CoastersRZ

Yes, and that is why it works. Because it is located to a larger population area it can draw in more guests to offset the higher costs. Just look at baseball teams as an example. New York has two teams with huge payrolls and Philadelphia also has a team. Cincinnati has a team that in what is considered a small market because of the population that it pools from. (Heck, even with their hot start this April and the best record in Major League Baseball they have not gotten much national media attention yet.)

Wow. Well the reason people are complaining, is because in past years you could enter International Street at 9. Then the rides started at ten. They changed it this year to opening the gates to International Street at 10 (somedays a little bit before ten). It will take some time for guests to get used to this new procedure, and for the park to refine the entry procedures to make this new entry style go off smoother.

Yeah, I know when I was up at the park opening weekend, I saw people asking to use the bathroom at 9:35 and being permitted to do so. And it only makes sense that if you leave the line to go to the bathroom that you go to the end of the line.

Yes, Paramount has made some mistakes at the park. But that is nothing new to the various owners of Kings Island. The parks in their last few years under Carl Lindner`s control weren`t in the greatest shape either. Other than the installation of Son of Beast, I feel Paramount has made some excellent decisions with new rides at the park, particularly Delirium, and Drop Zone to name a few. However, they have made a couple of poor choices with regards to removing rides, primarily the Flying Eagles and the Antique Cars, which they still have in a somewhat public view behind Delirium. With regards to the Animal Habitat. As Cedar Fair stated when they bought GL from Six Flags, best to leave the animal business to those who are familiar with that business, zoos. Paramount Parks and PKI are amusement parks, not zoos. Yes, they used to have the animal habitats. But the capital, and upkeep requried for todays lifelike animal visits makes them too expensive for a seasonal park like PKI that would only be able to operate it seven months of the year.

Metal Meteor, my mistake. I misunderstood, sorry for any confusion. What I was trying to say, as others have voiced is that the restrooms should be easily reachable before the gates open. But restrooms are available to those who ask for them. Just a slight inconvenience and a thing that will have to be ironed out in the coming months. Ok, I understand, I knew something was different with admissions this year. Didn`t know it was just that they were reporting to the same person as security. And yes, I know management has the final say on things. What I was referring to is that security is "on the front lines" and can make minor tweaks (recomendations if you will) that will improve the process under this new procedure. Personally, I think they should at least start screening people through the metal detectors earlier than they have been. Don`t let people into the park, but at least start the tedious process of checking people. Hopefully, things will flow smoother as the kinks get worked out. My one main beef is that when exiting the park, only the exit on the north side of the metal detectors is open, and it gets congested because it is not a very big exit.

I`m assuming you meant late May when daily operation begins, right? And yes, the season pass lines should start to die down some in the next coming weeks as more people get their passes processed.

Hey, at least you are not in school in the summer at one of the best architecture schools in country! 19 credit hours from mid-June through the end of August means my visits to the park will be few and far between! But now, and again in the fall I am co-oping so my weekends are free to go to the park!

Yes, the Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera is the exact same film that was shown down at Universal. I have not been able to snag a ride on it yet, as it has been closed every time I`ve tried (they`ve had the Spongebob side open. I think they open the HB side later in the afternoon, and all my visits have been morning to around 3 or 4). The antique car in the grass near the Action Theater is a left over from FearFest theming. They placed some skeletons in it for FearFest. I guess they never got around to moving it back with the other cars back behind Delirium.

That is where YOU are wrongMetal Metor 200WP MAN. Yes, there is a bathroom before the turnstiles and AFTER the metal detectors. However, the park has not been letting anyone through the metal detectors until around ten till ten. If you have to go to the bathroom, then you have to go through one of the metal detectors, go to the bathroom, and then go back outside of the metal detectors. (It hasn`t bothered me because I have gotten in the park through the side entrance thanks to my gold season pass and its early ride times. Also, I do believe that admissions is part of the security department this year. So in a way, they are in control of the entire front gate area. Yes, ultimately it is a management decision, but the people in security have a say in how things are handled in the morning. Before you go telling people to get their facts straight, make sure yours are!

No news on whether or not PKI plans to build a new campground somewhere behind where the new Great Wolf Lodge is at. With the sale of Paramount Parks, I would doubt that there will be a new campground for at least next year.

I added another picture of the Nick O Round now that it has all of its horses and theming installed. To see the picture, click here.

Yes, it was nice hanging out with you CoastersNSich. The crowds were picking up when I left. The line for The Beast stretched down to the height check station. Upon leaving the park, I noticed that the line of cars waiting to get into the park was backed up to Kings Island Drive still (at about 3 in the afternoon).

Well, as CoastersNSich hinted at, pictures are now online! To see a couple of picture of the entrance to the park without the ticket booths visit here.

I highly doubt the parks will be sold individually. It is probably an all or nothing type of sale. I would imagine that any prospective buyer would at least want to secure the rights to Nickelodeon, since they are one of the most popular children`s oriented brands around.

This was mentioned in a Cincinnati Post article around the opening weekend. It will be odd to see the park without those ticket booths! But, it is all a part of the park`s move to "free up" the entrance plaza outside the gates. The first phase was the removal of the tram circle. Also, at WinterFest they weren`t using the ticket booths but the buildings that house the Will Call and Season Pass windows.

Well, you gotta love Channel 5! Admission wasn`t $37.99 last year. Maybe with a $7 discount. While I can see where they are coming from with the idea of taxing some of the people that use the parks from out of the area, it doesn`t make much sense to me. PKI has been around for more than three decades and Mason only recently has been experiencing a population explosion. Sure, PKI may be the catalyst to that, but the real issue is the lack of infrastructure due to new housing developments. They should tax those before they impose a tax on the visitors to PKI. A 5% admissions tax on a $70 season pass would be $3.5. While not as bad as the sales tax in Ohio, it would be just another one of those extra costs. Nothing like nickeling and diming people at the park. I do believe that Cedar Point incorporates the cost of the admissions tax in their ticket price. IE, the cost of the ticket has the tax built into it, and it is not an added on to the cost of the ticket.

Did they have maps with FearFest attractions last year? I never checked the maps last October, but I seemed to think they didn`t. I would imagine that they will change maps. Simply because the gold pass deal that they are advertising on one full leaf of the map expires after mid-May. But they could keep it on there for the rest of the season, who knows.

Thanks! And I agree that in all likelihood, nobody other than a few select people at CBS and the interested parties know about possible talks to buy Paramount Parks. I would imagine that Al Weber, the CEO and president of Paramount Parks, is one of the few (if not the only one) people in all of Paramount Parks that knows the status of the sale talks. And even then, CBS might not be telling him everything about the sale.

Well I`m sure that CBS has been in talks with several companies. What the CFO is talking about is that they will probably weed out the non serious bidders and come up with two or three bidders that are truely interested in the parks. Will we find out then who is interested in the parks? I doubt it. We likely won`t hear anything about who is interested in buying the parks until a sale is completed. (My 3,000th post!)

No, I doubt it will be used all year. Likely they are still issuing maps for set periods, but that they are simply not stating so on the actual maps. One would imagine that they would have another map for FearFest highlighting all the FearFest attractions.

Yes, it is just a general park map (no specific dates on it). They had specific dates on the park maps from 2000-2005. Prior to 2000, the only mention of dates on the park maps was the year.

Especially since they only have one row of horses. Talk about a capacity killer. Although from the looks of it, they will (hopefully) be getting horses for the inner row.

The "shoe ride" mentioned above was the Flying Dutchman. That ride was removed after the 1990 season and sold to Kentucky Kingdom, where it is still in operation today. The curved part of Adventure Express`s queue line (by the remote control cars) sits on the edge of the Flying Dutchman`s old concrete ride area.

Harvestofyoursorrow, you mean the right turn into the rosebowl? They have added some new wood to the structure over by the rosebowl that you can clearly see when riding Adventure Express. Yes, some of the tarps have dissapeared, but I`m sure they still have a lot of work left to do on it. They haven`t even put the trains on the track yet. Once that happens, they still have to test it and get it inspected by the state.

Well, there are a ton of options south of the park at the Fields Ertel and Montgomery Road exti from I-71 (1 exit south from PKI). Although traffic down there is a little harsh. Just north of PKI on Kings Mills Rd there are a variety of food choices: Skyline Chili, Burger King, McDonald`s, Outback Steakhouse, Taco Bell and a Bob Evans. NOt sure of where the nearest buffet is to the park.