CoastersRZ

That is not uncommon. Remember, it is essentially a giant lightning rod. Drop Tower often gets struck as well, which is why most tall rides in amusement parks shut down when storms are near the area.

Well, the cheapest seats were selling for $45! (I was fortunate to score tickets to the dress rehearsal for free). I`m not sure I would pay $550 for a ticket, but I would definitely pay $45 again to see the show, it was that good!

I think there might have been a Cirque show at the Bank of Kentucky Center at the beginning of last year, Alegria. So the marketing maybe slightly misleading. But OVO is well worth seeing, if the Ohio River ever decides to go down!

And another casualty of the flood, the Appalachian Festival, scheduled for May 6th, 7th and 8th at Coney Island has now been canceled as well. This was typically the first weekend that the rides were open and served as dry run days for the rides employees. This is the first time in my ten seasons at Coney, that the Appalachian Festival has been canceled due to flooding.

The shows are expected to resume, on Tuesday, May 3rd. They have also added a performance on May 10th.

I agree Nemo! Also, I believe that there are some LED lights to light up the tower. I believe I saw them being placed on the topper before it was hoisted into place. And remember, there was a blog post a while back (December maybe?) saying that they tested the LED lights for WindSeeker on Drop Tower.

This is the latest in the year that the Ohio has flooded in my tenure at Coney. But of course, this one of the wettest months in Cincinnati history! And depending on the rain we get tomorrow, it could be the wettest month ever. Thankfully, the river isn`t going to go as high as it did the last time Cincinnati had its wettest month on record!

I just noticed the lights on the bottom as well! I also think that the lights will be dynamic, as in they will change colors and be animated when the ride is running! So which ride at Kings Island will look the best at night/have the best lighting package?

I agree. The lights look awesome on it! Can`t wait to ride it at night. I often like to take a spin on Zephyr or Scrambler, or Monster at night because of the lights they have. It certainly harkens back to a day when electrical lights were in their infancy and parks were lighting most of their rides with hundreds of twinkling little bulbs. Thumbs up KI/Cedar Fair for installing such a lighting package on WindSeeker!

No kidding. I filled my car up a couple weeks ago, and almost broke $60 for one tank. How many people will think twice about going to parks like Kings Island because of the cost of gas?

And things can and do happen. Like this being the wettest month on record in Cincinnati (if we get a little more rain, which is predicted). There are bound to be curveballs from time to time. I`m sure Cirque Du Soleil didn`t expect the Ohio to flood this late in April either... (In my ten seasons at Coney, it has never flooded this late in the year, and this is the second flood of the spring too!) At least the weather for Saturday looks pretty good, without that pesky liquid stuff falling from the sky for once!

But construction permits and zoning permits are not the same as operational permits. The city of Mason does not permit rides to run. That jurisdiction falls with the Department of Agriculture`s Rides Safety Division. And every ride needs to have a permit applied for every season. Every ride in the stat has a bronze plaque posted in a readily viewable location. Upon that plaque, colored stickers are placed, indicated the year that the ride is licensed to run. And the state isn`t just looking for the safety and integrity of the rides. They also are checking out the operations, ensuring that the operators are well trained, have proper paperwork documenting such things and are taking their job seriously. I speak from experience on that matter for one reason or another...

It is definitely getting down to crunch time in the eleventh hour!

The more realistic reason, is that the state minimum wage went up from $7.30 to $7.40 this year. That sounds insignificant, but when you employ thousands of workers at minimum wage for scores of hours over a four to six month period, those two dimes can add up rather quickly!

Well, sometimes on rides they run conduit up the support arms... But, yes, on other rides, like Drop Tower and WindSeeker, the arms (or in the case of those two rides, towers), are big enough for people to climb inside.

You make it sound like it's news that Coney Island is cheaper than Kings Island... Or maybe it's just an excuse to talk about Coney Island again? We get it, you work(ed) there and think it's great. But to respond to this point, what Kings Island offers is more expensive to run and maintain. If you wanted to do a breakdown on operating costs alone, I think you would find that Kings Island is a much better value. Or maybe your rose tinted glasses won't let you look at that logically. I was merely pointing out how much cheaper Coney is compared to Kings Island. Is Coney the place to go for thrill rides? Absolutely not. That is why I have a Kings Island pass. Does it cost more in maintenance costs and operating costs to run Kings Island? Definitely. I`m not disputing those facts. What I am pointing out though, is that Coney does offer their pass holders across the board discounts, which I think would be a wise move for KI and Cedar Fair to do as well. Additionally, Coney offers pass holders discounts on additional tickets to bring friends in, any day of the season. You don`t see most chain parks doing that, save for on certain days when they anticipate light attendance. I am a little confused on your argument about breaking down operating costs and saying that KI offers a much better value. What does operating costs have to do with value to the customer? Yes, I might have a little bit of an allegiance to Coney, since I`ve worked there so long. But that doesn`t prevent me from looking at things with an unbiased eye. There are things that Coney does that leaves me scratching my head at times. Have you ever visited Coney before? It is not exactly the same type of park experience or value that Kings Island caters to anyway. My point in listing the prices was not just to plug Coney again, but to offer some perspective on admission prices. For those of you who have visited Coney, it has a different overall atmosphere these days than what KI has. I don`t know if saying it has a more laid back atmosphere compared to KI is completely the correct words to describe it, but there are differences between the two parks, besides the fact that KI is the big boy in town in terms of thrills. Cincinnati is actually lucky to have a big park like Kings Island and a smaller park like Coney Island in the same town. (Not to mention other small treasures like Stricker`s Grove).

Heck, I was down at Coney until 1am this morning moving stuff from the pool area to higher ground or these ins floor if Moonlite Gardens. Fortunately the have taken a foot and a half off of the forecast, now expected to crest at 56.04 feet instead of the worse 57.5 feet they were saying last night.

More like the park being too cheap to buy the straws... I still can`t believe that the park doesn`t offer an across the board discount to pass holders. (Even Coney does that with their pass holders). I think that KI and Cedar Fair is far too concerned with the profit margin on each item sold, rather than the total profit. Ie, they are more concerned with the profit that comes from selling each individual unit at a higher price, than the overall profit that could come from selling more units at a slightly lower profit margin, but in turn making more money. Remember, per caps spending at Cedar Fair has been trending down the last year or so, while Six Flags has been trending up. Clearly, Cedar Fair doesn`t perceive anything as being out of place, as they continue to raise prices instead of correcting them to gain a higher profit.

Yep, that's correct with regards to seasonal employees. The other thing is, are the people working on WindSeeker even park employees? They may very well still be contractors. If that is the case, I'd venture to say that they ate getting paid extra to work today. The contractor likely would face some stiff financial penalties if they don't turn over the finished product by the predetermined date.

Someone mentioned Coney Island. Ticket prices for pool and rides is $21.95 per person. You can also pick and choose to do only the pool or only the rides. If you go that route, the price is $11.95. Both are unchanged from last season. Parking is $7. If you have someone in your group (say a grandparent), and you are just riding the rides and not going into the pool, the grandparent needs to pay nothing to just walk around the rides side. Those prices are significantly cheaper than KI! It is truly amazing how fast ticket prices to Kings Island have skyrocketed. Ticket prices were $28.95 in 1996.

I agree. Spiegel seemed to be purely speculating on what he thinks the park should do and was trying to dance around the subject. It is a waiting game. Unfortunately, I feel the longer Son of Beast remains inoperable, the slimmer the chances are of any portion of the ride running again. I think it goes without saying that if the ride ever reopens, it will be a dramatically different ride than it was the last time it operated for the public.

I too had the opportunity to take one spin on the ride. I`m glad I was able to, if nothing else to say that I was able to ride the ride. It was not a very enjoyable ride experience by any means. I suppose it was a nice kiddy coaster, but the capacity on the ride was not great when the cars only held two people at a time!

Well, one thing is for certain, this weather can`t be aiding their effot! It has been such rainy miserable weather this spring! I know down at Coney, the rains are causing havoc. Cirque du Soleil has canceled shows today for the second day in a row due to flooding. And we had to cancel ride training session this morning and for Monday evening because of flooding as a result of the ridiculous amounts of rain we have gotten this April. It also seems as if they might have added those LED light strips to the actual arms that support the seats as well! I can`t wait to see this ride running at night. It has been a while since Kings Island added a flat ride (if you can really call this a flat ride), with a great lighting package!

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110423/NEWS01/104240311/What-s-next-Son-Beast-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE So it looks as if Son of Beast will NOT operate again this year. We are still no closer to finding out the ultimate fate of the ride. Although, the article does give some interesting insights. Well worth a read.

Unfortunately, high waters from the Ohio River have forced the cancellation of the performance tonight, as well as both performances on Saturday. As of right now, the 1pm showing of Cirque will go on as planned. Read more here: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110422/ENT07/104230313/Cirque-shows-canceled-tonight-Saturday-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s