standbyme

deb, Sure keep a copy...that's why I took/posted them...it gave me something to do that morning! Here is another shot that you are in arriving...it is not that clear because I was taking a long shot and you just happened to be in it.

I was in the last (3rd?) group going in...when Josh said that you had to have 2 people, I glanced around to see if anyone was just standing around but didn't see anyone. I remember seeing you later in the day. I was waiting in line for SOB and you were about 10 people behind me. (I couldn't tell if you were with the people nearby you...otherwise I would have said hi.) You had your lanyard on, but I didn't...I usually just keep it in my camera bag and pull it out when I have to....speaking of that, am I the only one who didn't even get asked for my food ticket at the International Resteraunt?!

I also think that the price for this event was AMAZING. I personally would have paid what we did JUST for the tours...also getting food is a killer deal. I did notice a couple of minor "flaws" also but I think for your first time it went really well. And since you have asked for some suggestions for the future here are a couple of things that I would still like to do at the park...some of them sound lame, but hey, so am I. *I would also like to take a train maintanence tour. I talked to one of the engineers early this year and some of the things he was mentioning about the trains were interesting, and i'm sure there are lots of other things they could talk about. I would even like to see what the "fort" looks like on the inside. (After riding by it for years I have always been curious how it was built inside.) *The "graveyard" of old stuff that I see in aerial photos. *But, my MAIN thing left that I haven't done at the park that I would love to do is at LEAST go on the lower observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. (I remember Jeff Siebert telling me that it is the best view of the park.) AND, if it were possible...but I know that possible lawsuits would probably not allow it, I would kill to actually walk up the whole tower. (Maybe it could be arranged that we all get up to the top, the elevator "stops working" and we HAVE to walk down.) Like I said, it sounds lame, but I would not only like to do it, but I would like to be able to point to the tower and say I have walked either up/down it!) Once again, thanks to Ryan, Dane, Josh & Don...and whoever else had a hand in putting this year's event together, it is appreciated that the park allows these kind of things.

As always a fun trip report to read/see!

Ain't it the truth! I have thought about that myself several times now that I am the one driving...once you start "having" to do the same things that your parents did for you when you were little makes you appreciate what they did for you even more. VERY nice trip report. There is nothing like seeing the park through a kids eyes. Thanks to a very good Beast crew your daughter will remember her first Beast ride forever.

I should probably just added this TR to someone elses...but I didn't want to upset anyone...so here is my take on KI Central Day. My day started at around 3:30 A.M. (I waited too long to book a decently priced hotel so now I was paying the price by having to get up REALLY early to make it on time for the 8:45 starting time…by the way I’m in Illinois.) I SERIOUSLY debated whether or not to attend this event. For one thing, I had to come alone…can you say loser! (No offense to anyone else who also came alone…I just hate doing it.) The reason I did come alone was because I do not know too many “enthusiasts” and the ones that I do know could not make it on this day. Also, I have attended 3 Beastbuzz’s and a Beast Bash in the past, so most of the scheduled activities I have already done…with that said, what DID get me there was placing a few faces/personalities with some posters. The drive was not bad, it was nice and clear & not too hot yet. By the time I got to KI the gate was already open. I walked to the will-call window area and easily saw Ryan & Dane behind a table handing out everyone’s lanyards. I only had to wait about a minute for mine. After I did get mine I just sat back on the ledge and tried to glance at a few of the lanyards and see who was who. I am not exactly shy but I am also not that outgoing either. While sitting there CaptainNemo introduced himself…I see a budding politician or some kind of a salesman in the making there! When was said and done by the end of (my) day I skipped quite a bit of the events so I will just mention what I did do. *I went to the Flight of Fear tour…but like I said, I’ve done it before so it really wasn’t very interesting for me…I remember the first time I saw it it was a thrill…but as B.B. King says “The Thrill Is Gone”. I could tell a lot of first-timers were having a good time so that was good. My only suggestion on the FOF tour was that someone should have been pointing out some of the details of how the coaster was built...what the baskets inside were for etc... *Next was the Firehawk first ride of the day. I went to it but didn’t ride it…that was because I didn’t want to bother getting a locker for my camera since it would only be for such a short time. (I was kinda surprised that there wasn’t an exception made for us to leave our stuff in the ride area since we were all part of a group.) Anyway, since I wasn’t riding and after looking around I noticed that there didn’t seem to be anyone taking pictures of anyone riding for KIC so I decided to just take some random shots of people. (Life is good when you can take over a thousand photos and not worry about running out of space.) I didn’t really know anyone I was taking pictures of but I thought maybe someone might like a picture of themselves. (By the way, if you see yourself in a photo and you want it removed just PM with whichever one it is and I will take it down A.S.A.P. I personally HATE my picture taken but I LOVE taking pictures...ironic isn't it. I also ALWAYS respect someone’s wishes not to photographed if they also do not like it. I always avoid anyone I see with a camera...which is why I stayed in the background during this event. *Heading for the sign shop tour I passed the international stage where a Kiss cover band of Kids were playing…there name….KIDS. (With the traditional Kiss “S”. * The peak of my day was going to the sign shop. I love Fearfest so seeing some of the upcoming decorations being made was great. If you look at my photos in the sign shop they are not great because I accidentally had the camera setting wrong…I was SO upset when I got home! Seeing these decorations gives me hope Fearfest will be even better than last year. By the way, in one of the photos here you will see Hauntguy, who was MUCH younger than I would have guessed…last year I saw him made up for Fearfest and thought he was a lot older...ahh the wonders of makeup. *Coming out of the sign-shop they were handing out the scavenger-hunt questionnaires. Now, for me that is always one of the peaks at The Beastbuzz’s…but since you had to have a second person to do it this time, and there was no one else standing around waiting/looking for a partner that left me out…see what I mean about coming alone?! *I skipped the “Endless Summer On Ice” show because (Get ready to “hit me with your best shot”) I have never seen a park show that I actually enjoyed. I know a lot of the performers are talented…that I do not deny, but these kind of shows do not do anything for me. (I work in a music store and always hate cover-versions of popular songs. [unless someone makes the song their own.]) I did make it to the “Meet And Greet”…but that was only because I was hot and wanted to sit down in the air-conditioning…I know, I’m terrible. *I skipped the Behind The Beast tour…but I have always enjoyed doing it in the past. *Eating in the International Restaurant was fun… but once again, not much fun when you’re alone. I decided to call it a day after eating and started my long drive back to Illinois. About 30 minutes after I left the park I ran into rain…I was wondering if it was heading towards the park and ruin The Beast ERT…I am glad that that didn’t happen. So, in conclusion let me say thanks to Ryan, Dane, Josh & Don for making this happen…and even though there were a few posters that I would have liked to “put a face to”, but didn’t, it was still a lot of fun. Here are some of the pictures I took…for some reason they downloaded in reverse order, so you might want to go to the “last” one and start reversing. http://www.putfile.com/standbyme/images/134960

Congratulations Undertaker! This is VERY good news.

I notice that you use The Enchanted Voyage as your avatar. In the auction that we are talking about, the picture that they showed of The Enchanted Voyage was the main reason I wanted those slides...it really brought back memories seeing how you waited in line to board the boats, I had forgotten just how it was after all these years. I hope whoever did win them will put them on the internet someday.

I voted "Other"....I want a campground!

When I bought these 4 years ago it was not as common for a person to be able to scan a slide, so I bought them "blind". The auction just said something like 50 amateur slides of Kings Island 1974. By the time shipping was added I paid about $30.00 for them...I wasn't the only "fool" who was bidding! By the way, I tried for another batch of early amateur slides about 2 weeks ago on Ebay. (They were REALLY nice looking judging by the samples that they showed.) I was outbid at around $40.00 I was wondering, did anyone who posts here win those?

Interpreter, I always like reading your posts...and up until now I have always understood what you were saying. I was curious, in your post you put "free parking, etc." What do you mean by etc...? What other benefit that you get with a season pass do you think the park would actually charge for instead of "giving" it away other than parking? Just curious.

First off, let me say that I know the quality of these pictures leave a LOT to be desired. I have been "sitting on these" for about 4 years and decided that I might as well share them because as bad as they are I haven't seen some of the things pictured in them posted yet. I purchased these on Ebay. When I received them I was dissapointed in the quality, and out of about 40-50 slides that I received, these were the only "tolerable" ones. Anyway, with that said, here are some photos that were supposedly taken in 1974. (I hope you get a little enjoyment out of them.) http://www.putfile.com/standbyme/images/133163

This is one of the best lines i've read on here in quite awhile!

This will probably help... http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10089

Undertaker, Glad to see that you plan on trying to do Fearfest again this year...it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without you. I am surprised that you even have to audition...I would have thought CP would have been calling YOU! (I hope they realize how important you were to the whole spooky atmosphere at the entrance.) Good Luck!

If you are going 2 days the KI website has what I consider about the best deal you can hope for, it's $49.95...but the ticket does have to be used by the same person both days, but not consecutive days. http://www2.cedarfair.com/kingsisland/shop...l_admission.cfm Other than that someone is always selling some kind of a discount coupon on Ebay.

This might make it easier... welchce TOPGUN1993 flightoffear1996 Jamesv7 cat13 Vortexfan92 jessy8 Raptor66 standbyme See everyone there!

I almost hate to weigh in here...but I am curious if I am the only one who has noticed that it appears that renting an electric/battery scooter is becoming some sort of status symbol? Three times over the last year I have seen 3 examples of what appears to be totally healthy people just using these scooters to either impress people or because they do not WANT to walk around the park. I have seen what appears to be a whole family all have the scooters. The instances that I have seen are what appears to be a mom/dad in their 40's and a teenage son and about 10 year old daughter. EVERYONE looked great health-wise. The teenage boy was totally muscular and was even hauling around 3 basketballs he had won. . Another time that seemed real obvious was a group of about 5 very healthy people in their late teens/early twenties with 2 of the scooters...as I was just sitting watching people throughout the day I noticed that it wouldn't be the same person on the scooters all the time, they would change off. The third time I noticed something was what appeared to be a boyfriend/girlfriend combo. I noticed that they were kinda chasing each other with the scooters in circles and laughing really hard, when she finally caught him, the boy jumped out of his scooter and ran off aways. (Then came back.) Once again, they were both late teens/early twenties...and the guy looked like he could play any sport in the book. What REALLY upsets me about this is the fact that someone who genuinely needs one of these scooters may not be able to rent one because of people like these.I do not know if any of these people were trying to claim that they were handicapped in order to ride the rides without waiting in line...I really wouldn't even want to know because I would be even more upset. My questions are: #1 Does anyone know if the park even attempts to make sure that someone really needs a scooter, or is it just first-come-first-served? And #2, am I the only one that is seeing this? P.S. PLEASE don't try and tell me that in everyone of the three examples I have listed that they ALL happened to have a mental handicap that also prevented ALL of them from being able to walk. I have a better chance of winning the lottery than that being true.

So how much is the sale price for the Monopoly games now? $15.00 Thanks. I was happy when I bought one for $19.99...if they still have them in August I guess i'll pick up a spare one.

So how much is the sale price for the Monopoly games now?

I have never seen this episode, it was during the 3rd season of the show. According to tvshowsondvd.com it is not looking real good that the third season will make it out anytime soon (if ever) on DVD. The first 2 seasons sold poorly and it appears that even though Season 3 is all re-mastered and ready to be made they have no intentions of doing it now.

Same here, my family of 7 were there on the 8th and the 9th. We were there from opening to close both days but we did leave the park to eat our meals. The only food/drink money that we spent was for 6 $1.99 drink refills & 1 cup of Dippin' Dots Ice Cream. This is the first time we have not ate our meals in the park in well over 8 years. I hope the park is noticing. By the way, nice trip report...it sounds like you did get a LOT done and on a Friday no less, kinda unusual...I know we will probably never know, but I really am curious if attendance is down sharply this year.

Ki Man, Once again, another nice trip report. I do not get to go to KI that often, so a picture trip report is always nice. I WAS just at KI on the 9th & 10th. The 9th was good...but as you can see by these photos, the 10th was not so great. It would rain then stop, rain then stop...all through the day. It kept the crowds down but the coasters weren't running most of the time. I needed to get something out of my car around 11:30 or so, when I left the entrance it was just a light rain but by the time I hit the old tram circle it was POURING! (My camera is waterproof so I had fun taking some pictures while mostly everyone else was running for cover.)

If it is a park news and not a KICentral news item, the best announcement for me would not be a new ride, it would be that they are (finally) planning a new campground.

From past personal experience I can tell you that you won't be able to ride King Cobra with a cast!