Shaggy

Those cars are long gone shaggy.... LOL, that should indicate just how much time I've spent at KI over the past 5 years... I think I average 1 visit a year now. And I can honestly say I haven't paid attention to the upcharges for a long, long time ;-)

The on-ride photo booth was a temporary one located where the remote control cars are now. The camera was located - if memory serves me - at the entrance of tunnel #2. (I think) When Adventure Express opened - there were many more effects. Virtually all are gone. Most kids today have no idea that back-in-the-day, when the train left the station, you went through a dense patch of fog and mist - and you dropped into tunnel 1 while in the fog. I think this tunnel also originally had red "flame" lights like it was burning. (It's been so long since the effects actually worked - it's hard to remember what happened when) Also, the finale "Bubba" actually used to pour water on the train as it reached the top of the final lift hill! The water/mist effects were removed (from what I was told) because of the rusting of the track and components. I do know that back when Face/Off (Invertigo) was built, the track out of the station to tunnel #1 was replaced. This was when the "mist" effect (which had already been reduced to a shell of it's former self) dissapeared for good. I distinctly recall the replacement track being in the KI parking lot next to the Face/Off track which was awaiting assembly. Finally, I was also told that the budget for effects was cut when AE was being built. There were more effects planned - along the lines of Phantom Theatre (Which was themed by the same company) but the budget got slashed and things like a large animatronic snake and bubbling lava pit were cut from the final ride. Shaggy

Fountaine Ferry Park closed because of issues related to racial unrest. Unfortunately, not much has changed in that regard as one of the main complaints against KK was always based upon race. Just sayin'...

Mr Hart must have forgotten that he SOLD Kentucky Kingdom to Premier Parks and chose to walk away when it was what he considers "highly successful." He fails to remind folks that he added large attraction after attraction by purchasing them on "time" - incurring debt that he passed on to his predecessors. You cannot operate a highly successful park without paying those debts. One thing I'll hand Holiday World - they install what they can pay for. Ed Hart is a shrewd business man, but he's not one I'd ever trust. His article wreaks of a high-pressure bully businessman. I find it amusing that he makes pleas to the Louisville public to question the intentions of local government... when in reality he's just ****ed he didn't get a chance to buy, and sell, the park again. Holiday World is no doubt going to focus on developing Bluegrass Boardwalk (ummmm.... BOARDWALK) as a waterpark. It's what Holiday World knows best... does best... and it's what they know will quickly become a cash cow. Add a pool and you get Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa and the kiddos. Add a coaster and you get the attention of teenagers. (Enthusiast community excluded of course ;-)

I can't imagine that CP/Engineers couldn't work the coaster around Space Spiral... rather I think the execs feel SS no longer serves a purpose. CP has always been pretty transparent in their installs. When they start "working on an area" - shifting rides or revitalizing nearby attractions - you can bet they are making way for a coaster. Hence I think that the initial thought of a coaster taking DT's spot has been in the works for sometime. Re-development of the area no doubt cast a speculative eye on the usefulness of SS... Thus last year CP got a version of WindSeeker which, more or less, serves the same purpose as the Spiral in a much more modern/marketable way. I am one of those old schoolers that rode DT prior to it being enclosed. I rode the year it opened as Avalanche run and distinctly recall being dissapointed with it. When Avalanche Run opened, people waited for hours in excruciatingly hot sun reflecting off the water (long before the park began covering queues and using fan misters.) The benefit of it being enclosed and turned into DT was that you no longer baked in the sun waiting for it. But enclosed or not, the ride never was a redeemable one. You wait(ed) eons for a coaster that never delivers - it's just eh. Finally, I never thought of it as a "family" coaster - it wasn't built to be a "family attraction." When it opened, it was promoted as a big-bad new coaster - so imagine the dissapointment it held. I always considered it a rare mis-step by CP that originally predicted it to be more thrilling than it turned out. Heck, Falfas was embarassed of the ride from the start. As for WildCat - seems to me that removal was not pre-meditated. I would suspect it simply reached the end of it's maintenance life and the cost of maintaining overrode it's validity as an attraction. Wildcat was not marketable, the new nightime show is. Both are geared to families - so I dont think the park sees the loss of Wildcat as a loss to the family attractions - rather a trade off. In addition, Wildcat is easily replacable. It wouldn't surprise me to see CP install a small mouse-type ride to up the coaster ante - I don't expect it, but it wouldn't surprise me. Ultimately, a ride or attraction must be markatable, viable, and crowd-drawing. Parks must survey if the turnstyles "turns" warrant a ride's upkeep and real-estate value. DT, SS and WC obviously do not meet those requirements.

Having just viewed some of the pictures from the new Soak City refurb and the new entrance to the waterpark - I've decided it's high time KI build a new main gate. What many may not know is that while still under the "Paramount" moniker, there was an initiative by execs at the park to scrap the main gate and build a new one. For various reasons, that never materialized, and thus today we still have the aging original. Now I am sure there are purists who will say "NO! DON'T! It's original to the park... we'd lose the International Restaraunt space" etc etc. However I have to say, that front gate is an eyesore in my book. It's terribly outdated and since the upstairs serves little to no purpose, a new fresher look is long overdue. Now the Soak City entrance is VERY Cedar Fair. If you look at the entrance gates they've refurbed for the Cedar Fair Parks over the years - Cedar Point, Dorney and now the new KI Soak City entrance - they all have the same "look." Quite honestly, I'd love to see something a bit more extravagant and condusive to KI in place of the boring 1970's brown box-o-shingles currently there. So I am curious - do others agree with my sentiments? What would you like to see in a new main entrance? Shaggy

I personally would liken the start of the ride program of Delirium to the start of Shake,Rattle & Roll. There's a slow turning with an outward thrust not unlike that of a scrambler (but not as violent.) Overall, however, the spinning factor is virtually obsolete once the more agressive swinging begins. I am fairly sensitive these days to intense spinning... but I've never had an issue with it on Delirium. However I do have friends who are more sensitive to spinning motions that have ridden it and complained that it did bother them. Delirium ranks as one of the best rides in the park IMO, so it's a don't miss for me. As far as Firehawk - I've noticed that people shorter than me seem to enjoy the ride more. I am a tall beefy guy - 6'3" 210lbs - and I find the ride confining and uncomfortable. Specifically, the way the seat back is molded there's a "bump" that falls dead in the center of my back. Also, as others have mentiones, there's a jerkiness to it. I have ridden all the Vekoma Flyers and each and everyone causes the blood to rush to my head - although I always feel like I am dangling by my ankles. Some are big fans of Firehawk - but for me it's not an enjoyable ride. But then, these days, I don't like my coasters to be as intense as I did when I was, say, 20.

You know Coney Island (Not counting Sunlite Pool and Lake Como) was only about 1/3 the size of Kings Island. It was not a "big" park at all. The fact that it didn't have room to expand contributed (although not as greatly as the flooding) to the closure and move to KI.

Pond was removed in the early 1990s to re-route the exit and make it handicap accessible, as well as it being deemed unsanitary. Vortex was built years before the pond was removed. It was also at this time that the 4th queue house was removed. (Yes The Beast originally had 4 queue houses.) Shaggy

Obviously using the undeveloped land left from the demolition of Opryland - which never should have been demolished to begin with. Nashville is in dire need of an attraction of this sort... and with Dolly behind it, it will (hopefully) be a success.

Disney parks have the backing of a largely successful studio/media/merchandise operation providing the means for highly themed rides. Kings Island had a (albeit smaller) version of that at one point - and we saw the most expensive and most heavily themed rides in their history. There are many factors as to why KI is not, nor ever was, on par with the Disney experience. Ultimately it boils down to one thing... the financial pockets aren't deep enough. Comparing the two is futile. It's like comparing the financial and marketing resources of Skyline to McDonalds. Shaggy

KI is the only park in the world... tmk... that has ever owned/operated 3 Huss Giant rides. -Skylab (Huss Giant Enterprise) -Tomb Raider/Crypt (Huss Giant Top Spin) -Delirium (Huss Giant Frisbee) Of course only two operated at the park simultaniously... and all 3 have had a bevvy of mechanical downtime issues. Shaggy

Eagles... definitely. And I say that as someone that didn't ride them. (One of the very few rides I was scared of!) The biggest mis-step in KI history was the removal of the Antiques and Eagles for a junky looking coaster that delivers about 10% of it's original intended thrill. If I were made GM, the first thing I'd do is scrap Stunt Coaster and return that area of the park to it's original state.

Wow, the park is pretty much unrecognizable from these pics! It's amazing how time has changed things.

To me, the more interesting part of the story occurred after the Bluegrass Boardwalk vote. Seems the Fair Board held a closed door meeting where the "future" of Mr Harold Workman (CEO of Kentucky Fair and Expo) was discussed. Now, I'm a layman... but if I had to guess... I'd speculate that the decision to move forward with the park initiative somehow directly involves to the removal of Workman. One could "assume" that the Governor, State and Fairboard have had enough of Mr Workmans "involvement." http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120223/NEWS01/302230038/Kentucky-State-Fair-board-seeks-succession-plan-Harold-Workman

B&M invert... without a doubt.

There's so much more to this story than the press will ever reveal. First, Al J. Schneider inc owns and operates both the Crowne Plaza suites and Galt House hotel located here in Louisville. The Crowne Plaza used to be the Executive Inn... and is the large hotel right next to the park. Seems *correct* that the hotel would want to invest in an attraction to help boost their revenue. However, its no secret among business folk in downtown Louisville that Schneider has reduced staff consecutively for years now. Employees of both hotels have seen drastic layoffs, paycuts, and severly reduced hours all with explanations that the company's reduced revenue has restricted their ability to re-invest in their staff. Now, that's not unique to the travel industry, and understandable in hard economic times. Maybe I am naive, but IMO, it might be more prudent for Ms Moseley to make monetary ammends within the confines of her own company's infrastructure before she goes promising monies to outside sources. Because of the close proximity and interest in the Fairgrounds success, one would have to assume that Mosely and her company have a very "vested interest" in the ammenities of the KFEC. That means they have to keep close ties to Workman. As a layman, It would seem Harold Workman is working every angle he can to try and re-open the park as a self-serving move. He's probably feeling lots of pressure to get the park re-opened by his board, financial advisors, and probably political advisors. I understand that pressure, however I think resulted in Workman relaying something that now seems "false." When SF first walked away, didn't he say several other operators were interested in taking over KK and they had their pick of companies to run KK? Or am I making that up in my own head? If so, I'm not so sure that was true. Within months Hart, a former "partner" with Workman and the KFEC, was on the scene and announced as the possible lead operator. It took time, but one would have to assume that the state eventually saw the potential "partnership" between Workman and Hart as concerning. Ultimately choosing to decline Hart's push to take the reigns. The State, Workman and Hart have now parted ways (apparently not so amicably), and ultimately the situation is no different than it was when SF backed out. However, now the public is hearing that the Koch family is being persued to oversee operations. If this is true, then why is the Farigrounds/State pursuing someone? What about all those other interested operators of which Workman said they had a pick? Ultimately, it's all too messy at this point. It's all coming from what appears to be a desperate place... do or die time. It's my opinion that if the state wants KK back open (and at this point, I don't think they do) then Workman and the KFEC should be pulled from the scenario and Franfort alone should strike the deals. However, I don't see the park ever re-opening at this point, and they'd be better served salvaging and auctioning what remanants are still viable for sale. The state has too many other, more pressing, issues than re-opening an amusement park that has a checkered operational past. Shaggy *Disclaimer* The above is stated only as opinion from a 12 year Louisville resident's personal observations.

Diamond Falls at KD was indeed the same version as KI's. (I believe they were both Intamin shoot-the-shoots.) The main difference was simply that it was an earlier version and the water pumping system was a bit different. In addition, the curve after the drop on DF was covered by a small building and you went through a "Diamond Shaft" of sorts. The ride was always hard to find in the park and had a low ridership soon after it opened. In final years, it experienced downtime due to severe leaks in the trough. It was removed, the land filled in, and IJST was built on it's former site. Diamond Falls has the distinction of being one of the first rides in which KD "filled in" part of Lake Charles to install. Years following, the lake became more and more reduced for installs (most notably the waterpark addition) and now exists only as a small "pond" in which Anaconda dives. Once upon a time, it covered the entire back half of KD and was so big, they held water ski shows on it. It was a beautiful feature in the park, much like the Antiques were at KI... ahhh, the past... Shaggy

By use of the word "stubbly", are you describing a man who hasn't shaved for the day, or do you mean actually having a trimmed beard? If you meant that a man having not shaved *could* appear unkempt, then I would agree with you - but only to an extent. However, if you think having a beard is unprofessional, then I couldn't disagree more. Having a beard has NOTHING to do with one's professionalism. Having an unruly appearance could cause someone to have an unbased impression of you, but it does not determine one's capability. In Disney's case, they hire Cast Members as though they were auditioning for a show. Thus I agree that there are certain positions that probably lend themselves to being clean shaven - just as there are those that lend themselves to having facial hair. For instance, the fellows that sing in the Barbershop quartet on Main Street. Their having a mustache lends itself to the part, does it not? Or what about the Jungle Cruise Boat Captains? Or the Country Bear Jamboree Show Coordinators? Or Splash Mountain Ride Attendants? Seems to me a rugged look better fits the "part." Actually, I think the cast members in the Adventureland/Frontierland areas of the park always looked out of place by BEING clean shaven and neat and tidy. Now a cast member working a Fantasyland attraction, such as It's a Small World, or Winnie the Pooh etc would probably be better served being clean shaven IMO. Why? Because small children can perceive men with facial hair as being stern or intimidating. I feel those attractions should be cast with those having a gentler appearance with no seperation between their face and the child's eyes. I speak to this due to personal experience. I happen to hold the record as the first Disney Store Cast Member in this region to ever be allowed to have a beard. Many years ago, I worked the Disney Store as a sideline kick. I left the store after two years of hard work, only to be asked to return/assist during busier holiday times. In the time since I had left the position, I had grown a full beard and was unwilling to shave clean. Because of my "professionalism" and high former cast member ranking, I was welcomed back with open arms and told I could keep the beard as long as I kept it trimmed within a certain length. I made sure it was kept tidy and trimmed as to not appear sloppy and I worked another season WITH the beard. Bottom line... I disagree with any *possible* sentiments that someone having facial hair is "unprofessional." Heck, even Santa, Abe Lincoln, and Uncle Walt himself would agree with me. Shaggy - (but not a shaggy beard ;-)

Quite frankly, IMO the whole idea behind this was silly. I made it through about 5 minutes and had to turn. Good to see the park on TV? I suppose. But utterly ridiculous to have "ghost hunters" predictibly arriving in the haunted house looking for scary noises. Sheesh

Happy belated New Year to all! So, I was going to post these on New Years Day, but as fate would have it, Photobucket wouldn't cooperate. My gift to each of you fellow Ki fans is something you may find interesting. 12 years ago, I began photo documenting the construction of Son of Beast. I have pics from the very first footers, to the announcement, to final construction, to the first test runs, and finally opening day. There's lots of pics, all taken by me. I hope you enjoy. Please don't post these to other sites without asking me for consent. After all, I did all the dirty work ;-) First, here's a look at construction from start to finish: http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/i475/jhnktr/Son%20of%20Beast%20Construction%20-%20PKI/ Here's pics from the announcement: (look closely and you'll see Jeff Siebert (This was prior to his being hired by PKI, which happened just weeks after this event!) as well as Don Helbig (Long prior to his joinging KI Marketing.) http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/i475/jhnktr/Son%20of%20Beast%20Announcement%20PKI/ Here's the infamous SOB crate: http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/i475/jhnktr/Son%20of%20Beast%20Crate%20-%20PKI/ Here's ultra rare pics of the first ever riders on SOB. This happened on Easter Sunday 2000. The first riders included Tim Fisher, then GM of the park, along with engineers and other Paramount Park Execs. http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/i475/jhnktr/Son%20of%20Beast%201st%20test%20run%20with%20riders%20-%20PKI/ Finally, heres pics from SOB's opening day. These were taken Friday evening following the media event. After the media event in the morning, the track was ripped out and replaced in the ascent following the large drop. The coaster openened for a few hours on Friday evening, then was closed for sometime as the entire track in that area was considered "too violent." http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/i475/jhnktr/Son%20of%20Beast%20Opening%20Day%20-%20PKI/ I hope you enjoy them. This was a fun time in my coaster life. Lots of friends and memories were made during this time. Let me know what you think ;-) Shaggy aka John

Actually, I don't think the clock was present in 1972... it wasn't installed until the mid-1970s.

You know, in general, haunted houses never truly scared me. (Although the *ending* of the one at Indiana Beach gave me a thrill) I just don't frighten from people jumping out, screaming, or fake bloody body parts etc. However, the thing about a haunted house that DOES scare me is the possibility of things going wrong - namely fire. Haunted Houses are NOTORIOUS for fires and disaterous outcomes due to them. So when I have gone through them in the past I always stayed concered with where the exits were. Shaggy

What many don't know is that most of the Phantom Theatre figures hands and heads were actually latex masks or "shells" over plastic frames. (Those with moving parts within the facial features and hands used latex shells. Those without were made of hard fiberglass/plastic.) Latex breaks down over time, and thus those using shells/masks simply melted over the years. In the early years, when the attraction was kept in it's best condition, the park would contact AVG (AVG was the company that provided the animatronic characters and effects for the ride) to supply replacement masks/hands for the figures as they "melted." AVG had molds of the original ride design clay sculptures. When contacted by KI, they would pull out the approriate molds and pour in liquid latex. After that, exanding foam spray (yes the type you can buy at Lowes for insulation purposes) filled the center. Once cured, the mold was opened and each mask/part was hand painted by an artist according to the original character design specs by R&R Animations. (R&R Animations designed the concept/story/characters for the ride.) The foam sprayed in the center had formed a stiff "core" (similar to those styrofoam heads that wigs are stored on) that enabled the artist ease in painting. The masks, once complete, were shipped to KI still on the foam heads. The maintenance team at KI then removed the masks from the foam core and replaced the deteriorating ones. This was a costly expense - and eventually the park cut the budget for it. Thus Phantom Theatre suffered and became a shell of it's former self. Quite frankly, those that only experienced Phantom Theatre in the last 4 or 5 years of it's life really only saw half original attraction. The first time I rode Phantom Theatre (June 1992 - inaugural year) I was absolutely astounded at it's quality. But then over the years effect after effect kept dissapearing. Many of the Phantom Theatre figures were in dissaray by the time the attraction closed. When I toured Phantom Theatre on foot (the last year it was open) many of the costumes on the figures had been ruined by melted/dripping latex over the years. (Not to mention just general dirt and filth) There was a maintenance bay in the show building where the replacement parts were stored. They literally had dozens of the foam heads and old deteriorated shells/masks laying around. How any of the shells/masks have survived this long is beyond me - especially since the figures have been used outside in the weather for a few season now. However, even if they had been stored in a climate controlled environments they would not have lasted. The outside elements, no doubt, are greatly speeding their demise, but ultimately nothing lasts forever. Think of them like a plastic Halloween costume stored in an attic - over time they simply dont last. Here's some photos I took just after they began disassembling Phantom Theatre. The pictures actually make the figures look pretty good. However, in person it was a different story - they were in bad shape. Shaggy

How horrible for those animals... first they spent their lives in captivity, then when uncaged they are gunned down. Terrible :-(