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keithandmissy

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Posts posted by keithandmissy

  1. Also, Canadians have always paid more for their gas and the increase was not as significant up there. That would definitely have and impact. While in the US we have seen an increase of about 100% in gas prices over the last couple of years, Canada has only had an increase of about 25%-50% (when you do the conversion to gallons and US dollars they are still paying about $3-$4 US per gallon). That can make a big difference.

    As stated previously The Greater Toronto Area is much bigger than Cincinnati or even Cincinnati/Dayton/Columbus. In addition to that Canada's Wonderland draws US visitors (due to the advantage of the US dollar in Canada), international visitors (Toronto is a very cosmopolitan city), and visitors from outside Ontario.

    Canada's Wonderland has a local visitor pull going from the US borders in Detroit and Buffalo, all the way east to Ottawa. Going north the typical local "season pass" types extend all the was north past Barrie and Orillia, up to 3-4 hours drive north of Toronto. Look at a map and see how large an area that is, or even add up some of those cities populations. It's quite large.

  2. I think the show looks great, if it can compare with Waterworld that is. It's annoying when theme parks make a "stunt show" but it's kind of lame with a lack of action. Insert Knott's Berry Farm's Wild Wild West Stunt Show Here.

  3. Who do you think came up with homeland security? Bush. I was wrong about visa, but passport, yes. At any rate, it will still cost the Canadians time and money. I'm not blowing off steam, I'm stating the facts.

    Passports and travel - it's kind of an understood thing in Canada. They don't make a big deal about things like, "It's going to cost more because now I have to have a passport." They are used to all the taxes up there and they'll get used to this one. I'm a Canadian, and I can tell you that it will not stop the majority of travelers. My entire family has passports even though we don't really do foreign travel.

    I don't understand the tendancy for people to blame everything on the President. These are the same people who only vote every four years and don't vote for the people that really make the decisions (Congressmen, Mayors, Senators, City Council, etc). Then they blame Bush for the potholes in the street, the price of gas, etc.

    Amusement parks and the tourism industry in general will not be hurt by the change. In all the news I've read about immigration and customs, I haven't heard this view, except on this forum, obviously it's not much to be concerned about.

    Sorry for being long winded but it's a pet peeve of mine.

  4. Wow that was off-topic. "... Bush has decided that you have to have a visa ..."

    Sounds like someone is just a tad bitter. By the way, you won't need a visa to travel between the U.S. and Canada, just a simple passport. Also, it wasn't "Bush" that did it (as people love to put it all on the President), it was the Department of Homeland Security as part of their restructuring to secure the borders. The Government of Canada supports the idea and are planning similar requirements (last I checked they aren't run by the Bush administration).

    Another thing, you won't have to have a passport to travel by air between the two countries until December 31, 2006. For land crossings it isn't required until December 31, 2007.

    Check the facts first before just blowing off steam like that.

  5. Yeah, Canada's Wonderland has been getting a nice variety of attraction over the last few years. They have done much better since the Paramount acquisition, I think. The last time I was there, this year, they still had the Hanna-Barbera characters walking the park. Also, they have their own Canadian television show characters as well as the Nickelodeon ones.

  6. I think PKI would do well, and bring in more people and money, if they cleaned up and maintained the place a little better. Try to compete with customer's vacation dollars. Not just people from Cincinnati or Columbus. I would like people to be thinking about visiting Busch Gardens or Disney or Universal, but decide on PKI instead.

    To get there, things like FOF, Top Gun, etc will have to be improved, and the details have to be taken care of.

  7. It is useless, and I was happy when PKI set up the designated smoking areas. I was, however, prepared for mediocre enforcement of the rule. I think the main difference is Disney and Universal are open year round and have more permanent employees who can develop in their careers and can receive continual training. PKI, on the other hand, is seasonal and employees receive considerably less training and are typically younger. So I can immediately see why the rule wouldn't get enforced.

    I say, stop the people smoking in line first (since that rule has been in place), then work on stopping them in the rest of the park.

  8. Disney and other parks have no trouble at all enforcing the rule. Employees (cast members) are trained on how to approach people and ask them to smoke in the designated areas only.

  9. Is PKI still selling the refillable drink cups for $4.99 (I haven't been there this season yet). Also, I thought I read somewhere that refills this year were going to be 99 cents? ... or am I losing it? I searched the forums but couldn't locate anything on it.

  10. I hope your comment on the Petro-Canada gas picture wasn't serious about the cheap fuel. That price (81.5 cents Canadian) when converted to U.S. currency and into gallons (many people don't realize they measure gas in liters up there)... it's actually about $2.60 U.S. per gallon!!!

  11. Well some people did pay extra money to be treated different, and according to PKI, they are treated different because they did pay.

    Gold Passes had to be purchased before the end of May. They are actually cheaper than regular season passes (because of price increases after the start of the season).

    The statement that people pay more for Gold Passes is incorrect. Gold Passes were being sold for $85 from AAA earlier in the year. Now, I just paid $110 for a season pass (regular) from PKI.com.

  12. This has been in the news a long time, they have been considering pulling another Blockbuster for a portion of the company, even if it means just for the Paramount Parks division.

    Of course, that would leave a licensing problem if Paramount Parks became their own separate entity. They would have to go through the process of getting contracts set up for all the characters and brands. Not only with Paramount Studios/Viacom. They would also have to get rights from the original creator of characters like Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron, etc.

    Then, Hanna-Barbera characters now owned by Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network would be a whole new can of worms too.

    I would think if something like that happened current contracts would possibly not carry over. It could be a legal mess.

  13. It's amazing though how there's a double standard here. This actual article was, in fact, never posted on this site before.

    The topic has been discussed no doubt.

    However, how many posts do we see about the following topics that are never deleted?

    1. PKI is haunted.

    2. Someone died on The Beast or some other injury rumor not based on fact.

    3. Someone farted on the Italian Job construction site.

    4. What's going to be the next coaster?

    5. Who should make the next coaster.

    6. Insert any post about the Flying Eagles here.

    7. Smoking ban.

    The list goes on... it just depends on if you're in the "allowed to post more info" click I guess. thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif

  14. BILLION $ RIDE

    By ERICA COPULSKY

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    February 25, 2005 -- A team led by a former top Viacom executive has quietly approached the media giant about buying its Paramount Parks unit, The Post has learned.

    Tom McGrath, who stepped down as head of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Enterprises last summer, has lined up investment firms Spectrum Equity Partners and GS Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs' private equity arm, to back him in his efforts to acquire the theme parks business, sources familiar with the situation said.

    As president of Paramount Enterprises and executive vice president of Viacom Entertainment Group, McGrath oversaw Viacom's theme parks, movie theater and music publishing businesses.

    The group expressed its interest to Viacom earlier this year in an attempt to preempt an auction of Paramount Parks, which is expected within the next few months.

    Sources say the division  which has amusement parks in North Carolina, Ohio, California and Virginia as well as Canada  could fetch $900 million to $1 billion. Viacom has told bankers that in the next few weeks it plans to begin formally interviewing Wall Street firms to advise on the sale of the unit.

    However, one source close to the situation said the firm is expected to retain Citigroup to handle the process.

    However, yesterday, Viacom co-president Tom Freston said in an earnings conference call that the company is in the "early stages of looking at potential opportunities" for Paramount Parks, which is viewed as a noncore asset.

    A Viacom spokesman would not comment further. McGrath did not return a call seeking comment.

    Besides the McGrath-led team, other potential buyers for the division include amusement park operators Cedar Fair, L.P. and Universal Parks, which is partly owned by NBC Universal and Blackstone Group, as well as other private equity firms. Six Flags and Busch Entertainment Corp., a subsidiary of brewer Anheuser-Busch, are also viewed as possible but less likely buyers.

    Viacom is putting its theme parks business on the block in what would be the latest in a string of asset sales at the media empire as it re-evaluates its strategy.

    As The Post reported in October, Viacom is screening its options for its Famous Players Canadian movie theater chain.

    The company is in the early stages of an auction, which has already attracted the interest of more than a dozen bidders, sources say.

    http://www.nypost.com/business/41172.htm

  15. I wasn't really arguing about all that stuff you mention. It's just that in my initial post when I told them it was just a still picture and is on numerous websites on the internet, no one believed me.

    If people on these forums weren't so fickle and quick to jump everytime something moves an inch at Kings Island, people wouldn't have to explain themselves like I did.

    It's been a couple of weeks now since it was first noticed... check it out now. It's another sunny day with Delirium loading and the ride is full. There may be some raindrops on there now... you'll have to look closely and study the picture to find out.

  16. When the picture hasn't changed since it went up and it's a JPEG that is located on numerous servers (try an image search on Google)... it doesn't take someone who's smarter than everyone else to figure it out. Yes, webcams could save to a JPEG and then post it to the web, however, most webcams are now in Java, and I don't think that PKI would set up a live webcam that people could save the images from onto their computer. There would be privacy, legal, security, and copyright concerns involved.

    It says it updates every five minutes... ok... so I guess we're just seeing the same people ride the same ride every fives minutes of the world.

    Since you think that I'm insulting, just go ahead and sit and wait for the picture to change and keep checking the webcam... I'm just going to go to the park while you sit there.

    Once again... it is NOT an operational webcam.

    Sheesh!

  17. Yes, you can obviously take out a cash advance on a credit card as long as you know the pin number for the card that was assigned by your credit card company. This I don't recommend because they usually have a $3 or so cash advance fee plus they typically charge higher interest (instead of the usual 9-10% they charge 21-29% for cash advances from ATMs).

    There are ATMs in Boomerang Bay, in front of Zephyr, the front gate, and one next to the restrooms between Rivertown & Nick Central. Those are the ones I know about.

    They are Huntington Bank ATMs so if you bank with Huntington you're not charged a fee.

  18. I was never at PKI before Paramount but I was at Canada's Wonderland before Paramount. It would be a toss up similar to what you guys are saying about PKI. Before Paramount they had a walk-through Smurf attraction, a Flintstones live show, the Bedrock Aquarium with a seal show, the classic HB characters, and a large HB Land area. They also always had an all-star HB character show at the International Showplace.

    At the same time, Paramount has brought some great rides and attractions to the park like Top Gun, Tomb Raider, The Fly, Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion, some large flats, Nick Central, Zoom Zone, Kidzville, Action Zone, and major improvements to the SplashWorks water park.

    Like I said it's a toss-up but when I think back to when I was seven and we visited... for nostalgia's sake I would say Kings Island Entertainment Company did a better job at maintaining and running the park.

  19. TownePlace suites are all generally very nice hotels.

    I would go to the park on a weekday to avoid crowds (Tuesday or Wednesday preferrably).

    In reagards to stopping at the Toledo Zoo on your way home... I would recommend diverting a little and going to the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium instead. It's much bigger, nicer, and they just opened a brand new section Voyage to Australia & the Islands. It has a boat ride, you can handfeed lorikeets, and walk right in with the kangaroos. By the way, they just had a baby elephant born and a baby gorilla.

    Just my opinion, hope this helps you out.

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