EDUMaster

Anyone who has gotten the chance to ride Orion had any issues with the restrains? My friend is able to ride any other B&M coaster with the clamshells (that he had tried to ride) but for some reason could not get the restraint secured on Orion and had to take the walk of shame. He was able to ride Dimondback later that day with no issues, and rode Mako a few days earlier no issue. Wondering if this is specific to all giga B&Ms or this is specific to just Orion.

Deluge was open all last season and into the September weekends as well. I've been told because of the minimum/maximum weight it requires regrouping of groups at times, which is not allowed while social distancing is still a thing. I personally think it should be open for individual groups wishing to ride as the weight minimum is 300 and maximum is 700 so I have a feeling its closure has more to do with not waiting to put wear and tear on the ride than being worried about regrouping.

Based off the height indicator coordinates given, it looks like a clone of Wonder Woman. This would situate the drop towards the park, giving a better view for non riders which Ed has stated time and time agin that he cares about. For those concerned about how Covid will affect the ride getting built, the park didn't add anything new this year, which will help with he finical burden and I can see them charging ahead with this plan to boost attendance post Covid year.

I wouldn't expect large crowds. It remains to be seen what the operations will look like this year. One thing I have noticed is there is no constancy between coasters or even specific crews on each coaster. One crew can be super efficient at Storm Chaser, dispatching the train in a minute and half from the time it parks. They switch out with two different operators who can take 5 minutes to dispatch one train. There seems to be no consistency at all. It's all about the luck of the draw.

I have heard KK plans on running two trains all year long at Lightning Run, Storm Chaser and Kentucky Flyer to accommodate social distancing. However, if GP begins to complain about the additional wait times in the brake stations while they load the second train according to their new procedure of release one row at a time, load one row at a time they will drop down to one train operation for the season. Lastly, according to a photo I saw of the Storm Chaser trains, at the coasters every other row is being blocked off. For instance, Row 1 will be open for riders from the same party while row 2 will be closed to all riders, row 3 will be open for riders from the same party, row 4 will be closed and so on. I don't know about the rest of the attractions but I would assume they are the same with X number of empty ride vehicles between a rider or group of riders from the same party.

T3 really isn't as bad as enthusiast make it out to be. It is way better now than with the old restraints. GP love the ride and praise the intensity, which is why you will find that it usually has the longest line in the park even with the fastest ops (besides Kentucky Flyer) of the coasters. I am willing to bet though that the park would not go with the Kumbak and instead with the new generation Vekoma restraints. I agree it is not the best coaster but I don't believe it deserves as much hate as it gets.

Local news is stating that the reopening of outdoor attractions does not include Kentucky Kingdom. I am not sure if the Ark Encounter Park or the Louisville Zoo will be allowed to reopen but those places pull similar attendance numbers as Kentucky Kingdom. I would imagine if they are allowed to reopen, Kentucky Kingdom should be able to as well. Link to article

Yes. Oak Island closed right after HalloScream. A friend who works at the park said the stuff Oak Island provided to Kentucky Kingdom stayed on sight for about 2 months with no word from Oak Island. The auction company finally showed up and gathered most of their property. The park was never planning on working with Oak Island for this upcoming year and was just using Oak Island to gain knowledge on how to operate a haunted attraction so that they could do it on their own this year. Here is the other interesting thing. According to what I have been told, Oak Island filed for bankruptcy and the Six Flags cooperation was going to buy them out. Giving Six Flags ownership of every single piece that Oak Island owned (Halloween, Christmas, etc.) however I have not heard if that deal went through. Lastly, on a regular Monday-Thursday Kentucky Kingdom averages 6,000-7,000 guest. An average Friday-Sunday usually averages 13,000-15,000. I doubt they see those numbers with Covid-19 still lingering, meaning the park will never get near their Covid response max capacity. It is a very good plan they have put together and hopefully, Kentucky's Governor sees that the community needs this, hell Kentucky could really use the tax revenue.

Rumor going around is that the state health director has stated pools will not be eligible to open until the end of June at the earliest. That is not good news for Kentucky Kingdom. The majority of their business comes from people going to Hurricane Bay with season passes. I'm afraid this also means staffing issues, what teenager is going to want to go through all that training just to work for one month on a $8 an hour wage. I'm beginning to think Kentucky Kingdom won't open this summer at all and if it does, it will be a shell of its former self with all the cost cutting they will have to do to salvage any profit. The only good news is there were very few capital improvements at the park this off season so they aren't out any money for a new ride or attraction. It's all around just sad to see a park on the incline be derailed like this. Even worse is the PR hit the park is taking. It seems just recently people in Louisville and other surrounding areas began to gain trust back in the park after the Six Flags days. Now the the park is in limbo and doesn't have the capital it requires to survive extending season passes till next year. They are taking a hit on social media and through word of mouth which will impact business long after this is all over.

People tend to forget, Deluge was the first ever hydromagentic water coaster, it was a prototype. I love it but the constant downtime and issues it has causes headaches for everyone involved. Operators at the park have told me, techs hate it because anytime it goes down, they have to visit the pump room, mechanical room, unload section and then have to hike up to the top to restart the ride. All newer models have the unload and load areas at the same elevation if not in the same station to curb this issue. Prosilde themselves have tried to fix the issues the ride has but can't seem to understand its constant different issues. A new operating system would cost a lot on this ride and with it being 13 years old this year, it might be better just to start over from scratch.

Anyone heard an update on what the park will be adding for the 2020 season? I know the Flying Dutchman was having some issues last season, I personally believe a new swing ride would look great in that area. In addition, the park could use a true children's coaster, something like Howler are Holiday World. Rollerskater has always been a bit intimidating to start out on as kids coaster. Any one else have ideas or heard anything?

Hearing rumors from my buddies at the park that Proslide was there the other day. Early rumblings around the park is that Deluge and Mt. Slide Hai will be going away to create room for a new Proslide water coaster. In addition, I'm hearing T3 will be running with one train the rest of the year as the other train became a parts train. On the plus side T3 has a very fast crew this year but they can only do so much when the ride takes 2-2:30 minutes to complete the cycle and the train can only hold 14 people. Hopefully they will get the second train back sometime later this summer as every time I've gone this summer it has been a full station wait or more at T3 which can easily be 30-40 minutes. Overall the park seems relatively busy this summer compared to last which is a good sign and the public LOVES Kentucky Flyer, the amount of happy kids and parents coming off that thing and going for re-rides is insane

I'm sad to hear Fire Chief and Loony Balloony are on the way out. Those were some of the rides I remember the most from my childhood along with Pounce N Bounce, Rowdy Racers. I remember hearing some stories about the Fire Engine getting stuck at the top some this past season and it had a really bad shake at times according to some friends who work at the park so it makes sense for them to remove it. Rock N Roller looked really out of place this past season so I'm glad it is getting relocated to the kids area. Kentucky Flyer is starting to look better and better and I'm a huge fan if the way it frames the waterpark. Hopefully this season is better for the park, it seemed like it was never busy last summer which I believe is a reason why the back half of the park would open an hour late during the week to save on labor as well as closing some rides with larger staffing needs on days it wasn't busy.

I've noticed that when the park is less crowded, the operations are typically slower since the ride ops have to secure more restraints instead of just checking them after people have already pulled them down and buckled them. I've seen them constantly stay under a minute and a half at Storm Chaser and Lightning Run before when they have a full train. You also have to remember that many of the ride ops are still relatively new, they will get there eventually. Ironically, T3 usually has the best and most consistent dispatch speeds of all their coasters, it's unfortunate that was the one you get held up in the brakes on. I was speaking with a ride op over there yesterday and they were saying that their techs completely rebuilt the trains over the winter and they've been having some issues with restraints not unlocking when the train parks in the station. It was probably that issue that held you out in the brakes. Believe me, the ops at T3 know how unpleasant it is sitting in that brake station so they try to get the trains moving as fast as possible.

Kentucky Kingdom announced today that they are purchasing the former Go Ape! attraction located in Jefferson Memorial Forest about 10 minutes from the park. They already have the website up and operating for the attraction which they are calling Zipline Kingdom. For those of you interested you can visit the website here: http://ziplinekingdom.com. This seems like an interesting idea from the park and proves they really care about the community bringing another shuttered attraction back to the city.

Hearing that the old enterprise spot is going to be used for a new Zamperla Endeavor, I've also heard that the markers seen in the waterpark awhile back are for a new family coaster coming this season. My source is saying either a family GCI or Gravity Group that would be primarily behind Plummet Summit and Deep Water Dive's tower with the station between T3 and Taco Tequila.

Rowdy Racers is indeed the old Speedway ride that was located in King Louie's Play land. It was removed before the 2016 season to be refurbished. As of Sunday, they had the cars sitting on the attraction so I wouldn't be surprised if it were to open memorial day weekend.

I see, but isn't it a tad early for that? From what i've gathered, they will be releasing another plan similar to how they did when they re-opened. We got a general, "this is what we intend to add in the next few years" type announcement. They completed their first 3 year plan with Storm Chaser, so now they are releasing another 2 or 3 year plan.

Since we are speculating on what the new ride will be, i personally think we will see a big coaster that will pull in the crowds. Essentially it will be like Chang was to the old KK a big project to cap off a few succusful years of growth. I think Ed will finally get his B&M and it will be something that isn't in the region or already in the park, such as a hyper or an invert (even though T3 is awful, the GP loves the thing for the most part). There is already a wing coaster an hours drive north so that knows it out, sit downs, flying and floorless are few and far between here recently so I doubt KK would get one. I think we could be looking at a dive coaster. They are relatively compact rides and are GP pleasers. They could get the top of the coaster right in that sweet spot behind the picnic area and we could be looking at a 200+ foot coaster. As for this being the last year for Mt.Slide Hai in the water park, I could also see them getting a water coaster similar to mammoth in that area to catch up with HW and their 2 water coasters.

With Churchill Downs being a 5 minute walk away from the Fair and Expo Center and with them using their parking lot to park visitors for the Derby, the drive to the park might suck. However, I've gone Derby Day the last 2 years and never waited in a line longer than 5 minutes for a ride, even with them only running one train on each coaster. I would say its one of the best weekends to go. Operations are sometimes a bit slow because of all the new team member working sometimes their first shift but other than that its a good weekend to be there.

Rumor has it that the new children rides the park has been advertising will be the 2 rides that were removed last season from King Louie's Playland, basically we will see both the speedway ride and the hot air balloons ride return to King Louie's. Also, swung by the park today and can confirm that Eye of the Storm will be located where the former dragsters attraction once was. I didn't get any pictures but all of the parts are already on site and look ready to be put together anytime now.