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The Topic title made me all excited for a new 2013 map design for a moment. Alas it was for not.

To not see Pat Koch in any commercials would deter me from coming in all honsety. When I first met her a few years ago, she literally made me feel like a part of her family. She knew that I was from Ohio and had never been to the park before. Throughout the day, as I passed her and Dan on the midways, she would stop whatever she was doing to see if I was having a good day at the park! Such a sweet lady! I sure hope she's at the park this year, even if I don't visit.

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/article/media-center/Brady-Bunch-stars-returning-to-Kings-Island Will you attend the park that day to see them?

1. The people. People make Kings Island. It has good ones. 2. The Midwest. It's a great place to be. Jeff Seibert said it was the Midwest, anyway. 3. Its customers. Good folk. Well behaved. 4. Its access. Easy to get to. Compare Geauga Lake. Or Lake Winnie. 5. Its sitdown restaurant, now that it has one. 6. The ride mix. It's missing a little something, but that'll be fixed soon. 7. The water park included with admission. Many places, it isn't. 8. The many, many memories I have of Kings Island, many with people I can never go with to the park again. 9. The grand entrance highlighted by the Royal Fountain and the Eiffel Tower. 10. The many, many friends I have made there over the years, and will in years to come.

How did you end up in this thread?

I'm probably going to be obligated to say the employees. Flight of Fear's theming Philly cheese steaks Entertainment The Eiffel Tower We still have our train Blue ice cream! Everything is always really clean... much better than the last time I went to a Six Flags! Reds Hall of Fame Grille The Beast

I guess I should have been a bit more clear in my if Pat would not be in any commercials it may deter me from coming. I meant that if I were a GP member that visited the park often and to suddenly see that Pat wasn't going to be in any commercials and to see the news of Eckert saying she wouldn't be in any of them, would deter me. People like what they know. It's been proven time and time again in various park situations. But you are correct, Pat is getting old. Sooner or later she won't be there. That's why I cherish the small memories I have of her and have these wishes that she were a part of the commercials and the park as she was. As Terpy said, having Eckert spin this as a positive thing, is a bit distasteful.

I emaied Sherry Vogel, the PR manager at IB, and she said she asked the maintenance crew and they expect that element to be operational this season!

The 2013 map is nothing to be that excited about- they were giving them out at season pass processing over the weekend. Doesn't matter, I still am really excited to see it. Spoiler alert.

*Cough, Racer, Cough, Cough* Oh man, my allergies are acting up on me.

in no particular order ~rides ~food ~shows ~staff ~haunt ~environment ~scenery ~the lights around night fall ~how easily picturesque everything is when you stop to look at things ~the park is just as great when you rush from ride to ride as it is when you slowly snake your way around the park

Because of the reason she's not in the ads. That's why. A family fight is taking place over who owns/controls the park. For Matt to spin this as a positive change of direction for the park is distasteful at best. HE said not to expect Pat in ads. He should have just kept his mouth shut about that. If Dan wins his appeal, look for a change in management at the park. Lori FIRED Dan. Let us not forget.

That guy has a great mustache.

OSHA are out of their element when it comes to animals since they don't do squat with elephant and tiger attacks (which happen more often). And they treat Miami Seaquarium as if it is nonexistent where those trainers are still allowed to swim with the killer whale there in public and private. They need to go away. And also, that is an old video, about 2 years before the 2010 incident with Tillikum. Trainer was fine

Construction of Adventure Expresses 1st lift hill

Are we getting Funperks at Kings Island again this year? I hope so,it gives me an excuse to say," But honey,we have to get ice cream, it adds up our Funperks"!

Little like the Smurfs? Are you helping them escape from Gargamel?

The estate held the interest, which was required to be sold, until the court ruling. That article does say Lori asked him to run the park, though. As you said, there is much the public will never know about this.

^ Excerpt from the IndyStar article, referring to before Dan executed his rights under the shareholder agreement:

For PR types, putting a positive spin on changes is par for the course. Even if the reasons for the change are anything but positive. What I find despicable is that most content including Dan has been deleted from Holiday World's blog and YouTube channel. She hired him, too. I appreciate Dan's comment that there's a lot more to this feud than revealed in public court briefs.

Just went to IOA and Universal last year. Fast pass is good for most rides, but there are a few that it does not work on. Rip and Rockit rollercoaster is one of them. The meal pass was not worth it IMO. My wife and I enjoy a good meal time and the fast pass meal was not worth it. You are going to Islands of Adventure, you must, I reiterate, You Must Go to Mythos. Great food. Great service. awesome atmosphere. The price was about 12-15 per person for some great dinner choices. Go to their website and book reservations early. We set up reservations before we left. When we showed up to eat our reserved time, they were telling people the wait was a good 90 minutes or more. We told them our name and they had us seated in about 15 minutes. http://www.opentable.com/mythos-at-universals-islands-of-adventure thats the link to set up reservations. The all you can eat was decent to be honest, but in IOA there are only 3 restaurants where it works. The food is normal pizza and burgers and such. Free drink refills as well. and you can keep going through the line. If you are a heavy eater and get hungry easy or have kids/family that do. Then use the meal deal. if you are like my wife and I where we are cutting back on our food intake and dont get hungry as easy then dont do it. Plus if you eat at Mythos, you really wont be using the meal deal very much. If your hotel offers the fast pass for free. use it and enjoy it. My wife and I lucked out and went on a day where even the normal wait for lines was less than 25 mins. We had fast pass because of our hotel and every ride was a walk on. We went in August. The harry Potter action ride is also not part of the fast pass deal. So dont buy it thinking you will get on that ride any quicker. In august the line had about a 2 hour wait while the rest of the park was 25 or less. If you get there early in the morning, everyone will be running (I mean it) running to get back to Harry Potter world. My wife and I attempted to do this and to get on the Harry Potter castle ride, but we still waiting about 90 mins the first time and 2 hours later in the day. The line usually keeps moving so its not so bad to be in the line. Not like a roller coaster where you are sitting for 3 mins then move a big distance. Think more like phantom theater where the ride and the line just keeps moving. If you have a single rider, or can break your group into single riders, this ride wait may be shorter as they move you through a different line. But you wont ride with anyone you know and you may be sitting at the end of the queue for 30 mins till a 3 some shows up. For the order of IOA, that is up to you. Try to hit the water rides (rip-saw falls, jurassic park, and another water ride i cant remember right now) during the hot part of the day. The day we went, we knew there would be a storm around 1230/1 because of the morning news cast. So we planned our second ride of Harry Potter around this time. Since it was a big storm, we knew that we wouldnt be able to ride any of the coasters or other outdoor rides so we got out butterbeer and got inline right as the storm opened up. The storm lasted a good 2 hours. So for the 2 hours we waited in a line and not in a restaurant or shop. Hope that all helps. Send me a message if you have any other questions. Where are yall staying?

I'll be living in Virginia by then, but I hope all of you have fun!

Auntie Anne's pretzels on International Street (mentioned on Twitter a while ago) and gluten-free items at Coney Potato Works seem to be about it. I'll look for more when I have it in front of me. Edit- OP delivers! KI Pretzel Company is now "Auntie Anne's- Hand-Rolled Pretzels, Pretzel Dogs, Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade" Is this new at Stunt Crew? "Stunt Crew Grill- Mouth-Watering Chicken, BBQ Pulled Pork, Salads, Desserts, Saratoga Chips, Ice-Cold Beer" "Christian Moerlein Bier Garten- Full Service Bar, German Fare, Fried Pickels, Appetizers" "Reds Hall of Fame Grille- Full-service, air conditioned sports-themed bar with 20-plus TVs. Fresh-grilled burgers, chicken wings, Montgomery Inn pulled pork, baby back ribs, Saratoga chips, wraps, appetizers, salads, homemade deserts, soft drinks, draft beer, wine" Drop Tower no longer has the Drop Zone spiral in front of it- nice attention to detail! WindSeeker is still there, for anyone who doubted that. Coke Freestyle locations are now marked. Was International Restaurant on the map before? It's now "Banquet facilities".

Magic always comes with a price. Better make sure it's magic!

Racer Definitely! Bring it back to Its Red, White and Blue Glory! And while your at it, Bring back the recaR!

That's groovy! (Had to say it.) I hope it's a sunshine day (make it stop. Please!) Seriously, though, as both a huge fan of Kings Island and the Brady Bunch, that will turn out to be a sweet day, rain or shine.

You mean they moved Flight Deck? WOW! I thought they were gonna use that space for future expansion. (lol)

An absence of the matriarch in ads is already going to impact the park. The "spin" put on this by Matt is, in my opinion, nothing short of shameful.

^It's completely covered overhead by white and blue triangles. http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewb94/6056274335/ By the way, love your avatar Vortexfan. I love that movie!

http://amateur-journalist.blogspot.com/2010/10/adventure-express-1991.html

Shall we make a poll?

I hate looking at Kings Island Facebook comments, people complaining about no new roller coaster. I love all these little things. Can't wait until tomorrow - even if it is probably a small thing.

In no order The worlds longest wooden coaster The world's best kids area the largest animatronic dinosaur park the largest amusement/water park in the Midwest One of the top 10 steel coasters the more or less themed sections the rides the family rides the peanuts blue icecream

Whatever the weather may be, it's going to be a great time. Honestly, I welcome a mid 60 degree and cloudy day.

I think that weather sounds great. I love when it rains. Keeps the crowds away. Even if it rains all day I'll get my Dodgem fix.

The Crypt.

Based up the view of the roof joists in a couple of those pictures, I'd venture that its a good bet this is located to the North (?) side of the observation deck where they used to have a circus display (I'm pretty sure this is where SOB is talking about as well). Its been a year or so since I've there, I can't remember if there is an elevator to get up to the observation deck or not. For anyone wanting to go specifically to see this display that may have trouble getting up/down steps (its about a flight of steps if it makes a difference) they may want to call ahead to check that they can get up there for sure. For anyone w/ difficulties getting up/down stairs, the observation deck is pretty small, but gives a great view of the display. However, the place is still well worth it and easily accessable outside of the observation deck. Everything is flat, aside from the steps up/down to the deck. violakat03, if you enjoy model trains, you will not regret a trip to Entrainment Junction. You can probably drop a couple of hours in the place if you do a couple of their scavenger hunt sheets.

As many KIC'ers that will be there. We will have a good time regardless!

It's Ohio...you want the weather to change, wait 45 minutes.

I see the error. King's Island.

The new X-BASE Port a Potties?

GL parent company Funtime Parks put itself up for sale in 1995, at which time the two highest bidders were believed to be Premier Parks and Kennywood Entertainment. CF was believed to be not interested at that time for a major expansion. Premier Parks got the company and then got greedy, by acquiring Six Flags in 1998. Then went on a buying and expansion binge everywhere, including at GL by adding 5 coasters and buying Sea World Ohio in a 2 year span. Soon Six needed cash and sold off anything that had a potential buyer, which lead CF to buy GL.

Even if closing GL was their vast conspiracy plan the whole time (which, if so, why did they even bother rebranding and operating it for a few years? Wouldn't a diabolical plot dictate that they'd just close it down when they bought it?), your argument doesn't hold up regarding Kings Island. Crypt was a mechanical and operational nightmare that operated infrequently ever since Paramount installed the darn thing. Both PP and CF tried solutions, eventually CF cut their losses. The ride was providing no benefit. Flight Deck, Vortex and AE being on their last legs? How would you know that? Give me a freaking break, cause you rode them and they're as rough and bumpy as other Arrow coasters from their time periods? Also, comparing Racer to Raging Wolf Bobs is a joke, right? RWB suffered a derailment accident prior to GL's closing while The Racer has continued with good operating in recent years and receives substantial upkeep and vigilant safety oversight. You simply have no idea what you're talking about. If CF wanted to eliminate a competitor, they wouldn't do it at the expense of sacrificing guest safety and hurting their own brand image.

Many object to the "gentle correction" those systems deliver. I've often wished it worked on park linejumpers!

I remember the Raging Wolf Bobs. Really miss that thing. I dream about building an amusement park that collects old coasters and refurbs them. "Cmon down this weekend and ride the Screechin Eagle! "

A. How do you know groundhogs are stupid? They know when to play possum! B. What about weatherwomen? Terp, believer in meteorological equality.

I wonder where a certain rumor smasher is when a rumor is started... I am just going to state the obvious, and most of you will agree, that the new ride location will be somewhere in Kings Island.

I would agree with those words. I was summoned to Jury duty back at the end of November, and I went into it wishing my name had not been selected. But getting placed on a jury and witnessing the judicial process at work was eye opening. I would recommend people serve on jury duty and not try to dodge it. I certainly had a fun time on it, and would gladly serve again if my name is selected.

My girlfriend took me to Holiday World for my first time last May for my birthday. I said hello to Pat as we walked in and she was very friendly. Later in the day, my girlfriend and I were getting our free drinks when Pat came up to us and just struck up conversation like we were old friends of hers. She asked us how long we had been together and if we had ever visited before. My favorite part of our conversation was when she asked where we were from. When I told her Lima was about five hours away she actually got emotional. She thanked us for traveling such a far distance to visit their "little family park," and was thankful for fans of the park like us. You could tell how proud Pat was of their park. What a great person. I'm sad she has to go through this.

What are you talking about? There is a little pop of airtime on CF, I enjoy it! Yes it's short and sweet but the anticipation of Oh we'er gonna get wet...is fun, at least for my friends and I! I agree with WindSeeker though