Diamondback a good investment?

In response to the comment of the GP not knowing about the additional parks, a student in my office yesterday asked if I was a Cedar Point fan (considering pictures on my office wall) and in chatting with him, he didn't realize Cedar Fair owned MiA let alone KI. After learning that from me, he is planning to purchase a Platinum Pass this year.

My son and his fiance are probably going to buy passes this year as well, specifically because they want to make a trip to KI for Diamondback this year and figure the cost of CP, KI and MiA would make the platinum pass worth it.

I'm really surprised for all the mailings I get for MiA and CP separately they don't make it clear to those in the southeast MI area that a Platinum Pass is good for their other parks.

RCMAC said:Problem solved for you all - I think everyone should move to Columbus, which I have long considered to be one of the best amusement park locations in the nation (even though we dont really have one ourselves, and don't even try to talk to me about the zoo). KI, CP, SFKK, HW, IB, KW, all within a 4 hour drive and very easy. The gettin was even better when we had GL and LLake.I typically spend more days at CP, but I'm with Jo - I think I'll be making more frequent trips to KI this year; and for me it's the closest of them all.

Still takes a back seat to Northeaster PA. Coney, SFGADV, Hershey, Dorney, Moreys, Coney, Knoebels, Lakemont, Delgrossos, Rye and Im sure Im missing a couple. ALL WITHIN EASY REACH.

I live 1 hour an 15 minutes north of Allentown and there is definitely an embarrassment of riches with the parks that are within driving distance.

I can get to Dorney or Knoebles in under 2 hours, and Hershey is 2 hours on the nose. If you extend the time out to 4 hours, there are at least 15 parks that make this cut, including some in upstate NY and some in the New England. There are 4 SF parks alone that are under 4 hours, SFGAdv, SFA, SFNE, and The Great Escape.

WOW! ok, I'm movin!

CPLady said:
...he didn't realize Cedar Fair owned MiA let alone KI.

That points to two issues. The first is that the value proposition of the platinum pass is not being effectively communicated. It should be something like, "Also includes Kings Island and ten other parks" or something like that.

It also points out what I've been saying for a long time, that Cedar Fair is not a brand. It's a terrible name that made sense for the regulatory filings involved with creating the company, but that's about it.

I personally have enjoyed living in DC (2.5 hours to Hershey and BGE, 2 hours to KD, etc) and Toledo (1.25 to CP, 3 to KI.)

To what bunky666 and Jeff were talking about...

You need to remember, Diamondback isn't a B&M hyper coaster.

Diamondback is a high-speed non-looping steel roller coaster around 200' tall with a lot of hills.

WE know that it's built by B&M. WE know that rides of this general style have been built by Arrow, Togo, Morgan, Giovanola, and B&M. WE know the differences, and most of us have a preference for one over the others.

WE also make up some ridiculously small percentage of the population.

Everybody else couldn't care less who built it or what ride is is similar to. What they care about is that it is exactly the kind of ride that Kings Island has not had that every other park seems to have already built. They care that it is a whole lot of fun and that it is a darned good ride.

And it turns out that Diamondback delivers on all counts.

(And I still like Magnum XL-200 better).

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

It's a B&M hyper at a park that desperately needed one. Awesome capacity, no inversions, tall enough to provide a "challenge" for the younger crowd, and an incredible throughput. Exactly what B&M hypers have been providing....for YEARS. What took KI so long? As far as "investment", KI is a mature park, and not likely to increase attendance by too much. Of course, you should expect merchandise sales to take off...profitably. CF would have paid substantially more for the Paramount franchise had this been the ride installed in place of Sonny. ;)

Did Paramount ever even commission a B&M during its tenure? Certainly not a hyper, I'm sure. They seemed much more interested in building coasters and rides that would fit with their movies and licenses, rather than making the theming fit the ride (like, you know, say, taking a wooden coaster and slapping a futuristic, metallic robot theme to it -- but I digress). SOB was definitely the exception in this process.

As far as CF's relatively brief management of KI, they spent that first year or so getting SOB back up and relocating X-Flight along with the rest of the Geauga Lake Diaspora. 2009 really represents the first practical chance the chain's had to stick something of this magnitude into the park. I suspect this type of investment was envisioned even before the deal was sealed.

Paramount bought a few B&M coasters, but they never sent one to Kings Island:

Vortex - PGA - stand-up
Vortex - Carowinds - stand-up
Top Gun - PGA - inverted
Top Gun - Carowinds - inverted

You kind of wonder why those coasters went into those parks. Just for capacity reasons you would have expected to see the inverted rides at Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland, the most heavily attended of the KECO/Paramount parks.

I wonder if Paramount was banking on the B&M coasters to increase traffic at Carowinds and Great America, while they put the low capacity prototype s...tuff in the busier parks (Hypersonic at Kings Dominion? Face/Off at Kings Island? A Zamperla Volare at Canada's Wonderland? What in the world was Paramount thinking???)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

At least for Great America - I think at least Vortex (1991) and possibly Top Gun (1993) was before Paramount owned them, which I believe was in 1992-1993?

And Carowinds Vortex was opened in 1992 so that might have been before Paramount too...Kings Entertainment Company I think owned both these parks at this time?

Still makes you wonder why KECO didn't send these rides to the other parks.

I've been trying to find out from Cedar Folk is there was some kind of exclusivity contract for B&M caused by Kentucky Kingdom or Cedar Point. There were always rumors of such an arrangement, but it seemed hard to believe to me.

To Paramount's credit, if you ignore the atrocity that is Son of Beast, they seemed to make an effort to simply be different instead of get into the silly arms race that many parks did. I think for the most part that served them well.

You know, I always word stuff wrong...when I said "bored" with the rest of the parks, I actually meant one park at a time. I gotta stop staying up so late. For example, perhaps people that go to KI were bored by what was there up to this point. Diamondback could draw a large crowd that might have sort of...not given up on KI necessarily, but maybe has stopped going as much. Dorney's a great example of this...I went more to Dorney Park last year than I have in multiple years past because of Voodoo. I think Diamondback will not only draw a great crowd, but it might revive older fans of the parks that got kind of sick of the park. Does that make more sense?

crazy horse said:
Jo,

I am shocked that you are putting raptor in the back seat to diamondback this year? Whats going on with the world today? ;)

Diamondback Jo....hmmmm ;)

Think I have too much $ and skin invested in my Raptor tats to turn my back on Raptor--but doesnt mean a DB tat isnt a thought! Just wish the logo wasn't so creepy :)

Jo

I love the creepy logo! It reminds me of Pantera, a very popular and well-imitated metal band in the '90s. I can't wait to get a Diamondback t-shirt!

Of course diamondback is going to be a good investment. Just look at the line on opening day.

Anyone care to guess what the coaster will be named next year? Just kiddin

The two B&M Vortexes (Vorti?) were pre-Paramount. Top Gun West opened in 1993 the same year that Paramount took over. I don't remember exactly when Paramount purchased KECO but most likely the B&M had already been in the planning stages when KECO owned the park. It's probably also safe to assume it was going to be called something other than Top Gun. KI's Top Gun (Arrow Suspended) which also opened in 1993, was originally going to be named Anaconda.

The only B&M that Paramount comissioned was Carowinds' Top Gun.

Jeffrey Seifert said:
KI's Top Gun (Arrow Suspended) which also opened in 1993, was originally going to be named Anaconda.

Is that why the Congo-themed splash ride is right in the middle of today's Action Zone - left over from a previous congo themed area with King Cobra and such?

Yes, that area was the Wild Animal Habitat area, and all the rides and shops were Congo-themed. The themeing stretched over to Adventure Express as well.

The splash ride was called Amazon Falls.

Charles Nungester said:
Anyone care to guess what the coaster will be named next year? Just kiddin

Snakeinator? Snake Deck? Snake Coaster?