Dry Run At PKD

Well, Dry Run was yesterday, and I'll skip all of the details and get to what matters from a first visit this season, Drop Zone Stunt Tower.

Wow! This ride is amazing, the capacity is great, and no downtime at all, which is pleasant knowing PKD's problem with rides over the last few years. The tower has a slightly faster ascent than most rides of its kind, which makes the whole process quicker.

With the rest of the park, they've made many painting additions, an outdoor patio at Victoria's Pizza, and a lot of bricking around the park to improve how it looks. Overall, the park looks great!

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PKD 2003 - Drop Zone Falls!

Glad to hear things look nice, im looking forwad to my visit during CoasterCon this summer!! I Havent been to the recently so it should be nice to see the additions and Volcano!!

What exactly is dry run?
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Sean Newman

How in the world do you get permission or notice to attend one of these dry runs or media days. I'm an ACE member and always seem to hear about these things after the fact.

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Whoohoo! Less than 5 days from opening day! (Kings Dominion)

GowithGravity Im also a ACE memeber and also hear about these things after the fact and have to assume the leaders of ACE keep these things for themselves and dont want rank and file members to attend, thats why the same faces ALWAYS show up at these events!!

Dry Run day at the Paramount parks is usually a weekend or two before the park opens to the public so that the workers can get a feel of how their location runs and what they will be doing all season long. Kings Island has actually stopped doing dry run day and just instead done a small scale per location basis training.

To get into these dry run days you need to be friends with someone who works in the park, at least that was the way it was at Kings Island when they used to have dry run day. The park would mail a letter to everyone saying when the day was, when to report and where to go. They would also send everyone a pack of tickets to give out, that way it was just people the employees knew and would be more understanding of the learning curve that is taking place. So, if you weren't a friend of an employee you never knew about it.

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Chris Tyson
Photographer
www.pkiunlimited.com

It's good that they do this. A sign in front of Drop Zone said that they learned about the harness limitations during testing, and were working with the manufacturer to retrofit the harnesses. I too agree that it's nice to see a reliable new thrillride in the park.
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If you have a problem with clones, the solution is real simple—Stop traveling.