medford

Might we have this same conversation in 20 years about Son of Beast? Might there be kids as yet unborn saying they're glad it failed b/c it eventually lead to 2 of their favorite coasters in Ohio? All threads eventually lead back to Son of Beast

this gives me an idea of how KI could add a huge value to their season pass holders at little cost. Have a "coat check" or "bag check" in this case up around the international restaurant. Any gold pass holder can check 1 bag up there for free, as many times as they'd like. I wonder how many bins you'd have to have, put a scannable tag on each bag that comes in, connected thru your pass #. make it such that tips are "suggested" to pay the person covering the area. Standard airport disclaimer how KI is not responsible for the bag nor contents left in the bag to give them legal protection and protection against fraud, and you gold pass just got a ton more valueable for those that like to rent lockers for a day.

My wife went in the morning last year, left for a couple of hours, then went back in the evening when i was joining her and my son. She mentioned that she had a season pass when leaving and didn't need her hand stamped, she was informed that even season pass holders need their hand stamped, they won't admit the same pass twice in the same day (though I'll assume customer service would allow it if they believe there was really a misunderstanding and the pass holder wasn't trying to get one over on the park). The twins might be able to get away with it once, but they're not going to get away with it on a regular basis. They could probably get away with it as long as they both didn't use the pass on the same day.

Agreed, plus if they used the area around SOB or behind X-Base or by what used to be The Crypt, they could combine the key hole elements of X-Base with the terrain and woods feel of Wild Eagle and get something better than the most recent winged riders. Something tells me however, with the winged coaster going up at Cedar Pointe, Cedar Fair will wait a few years (decade?) before adding something similar a couple hundred miles down the same state. Would love to be wrong on that count and see a winged rider standing in place of SOB in 2014 or 2015 though.

Sorry for the confusion, didn't mean last one ever (at least I certainly hope not), I meant the last major coaster (or ride) they built, meaning the next couple roller coasters probably won't be a similar go high, go up & down, turn around come back type ride, something with a smaller footprint, likely some inversions, etc... In other words, I don't envision their next coaster to be a clone of Leviathan (sp?) at CW or Millie up at Cedar Pointe. I wouldn't complain if that were the case, just not how I think things will go. I'd love to see a 4th dimension or winged coaster, a B&M invert, a floorless, etc.. Some sort of family style rollercoaster would seemingly fit the new CEO's message, thinking about the size of Italian Stunt job or Adventure Express A water coaster for Soak City would make a nice addition A new large flat or two in different areas of the park an indoor themed family ride (preferrably water based) would fit the new CEO's message as well or even an outdoor family style boat ride where you don't get too wet (think about incorporating all the dino's into some sort of boat ride) All of the above would require a sizeable investment, and IMHO would make the list of additions to King's Island prior to the addition of something like Leviathan.

The 3 mile climb would be pretty cool, assuming I didn't black out, but the 9 minute wait to climb to the top (assuming a steady 20 mph rate after launch) would feel like forever Seriously, how many people would really care if King's Island got a 308 foot tall coaster or a 315 foot tall coaster? Besides, I'd say getting a 300 footer, after Diamonback being their last major install isn't likely. I'd put a 300+ foot tall coaster about 5th on my list of coaster types that I'd like to see the park add thru the years, not to mention the other type of rides I'd like to see them install.

I'm guessing 99% of the people that want to know how the trick works, know you can go to google or some other search engine and have done so already, the 1% that don't know that are probably not on this website to begin with. The vast majority that don't want to know or would prefer to figure it out themselves, and have stumbled across this thread are likely very annoyed at your act at this point. Its rather obnoxious and childish to post the secret behind the magic on this website, let alone your constant critique of the show. Movies wouldn't be nearly as fun if they took away the background and just showed the green screen. I'm not sure what your intent is, but it appears that once enough people got out to the show, your original intent of sabotaging the show by giving over the top, if not unrealistic negative reviews failed, now you're out to sabotage the show by revealing the secrets behind the show before people can get out to watch it themselves. They have names for people like that, and their probably not appropriate for this website. Please just go away already, its tired.

Maybe you do already, but I'm guessing not from this statement so - One day, if you end up with kids, you'll know the answer to this question. It is quite easy for even responsible and protective parents to lose track of a well behaved child - as for the yelling, you'd be doing it also as it is quite the scary experience. +1, I was way more judgemental of parents prior to becoming one. Then you realize, despite your best efforts, kids just don't always act like you want them to, they'll do things 1 way a thousand times, then one day do it completely different when you least expect it.

Not violence, But I remember sitting next to my son last year on Viking Fury, he was either late 2 or early 3 (late June birthday, can't remember when exactly we were on it) He had ridden the thing many times by that point, even on the far back seat and it never scared him (until this season where I could tell it made him more nervous that last year, but that's a different conversation) Anyhoo, we were somewhere in the relative middle of the boat when the 2 girls behind us a row or two decided it would be cool to let out blood curling screams each time our side of the ride descended. Not they typical cheerful yells you hear on ever viking fury ride, but screams that literally sounded like someone was getting chopped with an axe; it was too the point of hurting my ears loud. It clearly distrubed my son to the point of near tears. It took a decent amount of restraint to not want to turn around and slap them. I fail to see how they ever thought that was funny.

thanks, I assumed that was the case. I wasn't worried so much about being heckled, I can deal with that, besides who's going to heckle someone taking a kid outside of the theater for being a bit to figidty, I was more worried about how easily one can get out the theater at a moment notice. I'd hate to bother everyone else if I had to exit out the front, while sitting in the back.

Question, Is this show alright for a soon to be 4 year old, or would it be too old for him? If he gets "squirmy" as he has a tendancy to do, is it easy enough to leave out the back w/o causing too much distraction?

It was running a cycle this morning at 7:45. Perhaps just routine testing prior to ERT, or perhaps more testing based upon the maintanence work that has gone on recently.

Is it safe to assume that since soakcity has stopped posting on this now that a handful of positive reviews are sitting out there, and crowds appear to be strong, that he was either Ed Alonso, or someone associated with the show trying to create buzz?? I mean what kind of show almost "chokes" somebody w/ a botched trick but continues running on schedule the next couple of days?

Diamonback was running on friday. Don't know if Invertigo was up over the weekend, but at 7:45 this morning, it was running in the rain, I assume undergoing testing prior to possibly ERT if its back in operation.

So if I'm picturing that coaster correct, its a clone of KIs Invertigo? Heights make me nervous (though going up lift hills doesn't really both me, standing on the top of the Eiffel Tower makes my palms sweat a bit until i get used to it), but I don't think that would bother me too much if I was riding backwards. However if I was in a front facing seat, I'd get used to the height and view eventually, but it would suck to be stuck in the front leaning position for 90 minutes. Is KI's Invertigo 120' tall? I've never thought of that ride being that tall, guess its higher than I realized.

The problem is, if KI runs an anti-bullying campaign (which I'm sure they're pubically against), what other groups are going to come in and request/demand that they're cause is supported by Kings Island. Considering the cost of said anti-bullying campaign (not that it cost all that much in the grand scheme of their budget), what benefit would Cedar Fair stand to gain? Is bullying a problem within the park? I'm sure there have been instances, but I've never seen one. Most people enjoy the park with either their family or friends. Generally when you're with your family or friends, you're pretty insulated from any bullying. I don't see how it would generate any new guests to the park, at least in significant numbers the way their breast cancer awareness campaigns have done. I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your two friends. Its both tragic and sad, however, bullying is as old as man itself. King's Island could run a well intentioned campaing against bullying, I doubt it would change much. Its not like they could monitor somebody's school record or facebook acount and subsequently bar them from the park.

Why not take it a step further. Get a list of 1,000+ songs that are family friendly (ie no cusing or language that can't be played over the radio) and include as perk the ability to select the song list for any given day. 2 perks/area per day, 10 songs per perk, giving you a rotation of 20 different songs each day in each area on rotation. Maybe you lock in the set list for International street, & Planet Snoopy. Perhaps even octoberfest if you stick to some sort of german theme (all scorpion, all the time , but make Action Zone, the Coney Mall, Soak City, Rivertown & X-Base up for a choose a song rotation perk on a first come basis. Imagine knowing you could spend the day riding Diamondback & The Beast and hear your favorite songs all day long. I would think something like that would be a pretty popular perk.

What about the person that decided two weeks ago to come to Kings Island this week, when the kids are first out of school. They visit the website then, see no mention of issues with Diamondback, Delirium, or Invertigo and purchase their tickets for today, put in for their day off work and travel to the park for their one of their bi-annual days at Kings Island. They have the tickets printed, know the opening and closing times, as well as the directions to get to mason. They have no real reason to go back to the website for futher information, they've been here a bunch of times in the past, have a good feel for how the park operates. I'd be pretty annoyed if 3 of the larger attractions were down for the day. Throw in WindSeeker's spotty operation and some well below seasonal temperatures the week after their expanded Soak City opened (not that they can control low 60s temps in early June) and I'd definently say King's Island is getting off to a rough start for their 40th anniversary. throw in the amount of time Vortex spent down last year, as well as WindSeeker's issues last season and I'd definently consider making a trip elsewhere this summer if I lived outside of the area. On the plus side, the perks program appears to be a big hit for their season pass holders, The Beast is running as well as I can remember it, the food is definently improved (can you please make a better pizza though, it shouldn't be that hard, or consistantly as substandard as it is), I've noticed "small" changes to the cleanliness of the park and general condition of some of the flower/tree beds around the park. For a season pass holder, that lives close enough to have flexibility in their trips to KI, I think they've done a lot of things well. Obviously, all machines break down at one point or another, I'm not sure there is much KI could have done to avoid the issues with Diamonback, Invertigo, Drop Zone & WindSeeker; perhaps a maintance guy would even rave about how quickly they're dealing with this issues, but there are definently a lot of things going against King's Island to start out their 40th anniversary. It definently feels like Matt Ouimet is the right guy to lead the park into the next 40 years. I notice a ton of attention to the small details, which likely means all the bigger details that are in the works behind the scenes are well thought out and will continue to make KI a world class amusement park.

I wish there was a little more detail on some of these rewards before your redeemed them. Obviously things like free cotton candy or drink bands are straight forward, but what about: Free ride on thunder alley. Is that a free rider ($3.00) or a free driver ($6.00) or both? That is something I think my son would love; he's not tall enough to drive them himself, but would enjoy riding along so I'll probably do that either way, but it would be nice to know before hand, especially if I was just looking to go as a single and would pay the $6.00 driver price. The train thing sound right up our alley as well, if/when I get to that point. Is it a family thing or is it one voucher, one train background tour. Again my 3 year old son would love it, but he can't go on the backstage tour by himself. Would I need to purchase another tour for both of us? What about mom and baby sister who's young enough that she isn't charged admission. FWIW, I was on my 4th trip to the park and probably had spent less than $60 total when I went up to level 2 last night. Pretzel & ice cream ($7.00?) (2) slice of pizza & 2 bread stick combos plus a pop ($15?) on the 1st trip where I had my card scanned (2) pretzels last night when I moved up a level according to my reciept, then another $30ish or so in dinner for the family later on after I had moved up a level. In addition, I also wonder if the park takes into consideration the distance b/w the address the card is registered at and the park. For instance, would they reward the guy who lives in columbus, visits the park 2x a month and spends $50 each time, more than the guy who lives in Mason, visits the park 2x a month and spends $50 each trip? Could the days you typicall visit alter the reward system? Does the guy who comes on wednesday's progress at a different rate than the guy who only visits on saturdays? Could they reward someone who goes and spends money on a crudy weather day more than the guy that is visiting on a "perfect" weather day? There are a lot of variables they could implement into the system such that my $100 and 5 trips to the park isn't viewed the same as someone else's $100 and 5 trips to the park. Overall, I like the system, I like that I get options of what I want to redeem. I'm interested to see how its tweeked thru the season and over the years.

After riding it last night, I can say there was definently no "pot hole" or whatever you felt on the lift hill. Vortex was riding as smooth and fast as the last time I rode it (maybe 3-5 years ago)

Unless the line for Adventure Express was up to the front gate, I wouldn't always trust what those wait time markers say (especially if there's no worker around). I saw The Beast wait time (at a point where there was no worker at the front of the entrance near the end of the day) listed as 90 minutes. We go thru in about 15 minutes. I'll assume someone walked by and decided to play with the wait time sign and moved it to an extended time as a "joke" I'm not sure if you have to have a special device to do this, I've never looked all that closely, that only a worker would have, but I've always assumed it was just a turn of the hand that anyone could accomplish.

got me thinking, last friday I took my neice to the park early so she would have someone to ride all of the big rides with, then my wife, mother in law 3 year old and infant meet us later that evening after my son's nap around 5:00 or so in the evening. At the end of the evening, after we were done with our nighttime beast ride, I casually (and kiddingly) mentioned that she had worn me out that day, wondered how many miles we had logged that day. So, anyone venture a guess based on this: parking to The Beast, to the stunt track, to The Racer, back to fight deck, to fest house for a lunch. From lunch over to Flight of Fear, only to figure out the line was pretty long, so back to The Beast. From The Beast over to Diamondback, then back to Flight of Fear to wait out the line. From Flight of Fear, over to Action Zone to grab her a blue ice cream cone, then over to Fest House to eat inside and await the wife. From the Fest House to the front entrance while we were trying to get a hold of my wife trying to figure out when they'd get there, only to find out they were running later than their estimated 4:30ish arrival time, so from the front entrace back to The Beast. Then back to the Fest house to meet the wife and rest of the crew (it was raining slightly back by The Beast, but pretty good in the parking lot, so they wanted to meet where it was dry). From the fest house to Boo Blasters, to the Train, to Shake, Rattle & Roll, Scrambler & Monster, back to the Fest house for dinner and feeding of the infant, from the fest house back to The Beast for her 1st ever night ride on The Beast, back to the parking lot as fireworks were exploding. That's essentially 8 trips to/from the front entrance/fest house and The Beast, plus some other walking, perhaps totallying about 10 trips b/w those points. About half a mile b/w the front and the gate to The Beast? Probably a little less than that, so about 4-5 miles total of walking? Wish I would have had a pedometer on, or even my nike+ and Ipod out of interest. Anways, just an example of why walking another 50 yards to non preferred parking isn't going to amount to much at the end of the day. I just measured your route with Google Earth. Assuming that 1) you were the first car to arrive in the morning and thus got the closest non-preferred and non-handicap parking spot, 2) you took the shortest route between each location you listed with no detours, and 3) you were able to take the shortest possible path through queues without switchbacks, you walked approximately 6.75 miles. Any deviation from those assumptions would increase the distance. Thanks, I figured there was a way to do that w/ Google Earth. Lord knows I didn't skip all the turnstiles, nor take the shortest path each time (nor park in the closest parking spot), so we'll call it an even 8 miles on the day. Life would be more enjoyable if I'd just skip the 5-10 mile runs on the weekend and hit the park each day.

got me thinking, last friday I took my neice to the park early so she would have someone to ride all of the big rides with, then my wife, mother in law 3 year old and infant meet us later that evening after my son's nap around 5:00 or so in the evening. At the end of the evening, after we were done with our nighttime beast ride, I casually (and kiddingly) mentioned that she had worn me out that day, wondered how many miles we had logged that day. So, anyone venture a guess based on this: parking to The Beast, to the stunt track, to The Racer, back to fight deck, to fest house for a lunch. From lunch over to Flight of Fear, only to figure out the line was pretty long, so back to The Beast. From The Beast over to Diamondback, then back to Flight of Fear to wait out the line. From Flight of Fear, over to Action Zone to grab her a blue ice cream cone, then over to Fest House to eat inside and await the wife. From the Fest House to the front entrance while we were trying to get a hold of my wife trying to figure out when they'd get there, only to find out they were running later than their estimated 4:30ish arrival time, so from the front entrace back to The Beast. Then back to the Fest house to meet the wife and rest of the crew (it was raining slightly back by The Beast, but pretty good in the parking lot, so they wanted to meet where it was dry). From the fest house to Boo Blasters, to the Train, to Shake, Rattle & Roll, Scrambler & Monster, back to the Fest house for dinner and feeding of the infant, from the fest house back to The Beast for her 1st ever night ride on The Beast, back to the parking lot as fireworks were exploding. That's essentially 8 trips to/from the front entrance/fest house and The Beast, plus some other walking, perhaps totallying about 10 trips b/w those points. About half a mile b/w the front and the gate to The Beast? Probably a little less than that, so about 4-5 miles total of walking? Wish I would have had a pedometer on, or even my nike+ and Ipod out of interest. Anways, just an example of why walking another 50 yards to non preferred parking isn't going to amount to much at the end of the day.

Unless you plan to go from the park to your car often and/or have trouble moving around/walking, then no. at 9:30 (and really just about any time) you should be able to nab a spot that is no more than a 5-10 min walk to the front gate. Considering the amount of walking done in the park, its a drop in the bucket and not worth the upcharge to me. The only thing that would change my mind (aside from any physical limitations) is if I was planning to go from the park back to the car for lunch and dinner and eat out of a cooler in the trunk. Even then, if I was getting there at 9:30, mid-week, you're not going to be parking that much futher away.

I was at the park on June 1st, personally I think you're kind of nuts for having spent anytime in the water park (or at white water canyon) that day, temps couldn't have climbed above the mid 60s. I'm guessing there weren't a ton of people on that side of the park (I think I read somewhere that they closed the water side around 2:00)