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Now HERE is a good opportunity to give away some free fudge! Bring in school supplies, get a piece of fudge!

I just wanna see Haunt get some teeth back to it. It has been such a shell of what it used to be (IMO). I still love going if for nothing else to get some foggy night rides in, but I sure as heck miss when the event had some bite to it.

Those are for the drones used in the nightly show.

I did as well. Nice portions on each. Also Chef Major blessed us with his presence

Wrong. It’s where they store the green Intamin track. Trust me, I know what I know.

For the past couple of days I’ve come to KI and I haven’t seen the ride run?

Tbh I feel like Carnivale has run its course. If the park is not going to return it to the 2019 version with the individual stages with live performances as well as a special Carnivale themed nightly bandstand show and not retrospect, I feel it's time to lay Carnivale to rest and do something else. I also agree with your comment above about doing more seasonal events. Here is my idea of how I would do events during the season in order if I ran the park with an unlimited budget obviously lol: Opening Day: Start with a big opening day ceremony right before the park opens with a presentation from the GM and/or other park representatives as well as a countdown and a "Kings Island is officially open for the season!" cheer to officially kick off the season. Have multiple local bands come in and perform throughout the park on multiple stages (ie Festhaus, Bandstand, Gazeebo in Rivertown, etc). Also hold an opening day parade like the Reds does and invite all the local High School/College marching bands as well as local organizations. Also would make custom designed "Opening weekend" T shirts for employees to wear as part of their uniform for the weekend to help celebrate the occasion. Finally, to end Opening Day, have a special opening day fireworks show. April and May: Food and Wine Festival. Much better time of year as it felt more like a Springtime Event than an early Summer Event. Also would try and bring in some sort of special event for Memorial Day Weekend June: KidzFest in Planet/Camp Snoopy like what Canada's Wonderland does. Held on the weekends in Early June just as kids are starting their Summer Break. Brew and BBQ Fest: Weekends in late June in Rivertown/area around Backlot/Floral Clock. Live Music and Games in the grass area near Diamondback's brake run. Also in Camp Snoopy every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night from 8 pm - 9:30 pm throughout the summer, campfire pits would be set out and s'mores kits would be for sale for "S'mores with Snoopy!" 4th of July: Independence Day Celebration! Have special patriotic themed performances/activities throughout the day in the park as well as Soak City. I would bring in the folks from the Cincinnati Balloon Glow that used to take place at Coney and would block off a section of the parking lot for them to set up their Balloons at the park. Then of course would end the night with the best Independence Day fireworks display in the area! July/August: Summer Music Festival. Just like Carowinds is doing this year, on select weekends in July and August, the park would turn into a music festival ground with headlining acts at Timberwolf and local/up and coming acts at different stages in and around Action Zone. The locations for the two smaller stages would be one in front of Congo Falls and one near Festhaus where Hifi Honey played during Food and Wine. September/October: Haunt/Tricks and Treats Fall Fest. Would add more mazes as well as bring back the tween mazes for during the day. Oktoberfest: A german themed food festival during the day in the area near Festhaus/Viking Fury. Would take place in conjuction with Tricks and Treats November/December: Winterfest. Bring back the holly jolly trolly as well as the other smaller pop up entertainment that was cut last year. Also would try and find a way to figure out the tree light wiring on the Eiffel Tower and open up the Eiffel Tower for Winterfest. Enclose the 265' platform with a glass barrier like what Coney BBQ has and add heaters to the top. The views of the park with the christmas lights from up there would be nothing short of spectacular! New Years Eve/Closing Day: It's almost perfect as is, but I would personally bring in local live bands to perform during the New Years Eve party like Carowinds does. Finally to wrap this all up, I would also bring back the smaller pop up events the park used to do. Like the dive in movies in Soak City, Coaster Campout, as well as Passholder late night ERT events. Obviously this is just me dreaming as doing all of this would cost a fortune, but I always liked the idea of doing more seasonal events during the season.

Chef’s plate today: Sugar Cured Pork Chops, Sweet Potato Mochi Balls, Thai Pickled Cucumbers with Crispy Fried Wontons. It’s great to see Chef Perez putting his culinary skills on display. The pork was incredibly tender, I ended up cleaning my plate.

That was a great episode!

Great episode!

People complain that the parade is too early and they can't see the lighting packages on the floats. People complain it's too late because of things like this. I prefer the later time to showcase the lighting packages. I can't speak to children's bedtime, as I have no kids. We had pretty rigid bedtime schedules when I was a child, but the one or two trips to Kings Island each year was up at 5 am and down at whatever time we got home. Three hour round trip so it was a looooonnnnngggg day. I can see now why we only did it once or twice a year

This will be the fifth year. Each year, it gets degraded just a little bit more. I do think these festivals will be a key thing going forward, as they have said in previous Cedar Fair investor conference calls. But the focus may change. Wine weekends in April/may. Food fest in June. Hot summer nights in July (a bigger scale, with a parade like GC, and Oktoberfest in the fall daytime. They will have to balance spending with revenue goals, but I think they will decrease the costs by using existing infrastructure such as the synched lights, Winterfest candy cane trellises etc. The red tents can stay up all of the main season if they have several festivals. But, this is just my conjecture. Past performance does not indicate future expectations. Unless they shipped all of the things from the other parks who aren't doing it to the three that are to use it up.

Menu looks promising, sucky on the tasting cards. Incidentally I'll probably spend less overall without the card since it'll make me be a bit more choosey on what sounds worth the money instead of bulk buying and allowing experiments

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2024/07/16/kings-island-grand-carnivale-2024-parade-passes-tickets/74407072007/ Articles claims that the parade is at 8:30 and the information is from the previous year. If the info is inaccurate then this is a lesson in what happens when some people are far more concerned with blocking people on social media then communicating with the media.

I think GC will be around for a while. This year they actually have more beads, tinsel around windows (from what I can tell), reported IS lights synched with the parade stop, etc. This event is a very low cost since most of the decorations/floats are already made. The only new costs are the food (which are recooped at a profit) and a couple of kids crafts. Bottom line is there is always a buzz about it and it gives people a reason to re-visit. But that's just my 2-cents, I could be wrong.

We actually did this a few weeks ago when we went. Dinning plan was on the band along with our Fast Track. (Their Fast Lane) Simplifies the whole process. You just add it at the KIOSK what was purchased online or buy it there. Scan your QR Code, scan your wristband (If you already have one) or it spits out a band if you need one. If you buy something later you can just add to to your existing band. It as very nice! I love their cup refill stations as well. Scan the QR Code on the cup, it activates the Pepsi dispenser for like 20 seconds to fill up your souvenir cup. It even tells you how many oz's you added. I do wonder why (now SIX) has not started adding them at their smaller parks to see how it works.

During the run-through tonight visible on the webcam, the parade floats went behind the Eiffel Tower and then down the Sweet Spot side of the street like the WinterFest Wonderland Parade. There was a show stop on the Sweet Spot side and on the Starbucks side. After the last show stop at least five of the floats traveled back down the route to the parade tent at Racer. It appeared that two floats (possibly the France and India floats) circled behind the Eiffel Tower and stopped in front of the Bandstand for a couple minutes before also returning along the parade route to Racer. The lighting on each side of International Street changed during the show stops, so it does appear to be more of a spectacle at night.

Having visited Hershey and Great Adventure the past few days, I've been spoiled by good interactive dark rides. Resses Cupfusion at Hershey in particular was good, but I also enjoyed Battle For Metropolis as well. Technology has changed so much since Boo Blasters and the park really needs to do something with it. I'm sure they could even develop a Peanuts themed dark ride to put in there if they tried hard enough.

For what it's worth, The Project 305 sign has a leopard pattern on it. If that's a tease for the final retheme of I305/P305, then it will likely have a leopard or other exotic cat theme. For Flight of Fear, perhaps they could just incorporate it into Jungle Xpedition by having it be a military base in the jungle? Yeah it's tacked on, but having to retheme the inside of FoF would have to be a huge undertaking and I doubt KD would want to go through with that.

Maybe due to heat? I know KI has cut the stops before if there’s threat of rain. They are running theirs “one hour before close” which can be 8 or 9. Maybe too hot at 8.

Just watched the parade at Kings Dominion. Don't know if it's a new thing, but no show stops. Play the song , awkward song and the song restarts and ends when it's finished.

Here is the enamel pin.

At KD they park the floats around the ET. I know that they haven’t had the floats out for display for a few years, but if that’s their intention this year then they could do the final show stop and then the people at that stop would get to see the rest of the parade as it makes it to its final destination. Just a thought.

Sounds promising - hopefully they can use the parade as a "lead in" to the final show on the bandstand and flow right into fireworks/closing. Wish they could use the floats in a better parade route to end circling the tower, so performers could just get off and go right to the closing show. Parade goes back to the old route, turns down IStreet by the funnel cake place, comes back up the other side, then after final show stop, goes back into parade mode as the floats go around the tower. They park and the entire area around/under the tower becomes big party zone surrounded by the floats.

Still nothing listed on website other than “coming soon” sounds about right as a way to hype this event.

From what I can remember from my time working in the mazes during haunt (2016 - 2018), no boo necklaces are allowed in the mazes but they don’t do anything to keep you from getting scared. It’s a lot easier to not go through a haunted house than it is to avoid the scare zones. In most cases guests were instructed to turn their necklaces off before entering the mazes because they’re bright and they’re distracting to other guests. I still miss Hot Blooded, as do many many other people. If I could bring back one show, that would be it. I’m still sad that it’s gone all these years later.

There wasn't anything that changed for Haunt during my time there that I didn't agree with outside of replacing Hot Blooded. The show fit Haunt. It was popular, had a cult-like following. While it doesn't fall under change, I was never a fan of allowing No-Boo necklaces in the mazes. I thought that ruined the experience for those attending the event for the scares and they'd get grouped with others with the No-Boo.

Here's some pics of the first Haunt (was FearFest), and first under CF ownership. October 2007.

Tried the Muffuletta Sandwich With Cajun Pasta Salad, the sandwich is what one would expected out of a cold cut. The pasta salad was flavorful and yet somewhat freshening on an hot day like today. Also for those visiting this weekend. As of 7/11/24, Ribs are back in the rotation at Coney BBQ replacing burnt ends: