Gordon Bombay

^Well said Shaggy. I don't think anyone could've summed that up better. The "highly themed, totally immersive, dynamic AND thrilling" days are gone. Mr. Ouimet seems keen on providing guests with an "experience" from his staff. I've always had wonderful interactions with the staff of Kings Island, but he seems intent on making that experience even better. I think that's where you'll see KI learning from Disney.

It was probably easier to use that stock image/make that logo with a stock Eiffel Tower image than to take a photo of KI's, strip it in Illustrator and make a brand new logo.

They did at one time. That's miserable to make a kid wear while it's hot out.

Why do they need to? It's not costing them anything. The only people who care, post on here and will come to the park anyways. Until they have something to put there, why spend a lot of money to bring it down?

No one is going to say "we'll let it go until something bad happens." That's just plain stupid. Newsflash: They did try, more than three times, over many years. The GM is unhappy with its performance. It has a bad reputation. It has been sitting there not operating for what will soon be three years. The corporate entity is now run by a guy who doesn't care much for massive coasters, let alone sketchy ones. Writing is on the wall folks... SoB had used so many strikes, the game has gone into extra innings. Like the Cleveland Indians Couldn't resist This comment is out of hand and uncalled for. The Indians are hardly ever competitive enough to bring the game into extra innings.

^I think that's both smart and nice. Even if The Beach was KI's competition, plenty of Beach passholders seem to be angry awaiting the Beach to roll out a refund plan. Ironically, The Beach did a similar thing when Surf Cincinnati bit the dust.

^Good call, haha, fixed!

They were in fact the rides from Wyandot, but they were never erected at The Beach. As pointed out above, those were two used water slides from another park. The Beach never did install them. I'm truly saddened about The Beach going down. Had a few friends who worked there and loved it. CoastersRZ and I had lunch the other day and we had both heard that the park was for sale. My guess is, they were planning to open this year in hopes that some sale was going to go through. The abrupt closure seems to me that whatever deal or sale they had planned fell through. Poor Beach, couldn't make her ends meet. - Gordon Bombay who was hoping to see JGC96 back in town.

The Skyline food served inside the park should be the same as outside. Except the fries are crinkle cut, for whatever reason. That would be correct. The difference is one location uses quality when preparing the food.

Agree with the first part! But the ride was not that bad!! Parts of the ride( Rose bowl) are. The drop was sweet! I think the ride it's self would be alot better with new cars like the Timberliners!! Just saying lol You know, I'll admit what I said was pretty harsh. I LOVED the ride when it opened, but I was 11 and under five feet. Even when they removed the loop and the ride was "ok," it just never seemed that great. Regardless, its reputation precedes it. We're not talking about a coaster that just randomly closed, this one closed for good reason. I can understand numerous guests coming to Cedar Point and being sad pandas because TTD is closed, but I imagine the only ones who care about SOB are the few who complain to guest services all year and infrequently post vague knowledge on these sites. As for the Timberliners, would that have helped? Maybe, but it seems that the rides those trains go on are designed much differently. I understand where you're coming from though and have to agree - trying almost ANY train option would've been better than modifying already used Gerstauler trains (seriously, Gerstauler!?). Then again, who would've wanted to manufacturer trains for that thing?

Does anyone know if this is the paint scheme the monorail cars opened with initially? Is this the original paint scheme the monorail cars opened with initially? Edited to avoid inevitable answer by Interpreter or someone who's learned from him, since apparently I didn't.

^The truth right there. Personally, I think people are VASTLY OVERESTIMATING how many people "care" about whether or not Son of Beast is open. If you're a local passholder or infrequent visitor, they've probably already made up their own story in their head as to why it's not open. If someone comes from out of town, I think Medford is dead on, they may see it and have questions, but I doubt they let it ruin their day. If you're some coaster enthusiast who came all the way here just for Son of Beast and for a specific purpose, then it's your fault for not doing your homework. Let's talk real for a second folks, we're talking about Son of Beast. This ride sucked when it opened. Sucked when they took a car off and re-tracked it. Sucked when they removed the loop. The ride sucks. I seriously doubt anyone's day is ruined because they got ALL THE WAY TO Kings Island(!!!!) and that ride wasn't open.

Joe's Diner on Sycamore.

From what I understand, the two aren't really comparable are they? Xtended Play was they kept Action Zone open late, marketed it towards teens and had DJ's so it was like this "dance/coaster party for the youth." Luminosity: "Ignite the Night" is a light show, isn't it?

HaHa I think a family oriented light show is a far cry from the disaster that was "Xtended Play."

I just hope it's better than "Starlight Spectacular," which was anything but spectacular. With literal names such as "Drop Tower" for its attractions, CF should've called it: "Dark path with burn out Christmas lights."

Nice to see that he has confidence in his product. There certainly seems to be a HUGE shift in the atmosphere of Cedar Fair's culture.

Heard word this morning through some friends that The Beach is officially closing. Rumors had been going around throughout the winter that they wouldn't reopen this season and that they were up for sale. Just a few weeks ago they had radio advertisements for their job fair and informed returning employees that rehire info would be out soon. http://warrencounty.fox19.com/news/news/87908-beach-waterpark-closing-2012-season

Haha the class at NKU?

HA! "many?" I believe he came to KI as recently as 2004.

Yeah, the topic is linked a few posts up. You can't read the article because it's now a pay article located within the depths of the Enquirer's wonderful archives full of great journalism. Anyone know if they ended up making it a breeding ground or why the land was donated in the first place?

^ I think of a few of her quotes. I have a picture of me somewhere with her at Riverfront Stadium and she's smoking a cigarette on the concourse with me as a small child.

Are you referring to the old Safari Monorail that Kings Island had? When Kings Island initially opened there was plans for the Wild Animal Habitat and Lion Country Safari. It opened in 1974 and featured animal exhibits, shows and monorail that took you around the various attractions. The monorail last ran in 1992 I think and the cars were on site until 1998 when they moved to Jungle Jim's. That store now runs the monorail during special events. See: http://www.KICentral.com/history/monorail.php Somewhere around here, TombRaiderTY did an AWESOME write up about the attractions history. As far as Marge Schott goes, I haven't heard anything about some land she donated. Did she donate land originally when Kings Island planned this attraction? From what I've heard recently, the zoo has no plans to open up this kind of attraction either at their current location or anywhere else. However, the Zoo did partner with KI back in the day when the WAH was open.

Standbyme does it again. Man, this stuff is great! I agree that the artist's depiction of the characters is a bit strange. It's almost as if there's no defining line between whether or not Scooby is a costumed character or if he's just put on weight. And the five fingers on a human hand connected to a dog? Most of the photographs are excellent. I loved how parks like Kings Island used to not only have their own darkrooms, but their own photographers.

Kills your park rating. Be careful.