Oldiesmann

Anyone else notice the new menu item at Coney Skyline?

It is also available through Blockbuster - purchase it for $16 (not sure if they charge for shipping or not), rent it for 7 days for $5, or rent it as part of your monthly subscription... http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/movieDetails/340094

Unfortunately, not everyone here has HDTV. Will check and see if it's available in regular definition though.

It might be pretty crowded, because most (if not all) fireworks shows in the area are on the 3rd, and, as with Memorial Day weekend, military personnel will get free admission that weekend (with $30 tickets for the rest of their family). However, the park is open until midnight that night, so you'll have an additional two hours to spend riding things if you decide to stay for the entire day. The only nearby festivities I could find for that day are up at The Beach Waterpark - a concert from classic rock group Denim Road from 2-3pm, Despicable Me showing in the wave pool at 8:30 (part of their "Dive-In Movies" series) and fireworks after the movie.

That video I posted is from 2010. The cars are faster and of a different design than those at KI. Interestingly enough, Wikipedia indicates that they did add a concrete island to that ride in 2005 (see the article on Six Flags Great America - the ride at California's Great America is apparently a copy of the one at the Six Flags park of the same name). I'm guessing that isn't a coincidence.

I hope not. The bumper cars at Great America appear to be much faster than those at KI, and they're a completely different design as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EqDgAANU_Y&feature=related

It looks like the local police had their hands full due to Phish... http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110606/NEWS010703/306060075/Phish-fans-arrested-Covington-hotel http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110606/NEWS010701/306060028/Seven-arrested-Phish-concert

It would have been a lot of fun to visit Coney back then, as it seems like the park was a lot bigger at the time. I realize that the 15 acres of land now occupied by Riverbend and PNC Pavilion were once owned by Coney, but the park has changed so much in the 40 years since it originally closed that it's difficult to picture where all of these rides and attractions were.

I had a lot of fun. I did find Rock-O-Planes to be rather painful though (not sure if it was just that particular ride or if it's the way it's designed, but the lap bar stapled me into my seat). The food prices were quite reasonable, and I was impressed with the selection (one wouldn't expect such a wide variety of food and snack choices at a smaller park like Coney). I only wish I'd seen the Montgomery Inn place before I settled on Larosas for dinner. It also took me a bit to get used to the steering on Coney's bumper cars. Despite the ride area at Coney being much smaller than the one at KI, I like Coney's bumper cars better - they seem to be faster and are much more maneuverable than the ones at KI.

Before Paramount, the park shared the local 398 prefix. 754 came along a few years after Paramount bought the park. So before the 754 prefix, it was the other Mason prefix 573. However, I do believe when I first started at the park in 1989 the phone number started with 398 so I'm going to say I'm still right and that you just expanded on what I said before! It was indeed 398 at one time: http://www.themeparkbrochures.net/1991/pki1991_4.html

On a related note, the test dummies that they're using on WS were originally from B&M but are now property of Carowinds... On the back of them, "Property of B&M" is printed in large blue lettering (possibly spray-painted on there with a stencil), but someone with a permanent ink marker crossed out "B&M" and wrote "Carowinds" under it. The B&M part makes me wonder if these are the same dummies that they use for testing Diamondback in the pre-season.

I saw it when I rode Flight Deck earlier. Looks nice!

A few more new things: Fake smoke during the "Red Baron" scene in Snoopy Rocks on Ice Delirium and Drop Zone now have their own "theme music" of sorts... During the ride cycle on Delirium, they play "Song 2" by Blur, and on Drop Tower, it's "Right Now" by Van Halen. The dramatic opening of "Right Now" as you're going up on Drop Tower really adds a lot to the ride in my opinion and the "Woohoo!" parts of "Song 2" make Delirium more fun

I saw Way Too Much TV tonight when I ducked into Festhaus around 6pm to dodge the upcoming storms and really enjoyed it. I didn't pay much attention to it last year, but I will probably go back and see it again more this season.

I've never been to HW either, but will definitely try to make it out there this season. Maybe I'll skip Camden and go to HW this year instead (since it's only 3 hours from here as well). I'll have to see what my finances look like in a couple months.

Very nice! That 1996 media footage video brings back fond memories... The rainbow leading to HB Land, King Cobra, the original name of the water park... Can't wait to see what else you've got!

Those of you who are my friend on Facebook have likely already read about this, but I wanted to post this as a reminder for everyone. Never leave anything valuable unattended in Boomerang Bay, even if it's in a backpack in an area with lots of other towels and such. This past Saturday I had quite a scare. Being a hot day, I went on all the water rides, then promptly took a train ride to Boomerang Bay to cool off some more. I didn't even think to leave my shorts (with my wallet, cell phone and keys) in a locker at WWC until after I got to BB. I couldn't bring myself to shell out whatever the asking price is for lockers in Boomerang Bay now, and didn't want to take a train all the way back to WWC to get a locker, so I just found a shady spot on a hillside near a food cart where many others had laid their towels, set my stuff down, put on sunscreen and headed off to the very crowded wave pool. After a dip in the pool, I walked back past my bag to make sure it was still there and also to make sure I remembered where I left it. It was still there, so I headed off to wait in line for Tazmanian Typhoon. Being such a hot day, there was quite a long line. I'm estimating an hour passed between the time I got in line and the time I got off the ride. By that time, I was tired of the crowds (and didn't feel like waiting an hour for anything else or dodging the crowds in the wave pool), so I decided to gather up my stuff and head back to the main park for another round or two on White Water Canyon. I went back to where I'd left my stuff to find that my backpack was gone (my towel and sandals were still there). This included my shorts with my wallet, keys and cell phone, my shirt, my glasses, my sunscreen and a hair brush. I headed off to the BB entrance (the parking lot entrance) and informed a security guard, who promptly called for a police officer. The KI police officer who handled the situation did a great job - explaining the situation, arranging a place for my parents to meet me (out at the passenger pickup, since neither one of them has a gold pass), letting me sit in First Aid to cool off and get water, and ensuring I got a ride out to the passenger pickup. He gave me his card with the case number and told me I could take that to the ticket window to get a free replacement gold pass. He also suggested that I call Lost and Found on the off chance that my stuff turned up there. When I got home, I had to call the bank and cancel my bank card (a new one is on the way), call Sprint to temporarily suspend my service and dig up an old pair of glasses (I can see without them, but distant objects are somewhat blurry), and I was particularly unhappy about how much this was going to cost me (mainly new glasses + cost of eye doctor appointment). I called Lost and Found on Saturday before the park closed and left them a message. I got a call back on Sunday during church and returned their call that afternoon when I got home, again getting their answering machine. A short time later, they called back asking for a better description of the backpack that I'd lost. After a short time, they returned and said that they had my backpack and gave me a confirmation number that I could use to get it at the park. Much to my relief, the only thing missing was the $2-$3 in cash that I had in my wallet. I am very fortunate that I was able to get everything back (don't care too much about the cash, as that's peanuts compared to the value of everything I could have lost), and very grateful to KI security, police and the BB first aid staff for helping me in this situation (the first aid staff truly care about guests), but I want to remind everyone not to do what I did. Lockers are expensive, but not nearly as expensive as it would have been for me to replace all the stuff I had in my backpack.

I wouldn't count on it. The drain's been plugged on that thing since a couple months into the season last year (I posted on June 24th of last year that it had been clogged the past two times I'd been to the park).

Interesting. Do you live in that area? That would explain why he was getting off in Lawerenceburg (since that road is right off Route 56, which ends at US 50 in Aurora). Must have been stopping at home for the weekend on his way to wherever that track is going.

If I weren't already taking 4 days off of work that week to go to Nashville, I'd definitely do this. Sounds like fun!

Tower Gardens is nothing more than the park's largest designated smoking area. Unless you're a smoker, there's really no reason to go there. Back when Paramount owned the park, it was called Paramount Story and was quite a nice place to visit - waterfalls, nice park-like setting and a timeline of Paramount films. CF turned it into Tower Gardens and turned off the waterfalls, then turned it into a giant designated smoking area last year. Back on topic, Channel 9 just reported a bit more info on this. According to the police report, the victim was a 7-year-old boy and he was sexually assaulted in a bathroom. The Mason Police are going to hold a press conference about it at 2pm today.

There was/is an old drinking fountain hidden behind a caricatures stand right outside of Greaters. It was the only one not at a restroom and is the old pedal-type. http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19824&view=findpost&p=386888

Got a response to my feedback

Click "Play"...

I've only visited the park on the weekends this year (four separate Saturdays - April 30th, May 7th, May 28th and June 4th), but the lines seem to be about the same as last year - anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour depending on the time of day. ERT seems to vary depending on the day. On the 28th, they were assigning rows and the SRL was open. On the 4th, it was much slower during ERT (13 rides for me including first train of the day and a string of 7 consecutive rides without having to walk back around - I either stayed in the same seat or moved to another empty one).