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I fully support them cutting the Peter Peter pumpkin eater song that’s on a 10 hour loop in Action Zone from last season.

The Golden Ticket Awards were yesterday. The full results can be found here: https://95a87e.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/issues/2023/2023gta/assets/downloads/AT-GTA-2023i.pdf Regardless of what you think about the validity of them, I always think it's interesting to see where Kings Island is ranked. This year, they were finalists in a few categories. #5 Best Park #6 and #7 Best Wooden Coasters (The Beast and Mystic Timbers, respectively) #2 Best Kid's Area #4 Leadership Award (Mike Koontz) Something that I thought was interesting was that none of Kings Island's steel coasters ranked in the top 25 steel coasters list this year.

You have to remember that the Golden Tickets are voted on by people who typically have very extreme biases. I know/know of several who have very very strong tendencies to vote a certain wooden coaster off of one night a year instead of the whole year in aggregate. If you can look at me dead in the eyes and say that Guardians is a superior coaster to Diamondback, which I rank well above Orion by the way, you have to be daft. Point is that I personally see these awards as a glorified ACE poll that is skewed as not everyone is going to make it out to every park. I take every poll with a grain of salt, everyone has their own views, but when you have The Beast at 6 and Ghostrider at 9 I question if Knotts were to do a coaster event if their rankings would rise.

Peter… Peter… pumpkin eater… (Repeat x10,000) I only scared in that area for about 30 minutes every night last year when I was sliding but it never failed that I’d be leaving the park with that stuck in my head.

Safety would be a concern but Torture Tower seemed super unique: (2:12)

I personally wish I could get blacklight active neon fabric paint and wear a black t shirt with "Im just here for the night rides" painted on it, but I know how they play their games unfortunately and I know that would sadly actually make me a target for roamers. Edited to add: Is this new thing they are constructing by MT going to be a mandatory walk through in order to get to the entrance for the ride, or can it be avoided. I couldnt really determine just how it was going to be set up when I was at Pride Night. Also, I dont give a rip about the cost of the no-boo, I would just rather not have the thing dangling around my neck all night bouncing around, although I could remedy that by simply putting it in my pocket when riding.

I’m okay with them charging for No Boo. The event involves scares in the midways. If you want a unique experience then there should be a premium for that. Also, everyone’s statements about roomers are true; however, the biggest benefit to KI is that even when the house lines are long, people can feel as though they participated.

I always thought they should’ve done that for Winterfest. The background should show snowing and maybe the abominable snowman and or an angry Christmas tree be the ones attacking the shed.

CHAOS becomes Alien Abyss. Trivia on the bandstand Scare Zone: Abandoned in Rivertown https://www.visitkingsisland.com/entertainment

Expect all CF park rankings to drop in every category next year if the budget cuts extend to periodical advertising, its not called the Golden Wallet Awards for nothing.

I think Don mentioned once that his Racer count has held steady for awhile and he was comfortable with the number it was at. Maybe he will post the last time he rode it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was over a year ago.

Page 70 for wooden coasters, page 72 for steel coasters: https://amusementtoday.com/issues/2023/2023gta/

I wonder If he still visits Kings Island? Not trying to dig into anything here, just saying that he holds the record for most rides on racer. I hope he keeps that going.

That’s the roomer I’ve heard.

Are the roomers the free-loaders that sneak into the lounge

Id be quite OK with that, just keep the fog generators, the fog lingering around the bottoms of the drops is what makes the night rides so good!

I don’t personally mind, I just don’t agree with the overall concept

But once again, how does that affect you? Logically those four other non-wearing No Boo people are with the person wearing it…and if they don’t mind, why should you?

That’s not always the case. I’ve seen actors avoid certain groups altogether because one of the people was wearing a necklace. If there’s a group of say 5 people and one of them is wearing a “no-boo” necklace, I don’t know how an actor can do their job properly in scaring the other 4 without indirectly scaring the one with the necklace that they’ve been instructed to avoid.

In my opinion the roaming scareactors are one of the best things about Haunt. Not only do they add to the Halloween feel, they are great photo ops…plus they give everyone an easy chance to (possibly) be scared without waiting 2 hours on a Saturday night for one of the haunts! As for the No Boo necklaces…why are no many people upset with these? It’s not like it affects anyone other than the person wearing it?!

The one thing that immediately comes to mind, is Mystic Timbers. They could change the movie in the shed to something a little more sinister during Haunt with relative ease, I would imagine.

Tony does such a great job with updates....short, sweet and to the point.

Saw this on YouTube today! Just thinking I would share with everyone here.

Very excited for Haunt this year! I’ll definitely be one of the first in line for Alien Abyss on opening night! Hopefully it’s scarier than CHAOS was. CHAOS was always one of the least scariest mazes, at least for me. Alien Abyss seems darker and creepier than CHAOS, so fingers crossed! Hotel St. Michelle had some of the best theming for a Haunt maze that I’ve seen, so hopefully Alien Abyss is on the same level. Abandoned seems like a solid scare zone, so it will be interesting to see what it’s like. From the description, it sounds like it plays into the Mystic Timbers theme. Maybe it will connect the lore of Diamondback, The Beast, and Mystic Timbers? Either way, I can’t wait for Haunt!

It seems like all the mazes and scare zones are returning or being replaced, which is good to see. I am looking forward to seeing the new maze replacing CHAOS and the new scare zone. I am disappointed by the show occupying the International Street Bandstand, though. I feel like that location warrants a much grander show than a trivia game.

Looking forward to the new stuff!

If companies want to give us money to slap their name on stuff, what’s the issue?

Some new paint on Viking Fury as seen tonight, September 1, 2023.

This sudden move should have everyone thinking one name. Disney. Ouimet played significant roles at Disney in his earlier career. He developed Disney Cruise Line, oversaw the refreshment of Disneyland in preparation of its 50th anniversary, and was involved in the development of Disney time-share products. Currently Disney is facing challenges galore. Speculation circulates Disney may even be broken into two companies--one comprising the Parks/Resorts, retail, licensing of merchandise, and other similar business lines. Should this come to fruition Disney will be searching for executives to lead the spin-off businesses. Skill sets Ouimet is uniquely qualified to fill. Following Ouimet's tenure at Cedar Fair as an extremely effective and transformative CEO, he was tapped to serve on the Board of Directors in a role created to allow him to seek out development and acquisition opportunities to grow Cedar Fair. In this new role Cedar Fair failed to make any significant park acquisitions until 2019 when it was announced two Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts in Texas would be acquired. Quickly thereafter Cedar Fair announced the acquisition of Sawmill Creek hotel, golf course, and marina in the Sandusky area. These acquisitions are minor when compared to the sale of Great America property in California with only an 11 year operating sale-lease-back agreement in place. Read this quote from the Cedar Fair announcement of Ouimet's departure carefully: “I am extremely grateful to have been a member of the Cedar Fair management team and board of directors,” said Matt Ouimet. “I have great confidence in the Company’s current leadership team and will enjoy following their future successes.” Could Ouimet be foreshadowing a similar future role with another company overseeing acquisitions and development of entertainment, waterparks, amusement parks, and resorts? A position in which he would be looking for strong management teams overseeing portfolios of desirable cash flow positive properties ripe for application of Intellectual Property assets to leverage value, attendance, and profitability? If so, Ouimet would be keen to "enjoy following [Cedar Fair's] future successes" and possibly being a part of that bright future.

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I hope Congo Falls outlives us all.

If that is something the park wants to do for 2026, then we'll know by next year. Invertigo and Congo Falls would have to close in 2024 so the park can start construction in 2025.

That’s my view- like what you said, The Vortex plot has been vacant for a while so people are used to it. If they remove Invertigo and Congo Falls and replace Vortex, the front will look bare and uninviting. I think they should have something in the works for when Invertigo and Congo eventually leave. If those two get replaced in 2026 and Vortex gets replaced in 2030, I wouldn’t be upset.

I don't think the long term plan was to allow Vortex site to sit this long. For example whatever plans they had were probably totally changed by the pandemic and the TTD accident that forced millions to be spent on Cedar Point and I'm sure they are liable in whatever lawsuits were filed against them as well. However, I really do hope they can put a bandaid on Invertigo and congo falls until they are in the position to replace them. Actually if they were to be forced to remove them, I'd prefer to see the new coaster be put in their spot immediately. (I've actually gotten kind of use to seeing the empty field in the back of Coney mall and if they've waited this long, they can tear down and build a replacement for Invertigo and congo before addressing The Vortex plot. Besides the drones are a nice touch to the fireworks and the launch pad for them is in The Vortex station area currently) All I'm saying is if Invertigo and congo lifespan can't be prolonged I would prefer that they are immediately replaced instead of them filling an area in the back of the park first and leaving us with a new vacant location right in the front of the park where everyone coming in with be welcomed with a big plot of nothing

Or it could be the opposite and squeeze a few more years out of Invertigo to have "a kid friendly boomerang and a thrill boomerang"

I wish Don best of luck on the next chapter of his life/career and I will always still go back in the KI blog posts to read his articles. He is one of the best authorities/sources on park history (along with "Shaggy" of course) and all around a wonderful guy that we will miss dearly.

Late to the conversation - Don will be missed. In the "Decoding 2014" thread from way back when, I posted the below in regards to the Son of Beast station and chuckle every time I revisit it.

It’s 12:40am: What if Flight of Fear ran with it’s original number of intended trains?

Made Dominator #150.

So my week long amusement park trip for 2023 has come to a close. I visited 7 different parks across numerous states and Ontario, CA. Here's my mini novel on how it went! 6/12/23: Carowinds - let's just say that this park was smaller than k thought but it still has a very diverse coaster collection. Fury was amazing and I really enjoyed intimidator as well. Nighthawk I thought was a lot rougher than Firehawk ever was at KI. I also got to experience our flying eagles (now mountain gliders) and they definitely lived up to the hype seeing as I was 2 when they were removed from KI I only have the stories of my dad and uncle to go off of. Now I can say yes they are absolutely one of the best flats out there. Ricochet, Carolina Gold Rusher, and Cyclone coasters weren't the best of their models but still enjoyable. I was happy to see a Schwarzkopf enterprise (scream Weaver) still in operation as well and got 2 rides on it. Vortex was closed still for whatever controls work they are doing on it (got that info from emailing the park about a week before my trip). Copperhead Strike was a great coaster and I could see something like that at KI one day. Also I found Hurler to be fun and not that rough if I wasn't in a wheel seat...rode it multiple times 6/13/23: Kings Dominion - Ok this was my favorite park of the trip! I was surprised how much I loved this park. First impressions were terrible so I'm glad that isn't everything. After waiting an excruciating 30 minutes to get through security at the front gate I finally got into the park. First ride of the day as Flight of Fear and their version is running much smoother than ours and also doesn't stop on the break at the top. Overall, theirs was running better than ours and the line was super short every time I rode it. Next was Intimidator 305 which I think is the child of Maverick and Millennium Force making it my new #1 coaster of all time. I rode it so many times that morning and I also ended the day with numerous rides on it. Anaconda is not as rough as people act like it is and in fact I enjoyed the ride quite a bit. Reptilian was a cool bobsled coaster that I rode a few times. Dominator was pretty smooth and forceful. Only got 1 ride on it seeing as it wasn't close to other coasters (had to walk through Planet Snoopy to get over there) it's really the only coaster at the park that looks like it was just plopped in there. All the others have alot of trees or terrain around them I think. The Woodstock Express here had an extra little hill at the end. Anyone know why that is? Did others have the additional hill right before the break run and it got removed or is KD version just different? Twisted Timbers was good but anyone saying it was a top tier RMC is wrong. There's numerous ones I've ridden better than that one. Sure it was probably way better than hurler but it's not the best ride in the park like some have claimed it to be. Apple Zapple was a good wild Mouse and Racer 75 was super smooth and running great. The red side won every single time though and it wasn't very close so for actual close racing ours is better. Ride/speed wise KD is probably better. Grizzly was a coaster I wanted to like because of all the hype about the re-tracking and sure those parts were great but you could immediately tell when you were back on the old stuff...those parts hurt! Idk who was riding this before they did re-tracking on the parts they did do. Overall I didn't hate it but it ranked middle to bottom of the lineup. Someone has told me that KI is the only park that has the stunt cars effects turned on however, KD had the fire working and some sound effects working. They also had water in the trough at the end under the bridge. So while I'm still not a fan of stunt cars, at least some stuff was working. KD flying eagles was pretty good as was the blue ridge parkway car ride. One other thing I'm questioning is why the Eiffel Tower was closed and when I say closed like que line fenced up with a privacy fence. It was like they boarded it up type of closed? Anyone got any info on how long it's been that way, why it's boarded up/closed, how long they plan to keep it that way? 6/14/23: Six Flags America - This was not a great park. I didn't stay all day and my biggest take away was the Marvin Martian t-shirt I bought in the gift shop. First, superman ride of Steel is pretty good (rode a couple of times) however the one train ops makes this one have a unnecessary long line. Batwing broke down right after I got off the first train of the day. Thankfully it ran smoother than Nighthawk at Carowinds. Jokers Jinx was a good ride as well but once again one train ops made that line crawl. Also, the operators weren't good on it. They checked the back half of the train before the lap bars actually locked and went on like nothing was wrong. I mean I could have pushed it up if I wanted to. Anyway of course the main operator activated the lock and everyone in the back pulled down but the checker op never did come back and check the lap bars after they locked. That's just not good operations if u ask me. The Firebird was probably one of the roughest b&m coasters I've ridden and Roar wasn't much better. Both of those were one and done. Ragin Cajun was a little too much spin after standing around for 45min in the blazing sun. Kinda felt a little icky after that one. The one coaster that exceeded expectations here was Wild One. For a coaster that's 100+ years old it's surprisingly tall and fast! Great layout and airtime and while it's not super smooth it wasn't painful rough either. It really did maintain its classic feel really well. 6/15/23: Dorney Park - this park blew expectations away! Why doesn't anyone really talk about Dorney? Sure it's small but all the rides I rode here were really good! Steel Force is a mini Magnum hyper that runs smoothly. Thunderhawk was running really smooth and is a classic. Hydra is unconventional but a fun floorless. Talon is a great invert that runs smoother than some newer ones (less rattle). Possessed was a lot of fun and the ops were killing it one that one too so wait time was minimal. The wild Mouse was well just a typical wild mouse but at least it was smooth! The demon drop was really amazing and I'm so glad Cedar Fair moved it to Dorney instead of scraping it after CP was done with it. Dorney also had a great collection of other rides like the huss enterprise, the unconventional log flume, and the zephyr railroad just to name a few. 6/16/23: Canada's Wonderland - alright this was the park I was most excited about and it delivered! Rode Leviathan first thing in the morning and I actually thought it was better than Orion meaning that Orion is my least favorite giga? (Still a great ride but I'm not a fan of wave turn or helix sections and leviathan had more airtime hills). Behemoth was a good hyper (in the back rows but unfortunately unlike Dback they wouldn't let you pick your row so half of my rides were towards the front with the weird acceleration as you get held over the drops waiting for the rest of the train to catch up) Yukon Striker was definitely better than Valravn and the vest restraints didn't bother me that much on this one. Vortex is an absolute beauty and rode well too. I prefer the back seat on The Bat (extra car gives it just a little more whip around the turns) but Vortex was still a great ride. Wilde Beast was the one I got the most rides on and I thought it rode extremely well (not smooth but just the perfect amount of rough to where it had some bite but wasn't uncomfortable in any way). Mighty Canadian Minebuster was a great layout (a few spots such as the helix were a little rough to me). Wonder Mountain Guardian is a great dark ride coaster (wish it was little longer). Thunder Run was really cool family ride and The Bat was the smoothest boomerang I've ridden yet. Dragon Fyre was good fun I just didn't get anything out of it's layout that I couldn't have gotten from another arrow looper. The stunt cars coaster is definitely the worst of the 3 installations as no effects worked and it doesn't even have all the signage anymore it appears. The Fly was a great wild mouse (just like apple Zapple) and of course I rode ghoster Coaster just for the credit. Now Flight Deck and Time Warp are two of the worst coasters ever! Both are extremely rough and both need to make way for something better. One ride and done on those. As for the flats, I rode Skyhawk, Wilde knightmares, and sledge Hammer. (I wasn't feeling adventurous enough for some of the other ones) sledge Hammer is my new favorite flat and I got 3 rides on it. So glad it was open during my visit. 6/17/23: Marineland - Ok so I had read some mixed reviews of this place some saying it should be closed for animal abuse and others praising it for its laid back atmosphere and good operations. So I drove there and after making sure Dragon Mountain was operating I bought a ticket and hiked back to that Coaster. The man made cavern that the station is in was way too cool to exist at that park. The ride itself was similar to Loch Ness Monster at Busch gardens in my opinion. Long Helix section through a tunnel and one of a kind inversion element (bowtie element on dragon mountain, interlocking loops on loch Ness) I rode this 10x and it made the trip to the park worth it. After DM I decided to explore the rest of the park and that's where things went south. The ladybug coaster was fine and the magic carpet ride was something I'd never experienced but the animal exhibits were disappointing. The penguin aquarium looked like it was 10,000 years old and the floor hadn't been mopped since 1980. The whale tank was smaller than sea world Orlando and had more whales in it. I don't profess to be a wildlife expert but the exhibits seemed super outdated and unlike sea world there was nothing about conservation at this park that I saw. So I know some people would say they wouldn't support this park because of the animal situation and I wouldn't blame anyone for that. Me personally, I figured I'd see for myself and I'm just telling myself that my $45 went towards the preservation of a wonderful arrow coaster. I really hope this park gets some new owners that either give the animal exhibits the upgrades/space they need or just revamp the park altogether and phase out the animals for more rides. 6/17/23: Six Flags Darien Lake - Ok so just like it's cousin at SFA ride of steel was fantastic. Prowler was also really good and I enjoyed the smooth ride in the metal track they put in places. Boomerang was typical, moto - coaster was closed for some reason, viper was fine, mind Eraser was the smoothest SLC I've been on yet, Tantrum was really fun but way too short of a ride (and running only one train with 8 seats on a euro fighter on a Saturday is terrible operations) overall not really impressed with Darien Lake but I still enjoyed the couple of hrs I spent there. Well that sums it up!

He has not been as a guest since his departure as an employee.

I would upgrade my 2024 gold pass to prestige if they eliminated the roomers.

yeah - thats clearly a budget issue - they already HAD the game show idea over by Hanks - this is essentially a cutback - not an add. Pretty weak overall lineup.