Flat Freak

I have a lot of business dealings in Louisville and have spoken to my contacts there often about the KK situation and their views on the situation. I intended a nice detailed post, until I read this absolute gem: Simply, the people that drive the regional theme park (the suburban families) have no interest in KK. In large part, it's because of this: Although you said you wouldn't sugar coat, I feel you did here just a bit, Shaggy. I'm told that simply put, the park was overrun by loud, obnoxious, discourteous teens and that respectable people did not feel safe or comfortable in the park. From the very beginning of Ed Hart's video where he addressed "How can you succeed where SIX didn't?," I though "snake oil salesman." It was immediately obvious that he intended to spend (borrow) large sums to create buzz and attendance, with no regard to long-term viability, all with the intention of selling out ASAP, as you wisely point out below. A company like SIX says "with attendance like that, a huge-ego company like ours is SURE to succeed!" Ed Hart pulled a shell game on them. I'm told that locals in the know believe this is the only hope for the property and that anything grander would be a boondoggle. Brilliant post. EDIT to add: If 98% of your visitors are local, it's not a "tourist attraction." 2% of 500,000 is 10,000. Lake Cumberland will get more out-of-state visitors than that on Memorial Day weekend alone. #1 tourist attraction in Kentucky my eye.

It could be cable to serve as redundant supports for the chairs!?!

Gravy buffets are clearly next on the horizon. If they had partnered with Ripley's Believe it or Not, I would say it's a certainty. Is International Street going to resemble Gatlinburg? KICentral.com. No matter what the topic is, it's always about food prices (and Son of Beast).

Maybe the control booth IS done. In addition to brick pavers, they could be redoing every Coney Mall building in Tyvek Homewrap.

Here's the page where Fox19 has all their skycams. The Kings Island cam isn't on the page yet as I type this.

I have a season pass question that I think I know the answer to...but I'd rather not get there on opening day, wait in line, get to the turnstile, and learn the hard way... We bought gold passes back in October and went directly into the processing center then (we were upgrading from our regular passes last year). I don't think they took new pictures but they did scan our old passes to bring up the information. Are our passes "processed?" Or do we need to do something before opening day?

I can give a link for part of your query. Hotwire hotels (as reported by users at betterbidding.com) Anybody that ever uses Hotwire or Priceline should use that site first for the best deals and information. biddingfortravel.com is similar, but I believe it's lost some of its mojo. I live too close to the park to ever use lodging there. I'd like to see the responses re: crowds.

Wow, you said something I agree with And I completely agree with Raptorguy about the DB/ Beast ERT! Maybe we all can get along. I agree with raptorguy on db/beast ERT too, but I don't think threatening to boycott the park is a rational course of action. And Skyline is better.

Drop Tower coasts freely on the way down, and nobody is arguing that it's a coaster. I consider Surf Dog a coaster-like flat ride, sort of a hybrid sorta coaster. Related, thank goodness they dropped the Avatar theming. That is just odd.

I'd tear down every ride, attraction, souvenir shop, dinosaur, fountain pool, and food stand except: Beast Diamondback Racer Drop Tower Delirium Sling Shot Invertigo WindSeeker Festhaus Eiffel Tower the Sidewinder Slide I'd fill all the remaining space with every kind of thrill ride every built or imagined. I'd reopen SOB with the loop and all padding and rider restraints removed. Every pond would be filled in, every tree torn down, every square inch paved. All fences would be removed for quick access to rides. Season passes would be limited to 100 every year, and would cost $12. ERT for passholders would start at 8 and run until 2pm, when the park opens to the general public. General admission tickets would be $400, and every resident of Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus would be required by law to purchase one per year to subsidize my season pass holders and their ride requirements. The shops on I Street would have the walls removed and the world's largest gravy buffet installed. The Festhaus would be turned into a food court with Chipotle, Fatburger, Larosa's, Panda Express, Panera, Penn Station, and a Mexican place that doesn't have Taco in the name. Gold pass holders get free food. The upstairs I street restaurant would be reopened as a O'TGIAppleChili's, exclusive to passholders from 5-9pm, again free of course. Eiffel Tower would be converted into a revolving restaurant at the top. I'm thinking premium steakhouse like Ruth's Chris or Morton's, again free to passholders and with exclusive hours. Valet parking and free massages to people with more than 52 posts on KIC.

You're right. Crypt stinks on ice. SOB is a disaster of truly epic proportions. (Although I think Delirium is running quite nicely). And I agree with Snowman that KI&MV RR is nothing more than a shuttle to the water park, and a shell of its former self. The park needs theme work. Top Gun badly needed its paint job (interested to see it - it might have been structurally sound but sometimes perception...) Where we disagree...I think Dinosaurs Alive(!) is costing the park very little to install and will help an economy-saddled, debt-ridden company bring in a few shekels to repair rides, restore/replace theming, and maybe install a gigacoaster or three (which would be fine in an empty parking lot if I had my way). DA(!) is about casual visitors. A family of four once-a-year visitors, paying $140 for discounted admission, $10 for parking, and even a paltry $50 for food/souvenirs/games (which is likely low for casual visitors) is dropping $200. It only takes 25,000 such families to earn back the $5 Million some have estimated this attraction to cost. Can they get 25,000 such families in one year that would otherwise not have visited the park? Betcha they make a good run at it, and I'm quite sure they know exactly how many families of four that include boys between the ages of 4 and 10 live within a two hour drive of the park, and I'm quite sure they know exactly what percentage of each demographic this exhibitor has drawn to their previous shows. Gramma, I wanna go Keens Island an' see da dinosaurs!!! I can find reason to doubt FUN (see first paragraph for an example). I have no doubts about this decision.

The attraction is called Dinosaurs Alive. Maybe.............. That'd be worth $5!!! Don't the KI Police wear dark tops with medium gray pants? Light to medium gray pants would show up nearly white in that particular lighting situation. Probably just a routine patrol.

The next piece is hooked up to the crane and sitting next to the tower. I'd said it's likely to be lifted soon.

I park every time I visit the park. I don't have to see the dinosaurs every time. I'll take the free parking.

Something else to consider - they don't even have to advertise this! Once one second grader at XYZ Elementary goes, I guaran-darn-tee you that the other 50 second graders at that school will be at home pestering their parents about this. Multiply that by thousands of elementaries in a 2-hour radius!

All the whiners need to consider that this likely cost the park very little. Clear some land for a path, a little free advertising on facebook and local media create word of mouth. An outside company brings in some statues and likely keeps all of the $5 fee and maybe a little kicker from the park. In exchange, the park gets extra casual visitors that pay for admission, parking, food, and t-shirts. These people are subsidizing our $70 Gold Passes, free parking, ERT (whichever ride it's on), and B&M hypers. They give us a park to go to and enjoy our thrills, even if we stop at Taco Bell on the way in and Skyline on the way out, all the while wearing our 1982 Ride Warrior t-shirt with The Bat on it. Why could we possibly not want more of them in the park? This attraction should bring them in at a relatively small cost.

I'm quite glad this was posted. I've ridden it ~60 times (not a lot by some standards but far more than most park guests), including quite a few during ERT, and hadn't seen this. I can't believe you were criticized for posting an almost-behind-the-scenes video about something at Kings Island on a forum called Kings Island Central. Next time, I guess post only if it involves what Don Helbig had for breakfast that day or something.

I'm never going to Kings Island again! I just cut my Gold Pass into a kajillion pieces! This is the suxor! ZOMG! HyperGigaMegaStratoCoasters forever, Dinos never! Just kidding. They'll get $10 from me. Me, daughter. One visit. She's not big on dinos, and I'm indifferent. But this attraction is not about me. Bring in more families, good for the park. (As I've said before cynically, bring in more single moms, good for me.) I hope this is a real positive for the park, and I think it can be.

For immediate realese: I'm so proud, that in such a small way, that I could be part of such an epic post.

Stream of consciousness while reading the last few pages: Dinosaur's name: Sally. It fits in with the Peanuts re-theme as a bonus. Maybe the animatronic dinosaur will roar down over the first drop on the Blue side of Racer. Talk about a thrill! A little creativity could really make a dino-walk a great Haunt attraction! Through the woods, imagine it. Any word on the gravy buffet?

I go to the park primarily as a thrill seeker, and I must say I won't be disappointed at a dino walk-through if that's what this turns out to be. I won't visit it, except perhaps once out of curiosity, but I won't be disappointed. I think anything that brings lots of families with young children to the park helps the park's bottom line without clogging up the lines for the big rides. Good thing. EDIT to add: Related, some of our best days riding last season were Howl-o-weekend Sundays. Snoopy Land and the Pic-a-nick Grove were packed, and the Diamondback was a walk-on at the end of the day. I also like to see lots of 35-40 year old single mothers at the park. That's a good thing when you're a 40-year old single father. Call me a cynic, but you never know. I think expecting an announcement about a new thrill when another thrill will be premiering in six weeks is a bit greedy. Although I would like to hear something about the SBNO-ride-that-shall-not-be-named sometime this year.

Oh, I definitely thought "SOB." Repeatedly. Interpret that how you will.

Maybe the Flying Eagles are coming back but they'll be changed to Flying Elephants. That's never been done in an amusement park AFAIK.

I've had my pocket contents jammed rather uncomfortably into my groin by a DB ride op that stapled me into the seat, badly enough that I requested an unlock so I could reset. Since that lesson I always make sure the cellphone is laying flat against my leg and put my hand flat over it before stapling to be sure of a little wiggle room. There isn't enough wiggle room to worry about something coming out, even in the unlikely event that the pocket flap was open.

Way Too Much TV was a fun, nostalgic show. Signed, Sealed, Delivered was a very good show. We often enjoyed the respite of taking a load off in the amphitheater in the middle of the afternoon for SSD and the music is right up my alley. The relaxation of cooling off in the Festhaus with a slice of pizza and the WTMTV show was great too. I'm glad to see them return. The Ghouls Gone Wild (tame family-friendly version) was good, too (and I believe had mostly the same cast as WTMTV). We only saw the country show once. I'll reserve judgment for someone that's more up to speed on that genre than me. We never did see Snoopy on Ice and intend to this year. Suggestions (but not things that would keep me from seeing them again anyway): I hope they change up the musical selections, though. Not that the shows weren't good, but a few new numbers would be nice just for variety's sake. Now I know there are very few people that have seen the shows a dozen times like me, but still. Also, Rod Stewart, while an accomplished artist, and with a catchy Motown-inspired "Motown Song" that celebrates Motown's history, is not a Motown artist, even if the Temptations provide backup vocals. Also, I think it would be great to face a speaker from SSD towards Diamondback. People might enjoy hearing the show while in line. You can hear bits of it on the final brake run after your train stops, but that's about it.