Gordon Bombay

I think thats an excellent idea. I would paint one train blue and gold for the blue angels, representing the United States Navy, and another train red and white for the thunderbirds, representing the USAF.

I'd still rather see Tomb Raider go western and fit in with Rivertown. Just set out that old cigar store indian in front of the cave.

Well the last time I was in a Sunoco, the one adjacent to Kings Island, was this morning to buy coffee and the woman who rang me up spoke english fine. Bought gas today on the way at home at a BP in Fairfield, the gentlemen had a southern accent, yet I could understand him. Now, I don't know what a "slurpee mart" is <G> but I fail to see how you have any point. Down the street from me is a local gas station called Gas Depot, not affiliated with any major chain. It's quite a convienient place, and locally owned. The gentlemen who runs it speaks broken english, as does his wife, the other employees speak it alright. The owner happens to be my neighbor and I've known him ever since he moved here, became an American citizen (a day which he was VERY proud), and open up his own business venture. I fail to see how anyone with a strong accent is any less American than you and how they are hurting the economy, let alone how your rant about "slurpee's" prove... I think you should settle down dude, for all we know this company may work out well for Kennywood, an already great park.

Which even if they are re-used props, if done properly and maintained it could be a fresh, new look for the ride. I just hope that if there is going to be theming, the lets give the park the budget to maintain it. However if disaster transport is any reflection of CF's attitudes towards maintaining elements of theming... I personally think they should take all the western themed stuff from Geauga Lake's top spin and throw it in there.

Same year of my last visit too.

Carowinds is an excellent park and Top Gun: The Jet Coaster is one of my favorites! I look forward to seeing more pictures Vortex!!!

Why does selling it make more sense? Without the proper figures and information I fail to see how it makes any sense to sell Star Trek the Experience. For all we know it could be very profitable and beneficial to the company. Kinzel has not expressed any interest in selling it or mentioned it being a burden in any of the conference calls. For all we know it could be bringing in some profit for the company.

Seibert took it with him when he left, along with some other stuff.

Hey there Raptor Jo and welcome to KICentral! That pr guy who was speaking was Don Helbig and with him was Ryan Suhr who I believe was speaking tonight too, for KICentral. How was the party and the speeches?

Anybody know how KD's was compared to KI? Until I saw those recent pictures in the historical gallery and read train drivers story I never realized how extensive KI's Wild Animal Habitat was. It looks even better than Animal Kingdom down at Disney. What was the main reason it was removed? Cost and upkeep? I really wish I had gotten to experience it, but at the time I did I was too young to remember, atleast the mono rail will hopefully see some new life at Jungle Jims. I would love to see what positions as far as working with the ride they'll be hiring for once it gets close to opening.

Wow! Train Driver I am glad you joined this site and have contributed these stories. I knew the WAH was big, but not that big. I had no idea it had such an extensive collection of animals nor did I know that ride operators controlled the monorail trains, i thought it was all automatic! Since you have some extensive knowledge maybe you'd be able to help us out with some of these recent pictures from Jungle Jims... I stopped by on my way home from work this afternoon to see if any progress had been made, there wasn't much to report. My friend was supposed to be gettng married here in Nov. but I haven't talked to her in a long time. Obviously the monorail was not done like she claimed it was going to be by Nov....maybe she meant NEXT year. Anyways heres the pictures from 12/7/07 Here's a general overview of the approach from the starbucks station to the main station/transfer track area, the highlighted areas show were track and supports have been laid. No new track or supports have been added, nor has that crane been moved since I was last here in September. Look how close some of the transfer track footings come to the road parking lot... I thought they were having new track manufactured, this random piece was just sitting in the parking lot right next to my parking space. TrainDriver, is this the same kind of track that was at Kings Island if so, could this maybe be a piece of original track from KI? I just snapped these while I was driving and wouldn't go any further from the parking lot into any sort of construction area but near where the above piece of track was laying...monorail parts perhaps? This curved piece of track was added to the exit track from the starbucks station Thats all I got for now.

Oops forgot to post the link... http://www.KICentral.com/history/photos/th...ls.php?album=12 AWESOME 1974 photos of the monorail.

^heh, well I guess Reclaimer said it best...

Wow! That is so cool to have a former employee on here who ran the safari monorail! Here are some EXCELLENT photos contributed by Paul K. to our historical photo gallery that show the monorail in 1974. To my knowledge we don't have many from the era you worked there but perhaps you could please tell us more about working the monorail and your days at the park! I always love hearing those stories. Thanks and welcome to KICentral Keith!

However, it had been noted in several trip reports that the heckler did in fact make fun of people's handicaps and the heckler herself even came on here admitting to it and to being corrected on the matter then adjusting the act.

Yep. same paint scheme too.

I actually preferred Thunderhawk to its neighbor Dominator when it was at Geauga Lake. I didn't think it was as rough as some said it was nor anywhere near as bad as T2 at SFKK or Serial Thriller at Astroworld.

Is the rest of the park staying open? Is the j2 any good compared to its predecessor?

its always been like that, its a general template for all the former pp, was the same way when it was the paramount template.

I studied Journalism for 4 years in High School and major in Photojournalism at Ohio University currently. I have never head that quote before.

I hope so, I personally found the aquarium to be a "you've seen it once, you've seen it all" experience. I hadn't gone since 2003 when I took a girl to see the "otter" exhibit which was not as hyped up as they made it. I took my little cousin this year and after 4 years, not much changed at all. Its definently a neat tourist attraction, but unlike the zoo, it doesn't change much. The zoo is one of my favorite places to photograph in the summer.

I happen to like the air force museum and the art museums not bad either, however theres not much else I'd be interested in driving to dayton for. If they do this I just hope its interesting and entertaining. When I was in 6th grade I went Space camp with my boy scout troop and we got to spend one day at Aviation challenge which is like space camp for fighter pilots. They advertise it on tv as having awesome simulators and being state of the art. The place was horrible. We got to pretend fly on computers with CRT monitors and fold out steel chairs with a crappy windows 95 simulator that didn't even have markings on the aircraft and just a cross hair in the middle of the screen. It was like playing an early n64 game. The microsoft flight simulator games of the time were more advanced. I've never had too much fun on these simulator type rides, with the exception of the 4d ones in Disney. They should put in a nice B&M flying coaster to compliment the tallest hotel.

Just remember, the trams did still run in 2005 after the old tram circle had been removed. I would rather just walk a little rather than see a nasty looking parking garage appear in the parking lot. I don't see the downtown disney idea working either, thats a great idea for a a year round higher class resort, however while KI is great, it is a seasonal amusement park that probably gets the majority of its business from locals.

haha, i remember that night, those ride ops who helped you guys out were fantastic. This past season DeloreanRider and I were riding The Beast when we got stuck on the second lift hill for about 20 minutes. A ride op named Doug....or....Dale....cant remember which, came up and there was a little girl screaming in front of us. He stayed with her the whole time telling her jokes, it was very cool to see how calm he was in the situation and how well he handled the panicked little girl.

I never left again after my little break. I just decide not to post nearly as much as I used to (which wasn't even that much recently). I know not everyone is a fan of haunt, but if you don't like that sort of thing, why critique it? If you don't like that sort of event in the first place, why criticize something you don't like from the get go. That's like me trying to write a review of a rap album. I generally do not like any kind of rap, so who am I to say what a good rap album is, and what a bad rap album is. Same with some of the members on here. They come into this time of year not being a fan of Halloween events, so they just seem to bash it for whatever they can try to find. Who are they to say what a good Halloween event is, if they don't like Halloween events in general? On that note, anyone have the full Soulja Boy album? I feel a review coming on... They didn't say they had any problem or weren't fans of the event. What they are complaining about is how certain things were done this year compared to an event they enjoyed in the past. We cant let all the Halloween Haunt discussion go to those who liked it this year, there are plenty of negative opinions about it. I enjoyed fearfest in the past and went to HH a few times this year. Lots of new changes I liked, many that I didn't, a lot of things were no different except for a logo or name change here and there. To each his own opinion, theres lots of negative ones about the event and certain haunts on here, they can be expressed, just as the positive opinions can. Welcome back to KICentral.com!