BoddaH1994

lol... nah, I wasn't at the park this week. I don't think any of the staffers were there to be honest with you. As for the Geek Squad shirt, you've gotta advertise your brands, man!

We'll get on that as soon as we can. Until then, just don't tell her to make a left at the Tiques.

It has to be better than their old commercial.

I just saw a report on the news saying that Astroworld had a major power outage in which people had to be manually removed from rides. It showed clips of people walking down the catwalks of various rides. Kind of reminds me of preview day last year. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

A couple of weeks ago, the PKIC crew decided to make the scene at the debut of the Happy Days Diner at PKI. This renovation of Preston T. Tucker's has been pleasing to everyone, from ankle-biters to people who actually lived in the 1950s. If you would just cast an eyeball here, you can see a video of the amazing debut of Happy Days Diner featuring Mrs. C of Happy Days. We think you'll enjoy it like crazy, man. So click the link above to see the latest flick by your friends here a PKIC! Later gator, Ryan Yeah, so I tried to write this in 50s lingo and it turned out cheesy... at least it made me do some research.

Joe -- Solid work. You seemed to have progressed a lot in the past couple of months. Let me give you some pointers: 1. I think I told you this the last time, but if you're making a music video, you can't cut from one clip to another and have people waiting for action. I noticed that you had several clips of The Vortex in which it would be 2 or 3 seconds until the train cam into frame, and there were a couple of shots of IJ which we were waiting for the train to come through the billboard for a few seconds. Although this isn't that big of a deal, it messes up your flow. 2. Watch out for rhetorical clips. You can only watch Delirium swing so many times, or cut to so many clips of a certain ride before you hit a dry spot in the video. 3. Good selection of music (Although the song is Rocking in the Free World, not Rocking in America ). Next time see if you can make the music and the video complement eachother. What you did worked really well, but you can really emphasize things, especially with this type of video, when the motion of the video correlates the events in the songs. Like I said, you did a very good job on this and I can't wait to see what you come up with in the future. Ryan ps. What are you guys using to make those rolling credits? I can't find a program that I like that do that.

hehehehe... Jumped the shark... haven't heard that terminology in a long time. I don't know how much I agree with you, though. Although Paramount has made several screw ups, or decisions that we disagree with, they have put a fair amount of money into the park. I highly doubt that Linder would have been willing to put $25 million into the park. Heck, we may have gone a few years without an expansion. If I recall correctly, when Linder owned the park, they called the Festhaus an expansion... I mean, it's cool and all, but when has a non-ride ever really passed as an expansion to the GP?

Although SoB doesn't offer the airtime that you'd think that it would have, I think it does add some elements that help PKI have a well-rounded collection of coasters. I mean, The Beast has been a little on the rough side recently, but there's nothing like hearing a several-thousand pound PTC come crashing down onto the track... it adds an element of thrill. If you haven't heard it, listen for it. It's dominate during the bunny hops after the first hill. Is IJ over rated? Nah. You have to bear in mind that we haven't even seen the ride at 100% yet. Just imagine how awesome it will be once the rumbling effect is working, and the effects are timed correctly. Give it a chance, people! Officially it's not even open yet. Face/Off? They never really invested too much into the ride. Personally, I love it.... I don't love it like I'd wait for an hour and a half in 95 degree heat to ride it love it, but I do genuinely enjoy the ride. It's one of only a few rides in which I get off and feel very disoriented. AE? If you compare it to The Vortex or Beast, yeah, it's going to seem like a kiddy ride, but it's an Arrow mine train ride... it does exactly what it's supposed to do. From some accounts I've heard, it's one of the top rated mine trains in the world. Tomb Raider? I must admit, when the themeing isn't working, the ride is extremely lame. Maybe it's the fact that I know what's supposed to be happening and it's not, but I find that really frusterating. I realize that there are a LOT of factors involved in why the bits of themeing don't work, but let's just pray to God, Jesus, Allah, Budda... whoever you believe in, that IJ doesn't suffer the same fate. What ride is over rated? Scooby Doo and the Haunted freakin' Castle! I mean, the whole interactive part is... cute, but when it all comes down to it, the themeing is meaningless and you're more or less shooting at red lights implanted into wood cutouts of characters. The ride is just plain bad... I mean, it's not as bad as Garfield's Nightmare at Kennywood, but still pretty bad. If these flat dark rides are really so expensive to produce anymore, then why even bother if that's the output? Ryan

VERY few track sections are left from the Arrow section of Phantom's Revenge. It's mainly just the hill, the rest is the Morgan design. They really didn't do what we're talking about. They more or less utilized track pieces to get an entire new ride. Adding to the ride itself is a whole different story.

Such a thing is much more difficult than you make it out to be, and very very rare.

I've seen other pictures from 2000 of SOB being valleyed in the helix. It's a coaster, it happens.

In this Issue (Wednesday, May 11, 2005) Boomerang Bay Exclusive Weekend THE ITALIAN JOB: Stunt Track™ Opens May 20th American Idol’s Fantasia at PKI on May 15th! Why Take A Park Survey? Woohoo from The Beast! Upcoming Events Unsubscribe/Contact Information Boomerang Bay Exclusive Weekend Spring has arrived, and Paramount’s King’s Island park enthusiasts know exactly what that means. Very soon they will get their chance to go 'down under'! Crocodile Dundee’s Boomerang Bay Water Park Resort returns for its second season as it opens to the public Saturday, May 28th. Whether you’re looking to enjoy the more than 50 water activities or relax as you get the celebrity treatment in your own private cabana, this Australian oasis has something for everyone. Don’t miss your chance to attend this special Gold Passholder only weekend preview. Gold passes are available until May 22, 2005. As a Gold Passholder, not only will you get access to exclusive VIP nights, but you will also get a full season of celebrity treatment and Gold perks such as bring-a-friend free days, an exclusive parking area, and great meal deals. Hurry, time is running out! Learn more about our PKI Gold Pass. SEASON PASS SALES & PROCESSING OPEN Buy a 2005 Gold Pass and have your photo ID card made during the week! For your convenience, the Season Pass Sales & Processing Center is open Monday through Friday from 4pm - 8pm on the following dates: Monday, May 9 - Friday, May 13 and Monday, May 16 - Friday, May 20. There is typically little to no wait time on these weekday evenings! THE ITALIAN JOB: Stunt Track™ Opens May 20th The newest Hollywood addition, THE ITALIAN JOB: Stunt Track™ at Paramount’s King’s Island will open to the public on Friday, May 20th. This highly anticipated opening weekend will kick off on Thursday, May 19th with an exclusive event to showcase the new attraction to members of the media. Early indicators have been positive about this new PKI feature! Plus, when the park opens daily on May 20th, so does this new Hollywood multi-sensory experience. Additionally, 2005 Gold Passholders will get to experience this fast-track coaster first hand as they have the opportunity to walk directly onto THE ITALIAN JOB: Stunt Track™ any day the park is open to the public June 6th – August 14th. PKI also introduces the all-new GOLD PASS SPEED LANE which allows Gold Passholders to bypass the ride's waiting line and walk directly onto the ride. A limited number of ride reservation speeding tickets will be held daily at the Guest Relations kiosk at the base of the Eiffel Tower in order for Gold Passholders to take advantage of this exclusive perk. To take advantage of this Gold Pass exclusive perk and the many others, visit pki.com or visit the park. But hurry, Gold Pass goes away after May 22nd! TGIF in May! Fridays at PKI just got even more thrilling! Every Friday night this May, from 5pm -11pm, you can get an unbelievable $20 ADMISSION price plus FREE PARKING when you purchase your tickets in advance! TGIF includes: hourly prize giveaways, I-Dance Party at Festhaus, live entertainment, and double rides on your favorite attractions! Join us May 13th, 20th and 27th! American Idol’s Fantasia at PKI on May 15th! Fantasia Barrino won our hearts as the 2004 winner of American Idol on one of television’s highest-rated shows and she will again this Sunday, May 15th at PKI as she headlines the inaugural concert of the KISS-FM Summer Concert Series at Paramount’s King’s Island! Fantasia will be joined by Mashonda for a night of quality entertainment, plus you can enjoy some of your favorite rides and attractions as the park remains open until 9pm. Fantasia brings enthusiasm and energy to each of her concerts, and has enjoyed a number of accomplishments since being named as the American Idol. Since the nomination, Fantasia successfully released her first CD, Free Yourself featuring the hit single “I Believe†which topped Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart as the top song for June in 2004. Her soulful music echoes with strength and passion, and will undoubtedly fill the Timberwolf Amphitheater stage this Sunday. Tickets are now available for just $20 and includes after 5pm admission to the park and the concert. Purchase your ticket at ticketmaster.com or at the park this weekend. Special Limited-Time Offer: Six-Month Subscription to Nick Magazine When You Order Online Today Receive Nick Magazine when you order your tickets online: Order your tickets and season passes online TODAY and we'll include a special six-month subscription to Nickelodeon Magazine! Learn more about receiving Nickelodeon Magazine when you order your season passes or when your order your single-day tickets! Why Take A Park Survey? Have you ever wondered why we constantly ask you to participate in our online park satisfaction survey? We do it in our newsletter, on our web site, in our park map....we even hand out invitations at the park. Your feedback about the park is extremely important to us. Your ratings, on topics ranging from the temperature of the food to the fairness of our games to the professionalism of our show performers, make it possible for us to maintain the quality experience important both to you (as a guest) and us (as your hosts). When you tell us about a particularly good dining experience or even a not-so-good shopping experience, the details you share with us allow us to reward good service and/or make adjustments where they're needed. Each comment we receive is reviewed by managers and service personnel ranging from the cashiers in the restaurants to the general manager of the park. We know your time is valuable and believe that if you take the time to write us about your experience, the very least we can do is read what you have to say – and then try to use it to make your next visit to the park better. So, if you have a few extra minutes after you get home -- or even a week after you get home -- tell us about your trip to the park. You'll help us make the park better and we'll enter you to win one of a hundred prizes worth up to $1000. (You can win tickets too!) To take the survey, visit http://parkfeedback.com any time day or night. Woohoo from The Beast! Two summers ago, I took my then 9 yr. old son and a friend of his to Paramount's King's Island for a day of fun. We started out riding all the rides they wanted to ride (basically the kid rides). Then I said to them it's time for me to ride a few of my favorite rides which includes the all time greatest ride, The Beast. Every time I come to the park I will not leave until I've ridden it at least once. Well, my son's friend was up to the challenge, but my son was terrified. I sat him down and told him about my first experience on The Beast and how terrified I was too. They both laughed really hard but my son still wouldn't ride it. I gave it one last shot and told him I'd buy him anything within reason if he road it. Well, that worked. As we waited in line I could tell how nervous he was the closer we got. I grabbed him, hugged him and told him that I would never let anything happen to him no matter what. We got in the front seat and he almost cried all the way up the first hill. I put my arm across him and said to hang on to me. As we were shooting down the first hill his expression went from complete horror to utter jubilation. He started to scream woohoo and had a smile as big as Texas on his face. Thanks to everyone at Paramount's King's Island for making this a day I'll never forget. Eric M. from Fort Mitchell, KY will receive two tickets to Paramount's King's Island. Winners are randomly selected. Submit your entry! Source: PKI E-Newsletter

I'm not going to say that it's impossible, but highly improbable. The Racer is one of the staples of the park and they wouldn't remove it for expansion. Not to mention that it's one of the most popular rides in the park.

Heck, I don't know... I'm still wondering what Tomb Raider's totally new experience involving fire and ice from last season's map was.

I never said the whole thing quit only the actors. I believe the animation continued till around 1991 or when KI was actually sold. To my best recollection, the animation (as in the recordings of the shots being fired) stopped with the addition of Water Works.

I have been asking that question for 10 years. Kings Island does look very run down with cracking asphalt and cheap carnival feel. I wish Paramount Parks would fix the park up. It would not hurt not getting a ride and fixing the cracking walk ways and fixing the cheap carnival fell. You really can't satisfy everyone. People are going to ***** about everything that goes on in the park. Be happy with what we got. I actually agree to a certain extent that the park could use a slight bit of offseason cleaning... at least more than it gets. On the other hand, I do have faith that park beautification is going to be a priority in the future.

I did the laser tag many years ago and wasn't impressed. Think they ever found out that they weren't at Carowinds?

Where exactly are you talking about?

You probably mainly never really hear about it because MOST amusement companies do it very wisely. PP, for example, does a lot of market research, and puts out what will likely make the most people happy, they also distribute their money evenly amongst the parks. Hence the fact that loosely speaking, all of the Paramount Parks are just about in the same ballpark as far as quality goes. On the other hand, if you look at SF's additions, they spent $30 million on Kingda Ka, and have very little to show in the rest of their parks. I see this as a desperate attempt to stay afloat. I have no doubt that the return of investment on expansions is a worthy cause. It's really just a matter of slow growth. On the same note, this would also explain why expansions are in the $15-$25 million range instead of in the $100 million as Disney and Universal do. It's more viable to make money on a smaller investment in a seasonal park. I do agree that investments in PP are more... shall we say stable, than in the movie industry, but you always run the possibility that a franchise will really take off. With that, it's not just about the boxoffice, but about the DVDs, promotional materials, etc. Could be big.

Good explanation, but let me clarify it a little more: You have to understand the basics in order to see the whole picture. As you well know, Viacom is a publicly traded company, which means that a lot of the company is owned in small parts by regular people, like you and I. Now, a lot of the price of stock has to do with the company meeting/exceeding/falling short of expectations. These expectations are based on several things, but mainly growth. Some people have said that the amusement industry is a low-margin industry, but I don't know if that's true. In fact, I'm willing to bet that it's not. The amount of actual money made off of the parks themselves is only a part of Viacom's decision to buy/sell/split. Now, as Joel stated, there will be both a quickly growing company which will concern assets like MTV, and a slowly growing company that will concern things like the parks. The reason why splitting these is a positive business decision is be made is that, as I stated before, the price of stock has a lot to do with the projections of growth, and whether or not the company can meet these expectations. In this particular case, growth is difficult in amusement parks, so it's causing a slowdown in Viacom stock. On the other hand, if they were to split, the fast company would have high projections and the slow-growth company would have lesser projections, and both of which would be able to meet these expectations, so the stocks will rise accordingly. This also accounts for why some things are done around the park that we would like to see. Things like rides getting pained, cracked pavement fixed, themeing fixed, more associates on rides, etc. A lot of this stuff can't get done because the return of investment is too low, and that could cause the stock to fall. To put it in other words, since PKI has built IJST, and has marketed it as a new and innovative attraction, it's likely that individuals who would not normally go to the park would end up going in order to see this ride. These same people will very likely eat in the park, play games, pay admissions, etc. This increases revenue, and contributes to growth, thus the stock goes up. On the other hand, if Viacom were to invest millions of dollars to paint the park, fix cracked midways and damaged themeing, there would be little to no return of investment. It's highly unlikely that someone would come to the park to see a ride that has been fixed, or a midway that has been repaved. This investment with little return would cause the stock to fall. This is why there is such a delay on things getting done for beautification. I mean, the Eiffel Tower could have used a pain coat as long as I can remember, but they unfortunately had to wait until it looked really dirty and they risked people not returning as a result of the look and feel of the park in order to paint it. If the company splits, what does this mean for Paramount Parks? I'm willing to say that it would be a great thing. Think of it this way: since PP is a slowly growing asset of Viacom, what do they have to gain from investing a lot of money in it? Probably nothing but risk. Now, if it's a slowly growing company and PP is a core asset, then they will rely on bring more and more people into the park every year to meet the expectations of experts, and how do they do this? By offering newer and more innovative attractions and perks to the PKI that we already know. I'm far from an expert, so correct me if you see anything you disagree with, Ryan

With any of my pictures or video, it's all yours so long as you give proper credit. All of my stuff is labeled as Ryan Suhr, not BoddaH1994.

He's right -- I'm not familiar with No Limits, so I don't know if it can do this, but the LIMs are set up in a certain way in which the car has more of a "peel out" feeling to it rather than the classic FoF "0-60 in x seconds" feel.

This site has been posted before, but I'll leave it up because it's been quite a while. I recommend that everyone check out the site in its entirety, it's hours and hours worth of interesting readings.

I still think the franchise is too old for them to theme a ride to it.

Ironically, PKI's lost and found has my cell phone as we speak. I've been playing voicemail tag with the people there. I guess I'll have to wait until Saturday to pick it up.