standbyme

Although not probably technically correct, I have always considered "the bunch" just the kids...I have never thought of Alice or the parents included in the bunch definition. (So in that context I feel like we're getting half a bunch!) I don't know if I will drive all the way to the park for a half hour show...but if the park had the old Brady Bunch Kings Island promo photo printed up to have signed by the 3 I would GLADLY pay for one and be there in a heartbeat. (I collect park memorabilia and that would be a great addition.)

Obviously not. (Or she wanted 2 bucks.)

I was hoping for more of a "creature" kind of theme...but I can live with the Diamondback name...the coaster looks amazing!

Now that tickets are officially off sale...and anyone who is going now knows that fact...I figured I would start this year's copy & paste list of who is going to the Second Coming! I FINALLY ordered my ticket yesterday...I was on the fence because I will be coming alone again this year. It seems like the timing is always bad for everyone I would usually come with...so I thought long and hard if I wanted to do this event alone again and appear to be such a loser...or at least expose that fact! Quite honestly if it weren't for the construction tour I would have passed, but I always like to see anything in the park from a different angle so I "bit the bullet" and decided to come solo. (I do hope the scavenger hunt is set up a little different this year for us solo people/losers.) So, anyway, I will start the list...and everyone can keep just copying it and adding their name. standbyme

Well, I may never set a record for best trip report as Avatar has…so I will go for most delayed trip report! This report is for my July 4th trip. I have been kinda busy and really hadn’t had time to post some of the pictures I took that day. I had never been to the park on the 4th before and finally decided that this was the year since CF threw in SO many special things…it was just too good to pass up…even if gas was $4.12 a gallon. We started the day off with the very first “Breakfast With The Characters” in the (former) International Restaurant. We arrived just a few minutes after it opened and found a table right by the window. When I bought the tickets in advance for this I had high hopes of a nice sunny day that would make a nice photo op for the high wire over the fountain…that was not to be…it was a dreary drizzly morning. Eating in the International Restaurant is always a good time for me…I just like the view…even on a dreary day. It is cool to see the park in a different way every now and then. (This was the big selling point to get me to the first KIC Day.) As for what the breakfast was like…it was not bad, not great. I will give them that they were just starting out and it would take time to work the bugs out…but it seemed like you had to “work” at getting hot food. If it sat in the pans long it was barely warm…so basically my family would watch when they brought out a fresh batch and then go up. (Cold eggs & French toast is not very appetizing.) Like I said, this was the first morning…so I’m sure they will get better as time goes on. The way the character aspect of it was set up (at least while we were there) was that Dora & Spongebob stood at the far end of the room and the kids…and adults could go and meet them and have their picture taken. (1 free 8x 10 was included with each order. Being this was the first breakfast, it seemed like there were quite a few “suits” just observing how things were going…I was asked about 3 times before I left “How was everything“,“Did you have a good time“. I kind of lied and said everything was good…they were so nice I didn’t really want to mention the food being slightly cold! I think everyone was really TRYING hard to please…and that goes a long way with me. So, in the end, would I recommend the breakfast? I guess it depends on if you are there for the food or the view…if it’s just the food I say no…but it was certainly a memorable way for us to start out the 4th of July. When we came out of the restaurant the park was just opening to the public…it was raining a little and it seemed like the park was doing a good job at selling rain ponchos. I will not go into a ride by ride report…I will just say that we headed for Nickelodeon Universe for the morning…I will pretty much concentrate on the “special” things that we saw on the 4th. Luckily the rain did not last…and when it cleared up I did manage to take a few photos of International Street’s 70’s makeover. It was great seeing the old Hanna-Barbera characters out…this was one of the main “selling points” that got me to come this day. I will say that as much as I love them…it seemed like most of the crowd were not that thrilled to see them…at least for the 15-20 minutes that we hung out with them…they had plenty of time to just dance around and wave at people going by. George looked pretty bored a lot of the time. Don’t get me wrong…some people WERE thrilled to come up and see them…but it appeared to me that at least half of the crowd going by were happy enough to just look over and point and keep walking…I guess times HAVE changed. As a side note…when you got really close to George he had a nice case of B-O going on! I did get to see Fred Flintstone & (a strangely taller than usual) Barney Rubble later in the day but I did not get pictures of them.I would like to thank the park for bringing these characters out like this every now and then…it does help bring some people to the park and it is nice for us “old-timers” to reminisce. The Clown Band was out and about during the day. The big event of the day was obviously Rick Wallenda’ s walk. I watched both the “practice” one and the real one…both were fun. While walking amongst the crowd during the walks I was amazed at some of the things that I heard and saw. SEVERAL times I overheard people saying things to the affect that they hoped that he would fall! I think it is sad/sick that people would hope to see someone possibly die…or at the very least severely injured just for a story to tell down the road. We are a great society. I have seen tons of photos of Rick on the wire already posted here on the site that are better than what I took, so I won’t bore you with those…but here are a few photos of the people who were holding the ropes that steadied the wire: You would not believe how many people would not want to walk around these people…so many people ducked under the ropes…I even saw a girl with an umbrella struggle to get underneath a rope so that she wouldn’t have to walk a whole 6 feet further…whoever said the customer is always right did NOT work with the public! I do have a question that I have not seen addressed. The park hyped that the high wire was 112 feet high…and I don’t see how they could make the claim if it were not true…but can someone explain how if the lower observation deck is 50 Feet from the ground….and the wire was on top of the roof of that…how did that add up to 112 feet? Did they fudge something? Don’t get me wrong…it was still cool to watch, and I wouldn’t do it at 25 Feet…but was it really 112 Feet? We closed the evening off with the big fireworks show…although because of my stupidity we missed most of it. An hour before the fireworks were to begin I went to the foot of the fountain and camped out a spot early. Unfortunately I did not know where the best area was…I was about dead center, but a little towards the left…MISTAKE! Once the fireworks started we could only see maybe a third of them…yes, we could have gotten up, but it just seemed to late to try and find another spot before they would end…live and learn. I do wish that maybe the park had either a sign up or maybe an associate kind of telling all of the people sitting to the left of the fountain that the view would not be good…when the fireworks started there was a mass exodus to my left with people yelling and walking in front of us…it did ruin the mood. It was a day that was glad I had not missed…but it did end on a bad note missing most of the fireworks show. So, thanks to everyone at the park for putting SO much effort into making July 4th into a truly memorable day! Oh yeah…as an extra, here is a photo of the Batman motorcycle that was on display the next day:

I never tire of looking at your aerial photos. Thanks again for taking the time to do this!

I'm REALLY beginning to feel like a "second class citizen" lately! First off the movie companies have been making me feel like I am poor because I haven't jumped over to Blu-Ray DVDs yet...and NOW I find that us non-cell phone owners have to wait an additional 7 hours before we COULD buy tickets to this event...what's next!? P.S. Let me just say that I am happy when I can escape the phone...and I prefer watching "low grade" picture quality shows...I do not WANT to see every imperfection and make-up line on my actors! (I have seen regular DVDs on HD TV...and that is bad enough...examples being in Hawaii Five-0 Jack Lord looks like he's really had a tough night & is trying to hide it with makeup...and in Smallville you not only can see Lex's shaved hairline constantly...but i've even seen a bit of a "stash" on Lana...not very attractive.)

The key to Ebay is knowing the seller...make sure you check his/her feedback. To be even more safe, if you pay by Paypal, choose to have it paid from your credit card instead of being withdrawn from your bank account...that way if you do not get your item you can always dispute the charge. In the past I have bought one of these coupons with no problem. I live in Illinois & the stores around here do not have them like they do in the Cinci area...so it was worth it for me to pay a couple of bucks for one instead of searching around when I got there. I picture a lot of the sellers of these coupons just some teenagers who are enterprising enough to just pick up a few extra and make an extra buck in the summer without having any real "overhead".

As usual, VERY nice photos!

Stop beating around the bush...how do you REALLY feel about this?!!

I am sure that the park does already know that a parent will share a little with their child...but they do not expect one wristband to supply a whole family with seperate drinks...some things just go without saying. Life would be so much nicer if everyone would "only" follow the Golden Rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

I am one of the last cell phone holdouts...I like being unreachable. I guess I pay the price a little with things like this...but I can wait until it's posted here.

Being that I work in an indie record store...that is STRUGGLING to stay alive I really like this video Kid Rock made a couple of weeks ago...it's too bad people don't see a lot of things they do as theft. P.S. I am not even a Kid Rock fan...but he was my hero for making this video!

I heard this quote recently on the radio by a newsman..."Too much digging can ruin a good story". I think a lot of "reporters" must follow this creed.

Avatar...as always a nice trip report. I'm sorry that you missed the 4th...it was a good time...but if it makes you feel any better it was not quite as good as I had hoped...it seemed a bit disorganized at some points. I was also at BB when the air show happened...like you said it was pretty much nothing over there.

Since the highwire will still be in place during the fireworks, does anyone have any suggestions where the best view might be?

I don't think anyone would even notice...it's not like you HAVE to interact with the characters unless you want to. You only live once...I say go for it if you really want to.

The 4th just keeps getting better & better! I just made reservations for breakfast on the 4th...it should be a cool way to start out the day...a nice view of the tightrope over the fountain should be an added bonus. This truly is shaping up to a day at Kings Island that will be hard to top in the future. Thanks again KI! As a side note... To say that this will be the MOST exciting addition in the history of Kings Island is a statement that I don't possibly think can come true...The Beast will always be a tough one to top. I wish the park would not oversell things.

I was SURE that I caught the ol' Interpreter FINALLY making a wrong word choice...but I guess not...kind of. Here in Illinois I have always heard that it was flies, not bees that you could catch more of with honey. I Googled "more flies with honey"...it matched 93,200..."more bees with honey" matched a mere 18,300. So my question is...is this a regional thing like pop/soda or is it something like "I COULD care less"...a phrase misquoted so often that it has become a phrase unto itself?! How's this for hijacking a thread?!

My family always stays in their "Family Double" rooms. (They have two double size beds and one queen size sleeper sofa.) I have stayed at the Resort at least 10 times...but always in this type of room...so if you are staying in a smaller type room I do not know what they are like. As for the Family Double rooms, I would say they are nice...they are clean and do have plenty of room. I would not say that the Resort is "fancy" by any means...just nice. My family likes staying there because of the shuttle service mostly...the kids like riding it and it comes in handy when not everyone wants to stay at the park at the same time...if someone is tired they can just hop the shuttle and go back to the resort and relax. They have some kind of food/bar there but I have never tried it...my family either eats in the park, or (usually) packs a cooler and eats in the hotel room. (There are also SEVERAL fast food places within' easy DRIVING time nearby.) The shuttle lasts for about a half hour after the park closes...and even if you miss it the walk back is not that bad...just walk thru the Great Wolf's parking lot and hit the crosswalk-light at the corner to cross the busy street...always play it safe! Have a good time.

WOW! Ryan, luckily I took your hint that July 4th was going to be special so I went ahead and reserved a hotel room at Kings Island Resort so that I could attend. I have never been to the park on July 4th...I was going to be happy to just see the tower lit up different plus fireworks...but this is going to be incredible! Thanks Cedar Fair for a great day planned.

When I was a kid WAY back in the day my family would ride the trams...now that I am grown up I wonder why. The parking lot does not really seem that big. Compared to how much walking a person will be doing once they are in the park, the walk into the park seems like nothing. I think standing and waiting for a tram to pick you up is more hassle & time consuming than it is worth. Back when the campground still existed it was not unusual for us to just walk back to it instead of waiting around for over 15 minutes for the tram. (Every now and then when we are staying at the Kings Island Resort we will even walk to the park from there if the mood hits us...even though they have their own shuttle bus.) We Americans are too spoiled! (Yes, me too.)

I guess it all depends on when you ride it. I only rode it once (with a full crowd) and after it was over I felt like I was at a funeral...it was dead quiet. As a joke I yelled "YEAH!" (like I was thrilled with the ride) to see if anyone else would join in...nobody did. The only thing I heard was a couple of people in front of me complaining that the ride was not what it used to be.

A bit egotistical...you can also thank the people like me who give up their yearly state income tax refund by donating it to the Wildlife Fund...and all we get out of it is the satisfaction of knowing that we are helping out a little bit.

Is there anything worse than planning a trip to Kings Island weeks in advance...booking a hotel, getting time off from work...only to have Bring A Friend Day thrown at you at the last minute?! It is too late for me to reschedule our trip this weekend...but now I know that Sunday is going to be miserable. I have heard it said that there is no more scarier word in the english language as cancer...and I agree...but surely Bring A Friend Day is pretty close to the top also!