Outdoor Man

I am by no means an expert of corporate opinions but if I were to guess I'm thinking the largest change we'll see next year is ******* NEW SIGNEAGE ******** ******* NEW THEMES ******** ******* NEW OWNERSHIP PERSONALITY ******** and perhaps a token new ride just for formailities sake.

about the only "trump" card SOB has for reopening ever, in my opinion, is that Cedar Fair enjoys having record-breaking coasters in their portfolio.

what was going on down there on Monday? I have NEVER seen that many cars in the lot. There were so many that they were parking in the grass near Kings Island Drive. Was there something special going on?

I agree with WooferBear.... personal injury attornies feast on such things. Yes, lawsuits brought against KI probably happen on a daily basis... but none like this. An actual event that cannot be disputed by anyone. There will be a settlement(s)... and it probably won't be a fun day for the insurer of KI... and I'd be willing to bet as a continuing stipulation... they won't cover SOB in the future. With all the negative press for this... not saying it couldn't happen again, but I'd be REAL shocked if SOB carried another living sole around it's tracks again. With lawsuits coming in (both legit and frivolous)- it won't take long for the tab to equal the original cost of the coaster.. I hear taps playing in the wind.

seen some old cars like that too.

just per curiousity. i feel and am pretty certain it's accurate. Kings Island, or any other park for that matter has no intentions of putting KC back up..... But why are they keeping the trains?

or evaluate the event based on how pre-sales went. who knows. I wouldn't lose hope for 2007 though.

for the most part I agree with that. It was WAY overpriced last year... and maybe they will give it another shot... just not this year.

it will be interesting to see how KI fares with CF at the helm. KI has always been the "favored" child under KECO and PP.... now it is no longer in creative competition with our cousin to the north. Now part of the same family. I can't help but wonder that now that the "competition factor" is gone... how will each try to improve each other? It probably makes sense from a corporate stance to not have winterfest this year. Re-masking, re-naming, letting dust settle from the SOB incident... will there be lawsuits? how many? how much? tear it down? keep it up? fix it? etc... there is probably a lot to go through from November till March and the headache of spending 6-weeks to dress up a park for a 5 week event may be more than they want to pursue this year. Maybe we will have a return in 2007.

You're right, it's not canceled... i made the whole thing up in my head. like I said, you don't believe me... email guest relations... the email address is clearly on the website. Want verbal... call the guest relations line. the email and numbers are clearly listed on the PKI website. I've already been scheduled a refund on my tickets. You want proof on that, I'll post the receipt when it comes in. want me to draw a picture, I'll do that too.... folks, the event is canceled.

The person I talked to was a call-center manager. If you want to see for yourself, call the PKI Guest Relations line listed on the PKI site. I even emailed the question to the paramount parks "contact us"- i called because I figured it would take weeks to hear back... but got the email return within hours. I'm as sad as anyone to hear this. it is unforntunate and I hope it is because of the buyout and re-masking details to take place over the off-season and that they'll bring this back around in 07.

Ok, this may have already been discussed, and if it has, sorry. But I just got off the phone with a Kings Island PR Rep. We were trying to help some family from out of town schedule their time in Ohio to include Winterfest. The lady on the other end of the phone (a Kings Island PR rep)- said the just last week they made the decision to not hold the Winterfest event this year. RIP Winterfest (again).

Oh, Bodda... you know, good news doesn't sell.

oh, and btw- what was the deal with the individual whose screen name was "Kings Island Management" that categorically removed any subsequent posting to the thread?

SOB has not had a 2-3 wait of riders since the summer of 2000. A good gauge to see if SOB will be removed will be how many thousand dollar injuries progress to lawsuits being filed.... THEN factor in the park's liability insurance carrier saying we will no longer cover this particular ride or seriously hike the insurance on it as a "high risk." Any 16 year old or person with multiple tickets on this site want to remark of how much your car insurance is compared to that of a clean-record 30-year old?.... or been dropped from your insurance because you're money's not worth the risk. The decision to keep/not keep SOB may not be PKI/CF's decision at this point.

come to think of it... i tend to agree with Great America... I noticed that about The Racer and Beast this year too.... it seems like they are a bit rougher, like their maintenance has been shorted a bit. still rideable... but rougher.

ok... it's july. I didn't need to see those winterfest pictures.... sent a chill up my spine.

I could see one more round of lawsuits flying towards the developers in light of the construction failure.... then, unfortunately a dismateling over the winter. I agree with someone's post that CF has a penchant for record breaking coasters... and I wouldn't expect the lot to stay empty for long, though I suspect there will be a large scar in that area through the 2007 season. I just don't see the ridership rebounding after this. it had an incredibly low ridership to begin with... and once an attraction sports a negative image with injuries.... it doesn't rebound.

also, just to point to something that someone posted earlier... the media may be making this more than it is.... not to say that people did not get hurt. But it may be 4-5 people... not all. Someone who works at the park may be able to confirm this, but if an incident such as this occurs, and you were a party in it.... you don't really have an option as to whether or not you go to the hospital to get checked out. It may be manditory to have everyone checked out to make sure that there are not injuries "showing up" weeks after... from people who were in another section of the park when it happened. Not saying no one got hurt... just that it may not have been all 25.

I said before that SOB was one lawsuit from big problems. Unfortunately, this could have been from something as trivial as a bird or other animal camping out on the track and getting greased by a 70mph train. Unfortunately, where there are injuries, there are state inspection officials, and ambulance-chaser attorneys ready to cash in. This will spiral into an absurd snowball. Months from now, Dyer, Garafolo, Mann, & Schultz will be advertising "If you feel that you have been injured in the past by this coaster, call our 'tough, smart' attorneys that will get you a quick cash settlement." then, admission prices begin going up with the price of oil.... Unfortunate day. But, from what I've heard, the SOB staff seemed to do what their training told them to do... and for that, a huge pat on the back.

good q. if I were to guess I would bet on "after the season"- but long-term use of the Paramount name and licensing on the inside for the next few years until the agreement nears the end. From a tax standpoint cant's trademark items that hold intellectual value be depreciated? I would assume that if that is the case that they will use that time to deplete the value in the trademarked themes and spread the cost of "re-theming" over time. They were able to do that with Gauega Lake in one off-season, but each of these parks is larger... and there are 5 of them. major cost will be signeage of the paramount name. and how will that work with PKI's large sign. There is a lot of "paramount" in that- ie, the design.

Oh, and someone mentioned that there are contruction pictures from the tower and Vortex.... where do you find those at?

Not a Code Guru by any means, but unless the whole law changes I would think that it could be grandfathered in. It all pends on whether the 50' level was "offically closed" or just blocked off and if the old permits were left to expire or renewed. Plus, the use would have never changed. Same with IR... It is still used as food oriented public gathering area... and has never closed completely. If I am not mistaken (and I might be)- but isn't there a service elevator on the south end of the building? I've been up in IR 3 times over the last 2 years for various meetings and I thought I remember passing by one.

Wow, going back to that first picture... there wasn't much to the park then.

: sigh...