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From the KIC Facebook page:

Amazing to see that The Beast looks just as good at 35, as it did at 5. The picture below, (presumably captured by Don) is by-far, hands down (or up in this case) the most beautiful photo I've ever seen of The Beast. All I can say about this photo is, Wow! @KingsIslandPR on Twitter: Photo : Don Helbig / Kings Island via Twitter For some reason, this photo just stands out to me as the BEST photo I've EVER seen of The Beast. **A special thanks to Don, or whoever from the Kings Island team that took this photo!

One is an indoor attraction....

"What new ride are you looking forward to outside of Kings Island?" That was the question. It didn't specify it had to be A Cedar Fair or Six Flags ride. That's why I brought up King Kong. It just happened to be followed by two questions regarding CF and SIX. EDIT: No idea why this is highlighted.

I've wanted to visit Pripyat for years. Due to finances, commitments, and politics I haven't put a real effort into trying to go. Also, there is absolutely no upkeep there and the place is crumbling so it's almost certain that I'll never make it.

Son of Beast for several years. One side of the turnpike cars for many years.... Tower Gardens current state? Son of Beast's station still? The Crypt's building? The new building beside Beast's brake run? Club Blood's building? I'm sorry, but to someone that doesn't frequent Kings Island often, these things are, at best, tacky. What's one more?

Hey everyone sorry if I posted this in the wrong area but I'm new here on the boards. My name is Zac (in case you missed my screenname ) and this past summer I worked up at Cedar Point. I was a ride host at Mine Ride. Since I was able to enter Kings Island for free with my employee ID I made the trek south 5 times (about 8hrs round trip). It was the first time I had been to Kings Island in about 7-8 years and I fell in love with the place. So before I get off topic I wanted to ask everyone on here in hopes of getting an answer. Is it possible to work at Kings Island if you live far away? I'm from the northwest corner of Indiana wanted to see if it is possible to work at Kings Island next summer instead of a Cedar Point. I know they don't offer housing so I would need an apartment but I'm not sure how high rent is in the Mason/Kings Mills area. Thank you everyone in advance!

CINCINNATI, OH – They are ready for the holidays in West Chester...as the magical indoor holiday celebration Christmas at EnterTRAINment Junction begins its six-week run Saturday, November 15. Christmas at EnterTRAINment Junction has become a not-to-be-missed family event and a true holiday tradition in the Midwest. The event runs through Sunday, Jan. 4. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be welcoming children, teens, parents and grandparents with 80,000 square feet of holiday fun, all under one roof, all in a climate-controlled environment. Festive lights and decorations, and a beautiful North Pole walk-through adventure -- plus as an added feature three holiday themed train displays FREE to the public -- are just part of the popular family celebration. Visitors entering EnterTRAINment Junction immediately encounter a holiday themed Main Street area, a 1930s’ cityscape trimmed in seasonal lights and decorations. Main Street has a sidewalk café, gift shop, several party rooms for holiday parties and Junction Hobbies & Toys, located just inside EnterTRAINment Junction’s front doors. The incredible hobby & toy shop has the area’s largest collection of Thomas the Train merchandise, G-Scale and HO trains and accessories, doll houses and miniatures, and dozens of specialty brands, including Playmobil, Papo, Calico Critters, Melissa & Doug and Smithsonian, In addition, there are select items from Mattel, Fisher-Price, Disney and Hasbro & Slinky. Just off Main Street is the FREE Holiday Trains display in the Expo Center. Here visitors will find three unique train layouts, including a Lionel train display originally exhibited at the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis. There is also an HO-scale train display featuring the ever-popular Dept. 56 buildings and villages. Plus, a third train display (also G-scale) is set against a beautiful winter wonderland backdrop and was created by members of the Greater Cincinnati Garden Railway Society. In the imaginative Journey to the North Pole themed walk-through attraction, visitors are transported to an amazing winter wonderland with snowy landscapes on the way to the North Pole and Santa’s Village. The village features a post office, a sleigh house, a reindeer barn and an elves’ workshop where Santa’s helpers are busy making toys. There is even a snowfall area where snow is falling inside! Visitors meet Mrs. Claus, who offers children a fresh-baked cookie, then, down the hall and into a study, there he is – jolly ol’ Santa himself, awaiting children to listen to what they want for Christmas. (Santa is on vacation beginning Dec. 26.) Of course, all of the other spectacular EnterTRAINment Junction attractions are part of the holiday-time experience, including the world’s largest indoor model train display, the popular 1,000 ft. replica of the historic Coney Island Amusement Park, the weird- and-wacky A-Maze-N FunHouse, a giant kids’ interactive play area and the American Railroading Museum. Christmas at EnterTRAINment Junction is open daily Nov. 15-Jan. 4 (closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day). Times are Mon.-Sat 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sundays noon- 6 p.m. There are special extended hours Dec. 13-Dec. 23 and Dec. 26-30 when EnterTRAINment Junction will be open until 9 p.m. (Closes at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve). Various admission packages start as low as $9.95 and, as always, parking is free. EnterTRAINment Junction is located at 7379 Squire Court, off I-75 at the Tylersville Rd. exit (#22). For more information, call (513) 898-8000, or (877) 898-4656. Website: www.entertrainmentjunction.com.

I wouldn't mind a random TRUE fact being thrown into a spiel. Or an honest interaction with a guest during a spiel. But I don't ride rides to hear the spieler I do it to have fun on a ride. I have said it a million times, the best spieler I had was from TTD who interacted with guests, did the safety thing, and was genuine. Imagine a Bat spiller saying something like: Enjoy Bat, please keep your arms, legs, and all other body parts in the ride at all times. On your way up our (height) incline look out and you can see our greenhouse where KI grows all our plants. Enjoy your ride... Or soar over our former Lion Country safari... Etc

I have the Tomb Raider video too, somewhere. I'll find it and use it later.

It's IAAPA... Isn't one of the bigger points of the thing to be the biggest diversion of the show?

And the rest of y'all can enlighten those of us who live life without "benefit" of Facebook. Terp, who likes his job, and would like to keep it. (As a condition of employment, employee will not maintain a presence on Facebook, MySpace, or the like, will not Tweet...)

And if that isn't a reason for automated spiels... People go to parks to enjoy the rides, attractions, each others' company, the games, shows and food. Not to put up with adolescents with microphones entertaining themselves. It gets old. Real old.

Very last train of the day, ask really, REALLY nicely, and if most of the other people on the train are on board with it, and the ride op is in a good mood, they will sometimes be willing to flip the lights on for you. Sometimes, you can get lucky on the first train of the day as well, but from everyone I've talked to, last train of the night will be your best bet. I myself have gotten two lights-on rides that way.

They had several propane heaters throughout the park for Winterfest '05. Not everywhere, but a lot of them.

That said, Auto-spiels get really old really fast, too. While at SFGAm, I got very, VERY sick of the wannabe Mr. T giving the auto-spiel for X-Flight. I'd be all for an auto-spiel in a normal human voice. Theme the rides, that's fine, encouraged even. But don't theme the auto-spiel. The results are usually nothing short of irritating. Alright,stunt team, listen up...

Not to mention that it's at most a 90 second walk from the car to inside of the Junction....

Loved that video!!!! One of the coolest pre-shows of any attraction ever made (next to Tomb Raider and Haunted Mansion.)

If you are willing to drive 45 minutes to an hour away, you could find many reasonable rentals. I live an hour away and worked weekends in the 80's....much younger then ... worked 13 hour days....made lots of great friends and had good times!!! Go for it!!!

In two years it will be black from the flames of the cutting torch.

Mason is pricy from what I understand but I am unable to give exact numbers. I worked at KI for a long time but work full time elsewhere nearby coming from just outside Wilmington Ohio which is about....45 mins away.

Look! Over there! A diversion!

Welcome to KIC. Anything is possible...if you want it badly enough. Terp, working in DC for $3.09 an hour (always tell the truth...)

I can't find the link for the life of me, but it was mentioned somewhere online that Cedar Fair and Triotech (may be? are?) making an announcement towards the beginning of the week of IAAPA. Hmm...

And give it two years....it will be pink. If it stays on the coaster. Chang liked to shed...great sheets of thin yellow paint rained down...one of which made its way to Pat Koch's office!

My employer seems to think so. That's straight out of my NDA...

The red isn't a problem. It would look good on the track. It would look good on the supports. As long as another color were involved. The thing that makes it look bad is the lack of contrast. It's the same reason I can't stand the color scheme of Leviathan, and its track and supports are not even identical, just very similar.

Wait, you mean there's still a MySpace out there? Interesting...

You did fine! Other than leaving out the world's largest seasonal park--which you fixed. Thank you!

Back when it was called 'Flight Deck', I heard "Enjoy your ride on the the Flight Deck, the tallest, fastest, longest roller coaster with the most inversions and is the ultimate roller coaster ever built in history." No joke, I really heard this!

Well it looks like they are starting work on it, digging up some of the dirt!

...or so small we old folk can barely see it!

I think Disney's future will continue to grow and be even more successful in the future. It sounds like a total redo of the Disney Studios is happening and is rumored to have a Star Wars Land and also an expanded Toy Story area (I believe this even more since the Toy Story 4 was just announced). Epcot is getting the confirmed Frozen ride and possibly adding a screen to Soarin and that will attract not just adults but more kids to Epcot (adding additional days to your ticket and hotel stays). You have Animal Kingdom getting Avatar which if done right will be amazing and unlike anything seen before. They are also redoing Downtown Disney and will add more retail which will also help Disney's profits. This is just what is happening in Orlando not to mention what is happening at other Disney parks in the US and around the world. Disney does get flack for taking too long to build but they also are smart to spread things out so that more and more trips to Disney are planned to see what was newly added. Just we whats new is loosing stream something new is opening. They have a great product and they know that they can wait and space things out. Sometimes it reminds me of a new car and running it for all the maximum mileage you can get before getting something new. I has been working for Disney and I am sure they will continue to be really successful.

I didn't vote because I have not sampled enough of these parks to make an educated response.

That seems kinda creepy...

When I was at Carowinds a couple years ago, a ride operator instructed me, and everyone on the ride, to "Enjoy your ride on the Southern Star". I thought that was pretty crazy considering what an impossible task they were asking of us.

Well, you have to understand that for people in the greater Cincinnati area, even a snow dusting means the end of the world and people stock up on bread and milk. I wish I were kidding.

This is one of the only places that even talks about Kentucky Kingdom, hence 600,000 visitors this year

I love cows, meow meow meow!

At Geauga Lake in 04 a there was nobody in line for dominator(not a soul) and the ride op told me to walk back around cause it was CF's policy of no re-rides. They then held the train in the station since no one was there and I walked all the way around when I got on I was the only one on the train.

In line for flight deck "Enjoy your ride on flight deck. The worlds tallest and longest, Flight Deck."

^Works that way for Space Mountain too!

I like that idea, maybe theme it as the North Pole.

Maybe they can put a new basketball game there in front of where Kill Mart is, I think the park is lacking basketball games and really could use a new one. Maybe a slam dunk game. /sarcasm

I was just at WDW Resort this week. I can tell you firsthand the parks were VERY crowded. On Tuesday Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was maintaining a 2+ hour wait. And it's not even peak season. Shaggy

that would be one terrifying sleigh ride.

Don't expect as much action as we were used to on the Banshee cam. Flying Scooters can be installed in just a couple of days, if that. Even still, it's nice to be able to watch in when there is action happening.

I sense a sponsorship opportunity...The KI petting zoo..sponsored by Purrell!

My thoughts on this...In all seriousness, I loved that show 'cause it was great music from my childhood and I really hoped it would come back for another season. Oh well, it was great while it lasted. In other news, I'm glad Cirque is coming back! EDIT: I probably shouldn't have been so soon to jump to conclusions as we still don't know if The Boyz are Back will be back next year. Still, if it was just a 1-year show, my thoughts would be reflected above. If it's any consolation, I immediately thought of you when I saw that Boyz Are Back wouldn't be returning. As did I... YES!!!! I remember that & yes it was awesome (even if it was a kids show). They should open that theater back up now that the petting zoo (worst call ever on KI's part) resides in the historic amphitheater. ... and I immediately thought of Comic Book Guy when I read this (the part I colored).

@mikefehnel on Twitter: "With this first piece of the lift installed, FURY325 stands 85' tall. 240' to go until we top out!!!" Photo: Carowinds GM Michael Fehnel via Twitter