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Just tell the Noodle, and he'll reveal his true, secret purpose to you...

Everything about that ride needs a revamp: from the name, to the interiors, to the theming, to the characters, to the effects, etc, etc. I'll never forget the first time I heard the name, "Boo Blasters on Boo Hill." Really? How long did it take to come up with that little gem? "Hmm...they're ghosts and ghosts go 'boo' and we'll blast them and they live on a hill, hmmm, what could we call it? I know! Boo Blasters on Boo Hill! Genius!" Then they thought it would be a good idea to rip out all the good characters and replace them with cardboard cutouts. There is no theming, no story...nothing. The ride queue used to be completely engrossing with Maestro playing music and talking to you. Now, it's complete crap. Don't even get me started on the TVs they put in there. Now the queue is even more pointless than it was last year. Playing a music video for Frozen's "Let it Go," really? What's that got to do with Boo Blasters and the whole theme and story? Most of the ride is cheaply manufactured, then the ending scene that's pitch black with all the skeletons growling and groaning with glowing eyes is too scary for young kids, so I'm confused about who the target audience was. The retheme is just a complete disaster and a complete disgrace to the history of the park and the rides that were contained within that building. I get too riled up just thinking about it so I'm going to end my rant. Thank you for reading.

You must of had no TV or a lot of blackouts in your area to not have heard of the Flintstones or Jetsons!

This certainly brings back memories.

Yes, yes, in deed. Also consider that there was a time, in the early 90s, when these character were on several stations, including USA Network (Cartoon Express, anyone remember that?), TNT, Cartoon Network, and TBS. Plus, The Flintstones had two live action movies, on top of a few made for TV movies around that era. Scooby Doo has been consistent in the media in multiple animated series, made for video movies, and, ugh, those unfortunate live action films. The most recent series, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, which just ended its run not too long ago, is his best series since the original, in my opinion. While not as prevalent, The Jetsons had a movie in the early 90s and has been consistently on television, with re-runs of the both the original series and its 1980s revival. Some of the other HB characters have diminished into obscurity, lost in generational disconnects, unfortunately. Many of them, such as Captain Caveman and the original Johnny Quest, were barely running in syndication when I was a kid in the mid-late 80s, early 90s. Luckily, even back then, I was never one to exclusively embrace only the pulp culture of my generation, but what came before, no matter how long before (I'm currently attending an art school, studying film, and in my survey course, I was one of the few who had no trouble getting into silent films, whereas many of the 18, 19, and 20 year olds were walking out, often right after the opening titles. I guess they expected to watch Michael Bay movies in film school...). So even now, I find myself sometimes holding my fist in the air, as if it were a club, and shouting "Captain Caveman!" at the top of my lungs, only for people to be like "wha?" I very much miss seeing these characters at the park, but I also love The Peanuts, and feel the same bit of sadness when I see people, either at the park or on this forum, bemoan their very existence that I feel when I see people who are oblivious to the aforementioned commander of neanderthals. Sigh.

Actually, this reminds me of something Alton Towers did. They had a Vekoma looping coaster called Corkscrew, it was about 70 ft tall, 2 corkscrews, had a lot of turns and a helix section, fairly simple coaster. Its significance was it was the first looping coaster in England. It was pretty well loved by Alton Towers' fans. They did have to remove it in favor of Thirteen, but they kept Corkscrews' corkscrews and put them in the front of the park as a memorial to the ride. It actually looks pretty sharp. Photo courtesy of RCDB.com.

A nice family brings their son "Tommy" to Kings Island for a fun and relaxing day in the summer of 1984. Tommy sees the boats for the Smurf's Enchanted Voyage and is intrigued. He boards the boat with his father and it's all down hill from there. Please note that current park policy does not allow photo or video while riding.

1. Cedar Point policy may or may not be the policy at Kings Island. 2. Kings Island guests are a different demo than Cedar Point's, which are largely resort and overnight guests. 3. You have advocated guests interacting with line jumpers. Never, ever do that in the Northeast. It could turn out badly. Very, very badly. There's a reason Six Flags polices this so well. Verb carefully chosen.

If only VIACOM had not bought Paramount.... Still, rescuing Kings Island from Carl Lindner was a very, very good thing.

Decided on my fav seat today-front row, far right side. From here I feel the extra thrill of being too close to the beams

Hey everyone I don't comment on much on KI Central but this is a topic that angers me as well. But the issue is simple manners. As a Platinum Pass holder, I try not to get too angry when someone cuts in front of me because I feel that maybe they are only here for one day and I can ride anytime. But there was a time on Diamondback when it happened and it's the only time I've ever said anything. They ended up removing them from the park and the group threatened to stab me in the parking lot. I thought to myself, "really? threaten someone's life because they caught you being a selfish idiot?" But there was that part of me that also didn't want to get stabbed in the parking lot, ha. The most common form of line jumping I witness I like to call the "restaurant reservation". A group of 10 will send two people to "hold their place" and the rest of the group thinks it's okay to meet up with them well into the line. They really think this is ok. I have a friend that is one of the higher ups at the park. Sometimes, I want to text them when these things happen so they can send security to the ride, haha. Maybe undercover isn't such a bad idea Anyway, I'm done venting. I've always loved reading the posts. Carry on, haha.

The ride associates at KI have always been and continue to be dedicated professionals. I have always been treated with the utmost kindness and courtesy by the ride associates in my years of patronizing KI. As to the line jumping issue I have always felt that this is a safety and security issue as there is the risk that confronting the line jumper or jumpers can result in a violent confrontation. For this reason I have always felt that it is not right to place young kids ( no offense but to me the ride associates are young kids who are doing an outstanding job. ) in such a potentially volotile situation-that is why we should be having more police/security patrolling the queue areas. PS I must say that the Banshee crew is doing an outstanding job-keep up the good work.

He probably just remembered the original ride, and was upset with the changes. "Those happy friends who live in my TV......."

My favorite line from the video in regards to keeping the original characters and nostalgic charm from the then Media guy, "It's really important to know that the old Kings Island is still here, were just enhancing the product and expanding to the park. Everything you know and love about the park is still here" I still wish we had Hannah Barbara! Cedar Fair came in and it was very apparent they wanted everything changed. More than was needed.

Okay, I've been lurking for quite some time but when I saw this I had to come out of the shadows. Let me start this off by telling you a little about myself. I worked in wood coaster maintenance for about 15 years for another park chain in the country. Since then I have gone on to a regular "desk job" in engineering. I have worked with some American roller coaster manufacturers consulting for different aspects - mainly doing calculations for certain track elements and safety mechanisms. I've never designed a roller coaster in my life... I don't want to give you the wrong impression about what I do, but I can speak with a lot of credibility on the issue. With that being said, your statement that "poor upkeep" being the reason why some rides are rough and others are not is relatively unfounded. There are numerous reasons why a ride could be rough or smooth. It could be anything from initial design to the weather that day. If you saw someone working on the track on the morning of opening day at Holiday World that's great, but you would see it at Kings Island, Six Flags and anywhere else. They say that when you build a wooden roller coaster you're building a marriage. Those things are maintained every day of the season. They don't just take the day off because it's closing day. It still has to cycle hundreds of times that day. You're not going to risk damage to the trains or the rest of the track just because the park is closed the next day. As far as The Voyage is concerned, I've never ridden it. I can tell you that the steel structure probably messes with the physics. It could be a good thing or a bad thing, but I haven't really seem an overwhelming preference for it. According to most accounts, The Voyage was built for under $9 million. That's extraordinarily inexpensive for a ride that size. I just think that they tried to do too much on too little. You shouldn't have to explore options for new trains with a ride having been open less than 5 years. What happened to those trains anyway? I imagine that they determined that The Voyage would have torn them to pieces with regular use. I don't think the Gravity Group is really responsible for any of this. They're good people, they make a fine product. If I had to submit a guess I would say that they were asked to build this ride on a certain budget and they did what they asked... and Holiday World got what they paid for.

^THIS^ x 1000....My three year olds rode it with the wife and I this past Saturday and couldn't have been more more bored with it. That is until the skeltons at the end, which absolutely terrified them. What a waste.

Also that a very large population of it's staff are Teens or College age who are in school. It's hard enough to staff the weekends let alone weekdays in April and May.

Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha—*takes breath*—hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excuse me for that little outburst, but you see, a "perfectly working" Boo Blasters is one of the most hilarious things I have ever heard, especially when on any given day, a significant number of guns do not work.

I don't think the park would want to pretend there was an accident on a ride.

Employees are only as empowered as their employer allows. Management then allows\requires the associates to carry out their authority. I'm not willing to attribute the line jumping to line employees not doing their jobs. Rather, I suspect the employees are trying hard to enforce the employer's policies. Policies that may actually lessen up on those who do do it yourself Fast Lane, in a conscious or not effort to get other guests to upgrade to life in the Fast Lane. Management gets the results it specifies, allows, tolerates or wants. If there is a line jumping problem at Kings Island, it's management's to own. If management considered it a priority, the problem would be aggressively addressed. See also in park profanity on guest attire, lack of sufficiently covering guest attire, smoking in non-designated areas, etc.

Maybe its the nostalgia (I was born in 85 so my memories of the park in the 90s is seen in a different light) but the original Paramount days made the park feel like Disney. The theming of the different areas may have been lacking or not consistent but it was awesome to walk down International BLVD and see a Borg or a Vulcan, then turn the corner and get a picture with Scooby Doo or Fred Flintstone. The giant cartoon statues that lead into Hannah Barbara Land will always be in my mind. Paramount brought (IMO) a national feel to KI. From standing in line and seeing movie props for Top Gun, The Paramount Store, and Days of Thunder, to seeing the awesome first impression of Outer Limits (The light effect). Even when attempting to build the Crypt it was still a top level attempt. How different would the coaster/park situations be if Viacom had put in as much effort into their park division as Paramount originally wanted to.

I feel really old in that I'm pretty sure I remember when that piece first aired :-) (Doug Adair, but no Mona Scott at that point...it must have been after the "unpleasantness" which occurred between them...) It's too bad that we never got to see what Paramount Studio's vision for the parks was going to be...I think things may have been very different if it wasn't for the Viacom acquisition in 1994. (Although, given the consolidation in the media landscape in the intervening years, it's unlikely Paramount Communications would have remained an independent entity for long anyway...who knows who else could have bought them, which could have meant even worse things for the parks...) The one thing I do remember about the early Paramount years was the quality of the retail merchandise (I still have both a "Paramount's Kings Island" and "Paramount's Carowinds" tee shirts that I sleep in, even though they're 20 years old :-)). Viacom/Paramount was planning the launch of a chain of "studio stores" (remember when those were big back in the mid-90s?), and used the retail outlets in the parks to try things out as a precursor to the launch of the retail division. (If I remember correctly, Viacom actually did open one of the concept studio stores on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, but I'm pretty sure it never expanded beyond that...) As the years went on, the aesthetics and the quality of the retail merchandise continued to go down hill...and (IMHO) is pretty awful under Cedar Fair (not just for KI, but all the CF parks in my opinion...) I might be open to the argument that it's now an age thing with me (maybe I'm not as enamored by theme park souvenirs in my mid-40s as I was in my mid-20s), except for the fact that I always still find myself dropping a lot of cash on tee shirts, hats, mugs, etc. every time I visit a Disney or Universal park :-)

LoraX, with the demographic that does most of the line jumping, they would consider it an Honor and proudly display their "Swag" throughout the park like it was something special.

Good ol' Doug Adair and Gail Hogan, with a fresh faced Cabot Rea on the side. Ol' Cabot bonked his head pretty good on the OTSR of Top Gun.

Yeah, so sad. Paramount seemed like it really wanted to make a go of it. A few short years later Viacom bought Paramount, and Viacom did not.

Both Friday night, and this evening, Banshee's crew was amazing. In the last hour Friday, we got 3 rides in, the last with fireworks. And the last hour tonight, we got 4 !! No fireworks of course, since there were none ;-) But both nights it was not uncommon for the train to be loaded and ready before the ride would allow dispatch. The Banshee crew is really hustling, and doing it with smiles, and an obvious sense of pride on their faces.

I had a ride op ask our group if we also witnessed a group line jumping last week on Banshee. We did. They were removed from the ride.

Keep in mind also The Coaster Crew is having an event on my birthday, July 7th and KIC members are welcome to attend!

Sadly most of America can't do 20 pushups, so just verbal attacks will have to suffice..

Daily operations start this Friday. That's still pretty darn early in the month.

Bring Phantom Theater back, i would like that very much.

I always just keep my mouth shut and count on Karma, for the most part it keeps my blood pressure down

Heavens, no. Maverick.

I was #9 for the A Kid Again event and I wanted to meet and say hello to other KI posters if they were there, but perhaps some other time

Oh wow! Thanks for pointing that out. I could've sworn I've commented before, haha. Well, I've been a member for quite a while anyway. Figures, I'm kind of a stand in the back of the room and blend in sort of guy, haha. Well, thanks for the welcome and here's to my second post! haha

IF..keyword IF Corkscrew is ever removed from CP, I expect something like that to happen. However a classic ride such as that should not be removed ever.

I felt the same as a kid. It was great seeing the meticulous theming of everything there when it first was bought by Paramount. All of the rides when they first opened were great too with lots of attention to detail. I never really expected to see stuff like Tomb Raider and Italian Job there with their extensive theming. Though in later years they did let a lot of it slide. Was disappointed when Cedar Fair first bought it and gutted the theming. But these last few years they have really enhanced the park and made it great again and above where it was at the latter days of Paramount for sure.

I saw some kids caught once. We were in line for Delirium and some kids sneaked through the bushes near Slingshot and jumped into line. Then over the loudspeakers a voice said. "To those who just jumped into line, remove yourself now or you will be removed when you get to the boarding platform. Thank you." The kids self ejected from the line. There must be video cameras somewhere, and this should be the policy everywhere. The more the jumpers feel they are being watched, the less likely it will happen.

I would have been so annoyed if I was one of the people around them. His screams were pretty loud at times there. Not to mention he dad never shut up even before he started screaming. Miss that ride though, remember going on it when I was a kid. Was disappointed when they were first taking it out, but Phantom Theatre was one of my favorite rides there ever so at least got an even better replacement. Unfortunately that spot ahs just gone down since then.

Perhaps since it's a sporting event, we could create gold medals and announce to those around that we would like to congratulate this person/group of people for winning the event. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got to where I no longer bother reading comments on this particular topic, but Terpy is right about it being bad on most news topics of just about anything. People watch Blackfish end up thinking they automatically know more than the current trainers that are actually with the animals.... yeah, right. Again orcas are animals, animals that LOVE sex at that and no human can stop them. At least the father of the calf isn't Kalia's own father who also happens to be at the park, SeaWorld actually did good here keeping her separate from Keet when she was cycling.

Le sigh... Back when WCMH was a well-funded, well run news operation.

And you haven't seen low speed limits until you visit DC. Broad 4 lane highway. 25 MPH. 26 mph WILL get you a $125 camera ticket.

I rode Banshee four times and Adventure Express 10 times on Friday.

A. Ride the first row, inside seat. B. Ride the back row, outside seat. C. Ride the front row, at night, during the fireworks. Get back to us! Terp, who is feeling a hankering to do all those things again...soon. And a Rattler....

True about line jumping but in some cases speeding is okay like when I-75's under construction speed limit is 45 MPH! Insane that's like a normal road! Fines are doubled...

The Monster of Kings Island : Story written by Christopher Bollen of the New York Times

What, to someone, may seem like a high price for a fancy collectible may, to someone else, be a worthwhile investment. My family did not understand why I paid $40 for a 1972 Kings Island souvenir map, while I think it was a steal and love owning it. I don't understand why my sister buys so many shoes when two pairs of shoes (one pair of tennis shoes, one pair of dress shoes) are more than sufficient for me. Different strokes for different folks.

I'd still like to take my first lap on the longest inverted coaster in the world. Less than 2 weeks til I get to finally ride it!