Shaggy

I did some spring cleaning and decided to part ways with a really cool Kings Island item. It's the remote control Italian Job:Stunt Track car that I was sent as an invitation to the media day opening of the coaster. It was originally sent in a box that had the invitation printed on the side of it. US Mail ruined the box by the time it arrived at my place the week prior to the media event. I had no choice but to remove it, toss the invite box and keep the car. I put it on Ebay if someone is interested. It's been collecting dust on a shelf for years. It's a fun item, and I loved having it, but I am downsizing. Ebay seemed the fairest way to offer it to those that would cherish it as a part of their personal KI collection rather than just use it as a "toy." http://cgi.ebay.com/...=STRK:MESELX:IT

Like Zoinks! Jinkeez... I thought I was being set up for a brawl LOL Not sure how I feel about KI dropping Scooby and Shaggy from the park. Time marches on I guess... but it just doesn't seem right for KI to not have the characters present in some form. Believe it or not, I have never been a huge adult fan of Scooby Doo. It was my favorite cartoon as a kid, but I don't regularly follow it. I do not care for the newer Scooby Doo cartoons at all. I loved the originals, and they could still hold my attention. However I completely lost interest once they introduced Scrappy Doo in the late 1970s-early 1980s. Scooby Doo completely jumped the shark and suffered from cousin oliver syndrome with that one. As far as this new ride theme... it's fine. Kids will still love it :-) Shaggy

What I recall about the Linder days is that both KI and KD lost a lot of their original charm. MANY, MANY, MANY rides were removed and the parks fell into a general state of disrepair and uncleanliness.

Actually, I disagree. The Adventure Village theming was horrible. The area just prior to the switch to Action Zone was the absolute eyesore section of the park. However, they never should have done away with the original Wild Animal Habitat theming. There's a huge difference between those two. Shaggy You might need to refresh my memory of the differences... I was just referring to "Adventure Village" meaning the WAH area but without the animals. The architecture, colors, signage, and landscaping of the area is what stands out in my mind. How much changed between the animals leaving and Action Zone's debut? The area has had several different names.... Wild Animal Safari, Wild Animal Habitat, Adventure Village and Action Zone. Wild Animal Safari was the name in early years. The area was pretty barren with a bird show ampitheatre, gift shop, food stand, sit down eatery, and of course the Lion Country Safari Monerail. You entered by crossing a wooden bridge over a nice flowing stream that meandered through the area. As the years progressed, the area was expanded and included animal attractions such as an aviary, elephant walk and petting zoo. Screamin Demon was added late 1970's and a series of eleaborate ponds and waterfalls dotted the landscaping. In the early 1980s, the King Cobra took the place of the elephant walk and the ponds were expanded. The stream under the entrance bridge was extended to flow under the helix of the Cobra with a water geiser that shot everytime a train passed. At this time, the park called the area the Wild Animal Habitat... mostly because of the addition of amusement attractions and additional animal attractions outside of the monerail. There were beautiful live parrotts sitting on palm trees scattered throughout the area. Eventually Amazon Falls (now congo) took the place of the Demon, but the new ride still adhered to the landscaping and theme. From about 1984 until 1990 the area was a beautiful and complimentary section to the park. It was the best this area of the park ever looked. It was very well done. Enter Paramount By 1993 Top Gun was in and the animals out. (It's important to remember that the suspended coaster that became Top Gun was slated to be installed in the same area at Ki prior to the Paramount takeover. Paramount didn't design or contract the ride. The leaders under the Carl Linder ownership did. Once Paramount bought out the parks they themed the attraction to Top Gun using a Paramount Studios Set Designer to design the station queue. There's been several rumors as to it's original name over the years. I've heard "Raven", "Falcon" and other bird names tossed around but never confirmed.) The parrots and palm trees never again appeared, in their place was a model of the Starship Enterprise (no joke.) The habitat animals were given pink slips by the end of the 1993 season. The park had plans drawn up by PPD&E (Paramount Parks Design and Engineering) for a potential attraction called "Movierail." It would have used the old Safari Monerail to take guests past displays of old Paramount movie sets. Instead of Bengal Tigers, you might have passed a recreation of the Brady Bunch house or and animatronic recreation of the finale to Grease. (The idea actually manifested itself in a much smaller form... the walkthrough Paramount Gardens.) Obviously the Movierail concept was nixed in favor of the Days Of Thunder Simulator so for 1994, the Monerail station was demolished and the land it vacated was simply fenced in all season. Yep, a big wooden fence ran right down the middle of the Adventure Village midway. (The monerail trains sat in storage for years and years behind that fence. ) Also in 1994, the stream running from the Cobra's helix over to Amazon Falls was drained and filled in although the geiser still remained and operated sporadically (?!) The wooden entrance footbridge you once crossed was ripped out for an expanded entrance and one of those little Paramount themed infomation kiosks. The kiosk housed Tom Cruise's Pilot costume from Top Gun. In 1995, the area was re-named "Adventure Village" and consisted of Cobra, Top Gun and Amazon Falls. In the early summer of 1995, the Skyflyer (originally called Drop Zone... confused yet?) was added as the centerpiece, eleminating half the wooden fence in the area and the food stand next to it closed. It sat dormant for about 3 years until it opened to sell smoothies in 1998. (The stand bit the dust the following year for Drop Zone.) I'll never forget the shock I felt when I saw the area for the first time in 1995. It was hideous. It was very much ignored for about 5 years. The buildings literally had their wooden shingles falling off and all the shrubbery was allowed to overgrow. 1999 brought Drop Zone, Face Off, a water tower and lots of concrete and bright colors as Action Zone. All those missing shingles were replaced with sheet metal, or had their buildings demolished altogether. King Cobra almost bit it when the re-theme happened but was kept at the last minute... as a result, the KC sounvenir shop was converted into a food stand. And you exited KC via a narrow fenced path behind the food stands dumpster. LOL. Cobra was again on the chopping block in 2001, and in 2002 was finally given the ax. Ironically, it was originally destined to be removed to make room for a flying coaster... that KI passed on... that went to SFWOA instead... that was bought by Cedar Point... that closed it... and then moved the flying coaster to KI. But I digress.... Action Zone is miles above the sad "Adventure Village" theming. It was a welcome change, and a nice refreshening to the most neglected part of the park. However I'll always wonder what the area it might have been like had the Paramount Days not occurred. In all reality, the park might have ceased to exist had Paramount not stepped in. The Linder days were not the best years. Given all the options, if I could choose, I go with #2. ;-)

I seem to recall them planting some trees in Diamondback's area... (but not in Firehawk's... so we're one for one.) Whoa, you're kidding right? I mean I love Diamondback, but man o man they did a number on Rivertown. They must have removed 500 trees for it's install. My only gripe about Diamondback is the sacrificing of the pond and trees surrounding it. But then it is the most amazing coaster KI has put in since Vortex (IMO.) I suppose an omelet needs some broken eggs. ;-) Shaggy

Actually, I disagree. The Adventure Village theming was horrible. The area just prior to the switch to Action Zone was the absolute eyesore section of the park. However, they never should have done away with the original Wild Animal Habitat theming. There's a huge difference between those two. Shaggy

I am sure you were just having fun fantasizing... and not to burst your bubble... buuuut... You won't see Cedar Fair planting many trees in any of their parks. Quite the opposite actually. I expect when they bought KI, they deemed Action Zone as the area most fitting their "style." Shaggy

My favorite sensory experiences at KI are as follows: Taste - Frozen bananna and strawberry smoothie from the Paradise Island stand. Touch - I love the shape and feel of Diamondback's seats and restraints. I have always said, long before Diamondback, that I wanted a B&M Hyper seat for my living room. Sight - International Street still causes my heart to race. Sound - It WAS the live band organ that no longer plays on the Carousel. Man I miss that - a HUGE fopaw on KI's part for not having that operational. Smell - The hot grease smell from the chain on Beast or Racer Shaggy

LOL, I have lots of fun little tid bits like that. Here's another: Because of the sensitvity of the guests, crews had to use code talk to communicate things like the ride going down, an undersized child attempting to board, storm in the area etc. For instance, "Happy Birthday." Back in the day, when an extremely overweight person would attempt to board The Beast, it could be a very awkward and embarassing situation. Mainly because ride ops were required to have the lap bar click 2 times on all passengers before sending a train and the guest may not "fit." To try and lessen the embarassment of a looming situation involving the guest struggling to fit in the car, a code called "Happy Birthday" was used. The person operating the panel in the drivers booth or those ops manning the unload side of Beast would say "Happy Birthday" to one of the two load side ops. They'd then signal a number with their fingers... such as 21 or 43. The load side ride op would then know to go to gate 2-1 (car two, seat 1) or 4-3 (car 4, seat 3) in between trains to break the ice with the person and explain we were required to get two "clicks" and they may not fit. This diffused what could be a bad situation and gave large guests the opportunity to avoid the public struggle with the lap bar. The same was true of undersized kids... which the signal "Munchkin" was used. "Voban" was a signal used from time to time. What, you may ask, is Voban? Click here... http://catalog.clean...itemno=VOBAN-01 Shaggy

I was actually on Beast crew when this was filmed. I believe it was filmed either the day of, or day before the SOB announce. If I recall, the SOB crate was placed there on Saturday, had the rattling tested by Sunday, and the stage was in place by Wednesday. I believe the announcement was on Thursday July 8th around noon... I was lucky enough to be there. SOB's announcement day was chock full of iconic moments. It was the first time I ever saw Jeffrey Siebert, who didn't work at the park (just yet.) It was the day that the head of PR was fired and escorted out of the park immediately after the horrific media announce. It was momentous because a seemingly disctracted and rambling Montel Williams was the emcee... (and I am still scratching my head over THAT one) and a week later he announced he was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. It was also the first time I ever saw people take pictures of a tv screen in the blazing sun. LOL FYI, being on The Beast crew in 1999 gave me a leg up on exactly what was going on and that they were calling the new coaster Son of Beast. I saw the crate in action prior to the announce while working the ride that weekend. However I found out they were building a giant wooden coaster the year prior when I was on the OL:FOF crew. Several times, park officials and maintenance would cut through the FOF hanger to head out to the survey area for SOB's rosebowl. One day I simply asked one of them... "What are you guys doing over there?" He said: "Prepping to build a giant wooden coaster." That's how I found out about Sonny. In the video, there's a giveaway that it's an early morning run for The Beast. The ride was not even warmed up. You can tell by how low it is on the 2nd lift before the chain engages. On a really good day, the lead car would far surpass the maintenance access platform. For those young-ins on here that may not know this, here's a bit of Beast trivia for you. Prior to safety cameras, The Beast had crew members that were rotationally stationed to monitor the lifts. On lift #2, you pass 2 small deck like areas on the right. One near the bottom of the lift and another about half-way up. They appear to be a stairway/maintenance access, which they are. But the 2nd one wasn't originally built just for that purpose. For years and years, that was a lift lookout position and a crew member would sit there to watch the chain climb the lift. It was such a boring spot, that crew members were sometimes allowed a book to read while stationed there. They just had to put it down when a train began the ascent. The position was jokingly called the "suntan spot." I.E. When the crew was rotated, the crew leader would say "Jane, go get a suntan..." and Jane went to that position. When the cameras were placed on the ride, that negated the need for the position. A sign was put in it's place as well as a recording played over a still-present bullhorn loudspeaker that said. "CAUTION: Keep arms and hands inside the vehicle, remain seated at all times. CAUTION: Keep arms and hands inside the vehicle, remain seated at all times. CAUT..." well, you get the idea ;-) Shaggy

The Beast video is from 1999.

The Vortex on-ride was recorded in 1994. Action Theater is there, the Skyflyer is not (added in early 1995.) Shaggy

Those two videos are significant for two specific reasons... 1. In the Adventure Express video, you can clearly see the construction area for Outer Limit:Flight of Fear. The concrete pad/footers had been poured. This confirms my earlier post that the videos were recorded in 1995. 2. In The Racer video, the coaster still retains it's final bunny hop into the brake run. It was unnecessarily removed once OL:FOF was built. Shaggy

I still miss King Cobra. It was by far the most enjoyable stand-up I've ever ridden.... and I've ridden a bunch. It was, when first installed, a beautifully picturesque ride. Those that only saw it when it was a part of Action Zone have no idea how well that coaster fit into the original Safari theming. I'll never forget seeing and riding it for the first time in 1984. It seemed so state of the art then, yet was immaculately blended into it's surroundings. BTW, the date of the video is circa 1995. How so? The Skyflyer is there, but Outer Limits Flight of Fear was not. Shaggy

SFKK was indeed going to expand the waterpark. There was nothing underhanded in the plan to expand it, nor was it a shell to remove Chang. Actual renderings and site plans had been completed and submitted to the state for the expansion. Even Mr Workman (PRes of the State Fair board) saw the plans. Shaggy

Bingo! We have a winner!

http://www.wfpl.org/...start-in-march/ (that last statement is certainly an understatement!) I'm sure Mr Workman also has a few acres of land in Florida he'd like to sell... There's probably been inquiries... but little else. It WREAKS of political posturing to me, he's trying to save face by throwing a bone to the public. Oh, and if anyone believes a new "park" can be open for the 2010 season then I have some land in Florida to sell them. ;-) The brewing argument of who owns the contents of the park itself will tie this thing up in court for quite some time. If Shapiro is feeling evil enough, he could send in the bulldozers next week. But something tells me his silence since the initial announcement, as well as the non-activity on the site are doing all the talking for him. The Mayor and Mr. Workman are on the news virtually every day scrambling around trying to come up with "solutions" and making statements such as the above. SF just refers people back to their intial crafted closure statement. (Which explicitly says many of the rides would be relocated.) The mere suggestion that another operator could just move in, hire staff, fire up the rides and make everything hunky dorey by May demonstrates that Mr. Workman either A.) Is completely out of touch with the reality of what it takes to operate an amusement facility, B.) is completely ignorant when it comes to the legalities of who own the properties and the time it will take to sort that out, or C.) he's full of S&%t. Guess which one I'm leaning towards... Shaggy

Good luck with that. They shot themselves in the foot with their arrogance. These local bureaucrats trying to squeeze every nickel out of their businesses is only hurting them in the long run. I agree... both Abramson and Workman are tremendously arrogant, Workman has a history of being very difficult with tenants of the Fairgrounds. The monies obtained from SFKK's lease, as well as parking were not used to better Louisville. That money went straight to Frankfort and using Workmans own words "Funded the Fair Board." Hmmmm... the Fairground was recently under investigation due to the health and safety board finding deteriorating facilities as well as extreme violations in the concession areas. Trust me, it was horrifically gross. (Don't ever buy anything deep-fried from the permanent food booths at the Fair.) So I guess we can rule out the money being used to keep the fairgrounds rat and roach free. On the flip side, Shapiro is no saint either. He's the head of SF and seems to have an arrogance of his own. But he's calling the shots on this one. The public statements being made by Workman and Abramson are just face talk... trying to downplay the furor facing them. As far as finding another operator for the waterpark... yeah right. Not if it's levelled. I bet Shapiro is already ordering the bulldozers. Shaggy

Mayor speaks out, says there's nothing that can be done, SFKK is closed. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100205/BUSINESS/2050349/Abramson+“shocked”+by+Kentucky+Kingdom+closing

I happened to get in touch with a contact on the State Fair Board. As of this morning, it seems that it's all a done deal and SFKK will be removed. The way they put it, both sides are prepared to walk away as the relationship has not been amicable for sometime. They blame a lack of revenue and attendace for SFKK's inability to meet lease options. In other words, losses were predicted for the park this season that would have prevented the parks ability to make the lease and restructure. The removal of signage continues. It's all the buzz here in Louisville... and as of now most fingers are pointing at the State Fair Board and Jerry Abramson (Mayor.) But I think it goes much deeper than that. It's been clear that Shapiro has never liked SFKK and considered it a mis-directed eyesore from the time he took the reigns. I expect when push came to shove a few years ago, Shapiro recognized that they needed to completely redirect the park to become an actual profit center. Thus the initial directive to focus on the waterpark. Some here on the message board insist that SFKK was profitable... it was only mildly so and only recently. Debts incurred by it's purchase were paid off only within the past 7 years or so. Those huge debts came from the initial purchase from Ed Hart, the local Louisville businessman that built Kentucky Kingdom into a "large park." (It had been owned prior and operated as a kiddie park.) He installed HUGE rides in the park right and left season after season, but did so paying "on time." He then sold out to Premier... not Six Flags. Premier then bought Six Flags and began the branding process only to incurr the large debts owed ride manufacturers and overspend while brading parks. Several of the rides in KK, when purchased by Premier, were actually being "rented" from manufacturers like Chance and Vekoma. Initially Premier had desired to own many parks, brand them all SF and operate them all as a huge entity. They quickly realized that they had to operate each park on it's own merit, as they could not continue to rob Peter to pay Paul... or rob SFGAm to pay SFWOA. As a result, the SF parks started operating as their own profit center. SFKK was a low profit park, and suffered year after year without new installs and dwindling upkeep. The small parks that had been branded/overexpanded could not support themselves and immediately began to falter thus SFWOA, SF Astroworld, SFDL, SFA, SFEG and more to come. In the meantime, operating costs at KK escalated to the point of necessitating changes to park operations that crippled attendance. They shut rides, limited operating hours, sold rides, shortened the operating calendar, and failed to entice others through new installs. At the worst time possible, the Lassiter accident occurred scaring even more locals from attendance. Finally, SFKK is on the "bus line" and a couple of gang related incidents at the park have scared familes away. It's well known (although it's not pc to mention) that a certain dynamic of teen clientelle made the park miserable and avoidable on weekends and evenings. KK has been plagued with issues from it's inception. The Lassiter incident was not the only accident in the park that prompted attraction removals. Starchaser and Vampire were both removed due to ride incidents covered by the news media. There was a very ugly public divide when KK purchased and demolished low income housing on Crittenden Drive to build Twisted (then) Sisters. Many low income families were displaced and given little notice of the loss of their homes, ultimately it cleaned up the area. There was always the ongoing fight over the height variance at the park. Twisted (then) Sisters lies just 3 feet below the flight path for the airport. The loss of rides and attractions at SFKK over a 10 year period is staggering. Off the top of my head I know of 17. By comparison, they have installed only 6, 3 of which are waterslides and one is an upcharge. Had the park not closed, T2 and Twisted Twins were due to be removed during the 2010-2011 off season. I know this for a fact. I believe that when Shapiro submitted a feasible, yet drastically reduced, lease option to the State Fair, it obviously allowed the park the funds to remodel/re-structure the park into a waterpark. Such a change would have reduced the operating season even more, thus an immense discounted lease was imperative. The State Fair balked, thinking SF would have no option than to agree to continue to operate as is. They can't, so as of this morning, the plug is still being pulled. It's pretty easy to see what has happened at the park. IMO it's sad that the park is likely being demolished, but it's also not a huge loss.

Don't be surprised what a difference a week can make... ;-)

I don't think anyone at SF ever dreamed of re-locating rides to other parks by the opening of the 2010 season. It could be a power play... a very smart one IMO... but then again it seems Shapiro has slammed the door shut, persay. The next few days will be very telling. The Mayor is in a panic, that's obvious by the news coverage. Also, the Fair Board is apparently holding emergency meetings because they, as the 11:00 news put it, "Were surprised by the news" and that they learned "via the media release." It seems the Fair had held SFKK by the nuts for so long, they failed to notice that the owners grew a new, and bigger set. As someone else pointed out... once the Cardinals leave for the new arena and if SFKK is demolished... the Fairgrounds is hosed. The loss in parking revenue alone is borderline devistating. Shaggy

Only part? It sits on 58 acres. 38 are leased from the Fair. Either way, it would be a crippling loss to the Fairgrounds. The Mayors office and State Fair Board are scrambling... it's apparent by their statements all over the local Louisville news. IMO, It could be strategic posturing on Shapiro's part... he's obviously playing hardball. But it does seem pretty certain since they've gone to the trouble of closing the website and publishing a rather detailed closure statement. This should not come as a shock to anyone, quite frankly. When a park suffers in reputation year after year, then begins an ongoing effort to remove, not operate and sell rides, not to mention operate on extremely abbreviated hours then the writing is on the wall. Shaggy

Yes, but from 0.17-0.22 it is the Arrow suspended coaster. The commercial was a conglomeration of B-roll footage from 3 parks... Kings Dominion, Great America and Kings Island. The coaster is obviously Anaconda at Dominion as is the flume, the invert is Top Gun at Great America, and the ice show/waterpark/around park footage is from KI. The footage of the riders on the suspended is green screen. They used a suspended car that had already been produced and edited in the "moving" effects. FYI, the ice show footage is a give-away because of the skater being able to turn a back-flip. He was a featured skater at KI, and had quite a fan following.

Bingo! You are a genious! Thanks for figuring this out. :-)