Gordon Bombay

I'm gonna page TombRaiderTy on Twitter and get him in here to answer this, because he's the AUTHORITY on that ride, but I can tell you this from personal experience as a guest and not as a guest: Fog was once heavily used on AE. In the mid 90's you'd exit the station and there'd be fog on the winding course before you hit the first tunnel. I believe you can still see some of the lights beneath the track that gave the fog a green and red hue at night. You'd hit that first tunnel where a railroad bell was ringing (complete with flashing lights) and that tunnel was illuminated to show all the fake snakes hanging on the wall. You'd continue the course, hitting the first lift and that's where those awesome spears were. Believe it or not kids, before there were a million excuses as to why they couldn't be fixed - those spears used to move in and out of the wall like booby traps seen in a popular movie franchise. You'd ascend the lift and hear the "creaking" and "whooshing" sounds then hit the hill, do some turns and then you're in another tunnel. That's the "lava" tunnel. It used to have red lights underneath the track kind of like in that scene from Temple of Doom. Huh, that's weird. Then there's the end, with the drummers and the "now you will pay" guy. TL:DR - You can theme a ride to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom without saying the words Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Oh, and as for that smell - I always heard it was raccoons. They'd try to nest in that tunnel. Your home has a bathroom, why not theirs? Fun Fact: In 2010/11 fog was returned to that ride (and several others) by someone with a creative vision on a shoestring budget. He was a helluvaguy to work for and is still doing awesome things for amusement parks today.

The Beast's "Brake Shed" can accommodate two stopped trains with its block system. So if you have one train stopped in the station, one can be waiting in the pneumatic pinch brakes directly behind it, while the third is directly behind that. Two trains on that "shed" are the maximum. The shed does have a magnetic "trim" brake on it as well as sets of pneumatic pinch brakes. Crews performing well while properly staffed and benefiting from agreeable guests can typically roll a train out of the station well before the following train is in the "shed." Additionally, while I've heard it from several good sources, but never confirmed it - The Beast was "supposedly" designed with two stations in mind. One for loading, another for unloading and would've potentially accommodated four trains. I've also heard of a similar plan for Son of Beast that was nixed early on.

Any animals sharing water with BP platforms and Exxon tankers may disagree with that...

Ha, would you really want to admit that pizza is your own? I'm surprised Larosa's does.

Amen. I never found LaRosa's Pizza to be particularly good. And I never found the pizza at Kings Island to be anything like actual LaRosa's.

If your favorite part of the day is "eating pizza," then maybe that explains why you're not enjoying roller coasters like you used to.

http://kingsislandinsider.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for the clarity! It'll be interesting indeed if KK really comes into the political arena. Living in Northern Kentucky (and having grown up in Cincinnati), I pretty much identify as a Cincinnatian. The only time I'm even really aware of the Commonwealth's politics is tax season and when I have to renew my vehicle. Given from what I've seen, and what appears to be of concern to the populace - I don't think state money tied up at the park in Louisville is going to rattle many people's cages so long as both candidates are pro guns.

Just looking for some clarification and I may have missed something, but is the park actually being directly funded in any amount by the Commonwealth of Kentucky? I followed this thread a lot more closely during the Bluegrass Boardwalk breakdown and the initial return of Hart, but from what I've seen (and the quick searching I've done tonight) it seems that the park was offered incentives/tax breaks not necessarily a direct subsidy. I did find one article making mention that the city of Louisville itself had put forward around $200,000, but not a mention of the state directing cash into the park. Again, maybe I missed something? If that's the case - that's probably why you haven't seen more of a "commotion." KK always has and will continue to fall into a political arena given who owns the land and its relationship with the State Fair. Nevertheless, if "tax breaks" at the state level are the only thing on the back of Kentucky taxpayers, that's a hell of a lot better than a direct subsidy and not much different than the tax breaks the state gives to film studios and other corporations to attract business (see: Toyota and the battle with Texas as well as when Kentucky squared off with Cincinnati for who could offer Omnicare the best tax breaks). I also believe the state offered similar tax breaks to the Creation Museum's latest amusement park endeavor. Not saying it's right, but just pointing out it's not as if the government is directly funding this operation. If I've missed something though, please point me in the right direction! Signed, A taxpayer in the Commonwealth of Kentucky (a state where you never see much of a tax return and pay quite a bit for a license plate sticker, but hey: the cigarettes are cheaper here than across the river).

No doubt, they're reading it. That's probably why they responded in the way they did on their Facebook.

What did security say?

Homestar92, this is an absolutely wonderful piece of satire. I really, really enjoyed reading this. Thanks for putting it together!

The Park wasn't sold to Paramount until August of 1992. Oops! Thanks for pointing that out! Usually I'm putting this stuff together at 2 AM and not all cylinders are firing. You wouldn't happen to have those family photographs available would you? I would LOVE to see them.

I think Towne Properties is trying to build apartments there. My understanding is that the property has to be rezoned first.

Also, thanks to Boddah1994 for letting me use his scanner that's currently sitting on our kitchen table. I hate printers and haven't owned one for two years, if it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't have bothered to scan that brochure.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out. From talking to people at the site, the biggest problem with the hotel's viability seemed to be mold in the building's closest to the highway. They were built much differently (and probably far cheaper) than the initial two resort blocks in order to meet an increasing demand in an era where hotels weren't too common on that exit/in the nearby area, not to mention in a time when finding a hotel meant lots of research and no internet to sort our best prices and deals. In all reality, I'm sure the problems could've been fixed and someone could've kept it running, but at what cost? The facility is huge and only used the majority of its rooms during a single peak season. It's convention and reception halls are not unique and rivaled even by nearby options at regular chains such as Holiday Inn and Marriott not to mention the convention areas of the Great Wolf Lodge. On top of all that you're trying to maintain two full service restaurant and an indoor pool. The Kings Island that facility was built to serve in 1972 was vastly different - truly a full, resort and entertainment destination (one that was intended to be year round). Now, while Kings Island is still great, it's simply a regional theme park. I always wondered about "Coasters," the bar at the hotel. It seems these days that hotels have drifted away from offering their own restaurants and bars. Even so, having those kinds of facilities within a lodging establishment raises the question: "Are these for guests or outside visitors too?" As someone who enjoyed sharing drinks with coworkers after a shift - "Coasters" was never on our radar when it came to area bars. In the times I've been photographing abandoned places it's always interesting to see the emotional reaction people have to the photographs. At times I share the disappointment in seeing a place close, especially if it's place I had the chance to visit when it was open. Other times, If I've never been to that location, it's more of an objective thing. With KIR&CC, I had never been when it was open, but it was still tough to see it go when you take into account the history it shares with the park next door. It's truly something of a bygone era, where regional parks of the 70's were thought to be Disney class rivals with bold ambitions and dreams. Thank you for the kind words and taking the time to check it out! It certainly ended up being a far cry from what it was in the 70's, but in the end it seemed like a reasonable and halfway decent hotel (then again, I'm someone who's perfectly fine with Motel6 or sleeping in my car if need be). Did you ever play the Call of Duty that takes place in Chernobyl? It's great. Best game of that series. Reviews seemed to be mixed. Did you ever stay there?

So I recently had the chance to check out and visit the Kings Island Resort & Conference Center (formerly the Kings Island Inn) after it had closed. It's currently in the process of demolition, but I thought you guys might enjoy seeing some photos from the inside: I used to post a lot of "Photo trip report" threads here on KIC. Eventually that evolved into the kind of writing I do on my website where you can see all of the photos in a new article I put together: http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2015/02/last-guests-of-kings-island-resort.html And I wrote another story back when it closed in November, detailing some of its history here: http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-end-of-suburban-cincinnatis-alpine.html Also, as a special treat for KICentral I thought you guys might like this. I picked this up amongst the trash on my way out:

It's a gun range.

I don't think it was a vendetta, so much as it was pretty much a win-win opportunity for Cedar Fair. If you want to buy your competition and shut it down you do that, you don't buy them and try to pretend to keep it running just to make a show of things. In terms of GL I saw it as this: The park clearly couldn't make a run at competing on a Cedar Point scale. CF bought it at a fire sale price and was able to remove the Six Flags threat in Ohio and keep any one else from contending with them. They then had a new park that had more than enough rides and attractions to suit itself. If things turned around and it made money: great. If it doesn't work: threat gone. In the end, they kept the profitable side and removed any slot for competition to move in. It was a smart move, although a sad one for GL fans.

I think Cedar Fair has made it clear they're not going to do that while said "riff raff" are buying Fright Lane, Skeleton Keys and eight dollar pretzels.

Disney probably has access to several more, higher quality drones operated by adequately paid people. Also, speaking of Magic Bands - I'm glad to see they're not made out of paper. I mean, who would use paper on a wrist band you pay for?

I believe they were all redone when Hannah Barbera land received an expansion in 1998. Additionally, as new attractions were added you would see new parking signs arranged with the same color scheme and new logos. I.E. Drop Zone and Face/Off were added as well as Son of Beast in their respective years. Eventually, these were all gone too.

I believe the are correct. In fact, I think they were removed before the end of the 2013 season. This is correct, the footings are long gone. They always reminded me of some sort of ancient ruins.

At the same time though, one example is more extreme than the other. And is the "GP" really upset over this? Let's be honest, aside from KIC and PointBuzz who even really remembers or will care whether or not Cedar Point makes good on its goofy promise to rename a roller coaster after LeBron James?

Wait, that scrambler is gone!? My best friend talked about it all the time and recently just took a job in Atlanta. At his going away party, the indoor scrambler was all he would talk about.