Oldiesmann

Kings Island - Rivertown Junction Dining Hall by Coasterville, on Flickr

I'll definitely be checking this out! Not sure how often I'll eat there (though that cheesecake looks delicious, especially with the raspberries on it), but it definitely sounds exciting. I wonder if we'll be able to hear the game while standing in line for Diamondback.

I didn't even notice it until now, since I rarely visit the rest of the site outside the forums. Looks great, but the "Park Hours" page is missing a few apostrophes

Someone needs to remind that person that airlines have been doing "get preferential treatment by paying more" things for decades. It's not as common in the amusement industry, but it's still not all that new of a concept.

They're still there. Scroll down to the bottom of the page below the "Related Stories" section.

Great article. You can tell that Ouimet is a great fit for this job. The comments are great as well. My favorite is the rambling "I'll never go back to Cedar Point again" complaint from someone who found out exactly what happens when you try to enter the park with another person's season pass.

Ouch. As a web developer, I always cringe at things like that, especially with so many free tools available to track and monitor searches these days (Google Analytics, QuantCast, etc.).

Here's a good video that shows someone doing it on the one at California's Great America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fn2Xm3YnIA It's mostly about timing - you wait until you're at the peak of the swing, then turn the handle the same way you're turning (so if you're flying to the left, you would push the handle to your left, causing the fin to move to the right and thereby generating considerable wind resistance). Then you wait until you're at the next peak and quickly turn the handle the other way, minimizing wind resistance and causing the tub to swing inward.

Viking Fury has a minimum height of 40" according to the park's site. Kids under 48" have to be seated on the inside of the row under the same lapbar as an adult.

Yes it is... Actually, I got an error message when I clicked "Add single event" earlier (I was going to add KI opening day to the calendar, just for fun), but that's not a huge issue since we don't really use the calendar much except to see whose birthday it is.

Sending him a message through this site, YouTube or Facebook (if you're friends with him there) is probably your best bet. One of those methods will hopefully send him an email notification about getting a message (depending on his preferences).

A couple more tips about working in rides... First, don't expect to be "driving" a coaster or operating another large ride your first day on the job. Initially you will be trained on all the basics (safety requirements, height checking, checking restraints, etc.), and you will gradually "move up" to other positions with more responsibility as the supervisors see fit. Secondly, as others have said, working in rides is far from an "easy" job. When you choose which ride you want to work at, pick one based on what you enjoy doing and where you want to be. If you enjoy working with kids, you'll love Planet Snoopy. If you want to be where all the "action" is, pick one of the more popular rides such as Beast or Diamondback. If you want something in between, Coney Mall is a good choice.

It's even more fun when you're working at a ride the first season after the minimum height was raised. I had this experience when working at what was then Beastie in 2005. I don't know the park's reasons for changing the height requirement, but we ended up with a lot of angry parents whose kids were tall enough to ride it in 2004 but hadn't yet hit the 42" requirement to ride it in 2005.

Once again all these old KI photos are reminding me that I seriously need to dig through our old family photos and see if I can find some KI ones.

At least I can say I've ridden one coaster in the Top 30 on that list. The Voyage's rank at #3 is further proof that I need to seriously find a way to get to Holiday World this summer...

For someone who's taking 90 days to further evaluate the condition of the park and raise additional funding, Hart is making some bold statements. He says they factored the restoration costs into their budget, yet one coaster alone could cost anywhere from $150,000 to $1,000,000 to fully repair. How do you budget that? $850,000 could possibly buy a good new ride for the park (I say "possibly" because I have no idea how much amusement park rides cost, but I would think $850k could at least get you a good flat ride if not a small coaster of some sort).

http://www.wdrb.com/story/21135333/ed-hart-speaks-out-about-efforts-to-reopen-kentucky-kingdom Also see http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130212/NEWS01/302120046/Hart-says-he-fully-expects-reopen-Kentucky-Kingdom-schedule

http://arkencounter.com/blog/2013/02/12/ark-encounter-contract-signed/

The "Spider" referred to there is likely Monster.

Go to the main page of the forum and move your mouse cursor towards the top right corner of the blue box that says "Kings Island Discussion". You will see a small black box with "<<" in it. Click that to reveal the sidebar.

Sounds like something a certain nickel hoarder would do...

I would love to see KI bring back another major enthusiast event like Ride Warriors Coaster Weekend, only better organized this time. For those who don't remember and/or didn't attend, RWCW was a major two-day enthusiast event that KI did in 2009. It was open to members of KIC, KIE and certain coaster clubs/other enthusiast groups/sites. While it was a lot of fun, the full details of the event were not announced until just 3 1/2 months before the event occurred, and there was some confusion over who could attend, how to prove you were a member of this site, etc.

I'm sure that's just a mistake, as it wouldn't make sense to only have food/merch discounts for Platinum Pass holders.

Last night, I went to see Fireflight and Disciple at The Underground (a large Christian club in Forest Park for those not from this area). As is usually the case with large concerts like that, they didn't have any chairs out for you to sit in. While standing in line waiting for Disciple to come sign autographs after the show, one girl in front of me told her friend that she didn't think she'd ever had to stand that long before. Her friend commented "At least at Kings Island you get to sit down!". As the conversation continued, one of them mentioned The Beast, and the coaster was then referred to as "the fastest roller coaster ride that's wooden".

While I'm sure the kids will enjoy it, I'm going to miss the bumper boats!