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Kings Island brings back Winterfest (teaser)


SonofBaconator
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What was there to do at Winterfest besides ice skating? I'd rather go to the Zoo's Festival of Lights since I don't think there's anyway it would look as good as the Winterfest of old days.

Not much. Only International Street, Oktoberfest, Rivertown, and half of then Hanna-Barbera Land was open. The Carousel was the only attraction not in Hanna-Barbera Land to be open during Winterfest.

At the beginning of the night there would be an opening ceremony where the mayor of the Christmas town (I-Street) would invite a family to light up the Eiffel Tower tree. The Paramount Theater held Santa's Toy Factory, arguably the best production the park has ever created. There was a Christmas music revue inside Festhaus where a circular stage was set up in the middle of the restaurant and featured live sax music.

Bubba Gump's got some nice yuletide decorations, including a reindeer crossing sign that stayed up for a good two and a half years because it was in a fairly decently hidden spot. The Paramount Story was a makeshift Christmas tree sale/meet-and-greet involving the Nickelodeon characters.

Swan Lake had a light show involving a barge with five trees and featured a pyrotechnic finale; the barge would later remain tucked in the back of the lake until Diamondback construction began late 2007. Rivertown's other main attraction was the Holiday Express, where a WWII vet hopped on board to make a trip back to his family while singing along the way. Giant postcards were set up along the train route.

Because of ongoing construction for Nickelodeon Universe, the back section of Hanna-Barbera Land and the entirety of the former Nick Central was closed off and most of the forested area was already demolished. The Hanna-Barbera Store became a Toy Factory/mini Nick Store, selling Christmas and Nickelodeon knickknacks. Top Cat's Taxi Jam, HB Carousel, and Scooby's Haunted Castle were the only attractions open in the area. As the last big Winterfest attraction, there was a Christmas parade that had brand new floats made rather than repurpose floats from the Nick Celebration Parade. Because of Coney Mall not being open, the parade route, which normally went past the Airbrush Shop behind Viking Fury and straight into Coney, was changed to circle the Eiffel Tower, go past the Carousel, and head down towards Swan Lake and through Rivertown, where the floats would then be stored behind Tomb Raider.

FUN FACTS:

  • With the cancellation of Winterfest 2006, the floats from the parade were relocated to Knott's Berry Farm for their Christmas festivities.
  • Most of the Christmas decorations were repurposed into a single-year scare zone called Holiday Horror for the final FearFest (the "zone" would come back five years later as a full-blown maze with other holidays thrown in); a few props made their way to the Psycho Path and Massacre Manor houses.
  • The concrete ramp used to get guests down to the fountain for ice skating still stands and is still used quite often by the maintenance crews.
  • The footings for the giant postcards from Holiday Express are still visible.
  • The giant Christmas light at the top of the Eiffel Tower tree, which was the Paramount logo, would later be bought and used by the owners of EnterTrainment Junction as part of an outdoor mural.
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It wouldn't be worth it to only open it for two weeks. There is a ton of work involved in doing all the decorating, hiring, training and teardown. And if you had bad weather during those two weeks, it would be all for naught. At least with the end of November and whole month of December there were more opportunites for favorable weather.

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I posit that before any firm decision is/was made to extensively refurbish/renovate/change Kings Island's Royal Fountain in the short term future, a nearly binding decision must be made or has been made as to whether there will be ice skating in the mid to long term future in that venue, as that would impact both the cost and magnitude of any changes.

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