Thrill_Biscuit

Awesome! Can't have enough pretzel stands!

As is our opening-day tradition since 1980, we're going to stop halfway across the parking lot and, on the count of three, yell "Look at the size of that Kings Island Tower!" Then, of course, make our annual trip up the landmark to survey the vast expanses below. I just realized...1980 was 30 years ago!

I'm sure the OG style of animation (onion skin, hand-painted cels, rotoscopy, etc.) is preserved somewhere in this touch-screen world of ours. It would be like the Samauri swordsmiths, who still make their instruments the old-fashioned way, despite advances in computer-controlled machineryy...

That's a classic! I really miss the good old days.

Very cool! Especially "Big Moe!" Thanks for posting; it was like being there! I thought the cave crickets were spiders for a second... very creepy!

I live a 2.8 mile drive away, but only 1.2 miles "as the crow flies."

From my porch in Landen (from which I can hear Diamondback, and just barely see the blinking light on the tower)... Lots of powdery snow. I think about what looks like an inch at the edge, to a six-inch drift against my patio door. I think this is going to be one of those winters like '77, with billboards advertising "free" snow for our out-of-state guests to take with them.

If you're curious, here's robust info about FAA Obstruction Lighting Standards: Here It is kind of eerie to drive by the dark, sleepy park in the wintertime.

You know, strangely, that picture looks to me like Patrick Swayze as a 'Ferengi' from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," etc.

Testing.... 1, 2, 3... Cool! This works nicely! Nice, new way to add emoticons. The color pallette stays one size, now, too! I like this so far.

BLSC, because it's my wife's favorite (ok, I kinda like it, too, but they really don't need the helicopter pause).

The closest I've seen to someone being thrown out was once, about 5 years ago on the Train, there was a gentleman working as the announcer (conductor?) who was about 75 years old and very avuncular and friendly. Then the train seemed to run over a groundhog, and a bunch of unruly teen boys stood up and cheered and pretty much went nuts. The conductor guy immediately switched into a voice that sounded like R. Lee Ermey's Drill Sergeant from "Full Metal Jacket," and said "You boys will sit down and behave, or I'll have security waiting for you at the station, and you'll find yourselves thrown out of the park!" ...you could have heard a pin drop (well, you know, if the train wasn't running and all). The boys certainly behaved for the rest of the ride, and a few ladies up close to the front golf-clapped. If the boys weren't thrown out physically, their attitudes certainly were.

That's like calling the fire department, and when the dispatcher asks what the emergency is, the caller says "Well, we haven't decided on whether there's a fire, or whether a cat's stuck up in a tree... but we need the fire engines here right away!" Politicians...

I wholeheartedly agree, if you replace the word "money" with the phrase "power over our lives".

I get the most joy out of 'showing off' the park to people who've never seen anything like it. I love the never-ending supply of reactions to first-timers on Delirium, The Vortex or The Beast. I can't get enough of the jaw-drops when people stop on the pathway to watch Diamondback's spectacular splash, only to do a double take when they suddenly realize the dramatic height of the lifthill a few yards beyond. I love the reaction-on every elevator ride up the Eiffel Tower-from people who seem to have never been on a 'glass' elevator, and the pride in the voice of every ET op when they recite the dimensions as new guests quietly ooh and aah. That's my park.

Thanks Giga! (Coaster Kid, fun topic you started!) Ok. Last one for awhile, well, two, because there can't be just one ornament for:

"Deck" the halls!

Season's Growlings!

Genius as that is, it sounds like a federal offense, punishable by ....even more tax.

They have to pay for all those hi-falutin' banners and streetlamps, and that swanky, plush landscaping throughout the manicured little city.

I remember watching the 1984 4th of July display from the bleachers at Mason High (back then, you could just park right off of Mason-Montgomery and walk up to the bleachers; everything up to I-71 was farmland). They had what looked like a single, green CO2 laser beam shining way up into the sky during the fireworks. I don't think the beam was "drawing" anything, but it would occasionally fan out and back in, spin, and sweep around. Nothing really spectacular. There were small planes flying a circle around the display in the sky (about 7 or 8 of them). It was, ..well, different.

I've noticed that. I thought it was the front car "re-engaging" the track after a second of "free-fall."

I voted "excellent". The legendary status of Beast, and the presence of a star-draw like Diamondback can't be overlooked, even though it's shorter and slower than a handful of other giants.

Shake, Rattle & Roll. Mine!

I thought perhaps "Iron Man." Although, "Swan Lake" has a more sinister, adrenaline-pumping coaster sound to it.