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@Eric FL This scan of an old newspaper article was just shared by Trace Eggers in the KIHistory Facebook group and appears to show one of the gazebos you're remembering.

Still waiting on mine to arrive. Excited for it to arrive and start reading it!

I got my copy today! So well done. I've read a bit and it is real and it is fantastic!

Under pre Covid operations, Hershey mostly closed at 9 or 10pm after Springtime in the Park. Even last season they opened with a 10am to 9pm schedule, we were there the week after July 4. However, demand at the start of last season was low, even with Candymonium opening. So they reduced hours to the 7pm close by mid July. CP and KI found similar soft demand last July and ended up with much smaller August calendars, in the case of CP about half the operating days as normal. A lot of these parks are being very conservative with the calendar. In CF's situation it's clearly a money saving measure (by their own admission) so I'm skeptical that we'll see operating hours increase even if the demand is high.

It is not just Cedar Fair. Parks like Kennywood and Kentucky Kingdom have rather bad operating calendars this summer. Kennywood is closed every Monday and Tuesday all summer, closing at 7pm every night except a few Saturdays. Kentucky Kingdom has no days where they stay open past 8pm and closed almost every weekday and Friday in August. No Night rides at all. Dollywood closes at 6pm right now on weekdays. When Hershey opens it is 7pm and 8pm closes all summer. No night rides there either.

CF parks, ALL opening way late and with short weekend only hours are going to be nightmare busy if they get good weather. Think about Carowinds. Opening 2 months late, all other Southern parks are slammed right now. Silver Dollar City has been begging people on social media to show up early or stay away until evening and increasing hours. Crazy pent up demand. And if Cedar Fair decides to keep the half full trains and 30 minute cleaning cycles... Look out. (SF and Herschend are filling trains) We are planning for our first KI trip of the season to be over Memorial Day. Even with our all season Fast Lane, I'm preparing for it to be about as busy as I've ever seen the park in a non-Haunt setting.

https://kicentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Episode-14-A-Ride-Through-Time.mp3 Join Robbie (Coastersrz) and Brad Perdue (Indyguy4KI) as they interview Evan Ponstingle, author of the new history book about Kings Island, "Kings Island: A Ride Through Time". Be sure to also check out Episode 8, where we previously interviewed Evan. Pick up your copy of the book at the Emporium at Kings Island or online at River Shore Creative here. Here is Evan holding his book at the Emporium.

2021 will essentially be make-up for 2020 I think. I could see them doing a 2 year 50th anniversary celebration from 2022-2023. Unless they already paid for a ride pre-covid I don't think we'll see a ride of any sort this season.

I could see Kings Island bringing back smaller things for their 50th anniversary. Things like the Coney Mall sign, the Oktoberfest sign, the large ivy tunnel, and old food items could be brought back. I could also see them repainting The Racer to its original color scheme and focusing on older rides. Other things Kings Island could do include building a new restaurant, adding a legacy walk, or maybe bringing back a smaller ride like Der Spinning Keggars or re-theming Boo Blasters to Phantom Theater. Those are probably more unlikely though. In terms of 2021, I would like to see shows return as well as full trains and all trains.

With 2022 being the 50th anniversary, I think they'll play it as a celebration season. Pre-Covid, maybe a new ride as CP and Knotts were planning to introduce for their anniversary seasons. Now, I don't see it. A themed parade or mid summer anniversary spectacular, MAYBE a re-theme of an existing ride. The easy thing would be to go backwards Racer for 1 year, but I don't see Cedar Fair allowing that.

I highly doubt that'll happen. I think that is the 2023 or 24 season. Anything for 2022 I expect to be in line with a 50th anniversary celebration.

I would assume so, I don't see any point in repainting them back to red, the orange, yellow, and red look good.

Karnan? Takabisha? Smiler? Those are pretty large rides. I can guarantee you if Gerstlauer was given that space to work with, I doubt they would come up with a ride that uses just part of the land unless the park told them to only use part of it.

This was so much fun to be on! Thank you for featuring me again and letting me share the story behind this book filled with stories!

For posterity, here's grainy concept art for the Festhaus, as well as a pic of how it actually looked when it was first built. Trivia: For 1983, the existing Beirgarten was remodeled and the bridge that extended over the Octoberfest pond was added - as to drive traffic between the two venues.

Interesting! I don't have any pictures, but man do I remember when going to the Festhaus for lunch and a show was an event. I remember when they had the ice-skating show in there for a bit. That was pretty cool and it really did feel like it was a centerpiece for entertainment. So many weird shows there during the Paramount era - not just the ice show, but also a "Cheers" musical (!) and really silly game show that I loved as a kid. These days, it just feels kind of like an afterthought. The shows are fine, but I don't get the feeling that anyone's particularly excited to rush in and see it (that also might just be me getting older; maybe no one was ever excited for this but kids!).