BoddaH1994

No, we wouldn't but I think AZ is good how it is. How many backlots have trees and shaded areas?

Wow... it's almost like he knows what he's talking about... Eh... in the end, I'm sure they'll just end up building more 435ft tall coasters as a quick fix.

Hmm... you could be right... what ride stood there before? I'm having trouble calibrating myself. lol

Maureen wasn't with the company for the first couple. My favorite part of all of the movies was the Brady Bunch one that had Stevie B in a cameo... just kind of standing there... not knowing exactly how to hold himself. lol I miss that guy.

Hmmm...Could this be Phantom Flyers? Yeah, but what's the big thing behind it?

I've actually never seen those before at all. Hopefully you're right. It's hard to keep track of those darn paper ones. lol

LoL... sorry to bum you guys out.. Klocke, I think you need to look at the long term. Granted, the park could instantly save upwards of $50,000 by closing at 10 on the 4th of July, but imagine the mentality of Joe Citizen again... what if it were his first visit to the park and his biggest recollecton was long lines and taken an hour and a half to get out of the parking lot? Do you think he would come back? Do you think he would have nice things to say about the park if friends or family mentioned wanting to go? I know that there are better days to go than others, but this is another classic example of spending money to make money. If he had a good experience, he might buy a family pass for the next year. Just imagine that kind of money... I mean, I'm relatively conservative with money and I know I dumped about $2,000 into the park just with my 50 or so visits. If I had a family of 4, it would have been a LOT more. I sure hope you're right. The park has made such great efforts in the past 3 or 4 years to create a better and more festive look and feel... I'd hate to see it go away.

That seems to be the rumor. The actual look of NU has evolved making concept art difficult. Speaking of Maureen, she emailed me last week saying that even if they started on concept art now, it wouldn't be don't until opening day, so I really wouldn't expect it. Tons of PKI employees read these forums. You rarely find anyone who works there who hasn't at least heard of PKIC, which is why it's important to realize that anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. It was a nice email. For those of you who have known her for a while now, you can back me up in saying that she's a very nice and sincere individual. Any of the 'exclusive' things that PKIC brings you is usually in some way a result of Maureen going out of her way to make sure that you guys get the best of the best. She doesn't just respond to her emails and take your phone calls because it's her job, she truely does enjoy the interaction. We're lucky to have her.

All of which you are saying is true, but you have to bear in mind that once you start making cuts here and there, you really start sacrificing the guest experience for Joe Citizen. Let's do a quick psyche walk for Joe Citizen. Let's assume Joe is a middle aged man with a wife and two kids. Let's say that the year is 2010 and this is a wost case scenario. Joe pays the expected $9 to enter the lot and parks his car. It's a June Saturday so it's going to be busy. Joe, along with a thousand other people wait in anticipation for the strike of 10:00 and the opening of the front gates. 10:00 comes and the line begins to organize itself near the two metal detectors to the left (let's assume that security is cut and that's all they can open). Joe and his family wait for almost a half hour to get through security, only to wait for another 10 minutes at admissions and another 2 just to get into the park itself. First bad experience: spending almost 40 minutes to get into the park. Joe and his family walk down International Street to see that most of the shops aren't open, and won't open until noon. Joe begins to wonder why he spent almost $200 to get his family into an amusement park that's barely even opened. His uncertainty is reinforced when noticing that it's about 11:00 by this point and several rides aren't opened yet or are just now doing their first cycles. Second bad experience: dead park (if you've ever been to SFKK, you know the feeling) Joe and his family ride some of the rides and attractions (let's assume that they don't show up frequently enough to realize that the themeing isn't working) and then it's time for lunch. They all agree on Skyline and head directly for Street SKyline only to see a line going out the door. After waiting for quite a while, they reaize that the problem is that there are only two people running the whole place. Nothing is more frusterating than being hungry and having to wait.. and wait.. and wait. 3rd bad experience: The wait. Joe and his family finally get and eat their food and decide to ride some more rides. Upon walking to one of their favorite attractions, they notice a ton of debris from a careless guest's meal in the midway. Disgusted, they do their best to avoid the mess and press on. 4th: Look and feel suffering. I think you guys understand what I'm getting at. The little things are the building blocks of the customer experience and even if you built rides that were as good as a mixture of The Beast, Steel Phantom, and Top Thrill Dragster, you park would still suffer. What you have to understand is that Joe is definitely the rule rather than the exception. The family man is always going to be the center of attention at PKI, and he's going to look back and see the product as a whole rather than pick out individual likes and dislikes. Hopefully the park will never be so bad.

Those tickets don't really look familiar, plus how long has it been since there was $24 admission? 15 years?

"Mmm.. that's good satire!" - from "Special Edna," The Simpsons Just think of how easy the retheme would have been: Enron's Crash Course Boating School.

Hmm.... what if someone you knew did have permission and was going to start doing one during the 2006 season?

As much as I'd love to agree with you, I think the implication is that the park can close early if needbe. Kind of like how it closes at like noon on season passholders' day... every year.

How are you getting these photos?

True, but if you recall the past few years, they have encouraged people to stay in the park after the fireworks to avoid a massive traffic jam in the lot. Last year Dane and I hung around until close and didn't get out of the lot until about 1am or so (I think they closed at midnight). This could be rough if they do that...

Did you guys notice the 10:00 close on the 4th of July? I wonder if this means that Nights of Fire got the axe.

Then it'd be more like Universal's Island of Adventure Ohio, or something like that. Either that, or Universal Studios Cincinnati. .....I know, I don't make any sense either. If they add a title to it like "Universal's Kings Island" or "Proctor and Gamble's Kings Island" or whatever, it won't be so bad. I just want to retain the name "Kings Island".

For most of you, the front page doesn't really do too much. It's more or less an introduction to new visitors. The only thing that's goign to dynamically change on it is the front page article, which is the same one that we post in PKIC News, and the front page image whenever we can talk Dane into changing it. LoL We get a lot of people on here who honestly need help planning their trips to PKI, so about 40% of the site is the little stuff that you guys don't need to worry about. The other 60% is things like new, events, updates, etc that would interest you guys.

I bet you anything it's true. These things almost definitely run over budget, and what's 5 million to PKI could be 25 million to Disney. I guess it's a matter of what more could go wrong.

The only things I can think of are: Cutting the beginning (removed Outer Limits intro) Removing the name "Outer Limits" from the screen during the prank half way through the film. Is there something else I'm missing?

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Captain Nemo in a plane! Yes it's true, the PKIPilot himself has finally done his thing and supplied you with some much needed birds eye shots of the park going through winter rehab and construction! In this update, you will see shots of Nick Universe, the Great Wolf Lodge, as well as other various shots of our sleeping friend! Click here to see the latest from Nemo's Biplane! Regards, Ryan PKICentral.com - Is it April yet???

Expedition Everest looks awesome! $100,000,000 well spent. lol

To answer your questions to the best of my ability: i jus have some ?'s 1. does this mean that there are to be more coasters at ki with the new management? Unlikely. They'll probably keep the same marketing strategy that Paramount had. 2. what is instore for the names of the paramount rides? Unless it's picked up by another entertainment group, I'm willing to say that part of the price of the park will be use of the licenses to the rides and attractions. Additionally, they may add more movie themes with these rides. 3. is paramount going to allow the new company to keep there names of there rides that are named after their movies? See above. 4. is there going to be a pay increse or decrese in pay for the employees? That's nearly impossible to say at the time. 5. are they going to let RCT3 support there parks? (doubt it but it would be sweet) RCT has an agreement with Six Flags. If they buy the parks, which they won't, it would probably be included in the game. 6.what else is viacom or CBS going to sell next? Probably nothing for a while. It's simply that theme parks and TV shows arent' exactly hand in hand. 7. if paramount didnt buy dreamworks would paramount parks be ok? Paramount Pictures and Paramount Parks are more or less owned by two totally different entities now. I doubt that would affect anything. 8. what is going to be instore for the employees that are going to come back? If it were me, I'd fire everybody and start over. Nah, I doubt you'll see much change. Just like when Paramount bought it from Linder. 9. what are the uniforms going to look like? Probably VERY similar to what it is now, if there even is a change. 10. Who is to buy the parks? My guess is an investment group. I'm crossing my fingers hoping that an entertainment company like Universal buys them, but that's kind of a long shot. Nothing has been ennounced.

^ True dat! click here for the main thread about CBS selling the parks.

You are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, it seems as though they'll improve the profitability through budget cuts rather than by improving the poduct itself. It's a quicker and cheaper way of doing things...