BoddaH1994

I've ridden it "lights on" several times. The ride kind of takes on a new personality. You can see the King Cobra cars in there! Has anyone walked around in the bowl before?

What are they going to say? The wind from face/off knock em off the top of the car I don't know what they would say, but in sue-happy America I wouldn't doubt that excuse. What are you talking about??? Kings Island security should have been there to stop them! There's no way they could have know that this activity was dangerous!! [/sarcasm]

A couple of notes on here: 2, 3, or even 10 employees saying that it'll open next week isn't enough to be "solid evidence." Where did they get their info? I can tell you this much, a lot of the false rumors initiate here and make their way full circle as a "confirmation." I've heard "next week" from some very reputable people at KI. What does "next week" mean? I don't know. I know their goal was initially for July 4th weekend, as stated before, but (assuming we're in July 4th weekend now) it's clearly not the case. I don't know if the ride's reopening will be ceremonious or not but if I had to put money on it, I'd say a press release is in order but that's about it. As stated before, it's not uncommon for a train to be slow or even rollback/hang when the wheels are new... or even in the early testing stages each season. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on that as a reason as to why it wouldn't open on time... assuming "on time" is next week.

They probably looked at attendance and the day before the 4th was the highest. For those of you who didn't read the other post, Kings Island will be celebrating the 4th of July one day early. July 3rd at 10pm Kings Island will have an expanded fireworks display.

Date: July 2nd, 2007 Time 11am to 1pm Locations: Festhaus Cost: FREE with park admission REDS-White-and-Blue day at Kings Island Monday, July 2, as several Cincinnati Reds will be at the park signing autographs for visitors. The autograph event kicks off an entire week of Independence Day festivities during which the stars come out at the park. Several Reds, including rookie superstar Josh Hamilton, will sign autographs in the Kings Island Festhaus from 11 a..m. to 1 p.m. All autographs are free to park visitors, limited one item per person, on a first-come, first-served basis. Kings Island opens at 10 a.m. The July 2 Reds signing includes, in addition to Josh Hamilton, second baseman Brandon Phillips, and pitchers Todd Coffey, Brad Salmon, Jon Coutlangus and Marcus McBeth. Players are subject to change, and additional players may be added at a later date.

The position of Marketing Communications Manager is been vacant since Maureen Kaiser left the company to pursue other interest a few weeks into the season. It is my proud responsibility to inform you that the position has been filled by a Racer riding legend, proud family man, hockey broadcasting legend, and most importantly long-time friend of KICentral, Mr. Don Helbig. If that name rings a bell, it may be the fact that he's acquired local fame by holding the world record in rides on The Racer at just short of 12,000. Of course, you may recall hearing about a special ceremony a few years ago for Don's 1,000th visit to the park. Then again, you may be familiar with Don from hearing him as the head of PR and broadcasting for the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks and Cyclones. Don left town with his family less than a year ago to continue his career doing PR for the AHL's Albany Riverrats and their arena football team, the Albany Conquest. Doing this, he left the Cincinnati area just shy of his 12,000th ride on The Racer. Kings Island Central wants to be one of the first to welcome the Helbig family back home to Cincinnati, and to say, “Welcome aboard!”

Riverside Park was/is located in Indianapolis. It only had two coasters, though. It now operates as a city park, but all amusement rides closed in 1970. Riverside Park on RCDB

Yeah, but similar rides at other CF parks have reopened already. I stand by my other comments. It won't be long.

Want a good assertion as to why Indy doesn't have a park? Its scope would overlap KI's too much and it's too risky of business to build a park with the assumption that you can draw patrons away from such a large park.

No news really. It was closed yesterday, June 27th.

Stricker's Grove, located in Ross, OH is a privately owned amusement park which is typically only open to the public two days a year: the 4th of July and their family day in August. With the 4th being this Wednesday, I was wondering who is planning on going. If you don't have plans for the day I'd highly recommend it. They have two really neat coasters, the Tornado and the Teddy Bear. They have also recently purchased the Round Up from Americana and to my knowledge, I think it's running (it was under construction last year). I'm not 100% sure of the times and prices, so I'll have to get back to you on that. If I recall correctly, parking is like $3 or $4 and you can buy an all day rides pass for not much more than that. The food is amazing and inexpensive too. You could eat two meals and enjoy the park on $20. Stricker's Grove's Web Site Edit: More info stricker's grove is open to the public on wed the 4th of july ride hours are 3-11pm parking is $ 4 per car admission to park is free if you wish to ride the rides you can buy individual ride tickets for $ 1.25 or a ride all day armband for $ 13.50 pp fireworks are tentatively set for 10pm due to drought conditions in ohio ALL firework displays in ohio may be cancelled by the ohio state fire marshall. let's hope for rain!!!!

Kings Island is proud to debut the latest of its amazing five show lineup for the regular season. Twistin' to the 60s debuted this past weekend in the International Showplace, which is that venue's first show since 2005. Hear the amazing live performance by Kings Island's world-class entertainment department while they sing some of the greatest hits of the 60s. Of course, what's a show about the 60s without beach parties, teenage love and big hair? Speaking of big hair, as the gals are getting ready to appear in a dance off on the Rockin' Ricky Van Show, they trust their hair to the Hair-O-Matic 1000 only to have some... blown up... results. So if you're into dancing it up with the tunes of the good 'ol days, talking about your favorite guys at a slumber party, trying to score a dance with the grooviest chick at the dance, and beach balls flying through the air, this show's for you! Twistin' to the 60s is a daily show in the International Showplace near the Eiffel Tower. See the venue for specific show times. Also, The Beast's rebel son is beginning to wake up. It has been reported that Son of Beast has been cycling continuously the past few days. There is still no official word on when it will reopen, however with any luck, it won't be long... Don't forget that Kings Island invites you to celebrate Independence Day a day early this year! On Tuesday, July 3rd, Kings Island will proudly present the Star Spangled Celebration with an amazing expanded fireworks display at 10:00. Click here to see KICentral's latest photo update! Don't forget to keep checking Kings Island Central for the latest news, rumors, photos and information about Kings Island amusement park! Regards, Ryan, Dane, & Ronny

Kings Island finally got an entertainment line up that's worth ranting about. Which one's your favorite show?

Yeah, it seems as though CF is a little more sensative to that sort of thing. For example, if you look at the posters in Action Zone they have Boomerang Bay, which is either going to open, or is open for 90% of the season, Fearfest (my personal favorite poster) which is good up and through the whole season, Wings Buffet, and Firehawk. For example, if they did the Star Spangled Celebration, which would have been obselete half way through the season.

Happy Days Diner has some good food. I always get the Fozzy Burger. haha... The fries are excellent. I doubt they're very strict about the max height requirements...Especially if it's within an inch.

Let's look at pros and cons: PROs Awesome new coaster (CBS planned on no new rides this year) 5 Shows (Upgrade from CBS's 1 and a half) Far Cleaner park (Upgrade from CBS's Rumpke Island in the last year) Wings Buffet Maxx Passes CONs Higher prices No more Winterfest A lot of new management (may affect some of you) No more movie themes KI passes will not get you into the former Paramount Parks without Maxx A lot of stuff is arguable, but I think the PROs outweight the CONs.

It's probably all chlorinated. There isn't too much to see when it's drained. Just a concrete basin.

Sounds fun! I've always wanted to be a games op... just for a day. haha

No worries -- glad you had a good time!

Most skaters are in fact professionals. Although there were ads at local rinks, and the try outs were at Sports Plus in Evendale, it doesn't mean that they just took any person from the area. In fact, only one or two are local. Most skaters were on tour when the opportunity arose, which is a big reason why the show started as late as it did. A lot of them did things such as nightly shows on cruises and things of that sort. Kevin Brunck did a wonderful job of melding talent from around the country to make this wonderful show. As far as practicing goes, they were on the ice from 1 to 9 daily for about two weeks before open. There are no understudies. The photos in our update were from their rehearsals and was 100% of the cast. If someone gets hurt, they just have to improvise. The ice quality at the Paramount Theatre isn't anywhere near what you would have at a rink, however the performers seem to agree that it's better quality than most show venues have. As a result of that, it makes all of their difficult moves even more difficult. The skate captain (I want to say his name is Michael) is the male solo performer for two different segments, and equates the difficulty of his segments to what he would do for competitions. Imagine doing that five times a day, six days a week... Does being a coach make you a non-professional skater? The ice is a totally different world than the "field" per se. I worked for the Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones last year, and all three coaches played professionally (Don Biggs - Cyclones, Danny Lorenz - Cyclones, JR Short - Jacksonville). That's the rule rather than the exception in hockey and skating. It's not like high school football or baseball. You're probably right about them doing 1-2 run throughs daily when they rehearsed. That's because they did a lot of "stop-start" run throughs in which if something went wrong, they'd redo the scene. When Dane and I went to the rehearsal, we saw a total of one run through, but saw each scene two or three times. That was over the course of about three hours. I'm not trying to attack anyone, but I'm under the assumption that most people have no idea how much pressure the cast and crew are under. The lights are all 100% automated. That leaves exactly zero margin for error with the set changes. As stated before, there really aren't understudies, so each performer needs to be in absolute top condition. Oh, and I don't want to leave out those poor ushers who have to blow up 150 balloons for the balloon drop...each and every show. My advice -- just go check out the show and enjoy it. Not everything has to be dissected. Ryan

...but Fearfest WAS an upcharge in the beginning.

This also happened to FoF.. and all other LIM rides last season, remember? Don't worry, the fine crew at KI is on top of this and it'll be open as soon as possible. Barring finding anything wrong, I wouldn't expect it to be closed long.

That certainly is odd. Plus, it's not like they found a costume and decided to use it... I think those things have to be destroyed after only a few years because HB wants to guarentee that the costume will be somewhat believable.

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago. I was talking to someone about the SOB thing (setting things straight -- he thought someone died on it too) and I continued the conversation with the guy from the Eiffel Tower elevator all the way down to the ground level. I guess some lady overheard me talking and came up to me and started telling me about a bad experience she had at one of the food stands. I was just like, "Ma'am, I don't work here." Wasn't there a car commercial that was almost exactly like that?

I think we can all agree that a full queue house is (give or take) just about an hour. At least that's been my observation. You can really judge it by that.