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Last weekend, several of us held the fourth annual KIC holiday meetup at Great Wolf Lodge. It's great to see everyone in the off-season and to escape winter for a couple days! I arrived first, getting there just before 10:00am Friday to watch the singing trees perform in the Clock Tower show. They're not Singing Mushrooms, but they'll do. By mid-afternoon, exscream team, jcgoble3, Oldiesmann, pianoman, & silver2005 had joined. We all had some early fun in the waterpark, getting several laps on the slides before crowds showed up. Here are five of us, weighing in just under the limit of 800lbs, getting ready to pack the River Canyon Run family slide. This slide is most thrilling with 4-5 people who just meet the weight requirement. By 6:30pm, everyone had arrived, and it was time for dinner. We had a bit of a mix-up with the Loose Moose buffet being unexpectedly closed that night. The other restaurant (Lodge Wood Fired Grill) wasn't big enough to accomodate our group, so they made a special effort to serve us in the larger restaurant that wasn't open. We received great service from our server Ryan & had a delicious meal! After dinner, pianoman, ohiocolts & I headed to the waterpark for last rides while everyone else continued to chat. By 9:00pm, it was time for the annual KIC white elephant gift exchange. As usual, Thrill_Biscuit didn't disappoint with his gift - a box full of certified Mystic Timbers. I didn't get a very good picture of this; hopefully someone else can fill in with theirs. DiamondAceExpress enjoyed her Haunt-themed gifts. The most popular gift of the night was Toilet Tunes, appropriately gifted by pianoman. Quite literally, it's a keyboard to place in front of your toilet to play with your feet when nature calls. I opened it first, and Mrs. No Chickens rushed to steal it as soon as her name was called. She took a video of the product in use, which someone will probably share in this thread. More white elephant gifting. Hoeter tried to steal Toilet Tunes a second time, from Mrs. No Chickens, but she successfully resisted. Our group photo, with most of our faces visible. Lighting is a challenge in this area of the resort, and none of us had a camera with a good flash. After the gift exchange, we said goodbye to Hoeter, Thrill_Biscuit, NoChickens, Mrs. No Chickens & Magenta Lizard. The rest of us went to ohiocolts' room to hang out and play games. I have no idea why MDMC01 is sparking. At some point, we went to sleep. Approximate bedtimes were 3:30am for my room (with exscream team & silver2005) and 1:00am for the other two rooms. Breakfast the next morning at 8:30am was tasty. Oldiesmann had to leave early, so we said goodbye to him. Then, it was time to check out of the rooms & get to the waterpark. Goble was overdressed for the occasion; he decided to spend Saturday on MagiQuest & the arcade. Another group photo, featuring Goki32, silver2005, me, ohiocolts & pianoman. We all took a break from the waterpark around 2:00pm, as crowds started to pick up. Most of us spent time chatting, and the kids (& kids at heart) occupied the art table. Goki32 had to leave to get to his job at the Great Wolf Lodge snack bar. IndyGuy4KI, his son Korbin & electricsun stopped by for about a half hour, then a few of us drove to the Landen LaRosa's to buy pizza for a late lunch. For Goble & me, it was our first time tasting LaRosa's that wasn't from Kings Island. Overall, it's much better than the version served at the park. I really liked the hand-tossed crust, which was perfectly cooked and had a good flavor. As the event was drawing to a close, ohiocolts, pianoman & I changed back into swimsuits to close out the night with water slides. silver2005 left the hotel to finish watching the UC/Butler basketball game, and exscream team, Goble, Beastie1980, her mom, and the rest of ohiocolts' family continued to chat around the lobby. Here we are doing a good deed: clearing the mess of tubes that blocked egress from the waterslide runout pool by the end of the night. Shooting some hoops. The waterpark again closed at 9:00pm, and the three of us there got the last ride of the night on Hydro Plunge. Finally, it was time to say goodbye to everyone & drive home. Thanks again everyone for being part of this year's holiday meetup. I'm already looking forward to next year's!

Sure sounds like a fan site to me. Then again, when I'm working with news crews they commonly do live Facebook shots between hits... sounds like vlogs in a way to me. Of course, TPR does vlogs, articles, photos, etc... that's a fan site, right? The reason why I ask is because the lines blurring to two is a consistent debate. Heck, KIC used to have a contract with a major local media company that involved sharing revenue as well as a direct RSS feed from our main page to their entertainment section. Although I felt like a big leaguer, I never really felt like we had become a 'news' organization. I guess the difference between a fan site and a news company boils down to just one thing: journalistic integrity. Does KIC have it? Of course not. If we did, we'd sometimes have front page articles talking about the seedy underbelly of the park and the industry. That's not what people come here to see. They want to see what's new and exciting. It also comes down to relationships too. Did you notice how Robb Alvey changed his attitude once he started his TPR Club? They used to have a niche of selling DVDs that was their whole family making fun of parks and complaining about them while they're there. Now they say that every park is their favorite and in exchange for having park events and so on. Trust me when I say that the first time you call Kentucky Kingdom wanting a quote about a PR issue, as they have a tenancy to have from time to time, it'll be the last time they talk to you. You've got to remember that calling yourself a news organization does not make you a WLWT, WCPO, or any other thing. Ryan Who is trying to be helpful.....

I asked Don Helbig about it closing weekend, and he said there will not be a blanket invitation for coaster clubs to Mr. T's media day like there apparently was for Banshee's. He did say there will/may be opportunities to win an invite before then though. I'm betting on Twitter and possibly Snapchat contests.

Cause Friday is Good Friday. Keep in mind they have been no mention of a preview night for 2017. The park opened on Good Friday in 2014 why couldn't they do it again? Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Who in their right mind wants to swim in December anyway? ...oh wait.

And welcome to KIC! I see you joined some time ago but just started posting

This past season was the first I found caring the refillable bottles along to be a hassle. Maybe because now I have 2 kids tall enough for Banshee, I found myself asking if we were planning on riding that, and if so, we didn't bring the bottles in. Plus, am I the only one who thinks the quality of the bottles has gone down each year?? Seriously, scan my pass, give me a paper cup, and let's move on with our day!

When it's "only" 120 days until the park opens (probably).

Photo or it didn't happen!

They could make the option with the cups available as well as the all-season drink pass and give people who already purchased the option of redeeming for one or the other. I would say that perhaps they could do both, give you a cup but also allow you to swipe your pass, but I think that would open the door to fraud wherein someone could buy it and then give their cup to someone else, effectively resulting in them having TWO drink plans. You could also just make it where per day, you can use one or the other but not both. That would effectively be no different than what they have now, as I have definitely loaned out my all-season souvenir cup to friends and family who I knew were visiting the park.

I'm sure someone knows. rcwizard13, filling in for a terrific member on long term leave.

No, just... no! Fix whats screwed up royally at the 11 parks they currently own, and leave the others alone. We,the park going public, already have enough (too many) cookie cutter Corporate parks, leave the smaller parks (Indiana Beach and Adventureland come to mind) for those who cant, or wont, pay $9 for a subpar burger or pay-to-cut upcharges. People seem to forget that competition can be a very good thing. An example of how it can be good AND bad together, is the "my lift hill is bigger than your lift hill" contest that went on between CP and SF:WoA. That created mass expansion on both ends, but also gross financial over-extention on both ends as well. One was in a position to survive, one was not. However, if all of the small parks are overtaken (and in my eyes, slowly destroyed) by the CFs and the SIXs of the US, all that will happen is a rise in price point to that of Disney levels, without the corresponding rise in guest service and experience. The Corporations have to recoup the cost of park acquisitions somehow, and as you pointed out in the case of Dorney, it will be at the expense of those smaller parks... and the guests that visit them.... getting nothing in return.

Another option to grow revenue is to market their brand outside the park. For instance start of chain of fast food restaurants serving up their line of premium burgers, chicken strips and chicken sandwiches. Right now if you want that deliciousness you have to drive to the park and you can't even get it during the off season. The pent up demand is just huge, just look at how long the lines are the first couple of weeks of the season.

^ Assuming CF really does operate under the 5 year plan model we might be seeing those changes come to light very soon.

Something else of interest to me was this...."We want people to come to our parks not to ride rides, but to think of them as the place to be to have fun"... maybe that means we will start seeing more of what Ive been wanting and expecting out of Ouimet since he took over, and thats a park experience more along the lines of Disney, both in atmosphere and employee training/service.

At that point, I go for the rides I enjoy, or walk away entirely and devote more time to racing. Im good with either. Sparky, not a money grab... er I mean upcharge kind of guy.

Agreed! I can jump into the Kalos and Alola regions (Pokemon) anytime (and anywhere) I want, however, there is only one place I can ride The Beast. What I'm trying to say is, I can be on my phone (or 3DS) anywhere, but I can only experince awesome rides at a place like Kings Island.

You know what?? They can build 50 of the VR style rides, maybe that will attract the "cant get their heads out of their phones for 20 seconds" age demographic and will reduce the wait times on real rides for people like me! Im 110% for that.

Not sure how many got to visit IB this past season, there have been a lot of talks on IB Facebook fan pages about what is next for IB. Some gloomy and other talks about restructuring some of their practices to make 2017 even better. IB has a much better year in my opinion compared to when it was owned by Morgan. I think Apex may have had unreasonable expectations when it came to bringing the crowds back and per caps spending the first season of ownership. There are talks about Falling Start possibly not running in 2017. Not due to issues, but the ride manufacture no longer supplying parts. No official news on anything new in 2017 or what if any current ride improvements that will be done. I think if they spent another year focusing on current rides and getting some track work done on their wooden coasters would be a great off season and get them set up for a great 2017 season.

Thanks for the update. I always enjoy reading your articles!