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Nobody said they were announcing anything. A HINT though, I think it is. The shackles were purposely placed where you will notice them. The death date was purposely scratched out so you would notice that too. Death dates aren't put on headstones till after death. Caskets aren't put at the gravesite until after death. The park hasn't said its a gonner or there would be a death date. The way I take it, the Son of Beast was in that casket and has broken out and scratched out the death date. Meaning to me that the park had at some point made the decision to remove it, but a more feasible plan has come forth and the decision has changed. In other words they are saying that Son of Beast was VERY close to being removed but got saved somehow? Though I could be wrong.

This was my first trip to Stricker's Grove. I left Xenia around 10:45 and arrived right at noon, thinking I would be able to get lunch in the hour before the rides opened. As it turned out, they weren't going to sell any food until around 1:00, so I walked around, took a look in the arcade (which was open), and basically stood around until they started selling food at 12:50. I bought a 6 oz. ribeye steak sandwich; it was a little on the tough side, but good, and for $5.00, I'm not complaining (I wonder what KI would charge for it?). When the rides opened, I headed for Teddy Bear for the credit. I like how old-fashioned it was in the restraint department: no seat belts, seat dividers, or ratcheting lap bars, just a buzz bar. After that, I headed for Tornado. Taking the advice of a certain poster here on KIC, I sat in the back seat. It was a very good ride, and "The Cliff" caught me totally by surprise. Out of the 10 woodies I've ridden, Tornado ranks as #4 (see my profile for complete rankings). I ended up grabbing about half a dozen rides on Tornado. Other rides I rode included the Flying Scooters, Tip Top, Tilt-A-Whirl, Electric Rainbow, and the Ferris Wheel; in all of those cases except Electric Rainbow, those were my first ride ever on that type of ride. All were nice rides. I also rode their Scrambler, which ranks as the slowest Scrambler I've ever ridden, though that's somewhat offset by the fact that it was also the longest cycle out of those I've ridden with over 3 minutes at top speed. When I got bored with the rides, I went into the arcade and blew $10 worth of tokens on the shooting gallery. I hardly ever shoot guns and had never tried a shooting gallery before, but I turned out to be an instant pro at the thing, hitting a perfect 15-for-15 on my first play and shooting 4 out of 10 perfect rounds with 90% overall accuracy. After five plays, I traded my first batch of tickets for some Tootsie Rolls, and after the next five, I took my receipt (worth 74 tickets) from the ticket-counting machine up to the redemption counter and gave it to the mother of a little kid that was trying to figure out what to do with only five tickets. For dinner I started with a brat ($2), then got one of their chicken wraps. Now, the bowling alley I bowl my league at sells chicken wraps for $3.99 + tax. The one I got at Stricker's cost only $3.00, tax included, and was about triple the size of the one I get all the time at the bowling alley. I mean, this thing was HUMONGOUS. Here's a photo: Stricker's Grove Chicken Wrap by jcgoble3, on Flickr Note the dollar bill that I put next to it; that should give you a sense of scale. What the photo doesn't show is that it was easily a inch thick. Despite normally having an unusually large appetite for a man of my small size, the thing was so big that I couldn't finish it. Next time, I'll order it first and then decide whether I have room for a brat. Overall, $10 total for the steak, brat, and wrap was a very good price. I noticed that Stricker's allows people to bring their own food in, so obviously that helps keeps their food prices low since they have to compete with packed lunches. They were also giving out free soft drinks (which I took advantage of all day, resulting in frequent bathroom breaks), and I ate one serving of the free cotton candy. Overall, it was a very nice park despite its small size, and one I'll definitely go to again.

I am also somewhat disappointed with Haunt this year, but it is not a high budget thing, like Universal Studios' Horror Nights (or whatever they are called). They could add more scareactors in the mazes, such as Club Blood, Slaughterhouse, and Urgent Scare, and scrap mazes that are just plain bad (Mysteria, Cut Throat Cove, CornStalkers, etc.). Like you said OP, they are going for quantity not quality. Instead of adding mazes that stink (except I loved Holiday Horror), they need to spend time on designing a great maze that will blow everyone's minds and do this once every two years so it is more quality, not quantity. Also, the lack of fear zones don't bother me. There is still a ton of fog and scary music playing around the park, along with Halloween decorations - too many people scaring guests would drive them out of the park!

I would imagine that they didn't sit around and think of all these minute details to tell some intricate, riddle-esque story about the future of the ride. They're poking fun at themselves, the ride, and us (the people who care so much about these things that they'll notice and build meaning around it). And since this is being discussed so heavily, it worked...

Yeah, I'm sure KI is announcing the removal of a major ride using a Halloween Haunt prop. </sarcasm>

I'm actually happy to hear that! Go Flight Deck! I had the same reaction! lol Flight Deck is such a great ride, hurt by its location. So many people don't even know it exists. I have never ridden the ride with a train more than half full of people the past decade, which makes me sad. So, I'm touched that this had a 45-minute wait! They should have painted it neon pink with a GIANT 500 foot LED sign saying "Great ride here!" or made WindSeeker a giant arrow pointing to flight deck ... or maybe little plane foot prints from the park entrance to the ride would work.

The pot's been overflowing for years, what's a little stirring going to hurt?

In that first pic you can see the original exit for The Racer(it was on the opposite side from where it is now).These DVD sets can be bought brand new at Half Price Books for $9.99.That's where I got mine.

"Welcome to Flight Deck the parks only Tom Cruise themed ride!"

There's someone on The Beast that makes the spiel "...and enjoy the rest of your day at Kings Island - where everything's made of wood... except some stuff."

you might be a KI addict ifwhen you watch POVs online you pretend your on the ride

You may be a KI addict if you are reading through this thread and, as you read the posts, nodding while crossing them off like a checklist "Yep, I do that. And that. And that..." and are now silently (Or otherwise) laughing at yourself.