Thrill_Biscuit

Oh, shucks. The Lava Bearer pic has a lot of red-eye! Oh, that's deliberate... sorry. Great pics! Memories galore!

I can't describe the depth of this thread. To put the real face on the human being whose tragic death has been for so many years passed around as an ever-changing ghost story, restores a great deal of respect, and de-sensationalizes myth with facts.

So I'm carrying around this green lemur prize won at the goblet toss. I needed an excuse to give it away to somebody. Waiting in line for Rivertown Coca-Cola Marketplace, a man was telling his daughters that people get on that big roller coaster (Diamondback) over by that water tower with the people on it. In a classical midway-caller voice, I wanted to say "Winnah!" and hand the lemur off to the gentleman like Esiason-to-Woods and shuffle away into the madding crowds; but then that daydream quickly snapped back to reality, and I just chuckled a bit. They were all in water park gear, so I assumed they came over on the train, and that they've never seen that 'water tower' from the main entrance, with all the pretty fountains in front of it.

Well, I can remember the theme from "Superman" by John Williams being played on one ride this summer. I think I also heard Maurice Jarre's "Molly" from the "Ghost" soundtrack (just like the track they play at the Newport Aquarium shark tank) once, too, though maybe it was part of a medley(?).

I heard it a lot, too; a lot more than usual. My personal opinion: lots of people were there, so the ratio of rule-abiding smart people to lawless troglodytes was proportionately higher.

Free-market competition is alive and well! It was an awesome day at Kings Island, and I love seeing it chock full of happy people! I have no complaints; just fun observations. Not wanting to wait too long to eat, I started off site to enjoy some Frisch's, (you know, because I'm an armchair-rocket scientist who thinks I'm the only human being in the quadrant to come up with the idea), and discovered the ripples-in-the-pond effect that causes long lines and strained service levels at nearby, off-site eateries, that seem to dissipate the further out you get from the park. I had my beloved breakfast bar, but it was a line to the door to get seated, an 8-minute wait for the server, and about a five minute wait for the food bar to be re-stocked (about 7 people were standing around it, waiting for something more than a few onions, what looked like egg...matter(?), a strip of bacon fat, biscuit crumbs and a lone, stoic little potato cube standing proudly against the greasy aluminum emptiness that once housed hundreds of his kin). (We joked about the hurricane episode of the Simpsons, where, after the local market was frenzied upon by massive crowds, the only things left on the shelves were products like "Creamed Eels, Corn Nog and Wadded Beef,"); but the timing of everything was reasonable, and the food brought out was hot and fresh, so no complaints. So, hooray for business! Hooray for Kings Island, because despite the unusual crowds, I had a great time there yesterday, and everyone I spoke to was having fun just being there!

Okay, okay, I'll keep it standard. Sorry for any confusion. -Tb, waiting for technology to ketchup.

So, to you the ranks were visible but the coasters were not? That's hilarious! My dad has showed me that there's some on-line, "what's my content look like on..." app; maybe I should look into that, given my propensity for using font variations (sorry.)

Earlier I helped Security put out a trashcan fire next to the Eiffel Tower. I figured I could just easily walk over and re-fill my ice water at any nearby drink stand. LOL on me - Tower Drinks had lines going back halfway across the plaza between the Band Stand and the tower's walkways, so I figured I'd just duck into the trusty Burrito Shack, which only had a couple people standing in the doorway. When I saw that the line was a full zig-zag within, I went over to Coca-Cola Marketplace, and waited my turn in what I shall call the "Epic Drink Queue of 2015!"

I walked past a line that was all the way back to the concrete "bridge" between the exit/entrance paths for WWC... [voice of Michael Palin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail] wiiiiiiiiiiiiith.... two rolls of quarters. The most consistent full boats ever! Made lots of new "friends" on this 91° day! Arrrr!

Not saying it's going to get crowded today or anything, but the right lane to I-71 was slow all the way back to the Landen water tower. Just sayin'.

General Diamondback Lieutenant General Banshee Major General Beast Brigadier General Flight of Fear Colonel Vortex Lieutenant Colonel Firehawk Major Racer Captain Invertigo First Lieutenant Back Lot Stunt Coaster Second Lieutenant Adventure Express Master Sergeant Bat Technical Sergeant Flying Ace Aerial Chase Staff Sergeant Woodstock Express Corporal Great Pumpkin Coaster Private Surf Dog -Tb. Ranking 'em.

Let's see, now. Dining Plan, Lockers, Parking... these things are becoming "Swiss Army" passes!

Such a long pathway for a ride on which you arrive at the end in time to hear the echo of your departure spiel!

It's the only non-Roller Coaster Tycoon place in the world (at least that I know of) where one of those ridiculously long queue paths, built out of apparent necessity, actually exists! It needs its own security guard, path sweeper, maintenance guy and person-in-a-panda-suit!

Do they still offer private cabanas at Soak City? I hardly ever go to the water park.

I've never heard whether Curt Summers used CAD (available, but at the time an out-sourced service provided by specialized companies before the advent of more advanced PCs). Legend has it that every nuance of that venerable coaster was good, old-fashioned American engineering and know-how. Put a canal in Panama, and 12 men on the moon, it did!

That's hilarious!

It is, after all, themed for a snake that stops to bask in the sun every now and then.

"Welcome back riders, how was your ride?" "LLLLLLLLOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGG!"

Folks are walking out to meet them. There are also people running through the grass, stopping and looking, probably trying to assess something.

Watching on live webcam. Yep. Stuck.

I guess, aesthetically, Son of Beast wasn't such an eyesore (at least back when there was hope for it.) After its stigmatization, though, it became a sad, sad monument to what it could have been, and seeing it in pictures and old videos kinda reminds us to breathe in a sigh of relief (especially given the supremely superior replacement in its fading footprint).