By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MASON - Winter might be the off-season for the park's 3 million guests. But for the behind-the-scenes crew at Paramount's Kings Island, it's the on-season for the Tristate's leading tourist attraction.

Workers install rebar frames for footers that will support the slides for the new Typhoon raft ride in the Boomerang Bay water park area at Paramount's Kings Island. (Michael Snyder photo)

Greenhouse crews have begun growing the 26,000 annuals that will adorn the park throughout the year. The Son of Beast's red-and-yellow coaster cars have been dismantled part-by-part and sent off for inspections. Seamstresses are patching up Scooby-Doo and Rugrats costumes. Construction teams are hustling to make sure the park's largest project - the new Boomerang Bay water park - is ready for a May opening.

Meanwhile, talent scouts have attended conventions and toured the Hershey theme park in Pennsylvania, checking out the competition and looking for new ideas to stay ahead in the competitive $10.3 billion industry that includes 600 amusement parks and attractions nationally.

Human resources folks are gearing up to hire 5,000 seasonal workers.

And while most of the hubbub is centered on the upcoming season, executives are already putting together new projects through 2007.

Caring for the 364-acre theme park, one of the Midwest's largest magnets for tourists, is a year-round job. Crews don't just dust off the coasters and open the gates April 9.

Take apart, reassemble

"This is when we do almost all of our work," says Don Lykins, area manager of ride and mechanical maintenance, which begins its heaviest workload as soon as the park closes. "We check everything."

As soon as the season ends, the inspection process starts. Each coaster car and many major attractions, from Drop Zone to Tomb Raider: The Ride, are taken apart down to the wheels and bearings, and the pieces are sent to labs across the country to be checked for wear and safety.

If they come back with a green tag, they're good to go. If not, the parts are closely inspected and worked on by the on-site crew.

Those inspections include a dye process, in which a pink solution is put on steel parts to identify even the smallest cracks. Occasionally, parts are replaced - the four pumps for Whitewater Canyon are rebuilt every five years - but most times, the park has spare parts in the on-site "tool crib," Lykins said.

In an average year, the park will spend more than $100,000 on wheels alone, he added. If a part isn't in stock, they'll have to send out for it.

"In the summer, it took us 14 weeks to get a motor in for Face/Off," Lykins said.

The lengthy teardown and rebuilding procedure means that coaster parts like Top Gun's two trains or the Vortex's 21 cars will be in the shop for at least a month, Lykins said.

Crews continue to walk the coaster tracks, though not as frequently as they do in the summer. Some sections of track, including a stretch of Son of Beast, have been tweaked this year to make rides less bumpy.

"This is the time we work out all those kinks," park spokeswoman Maureen Boothe said.

Appearance is everything

As soon as the park is limited to weekends-only for Fear Fest in October, landscaping crews are doing fall maintenance.

By January, they've ordered and bought most of their products, and have started growing flowers and plants in the five greenhouses behind Kings Island's campgrounds.

They'll plant 32 varieties of annuals and plenty of greens, including the 5-inch lettering and numbers used in the day-and-time clock near the Eiffel Tower. That will get them set for the three rounds of planting they'll do this year.

"By mid-March in our greenhouses you can't get a plant in there edgewise," grower Lisa Seyfried says.

But the park's largest cosmetic change is being made in the 15 acres formerly known as WaterWorks. The new Boomerang Bay will feature 30 water slides, including 54-foot-high racing slides and a 269-foot long tube that empties into a large funnel.

While work has been hindered by this year's unusually frigid temps - caulking to the blue and yellow fiberglass slides must be done when it is 40 degrees or warmer - officials are confident construction and landscaping will be done for a May debut.

On the bitterly cold days, crews put the slides together under heated tents so they can keep up with the schedule.

"We're very weather-dependent," engineering technician Elmer Sargent said. "You just watch the weather forecast and hope for the best."

Little details count

In years past, the off-season has also been a time to work on upgrades that might not be as noticeable to the public, such as improvements to the International Street fountain that were ready for last season.

But this year, with much of the focus on Boomerang Bay, other park work is generally routine upkeep. Crews will give many buildings and some rides a fresh coat of paint.

The character costumes all will get new fleece fabric and foam in the heads and a check on the stitching.

This year, Kings Island also refurbished the character costumes for its sister parks, such as Paramount's Kings Dominion in Virginia.

"It's a lot of makeovers," character department operations manager Amy Griffin said as she stood among the colorful wardrobes for the 13 characters and their duplicates. "It's almost like plastic surgery for characters."

Meanwhile, the park has started looking for 5,000 seasonal employees by hosting hiring fairs.

Now's also the time that the park's marketing team and executives visit coaster conventions and plan future investments. Park officials remain tight-lipped about what's in store, though Boothe said the decisions are based on research and park visitor surveys

It might also be influenced by what the competition is doing. Marketing employees make "secret shopper" visits of sorts to other parks throughout the year.

"It's friendly banter," Boothe said. "It's keeps our ear to the ground and keeps our ideas fresh."

All of the bustle might come as a surprise to guests.

"I had no idea that anything went on during the off season," said season pass holder Kevin Lush of Reading. "I figured they put everything in a warehouse until the spring."

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E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com