Gordon Bombay

I've learned that First Year Undergrads are Always Experts in Their Fields..... or Else They Think They Are. <G> Just as much as the guy who sold food at the park at the time The Bat was around. <G> Difference... I rode The Bat well over 100 times. I had the opportunity to ride The Bat the last few rides before it was dismantled. (But opted not to as I would have missed school.) I think that you'll agree that I do not make statements that I am reasonably or absolutely certain about. Oh, I have no doubt that you do, but DiscoDude wasn't claiming to be an expert, and made a general observation that he would probably know about. Lots of people ride coasters, doesn't mean they know how to maintain or fix them.

I've learned that First Year Undergrads are Always Experts in Their Fields..... or Else They Think They Are. <G> Just as much as the guy who sold food at the park at the time The Bat was around. <G>

I'm fairly certain it used to say KI&MVRR, but I could be wrong PKIVortex, you always do see to have a knack for remembering things like that.

Thanks KIfan, even though previous owners started to ignore the theming and view the trains as primarily transport to the water park, that ride has so much tradition between the people who run it and maintain it. The engines are named after former conductors at the park, the ride kids are taught the history of the train and have been using the same hand signals since the start. The train is one of my favorite things at Kings Island.

Kings Island and Miami Valley Railroad was a far better name than just Kings Island railroad, the name along with references in the station and theming, apply to a lot of Cincinnati and the surrounding area's history.

How much is still standing? I may have to go to another abandoned amusement park this summer.

Has anyone here been to Legoland? I've always been a huge fan of Legos, loved them as a kid, but Legoland looks really tacky from the photos I've seen.

Well, I have read the entire thread, and don't see where you said that.

Make it cheaper. Bring more people. "Group rates". Ok........"SEND GORDON AND BROWN TO GERMANY" Admiral, I'm Italian by the way, so Germany's not my father land.

I'd be willing to go to Germany, photograph the coaster, ride it, and create an ultra super duper trip report with video and such if you all wanna fund it! Let the "SEND GORDON TO GERMANY" fund drive begin!

What kind of job you thinking about getting this summer Scooby? I don't know if they can do a scooby show, or if they'd have to get certain rights. They have an agreement through Sally dark rides to use Scooby on the haunted castle ride, but I bet they'd need some separate agreement to do a show of some sort. Glad to see you back posting Scooby!

Thats an excellent article. The architecture and theming of the sea world in 1983 looks really similar to how Surf Cincinnati looked around here and to how Geauga Lake looked. I've always heard that Sea World Ohio was the "sub-par", "discount" sea world. Is there any validity to that? I last went to Sea World in 2004, and was both impressed and disappointed. Overall, it's an excellent park, and Kraken is not one to be missed, definitely worth a few re-rides! However, as much as the author praises Busch for aggressively updating the park once they acquired it, it seemed in 2004 that they had done that in some places better than others. From what I remember, the entrance and majority of the park looks spectacular, right on par with Disney/Universal, but it seemed that back sections of the park looked pretty dated an old. That Shamu stadium looked like a giant hunk of all concrete 1970's architecture, similar to the style of Riverfront stadium and the food stands around there were no cleaner or nicer than a typical 1994 Mcdonalds.

I've always preferred the old homely arenas to the newer ones. Kind of like how I much prefer the Cincy Gardens over US Bank Arena. Ryan, you know, that I prefer the Gardens to the Bank Arena as well, especially for hockey, but have you been to Hara Arena? That place makes the Gardens look like Nationwide Arena. I played hockey there once awhile ago and it was like skating through puddles, the ice was terrible. The last time I was there was probably 4 years ago to see a friend play, and the place was still a dump. Back when the WHA was formed as a rival to the NHL, Cincinnati was given a team due to the construction of the, then new, Riverfront Coliseum. Dayton was to receive a franchise called the Dayton Aeros, but the owner felt that even at that time Hara Arena was not adequite, so he moved the team to Houston.

Well, that S&S ride that fell apart was called "VertiGo", not "Invertigo." VertiGo history at Cedar Point The ride was located in the park's "challenge park". *images from www.ultimaterollercoaster.com Invertigo is the standard name for the face-to-face inverted boomerang from Vekoma, so I imagine they either pay vekoma the right to use the name or some other deal. Vekoma Invertigo

Notice they still have Survivor the ride....I wonder why the name of that didn't change and if the ride is still interactive and relative to the t.v. show.

It was meant to be a "B )" to make my second point. To build on what Brown said, not only was the passenger intoxicated, but it was the operation policy recommended by Intamin that allowed her to come out of the car.

Looks like fun... I don't remember seeing this when Boddah, Dane, zoso, and i went in 06.

Where has he stated that he's never ridden a stand up coaster at all before? Edit: Re-read what he said, *slaps head* for reading too fast, sorry cory.

Just as safe as the Flight Commander. Just had to put that out. A-) You're not old enough to even remember Flight Commander or the accident. B-) You obviously don't know anything about the accident.

I think photoshop is alright unless your trying to forge it as a true media depiction or release by the park, which in that case is a debate of legality and ethics. However, I think we should have a photo shop competition and topic again! I have gotten better at since our last topic when I was the "MS paint Master!"

Klockster, I accept your Lego challenge! There should be a KIC sponsored lego challenge. RZ, no offense, but it was kids like you and my friends when I was younger that annoyed me with this.... Random colors!? Come on, there needs to be some sort of pattern of uniform color scheme here!

^Thanks for posting that, that is awesome. Does anyone know if the PGA theming deteriorated as bad as Kings Island's. Note that in that article there is no such thing as the F-14 Phantom, its the F-14 Tomcat that was featured in the film and at the time was the Navy's primary fighter aircraft. Them saying the "Phantom" twice makes me wonder if they really though the movie feature F-4 Phantom's considering Kings Island's Top Gun has that big image of an F-4 Phantom behind its station. (In the billboard before the queue line they have F-15 Eagles flying above an aircraft carrier, the F-15 Eagle was primarily used by the Air Force and the carrier variant version never made it past the design phases.

With what Monroe said, I'd even wager that without the restraints on Vortex, you'd be falling out like Bavarian Beetle's pennies on those corkscrews after the block brakes.

Can you post it? I'd like to see it I'll try and dig up the picture when I go back to Cincinnati, although its a little embarassing, i was like 11, had buzzed hair and looked like a dork. I don't have the Titanic anymore, it was broken apart and it's lego bricks salvaged to make the U.S.S Enterprise.

Lego's were by far my favorite toys as a kid and I wish I still had the time to build with them today. I have my dad's blocks from the early 60's and a bunch of kits from the 90's. I remember every month my mom and I would send a picture off to Lego Magazine of something I had built to try and get me a spot in their section where they display recent creation's by kids, and every month someone else had built the same thing, but better, and got featured instead. I still think my Lego recreation of the Titanic was the BEST ever.