Oldiesmann

The best solution to the small cups of water is to buy a souvenir cup and take that with you. A 46oz souvenir cup refilled with ice water is the same price as a small cup of ice water - free.

Simple. They have one central database for all the attractions, so you just have to slap the ID of that particular attraction onto the end of the URL and you can get the details for it regardless of what site you're on. If you change the URL to kingsdominion.com, you'll get it there as well.

Great photos! So sorry you couldn't experience Diamondback though. It's a shame that Photobucket killed the image quality. You may want to look into Flickr instead. I put all my photos there and they don't seem to kill the image quality at all. In addition, Flickr's interface is much nicer than Photobucket's (which seems old and outdated to me). The only downside is you can't show the original sized image with the free account, but that's not a problem for me. There are other restrictions for the free account as well, but nothing major... See http://www.flickr.com/help/limits#28 for full details.

Well, I was planning to go, but I realized last night that I had forgotten to submit my registration form, and didn't remember today until a few minutes ago. The only post office around here that's open right now is the Coryville branch (they're open til 3), but I still don't know if I could get it postmarked today even if I did get up there by 3.

I never have understood the point in lowering admission prices to match the numbers in their frequency. I know WAKW (93.3) has done $9.33 admission to The Beach before, and I'm sure other stations in this area have done similar things.

I assume they're referring to this ad? I honestly don't see why they're so upset about it. Gags involving the loss of toupees have been around for decades. Nobody's making fun of them for their lack of hair.

I have two family members that are on special diets due to food allergies and I HATE having to take food into the park when I want to eat a meal there. At some parks (Cedar Point, Holiday World, and Silver Dollar City for example) I wouldn't have to because these parks have up to date and accurate allergy information available on their website and in the case of Silver Dollar City, knowledgable associates at food service establishments. Kings Island on the other hand has nothing on their web site, associates who tell you to visit guest services, and a Food Allergy binder in Guest Services that has the following on the cover "2006 Season" Information. You can imagine how much confidence this inspires. And yes, I did point this out to the nice associate and supervisor in Guest Services when I first noticed it in May. I also sent an email with a request for allergy information and mentioned the binder to Guest Services in May (got no response). Finally, I decided to check on the binder twice in June - it was unchanged both times (I mentioned it both times) before I finally gave up. I guess Cedar Fair can live without any nickels that I'd have liked to spend on food. Try contacting the county health commissioner (see http://www.co.warren.oh.us/health/board.htm for contact information). I'm sure he can get results, especially since the vice president of the board of health is the one who handles the Mason area...

Good point!

I forgot all about that site. Thanks for the laugh Back on topic, click the above link, then click "Images" and you will find plenty.

I would arrange a guided tour of most of the areas of the park that the general public doesn't get to see for all of KICentral ("most" meaning that some areas might remain off-limits for security reasons). This would include basements, backstage areas, the lower level of the stations at The Beast and Flight Deck, warehouses, maintenance shops, etc. I love exploring and would love to see what we're missing If there was enough time left at the end of the night, we'd marathon Diamondback until they kicked us out of the park.

Those renderings of a suspended wooden coaster look interesting, but I just don't see how it could work since wood breaks much more easily than steel does, especially under heavy weight. On a related note, I do think we should give their mega whip a try. Looks like fun

Coaster Kid, read this quote again... That narrows it down to between 49 and 59. If Terpy wishes to tell his actual age, I'm sure he will.

At The Racer yesterday, one of the ride ops said something about "3,514 feet of sick, nasty track". Also, the DB ride ops were having fun saying "... here at Kings Island, the former home of <insert defunct ride here>" during ERT.

The lights in the rafters I believe were installed for Beast's 25th anniversary, at the same time the wooden signs above some of the gates were 'ignore the screaming in the woods' etc, as well as the large sign that for the 25th anniversary also had alot of stats and specs about the ride. The lights are still there just not used, as well as the sound effects that accompanied them. For the 'old ramp' if I remember that right, was added when the gold pass fast pass/track, was added for some rides...im pretty sure it was Beast/Drop Zone/Tomb Raider/ Italian Job and maybe another one or two rides. But the ramp was included in a path that coinsided with The Beast line of two years ago. The only reminents of that gold pass line is the ramp that now has lock to keep guests from going up that way, as well as in the first queue house the steps can be seen on the left as you go down into the queuehouse. I'd always wondered why those steps were there. Thanks for the info Any idea why the sound effects and the cool "The Beast has been unleashed!" sign aren't used anymore? I know they were used during "power hour" back in 2005, and it added to the fun. Also, what is the point of the lights behind the fence to the right of the second queue lanes? I can't see any reason for there to be lights back there unless that building is used for storage or something.

On a related note, if you don't know who Cramer is... http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838459/ I'm not really into the stock market, but he's fun to watch and listen to.

How exactly would a suspended wooden coaster work?

I'm wondering how Aquatica managed to make that list. The park has only been open since March of 2008. I'm not sure how that qualifies as underrated, especially considering that they attracted 950,000 guests in the first 9 months of operation. In addition, Wikipedia says the park was "an immediate success" and that they reached their first year attendance goal in just 6 months.

When I was in line for back seat on The Beast on the 11th, a female ride op gave the spiel about The Beast being the world's first underwater roller coaster.

KI is missing out on a lot of money by not having a campground. And now KI has to tease us by inviting scouts to camp out in the park next month (see http://www.visitkingsisland.com/boyscouts and the KI Camp-O-Ree event on Facebook)

The biggest thing I want to see is stricter enforcement of the rules - especially dress codes and the smoking policy. Last time I was at the park, I saw someone wearing a shirt that said "How about a nice cup of shut the f*** up" - except that it wasn't censored. I also saw a girl wearing a t-shirt with the sides ripped out and nothing on underneath except a sports bra. I also get tired of people lighting up wherever they feel like it simply because they're not close to a dedicated smoking area, or they want to walk around the park and talk to their friends while smoking.

Vortex, because it set the record for most inversions at the time it was built. On a semi-related note, someone needs to tell ACE that the ride time on The Beast is not 3:45 as the coaster's ACE Coaster Landmark sign states...

I'm sure CF would charge extra for admission to Boomerang Bay if they thought they could get away with it. Fortunately with the waterpark always being included in KI admission, plus a much nicer waterpark just up the road, I doubt that's going to happen.

Same for me. My sister and I got front seat on last train of the night on Beast on the 11th. It was even better because there was no moonlight, so the ride was even darker than usual.

Coney Mall for me. I love the old-fashioned amusement park themeing, and I can never get enough of the classic rides.

Some things I noticed about The Beast this past weekend: There's a huge fan at the back of the station. There are lots of old lights in the rafters that don't appear to be used anymore. There's an old ramp leading from the first set of queue lanes to the point where the line splits into front/back - indicating that the first set of queues was actually added before the second set The building to the right of the queue lane is actually quite large - is this where the old snack stand was located? Those big tall things on hinged poles seen at various points along the ride are lights There's a small shack near the maintenance road (below the station) that looks like an outhouse