BoddaH1994

Carmen Electra, Dennis Spiegel and Janeen Coyle Make Up Inaugural Class for Kings Island Walk of Fame Walk of Fame induction ceremony to take place August 30 at Kings Island Kings Island, Ohio – Former Kings Island employees Carmen Electra, Dennis Spiegel and Janeen Coyle make up the inaugural class of Kings Island Walk of Fame inductees. The induction ceremony will take place Saturday, August 30 at 3:00pm in the International Showplace Theatre. The three-person class was elected by the Kings Island Walk of Fame Selection Committee. The first members of the Walk were selected from a list of 20 finalists that had been determined earlier by the committee. Ms. Electra begin her career as an entertainer at Kings Island in 1990 as a dancer in one of the most popular shows in the park’s history, “It’s Magic.” The American glamour model and television personality gained fame for her appearances on the MTV game show Singled Out, on the television series Baywatch, and for her roles in the parody films Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie and Meet the Spartans. She stars in Disaster Movie, a 2008 comedy film in theaters beginning Friday, August 29. Internationally recognized as a leader and expert in the theme park/leisure industry with over 40 years of professional experience, Mr. Spiegel directs International Theme Park Services, Inc. (“ITPS”). He began his career in the amusement/theme park business in 1960 as a ticket taker at Coney Island in Cincinnati. Mr. Spiegel quickly worked his way up to assistant park manager of Coney Island and then Kings Island, where, as assistant general manager, he supervised general park operations, including personnel, rides, food/beverage, merchandise, games, and guest hospitality from 1972 until 1974, when he left the park to become vice president and general manager of Kings Dominion/Lion Country Safari in Richmond, Virginia. Ms. Coyle worked at Kings Island in 1976 as a rides associate on the Kings Island and Miami Valley Railroad. She has gone on to have a long and successful career in radio, starting at WKRQ in 1979 while attending the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. She began with overnights, worked middays, and later moved to afternoon drive where she remained until 1988. From there Janeen did talk radio, hosting the very popular Chick Talk show. She co-hosted morning drive on WKRC until she was contacted about joining her husband, Chris O’Brien, in 1995 and forming the unique husband and wife team heard weekdays from 5:00am – 9:00am on 103.5 WGRR in Cincinnati. Kings Island is open to the public August 30-31, September 1, September 19-20, and Fridays nights, Saturdays and Sundays beginning September 26 through November 2. Discount tickets are still available online at www.visitkingsisland.com or at any Kroger or Meijer store for just $29.99! An all-new level of fear takes over the park this fall with the return of Halloween Haunt. The biggest Halloween event in the Midwest features more than 400 blood-thirsty monsters, highly-intense attractions including chain-link mazes, frightening wooded trails, disturbing clowns in 3D and some of the most hair-raising rides on the planet! Halloween Haunt will be open from 7:00pm until 1:00am every Friday and Saturday night beginning September 26 through November 1.

Kings Island is looking for four girls to be at Kins Island on Sunday morning to dress up like Cindy Brady and ride The Racer with Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady) as part of an Associative Press photo shoot. If you are interested, please e-mail Don Helbig whose email address can be found here. Send him your name as well as what size shirt you wear. The costume department will supply you with the necessary clothing and apparel. This is first come, first serve and there are only 4 spots left so if you're interested contact him immediately!

Carmen Electra at Kings Island August 30 Former Kings Island entertainer to appear in Flashback: Totally 80’s! Kings Island, Ohio – Visitors to Kings Island will have an opportunity to see Carmen Electra up close and personal Saturday, August 30, when the American glamour model and television personality makes special appearances in the park’s Flashback: Totally 80’s! show at 2:30pm and 4:00pm in the International Showplace Theatre. Ms. Electra began her career as an entertainer at Kings Island in 1990 as a dancer in one of the most popular shows in the park’s 36-year history, “It’s Magic.” She gained fame for her appearances on the MTV game show Singled Out, on the television series Baywatch, and for her roles in the parody films Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie and Meet the Spartans. The shows are included free with park admission.

‘Brady Bunch’ Stars To Appear At Kings Island Barry Williams, Susan Olsen, Mike Lookinland at the park August 31 Kings Island, Ohio – If you grew up in the 1970’s, chances are you really had two families: your real family and The Brady Bunch. One of the grooviest sitcoms of the era, The Brady Bunch filmed one of its most popular episodes at Kings Island in 1973, “The Cincinnati Kids.” To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the classic episode, three Brady Bunch stars, Barry Williams (Greg), Susan Olsen (Cindy) and Mike Lookinland (Bobby), will return to Kings Island Sunday, August 31 to entertain park visitors with four live “Very Brady” audience participation shows. What was life like behind the scenes? Was Robert Reed really hard to work with? Did Barry really date his on-screen mother, Florence Henderson? Barry, Susan and Mike will answer these questions and more as they sing, dance and tell stories of what it was like growing up on the set of the show. Show times are 2:00pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm and 8:00pm in the Kings Island Theater and included free with park admission. Meet and greet and autograph opportunities are available after each show. Seating is limited, on a first-come, first-served basis. The Brady Bunch originally aired from September 26, 1969 to August 30, 1974 on the ABC network and subsequently syndicated around the world. It is the only series ever to be shown in some form on three major networks (ABC, NBC and CBS), as well as in theatrical and motion picture movies. Discount tickets are still available online at www.visitkingsisland.com or at any Kroger or Meijer store for just $29.99!

Certainly a possibility. I'm sure there are cranes out there that work under almost any condition but when you can flatten it and make it easier.... why not?

I kind of guessed Intamin as well. Good find!

Same reason boy band concerts were so popular. Popularity is not an accurate measure of quality. You're right. In the movie The Lost Boys, they laughed at a guy for not eating rice saying something like, "Everyone in China eats rice. How could a billion people be wrong?" That makes sense, but I think that we can agree that millions of Nazis were wrong during World War II. Comparing Dead Awakening to a boy band is oddly a good comparison... actually comparing any park show to a boy band would work. Dead Awakening was popular, so popular that it was expanded outward. Some day it will be cliche' to see Dead Awakening and it'll hit the chopping block like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. I didn't listen to either of those groups when they were popular and I still don't... but millions of people truly did enjoy their music. There's nothing wrong with that... and certainly no one can be right or wrong in their opinion of music. If you want to turn the tables as kind of a learning experience, go to your local university and tell the head of the music department about your favorite band and he or she will likely laugh at you for not listening to something classical like Motzart. Whatever music you listen to will likely be passe' in due time but 500 years from now, people will still listen to Motzart. Does this make you wrong for liking something that may be go by the wayside some day? No, not at all.

Anyone find out any information on who's manufacturing this thing?

I may be missing something, but doesn't anyone know what the flattened area behind The Crypt will be for? It may be as simple as flattening it for moving equipment, but I'm no expert...

One of the coolest things about this ride will be how it's hard to picture how tall it will be. The closest thing is SOB which is 218ft, but that sits in a ravine so it doesn't look as tall as it really is. It may be shorter than the tower and Drop Tower, but it's certainly going to dwarf anything else in its path.

You make a good point. You can love or hate the show, but it went over well enough to expand it into an unnamed amount of other parks in the portfolio this year.

Pilgrim's Plunge is 165ft tall with 131ft drop. Link: http://holidayworld.com/new2009.html

Holiday World adds Pilgrim's Plunge, World's Tallest Water Ride for 2009. http://holidayworld.com/new2009.html

Hah....please! I'm with you there. If it was the best show ever at KI then the standards have really gone down. The idea was kind of cool, though a little confusing. But whoever selected the music really bombed it. If you're going to have a dark show, play dark music. If you're going to have a story, play music that goes with the story. Don't just throw in contemporary pop hits like "Rehab" because they're popular at the time. Once they sang that, I was totally out of it. I saw a small stage show of A Christmas Carol in Cincinnati a couple years back and they used current music to push the show and it worked because they sang songs that fit the mood and the story. They didn't just throw music out there because the audience might recognize the song. If Dead Awakening could pick better songs or, god forbid, create some original music; it might be worth all the hype it got. I agree DA was BAD. How can you do a show like that and not include anything by either White Zombie (Living Dead Girl??) or Marilyn Manson or hell even Ozzy for that matter . The best show anywhere last year as Monsters of Rock at CP. It was extremely entertaining and well done. I believe there are videos up on Youtube for it. The best show ever at Kings Island was Celebration. It set the bar very high and I doubt it will ever be topped. The format, the costumes, the music, the dancing, the sets and the singing were all top-notch. They held on to it for two seasons and even released a Vinyl LP (showing my age) of the show, mine's signed by the cast. Todd PUHLEEZE... Monsters of Rock? While not bad, it was like a watered down version of School of Rock at Kings Island. Plus people talk about having music that goes along with the story line? Monsters of Rock had a small blurb at the beginning about something cryptic (maybe raising the dead...? I can't remember) and then it was just a concert. Just my two cents. The music of Monsters of Rock was much better. Plus I was there when they were taping because they were being considered for an Award for the show. (not sure if the won, would love to find out). Did you ever see Celebration?? Todd Never saw Celebration, however most people who have been around note it as being one of the best shows that the park has ever offered. I've seen photos of it, but no video. Every show is taped... and taped often. Sometimes it's for the performers personal use, coaching, tweaking lighting, sending to IAAPA for award consideration and so on, so seeing a video camera at a show shouldn't be something totally uncommon. Almost all shows are sent to one jurisdiction or another to be considered. The classifications (at least for IAAPA) have to do with the amount of cash put into the production, so Monsters of Rock would not directly compete with Illuminations at Disney or Endless Summer on Ice, for example.

Jeff Grampke said at KIC Day that the ride would be "basically built" by Christmas. Would the topping off be the last thing they do with vertical construction?

Hah....please! I'm with you there. If it was the best show ever at KI then the standards have really gone down. The idea was kind of cool, though a little confusing. But whoever selected the music really bombed it. If you're going to have a dark show, play dark music. If you're going to have a story, play music that goes with the story. Don't just throw in contemporary pop hits like "Rehab" because they're popular at the time. Once they sang that, I was totally out of it. I saw a small stage show of A Christmas Carol in Cincinnati a couple years back and they used current music to push the show and it worked because they sang songs that fit the mood and the story. They didn't just throw music out there because the audience might recognize the song. If Dead Awakening could pick better songs or, god forbid, create some original music; it might be worth all the hype it got. I agree DA was BAD. How can you do a show like that and not include anything by either White Zombie (Living Dead Girl??) or Marilyn Manson or hell even Ozzy for that matter . The best show anywhere last year as Monsters of Rock at CP. It was extremely entertaining and well done. I believe there are videos up on Youtube for it. The best show ever at Kings Island was Celebration. It set the bar very high and I doubt it will ever be topped. The format, the costumes, the music, the dancing, the sets and the singing were all top-notch. They held on to it for two seasons and even released a Vinyl LP (showing my age) of the show, mine's signed by the cast. Todd PUHLEEZE... Monsters of Rock? While not bad, it was like a watered down version of School of Rock at Kings Island. Plus people talk about having music that goes along with the story line? Monsters of Rock had a small blurb at the beginning about something cryptic (maybe raising the dead...? I can't remember) and then it was just a concert. Just my two cents.

That's nearly impossible to predict. I'd guess that all three days would be pretty busy.

lol.... Fall semester. Today was what will hopefully be my very last first day of school. I think the eating contest will be more interesting than you think. I wonder if Jaws will be available for interview after the contest. lol

According to RCDB, the Wild Mouse is still SBNO at Chippewa.

According to one of the articles, a big reason why it was closed was because the line sometimes extended into the casino... with children in line.

First rides that are auctioned have gone for thousands of dollars.

The season is FAR from over....

Makes me wonder if Humpty was dumped there or was there all along. lol

I usually go to Holiday Fest at the Beach every year, but I'm not much of a waterpark person, so I can't be much of a judge. The place seemed really nice, definitely worth a try... especially for that price.

I think Wonderland make take the gold on this one.