Thrill_Biscuit

You're completely and utterly wrong! There are two words for roller coaster, one is used by most engineering firms and the other is the typical word used in the German language! The typical word for roller coaster is "Die Berg-Und-Tal-Bahn" which means "hill and valley train" The technical word for coaster used by the engineers and higher educated is "Die Achterbahn" The word for Wooden coaster is "Die Holzachterbahn" for plural add -en to the word The word for Steal coaster is "Die Stahlenbahn" for plural add -en to the word Pretty fluent in German Es ist OK, Ich bin hier fur dich! Wann du anfangen hast, frag mir bitte! Kein Problem, mein Freund. Ich habe nur drei Jahre Deutsch gelernt auf meine Hocheschule. Gern schreibe deise fur sich, dann bin ich sehr schult fur meine Familie von Osterreich. Ich war nur Spass haben. (Es tut mir leid).

We'd read it (me & the Mrs.)

I just love the German word for 'roller coaster': Holzachterbahn! Rolls right off the tongue! Anyway, I'd love to see a themed tunnel, with special LED-wall effects.

Nice! This is cool to know because my company has fun regional meetings each year at places like Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Westin Casuarina in Vegas, etc. This Great Wolf Lodge would be an awesome place for such a meeting, and we can show off our hometown in a very cool way (especially with Kings Island right next door!). I can't wait to show my associates this link this afternoon. Great info! -Eric

My company firewall denied access due to an "R" rating!

I remember a specific trip in 1978, when music was coming out of older-style, conical speakers mounted under the 50-foot platform of the tower. I specifically remember the songs "Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder ("...they can feel it all over...); and "Jive Talkin'" by the Bee Gees (and those songs always remind me of Kings Island) coming out of them. You had to be closer to the International Restaurant to hear the more classical-sounding music. As I remember, it had a lot of banjo and accordion pieces that set the mood for the day.

Oh, it's just a wardrobe malfunction!

The upper deck of the Eiffel Tower, looking southeast over Rivertown; especially on warm spring days when the breeze is just right.

CoastersRZ, do you mean that KI has a new lighting package in place already? That'd be cool! I remember PKI had different colored spots on the tower for the last Winterfest, and it made the tower look a lot better than with the traditional flood lights. Right now (well, at night) it looks like the tower is lit with just the old school incandescents, at least from a distance.

Well, as far back as I can remember (c. the 1974-1975 off-season), the tower was always dark during the winter months (except, of course, for Winterfest years). All you would see were the red aircraft warning lights on the tower's trunk and mast.

There it is! Nice job. I'm looking at a rain-soaked, night shot, and I notice the tower is lit up. I notice it's been lit up a lot this off season. Unusual. Anyway, good job.

That looks like the Ohio River. It could be the Coney Island cam (?). The last time I looked at the PKI webcam, it showed sunny, blue skies and no snow/ice, though we had just had the big ice storm.

^No real worries. It was more of a tongue-in-cheek thought starter, spawned primarily by my observation of how famous places get "renamed" from time to time. It looks like a lot of good thought went into the 'Gardens' renaming; more, it seems, than what went into the renaming of venerable football stadia during the 1990s ("3COM Park", "Heinz Field", "Investco Field", etc.). Again, no real worries.

Geographic awareness? I hope they never change "Kings Island" to something like, "Mason Meadows", or "Deerfield Forest", or "Warren County Wonderland", or "Paris, Ohio", etc. There's only one Kings Island (well, except for the one in Hilton Head, SC), and everybody (kinda) knows where ours is!

Did it look anything like this? My Dad once told me that the tower was built using Boeing Chinook helicopters. I've always tried to imagine what it must have looked like (being that it was completed about the time I was 2, so I don't remember seeing the unfinished tower). I've drawn pictures of the thing since I was 3 (the above is my latest, although a composite of several elements, the welders are my own little touch). I can't wait to see the real thing. All the Best, Eric

Does anyone know if Kings Island will still be playing those cool movie themes throughout the park? One of the coolest things about the experience of entering the park is hearing that awesome music, like the Star Trek, Superman and Talented Mr. Ripley themes.

Maybe it's time for another "filmed at Kings Island" tv show, like the Brady Bunch thing; or maybe KI can host one of those Xtreme motocross games (updated take on the 1970's Evel Kneivel jump) to bring national focus back. Maybe they can host a high-profile stunt by that weird, neo-Houdini guy from New York who keeps freezing himself in a box and stuff like that. Keeping KI in the world spotlight is one of the things that keeps the park from being like every other theme park.

They need more exciting 3D Immersion attractions a' la 'Back to the Future' or Star Trek: The Experience. The signage and marquis can be updated to the emerging new cutting-edge, bright LED screens like at Times Square or the Vegas Strip, to add that "world-classiness" back to the park. The Eiffel Tower should be lit with bright, colorful spots like during the last Winterfest, rather that with the current flood lights, which make the tower look like a cell phone tower. Fort Cooper should become a new midway, maybe with a new flat ride and some food/game stalls to round out the addition.

For real extravegance, use an international variation: German: Der Feuerhabicht! French: Faucon l'incendie! Italian: Falco Fuoco! Spanish: Halcón del fuego!

Whoa! 20 Years?!? Crap I'm old! I still think of Vortex as one of KI's newer coasters. Better go take my geritol. Sheesh! To quote Neil Peart: "Time Stand Still!!!" (Ironically, that song came out in 1987, too!) Oh well, happy 20th...

Oh, Quit hyperspeculating! It's X-Flight! X-Flight! X-Flight! Geesh! It's like people at Carowinds in 2005, seeing parts of a blue and white flat ride showing up in their parking lot, with eagle-looking scooter cars, saying, "It MIGHT be the flyers from PKI, but they COULD just be storing them in our parking lot..." Man, I hope I get you guys on my jury if I ever get in trouble for anything - Just kidding. Great pics!

Bummer. This is very sad news, indeed. What a dream he lived, operating (albeit such limited operation) an amusement park, almost single-handedly, as a hobby! A life well lived it seems. Rest in peace.

Do they have pictures of the Eiffel Tower under construction? (My dad says that they used helicopters. That'd be cool to see!) Anyway, that's a great aerial shot of the old park!

Gosh! I love that trumpet fanfare theme piped into International Street! Does anyone know what movie that's from? It sounds like Star Trek, but it's not Insurrection, First Contact, Nemesis or Generations. Maybe it's not Star Trek at all. It's definitely a trumpet-heavy theme, though (and it's not Chinatown, either). Does anyone know what the title of that track is? And what is the hypnotic, flute-sounding music right after Mission:Impossible? It sounds very familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Thanks if anybody knows!

Keep ther structure, but bolt-on some steel tube track like 'Gemini'.