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scruffty1, there are people that would rather not have their picture, nor a picture of their family taken when they have no intention of purchasing those pictures. KI owns those the rights to those pictures up to and perhaps even after the point of sale. While I highly doubt KI would do anything with those pictures, other than destroy them at the end of the day, if you have no intention of buying the picture, why put yourself and/or your family at risk of a rouge employee doing something to the picture you'd rather not have done (I know its very small risk, but a risk non the less). 20 years ago, the front of the park picture made sense, most people didn't carry a camera into the park and getting a picture at the start of the day with your family or friends was desirable to a lot of people. Today, a sizable % of their patrons carry a decent to great camera around with them at all times, and they don't have to pay for the rights to that picture. Its obviously not the fault of the employees, but I think it remains a terrible PR decision. Rather than presenting their patrons with the majestic view that hits you as you pass under the main gate and into the ambiance of the tower and fountains, you are too often bombarded with someone you have never meet asking, if not demanding that they take a picture of you. Not only is it annoying, but it is no longer a needed service. The on ride photos are a bit different in that there is no way to capture that picture w/o the park doing so, but the group photo at the front of the park, yeah, I can get that on my own if I really needed one. I wonder how the park would feel if I went up to one of their photo takers and asked that they take my family photo with my phone instead? I'll guess they wouldn't support that very well.

Well, I had a great time at Kings Island Saturday. It rained for a little bit but I still had a fantastic time. Rides I rode, mostly in the dark Diamondback-2 Beast-2 Racer-2 Bat-1 Firehawk-1 Drop Tower, I still call it Drop Zone.-1 Boo Blasters on Boo Hill-1 Vortex-2 Flight of Fear-1 Mazes Madame Fatales Cavern of Terror-2 Carnevil-1 Slaughterhouse-1 Board to Death-1 Took some pictures of the Phantom Theater and Son of Beast props being used this year, as I think somebody mentioned that they wanted to see them in action, so here you go! First off they had old tombstones of all the old rides on International Street. Next, in the queue line for The Beast they had the orignal pannels from the original Son of Beast trains in a casket. Also in the queue line for The Beast they had a Light Bulbs crate and a Flash Powder barrel which are both from Phantom Theater! Also, dont get mad at me, but in Madame Fatales Cavern of Terror I took a picture of the other two Phantom Theater props being used. I know your not supposed to take pictures in mazes, but I snuck this one in and I think all of us Phantom Theater fanatics will love this picture that I took. Its the Great Garbonzos cannon and the Phantom Theater mummy! That was a really cool find! Also I found the Phantom Theater furnace in Slaughterhouse, but couldnt get a picture of it. More pictures of Phantom Theater stuff and remnants that I took. And last but not least, The Bat at midnight. Overall, I had a fantastic time and hope you enjoy my pictures. I was very pleased to find all of the Phantom Theater props, plus the Son of Beast pannels as well. All those Phantom Theater and Son of Beast props were in plain sight if you would like to see them in person. I love finding all the old ride remnants as it gives me a kick of nosatlgia. Especially Phantom Theater and Son of Beast. Well I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope that if you went too Saturday, that you had as much fun as I did. Thanks so much, MaestroJr

I honestly think they should get rid of the front gate photographers. A lot of times, even after I'll say no, they'll say something like, "Are you sure?" or "It'll only take a quick second." which really irks me.

I know that Arrow loopers, suspended coasters, and at least some Mine Trains have the foot pedal (usually as an override, but sometimes as the primary restraint release mechanism, such as Corkscrew at Cedar Point). I'd assume the hypers do too because the trains are very similar to the later mine train trains (a la Adventure Express) but I can't remember whether that is the case or not.

I feel bad for the people who have to do that job. It really isn't a needed service anymore. I despise having photos taken, but I try to be nice to them and I just do it anyway. (Not that I'm saying anyone else should have to- do what's best for you!) I've had to push credit cards when I was hired for two totally unrelated jobs in the past, and it is NOT fun dealing with mean people who can't think for a second and realize this is just someone being paid minimum wage to do a task. Cedar Fair should get rid of the photos, it's an outdated practice, but it's always good to be kind to the workers until they do.

I agree with getting rid of them, especially since 99% of everyone has cameras on them now and if one wants them printed, its probably cheaper outside the park.

It is hard to applaud an act that should have been totally in the public eye years ago. The Pepsi grant movement should have continued publicly with a constant reminder through FREE social media years ago. Way too little way too late.........

For many guests, after a memorable day at the park, these are the only photos of their group that were actually taken. For a subset of the people who forget to take their own pictures, preserving their memory at the end of the day is worth the ~$20.

One of them learned a valuable lesson yesterday. He tried to step right in front of me and take a picture, and ask at the same time as I was walking by. Was not a wise move as he looked to be 140 lbs soaking wet and I'm at 220. Just say he and his camera went for a spin. For the record, I did not run into him intentionally. I think they are more off an annoyance anymore. I agree with Medford, the service is no longer needed.

Let's try this brilliant play. This will get us a new set of downs...

Things made by women, on the other hand.... Terp, running for the seventh portal.

Did the Breakfast with the characters this morning. It was really nice. For $10 the food and drinks were on spot (plus plenty of clean trays). It's the little things like this that make me happy/ok with renewing my membership. Also probably no surprise it happened during renewal season. But my son loved dancing with the characters. Thanks don! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They're people, trying to make a living. I find their job incredibly annoying but they do deserve respect. Kudos to those who politely so no and keep walking. Karma to those who are rude.

Nothing wrong with a little harmless betting between two parks http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Six-Flags-Great-America-Changes-Name-of-Park-to-Six-Flags-Go-Mets-336359661.html

I had that happen to me lol, but I can see both sides of the story, my grandparents don't carry great cameras around, they always want their picture taken in front of the fountains, I guess it's a tradition.

Yes. They can be annoying. But usually it only takes 2 times of saying no thank you. If you are polite to them. They don't mind it. I see a lot of people actually getting the pictures and a lot of people looking at them throughout the day. While the number of takers could go down I thnk it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to spread them out. Maybe have them so there are different rides like Banshee or Diamondback in the background. I have seen them try this a couple times and I think it would be a better option then having them swarm you the moment you scan your pass/ticket.

Yes, Magnum has foot pedals to manually unlock restraints, I've yet to see an Arrow without them.

Mayhaps B&M thought it was a good idea.

But doing so encourages continuation of the "service." Must I be nice to in-calling telemarketers, too? If the company wasn't making money, and paying Cedar Fair to do so, they wouldn't be there.

I had a good friend who was a PR rep for one of the most prominent amusement parks in America. If he was pursued doggedly by a commissioned picture taker, he'd insist on taking THEIR picture. More than once, this did not go well. Once, at a park then owned by Mr. Ed Hart, he was threatened with arrest. He told the local Mounties he was only doing what the park itself was doing. Nothing more was said.

thanks PKIVortex, I think we'll plan on using that.

Yes early ride times are at 10:30 for gold and platinum pass holders on Banshee Diamondback and select rides in Planet Snoopy. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

The sad thing is it appears the Park's Trustees may have instigated this. Really?

bush league: adjective informal not of the highest quality or sophistication; second-rate. (thank you Google)

For the first time since our 7 year old's football season started in mid August, we made it to KI on Sunday. We were there with some friends, so we only got to take advantage of our fast pass (or is it Fast Lane?) deal once. He was a shade or two shy of 54" back in August, he easily cleared it yesterday, so we left the group and hit Diamondback, he claims its his new favorite, topping Banshee. Some other observations, staffing appeared to be too light for the crowd; don't know how tough it is to get people to work the fall season, but it was clear in several spots that they needed a few more hands. The pizza we had for lunch was the best pizza I think I've ever had at KI. I'm not normally a huge fan for LaRosas, and typically think KI's version is a notch or two above edible, but yesterday's pizza appeared to match a standard out of park LaRosa's pizza in both taste and look. Perhaps it was because we ate on a sunday around 1:00 rather than our typical mid week, somewhere around 7 or 8 in the evening meal time. Diamondback crew appeared to hustling and stacking was minimal to non existent any time I looked over or when we rode it. I wish they'd offer a lights on, sunday haunt walk thru, I've yet to be able to make it for an evening Haunt, but I'd love to see what they look like on the inside. The front gate looked awesome. I've said for several seasons that they need a front gate overall, more accessibility to the restaurant upstairs and a new, modern look. More electronic kiosks, informational centers, etc... After seeing what they did with the haunt motif, if the elevator solves the accessibility issue (a full blown restaurant would need a more inviting entrance I would think, otherwise it would be very easy to miss), in my mind the changes become far easier. I still love the pass thru aspect where the combination of the tower and fountains hit you all at once. Just add some fronting to the main entrance, extend it high enough so that the exhaust fans are hidden as you walk up to the park. Tear down the ticket window booths on the right hand side, and replace that with more electronic kiosks, keep the one on the left attached to the season pass processing center for those that prefer human to human transactions and you can get an updated look for significantly cheaper than I would have thought 2 months ago. Heck, build something into the front motif so that the park can easily transition from one front gate motif to another. Rode 7-2 on Vortex so that my son's friend and his mother could ride 7-1 and got beat up so bad, I was a little worried about what my back would feel like when we got of The Beast (next ride) however, in the second to last row, (not over the wheel) had one of the smoothest Beast rides I can ever remember. It was my son's friend's first trip to KI above 48", he said he liked The Beast better than Vortex or The Bat (the other two 48" coasters that he rode Sunday) I always love the look and feel of the park in the Fall. We are planning on going this Saturday as well, hit the park when it first opens for a few hours, then get back home for trick or treat. a week out, it appears the weather will be great on saturday, so I'd expect the park to be fully packed that evening, any clues to what to expect saturday firs thing? My mother in law wants to ride both Diamondback and Banshee with our son, and I wouldn't mind taking him on Flight of Fear. Is Diamondback still offered for early entry gold passes? May plan to get there early for that, to knock that out of the way once or twice, then move back to Flight of Fear early on and get on Banshee before we leave.

Was down at Haunt this past Friday and my overall opinion is that Haunt has become uninspired. I have been going to FearFest/Haunt since inception and this years rendition was very underwhelming. The only positive from the night is that lines were short. My thoughts on the park. Lots of fog as always and great use of LED effect lighting throughout the park, but the random placement of props and displays is just odd. Still haven't figured out the purpose of the stage over by the theater in Nightmare Alley and why do they not have a handful of characters roaming that area? Could be a great scare zone. Speaking of actors, not sure how many times I notice characters in scare zones or roamers just standing around and talking with each other or park guests. Seriously? Witnessed multiple statue characters just conversing rather than engaging the crowd as they walked by. I thought one time down I-Street as I walked behind a couple supervisors they would say something to the socializing statues, nope they just smiled and moved on. May as well get your cell phone out and update Facebook while your socializing because that is how pathetic the effort was from most actors. I did notice a few who were menacing the guests, but these actors were far outnumbered by those who came across uninterested. These observations were carried over to the houses we went through as well. Actors just standing and passing the time rather than trying. Groups were small enough they could reset, but instead chose not too or were never set to begin with. I understand these are long nights, but the park and management needs to do a much better job in motivating and incentivizing the actors. Then again when your own app rates most of the houses as not scary, you have sent a message loud and clear you don't care anymore. Overall we left very underwhelmed by the event and this years rendition played as nothing more than a late season cash grab.

Good ole Drachen Fire, a rather well paced Arrow Multi Looper that was rough as all get out. The corkscrew first drop was a bit odd

I doubt if I'll be able to hit up the park either on good ole' Halloween. It's much more likely I will end my season at Great America if I go to any. I can't go Sunday because I'm taking a friend ice skating and I don't get to see her nearly as often as I like, and the last time kinda ended on a sour note.

Diamondback crew was really on it today. We closed the day with 3 rides on it (I am guessing it was the power hour deal). Banshee, not so much. Adventure Express and Racer were walkons after 5. Food lines seemed really understaffed. We ate once and it was backed up at the register. Seemed like a lot a fast passes in use, but the ride operators were keeping it all moving fairly regularly. Overall, pretty good. Got in 12 rides (without making ERT), ate a meal, and caught Blood Drums.

I mean... It's an Arrow, so the manual override is a foot pedal (Cyclone might even be old enough that the pedal is the ONLY restraint unlock mechanism, I don't remember from my last visit). I don't think pressing the pedal would exactly count as kicking, but to the casual observer sitting in the train, it might look like it.

Don't forget that Six Flags St Louis renamed a coaster to Cubs Thunder a week ago. https://www.sixflags.com/stlouis/attractions/american-thunder

I have never seen or heard of this but I worked at Hurler/Drop Zone/Goldrusher/Scooby-Doo/Carousel/Jets/Biplanes. Goldrusher sometimes had to be pushed by hand out of the station in the morning.

Well when I worked Vortex we had to do that a few times. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

"Push down, pull up."

Do a barrel roll! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I am assuming since most of these posts were from the summer of 2008, that the footings/markers reported were from what was actually Holiday World's 2009 attraction, Pilgrims Plunge... ...which, a mere 5 years later, was gone. In hindsight, perhaps Holiday World should have bought Laser instead...it would probably still be around today had they done so, since it is currently running in Europe. Alas, hindsight is 20-20 and at the time a 135-foot tall boat ride must have seemed like a great idea, and it was a fun ride when it did work...but obviously, it was down way too often for the park's liking in the end. (Though it was at some point open and I did ride it on all 3 of my Holiday World trips when it was still there- guess I got lucky with the Plunge...)

(Insert Michael Scott quote)

It makes me sad that next weekend is the last weekend for Haunt.

On this we agree, The Interpreter: The park needs some solid improvement in marketing and public relations.

That's a matter of opinion. I did not find it awesome when I did it last year. After a 10 minute wait for a train, followed by more than an hour of waiting in the woods while /only/ the Fright Lane passengers from several trains that came after mine went through the maze (and it being impossible to bail out because the only way back was through), finishing with a walk back through a predictable layout with minimal theming and tired and bored scareactors, I just wished they had let us continue to ride the train through some theming instead of doing the haunt at all. It had better /potential/ with the train, but it was wasted potential in my opinion.

there is really no point for Tombstone Terror-Tory if your not using the train, that was an awesome haunt when they were using the train.

Double post Diamondback entering power hour. It was great!

I am glad to say that I will break my 85 day streak of no theme parks today at Kings Island! I hope I have a great time and if any of you guys see me just say hi!

Thank you. Deramaxx left him blind and gave him hypothyroidism, so we ditched that, went to another vet, and now he's on Piroxicam. I will recommend Piroxicam in case other dog owners find themselves in the same situation of their dogs having cancer. I think for me taking a year off will make next year all the more exciting.

The Crypt might have been a ferris wheel, but it was a really cool ferris wheel! Oddly enough, I've never ridden another Top Spin other than Tomb Raider/Crypt.

I thought they had a ferris wheel in there from 09 to '11. *confused* It even had some lights. Not LED though.

I think it would be nice to have something in that building, but in a fantasy world I'd rather have it leveled and they start over. That building is absolutely hideous and kills any charm the park's trying to give off. The Disaster Transport building at CP was a kindred spirit.

I just act like I'm on my cell phone.

I just say "Already got one"

i have found a polite "no thank you" seems to be rather effective...