out. 30 minutes later... Pretty much everyone has left the line by now, except us and a few other in front and behind us, and Maintenance is ready to start testing cycles. Unfortunately, the floors wouldn't drop! So after a few minutes, one of the maintenance people cussed at it, then cut the fluid to the hydraulics, causing the floors to come crashing down with an earth-shattering BANG! Everyone in the queue jumped, and all of Action Zone probably did. After several testing cycle and properly working floors, they finally loaded, and we were the first into the ride, everyone else in front of us had left. We boarded and had a great ride, unfortunately it had gathered a nasty line once our cycle was over, so we headed for Vortex. At Vortex, we waited through the fairly short line and took the back car, and with looser-than-average shoulder bars, got a very intense airtime ride. Getting off, it was 20 minutes to close, so we headed for Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider is running in low-staff mode, with no greeter, and Antechamber is unused. They still count people at the gate outside antechamber, but them you go straight into Preshow, which has the house lights on. After receiving the spiel, the door opens and we go into the ride chamber where we board in the middle row. They did not show the preshow. We take the left end of the gondola, so I'm in the Dangler seat. We get a good ride as usual, and then since they only have a front row load for the final cycle of the day, we get to stay on for another ride. After exiting, ten minutes after closing and having two of our three person group park employees, we head over to Vortex, as Gabriel is the ride home for one of the crew. I almost get denied by security, but since we weren't going to be long, he let me go on back, where we hung out at the station for a little while, then after they finished shutting down, walked out with the crew, where I was definitely the last guest in the park except for a small group by the front gate gift shop. Overall a very good day. I got a ton of photos of most of Nick Universe and general photos from all over the park. If I remember, I'll add photos to this TR in a day or two. The ride list... Fairly Odd Coaster Lazytown Sportacopters The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera Racer Delirium Vortex Tomb Raider: The Ride

OK, I sent you a zip last night, right before the server went loopy. if you didn't get it, let me know and I'll resend.

Here are the photos from March 18 that are under 150k. Can I email you a zip file of the others? I had some difficulty with Photoshop when I was optimizing them.

Got a bunch of pics from March 18:

Thanks for stealing my Avatar photo. Anyway, I get flak for this sometimes, but my favorite steel is Vortex at PKI.

Just posted on RRC. From Japan: Today we received information from Nara Dreamland by mail. Unfortunately, they have decided to close that park at August 31, 2006. We don't know whether they sell or scrap Aska and other coaster

Calm down dude, it's opening weekend, and they didn't have employee dry-run days this season. Cut them some slack!

TR: Paramount's Kings Island Opening Day - April 14 2006 "Finally!" Yesterday was opening day for the 2006 season at PKI. After getting a late start, I got to the park at about 1:30. First thing I notice is that the International Street music has returned to its old ways: DEAFENINGLY LOUD! I grabbed my phone to make a call to see about meeting up, that is as soon as I get as far away from the speakers as I can. The call goes to voicemail, so I put the phone away and proceed back to Vortex, first making a pit stop at the bathrooms by Swan Lake. The Vortex line is out to past the entrance sign, so I get in. Halfway through, my phone rings, so I tell Adam I'm at Vortex before getting off the phone and waiting through the line. I board Vortex in 2.1 and score my first coaster of the season. It's running pretty well, a little rougher than usual, but not bad at all. From the brake run, I saw Adam and Bill standing in front of Happy Days, so after getting off I walked over there. Shortly after, Ryan, Ronny and Jeff show up, so after we talk for a while, me, Adam and Jeff take a ride on Vortex, them in 7.1 and me in 6.2. Had a great ride, I got ejector all the way down the first seat, I mean seriously, butt off the seat, legs up all the way down. Serious hangtime on the corkscrews. After Vortex we head over to Happy Days to get some lunch. They get the burger meal things, and I just get a chocolate shake. We talk and have lunch, then Adam goes to work while me and Jeff head over to Nick Universe so I can ride Avatar. We get there and entire the line for Avatar. It's about half an hour, so we wait it out. Just about exactly 30 minutes later, we board the end row on the end toward the service gate. Wow. Avatar is seriously a great ride. I had pretty low expectations for it, but it's very fast and fun. We got off, and walked through Rivertown and into Coney Mall to ride the "new" Hanna-Barbera movie in the action theater. We walked down the entrance and then stopped and cussed, because it was closed. So we walked back out, paused in front of Flight of Fear and looked over toward Action Zone, and headed over there, where after observing SlingShot begging for riders, and Delirium testing in the newly started rain sprinkles, we headed for Top Gun. After getting a near walk-on for the back seat on Top Gun, we took a ride. It's running a little rough, but not that bad. After Top Gun, Jeff had to go, so I walked with him to the front gate and then returned to Action Zone, taking a bathroom break before checking the lines for Face/Off and Drop Zone. Face/Off was down with the queue emptied, and Drop Zone was a 2-3 cycle wait, and it felt like rain again, so I skipped. Walking back over toward Delirium to head for Adventure Express, I saw a line forming outside the Delirium entrance. There were only about 40 people there, so I quickly jumped in line. A few minutes and two test cycles later, Maintenance walks out of the ride area, and they open the gates to let us in. Fortunetely we get to the loading area fast, because I had two rude smokers in front of me. I managed to snag seat #46 on the very first Delirium cycle of the season! And it's running EXTREMELY well, no more of the jerking it was doing after it reopened last fall. It's finally back to its old, awesome self. Best non-coaster ride in the park. At Delirium, I ran into Adam and Karen who had also just taken the first cycle of the season. So I followed them over to Top Gun, where we rode in 7.1 and had another good ride, and we took a look at the ripped up lower sections of the Son of Beast track, which has a crane parked near the base of the lift hill, and several sections protected by plastic covers. Adam had to go home, so we went to the front gate, and then I went with Karen into Nickelodeon Universe, where we watched Avatar, and then chatted with Ryan and Bill again at the broken-down Phantom Flyers, before we moved on to Beast, where we got in line. Beast's line was in the station, so we got into line for 1.2, where we boarded a few minutes later, and noticed a few things: 1. Beast has received all new PTC lap bars, including new locking mechanisms. They are actually adjusted properly, and have stiff return springs. 2. Beast has also received all new seats, with the padding replaced on the entire thing. Here is the BAD NEWS. Before, the sides, back, and seat dividers were that awful molded foam crap, and the butt cushion was still padding. Well now the ENTIRE THING including the butt cushion has gotten the molded foam treatment. I hate that crap, and while it's not TERRIBLE, you can tell a difference in the seats. I didn't get a chance to ride Racer today, so I'm not sure if it's gotten the same treatment or not. I'll check on that next weekend. It's 12:46 AM on Sunday now, so I'll return to this TR tomorrow! 9:28 PM Sunday... I'm back! Anyway, Beast is running well. There is new track scattered around the course, most notably in the helix, where a great deal of the upper level has been retracked, almost eliminating the jackhammering. Also, they have physically REMOVED all but one tiny trim caliper on the drop off the second lift hill, so the speed is increased. It's an overall improvement. After getting off Beast, we head to Flight of Fear, where we find a short wait with no inside switchbacks open, and the preshow TV's stuck on blue. The program is running, with the TVs displaying the security camera and the lighting changing, yet the preshow video is just a blue screen. We make our way quickly through the line and into the station, where we chat with a couple Carowinds people before boarding. Flight of Fear has received new seats, which are orange instead of the old dark gray-black. Bad: The foot bars have been tightened again, and the Carowinds people said it's still suffering from uneven-belt-itis. Flight of Fear is running well, although one bank of service lights had been left on, and the midcourse brake was on pretty hard, as usual. Running well though, and we got off and walked over to the Skeeball Arcade, checking our phones. My phone rang, and my mom said storms were coming QUICK and to hurry back to the parking lot to try to beat the storm, so instead of finishing up on Vortex, I walked with Karen back up to the front of the park and out to the parking lot, where my mom picked me up, and we left the park fifteen to twenty minutes before closing at 8. Unfortunately, we didn't beat the storm, We drove through insane lightning, and when we got to Waynesville, we had to pull into town and take shelter from the hailstorm in the nursing home lobby, where we watched the local news station's weather coverage, and after half an hour there, continued home in driving rain, finally making it home at about 9:30. Overall, it was an iffy day. The park is definitely not in optimal condition, although Nick Universe came together very well at the last minute. Coney Mall is showing its age pretty badly, hopefully the rumors of a 2007 total makeover for it are true! I'll chalk a lot of it up to Opening Day Jitters, and the fact that no dry run day, plus short offseason due to WinterFest and Nickelodeon Universe construction. With Paramount Parks for sale, it will be interesting to see how this season shapes up... Anyway, here are all my opening day photos, just click the View Photos or Make an account Later links to bypass the registration thing. I know, I could upload them here, but I'm way too lazy to resize and optimize them all to post. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=l98j0lk.5j626rs&x=0&y=-dgbcyq

Yeah, Beast and SOB... suck...

Did you notice how crappy Vortex's station is looking? They replaced the sign with a new one, but it doesn't have the old classic light bulbs! The whole station needs some TLC.

Cool pics. I still haven't decided if I'm going to count Avatar or not. It sure felt like a credit though.

Nope, I win! I got my pass last August with no wait! Early renewal rocks.

You maid your way?? Papa Jones???

Yeah, I screwed up, I'd forgotten to set my watch for daylight savings, so I was messed up with the time all day. It was just after 5PM that I scored the first cycle of the season on Delirium, when it FINALLY opened. I'll try to get a photo TR up soon.

I'm in ACE. I'm 5-foot-9 and about 145 pounds.

I think he meant pkdcoaster.

Ugh, I can't find it. Can someone PM me a link to the Biulding the Biggest one?

Just so you know, this is incorrect. The calendar shows this on Saturday the 15th. Opening Day is Friday the 14th.

WTF are you smoking?!

I attended the tour as well and have posted 122 photos of Voyage, photos from walking through the park, and a few from the Santa Claus Museum, at the following link. http://donald.extremepki.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=40 A full Trip Report on the tour will be coming shortly.

It's playing just fine here. QuickTime 7.0.2 on Mac OS X 10.4.4.

Downloading now at like 136 kb/s. Almost done. Edit: Hmm down to 82 kb/s... still downloading...

Why are the road wheels white and the rest yellow?

So far, still no word on PKI's FOF. It's still listed and is expected to be operating normally.