Outdoor Man

woofer.... wasn't the name (for the city) Kings Mills derive from an old powder mill that used to sit on the Kings Island property long before it's construction?

Unfortunately hacking a site is way too easy to do. Which makes me wonder, when these moron militants in the Middle East decide to fire up a new "message" or "video" as they like to do so frequently on a website.... can't some bored teenager figure out a way to redirect those sites to some Arabian Desert Camel site?

Actually, I used to trash SOB any chance I got. My last ride, dare I say was smoother than The Beast... We weren't in the first car either.... I was in the 3rd car, back seat, right side. For what it's worth, the maintenance crew did an outstanding job to help this coaster. my 2 cents.

is Six Flags liquidating all their parks?

i can't believe the Flight Commander spot has been vacant that long. Even though the Euro-Bungee thing is there at the moment.... $8 to jump on a trampolene- uh, yea.... though I did see some suckers willing to do so. Would have been a great spot for the Flyers. Was riding The Racers last week... Can someone verify, are the antique cars still lurking? Must say I'm a bit suprised they didn't make a return in NU.

was at the park on Tuesday.... it you can tell summer is in FULL-BLOOM. Young girls sporting "muffin-tops." for the vocabulary-challenged, a muffin-top is worn usually by a girl.... who really SHOULDN'T be wearing it. Muffin-tops being with tight jeans (or shorts) followed by any type of top (bikini or T) just as long as the area above the belly-button is exposed..... and the belly jiggles over the waistline. Much like a muffin will when you bake it. DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and there were BUNCHES of the yesterday. Keep it up ladies, lookin good.....................

uh, i think KI's days of record-breaking coasters (Beast, Vortex, Bat, SOB) might be at an impasse. When was the last time CF built a record-breaker at a subordinate park?

I rode SOB today for the first time after saying "never again.".... again last year. On these boards I usually have taken every opportunity to trash SOB.... but that won't happen this time. I didn't want to ride it, but the two daughters of some friends we went to the park with wanted to ride and didn't want to go alone. So i figured well, I got the crap beat out of me before, I can take it again. I told the girls father as we departed from the station, "just for the record, this was a bad idea." Now, to be fair after the first drop my cell phone rattled out of my pocket and I spent the balance of the ride focused on smashing my foot against the phone and the train floor as to not donate it to PKI's burial grounds of departed rides in the backlot... but it was..... dare I say smooth. And as far as coaster pain tolerance is concerned, I'm pretty much a wus. And I walked off thinking, "heck, I could do that again." When I got off the train I made sure to "log" what train and position... 2nd train, 3rd car, 3rd row. CONGRATS to the maintenance crew for SOB. I still think the layout is lame and 1st grader dreaming could have designed a better track. But, it was a great ride today!

what's wrong with The Beast?

I think others have eluded to it, but the Kings Island Resort is kind of a dive. My wife and I stayed there about a year or two ago and it didn't score too high on the cleanliness factor for my taste. There is an Amerisuites on Mason-Montgomery Rd that we have stayed at a time or two. The cost is real reasonable, the rooms are great, and they have a free hot breakfast in the morning (easily a $20-30 value for a family of 5). You might check with the location to see if they have any park packages / transportation.

someone made a post in another thread that made sense. I doubt it would happen, but made good sense. If CF continued Paramount Parks as a wholy owned subsidiary of CF. Then kept references of Paramount to those parks for creative licensing and royalty income for advertising movies in "their" parks in addition to use of the intellectual property of Paramount's name. intriguing. Not likely, but intriguing.

i didn't flip through all of the comments on this thread so maybe someone else already mentioned it... so sorry if it has. CF may look to extend the Nick license to all parks for a prolonged period of time. Before this acquisition as large as CF was prior they did not have access to any of the modern, popular childrens "likings." Warner Bros characters rights were exclusively to certain parks, ect.... this is probably their first real opportunity to introduce a modern-day children's theme to their parks. I agree with some of the posts I've read.... I bet they extend the license and take it to all the CF parks.

i do wonder how the parks' development(s) (all of the CF park family) will develop. In the original CF world, Cedar Point was the obvious dominant park and flagship in many respects. Cedar Point was the older brother with several younger siblings. bringing PP into the fold brings in a blended family where in many (but different) respects, (P)KI and CP are each others competitive equals with a few of the PP locations excelling over CP in as many categories as CP excells over them. CP will probably continue to be the flagship... which will make it the favorite child, so to speak. But these other parks are used to receiving innovation and large investments individually. A few years ago, didn't PP spend some insane amount of money to develop Action Zone at PKI? Is $40 million right? maybe thats way off, but it was some absurd number. With PKI no longer being the flagship and favorite child, will we ever see such large investment years again? Thus coming back to the original post of the parks staying "unique"... I do think that CF will allow the parks to be more unique, as in all 5 parks getting the same coaster, same name, same theme, etc... but the days of multi-million $$$ investments to a single park might be history. Don't get me wrong, I think the CF purchase is a positive... but just wondering.

Amen!

as a $35 paying customer, i'd be a bit irate if i laid down $70+ food for a day in the park and a good deal of their marquee rides were closed.... SOB, Delerium, Vortex, TR:TR... assuming they were all broke down (which is what i surmised). If i went to customer relations.... "that's life" wouldn't cut it for me. as a side note, SOB's future got a bit more secure... CF is used to dumping $$$$ into maintenace nightmare coasters.

i wouldn't think it is a "forever" / indefinite thing. If they are using the Scooby Doo likeness and the characters are not the intellectual property of CF... then they would be paying royalties to use them, much like the Nick characters.... it is a matter of how long will they elect to pay for them... which was my question.

question of my own.... i apologize if thjis has already been talked about. but, say that CF does not continue the licensing agreements and all paramount and related namesakes fall away, what becomes of Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle? Neer thought of it, but this could be the collective end of Scooby Doo's 36 year association with the park. I was looking at the other CF park websites and noticed Snoopy and Woodstock on the front of most, if not all of them. I think the CF purchase will benefit in the long run, but not sure I am ready to see the 1950's Charlie Brown gang take over the park.

just a thought, but outside of dropping the "Paramount Parks" logos, I suspect that the theming of rides like IJST, TR:TR, ect.... may have one park per year re-theming because of the cost that may be involved in doing them all at once. In some instances there is more involved than removing a sign a putting a new one up.

not to beat a dead horse, but....... http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/c...y/0528mary.html

in defense of Paramount Parks corp.... try being in their shoes.... since January you've basically been handed your untimed pink slip. You know whoever buys your company likely will not keep most of you and your office will probably be dismantled. Not a lot of incentive to excel at this point. CF already said that PP staff will be re-evaluated, or something to that effect.

someone could correct me on this but right after Paramount bought KI in 92, all of the print and media immediately started using the "Paramount's Kings Island"... the signeage didn't get changed until the next season. at this point, can they cancel Winterfest? hope not, already have tickets. And I don't necessarily agree with the "one dirty, all dirty" thought. there are some McD's in Cincy that I won't even drive past... but that doesn't sour all of them. I have worked with some of the cleanup crews at midnight... and beyond.. waiting on the Supervisors to "invite" their subordinates to work. Most sups are too interested in being a "cool boss" than being a leader. Cleanliness, or lack thereof is not a Charlotte (paramount parks home) issue.... like any independent franchise, it is a local issue. And I am not beating a drum to defend Paramount (i see this acqusition as a HUGE positive).... I'm just stating an opinionated fact.

at 12:01 last night, received a proxy from the Cedar Fair, LP investment news department. "Cedar Fair Board of Directors to announce 1.2 Billion Dollar acquisition in morning press conference. So my mind thinks.... hmmmm, who could that be. So, if you can't beat the competition, buy them. (USAir buys Piedmont Airlines, WWE buys WCW, etc....) healthy competition absolved into one larger corp. I wonder what will become of many things. Like, when CF took over Worlds of Adventure..... why didn't they keep the WoF moniker and go back to Gauega Lake? Did the licensing not come with it or did CF seek to restore the GL legacy? don't know. If the latter is true, and I think it may be more the case, some of the traditional King Island items may return. More characters walking park (not just in NU), maybe even a return of the old logo. The sale is seeking to complete in the 3rd qtr.... so that means July-Sept. I could see the Paramount being dropped from the name as fast as it got added. Outside of Nick... does anyone see CF picking up the theming on everything else? No reason, but I don't. I see re-theming of the movie themes over the winter. I have nothing to base that on, just an opinion. Also it will be nice in the fact that when we get a good ride/coaster there won't be a cookie-cutter version at a sister park. If I'm not mistaken, the other CF parks do not have "clone" coasters at other parks. By and large... a positive for KI Just a side note though. Cleanliness of the park does not have much to do with Paramount Parks.... that's a local issue.

I will have to try and find my pictures from Gorky Park (Moscow, Russia) in 1993. It was to have been the Soviet Union's gift to its people for entertainment and recreation (i guess). Wife and I are packing to move soon, so those pictures should be easy to find. It was almost like walking through Coney Island after Kings Island opened.... at full price.

I haven't been to pki yet this year so I can't comment on certainty- but in my own little sarcastic bit- I know that Americana had it's share of "carnival" rides... maybe NU could clean house and exand.

not that ride branding is all that important but if the rides themes were changed after an acquisition, to most they would always be the Paramount name(s) for a while. To re-theme Top Gun to Thunder Road.... OK, maybe someday, but I would subconsciously always refer to it as Top Gun. Now, assume that Cedar Fair is one of the interested parties.... would they buy the naming rights? Everything at Gauega Lake was changed, even beyond the Warner Brothers themed items. I know they probably really didn't have an option to retain the Warner Brothers tags but I would see their motif running consistant with their other parks, much like Paramount did with all of the KECO parks.