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A person who is willing to leave an animal in a hot car during the Summer would more than likely be a person who would not have used the pet care facility at KI. Plus I have never understood traveling with your pet, in my opinion it is more work than traveling with a child. Leave the poor thing home, where it will have a more enjoyable stay and less likely chance of picking up a disease. Kennel Cough and who knows what else.

Soooo. Obvious question. Is Red Dog going to be open for pooch pick-up at 1:30 AM when the park closes at 1 AM?

I found out two weeks ago when I was informed about it. I visited the new Red Dog Pet Resort & Spa and it is like comparing a Motel 6 to the Ritz, there is no comparison. While one is just basic place to stay, the other has far more luxurious amenities and with a higher price to match. I will see what happens between now and when the park opens up in mid April. I was ask to stay in Guest Services and I requested to stay in the same department in a job that I had performed in the past at the park and prior to rejoining Kings Island.

^I have friends that used the kennel quite a bit, who had kennel season passes. I'm not nearly as ticked as they are. Plus, I hate hate hate to see animals locked in hot cars, which this has the very real possiblity of leading to even more of. I've seen too many dogs get rescued from cars in KI's parking lot (heck, even one is too many).

My dad uncovered a stack of old photo prints of me at KI in the early Paramount days, from multiple visits. I need to stop being lazy and sort, scan, and upload them. I hope to have that done within the next month or two. I had some old memories stirred up looking at the photos on the site here (and a few news outlets searching that came up in a web search). The end of last season was my first visit to KI in 15yrs (i used to go every year as a kid) and I'd forgotten some of the things that are no longer there, but those photos gave me such a powerful "OH YEAH, I REMEMBER THAT" feeling, even if it was landscaping lol. The images of The Bat (the real/first one), especially brought up some memories.

Holiday World & Splashin' Safari on Facebook : "#JazzHands" Photo : Holiday World via Facebook

Not sure if anybody noticed but the final piece was set in place yesterday just to be removed a short time later. I assume it was a test fitment prior to Friday and the official completion with media present.

I am actually a little surprised that the pet care center lasted as long as it did. I wonder how often it was actually a service that was used by guests on a typical day.

B&M: millimeters. Arrows were in feet. It was a different era.

@CarowindsPark on Twitter : "One piece away from history! Fury 325’s track will be completed tomorrow morning #Fury325" Photo : Carowinds via Twitter

That's a strong take ya have there, Gator.

As of right now, the Red Dog closes at 7pm weekdays, 4pm Saturday and 3pm on Sundays and are closed on all major holidays. So unless they change the hours, guests will have to pick up their pets prior to closing and are out of luck on major holidays. Also they require a reservation prior to boarding your pet and do require shot records. They only take dogs and cats and no other type of pets. With Kings Island having a partnership with them, we just have to wait and see how it works out come April when the park opens for the season.

KI-ORIG-EMP is not going to be happy about this... Well..I am not either, so that makes two.

The creative geniuses at Kings Island are typically the lesser known names that never show up on this site; the PR person is the "face" (and typically a hard working person; how many times have you seen Don trolling the park grounds on days, evenings, weekends, holidays, etc...).

Michael Fehnel on Twitter: "Slingshot, the ride that will send you nearly 300 ft in the air @CarowindsPark is starting to take shape!"

Love it!

^It is amazing how much of a difference little things like that make on a ride. Good job HW!

After watching more than my share of coaster constructions I've begun to wonder the machining/fabricating tolerances. Example - What would be the accepted clearance on both ends of this final piece for Fury 325??

More vertical construction work has been done on Woodstock Gliders, with the attachment of the arms. (Live Still-Image captured from the Kings Island Planet Snoopy Construction Cam)

When you see the countdown clock on the homepage of KICentral.com

Bad move on KI's part! KI's kennel has provided a necessary service to the thousands of people who visit/travel with their pets every year. The fee that they charged for the service was nominal. Red Dog charges $24 for a one day visit! (price obtained from their Day Care page http://www.red-dogs.com/cincinnati-mason-dog-daycare/). And, they require a 30 minute daycare evaluation beforehand! How many people are going to be happy about spending the extra time and money for that? And then there's the comment on the page "Daycare fills up quickly, so please contact us for availability and to schedule an evaluation." What of those guests who didn't know about the change, go to Red Dog and they're full for the day? KI's going to see more pets left in cars this summer from those people who show up at the park expecting the services that have always been available and for any number of reasons won't want to or can't take them to Red Dog. I've never used KI's kennel myself since I live so close to the park and can leave my dog at home, but as someone who used to oversee the kennel as part of my job duties years ago, and as an animal lover, I'm seriously pi$$ed about this. How about transferring some money between departmental accounts to keep the KI kennel open, or maybe even renovate it? In 2015, let's cater to the upscale coffee snobs by building them the largest Starbucks in a park that has an L as the 8th letter of its name on a non-red planet that circles the sun. Surely everyone can afford an exorbitantly overpriced cup of coffee, so they can afford the extra money to keep their animals elsewhere.

Pet care standards have changed a lot since KI's pet boarding location was constructed.

That first drop...wow Hopefully I get down that way this year! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's amazing how fast that thing went up.

I'm sure it will multiply by X. Pet services are now available at " McCloosky ChevroFerd" , For a "small fee"

According to the FAQ on the park's website: KI-ORIG-EMP is not going to be happy about this...

(sorry not sure how to copy the tweet) Says What are you thinking at this moment when you're riding The Beast. me- "I really wish the music was working" :-)

When your height adjustable high rise chairs in English remind you of Drop Towers, so you entertain yourself during class by pulling the lever to fall, and repeating this over and over again until the people sitting next to you look at you with strange looks (although they probably knew what I was doing).

I had saw that on a couple web cam captures.....I'm sure it was to make sure it fit right

Kings Island on Facebook : "The construction of Woodstock Gliders, a classic flying scooters ride from Larson International, is underway in Planet Snoopy. The ride features eight two-person planes that glide 28 feet above the ground. Each plane has a stationary rear wing and a movable front wing which allows the rider to control the flight and alter their ride experience from mild to wild. Be among the first to experience Woodstock Gliders when the park opens for the 2015 season April 18." Photo : Don Helbig / Kings Island via Facebook (Sorry for the double post)

I think this is a great thing. I remember sweeping outside front gate and hearing all those dogs bark and imagining them freaking out every time Invertigo cycles. I remember feeling bad for the dogs and wished that the pet care center would be moved to somewhere less noisy.

I would assume if KI is partnering with them, they will be open later during the park season to accommodate guests staying til park close.

I have really been avoiding this topic. My musical taste varies wildly, though 80's metal is always my "go to". I will quite willingly listen to almost anything, though I do have a short tolerance for country, and a much shorter tolerance for rap. I graduated high school with majors in science, math, and music (or enough credits for any of those to count as a "major"). On a given day, I may listen to Bach, Bon Jovi, Bullet for My Valentine, Bocephus, or Bachman Turner Overdrive. It really all just depends on my mood. This post brought to you by the letter B. Favorite bands would be way too long to list. But I'll go ahead and **** Terpy off with a triple shot of videos. In the end though, AC/DC to ZZtop , and most anything in between. Before edit thought, Aerosmith, what a band.

The swarm is one peice of track away from completing the flight....... We're almost there folks!.... (Live Still-Image captured from the Carowinds Fury 325 Live Camera Feed) Tomorrow.....

My wife's mother worked the kennel for two seasons at Carowinds, the most animals she had in one day was 4. The Carowinds Kennel also doubled as Lost & Found.

The thing is, these "upscale coffee snobs" are spending more than pet owners are. Based off the numbers, the park can justify expanding one of its most popular food service locations, just as I'm sure it can justify removing an under-utilized facility. I imagine that the park has accounted for the possibility it may lose a select few visitors, but have also determined they're saving more in the long run by not staffing and maintaining a pet care facility. Even if it was only a single employee working that spot from 10am-10pm every day, at minimum wage, you're still talking well over $10,000 for a single season.

In my line of work that seems like a HUGE gap but that's about what I figured. Even at that, it's a wonder the cumulative error wouldn't bite them in the end......truly a fascinating feat.

Oh wow... I didn't realize it had gone up that much! Ok, that invalidates my argument on the price, since Red Dog is only $4 more. But I stand by everything else!

Maybe slightly? If I recall, the "speed" issue was that Phantom Theater's speed was dramatically increased during its final season, which hurt the experience tremendously. For Scooby Doo, every other vehicle was removed to space them out and allow the scenes and targets time to reset. And now neither the scenes nor the targets work, so that was worthwhile. Haha

I sure hope so there is a secondary barrier of sorts. I feel bad for the sharks since they'll eat just about anything that'll fit in their mouth. SeaWorld typically ran into this trouble with the dolphin petting pools, aside from people grabbing at and teasing the animals, people were throwing coins and other unwanted objects into the water. Kai at SeaWorld San Antonio was a culprit of eating all those foreign objects to the point he was moved to the behind the scenes facility so the only way I could see him was to go on one of the tours. It is/was still a problem even after the petting pools were no longer a free for all and became much more heavily supervised, some people don't like it but it is a lot of the reason why it is so regulated now. Which is why I hope KI better have a good supervisory team on hand with the petting zoo...going by what I saw during Haunt I was not impressed when some of the smaller animals were trying to get away from the wild children grabbing at them.

Apparently the Red Dog in Mason just opened a few months ago (September or October) (they've had another location in Cincinnati's Oakley neighborhood for a few years now). I guess KI figured that there was no point in having a pet care center now that Red Dog was nearby, even if it is more expensive.

Cedar Fair really doesn't do animals now do they... Do they? ***PEANUTS' Playhouse removed for Petting Zoo?***

Apparently the Red Dog is south of Kings Island . Seems like a convenient location for sure. http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?encType=1&where1=7036%20Columbia%20Rd%2c%20Mason%2c%20OH%2045040&cp=39.3512476980686~-84.2596536129713&qpvt=7036+Columbia+Rd+Mason+Oh+Map&FORM=MIRE#Y3A9MzkuMzM1Mzg5fi04NC4yNzgzMjgmbHZsPTE2JnN0eT1yJnE9NzAzNiUyMENvbHVtYmlhJTIwUmQlMkMlMjBNYWludmlsbGUlMkMlMjBPaGlvJTJDJTIwNDUwMzk= edit: might even be in the old Laser Kraze building.

I just noticed today that the webcam's are not updating like they are suppose too, for those keeping up with the new stuff being added in Planet Snoopy. Hope they get it fixed soon.

Now that is interesting, the new entry plaza at Carowinds doesnt appear to have a new kennel being built and the old one got bulldozed.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-abandoned-wonderland-photos-2013-5

So some say the landscaping is not "really" an attraction, some say it used to be. Yet every spring there is a post lamenting about the apparent loss of the hands on the floral clock, only to be reminded that the floral clock is typically not set up until later in the spring when things warm up. So to that, I say, clearly the landscaping is an attraction, if Don were to grab a chain saw and start randomly cutting down trees to stock his firewood supply, complaints would be loud enough to shake the Eiffel Tower (in Paris no less). The landscaping may not top the list of things to see and do at KI for many on this site, or even for the average patron, but there are people that are there every day of the operating season who are only there to take in the sites, enjoy their family and friends and never once step foot onto a ride anywhere in the park. The trees, the flowers, the sites and the sounds are all part of what makes KI a great destination.

Awesome article! A lot goes into keeping the experience of entering the park as grand and memorable as it has been for generation after generation! That has never faded, and as a fan I'm very happy for that! ("Now, just turn that music dial a little bit more in the direction of orchestra/symphony, and all is bliss!")

http://www.crystalbelldesigns.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Castles01.jpg The theme park that could of been.