Gordon Bombay

Social Media is a double edged sword. On one hand, it's the most efficient and easiest way to reach people - on the other hand, a lot of those people are complete morons.

No you won't, you'll just come over and hang out at the Waffle House with the rest of us after the park closes.

I get it.

If that were a speech Boddah, I'd start the standing ovation. Gravy gets tickets and I bet a lot of gravy was poured hoping Banshee gets best new ride.

Sometimes those claims are validated, like when a guest claims their son rode a ride earlier in the day and has an on ride photo to prove it. That's an interesting situation to try and smooth over.

They did for a short while, you would've never realized it though. It was barely noticeable. If you look at the back of the cars, you can still see the springs that allowed it to sway. You can also see where they've welded the car chassis to the sliding mechanism to keep them from doing so in the future. This effect was negligible, I think the hope was that throughout the season it would "loosen" up and become more noticeable. It didn't.

From my understanding of some folks who opened the ride, the "stair bump" was installed, but amounted to nothing more than the feeling that you were rolling over a rough piece of track. I.E. Imagine sitting on a vibrating cell phone. The "effect" didn't translate well.

So back in 1988, Amazon Falls made its debut at KI. An Intamin "chute the chutes" ride, it's giant splash has been an iconic view in the park. A few years after the initial Paramount acquisition, the area surrounding Congo Falls was re themed, remodeled and became the "Paramount Action Zone." AZ was intended to come off as an area that was like a Hollywood backlot featuring rides themed to Paramount's films. Of course you had "Top Gun," the company's 1986 Blockbuster that came to life as a roller coaster in 1993, but you also had two new attractions that took on Paramount themes. "Face/Off" and "Drop Zone" debuted. Aside from sharing names with lackluster action movies, the "themes" pretty much ended there (Drop Tower did have an automated spiel from a "director" for awhile who gave you safety instructions under the pretense that you were filming the climactic ending to a forgettable Wesley Snipes film). Amazon Falls, whether you knew it or not, also joined the movie lineup by becoming "Congo Falls," named after Paramount's commercially successful, but critically panned film "Congo." At the time, and as a 10 year old, I saw Action Zone as Paramount (technically Viacom) really making an effort to tie in their movie properties into a true theme park ala Universal Studios. Looking back the "theming" really just came off as lazy and cheap, although the ride additions were great. I've never bothered to watch Face/Off or Drop Zone, but last night I noticed Congo was on Netflix. "What the hell?" I thought and queued it up. Maybe it would bring back some late 90s, Action Zone, ten year old nostalgia. Maybe the movie had a climactic ending on a waterfall which is why the ride was themed that way? So, I watched it and here's a review. Warning: Spoilers Ahead, but really I'm saving you time, trust me. The movie starts out with some cinematic music and these great, beautiful shots of a safari heading through Africa. The safari begins an expedition, finds some diamonds, uses techno babble to video link with a communications headquarters back in the USA and report on the expedition's progress. The whole scene takes a lot of time to convey what seems like primitive technology now, essentially they're using old school "FaceTime." Then the expedition is mysteriously killed. Ok, cheesy 90's action, let's keep watching. Yeah, so, then there's this elaborate plot revealed with a communications company wanting to steal diamonds and some professor teaching a gorilla to use sign language to talk. This whole part makes no sense and takes about 30 minutes for everyone to get to "The Congo," but they have to bribe a guard and parachute out of a plane for some reason. Also, the one black guy from Ghostbusters shows up and is in this movie. I fell asleep after that, woke up and read the rest of the plot on Wikipedia. Apparently I slept through the climactic laser fight with the super gorillas at the end. TL:DR - Don't watch Congo, it's bad, and not a cheesy but loveable 90s action flick bad. It's like one of the crappier of the crappy Sci-Fi channel original movies. ...and Paramount "themed" a ride to it. All in all, I think the true theme if Action Zine wasn't movies. Like Congo, the theme was, how poorly can Viacom make something and expect people to buy into it? Congo cost a lot of money and people paid to see it. It wasn't good, but it made money. Much like how Action Zone had cost money and people came to the park to ride some good rides, not "experience" the movies like at other theme parks. The lesson to be learned: Congo Falls theme wasn't "Congo," it was actually "Viacom Corporate Strategy." Edit: This isn't to say Paramount/Viacom didn't do great things for the park, they certainly did and Cedar Fair follows a lot of their "themes" to this day.

Speaking form similar experiences, back to school and the fall is always the toughest, especially when a company promotes the federal minimum wage going up as a "raise" for its young employees, then scratches its head when they can't retain anyone.

You were a warm body.

Thanks for sharing some insight about the Dutchman! I'm not sure how long ago Bill saw it, but I don't think it was the covered bridge. he's pretty certain that this was built on someone's property, much like a lawn ornament. If we ever find out, I'll be sure to let people here know!

Hi everyone, For those of you that don't know, I run a website dedicated to urban exploration, photography and history throughout the midwestern United States - particularly Cincinnati. Recently, I posted an article about an abandoned restaurant in Waynesville, Ohio that another photographer and I went to visit (The "Der Dutchman). After sharing a link to the story on our site's Facebook page, longtime friend and KIC "old timer," zosobeast, shared something he had seen in the nearby area awhile ago: Apparently while driving with some friends, he had seen a property that had an old roller coaster station and partial lift hill on its lawn. He wasn't sure which coaster it had once belonged to and they didn't double back to check it out, but he is positive he knew what it was. They came across it after eating at Der Dutchman (the abandoned restaurant featured in our latest article) and thinks it's nearby. The restaurant was in Waynesville, Ohio - northern Warren County. If anyone has any idea of what he's talking about, we'd love to find the owners and contact them to maybe do a story and uncover some amusement park history. If you have any tips or info, we'd greatly appreciate it! For some more details and some of our work on abandoned amusement parks, you can visit the site here: http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2014/06/in-search-of-partial-roller-coaster-in.html Thanks!

Wow! I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this (and your article from the other day). Tomb Raider: The Ride has always fascinated me. When I started at the park back in 2005, that was still the "IT" ride - the one A LOT of people wanted to work on. It pulled a big line, was still the "new," "big" thing. I had the opportunity to work it many times and even see all the ins and outs. Eventually I even had the opportunity to supervise that ride's crew when it transitioned to "The Crypt's" two programs. It was tough knowing what all had been originally installed and intended and then see it become an attraction that had an empty queue by 9:30 most nights (made for very easy cleaning though). Thanks for sharing all this goodyellowkorn182.

Given the title of this topic, I'm a little disappointed this isn't a thread about Adventure Express related poetry.

Had no idea the park added this, seems great.

Staff members as in park employees or fire department employees? Also, what do you mean by "rough?"

If time travel is ever invented, I'd recommend you use it to go visiti Geauga Lake in 2006. Ride the Villain and you'll think Son of Beast is like floating on air.

Jonathan is not a big fan, from what I have read, of His Noodly Appendage, so to call it #jonathan is ironic to the circumstances.(BB1 will always know it as His Noodly Appendage) Ok, we get it, thanks.

The topography does not lend itself it connect the two areas without massive and expensive redevelopment of the land. You'd be more likely to see restrooms in X Base. Unfortunately, life isn't always like Roller Coaster Tycoon.

And vow renewal ceremonies apparently, not just marriages.

Not everyone has their fanny pack on so tightly and filled to the gills with gravy.

I love your work!

The sign at the end of Beach Blvd. currently says "watch for two new rides in 2014" or something like that.

I was reading your post and decided to search wikipedia for the history of the word "jacket." Did you know "jacket" comes from the French word "jaquette," and that Montreal's residents speak primarily French? I thought about going to Montreal once and still have the travel website bookmarked from 2011.

I do understand this is a business. Just because the money has to come from somewhere doesn't mean I have to like the way they are recouping the money. Nor does it mean I have to participate in the penny pinching.I have a voice and can use my actions of not paying the locker or buying things in the park to protest the move of requiring lockers for loose articles. Not every park charges for lockers on rides and they get by just fine. See Holiday World. Apples and Oranges, the operation of Holiday World is an incredibly small scale compared to Kings Island. Not to mention, they deal with completely different customer bases. What works for Holiday World doesn't necessarily work for Kings Island.