CoastersRZ

Indeed. I had a VERY poor experience there this past year, which resulted in me waiting outside the gates for thirty minutes when they tried to figure out an issue with my pass. I was not pleased at all (even writing them a letter to voice my displeasure). It will be quite some time before I return to that park. Even with the glasses policy, I still want to visit Knott`s and its neighbor down the road, Disneyland!

So why is Knott`s so strict with their glasses policy? I could see if it was a State thing or a company wide Cedar Fair thing, but it isn`t either of those. Does someone who works at Knotts have a fear about glasses coming off on a ride and injuring someone? I still find it puzzling. On Nighthawk at Carowinds, they made me take off my glasses, even with an athletic strap. Every other ride there permitted me to wear my glasses. I hope to one day get out to Knott`s. I don`t like not wearing my glasses because I can`t read anything and it gives me a headache. (And contacts are not an option either, given my past eye health issues).

Its amazing how much the trees filled in over a period of twenty years! I still miss the peacefulness of all those trees in the center of the park. Of course the biggest travesty is that we also lost our Flying Eagles ride the season that Backlot opened.

It will be interesting to see how much the Timberliners will enhance The Voyage riding experience.

I would agree with those words. I was summoned to Jury duty back at the end of November, and I went into it wishing my name had not been selected. But getting placed on a jury and witnessing the judicial process at work was eye opening. I would recommend people serve on jury duty and not try to dodge it. I certainly had a fun time on it, and would gladly serve again if my name is selected.

Well, if you are going to call Rivertown a concrete jungle, there is not much actual concrete in it. It is more of an asphalt jungle than concrete. Just saying.

Well, the water tower removal would not necessarily result in them needing to put a fence around it. They can quite easily just remove the water tower columns and infill that area with fresh concrete for this season.

Love the photos Paul! Especially that last one that is your favorite!

I believe that most of those globes are there, but I would imagine some of them are susceptible to damage from hail and the like. The actual Carousel building received a refreshed paint job not too long ago (2009 maybe), that included them repainting all the gold leaf detailing on the columns, which made the structure look beautiful. Its ashame that we will likely never hear that band organ play music at Kings Island ever again. At least the piped in music that they play now is audible, but its just not the same quality or ambiance as when band organs play the music.

I don`t know what you guys are talking about, but I still see people making comments on the Kings Island facebook page. Somebody posted as recently as an hour ago on the post about Diamondback`s final track segment being installed on this date in 2009.

I agree! Thanks for uploading these videos! A little tidbit, of information, is that Coney Island`s carousel has an MP3 player playing carousel music. It came from a couple Carousel music CDs. It might just have some of this music on it this year.

Wow! Talk about bringing back an old topic from the past, Gabe! Its hard to believe that this site has been around for so long! And that I have been a staff member for eight years now! I first became a staff member right before WinterFest in 2005 after taking some pictures of the set up for Winterfest in October of 2005. The site has allowed me to build many friendships over the years, and has allowed me many unique and special opportunities at Kings Island over the years!

When they were let in... I was down at Carowinds this past year with my Platinum Pass. Visited on a busy Saturday, and was told my pass didn`t work at the admissions gate. Spent thirty plus minutes dealing with guest relations who told me there was a problem with my pass and that I`d have to check with Kings Island to get it fixed. Turns out it was a glitch on Carowinds end, but I was NOT amused, to say the least.

It was mentioned that the blog "disappeared" for another feature on their website, which turned out to be the Photo of the Day. I`m sure they have a reason as to why it is gone.

The renovation to Rivertown cost a lot. They added in a lot of new fencing, and those pavers aren`t cheap. They do not need to do much to the buildings to retheme them. And it wouldn`t be that expensive either. I don`t know why you think that a new headliner attraction and a spruce up of Action Zone can`t be done in the same year. I for one am really excited to see what is in store for the Action Zone. I wonder what it will look like this season, and if we will see a construction site taking shape in Son of Beast`s old area. It will certainly look different without Thunder Alley there. It will be interesting to see if Jungle Jim`s does take the water tower, how the incorporate it into the store (whichever one it finds a home in).

It comes down to capacity and crowds. On busy weekend days, they will run both to offer better capacity to handle the crowds. Same thing with the Kings Island and Miami Valley Railroad. On busy days, they will run both trains.

And technically Flight Deck is not an inverted coaster. It is a suspended coaster, the last one that was built by Arrow Dynamics. Inverted coasters are like Raptor at Cedar Point and Invertigo. To add further confusion to the matter, Vekoma (the manufacturer of Invertigo), calls their inverted coasters suspended looping coasters (or SLC).

As stated by Don in another thread, the webcams are currently down because they are doing maintenance on the servers.

I`d be all for the Flying Eagles migrating back to Kings Island. Some tidbits about that photo. The path that leads off to the middle of the picture on the left is headed towards the Skyride station (this picture was taken from the Skyride). Also visible at the right side of the image is the track for the Tumble Bug, which was relocated from Coney Island.

That last question is purely a budgeting issue. A big cost with any amusement park is the seasonal labor force required to operate the rides. Budgets are always scrutinized. Is the added cost worth the benefits that the park is gaining in added income? It is especially difficult with the fact that Ohio`s minimum wage went up from $7.70 to $7.85 effective January 1st of this year. That means most of the front line workers are going to get paid more. That money has to come from somewhere, if the park doesn`t raise admission prices or other in park prices to compensate, then the added cost will have a material impact on their bottom line. In other words, they will make less money for profits if they don`t bring in more guests or raise prices to compensate. Back when I started working at Coney in 2002, I was paid $5.25 an hour, which is a lot less than the $7.85 new hires are now paid. But back then, they also had a bonus program which resulted in me essentially making $6.25 at the end of the season, which definitely would help with retention of employees through the end of the season. Last year, the rides department hired about 150 employees at Coney. We were down to about half that amount because of colleges starting back up and people getting fired or quit by the end of the season! And yes, I will be returning to Coney this summer as a rides manager again, marking my twelfth season working at the park!

It could just be a technical issue. Things sometimes, and often do break with technology. That or there is stuff they don`t want you to see from the webcams...

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130122/NEWS/301230046 It will be interesting to see how the park fairs this season. Especially with the newly revamped Soak City right across the street.

Thanks for sharing! Those are some great shots. Notice how the path by Rivertown Pizza didn`t connect around to Coney Mall back then, and how the LaRosa`s building was the only big building back there. I love seeing vintage photos of Kings Island like these!

Well, the building has already lost most of its traces to German theming. Even the Festhaus has lost most of its theming. Only the exterior facade at the entrance shows any real resemblance to German architectural motifs. As Interpreter has stated, Oktoberfest as an area at Kings Island is all but dead. Which is sad, given the Cincinnati areas rich German immigrant heritage.

What do you mean what will Coney do in the future? Coney will keep on providing family entertainment as an amusement and water park. Coney is in no way directly connected to River Downs or its owners.