bkroz

Hahhaha! I love the children who can't be more than 11 bouncing around smiling and holding a sign touting "305 feet tall," completely unaware that, should they ride it, they'd likely be unconscious by the second hill!

Are the big house lights still on, too? In the queue, I mean...

Reason to worry about a weather forecast for 13 days in the future - Zero. I have had so many nights when we've expected huge snow storms overnight and I've woken up with literally not a flake on the ground. And I think to myself, "I understand if they say 8" and it ends up being 3", but to say 8" and it doesn't even snow?!" You can't even trust weather reports for the next day; there's absolutely no reason to start worrying about a weather forecast almost two weeks away. Honestly. I'll be those days, too. And if it does end up sprinkling, there will be way less people anyway.

That's a very different situation. Recall that, in its last year as Tomb Raider, that particular ride was really on it's last-leg theme-wise. We revere it now as the ultimate themed ride at the park, but truth be told, in 2005 and 2006, when the ride did operate (not often) it usually had no music, was essentially in pitch black darkness by the end of the seasons, and had no preshow. We always think fondly of it and imagine it as being so great and wow! there was a preshow and music and water! We always forget that all of those were discontinued after a few seasons. The Crypt's current state was brought on by having much of Tomb Raider's effects die even before the name change, then the necessity of removing the music & movie props, and the ride being too intense and needing to be reduced in order to function at all. There's not much that can go wrong with the Boo Blasters change, unless they decide to start turning lights off, slowing the ride to half its original speed, and removing sound effects & moving parts. With The Crypt, it was inevitable. With Boo Blasters, it's not.

^ That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about! YES! I hope (and bet) someone on here does.

Thanks! Just imagine... We could all get together & design t-shirts with our name & logo, whatever it may be - Kings Court. Island Ambassadors. Kings Club... We could greet people in the mornings with a smile and a "Welcome to Kings Island!" and answer any questions, pass out maps, and pretty much just give folks a really bright & cheery morning - something that Universal & Disney do every day, and it's epic and incredible and makes you feel special each and every time! Maybe we could even get our own blog on the Kings Island website where we can discuss our interactions in the park, our favorite rides, and everything! Though it may be highly moderated, it would certainly be an incredible experience that none of us would forget... And need I even say it - bumper stickers!

^ Yes! The ranks are growing, and we haven't even started! That's a really cool & interesting idea... I know this sounds lame & way oversimplified (we could do better than this) but imagine taking something clear (plastic wrap...) and just stretching it across the lava pools, then projecting a water pattern... Again, that may be expensive but it would be an incredible effect. And as you said, it could just be projected onto the bottom of the pool, too. Just brainstorming (which is what this is all about)! Hopefully something like this could really take off! I will call the number provided by the park this weekend and discuss it. Of course, I'll report back. The person representing Kings Island said, "Give me a call and let me know how we can connect to discuss in more detail." I will be down there on the second weekend (April 24th & 25th) so hopefully that can be a time when we can connect to discuss it. Can't wait! Keep the ideas & suggestions coming! This is great.

^ There's some of that specialization I'm talking about! Something I'll bring up when I call them! I'm sure it would take a lot of work to get into synchronizing lights & music to go off at specified times during a ride cycle, but it's something that's obviously done in-house (I can't imagine HUSS set up the light sequence) and something we can dicuss because again, it would change the ride experience drastically, and takes more work (from us) than money (from them)!

And you know my mantra from the beginning has been that The Crypt can again be an immersive experience! Some black sheets hung over the missing rising wall, able to be pulled back like curtains. A simple "story" that appears to be 'told by The Bat' in the queue - easily recorded and edited to sound 'wheezy & demonic' in Garage Band... Camo netting hung over the paint cans and ladders strewn throughout the ride chamber. So much, for so little, and the ride would again be entertaining! Combine all of our enthusiasm and creativity, and we can find similar solutions for Adventure Express, Flight Deck, and so many more! Together we can make a difference. It sounds cliche, but its so true. We all have so many different skills & specialities and united, we could revive so many 'dead' parts of the park!

I figured that was pretty confusing haha I'm sorry! But at this point, it would take me three days to explain; we might as well wait to see it for ourselves!

Absolutely! Just a group of us with nothing but some elbow grease and some TLC could really fix up the train! Some paint here, some plants there, a few scrap pieces of wood... Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but there are so many things at Kings Island that are easily improved. We don't need people to say "TEAR DOWN SOB" or "Make the Crypt flip 10 times again!" We need sensible, useful things that can be done for cheap while helping us, the fans, feel like we are living pieces of Kings Island history! Fixing up the Crypt's ride chamber (draping camo netting over the garage doors, dusting the former lava-pits, helping to pick out cheap music), helping around with Racer (removing gum, painting where we can, sprucing up the station), even Adventure Express! Why not place a few props here and there and maybe screw in a few lightbulbs?). There's so much we can do to help, it would be selfish of us to not contribute!

I personally live four hours from the park... Four hours to the northeast. If I lived four hours in any other direction, I'd also be out of state, too! Doesn't mean I don't make it there enough times each summer to do some good and help out where I can!

I was saying they should physically pump them full of air! If it increases basketball sales, perhaps it'll do the same for food!

So, there's a direct correlation between inflating basketballs & inflating sales? Maybe they should inflate their hamburgers and see if the trend continues.

SPOILERS! Check out at about :45 and onward - that's the effect shown briefly in the news story. Also, just re-watching that video and going back to the photo album on Kings Island's Facebook, I believe I understand how the "evil forest transformation" will work. After the final showdown with Boocifer on Ghost Blasters, the forest changes, then you enter a room that's black except for the "score board." However, in ours, you can see that the transformation would be odd to do right there with so many cars able to see it happening before they're meant to, and it appears that we do not have a black room with a scoreboard. Rather, our scoreboard room is the "happy forest," separate from the Boocifer showdown. HOPEFULLY there's still a "transformation" of the blacklights turning off and thus you can physically see the evil-ness disappear. If not, it's cool. I'm sure this will be incredible.

Kings Island certainly is! From the same Facebook discussion, Kings Island said: So, I would love more ideas & more willing participants for when I call - including, as you said, stipulations from both sides about what we want to do, and what we don't want to do! This is our chance to participate in Kings Island history! Let's be counted! If you can, it would be great if you could just reply with your ideas in the Facebook discussion!

YAY! So pumped! Thanks!

I wish Scooby Doo was just like this, but with Scooby Doo characters throughout. Because as far as being a draw, anything named Scooby Doo is going to stomp all over anything named Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. And it would be incredible to have BBoBH's ride mixed with a Scooby Doo style story. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

In today's 5@5, someone asked what we, as fans, can do to promote the park & make it an all-around better place? The response: So, I got to thinking... What ideas do I have? On the very extreme of the spectrum is The Kings Club. Simply a way for fans of the park to really come together and talk about the inner workings, the things to improve, and the things that have improved! Perhaps its "out of the question," but I'm sure at some point, so was the idea of a park having a Twitter or a daily Q&A session where nothing is off limits! Quite simply, the club could be half fan-club, half-volunteer work where a small group of folks could be 'on the inside.' Imagine: 1.) MONTHLY MEET-UPS with a park "big wig" to discuss areas of improvement and throw ideas back & forth - perhaps the team behind the 5@5? I'm sure things are busy enough, but it's an idea! And during the off-season, the meetings can continue at local restaurants. 2.) AFTER-HOURS WORK to enact some of the cheap & easy ideas discussed in #1 (what immediately comes to mind - cleaning gum off of The Racer; hanging up camouflage netting inside The Crypt, gardening in the Tower Gardens...) 3. ADVERTISING. As was suggested in the 5@5, it might be phone calls, creating advertisements in Photoshop, distributing coupons... To be the official Kings Club would mean to spread the word, to encourage people to visit, and to create lasting memories for those who do! Perhaps even greeting people as they enter & just giving them a smiling face & an answer to any questions... Things like that really separate parks & give people an incredible first impression. 4. "SNEAK PEAKS" - a lights on ride of Flight of Fear, Boo Blasters & The Crypt; a night-time walk around Adventure Express... Even a walk-through of the Backlot Stunt Coaster tunnel with the lights on (what's in there?! Even on the few times that the house lights are on, I can't make it out.) would make us feel special & be so much fun! 5. ORGANIZING UNIQUE EVENTS. I, for one, know that I have a ton of art I've done of Kings Island, as do a lot of others. Much of it is very good. Hosting a "Kings Island Art Show" in the International Restaurant one evening would be a thrill for the Club members, and anyone from the park who decided wander up and check it out. Or a Kings Club Road-trip to Kings Dominion! For me, Kings Island has been a part of my life for eighteen years (make it 19 years when I celebrate my birthday there April 24th...) and it would mean the world to me to be able to say what I want to say, to praise the park where it should be praised, and to help out, knowing that it's actually worth something. I can sit & rave about the landscaping for days to my friends, but to say it to someone who actually LISTENS, and who can actually DO SOMETHING where needed - that would be so great. Especially if *I* could be the one to do it! To know that, even in the smallest way, I've improved the park! So, what are your thoughts on such an idea? Out of the question? Realistic? Also, be sure to discuss it (if you can!) on Kings Island's Facebook board since that's where those who can make things happen are more likely to read.

News report of Kings Island's Planet Snoopy hosting disadvantaged kids today! http://www.wlwt.com/video/23153800/index.html A good look at a statue outside RFYLCB, the signage for Boo Blasters (complete with the GM emblems being replaced by BH), verfication of the mist effect on Boo Blasters. A great look, and good to see so many happy children! "The adults? It's funny. The adults come in with the kids and explain, 'Okay this one's Linus, this one's Charlie Brown,' and I think the parents might be having a little more fun than the kids." The anchor woman inadvertently jokes about a point many of us have speculated upon.

Yeah, those same faces are present at the finale of Ghost Blasters before the forest becomes beautiful again. Video , around 1:30). But there's no denying that time & money went into this ride. Though it was outsourced, and someone else came up with the story / effects, that's alright. My complaint was never that Cedar Fair didn't do it themselves - just that it was never done at all. Clearly that's changed for this ride, at least.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/04/business_comment_of_the_day_us.html Terp, have you been spouting off in article comments again?!

What makes you think there's a playhouse finale? For some reason that sounds condescending and I don't mean it to hahah!

It's interesting to see how they worked out the finale scene. AHOY! SPOILERS AHEAD! On the Ghost Blasters & the other Boo Blasters, you enter a long, dark hallway painted as a forest with tangled vines and demonic faces. Boocifer stands at the end taunting you. Then, as you near him, he shrieks, fog blasts out of the pipe in front of him, and he sinks into the ground. Then, bright "sunlight" comes on, cancelling out the blacklight effects and displaying a beautiful charming forest, and that the place where he stood was a wishing well. You can see that around the 1:30 mark. Of course, the Ghost Blasters & the other Boo Blasters have different ride systems from ours. It's much more along the line of a typical haunted house where one cart enters a room at a time. But we have the Omnimover system where multiple cars are looking at the same scene at any given time, so if Boocifer was positioned in the well at the end of the long hallway, he would have to reset every 6 seconds or so... That would also make it nearly impossible to have the blacklight -> daylight effect work properly as they'd be flipping on and off very quickly and you would see the effect before you're intended to. It looks, from the video Kings Island provided, as if they've remedied this problem by not having Boocifer at the end of a long hallway, but stationed in the center of a long wall on the side so that two or three vehicles can be pointed at him at a time without blocking anyone's view. Still, what this means for the blacklight -> daylight effect, I don't know. Perhaps that will be in the next room? We shall see very shortly! You can see that at 1:12 in video. Notably, it looks like there's a chance that ours doesn't have the steam effects & Boocifer doesn't lower into the ground. Makes sense because of the short reset time, but it would've been nice! Also, you'll notice between the videos that we do seem to be getting the Ghost Blasters laser-shooting noise... It sort of sounds like metallic dripping water. Very nice, especially compared to BYEW, BYEW BYEW, BYEW! [/spoilerS] Still, this ride will easily be the highlight of my Kings Island trips this summer. A great new addition!