Reclaimer

The fleet began an upgrade to the current Mark VI fleet in 1989. Those trains have been in use since. Peach is currently on the beam testing after-hours, but does not currently have its colored stripe painted on yet.

Jesse, congrats! You've always been a great member of this great community and a pleasure to talk to. Let me know the next time you're in Orlando!

Fantastic read! Very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to do this. Very well-done!

Cedar Fair fought hard against the wage increase a year or so ago, claiming they were exempt from such an increase. Great company.

Very sad day for the entire industry. Will seemed like such a nobel person and really personified the amusement industry for what it is. He was a modern day Walt Disney in a sense. Walt and Will both were in the industry out of a pure love for seeing people happy. Seeing photos of Will, and seeing him one time on a visit to the park, you could tell just how happy he was. Such a genuinely loving, fun, honest person. I feel for the Kochs and their extended Holiday World family today. As a testament to just how far-reaching Koch and Holiday World have had, even outside of the midwest, look no further than Google: http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X&oi=prbx_hot_trends&ct=more-results "Will Koch" is currently the #3 biggest search term on Google right now and "Holiday World" is #17. Known and loved by many, indeed.

One of my greatest (yet also, most miserable) memories of KI was of BeastBuzz '06 when my friend and I skipped out on free dinner just to go to Boomerang Bay. We spent practically the entire time standing under the bucket at Jackaroo Landing. It was so hot and humid that day that water sounded much better than any amount of food.

Sorry, but if you're looking for flaws, look in KI's direction and doing head counts of each train. Guesstimates aplenty I would expect. Sure people play with turnstiles but at least you're sure you're getting some sort of a count rather than depending on someone to say "that train looked pretty full." As for rerides, if there is nobody in line, many people will let you reride. Both seasons of my working at Wicked Twister we would allow rerides if it was dead and nobody else was waiting...you just have to ask nicely and not act like you're entitled to a reride. They don't always happen, but a little friendliness goes a long way. Heck, even at Space Mountain (where the load and unload areas were in two completely different areas of the building) we would allow rerides sometimes as a courtesy.

Something else added today: On blog entries and on each individual attraction page, there is a Facebook "Like" button. If you're logged into Facebook and click the button, it will post a link to that page with a note that you now "like" it on Facebook. Similar to the way you can become a fan of pages on Facebook...but now integrated with the KI site.

Holy ShamWow, batman. A very "un-Cedar Fair" move: "Christine. Just got a text back from our F&B director confirming we do refill cups from last season for just $1.99. See you Saturday!" -Kings Island Facebook Page

Oh, I think it's a total joke, but I think Mr. Kinzel is all too serious.

They could always give the basketballs away deflated and have "inflation stations" to fill them up....for a few nickels, of course. Kinzel gets to count a few more nickels and it acts as a slight deterrent to bouncing basketballs all over the place. (I joke, of course.)

*sigh* Some people can't give up. Change is good. Snoopy is a fantastic addition to the park and, as has already been proven at Carowinds and Kings Dominion, this isn't just a cheap Cedar Fair 'retheme' but a true, well-planned overhaul that does the area justice. If they took out Nick and gave us a generic Kidzville, then you might have a valid argument. At this point, you're just trying to make noise.

It's a navy blue background. Looks very nice.

That link is accessible simply by clicking "Live Entertainment" on the site, so yes, it is officially available information. Honestly, though, if the park were to publish information in a manner that the page was live and just not "officially" available yet, it is still fair game. Once online, always online, no matter your intentions.

While KI is a regional park and it's not quite as big of an issue as something like Walt Disney World, how would you feel if you visited Kings Island on your only trip of the year only to find out you're there on one of the fireworks "off nights". Just a thought. I know you're just stating hypothetically.

To "root" in Australia means something entirely different. Be careful rooting for someone down under!

Don't let them fool you.

True, but I think $11.50 is a pretty attractive price considering some of the alternatives. Attractive? Hardly. I'm sorry but even just a few months ago FUN was trading upwards of $12. Yes, there are other (possibly worse) alternatives, but to call $11.50 attractive is laughable. Why would it be laughable? If Cedar Fair went bankrupt the LP unit holders would get nothing. $11.50 sounds pretty attractive in comparison to that. Oh, no I get that, and completely understand That's why I said that I agree there are other (possibly worse) alternatives. To call an $11.50/unit ROE on something you almost certainly purchased at a much higher price, all while this price is being called a 'premium' is what is laughable. I'll agree anything is better than nothing. (Also, I would really love to go through and clean up all of those quotes in this post...but I'm not. Call me lazy. )

True, but I think $11.50 is a pretty attractive price considering some of the alternatives. Attractive? Hardly. I'm sorry but even just a few months ago FUN was trading upwards of $12. Yes, there are other (possibly worse) alternatives, but to call $11.50 attractive is laughable.

Ohhh I'm ordering a Test Tshirt. Looks great! And at $10, it's a steal!

I can remember visiting the park earlier this year and having the show delayed for quite some time due to the whales not wanting to perform. It was actually a great experience, as a couple of trainers would explain what was going on while the others were in the back playing with the animals trying to get them excited. I ended up having to leave before the show got started so that I could get ready for work, but was totally ok with it. The way the respect the animals in that park and treat them as friends and co-workers rather than treating them like a display is simply amazing. Truly a great park and I hope that kind of respect for the animals and the theme will continue under Blackstone.

While I'm somewhat disappointed the budget was supposedly cut drastically, the Imagineers have done great work (from what we can see so far) with what they had. The Mountain really needed some TLC, anyhow. I look forward to seeing how the rest of this refurb turns out. I miss that Mountain...

Great report, Ryan. EPCOT is truly one of the greatest parks in existence. There is just so much to do (and *gasp* learn!) all while enjoying yourself. Everything about Walt Disney World is amazing, but EPCOT takes the cake for me personally. As for Test Track, it is the fastest Disney theme park attraction ever built (64.8 mph), even beating out rides like Expedition Everest, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and California Screamin'. Ahhh...EPCOT is just a great experience. I miss it.

Oh, I'm over it. (kinda) I just need to get some lunch to make things all better. I might still flail around some responses here if I need to defend myself though. haha I love KI, but I will call them out for bad decisions. If Disney or Apple did something stupid, I'd call them out as well. (Apple has been 'on notice' lately in my books )

Woah, sir. Where did I state that KI had to notify every single person that is coming to the park? Nowhere. I'm stating that they clearly can't be bothered to make anything other than a half-hearted attempt by updating only their main site (not accessible to many mobile devices). For a park that just launched a mobile version of their site and tried to get people to use that version, this is a pretty laughable mistake. Cedar Fair as a whole has become a horribly mismanaged company. This coming from an inside prospective and from a guest prospective. Kings Island simply proved this even more last night. As for KICentral sending out a text. That's great and all, but I don't subscribe to it because I don't want updates to KICentral texted to my phone. I do think it's great the site offers that service and it is fantastic that they were able to help get the word out, but the park shouldn't rely on the thinking that fan sites will do the work for them. On another, somewhat related note, the park also showed that its presence online is more of a charade than anything. The official website is a joke and is still a relic of 2006 and before, its mobile site is apparently just a gimmick so that they seem "cutting-edge cool", and the park's Twitter account and blog is nothing more than a revolving door of press releases. The park wants to seem "hip" and into social media and having a large online presence, but it's just not getting it. Engage your users and guests. Appreciate them. It kills me to this park, a park I've been going to since I was a little child, and the park that first grew my love for coasters, is failing miserably at guest relations of late. What kills me even more is that there are people, even on this site, that follow everything the park does blindly and without question. In their eyes, the park does no wrong. It's that mentality that keeps the park, and Cedar Fair as a whole, on its current belief system that follows the Kinzel mantra "People have to eat."