Oldiesmann

"Cotton Eye Joe" still is a regular song on the train.

By my count, Beast should have 6 blocks: Station to brake run outside of the maintenance sheds (before the first lift hill) Maintenance brakes to first lift hill Top of first lift hill to top of 2nd lift hill Top of 2nd lift hill to 1st brake run 1st brake run to 2nd brake run 2nd brake run to station There's enough room outside the station to stack two trains.

I definitely plan to make at least one trip to The Beach this summer to check out the renovations and such. It sounds like the new company really wants this place to succeed.

It would be even better than that if it were Dixie Chili (For those who have no clue what Dixie Chili is, it's a small chain of three chili parlors in northern Kentucky - one in Newport, one in Covington and one in Erlanger)

Also, to clarify things a bit, the trademark that has been mentioned/linked to is not officially registered yet. They applied for it on April 24th. It will be months before we see whether it has been approved (it takes a long time since every application has to be manually researched, and they allow a few months for any disputes to be filed before it goes live).

Also some great classic Beast footage here: (On a related note, it's amazing how much technology has changed in almost 30 years!)

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. I was there a couple years ago (stopped by on my way to Nashville) and had a lot of fun. I never felt unsafe or saw anything that made me think people were doing a bad job. If I ever get a chance I'll probably go back again. I honestly wouldn't let one bad experience keep you from going back. Sure, many of the rides are carnival-style rides, but it's a small family-owned park and they still have a nice variety of rides for what they are.

I think you're confusing two different things. Two seasons ago, Vortex's chain broke. Last year, Diamondback was down due to some issues with the footers and the ground beneath the coaster that the park wanted to reinforce.

KI's bumper cars aren't that thrilling compared to those at other parks. I personally prefer the ones at Coney, but I also don't remember much about the ones at Camden Park or Beech Bend, so those might be better as well.

You can see the water at about 1:15 in this video as well. (This video has been shared here numerous times, but is always worth re-sharing):

I ate at Hank's Burrito Shack, which is one of my favorite food places at KI. More food for your buck than most of the other places.

There's also Monster (no minimum height), Scrambler (36") and Shake Rattle n Roll (42"). It might not be worth the hike from Planet Snoopy to Coney Mall just for three rides, but those are always an option as well.

Also, one more thing I noticed today that I don't believe has been mentioned here yet... The park now offers a "season pass" for Dinosaurs Alive - only $12 for unlimited visits all season (not sure if that includes the movie or not, though once was more than enough for me as far as that goes). I'm very tempted to buy this next time I go to the park.

Here are the construction pics I took today. All pictures were taken legally from Eiffel Tower Construction #1 by oldiesmann, on Flickr Construction #2 by oldiesmann, on Flickr Construction #3 by oldiesmann, on Flickr Construction #4 by oldiesmann, on Flickr (Sorry for the last one being blurry - it was very windy on top of the tower at the time).

Not much to report from today. The park wasn't that busy even with the school groups. Most rides were either walk-on or 15 minute wait tops. WindSeeker was down all day due to wind, and Drop Tower, Skyflyer and Slingshot all went down due to wind at one point as well. 5 rides on DB during ERT and 3 straight rides on Flight Deck without going back around (I could have gotten more had I wanted to, but 3 straight was enough for me). I rode everything I wanted to ride (at least everything that was open) by 3:30, so I went back around and rode most things again. Despite the heat, there was still quite a bit of interest in the family dryer. At one point I walked by and there was a group of about 9 school kids in there - during the hottest part of the day. No wonder Cedar Fair loves those things. New stuff I noticed: Card readers added to all the vending machines at the beginning of The Beast queue Quite a few new arcade games Jukebox Diner now has Coke Freestyle machines, which offer more choices than those in the burrito shack There's a "Rivertown 1979" sign above the kiddy corale at Beast Most of the rides that have "estimated wait time" signs got new ones customized to their particular ride New decorations in the queue at Flight of Fear: Biohazard by oldiesmann, on Flickr Translation Project by oldiesmann, on Flickr Urgent - Press Release by oldiesmann, on Flickr Finally, a few other photos I took: The great blue heron is back Great Blue Heron #2 by oldiesmann, on Flickr The new beer garden, with some nice landscaping: Christian Morlein Biergarten by oldiesmann, on Flickr The new dino: New Dino by oldiesmann, on Flickr The inside of the train: Train by oldiesmann, on Flickr I also took several construction photos, which I'll post in the topic on that

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Back when they had the "5 at 5" thing on Facebook a couple years ago, I asked about them repainting Racer to its original colors and was told that it would cost too much to do that.

When I worked at the park in 2005, I tossed my cookies all over some poor guest on Beastie...

And if we still had "bring-a-friend-free" days, they'd be complaining about the horrendous crowds. When I worked at The Beach in 2006, I can remember going up I-71 to 48 and coming back down to The Beach via local roads because of ridiculous lines at both exits to KI (yes, even the 741 exit was backed up - people were going there to avoid the even larger backup at the Western Row/KI Drive exit).

If I remember, I'll look at them when I'm there on Wednesday

I hope his comment about not planning another wing coaster is also reflective of his views on ride cloning. I certainly wouldn't mind a wing coaster at KI, but I'd rather see a larger variety of rides instead.

The comments are hilarious. Apparently someone thinks he owns Dick's Sporting Goods.

Google is your friend http://www.visitbuenapark.com/includes/events/?action=displayDetail&eventId=15589 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGacdo0PMDg

Pre-loaded cash wristbands are a great idea all around in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised to see that introduced chain-wide next season.

Seems like Mr. Olivet is a busy guy. From his LinkedIn page: He's also had jobs with Nike and The Gap in addition to heading the luxury sunglasses company. An MBA from Stanford is also quite impressive.