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As stated at the time, there were very good reasons a Tennessee park got rid of its very similar attraction. What's especially tragic here is a daughter was doing the course with her early 50's Dad on Christmas Eve as she wanted to spend Christmas with her boyfriend. Now, she gets to spend every day of the rest of her life playing the "What if" game. And she had to spend today dealing with the tragic, awful aftermath of a totally unexpected, unnecessary death--one that appears to have been in no way her fault. Needless to say, there WILL be a lawsuit. And no matter what the family recovers, it won't be enough. It won't be Dad, husband, brother, son. It will be cash. Good for nearly nothing at all in compensating for a loss like this. This industry deals with peoples' lives. Every day. If you are a ride op, a maintenance person, an inspector, a supervisor, a ride builder or designer, a general manager, a director, a regulator--never forget that. Safety is paramount. Safety first. Safety always. Safety all ways. It's not about money. It's about people.

For anyone interested in the history of this tape here it goes. Yes it was very rare to have a video camera way back then. My father purchased his first VHS VCR in 1977. It was $1,000. This was the first VHS VCR available to the general public. He bought his first video camera in December 1978. I do not know what he paid for it. It was made by Magnavox. At the time there was no portable VCR, so all recordings had to be indoors. He used a cable attached to the VCR (which remained on top of the TV) to record. He hooked a bunch of cables together so he could record outside. This is the first outdoor recording he made: it was January of 1979. Later, in '79 finally a portable VCR became available and he could go places with it. I will be working on other projects like Great America in Gurnee, IL 1979 and Wisconsin Dells 1980 if anyone wants to see. I will not post them on this site, but they can be seen on my YouTube page VideofromGeorge.

Yes, we want to see! You are welcome to post them here, or at least links! And thanks so very much, again.

My first trip to Kings Island was in 1984 or 5. A few things that I remember that first year that are no longer around in Hanna-Barbera Land is The Smurf Ride of course, the elephant fountain, they also had these little robotic animals that had some kind of controls on them to change direction, they didn't work too well, McScrappys Farm, and an interactive fountain that I cannot find any pictures of. It is one of those pay a quarter and shoot water at the target kind of thing. This had Huckleberry Hound, and Quickdraw, Yogi and others. It was taken out when Splat City came in.

Naturally, my first VCR was a Betamax in 1984. Life is full of choices, some right, some wrong ;-)

My uncle purchased a VCR at around that same time, and we used to go visit him. It seemed like it was probably about 2 feet wide, 2 feet deep and probably a foot tall. Playing a movie you want to see - anytime you want to see it!? He may as well have had a space shuttle in his front room. He also had one of the 9 foot diameter satellite dishes in his backyard at around the same time.

I remember all the giant Star Wars characters atop the Marquis at the theater over in Tri-County... and the Billy Joel song "It's Still Rock & Roll To Me," Blondie's "Call Me," and Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" were blasting out from car stereos everywhere!

Cedar Fair parks' desktop websites are finally, at the end of 2014, using a version of the Accesso store that does not require Flash.

Soon, the majority of Internet traffic will be delivered to mobile devices. It's bad enough you must have Flash to buy a ticket or season pass from FUN. Don't tell me about Accesso. The average customer couldn't care less--FUN is responsible for its contractors' performance in its name. So, today I get an email from California's Great America. Like many, soon to be a majority, I'm on a mobile platform. They sent a Happy Holidays video. That, on an iPhone, at least, defaults to their mobile website. In 2013. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Really? Pathetic.

Late 80s was my first trip to King's Island so some fo the stuff mentioned wasn't around at that point. But I remember the Smurf's ride, I loved riding it, was one fo my favorites. Was really sad to see it leave (though Phantom Theatre was one of my all time favorite rides there ever. So at least had a great replacement.) I also remember riding the handcar train things. Have some photos of me on it somewhere I'll have to try to find. Also miss The Beastie being The Beastie. I miss the haunted look and all the trees and stuff over by it. Plus was nice having a junior version of The Beast to ride until I was big enough to ride the real one. And I also greatly miss the vine tunnel as others have mentioned as well. That really needs to be brought back somewhere in the park. Also loved riding the Character Carousel. I also rode on Jabberjaw

Nope. Any franchised company is only as good as its worst location. If McDonald's had a location in, say, Arkansas that poisoned 324 people, the business overall would be affected. See China and KFC. If the location continued to operate as a McDonald's with no changes, I'd stop going to any McDonald's. Life safety and food safety are franchisor responsibilities, too. It's apparent Roosters does not adequately supervise its franchisees.

Two things about that first location: --Undercooked and chicken. A VERY dangerous combination. No thank you. Ever. --Fire. The situation you described is a fire evacuation nightmare. I grew up in the state that had the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire. My next door neighbors died in it. All told, three dozen people from my home town, nearly all my parents' age, died. I had six friends who lost one or both parents when they were 15 or 16. Senior management of this restaurant company apparently tolerates both food prep issues, and, more seriously, life safety issues. There is no way they don't know. If they don't know, what a poorly run company it must be. I just crossed that company off my list of places I will patronize. Such apparent disregard is not something I want to subsidize.

And these things are wonderfully fun when run properly. Didn't a park just get rid of their rope course? A coaster is is usually much safer than a ropes course....

Why must I torture myself reading the comment section? I think my IQ dropped a couple points. what a tragedy... not a good Christmas present :/

It's good to see that they're keeping the mobile site updated, but maintaining two different sites is much less than ideal in 2013. Most noticeably, links to content malfunction when viewed on the "wrong" type of device, undercutting a key benefit of the web. A properly built website should be able to function on any standards-compliant browser, whether it's running on a desktop computer, a mobile phone, a tablet, or a smart TV. I understand FUN's reason for maintaining two sites; using Accesso's turnkey solution saves having to contract with another vendor and/or obtain talent outside of their core business. Building a mobile-ready website requires more specialized skills than creating a desktop-only website, as techniques for the former are a much more recent evolution. Of course, customers aren't interested in these types of excuses when they encounter a broken link.

Many factors can cause a poorly designed website to fail for certain subsets of users. The configuration of your iPhone might vary from popular settings. At a minimum, your list of trusted SSL roots is almost certainly different than Apple's default list.

They knew. They each got at least one verified complaint at the highest levels, expressed about every ten weeks.

I got all the way to enter credit card info on my iPhone. As for KIC's homepage, you're exactly right. The ad is too wide which causes all of the content to be way too small. It's a very annoying bug I that I wish would be fixed.

Umm, aint that a flash thing on the mobile verison of KIC's homepage? If so it never worked on my android and KIC is even worse on my iPhone. For some reason iOS doesnt fit KIC to screen like my android does. It appears to have something to do with the advertisement. I rarely turn my desktop on anymore.... To hell with mobile websites!

The mobile stores have never required Flash, as substantially all mobile devices lack it. Flash is on a path to deprecation even on desktop browsers. The mobile websites themselves, outsourced to Accesso, still leave a lot to be desired.

Just announced, via FB, that their Season Pass price will increase on 11 Jan. Those wanting them better grab one.

There is a Roosters here in Xenia. I have never been inside, and probably never will. Not my kind of place.

Yea don't do Roosters plain. It is a butter sauce. I have never been back but have been told to try any other sauce but plain...

All excellent rides, my favorite coaster on the list is definitly Top Gun, I was going to say Flight of Fear, but I never rode the original Outer Limits version. The Son of Beast made The Beast look even cooler. All wonderful choices its going to be hard to pick!

I love Quaker. I have done the Triple Atomic challenge...it was awful lol. I like QSL way better than BDubs. Ps...Roosters is terrible. I do like Frickers though due to super cheap beer and beautiful waitresses. I am a regular lol. I believe the two chains are owned by brothers.

This reminds me of another place in Louisville called Roosters. It was the worst parts of the other three places all combined. We actuallly left mad. The sauce was basically butter water. The waitress was shocked that we thought the food was terrible. It amazes me that so many places cannot properly prepare such a simple food item.

QSL just failed in Richmond, Virginia, shutting unexpectedly right before Christmas: http://wric.com/2014/12/10/quaker-steak-and-lube-in-richmond-closes-doors/ http://wtvr.com/2014/12/09/quaker-steak-lube-gofundme/ There are no remaining Richmond locations.

^ Castaway Bay (attached to this restaurant) is open year-round, and guests of that resort need to eat. With Sandusky being dead in the off-season, the hotel restaurant might be more important. The announcement stated that TGI Friday's will close January 1 for construction of the new restaurant, so it apparently was open in the off-season.

^ At least at Polaris (Columbus), this restaurant draws large crowds. They've apparently found some audience. I wasn't impressed the one time I ate there, but I'm definitely not their target customer.

That all being said, attractions on what is for all practical aspects, off-property outside the gates do not enjoy the luxury of captive audiences. Pricing, quality AND service must measure up. It has been my experience that QSL doesn't excel in any of the three.

^^ I'm all for unique restaurants, but this specific location might be better suited for a franchise. Park guests have already left the park and driven 2 miles by the time they get there. The only thing drawing them is a small roadside sign, so a familiar brand can help. Also, large groups (which this location caters to) tend to prefer establishments with a reputation for handling them efficiently. For what it's worth, Reds Hall of Game Grille did not handle large groups well last season.

A huge pain in the rear.

Would have been cool if they did a Cav's restaurant much like the Reds Grille at KI.

Gently put, a pain in the rear? Terp...who likes to ask questions.

I tried to order those once but they were "out" of the sauce, lol. The...umm....after effects of the Blazing sauce makes me avoid it.

I was at a Bdubs and they were advertising their ghost pepper wings. They looked delicious and at the time I had no idea what ghost pepper was. They had the manager come out and requested that I only get a side of it and some fries to try, etc. Well evidently ghost pepper is the hottest pepper.... The wing sauce was delicious but the after burn was not worth it. They did taste better than blazing though.

Oh man this takes me back. Did anyone catch the conversion from the young kid looking for the Skyride?, "They must have taken it out". Oh those were the days. **Side note, The Empire Strikes Back was currently showing its first run in theaters when this video was taken.

Sorry for the double post, but I absolutely love these videos. I especially enjoy seeing the Tumble Bug running. I wasn't born in 1980, it gives a great idea of what the park looked like compared to now.

They should, at least, change the background music on International Street to something instrumental. Kings Dominion's International Street still plays nice fitting background music: (Not my video. I found it on Youtube)

Seeing Adam Rich man tackle the challenge on Man vs Food is the whole reason I tried the place. While I love spicy food and Hot Wings. Those "insane" sauces are not my cup of tea. I prefer taste over "look how tough I am". B Dubs "Hot" and Frank's "Buffalo" styles are perfection.

I think KI/CF of now needs to take notes and watch this video of the past! You ask me, the park looks truly amazing! I love the themeing they had! Some things that I would LOVE to see: International Street (IS), look and become "international" again. More focus and care put back into the fountains. Someone walking around selling balloon or even have a cart. Not ounce in past few years, have I seen KI even selling balloons! Redo some of the signs of their kid ride, to make them look much more grand again! A live band to go with the show(s). Classic music for Coney Mall and IS. grass/shrubs in the shapes of Peanut characters. Honestly those are some silly things that I think would be quite doable and really add to the park experience!

I love the rustic look and theme of the old Kings Mills Log Flume. Very classy. I want that theme back. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I never realized how big Zodiac was. It just towered over Coney Mall. Also, I noticed how most of the video focused on things other than rides. Boy, how times have changed.

"All I want for Christmas is my two front seats..." http://www.holidayworld.com/holiblog/2014/12/22/want-christmas-two-front-seats/

Kings Island's: As it was when it opened, hunter green. I despise the teal.

Think I'll have to get involved with this.

You pay $25 to register for the fundraiser. That 25 is mostly to cover the overhead from the in-park event (the T-shirt they give you, the meal, etc). Then, everyone who raises an additional $75 gets to participate in an in-park event involving a several-hour marathon on a given ride and exclusive ERT on another. Last year the marathon was on Racer (and I don't see that changing) and the ERT was Diamondback (which very well might change). Formerly, you could ride and ride and ride all you wanted, but as of last year, you can ride twice, then you must get up and walk back around (through the Fast Lane line). Of course, if you get bored of The Racer, you are free to leave and ride other rides. Just know that for every ride except Racer, you'll have to wait in line like everyone else. The park provides a meal and and during this time, they invite a few people who have benefited from the work of Give Kids the World. They'll tell you about what kind of things the organization did for them, so you get a good idea of where your money is going. It's really a great cause! There are also some pretty lucrative prize packages for the top collectors at each park. All 11 Cedar Fair parks participate and it's a lot of fun. If you don't want to participate in the event, you can register as a "virtual rider". You don't have to pay the $25 fee, and you don't get to go to the in-park event, but you can still raise money for Give Kids the World just like those who do participate. As an added bonus for those who participate, you get to be in the park WAY before it opens, effectively securing a prime parking spot for the day!

Were they to replace all of them, is there enough capex even available? Terp, who loves perhaps misleading questions and, sometimes, missing punx.

Here we go again.

Would that be...a diversion? Terp, who likes to ask questions.