Karen

I wonder if anyone noticed WHERE the scooby doo haunted ride is located??? In the kiddie land area. I seriously doubt they will ever put anything dark or scary in the kids section of the park - I already hear the parents complaints!! LOL Action FX is an excellent place to put something like that. They could use the old phantom theater props for the lines and have that thrill ride movie inside. Possibly change the seats to something more of a dark and erie theme. I Love the revenge idea too. They could enclose the line area, making it dark and erie so that the long waits can be a little more interesting. They did something like that with TRTR. Sections toward the end of the line was filled with scenes from the movie - not a bad idea for action theater if they would like to turn it into something more haunt inspired. I also see airconditioning in the hot summer months for that line so that you have a cool place to go, you won't mind waiting for the show, and you have entertainment while you wait......what do you think??

Since it is located in the kiddie portion of the park I find that rather unlikely.

As far as I know Phantom Theater will never come back. If youve been to fearfest/Halloween Haunt,the characters are in very bad shape. Yes I noticed that. It is sad as I also loved Phantom Theater. The ride was starting to fall apart before they removed it. Equipment failure, props starting to fall apart and so on. It is sad that Paramount did not take better care of that attraction.

I read this one and just busted up laughing lol. Yeaaa I kind of think there is some guy named Richard Kinzel working for the park somewhere he he. Ohhh wait he might not be there now - I seem to remember that the "Undertaker" had a tombstone with his name on it at the front of the park at closing last year??? Wonder who took his place??

When I have issues it is a lot easier and more effective to pay a visit to guest relations. I notice there are some people out there asking for your cooperation in doing a survey of your day - that is another avenue to check out - those comments do get turned in to the park officials and they are reviewed so your opinion will be heard. I am very heavy and disabled so there are a lot of things I can not do at the park but ........ I am sure everyone finds this of any amusement park. I wish I could ride those rides but in all honesty some are not safe for me any more. I have a grandson that cries because he is too short to ride the wild rides - not a bad thing as I am sure as tiny as he is this little stinker would crawl out of it for fun so safety first. What I enjoyed most from last year was the amazing shows. While my family checked out the rides and other attractions that were not equiped for me I went over and checked out all of the show times and was able to watch them all day. Some more than once. The kids in the shows noticed me and befriended me last year which made it so much more fun. From what I see at least one of them is in the country show going on now. I went from watching the shows to watching and talking to some really amazing people. This started me talking to others through out the park and I found out that the people that work at the park are pretty cool folks. I have not been able to go to the park this year yet....Kings Island is currently fixing my wheelchair from my little accident in Club Blood - but once I get it back then I will be checking out the park to see what all the fuss is about. The customer relations suggestion I made is very valid along with those surveys. I used to get Kings Island Surveys sent to my email. I filled them out all the time and made suggestions that I have seen implimented not long after suggesting them. One was the handicap accessibility that was lacking a few years back. Things were changed. My mishap during Halloween Haunt I am sure will also be addressed so that it does not happen again. I made suggestions about making our Halloween time FREE with park admission as the swim area is and the very next year it was FREE so I am sure others suggested it too!! Maybe we can not see any safety issues because we do not know the laws or engineering specs but I am rather confident that Kings Island officials are watching out for them. If you have issues with safety I am sure they want to know so please report that too!!

No years ago it used to be a restaurant where waitresses would serve you - oops showing my age!!

Who uses premium gas and why? I allways buy the "CHEAP" gas and have never had any issues with it, never needed any repairs caused by using it. I have a friend that used to drive a gas truck for Shell/Texico and he told me that the only difference between the gas grades are the additives that are put in there. The basic gas is the exact same. He refuses to use anything but the cheapest gas and bugs the heck out of me because I kind of like the medium grade. It seems my car does not drive that well on the cheaper and I happen to like my car! As for the gas prices - well maybe this is a stupid statement but I just wonder who is in the white house right now and hmmm I tend to think his little family owns a good amount of oil wells - with our being in Iraq and "guarding" some of those wells it just makes me wonder why the prices are going up. I know the stuff with China and all but I am sorry I have to wonder about the greed in this country and the people that happen to own our oil companies. Seems they are making some large profits while our cost of living keeps increasing. The trickle down effect is honestly hitting a great many parts of our life from groceries to even going out, where we choose to work now and go to school, and so on. Seems that every industry is going to be effected by this gas issue. Is the government going to wait until we can not even afford to eat or even head down to the local store to purchase it due to increasing gas prices before something is done? My daughter got out her high school book a few days ago there is a section that stated the gas prices as just over $2.50 a gallon. She graduated in 2005. Imagine what it will cost next year??? I hear how if we do not like the people in governmetn then vote them out - but if you really look - what is the alternative?

As for meeting up - anyone that sees a fat woman in an electric wheelchair - that looks like the picture at left here - then come on over and tell me who you are - I am more than happy to see people from here and have had several coming up to me introducing themselves. It just makes my day - I am as my forum name is - KAREN. I have even had a few sit and watch the shows with me - gotten to know a few more personally. Those that need a ride buddy - often there is someone in my group that wants to ride rides that the others do not - feel free to steal them for a little bit or hang out with us for the day. We welcome everyone that wants to hang out with us and we are a come as you are kind of group.

I am not sure I am going back this year but if I do just enjoying the park in general. The jury is still out on the new ownership - I have had good and bad experiences with it but still looking for the full picture. I love Kings Island the park. My favorite part - well those that know me know that answer without asking lol Halloween Haunt - favorite ride Vortex...favorite thing to do - if they are as well done this year as last year - the SHOWS!! I was fortunate in getting to know the preformers which made the experience a much richer and more enjoyable one. They are great people!! I am really looking forward to better times and improved access to the handicapped.

I totally miss the Theater but miss Lion County Safari a lot too. Other rides that would love back are the old fashioned cars, Screaming demon, not sure what it was called but it was in Coney Maul toward the back. You would get in one of many cages on this round thing - there were two of these round things and while one was up in the air spinning the other was down on the ground getting more riders. Sorry I do not remember the name but always enjoyed it. Miss the Smurf Enchanted voyage as it was so similar to "It's a Small Small World" attraction at Disneyland. There are a lot of the older rides I miss as I have been going to the park since long before most of you were born. LOL I grew up at Disneyland in California and moved out here about the time Kings Island opened. I was fortunate enough to have visited Coney Island before they moved the rides to their current locations - what is left of them. Those were really fun days. Riding the ferry from Kentucky to Ohio to the gates of Coney Island and spending the day. Would love to see those old rides, or similar, return to Coney Island and see it give Kings Island some good competition. Right now the only competition they really have to improve is the parks in Louisville, Ky. Anyone want to see Americana and Fantasy Farm return?? Those were fun places too and much more reasonable prices. Great places for Company Picnics and Family Reunions. We saw some footage of their current state - sad that such a fun place was allowed to be so destroyed. Many good memories there too. Awwww the memories lol.

Wow and I would say that is a GOOD THING for most!!! I was a nice little girl and never did any wrong okkkkkkkkkkkkk most of the time??

Yes I have gone to Coney Island and find that it is getting better each year. I am thinking strongly on getting a season pass for there this year. The Pool is really nice and always clean. That is probably one of the negative things I can say about Kings Island - I was at their water park this year - I don't know if it is because of the "waterfall" in it or not but the water was greenish brown. It kind of smelled so I really did not stay in it long lol. The rest of the water park was pretty cool. As for Sunlite Pool that thing is huge and you really never run out of room to swim!! Plus they have this lifeguard on a boat - that one tickles me to be swimming and see this boat passing you by lol. Really it is a really nice and clean park. The rest of the park is really a nice place - not good for rollercoaster fans granted but a very relaxing place to visit with the family. Plenty to do and see. There are some really nice places to just sit and watch the action, awesome shows and fun games that are very very reasonably priced! One of the things I get a kick out of are those little buildings!!!

Yes awesome job!!!! A great place to go for information - fun and to meet others that love the park as much as we do!!

Ok I see a little mix up with the Monsters information here - There was a "wall of Monsters" that usually only happened on Friday nights because the park was closed prior to Haunt opening. I would say at least 50% of the park scare actors were at that front gate ready to haunt anyone there - this only lasted up to an hour at most then they would go off to their haunt locations and only the undertaker and maybe one or two scare actors hung around out front for another hour or so. After that initial shock of monsters all of the attractions were generally packed with plenty of scare actors. I do agree with UncleHenry on the cornstalkers - I never once saw less than six over there at any one time and generally it seemed as if several more were out there. The younger ones needed to be out of their attractions by 11:40pm - no exceptions!! So most were leaving their haunts around 11pm. I was told by those younger ones that state law they had to be out of makeup and clocked out by midnight. Well Kings Island was making sure that there was plenty of time allotted for this. As for Death Row not scaring anyone?? When did you go there?? Man I was never there that I was not hearing my name almost nonstop!! Yes they do know me but honestly that place was full of people. Even toward the end of Haunt during Bare Bones nights those people would follow you out the door just to have people to scare!!! IF anyone came in while they were scaring me they got all tickled and headed back in again! Those guys love to scare lol. Tombstone TerrorTory even kept the scares going well into the night - after the kids left they would scatter out more and just followed people a bit to keep it going. I also loved the guy under the bridge and from what I hear, and did actually catch a few laughs from under the trail. We went on that one every single night of haunt because my daughter's husband worked it and we knew that trail very well. NO matter how many times we went on it the people moved - we never knew where they were coming out or hiding. They moved around on us.

I gave it an A and a strong one at that. In everything in life there is always room for improvement but that should not be retracted. The shows were so much better this year than in years past. Come on the keroke show was ok when the kids did it but omg some of the adults could not carry a tune and it was on mic. Cedar Fair gave us Hot Island Rhythms, Twisting to the Sixties, Summer on Ice, the adorable Nick Toons meet and greet dance, and let's not forget Dead Awakening. Summer on Ice was full of professional skaters, The other shows featured college drama students. Two shows were produced IN PARK. Hot Island Rhythms and Dead Awakening were done by Kevin (not sure his last name sorry) and I felt they were excellent shows! We got the addition of Firehawk which probably should be rated a 6 star as it is a very exciting ride! The park was a lot cleaner this year than it was last year. It had a much fresher look. Yes the food is never the best but this year we did get Chinese food again at the Festhaus. I would love to see more of a variety there as there certainly is room for it!! Our food was always warm and the taste is what you would expect of an amusement park that is there for the rides and entertainment and not really for the food lol. The WINGS restaurant has some great food if you are willing to pay the price for the all you can eat buffet. I might have missed this last year but there was a wading pool in the Boomerang Bay area this year. I really liked that a lot on a hot day lol. Halloween Haunt was better than Fear Fest last year - the only problem I saw on that was the lack of workers once the young ones had to clock out and leave. The older ones made up for them so the attractions were still great so I do not detract for that but it might be a better idea to put the kids to work in other areas of the park and let park employees that want to do haunt work Haunt. Overall I did see a lot of improvements over last year. Actually I started seeing improvements from the start. Let's remember Fear Fest started out as the Paramount product and changed into the Cedar Fair product toward the end - those of us that went often saw the transformation.

Well I am a computer nerd so will be spending the next month putting together a Halloween Haunt website - You should be able to access it very soon at http://www.doopy1956.com/haunt/haunt.html and will add to it as time goes on. Other than that I write tutorials and teach Paint Shop Pro free classes on the net. Praying that UncleHenry comes back for another great season of Survivor as I was really hoping to get in that again and help out as I know they will eliminate me quickly after winning it last year lol. UncleHenry is an awesome guy and I just simply adore him!!! He treats everyone great and goes out of his way to make people feel welcome. I am also a major museum fan and plan on going to pretty much all I can find there. The Pirate one sounds great!! Might see ya there Italian. When not out or cleaning house (which thanks to haunt needs some attention now lol) I am on the computer a lot. It keeps me busy! Do plan on some get togethers with the awesome folks of Haunt through the year. Thinking of bringing my "trophy" with me.

Florence, Kentucky but it generally takes me about 25 - 35 minutes to get to Kings Island depending on traffic and who is driving lol. My husband 25 minutes - me 35 minutes lolol we live literally right off of the interstate at Turfway Road exit so it is pretty easy for us to get to the park. I generally go at least once a week.

Yes I would like to comment on that - the park managers and supervisors are so decidated to the park operations that they were working those rides, games and even helped out on the haunt locations. I saw Don Helbig running games and looked to be having a blast!! That is staff dedication. Those managers are well aware of how each employee's job is done as I have seen them doing them - not many companies are like that. They could have shut them down and just ignored it but their dedication was to give everyone there a great time!! Two extra trails were open that had not planned on being open because the employees had such a great time! Rides not on the list were running. I would say this is a major compliment to the staff and crew of Cedar Fair Kings Island!! There was even a manager that was over THE CEMETERY came back as a creeper sliding after people on Sunday night!

We took the grandkids for the last day of Nick or Treat too!! They had a blast but we did stay for the Haunt as well. Never missed a single night of it. I really enjoyed what they did with the Nick or Treat!!! It was sooo well done and soo cute!! We did the train and took some picks of the kids running around having fun checking things out. Italian for some reason we always seem to be at the same place and same time and never know it or meet up. Maybe next year we will be luckier!

Yes very well done trip report!! We were going to do the Feast but because we got more people added that day decided against it. I wish now we had gone ahead and done this!! Maybe if they bring it back I will get a second chance!

Barebones night - I have been hearing some conflicting stories about that from the scareactors of Haunt. Now this is just speculation so take it for what it is worth - very little but from what I am gathering the "trails" will be closed except Tombstone TerrorTory which I am hearing is going to be open. I do know that The Cemetery will be CLOSED after Saturday night. Those that want to continue working to the end will be "repositioned" somewhere else which is a good thing. Another attraction was closed but not sure which. I think I heard someone telling me that the Trail of Terror will still be open but I do know that Cornstalkers will not be. Your last chance to see Dead Awakening is Saturday night as that is the last night of performances. They did a fantastic job! Some of the performers have more shows lined up in their very near future so a big GOOD LUCK to them! Some rides will be open so I would come down and enjoy yourself! Just come early and if you happen to enjoy Haunt activities I am sure you will find something worth doing!! There is so much at Haunt that even on a rainy night you can not do everything. Even with the reduced action there will still be plenty of action!! To get exactly what is going to be available you can always call the park!

Wow you were there??? Glad you had a good time! Nice report hun!!! It quit raining not long after you left and we had more fun. During the rain we just did the haunted houses to keep dry and hung out in Festaus for a little bit. Rain will not stop me from haunt. Interesting note - did you know that last year during the last Friday of Fear Fest it rained?? Hmmm and the last Friday of Haunt it rains - wonder what next year holds... The weather was not the best but still it was awesome to get to do everything we wanted at least once and we did Cornstalkers twice!!! We did that one twice because usually the lines are so long we do not get the chance to see it at all and we have friends on that trail. For anyone that happened to be on the train to Tombstone TerrorTory when Scott (the host) had them all singing happy birthday to me - that was a Joke. My birthday is in March lol. Scott likes to do things like that to me each time he knows I am on it. Hauntguy is just as sneaky. Do not pay them any mind lol.

At the risk of sounding even more strange than I am - it is TOWER JOHNNY and he does exist - I have actually seen him wandering around at night. Enough said.

Well folks it is almost over and I was just thinking it might be a good thing to start a thread of what people really thought about not just one trip but all of your total trips for this year. I have made comments all over these trip reports so my opinions are very well known. I would just like to see your comments - please keep them either positive or if complaints offer them in a constructive way. Not just what was wrong but what would you do to make it better. Get specific on that - not just control the lines better but how would you control those lines. This is about not just one trip but your entire experience with the actual Haunt activities. Not the rides but the Haunt Attractions themselves and the various scare actors you might have encountered. My entire experience was very positive. Yes there were good and bad times but there are those in every experience in life. I just really saw the effort put into Haunt this year - much more so than last year. Yes there was a lot of Hype but if you really looked and paid attention you will see it was well deserved. I saw a creeper that I think I saw him sliding on his equipment once or twice and but the others I saw were attacking me and everyone they could find every chance they got. The roamers were a big improvement as we actually had some this year!!! The little alien turned mad and crazy clown was awesome. Several roamers in the Rivertown area were simply fantastic and after everyone they could find. How they made it through the night is anyone's guess as they were constantly on the prowl. The Wall of Monsters was probably the best improvement I saw this year!!! It was awesome to see so much activity and screaming while the sun was still out!!! I would not leave that area until the roamers/scareactors went off to their haunt locations because I had so much fun there!! Wow they were getting everyone before they could get out of security on Friday nights!!! They did the wall on one or two Saturday's too but mostly it was on Friday nights!!! I have one night of it on YOUTUBE under my name there - FearFestKaren. Yea I made that name up last year lol. It is called Wall of Monsters and there are two parts to it. That woman with the baby carriage was simply great to watch along with her "cowboy" husband!!! They were crazy and her whole attitude when doing her little baby routine was fantastic!! Even the cowboy at the picture place in Rivertown got into the act when they were around!! The action down in Action Zone was simply fantastic and I found myself going there any time we had a few moments to spare just to watch the Hazzardous waste fellows do their thing!!! The two creepers there were great to watch too and very very active going after people. One of them was always slidding after someone!!! Coney Maul was not as active as other zones but I did manage to see some of the creepers roaming in that area here and there. It was so hard to see because most people seemed to flock to that area and yes even on Friday nights it was rather crowded. The attractions/houses were discussed a lot but I wanted to spend a little time on the roamers/creepers too. What was your over all experience?

I agree it is a very good trip report. I do not agree on some of your comments but totally agree in the way you made them - not as simply insulting but as constructive remarks to be looked at. I have been to all of the attractions and will admit that some do have open spots but that is totally up to when you visit them as at a certain time the younger scare actors must be clocked out by midnight. I went to Trail of Terror - past the Tassles the "witch" - I did enjoy her insults and bantering very much but then I do not go on those sites you mentioned so to me they were fresh. Possibly to others they were as well as not everyone is into the same things. As for the Trail Of Terror they did not do a conga line but I did not enjoy that much because of the very rough path. I am in a wheelchair. I used Kings Island Scooters provided on that particular trail and the park hosts were nice enough to drive my chair to the end of the trail for me. Still the trail was so rough that I spent more time trying to navagate and was not able to get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. Still what I did was very much fun and I did receive enough scares to make it worth while once. The path is wheelchair accessible but with great difficulty. I sincerely hope you can attend it again on a less crowded day as some of the attractions you did not go to are really awesome! Massacre Manor, Tombstone TerrorTory, Death Row and The Cemetery are among my favorites this year. I have gone to each attraction, except Trail of Terror, at least twice and each time the experience was different. Some days are simply better than others.