BoddaH1994

My two cents: Festhaus: The place has gone to hell over the past few years... when was the last time Screen 4 worked? According to CoastersRZ, the screens aren't coming back next year, and we know for a fact that the place is getting revamped this offseason. Does this mean it will be returned to its former glory? Who knows? I sure hope so. Smoking Areas: I think the placement of them is fine. I agree with everyone in saying that the park hasn't done enough to inform people of the change. Granted, it's on the map and there's that infrequent announcement, but if we're talking about the GP as a whole, it's really just not enough. Themeing: It would cost a LOT of money to revamp the old themed rides, but what about IJ? You'd think they learned their lesson, but in less than 2 months the speakers were destroyed. Vandalism is 100% responsible, but anything that sits right in front of the guests should be vandalism proof. Food: I think in the past two years the park has gone in the right direction in food. My personal favorite addition is Happy Days. In my opinion, you get TGI Friday's or Applebee's quality food for about the same price as you would by going to one of those establishments. Rides not opening: I guess I'm a lot more tolerant of this since I go to the park 40 times a season. I do sympathize with the people who drive long and far and expect the park to be 100% operational. People spend a lot of money to get in there and the park should be in top-notch condition every time. Granted, things will go down... they're mechanical devices.. that's what they do, but I think a valient effort to have things in working order every day should be standard with a park of this calibur.

Here's an idea for you: Next time you go to PKI, wear a kryptonite cross. That way you can keep both Dracula and Superman away.

You do make a very good point, on the other hand Disney parks have a theory that the park should always be clean, but the guests should never see anyone cleaning it, which is something they pull off for the most part. I think the ecology of the park improves by a great leap forward every year, but near-perfection is quite possible.

For most of WF, I imagine construction will be mostly out of sight.

The Vortex is sitting in a valley. If they got a new coaster, it would have to be some sort of custom job, or they would have to do a major overhaul of the area. I 4th everyone, it's not going anywhere.

If that's intended as a shot at PKI, don't forget that PKI puts millions into rehabing SOB every year, and those terrible magnetic brakes on The Beast are just a newer version of what was already there. ::Throws the Unofficial Guidebook to Paramount's Kings Island at LegendRider:: Also, this was mentioned at the Fall Freakout Beast tour, but PKI is one of a very small select group of parks that actually breaks down and rehabs every coaster train every year. Jeff mentioned that some parks do it every couple years or every other year or whatever, but PKI does it every year. This is pretty good considering, for example, according to Arrow's now-defunct web site, they recommend that their trains be broken down every 5 years.

This is coming from PKI.com: You can pre-purchase meal tickets by clicking here. There are two different meal tickets available: Winter Festhaus Meal: Sliced Roast Turkey Breast, Cranberry Sauce, Dressing, Mash Potatoes w/gravy, Green Beans, Dinner Roll, Choice of Dessert, Soft drink, coffee, or hot chocolate. Cost: $14.99 Winterfest Bubba Gump Meal: Crab Cake, Steak Fries, Cole Slaw, Dinner Roll, Choice of Dessert, Soft drink, coffee or hot chocolate. Cost: $14.99

The food will be pricey, but for a one time thing, I'm sure it will be a fantastic experience. You can actually pre-purchase meal tickets by clicking here. There are two different meal tickets available: Winter Festhaus Meal: Sliced Roast Turkey Breast, Cranberry Sauce, Dressing, Mash Potatoes w/gravy, Green Beans, Dinner Roll, Choice of Dessert, Soft drink, coffee, or hot chocolate. Cost: $14.99 Winterfest Bubba Gump Meal: Crab Cake, Steak Fries, Cole Slaw, Dinner Roll, Choice of Dessert, Soft drink, coffee or hot chocolate. Cost: $14.99 Personally, I'm looking forward to the Winter Festhaus Meal... the meal looks fantastic and will only be capped by the amazing show that is going to be in there. I'm going to start a new thread with this information, so look surprised if you see it.

I think so.

Since it is the end of the official 2005 season, I thought I would take a moment to recognize a lot of the people who have made the past year such a great year for PKICentral: First and foremost, I want to thank each and every forum member for sharing their thoughts and ideas on our boards. If it weren't for you guys, the efforts that we put into this site would be entirely groundless. Secondly, I want to thank all of the employees who are members of this site. I have met a lot of you over the past 3 years of doing PKIC and countless members have come up and introduced themselves. Thanks for always making us feel so welcome. Next, I would like to give a very special thank you to PKI's marketing Dream Team especially Jeff and Maureen. Aside from their normal hectic jobs, they have never hesitated in helping to fulfill our requests which helps to make PKIC the exclusive and unique experience that it is. I can't thank you guys enough. I would also like to thank the "Man from the Maze" Scott Hayward for helping us build a relationship with the entertainment department. He was so kind as to give us a several hour tour of the Paramount Theatre when we did the "School of Rock" interview and taught us far more than we would have ever known about the entertainment department at PKI. Look for PKIC to join forces with Scott in the not-so-distant future again. On that same note, I want to thank "Doris" Mrs. Katie Spearman for taking the time to let us probe her mind and give you guys an interesting interview that no one else had offered in the past. A special thanks goes out to the big cheese, Craig Ross for always taking the time out of his busy schedule to stop and ask us how the site's doing. It means a lot to us that the business side of PKI acknowledges our entity. I would also like to recognize the hard work of Jon and JJ from Nexigen. Their behind the scenes work helps PKIC's motor running. Lastly, I want to thank everyone who came to the park this year, whether you were working on cleaning up voban in the bathroom or riding the rides... thanks for such an amazing year. Regards, Ryan Suhr

I have a added a photo of the spotlight testing on Swan Lake. Take that as a teaser for Holiday Illuminations, and I also added a construction photo from Santa's Workshop. Click here to see our latest uploads.

I actually asked Jeff about that today and he said that all of the Winterfest stuff is new. When the previous owners ended Winterfest years ago, they threw away the old stuff to ensure that it would never return... boy were they wrong.... MUAHA

No, screw you. Just kidding, of course I will!

Update: We'll meet at 1pm at Wings for lunch. Come one come all!

You're right about that, but I'm pretty sure that the brightly colored chairs that were in the episode are now in the board room behind the carousel room in the IR, so that's where people get confused... would have fooled me.

Cool No Yes No

The park is open 10am to 6pm Sunday. I think the 2nd meeting should be around 1pm. Let's meet somewhere for lunch, so if you're friends or family you can at least stop by and meet everyone. Does anyone have a preferred eatery?

Alright, the whole "everyone's entitled to his opinion" thing is old now. If you agree with him do so, if you disagree make a valid point respectfully.

Sorry to post about this so late, but it's tradition that the members of PKIC meet up for one last shabang before we kick off the offseason projects. Usually this has a very good turnout and it's always a great time. We will be meeting this Sunday at 10am sharp under the tower, and we will also have another meeting around 12 noon or 1pm so laggers can join the group. So come join us and put some faces to the names that you see on these boards!

So...what exactly do you consider "unsuccessful" about Cedar Fair's profit of $99.3 million dollars for the 3rd Quarter? Keep in mind, that's still a higher profit number than what Viacom posted for theme parks & publishing combined... $99.3 Billion? I'm going to go ahead and call "bull****" on this one. Let's see some sources. If you reread my post, you'll see I said MILLION, not billion. You want a source for the $99.3 million net income number? Try "Investor Relations" at cedarfair.com. Want another source? Try their 10K filing with the SEC... Or, to cut to the chase, here's the direct quote from their Q3 results press release: Included in the 2004 third quarter net income is a non-cash credit of $1.2 million to account for the change in fair value of two interest rate swap agreements that expired during the first quarter of 2005. After non-cash credits, interest expense and provision for taxes, net income for the quarter totaled $170.8 million, or $3.11 per diluted limited partner unit, compared to net income of $91.7 million, or $1.70 per unit, a year ago. Reflected in the third quarter numbers is the reversal of $66.1 million of contingent liabilities recorded in prior periods related to publicly traded partnership (PTP) taxes. Management determined that the Partnership’s accrual for PTP taxes was no longer required based on the accumulation of relevant evidence since the adoption of the PTP tax in 1998. The adjustment to the PTP tax accrual resulted in a net credit for taxes of $41.1 million in the period. Had the adjustment not been made, net income for the third quarter would have been $99.3 million, or $1.81 per diluted limited partner unit. However, I'll write off your comment to a simple misreading... Of course, 91.3 Billion would be a ridiculous number. (That's more than Viacom, Time Warner, and Disney grosses in a year combined...) Ha... there was nothing personal in that. You're right, I just misread it. I apologize.

My favorite part is how they are running around dodging the Tiques and Alice "accidentally" gets trapped on (the Monster?) without anyone checking her harnass. I think they filmed it at KI but staffed the ride ops from Stricker's Grove. (snap!)

Unless Taft had some sort of association with Paramount at the time, I'd say no. Likely this just happened because KI was the new park and there was some buzz about it. And to whoever mentioned them zig-zagging accross the park -- did you notice how they'll be running in one part of the park, and then running on the opposite side... I guess they wanted every shot to look photogenic.

Someone please describe what exactly the Waynes World themeing was like in its glory days... god I love Wayne's World. "Do you think I'm a gulla-bull, or even a gulla-calf??"

So...what exactly do you consider "unsuccessful" about Cedar Fair's profit of $99.3 million dollars for the 3rd Quarter? Keep in mind, that's still a higher profit number than what Viacom posted for theme parks & publishing combined... $99.3 Billion? I'm going to go ahead and call "bull****" on this one. Let's see some sources.

I just got an e-mail from the lovely and talented Maureen Kaiser inviting me to invite you to take one FINAL ride on The Beast for the 2005 season! We will be meeting at The Beast's entrance at 6pm on Sunday and after the line queue has been cleared, it will be your turn to say goodbye to The Beast... for now...