Reclaimer

And I understand my situation is one of the more extreme ones. Believe me, I normally would cancel or postpone plans if there is any sort of chance that my trip could be affected by something like this. I'm totally in agreement with you there. Unfortunately, things just didn't work out that way this year and I didn't have much choice. Again, I'm honestly "over" the whole closing of the park thing...I'm just angry at the way it was handled and hope that they improve upon their communication of such things in the future. That's my beef. (...and now I'm hungry)

I prefer not to use my phone while I drive. Thanks. And again, I see excuses being made. You seem to be saying it's ok the don't update their website with current info simply because I could call? If I am able to get to the park next year, I'll be sure to call Guest Relations for my questions. Nearest bathroom? No problem. Nearest food stand? No problem.

According to Accuweather, Intellicast, WCPO.com, WLWT.com, and Kings Island's own mobile site, there was a chance for some rain in the evening but most of the rain would be coming in the afternoon and then again early Friday morning (KI's site, for example, claimed a 30% chance) And guess what? While I was in Cincinnati yesterday between 5 and 11pm, it pretty much stopped raining around 8pm and didn't start again until I was well on my way home (around midnight). I'm not trying to say you're wrong, because I'm sure we all know you could ask 5 weathermen what the weather will be like and probably get 5 varying (to some degree) answers. I hope you aren't trying to imply I didn't plan my trip very well. Considering I was missing out on wages from work, driving ~3 hrs each way by myself, using gas money, etc., you can bet I planned and looked at the forecast.

Sorry, but calling the park every hour to make sure it's still open? That's a great idea to do while driving. Checking the weather well in advance, using the same tools available to Kings Island? Sure...and guess what? Those tools, as of 1pm yesterday when I left for Cincinnati, were predicting a little rain in the afternoon up to around 7 and then breaking up for a bit until early Friday morning (1-2am). So let's see... -Checking weather consistently for about a full 24 hrs leading up to the trip, weather looks like it'll hold out decently. -Getting the night off of work so that I can enjoy an evening in the park (Lost income for me) -Spending around $40-50 on gas in total for a round-trip to Cincinnati -Stopping a couple times along the way to check the Kings Island website to make sure it's open...and finding out it "is" open. (Even well into the night, the Kings Island mobile site was proudly stating the park was open 7p-12a. Considering the main KI site is all in Flash, my iPhone clearly isn't going to open that, so my only choice to use their website was the mobile site that was recently launched...and is apparently negelected) As a long-time fan of Kings Island, last night's fiasco left a really, really bad taste in my mouth. I've worked for the company for a couple years at Cedar Point and know things close due to inclement weather, and for good reason (safety). But when it rains and storms, the park doesn't get closed...the rides do. I can guarantee you that when KI closes rides due to weather, they will proudly tell people there are plenty of other things to do in the park that will stay open during inclement weather. And last I recalled, the majority of the haunts were indoors. Being that this is Halloween Haunt, I'd assume most people coming to the park would be interested in doing some Haunts, especially if the rides weren't operating due to weather. With such a last-minute decision, they should have simply closed the rides if need be...or at the very, VERY least, actually attempt to inform the customers that might actually already be on their way to the park. (Mobile site) Of the group I was going with, we all are probably going to be unable to go to the park any other date for the remainder of the season. I'm busy with two jobs and school, and the people I was with are attending school and/or working at Cedar Point for Halloweekends (hence our going on a Thursday) Looks like Dick lost out on our nickels. Sure we're just a few warm bodies and we don't really amount to too much, but such an event can leave a bad taste in someone's mouth for awhile. The way the situation was handled has definitely made me view the park in a new light. Since I'll be moving to FL right after graduation in early May, I'll likely not be able to return to the park even next year...and not by choice. Let me also add that, while I am disappointed in, and question the logic behind, the decision to close the park (for obvious reasons), that is not my main point of contention. My main problem is simply with the way the situation is handled. Now, there is no certain way to reach every possible person that may be coming to your park if you close it, but at least make an attempt. People that may be on their way, for instance, are considered "mobile" and are probably going to check the new "mobile" site that the park publicized. That's a great way to treat your guests.

Indeed! (unless of course you've seen Spectromagic over a hundred times from working the parade route, then you can miss spectro) Both Wishes and Illuminations are absolute musts! (currently listening to the 30min pre-illuminations loop) Gah..I just can't get into Illuminations for some reason. I've tried to love it, but I just can't. I definitely can appreciate it, though. Wishes is definitely a must, and never gets old. Watching the show basically every night for just under six months has spoiled me. July 4th fireworks at home just didn't do anything for me. Another show that shouldn't be missed (though it's easy to miss nowadays) is Fantasmic! A great show with a great soundtrack and a fantastic cast!

I understand everyone has their own opinions, and as you stated, this is yours. That's fine..you are entitled to that. I, however, believe Dead Awakening is an amazing piece of entertainment and is a great show to watch during Haunt.

There were so many things I've done. Wicked Twister practically begs for fun (safe) jokes. A couple of my favorites from Wicked Twister: Once every week or two at Cedar Point, one ride stays open for employees to ride for an hour or two. The ride crews come up with a theme and dress and decorate the station/queue accordingly....usually. Last year, our crew at WT couldn't decide on a single theme, much to my disappointment. We ended up deciding last minute to just have an Intamin identity crisis theme and rotated our station music between TTD, MF, and our own. It was a lame theme, but it ended up being kind of funny in the end. While I was in controls, I spieled the ride as Top Thrill Twister Force. It got a few chuckles. We also had a girl on our crew last summer that would play games with the train if loading was taking a bit of time for some reason. I can't tell you how many times I heard "If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet" (think about it...Inverted coaster) At Space Mountain, it was a bit more difficult to have too much fun with the guests simply because we ran 13 trains on each side. The unload station can only hold 4 trains, and there are only 21 seconds between each train. Once 4 trains are sitting in unload, the 5th train will shut the ride down essentially, causing us to have to reset everything, which takes 15-20 minutes. Anyway, we could have a bit of quick fun at unload, so long as we weren't backed up, and were willing to risk it. Sometimes as a train would come in, I could advance inhibit the train so that it wouldn't move all the way to the position it needed to be to unlock the lapbars. At that point, I would welcome everyone back and tell them they could unlock their lapbars by reaching to the side of the train and pushing the blue button. There was no blue button. A couple seconds later, I'd lift up my inhibit and allow the train to fully park. Other times, if I felt the person in the front seat to be a good candidate for a good-natured scare, I would allow the train to pull all the way up to where it needs to be while at the same time acting freaked out and telling the guest in the front row to "HIT THE BRAKES, HIT THE BRAKES!" (the trains stopped on a dime on their own once they reached the correct position) Usually the guest would start hitting the 'invisible brake' with their foot and say "WHERE IS IT?!?" Once they stopped, they laughed, I laughed, and their friends laughed. Sometimes, it was something simple like "Welcome back! Please exit to your right past the yellow line. Thanks for riding Soarin' and enjoy the rest of your day here at Animal Kingdom!" Most of the time, the guests would either ignore us or say "Thanks! You too!" Hardly anyone caught on. Good times...

Better to be stuck on the first hill than the second.

Part of the reason you don't see a huge gum problem at Disney is the fact that gum is not sold anywhere on Disney property. Even if you stop by the Hess gas station outside the park gates to fill up, you're still on Disney property and can't buy gum (or Pepsi products. ugh) Now, that's not stopping people from buying gum before they get on property, but it does amazingly stop most of the gum problem.

the first time i rode maverick in '07 when i was in line it was spitting rain and they closed it and then the next year i rode it in a steady rain , it really didn't make much sense to me. Don't want to steer the conversation off-topic too much, but did want to point out that in '07, Cedar Point had a knee-jerk reaction to the 'Magnum incident' and started a policy of closing basically all coasters in a very light rain. (Including Wicked Twister, with its magnetic brakes and one train). In 2008, the policy was basically reverted back to its old form.

Love you to death, 'Terpy, but I've got to respectfully disagree. I've pondered this very issue the past two years of my employment on the ol' Twister and have experienced some things that have led me to my stance on the matter. Now, this will be my only post on the issue as I don't want to start up an argument (just want to give my point of view), and I'm uber sick and don't have my 'debate team instincts' with me. I really don't want to go into too much detail on the matter other than a couple points: Ride hosts that false launch a train usually aren't doing it out of boredom. The guests are the ones that usually want the controls person to mislaunch. Now, I'm not in any way sticking up for anyone that is mislaunching the train based on this fact alone. I know you're probably already thinking "Not everyone on that train wants to be mislaunched." However...and this is something I experienced quite a few times...We had a large group of hearing-impaired guests ride. (At one point, either in 07 or 08, we had a whole train of hearing-impaired guests riding) Now, if this countdown to launch was a serious safety concern for the park, you'd think they would have a visual cue, like Dragster, and/or some other sort of assistive device. Besides the hearing-impaired, I've experienced (*MUCH* more often) the "listening-impaired." These "listening-impaired" people are the ones that have no hearing-related issues, other than the fact that they are too busy chatting to their friend in the seat ahead of them or are just too good to listen to anything the ride host is telling them. Even if you find something wrong with those arguments (and you very well could...again, just offering my opinions and observations), the fact remains that you've been in line and seen the ride and what it does. Even if the ride was a walk-on, you would've seen at least one train launch while you were approaching the station. You *know* that train will launch. What's more...that train isn't going anywhere until the brakes go up with their loud *hiss*. And, of course, all of those ride hosts are around you, behind their gates, with their thumbs in the air. That "3, 2, 1" spiel is a nice extra safety check. I'm not going to deny that. But the fact remains that there are a LOT...a LOT of people that do not pay one bit of attention to the countdown. Those that do are usually looking for a bit of a laugh. As an aside, terminating an employee for mislaunching a train is definitely a bit extreme. I can't tell you how many new employees go to that ride thinking they have to say "Clear...Launching in 3, 2, 1" and then push the Dispatch button, only to have the train wait a couple extra seconds after the countdown. What many people don't realize is that you have to hit the Dispatch button as you are counting down. It takes awhile to figure out exactly when you need to hit that button, too, as everyone counts down at different speeds. For me, I would usually hit Dispatch as I was saying "2". (Of course, the "new guy" excuse can't work forever. We did have one guy in '07 that just couldn't figure out what was going on. Needless to say, he wasn't at the ride for long. Not just for that reason, but many other reasons as well. ) Anyways, 'Terpy, definitely not trying to start an argument with you. You're a great person and I totally respect your opinion, but I did want to offer the input of someone who has spent a couple years at the ride. (And yes, I have mislaunched a train or two in my time.) I'd be happy to argue with ya in private sometime if ya want! (haha!) Just give me some time to recover from my current ailments and get off of this medicine before I start in debate mode. edit: I'm pretty much in agreement on the "getting rid of it part," though. I personally don't see it as much of a safety measure due to the above observations, and do agree that some lawsuit happy person could find a way to make a few easy dollars. I would have no issues seeing the countdown gone.

I know you were joking about the possibility of manually pushing Diamondback's trains, but that is actually how it's done on quite a few older rides. For instance, here at Space Mountain we have to manually push each rocket through the storage area until it reaches the storage out track. It's actually pretty fun to push a train.

I wouldn't be so sure about having a "holding cell" for children in the station. I'm pretty sure Cedar Fair is trying to get away from having those. Back in 2007 during Cedar Point's training week, the safety and training manager (the person who can actually claim credit for the Cedar Fair-style Rider Safety Guides at the entrances to each ride) talked about how they didn't approve of the Paramount Parks' method of allowing small children into the line and station. She specifically mentioned Kings Island in her presentation and thoroughly explained how it works at KI. I was actually surprised, in 2007 and 2008, to see those "holding cells" in use. Based on all of this, I doubt we'll see any new rides built with these kiddie corrals. The park may continue using the ones seen at Vortex, Adventure Express, etc. for now, but with CF's stance on the policy, I doubt they'll be too keen on adding more.

It doesn't matter if Diamondback is anything like Tatsu or not, that's (in general) how a coaster gets tested. Even a wooden coaster goes through similar processes.

Not to drag this off topic...but something needs clarified. Cedar Point built a new office building this past year that will house many offices for upper-management. While a park may "never get nothing" (???) the entry in question is more than likely nothing more than leading up to a discussion of either A) The marketing office moving to the new building or The marketing office is getting a renovated in its current location.

I'll take updates from Don. If we were basing our updates off of Beast1979, the station would be done other than the gates and controls.

Just a technicality and I feel like being 'that guy' (lol!) but at Cedar Point the 'drive box' is simply called 'controls'. I actually found it odd to hear the term 'drive box' at KI. I had never heard it called that until KI. Like I said, it's not an issue or anything, just felt like pointing out a semi-interesting fact.

Sounds like a blast. I wish I could go, but that's the week I start at Disney.

I will say that the timing of this wanting to "re-establish" the west side of town is pretty bad...Not that they could have planned for the economy to tank the way it has. But going along with the above comment, it is going to take more than one attraction inside a mall to get people back to that area. This is a step, but it's a small one, and one that needs some support, and soon, but again, with the economy, that will be tough.

I think you may be seeing quite the opposite next year. I cannot confirm as I'm definitely not a person in the know, but I did hear some talk of a certain park to the north going to the Coke way of things in 09. Now, this is just talk overheard from various friends and nobody in management, so I wouldn't put too much faith in this, but something to think about regardless.

It's that attitude that has caused that side of town to turn into what it has been in recent years. The city is trying hard to revitalize the area. Yes, it's not the most wonderful part of town but it really needs some TLC and people to give it a chance and within a few years, I'd expect the west side to turn itself around and back into the lively shopping/family area it once was. Part of that revitalization needs to include changing public perception.

Getting kind of demanding, aren't you? Don's job doesn't revolve solely around the blog. As somebody else stated, he's out of the office...working. He's been in Sandusky meeting with his counterparts from other Cedar Fair parks.

Agreed. I know my high school teachers and college professors flat-out tell us not to use Wikipedia as a source. As said above, it can be a good starting point to find other sources if they are listed, but you can't simply rely on Wikipedia itself. A good and humorous article to read: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1537865/20060803/id_0.jhtml Good luck to you, though! As long as you cover your bases with proper sources you'll be ok.

I really hope Diamondback doesn't have "Skyline Vision." Does anybody remember that video about the cats and they would sing that song that went like "shockacon" extreemly weird You mean...this? http://www.webratsmusic.com/video-22250-ch...tties-promo.php haha This video along with the other kitten music videos played on the queue TVs were actually VH1 promos created by the folks of rathergood.com They also created a few spots for Quiznos:

Wow! Kudos to Mr. Helbig for once again going above and beyond for us. I look forward to checking out the questions and his responses and look forward to future entries in the evermore active blog.