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Here's a diagram of the building that shows the track layout of Phantom Theater (and subsequent rides):

Many years ago, I tried to wear a Paramount's Great America shirt (hunter green with the mountain and 22 stars logo) to Six Flags Great America. I was refused admission until I changed shirts. "Sir, reversing the shirt is not a solution." About five years ago, I wore a navy blue Paramount's Carowinds ride op shirt and khaki pants to Carowinds. I had bought the shirt on clearance at Cedar Point. Security followed me all day. About 6 PM, Mr. Bart Kinzel, accompanied by a half dozen security guards (really?--I NEVER, EVER saw the 'gentleman' alone in the park) asked me to leave. I politely refused. I also have been known to wear a suit and tie to parks. That's always....interesting.

I wore my Diamondback t-shirt to Epcot one year Edit: I found proof! lol

As a country girl, my first response is "that's not where a cow's teats are!"

Who cares? I have worn my Cedar Point hoodie to Kings Island. I also have a Kings Island hoodie.

This guy on Google reviews going by the name of Randy Cramer sums it up pretty well (no it is not me, he may be a KIC member but I don't know): "It's an awesome park, and a lot of fun. Most of the negative reviews here you can account for being based mainly on people's own stupidity. Complaints their are no bins for the Firehawk to store their items like phones? There are lockers located at that ride, with a huge sign that says, "no storage bins on these rides". Huge lines on the weekends?? You don't say lol... Your friend bought a ticket from a private seller and Kings Island wouldn't honor it when you got their? That's illegal, and it's called scalping. Those tickets are given to employees for their personal use, and are not intended to be sold. The list goes on and on. The only truly valid and repetitive complaint I've seen in any of these reviews is the cost of food. It is marked up in many cases by 400% of what you'd pay outside of the park, and when you know people will stay all day, that's ludicrous and frankly just rude. Other than that, it's an amazing park with amazing rides and staff." Also there's a person who thinks Banshee is nothing more than FACE/OFF repainted. Uhh, the invert right next to the entrance which was FACE/OFF is NOT Banshee, that's Invertigo, Banshee is near the back of the Action Zone section where King Cobra/Son of Beast were...

I actually think it's fun to wear other park shirts. For example, I've worn Great Adventure shirts at CP, CP shirts at Great Adventure, Kings Island shirts at CP, CP shirts at KI....etc. It's a converstation starter, especially when I wear a CP shirt at Great Adventure. People there (employees and guests alike) are always really interested in hearing which park I like better. It was also fun encountering a Kings Island employee in line for Dragster since he commented on my Banshee shirt. I love seeing other peoples' shirts, and I love wearing them at different parks.

Double post totally worth it: Look at these texture mapping videos. This technology is crazy. https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/0D55BE1CC31138666945000996864_359c9323918.0.1.12861982916334473905.mp4?versionId=O86J4lz8TJpSg96DQntGm70efgOePQF0

During my last visit, while traversing the Diamondback queue, they had opened the lower queue lanes, and I found a guy...ahem....relieving himself...in line. I notified the attendant where the line enters the station and the Fast Lane users are let in. By sheer coincidence, I rode in the same train as that man and as we got back, park security and Mason PD were patiently waiting to escort him out of the park and I went with security to verify.

I feel stranger wearing a park shirt at the park it is from than a shirt from a different park. It is a bit like wearing a t-shirt for the band whose concert you're seeing. The Flight of Fear crew really enjoy when I wear my old Outer Limits tank, though...

What would make you think this place wasn't good for families? Just because they have farting dogs, vomiting rats, urinating bugs, and topless cows? What parent wouldn't want their kid's picture next to a topless cow? This park is just promoting some good, wholesome, family fun.

The problem with that is that at many many public schools money is very very tight. At the shook I work at we have a total of 3 computer carts with 30 laptops in each.... Teachers have to reserve these for the students to use. Plus mAny of my students do not have access to a computer at home. They have their phones at that is their internet.

If you need a map to get around Stricker's Grove, you are in need of some serious professional help.

And then there is CP's Segway Guy... (I actually love seeing in the park. It's the most unusual thing...and the park lets him go about it business, riding all around the park. So funny to see!)

I wore a Holiday World Thunderbird shirt to Kentucky Kingdom the day after Thunderbird was announced. I've also worn a Voyage shirt to Cedar Point, and a variety of Kings Island shirts to all of the major theme parks in Orlando.

^I'll agree with that. Happy Hallowishes is insane. Gives me goosebumps every single time. So many explosions it is overwhelming.

I'm in this boat, also. I learned more from this website, sports, and jobs than I ever did in high school. High school was where I took some of the best naps of my life, though! Investing in computers and iPads for schools does nothing the way they are being used now. I rarely used the computers for actual class work. It was mostly this site, fantasy football, and just mindless internet surfing. The only thing of use I ever learned from the high school computers was Photoshop.

Knott's been insane too the last couple Saturdays. Most recent one I needed a "body guard" to protect me from drunk guests o_o y'all would not have liked Xcelerator's line...slow loader, one train operation, Saturday Haunt night crowds...yeah it was not pretty. Of course I dunno exactly how long the line was since I don't waste my time on the coasters during Haunt but most of the mazes had nearly 2 hour waits so there's that.

As a student, I can tell you that my brain is FRIED towards the end of the school year, there's no way I would be able to do much more after that if it was so required. I need as much summer as I can in order to relax, work as a caddy at my local country club, make money for college, learn invaluable life skills that cannot be taught in school during said caddying job, and also hopefully earn a full college scholarship from caddying... And also, if there's anything I've learned over my career as a student, it's that it's not necessarily the amount of time spent inside the school building that correlates to how much you learn, it's what YOU make out of that time determines how much you learn. "God helps those who help themselves"...

There is also another reason this is a very bad idea. Most of the schools in Ohio are older and lack AC. I know my elementry school lacked it and no learning was done when the inside of the classroom was over 100F. Fan's only helped so much. If anything we need more technology for teaching that way you can change things up for kids who need more or who need help. I had an IEP in school. Apparently if i go back to college its still valid. I did the same tests everyone else did. This was back in late 90's early 00's.

Regarding Common Core: GatorGirl is in 4th grade this year and in the accelerated math class. A couple of weeks ago she asked me to help with one of her multiplication homework questions. She gave me the paper and asked me, "What are the partial products for this one?" I just looked at her and asked, "What's a partial product?" Once she explained it to me I understood it, but I couldn't tell you what it is now. When I learned multiplication, there were no "partial products". There was one product: the answer. I felt bad that I couldn't help her, and I brought that up to the teacher during our fall conference. Luckily, the following week they were learning multiplication the way we learned it. I'm lucky that I have Mrs. Gator, who was a Math Education major for a while and graduated with a degree in Elementary Ed (but doesn't teach... she works for a textbook publisher) is able to help her with it more than I can. When it comes to history, science or literature, then I'll be ready to help. It looks like we may be visiting friends in Maryland and going to D.C. with them next summer... I can impart my knowledge then.

Hey, I have been known to fall for a few. Now if the Ferris Wheel starts going the wrong direction, then there are issues, and you will likely find me out there (if it is a weekend), fixing the ride.

That's an awfully broad statement you're making there. I understand what you mean by it, but do bear in mind that there also are teenagers who wouldn't steal a basketball and who would have reported the theft the same way you did.I'm not trying to be the PC police, but I think it's unfair to generalize it like that.

At least it wasn't ON the train. Terp, who was in line one day when Maverick had scared the crap out of a teenage boy, who was mortified.

I will say that high school was a big social vehicle for me, more so than the material. I pretty much hated my middle school years for various reasons. I actually almost didn't continue band through that point as I was just frustrated at a lot of things. I'm very, very glad I kept doing it, not only for what I got out of it musically, but I felt a lot more comfortable socially as high school went on. I found I fit in with a lot of different cliques. I rather enjoyed that aspect of high school.

UC vs OSU The high school game we were at out of courtesy towards our hosting band. We injected our own cheers in to pass the time. Most of them involve the phrase 'let's go cats', which worked well in our favor as the team was named the Patriots, often called 'Pats' for short. The student crowd was rather rude to us, mainly due to the fact that there was a clear lack of older folks, aka parents, at the game. Some of the crap they pulled would have gotten people from my HS suspended or more. Didn't get too many shots outside the stadium/Skull Session during OSU as we were on the move a lot between getting there and going between performance locations. Here are a few from the Skull Session. This was the high school band that played before it began. They were really energetic and the crowd got into it. They had quite the repertoire for a high school band to fill in 45+ minutes. The high school's tubas having some fun. The place was packed for the concert. OSU's St John's Arena is roughly the size of UC's Fifth Third Arena, though OSU's stacks them up. I think UC's might be bigger. Keep in mind this is their old basketball arena. The one they actually use is much bigger. Its still amazing to see how much support TBDBITL gets. The OSU Band making their entrance. They pretty much crowd the entrance, both here and at the stadium before they enter, drums pounding away. You can be a good distance away and just feel the air pressure off the drums on your chest. They sure let you know they're coming. For their fight songs and Hang On Sloopy, they just fill that arena with sound. A closer look at them, particularly their drum major. UC grad and OSU head coach Urban Meyer. The team comes in and the coach makes a rally cheer before each Skull Session. The band after their infamous ramp entrance. Ohio Stadium is HUGE! It was already full by pre-game. Another band shot. Paying homage to the away team. They may be able to play some of our fight song, but there is a 16th note running pattern which the baritones play which they missed. Hey, gotta poke a little fun at them. In this shot, I was trying to show something weird the OSU band does. I think this is just for Script Ohio, but whenever they turn or make crossovers between lines when writing Ohio out, they made these snappy horn pops. This is probably one of the reasons they have to memorize the steps for this drill. You can see it a little bit in the far left. That entire section at that end of the stadium is the student section. There is a massive wall of sound that pours from that side when the crowd gets into it. I can't imagine what it was like for the UC offense. When the stadium does the O-H-I-O spelling cheer, the students start it with panels in the shape of a big O and the spelling carries out counter-clockwise. Script Ohio. I wish we had seats down the sidelines as I really wanted to see it clearly in person. The I-dotter is announced during the Skull Session and his name and picture are displayed on the scoreboard. They are chosen from tubas who have been in the band 4 or more years. On occasion, special guests will join the I-dotter, but its very rare. The Buckeye football team takes the field. Our director conducted the National Anthem, which made me proud to see. There is a HUGE American flag hoisted by the ROTC in the end zone on the curved end of the stadium, the flag seen in the bottom of this picture. Brutus. The Bearcat! He does come to all OSU vs UC games armed with a nutcracker. Unfortunately, he didn't whip it out until well into the 2nd half while the Bearcats were getting smoked, a point where I stopped caring to take pictures. There were a fair amount of UC fans at the game, though it was this little spot of black next to us in the giant sea of scarlet and grey. The calm before kick off. The score a bit into the 3rd quarter. This was when UC seemed to be getting momentum back, which is a funny thing for a team playing away in an environment such as OSU. I never cheered so hard, at least since I went with the band to see UC play Syracuse in NYC for the Big East Tournament and whipped them. I really thought we could pull off the upset, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Had a great time regardless of the score. I kind of want to be there for an OSU/Michigan game.

...and fantastic pizza! And a Whip! And Talon and a Platinum Passholder from the District of Columbia! It also has a hill....

Canada's Wonderland has had "security" in some form since a shooting occured in the parking lot on Mother's Day in 2003. Security checks at Wonderland have been miniscule at best. I got buzzed going into Wonderland and took out just my keys, and the person said go on. That's not how you do security, I could have for instance had a knife on me and they would have let me pass. Wonderland originally had a security perimeter that covered the whole front gate area, where Guest Services and Ticket Sales are located. I recall at Kings Island in 2004, they had a similar set up. Later on, Wonderland's secured zone move to the area right in front of the turnstiles to enter the park. I personally think the position where the metal detectors were before made more sense. Just doing a quick search, there was reports of a mugging at the Haunt in 2009 at Wonderland with a knife. Security basically shrugged and said "oh well, that sucks". Wonderland may have been incredibly lucky over the years and not suffered one serious ride incident, but safety in the park should be a #1 concern. Here is the incident from 2009, http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/10/29/11565316-sun.html Wonderland and Cedar Fair, I honestly think should acknowledge that things went wrong in the park and are seriously rethink how these events are run.

I'd say Coke! and Fastlane!

^ That is a stage; the Enchanted Theater used that portion of the building after Phantom Theater was built. That space is now used only as Carnevil. Ed Alonzo's shows were in the (much, much larger) Kings Island Theater.

You are right on. I work in an under performing district but we have newer (10 yrs) buildings. I spend time in other districts and some schools are fighting to keep the roof from leaking in. A district I know of can't afford curriculum for its CD classrooms. Times are tough. In business if a worker doesn't work or a cog breaks down you can replace it with a different one. If a student doesn't want to work, educators have to find ways to motivate and help that student succeed. So treating schools like a business, where funding only goes to well performing schools, hurts the over all education of America.

^ Which is why it's an issue that I wish taxpayers could see the importance of. If we, as a nation, are willing to fund the teaching of computer skills, the money will come back into our economy via the products that it will enable us to produce. The other problem though is that frankly, our schools seem to be underfunded across the board, and I think taxpayers (and the schools themselves) would probably have other areas that they feel are more important to allocate money to than technology. And maybe they're right. I don't have the expertise to know the answer to that. Ah well. I suppose in a worst-case scenario, it's just job security for me.

^ I'm in this same boat. High school was very easy for me. I breezed through classes with little to no effort and maintained a 3.84 GPA. I suppose that after all is said and done, I should be grateful, as my GPA and my ACT scores (32 composite) earned me a full-tuition scholarship to college, where I actually learned things that had some appeal to me and felt challenged and motivated to learn (not to mention, expanded my social bubble FAR more than I ever did in high school). I'm no education expert. I can't even begin to comment on all of these matters with the same level of expertise and knowledge that some on this site have demonstrated. However, there is one glaring problem I see with public schools, and it isn't just Ohio, it's all over the country. And pardon me, but I'll be getting on my soap box for a moment. Schools need to embrace technology, and in some ways, they are beginning to do so. And yet, very, very few schools in this country offer classes on computer programming. Frankly, I think one entry-level course in the subject SHOULD be required for all students just as we require art, music, and sometimes foreign languages, but at very least, I just wish it were offered at all. I went into college with literally zero knowledge in my field of study. Frankly, it was complete conjecture as to whether it was really a field I would even like to be in. I think it's a crime that American students don't get this opportunity. Especially now in this age of iPads and Androids, computers have been dumbed down to a point where you need no technical knowledge at all to use one. In some ways, that's fantastic. In others, it's truly frightening. As a young kid, the only computer I had access to was my dad's old 286. If I wanted to play a game or write a document, I had to use floppy disks and navigate the command line, and by the age of seven, I was more or less fluent on a DOS prompt. Had we had the money (or need) for a newer computer at that time that DIDN'T require this kind of technical knowledge, I would have learned almost nothing about how a computer actually works, and I would have been far more disadvantaged going into college than I was. If we want to keep innovating, we need the next generation to have an opportunity to learn these skills. I witnessed the culture shock of my peers having to use a command line for the first time to compile their code in my freshman year of college. This was a generation that grew up right as that era of computing was coming to an end, and a generation that would have had at least a small amount of exposure to that sort of thing. Imagine what will happen when we have a world of people whose only computing knowledge involves tapping an icon and we need developers to make the next big software breakthrough. Everyone has different skills and interests, and technology is not the road to a career for every student. But it's where the money is, and will be for the foreseeable future, and if we as a nation aren't raising a generation prepared to excel in this area, the economic ramifications could be devastating. OK, I'll get off my soap box now.

I often struggle to find the entrance to the pirate ship...

I didn't say Illuminations itself was the best thing at WDW, I said the special endings were. I mean, I suppose you can get pretty close with anything at Magic Kingdom, when they use the perimeter effects, but those are really awesome when they actually do the whole perimeter instead of just the front half.

Because it's faster.

That's why they can't have nice things.

We learned "new math" in 1965. Partial products were part of that. Everything old is new again. Those who don't learn [from] history are doomed to repeat it, Henry Ford not withstanding.

I see the value in education and all, but let's be honest: if they cut out the useless stuff, seat work, throw away days when the teachers have a sub, and unnecessary review periods the kids would only have to go for about two months per year.

Clearly events such as these are not in the protocols, or if they are, they need to be seriously overhauled. You do not wash your hands of something without carefully evaluating the situation. That wasn't proper PR. Anyone could have done that.

What is it with parks like this and SFA having these huge incidents then not owning up to them? Are they just being blindsided by them and, therefore, aren't prepared to issue proper statements?

^ It appears as though the altercation did, in fact, have direct tie-ins with the park's Haunt event, despite what the park said.

"School" should be read as Kings Island, movie theaters, malls, etc.

I'm talking about how students are taught to the test, primarily. I really feel like students are taught "nice to know" information rather than "need to know" information. I high school graduate knows how to diagram a sentence but doesn't learn how to file taxes. They can tell you about the themes of Beowulf but now how to prevent ruining their credit history before the age of 25. College is even worse. WAY too many gen ed classes that have nothing to do with your field of study. Of course, you have to pay for each class so it works well in their favor. For the record, I think the elimination of classes such as art and music is a travesty. Those sorts of disciplines improve skills in reading and math. They enrich society in ways that other things can not. Maybe it's a society thing rather than the responsibility of the schools, but I really feel as though too many people are misplaced in what they are doing. People mistake what they perceive as "easy" for themselves having talent. It's all too often that a person who is a poet should really have been a brick layer - or even worse, a brick layer who should have been a poet. My mom is a second grade teacher. The strategy of her entire school (essentially) is lesson - seat work - lesson - seat work, etc. Simply put, she has an hour to kill for each lesson. When the lesson is done you can't simply go on to the next lesson the same day. It would be an overload. There certainly is a value in reinforcing what is taught through seat work, but I truly believe that if they added hours to the school day it would just be more of this - without the added value. I really believe that teachers should get days off like anybody else. I'm not saying they shouldn't. But let's be frank - when a sub comes into a classroom, more often than not they are given instructions to give an assignment to the class they the students must do on their own. They're often not qualified to teach the lessons. So the students are either left with an assignment that they could have done at home (sacrificing valuable interactive classroom time) or left with more seat work. When I'm talking about review time, I'm talking about relearning what you had learned the previous day/month/or even year. I'm totally in favor of the teachers having a planning period. I just think that, although there is a great deal of value in review, it happens entirely too often. I, more so than most my age, will preach the value of education. I think that teachers are incredibly underpaid and undervalued for what they do. I really just think that adding more classroom time isn't the solution. It's going to be more of the same. They need to worry about the quality of education over the quantity of hours. How can they teach things in a way that opens new doors rather than being regurgitated in an essay. Teachers, more than anyone else, can tell you how things can be improved. They know more than anyone what works and what doesn't. They key to this is investing the time and money into the experience. Use technology to your advantage, talk about current events and how they relate to your history lesson, etc. Teachers are some of the most brilliant showmen I have ever seen and if you just give then the resources to mold their students then they can make a real difference. Slapping another hour on the school day and calling it a job well done is not the answer.

As an educator let me say this. There are no day requirements, it is a min number of hours that is required.

Longer school years do not equate to better test results, especially when most of the time students are studying for those highly flawed standardized tests and are highly unprepared for life beyond high school, particularly those going into college. There are sooooo many students in college today who really, really don't belong there. Also, I hope the addition of a month+ of days is over a period of time and not all at once. You'll have teachers woefully unprepared for the extended time teaching and students struggling to keep their minds engaged for such a large portion of any given calendar year. And for goodness sake, let kids have time to be kids. I feel this thread is in the wrong section. Sure it affects parks, but there are much, much bigger issues with this than how it affects amusement parks.

A couple of things.... One this is a band aid approach more than anything. Instead of talking about things that would help more students (parent information and participation for one) this seems to be an "easy" fix that would not work in the long run, at least the way schools are organized now. For example, Germany has 240 school days but they also have tracks in place for students. A certain percentage tests and goes into the college track, the work force track, etc. Imagine at 8th grade being tested and placed in a track for the rest of your school life. Conversely, we have students who we put through the riggers of HS education when they should be learning a trade. Looking at school days only is not the precedent you want to set. Not to mention the school year is based on hours, not days. The proposal looks at an increase of 209 hours for HS kids. Most schools are in session for a little less than 180 days. That means we are looking at either an increase of the school day by a little bit over an hour or a longer school day of less than an hour and the potential to add 1-5 more days. If it does pass, I would guess that it would barely affect the school year and businesses....

Call me cold hearted.....I've been called worse. Or call me....realistic.

Specifically, part of the Gerstlauer train.

You are correct.