Thrill_Biscuit

Oh, but then there was the time in 2004 that my wife and I got stuck on The Vortex for about 10 minutes while a very wet thunderstorm came and drenched us most generously! I remember thinking how cool SR&R looks through sheets of warm, summer rain. You just can't pay for that level of amusement!

Awesome! It looks like construction of Metal Madness is almost underway. Have the Huss engineers shown up yet? Let me know when the tower cranes are in place, I want pictures! 500 feet. Man, that's going to be cool! [friend slaps thrill_biscuit...'wake up...wake up...you're drooling] Just kidding... Seriously, it is cool to be able to see the hybernating, oft-hidden Beast. It really is a majestic coaster.

Monster, in '04, for about 10 minutes. Got it to spin while waiting, though. Pretty fun.

KI was built when there were only 4 or 5 TV channels, no Internet, cell phones, urban sprawl, etc. The world has changed very much since those days. KI used to be a unique amusement experience in the middle of a very pastoral setting. Now, it's a cookie-cutter park in an interstate corridor, surrounded by expanding growth and development. It used to have soothing, up-beat and melodious music that gave the feel of being in a very special place; whereas now it pipes in music you can just hear on any radio. The theming and ride-name concepts connected the park to its southwest Ohio heritage. It feels more like a giant, expensive carnival now. The culture is much different, too. In the early days of KI, you didn't see and hear so much of the rudeness, sarcasm and disrespect as you see today (people running, line jumping, or imbiciles mouthing off to staff, security, etc.). Families were much tighter, and many more people respected and understood the concept of common courtesy than these days. KI is still a nice escape from the real world; I just wish the negative stuff of the real world would disappear once everyone gets through the gates.

If they changed Oktoberfest to something else, I'd hope they keep the nifty clock atop Festhaus. Removing that feature from KI would sting as much as removing the music from the Grand Carousel, or the symphonic music from International Street.

Think I'll skip funnel cakes in favor of Subway this year! But seriously, I had a wake-up call when I couldn't fit on The Beast in '04 (back then, you could have called me thrill_cake). It's embarrassing to have to get back out of the car in front of what, 200 people? I worked hard to lose 44 lbs. over the next 2 years (yep. takes a long time and determination for some). The cool thing is that it can be done, especially when there are specific goals. I got back on Beast in 2006, and have made it my annual benchmark for success.

ROTF... Excellent. Of course, they'd have to rename the area "Camp Mundane".

I'd even settle for "Tomcat" (the F-14's official name) over "Flight Deck". "Drop Tower" sounds like an unlabeled RCT attraction (a similar observation is made by other posters). I just can't wait to walk up Footpath1 and take a nice picture of Lattice Tower1, provided Mechanic13 doesn't walk in front of my camera.

Home of "Enclosed: The Coaster", and "Water" Falls!

Fly Kings Island!

I think eventually all the Chilivision TVs will be replaced with those cool, new OLED signs that keep popping up everywhere... well, I can dream, can't I?

Shades of Ray Bradbury... I wonder if it will be 451'?

Is Kings Island safe from being dismantled and sold off?

Timber Tantrum Demon Quake Widowmaker Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train Hell's Toboggan The Bizznezz The Once-Over

heh, is that why your sig is what it is? i just noticed it, i like it lol LOL! I forgot I even had that sig. Well, yeah, I guess it does work for this post.

Last season on opening day I rode SR&R and went in to check out the Yogi-Elroy HB thing in Action Theater and I began to feel really nauseous! Then I rode Vortex and felt great for the rest of the day.

I'm guessing a flat for Rivertown, or a major overhaul of the KI/MVRR theming (dinosaurs, perhaps?).

This year was the first time I've seen the black cannons that shoot horizontally. Coming around the bend, I thought they were going to shoot a stream as big as their barrels (like a sideways geyser). Then a lame little stream came out like in one of those squirtguns from Wal-Mart, and I thought it was kinda stupid. I like the old geysers a lot better.

MOBY:The RIDE

I always hear people ask "Why do we have to get off?" the elevator atop the Eiffel Tower.

Wwwwowww! Pre-Zodiac, Pre-Bat, Pre-SR&R! It's like looking at an ultrasound of "baby KI"! Awesome video! Thank you!

I've always thought WWC was the worst ride in KI. It's not very thrilling; only annoying (yet my wife insists we ride it every year). The only way I ever get soaked is by the cannons/geysers near the end. This was the first time I rode the thing in a while, and the first time I ever noticed the black cannons pointing at us. I thought they were going to shoot water like the geysers! Kind of a 'head chopper' effect for water rides, if you know what I mean... Genius thing: 25c for a five-second squirtgun blast at perfect strangers is a good way to get over the disappointment. The ride IS better than when it first opened (1985), when there was a dirty, smelly greenish-brown foam floating around throughout the attraction. They've done a good job cleaning it up through the years.

I'll try FH on a weekday. I didn't get much sleep the night before, so I knew FOF would beat the living nonsense out of me (Vortex, Beast and Racer had already shaken a few good bones loose; you gotta be up to your game at 38 against the Giants of KI!) I'll get in my FoF track time sometime later this year, after a good 10-hour snooze.

Okay... I figured all of them except "RRRR". Which ride is that? Rug Rats Runaway Reptar. The "LMRR" is my many-decades old, incorrect reference to the KIMVRR (I lived in Morrow as a kid, and the remnants of the Little Miami Rail Road ran through the middle of town. Old habbits, you know.

Well, my wife and I finally took our long-planned (and anticipated) annual trip to KI. We got up at 6:00, drove out to Preble County, brought our little cousin (10), and a friend of his (12)(this was her first ever trip to KI, and it was cool to see her first reaction to seeing the Eiffel Tower, SOB and Drop Zone as we came up Tylersville road. Big eyes, and a gasp of amazed anticipation. It was cool.) It was overcast and a little sprinkly, but overall it wasn't a bad day to visit the park. I was a little disappointed to be greeted by the strains of "Been around the world and I-I-I-I-I can't find my baby..." blasting over the speakers, instead of the bombastic, John Williams and Gabriel Yared scores that used to make the entrance much more enchanting. It felt kind of weird to me...and the music selections never seemed to get any better to me (all 'old' stuff). We tried the "let's sneak through the fudge shop to get ahead of the line" trick. No good: it was long in there too. Once the throngs were released, we walked briskly towards IJST. I think about 200 rude guests sprinted past us at a good 5 minute mile. We got onto IJST twice with minimal waiting, Vortex with about a 5 minute wait, Beast in like, no time, and then, suddenly, every attraction was Longlinesville, baby! (Even the LMRR!) I like the more 'personalized' interaction between ride operators and guests ("How was your ride?"; I thought it was just a "Beast" thing, but noticed they were doing it on a lot of other rides, too (Reptar, AE) It's a nice touch. Some of the sorest thumbs I noticed: 1. The Carousel was silent. No music. Sad. 2. Drop Zone was closed, and there was a sense of foreboding because of the recent 6FKK tragedy. 3. Delirium kept closing (operating in test mode) each time we got in line for it; 4. The F-14 is gone from the TG path; 5. Congo Falls (which we rode five times(?!?) ate my Cleveland Indians hat; 6. Vortex has orange seatbelt thingies; 7. I bragged all the way to the park about the cool glass blower.... who's gone. Sad. All in all it was a good trip. My wife says "best visit ever!". The kids were sad to go at the end of the day, but came away with lots of 'puff puppies' and LEDware. Ridelist: IJST, IJST, Vortex, Beast, WWC, SR&R, Zeph, VF,TG,CF,CF,CF,CF,CF,ET,VF,VF,RRRR, LMRR, AE, AE, Racer, and Vortex. ~sorry I put that song in your head