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Photo 8/4 - Welch Style


welchce
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My brother (Thane Of Price Hill) and I were two of the 100+ people that were at KI for the event on 8/4. He took some pictures which are on the internet. I will be posting some of the ones I really like here.

So we got there around 8:40ish and the parking lot was already open. I thought somehow Ryan and Dane got Carson Palmer to had out lanyards but it was just SOB_TOM in a Palmer jersey. As I walked through the metal detector it went off for the first time this year. I forgot that I left my PSP in my pocket so I had to run to and from the car. So we walked in and it was just KIC people and employees. They actually didn't have anywhere roped up when we first got in there which just shows you how early we were there. My brother got a nice picture of the Eiffel Tower right away.

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Then we meet over by the Paramount Theatre and Don, Ryan, Dane, and Josh addressed the crowds.

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I don't understand how they stayed in dress pants and shirts the entire day but they were as professional as they looked. These are some really great guys. Then we headed off to FoF for the first tour.

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It was awesome to see the empty midway as we walked through the park before it opened.

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So we just walked in the FoF exit and back the brake section to the bowl. There have already been pictures of the King Cobra trains but I was also excited to see another part of KI's history...

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...Flight of Fear's over the shoulder restraints. There was also spare parts and other various assortment of goodies. Then, as I'm sure everyone has heard about, was the FoF run through. My brother got this nice picture of the train going through the corkscrew right over his head.

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After the train stormed through, we all made like Elvis and left the building. Next was the first ride on Firehawk. My brother decided to sit this out and got a picture of me on the first train of the day. I'm in the second row at the bottom with my arms out.

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Next we had an hour break before the Sign Shop so we hit up FoF and Racer. They were actually doing their best on Racer to have the trains race. This is something that they've been slacking on most of the year when I've been there. By the way, we won :P So we meet over with everyone at the entrance to Boomerang Bay/ the Picnic grove for the Sign Shop tour. Outside one of the buildings along the way there was an interesting sight.

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Normally you don't want to see any hearse by a theme park but it is almost time for FearFest. So for the sign shop tour they let people in my groups of twenty. As you may have seen posted before, there was the old King Cobra sign, various other signs and some carousel horses.

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and also Carson Palmer. Next my brother and I decided it was time for lunch. We went to Festhaus and got some delicious LaRosa's. When we were finished, we walked around the park looking for things in the scavenger hunt. We also went to the top of the Eiffel Tower to take in the view and get some pictures. While SoB was testing, there were two random guys riding by themselves.

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Then The Vortex

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IJ:ST

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Racer doing what it does best

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Next was the well-done, spectacular, and, probably most important, air conditioned show Endless Summer on Ice. I had yet to see it this year and really enjoyed it. There are some really talented people on that ice. If you haven't seen it, you should. The questions took long enough that we all had to walk right to The Beast tour. This was my favorite part of the day.

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As we were walking the access road next to the station, someone asked what we were doing. My brother quickly responded, "Cutting to the front of the line." Everyone around us had a good laugh. Our first stop on the tour was by the first drop on The Beast.

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Then we walked up a little more to where the second drop crosses the first drop winding into the woods.

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Next we walked further into the woods, past the second hill lift house, and over the tunnels.

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Finally, we made it all the way to the back before the the train turns toward the second lift hill. The train here is very close to the ground. As the people went by, they all waved at us. One interesting thing I remember is that there was a teen-aged girl in the front of the one train that had her cell phone out and apparently was taping the ride. For our last train pass, Ryan tried to get everyone to do the wave as they past by.

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Then we had to walk from the very far back of the park to the front for dinner. I was very excited to be able to eat in the old International Restaurant. It was a pretty good meal.

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And I tried to get some pictures to make a panorama of the view.

My brother and I weren't sure how long we were going to stay. So we checked out the lines for IJ:ST and The Beast and they were both long so we decided to leave since we were tired and were going golfing early the next morning. It was a great day and a great time with great people. I hope I'll be able to do this again next time.

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That's me in the very first row at the bottom on Firehawk, directly in front of you, Welchce. I'm taking a copy of it to the office tomorrow. My co-workers will get a kick out of it.

Thanks for the super photos of a super day.

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I'm glad to hear so many of you enjoyed seeing the photos.

Not to toot my own horn, but if you check out the link my brother mentioned you can see photos of both the first and second trains of Firehawk from Saturday which were filled with KICentral.com members and if you click the "Full Size" link you might be able to spot yourself "flying."

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The ironic thing about me in the Palmer jersey all day is the day previous, I was cleared to get off of crutches for a right knee problem..... ;)

Good pictures, good trip report, and no, I dont sign Carson's autograph anymore. My lawyer says thats a bad move.

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The ironic thing about me in the Palmer jersey all day is the day previous, I was cleared to get off of crutches for a right knee problem..... ;)

I hope for your sake that you weren't walking down the street and a 6'4 300 pound man dove at your leg.

and no, I dont sign Carson's autograph anymore. My lawyer says thats a bad move.

:lol: Classic

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Great pictures and an awesome trip report!! I was there as well and got a lot of video and some interesting pictures...unfortunately I was not able to do the tours - they were not handicapped accessible - maybe next year they will be.

My party had an awesome time!! Seeing those pictures does not let you know how much fun it was - those that did not go really and honestly missed a wonderful time!!! We were kept busy all day, given lots of interesting information and walked around with those VIP passes was also a pretty neat thing!

Honestly the most fun I had was the scavenger hunt and meeting all of the wonderful people associated with this site.

Great job on your pictures!!

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Unfortunately, some tours like The Beast backstage tour will likely never be wheelchair accessable. I really did feel bad for those who weren't able to do some activities for that reason. However, next time we will work closely with the operations department to see if there is something we can do that is a little better on that behalf. Maybe take a different route or something.

Of course, IF there is another KICentral event (and it seems like most of the forum members, staff, and park employees want it to continue) then everything will certainly be mixed up. We certainly NOT going to have the same event each year. Every year we'll find the most interesting, most obscure, most unheard of, most unseen places to bring the crowd. Our goal on this site is to emphasize Kings Island -- not just the rides, but all of the attractions. You'll likely see more work done with the entertainment department as well as special events in future endeavors.

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No, no 6`4 300 lbs. guy ran into it. I AM 6`4, however, and the raft I Was trying to catch at work weighed no less than 300X2 lbs. Does that count?

Edit: Oh God, the more I think about this, the more Im wondering weither I am the anti-Palmer. Im not good at QB, but Im pretty good as a first baseman in baseball.....

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Yes they were suppose to have an SOB tour, however SOB had some Maintenance work going on, and at that point they weren't sure when it would open, or if it was going to open at all that day. I heard Ryan say that even with the ride down we still couldn't go back because anytime the ride is down for Maintenance it's considered a hard hat area. The biggest bummer was SOB opened about 15 or so minutes before the tour was suppose to be begin.

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Yes they were suppose to have an SOB tour, however SOB had some Maintenance work going on, and at that point they weren't sure when it would open, or if it was going to open at all that day. I heard Ryan say that even with the ride down we still couldn't go back because anytime the ride is down for Maintenance it's considered a hard hat area. The biggest bummer was SOB opened about 15 or so minutes before the tour was suppose to be begin.

Unfortunately, there are certain 'risks' that must be taken whith these events. If any ride is down, the tour must be cancelled. Regardless of whether or not it opened before the time of the tour, there was no really efficent way to communicate that to everyone, so we just had to come up with an alternative. I'm just glad you guys got to ride Firehawk. That was the risky one.

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Yes they were suppose to have an SOB tour, however SOB had some Maintenance work going on, and at that point they weren't sure when it would open, or if it was going to open at all that day. I heard Ryan say that even with the ride down we still couldn't go back because anytime the ride is down for Maintenance it's considered a hard hat area. The biggest bummer was SOB opened about 15 or so minutes before the tour was suppose to be begin.

That's very interesting. I was wondering why we still couldn't do the tour even with the ride being down.

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Yes they were suppose to have an SOB tour, however SOB had some Maintenance work going on, and at that point they weren't sure when it would open, or if it was going to open at all that day. I heard Ryan say that even with the ride down we still couldn't go back because anytime the ride is down for Maintenance it's considered a hard hat area. The biggest bummer was SOB opened about 15 or so minutes before the tour was suppose to be begin.

That's very interesting. I was wondering why we still couldn't do the tour even with the ride being down.

Whenever a ride is down, the area immediately around it is all subject to variables such as moving equipment and sometimes it's even a hard hat area.

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