XGatorHead 8904

^While I agree with you that there are some people who would have left the pets in cars before instead of taking them to the on-site kennel, the added inconvenience of not having one on-site is what I'm trying to stress. Out of curiosity, how much were they charging for the kennel last year? (I know someone on here can answer that!) I remember how much it was when we first started charging for it back in the Paramount years but I was wondering how much (if any) it had gone up over time.

^I have friends that used the kennel quite a bit, who had kennel season passes. I'm not nearly as ticked as they are. Plus, I hate hate hate to see animals locked in hot cars, which this has the very real possiblity of leading to even more of. I've seen too many dogs get rescued from cars in KI's parking lot (heck, even one is too many).

Bad move on KI's part! KI's kennel has provided a necessary service to the thousands of people who visit/travel with their pets every year. The fee that they charged for the service was nominal. Red Dog charges $24 for a one day visit! (price obtained from their Day Care page http://www.red-dogs.com/cincinnati-mason-dog-daycare/). And, they require a 30 minute daycare evaluation beforehand! How many people are going to be happy about spending the extra time and money for that? And then there's the comment on the page "Daycare fills up quickly, so please contact us for availability and to schedule an evaluation." What of those guests who didn't know about the change, go to Red Dog and they're full for the day? KI's going to see more pets left in cars this summer from those people who show up at the park expecting the services that have always been available and for any number of reasons won't want to or can't take them to Red Dog. I've never used KI's kennel myself since I live so close to the park and can leave my dog at home, but as someone who used to oversee the kennel as part of my job duties years ago, and as an animal lover, I'm seriously pi$$ed about this. How about transferring some money between departmental accounts to keep the KI kennel open, or maybe even renovate it? In 2015, let's cater to the upscale coffee snobs by building them the largest Starbucks in a park that has an L as the 8th letter of its name on a non-red planet that circles the sun. Surely everyone can afford an exorbitantly overpriced cup of coffee, so they can afford the extra money to keep their animals elsewhere.

I'm just glad it's not on Mother's Day weekend like Ride Warriors weekend was!

I'd love to see Midnight Syndicate at KI (well, chances are I wouldn't actually be able to see them there myself since I'd be working Haunt, unless they did Sunday shows too), especially since the venue they played at CP, Good Time Theatre, will be no more. Kings Island Theater would be a good spot for them. Although, the drive from Chardon to Mason would be a little longer than the drive to Sandusky for them. They put on a great show at HalloWeekends last year.

^Some would even say it's "fine, fine bovine." Seems like I've heard that phrase a few times too...

Goodbye Snoopy's Spash Dance. I will always remember the times I spent getting soaked by you back in your Nickelodeon days, when you were the attraction of choice for the Admissions Front Gate Gators softball team to cool off after our games.

^Yes... we "loved" it... Thank you sooooo much for starting that.... [/sarcasm]

A sign that one has listened to the soundtrack and/or watched Frozen too many times: When you see auction items 121-134 and sing "Who knew we owned 8,000 salad plates?" in your head. Yes, I did that.

My thoughts on this...In all seriousness, I loved that show 'cause it was great music from my childhood and I really hoped it would come back for another season. Oh well, it was great while it lasted. In other news, I'm glad Cirque is coming back! EDIT: I probably shouldn't have been so soon to jump to conclusions as we still don't know if The Boyz are Back will be back next year. Still, if it was just a 1-year show, my thoughts would be reflected above. If it's any consolation, I immediately thought of you when I saw that Boyz Are Back wouldn't be returning. As did I... YES!!!! I remember that & yes it was awesome (even if it was a kids show). They should open that theater back up now that the petting zoo (worst call ever on KI's part) resides in the historic amphitheater. ... and I immediately thought of Comic Book Guy when I read this (the part I colored).

Why am I reminded of ELO and Boston? It was another great year for me, park-wise: KI: Banshee Media Day (when I rode my new #2 steel coaster for the first time), opening day, Coasting for Kids, working Haunt, closing day, and all the other visits (20 total) in between. Kentucky Kingdom: a great opening day there, I was completely shocked that I actually enjoyed it after the previous trip there! Coney Island: July 4th, followed by the Cincinnati Pops concert at Riverbend that night Kennywood: a return there (last visit in 2012), and finally got the other half of Racer so my coaster credit counts no longer end in a ".5" Conneaut Lake Park: a return there (last visit in 2013) with a first time visitor and met two of our other friends there who were first-timers. Marathoned Blue Streak in the back row, finally was able to buy a CLP shirt in my size and a CD of their carousel organ Waldameer: first ever visit there and had the two friends that had joined us at CLP join us here as well, Ravine Flyer II (the 6th best wooden coaster in the world, as the park loves to remind you), and the wonderful Wacky Shack & Pirate's Cove Canada's Wonderland: a return there for me (last visited in 1996 & '97) and first time for Mrs. Gator & GatorGirl. My new #3 steel coaster is Leviathan, got to ride a TOGO stand-up again (and it was GatorGirl's first stand-up coaster, a clone of my first), torturing the Gatorettes by not telling them about Guardian's surprise (drop track) even though they continuously begged me to tell, and holy heck why don't we have a Sledge Hammer?!? Loved that ride! Cedar Point: the annual Halloweekends Opening Weekend trip Stricker's Grove: a cold visit, and even though Tornado wasn't open we still had fun And it's still not over! We're planning to make our annual trip to Dollywood's Smoky Mountain Christmas next weekend, and a trip to Orlando to visit a park or two or three (don't know which ones yet, be they of the WDW, Sea World, Busch Gardens Tampa, Legoland or Universal variety) during the week of New Year's!

Huh... no "The Boys Are Back". So the boys that were back are not back because "The Boys Are Back" is not back.

Sam was being selfish last weekend. With it being the last two nights, he wanted to spend as much time as he could with his "pretty piggy."

Love the story, so descriptive! I rode it during the day Saturday & Sunday, then again Sunday night on one of the last trains of the season (3rd or 4th to last... close enough to the very last for me!) No matter what the weather, there is no other way I'd close out the Kings Island season than a night ride on The Beast in the last few minutes of the last operating day, as I have every year since 2007.

Huh? Where did you "look into it" to find this misinformation? As silver2005 stated, in 1996 two coasters opened, one at Kings Island and one at Kings Dominion, both named The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear. Both were the first coasters to be named as such, and both were the first coasters to use the LIM launches. In 2001 the names were changed to just Flight of Fear and the painful OTSR's were replaced with the much better lab bars. In the future may I suggest RCDB.com, a very good source for accurate information on coasters around the world, including Flight of Fear: http://rcdb.com/66.htm EDIT: Saw your new post, that explains our confusion!

Yes! A lights on tour and an announcement in one day? Guess that answers Mrs. Gator's question of whether I was going to go back home between the tour and Haunt!

Regarding Common Core: GatorGirl is in 4th grade this year and in the accelerated math class. A couple of weeks ago she asked me to help with one of her multiplication homework questions. She gave me the paper and asked me, "What are the partial products for this one?" I just looked at her and asked, "What's a partial product?" Once she explained it to me I understood it, but I couldn't tell you what it is now. When I learned multiplication, there were no "partial products". There was one product: the answer. I felt bad that I couldn't help her, and I brought that up to the teacher during our fall conference. Luckily, the following week they were learning multiplication the way we learned it. I'm lucky that I have Mrs. Gator, who was a Math Education major for a while and graduated with a degree in Elementary Ed (but doesn't teach... she works for a textbook publisher) is able to help her with it more than I can. When it comes to history, science or literature, then I'll be ready to help. It looks like we may be visiting friends in Maryland and going to D.C. with them next summer... I can impart my knowledge then.

We watched that from the bridge this year (with the fountains to our back). We had asked an associate where the best place to watch it from would be and that's where they told us. It was a good show; not quite as grand as that tall, tall castle in Orlando, but still very worth seeing! You can have your spot around World Showcase Lagoon. I'll be off Soarin', Testing a Track, or visiting Nemo instead. And I'll take your spot at the Hollywood Hills Amphtheater while you're checking into the Hollywood Tower Hotel or racing off to see Aerosmith in concert. I'm not going to try to persuade you that Fantasmic is fantastic, and you're not going to persuade me that Illuminations is the best thing in the World. Exactly! And great video! I love EPCOT. But I can see how some people may not. I love the whole educational aspect of it. Yes they did. I was hoping to go too but didn't get picked in the lottery either. Which is probably just as well since we were leaving for our vacation that weekend.

KI's started as sticks, then penguins, then pumpkins, and I think there may have been something else too. So basically, if someone's wearing anything that flashes, Sam doesn't scare them.

From the WCPO article linked above: Serve 182 days? That wording makes it sound like a prison sentence. Of course, I imagine some kids would equate it to such...

I've just never liked Fantasmic. It's a good show, sure, but compared to the other shows across the Disney properties, especially other shows across Walt Disney World alone... While I, on the other hand, absolutely love Fantasmic and can't understand all the love that so many people give to Illuminations, which in my opinion is the worst nighttime show at WDW. Different strokes... I wasn't aware that AI had already closed. The Gatorettes will be heartbroken because they thought they would have one more chance to see it when we go down in December, but with how much they love Frozen, that heartbreak won't last too long since that's what replaced it.

Glad you had fun, even with the crowd! And it sounds like you got very lucky with Mine Train. Any decision to bypass Stitch's Great Escape is a wise one, especially to replace it with Splash Mountain. I'm really looking forward to going down there in December, the week of New Year's. I know it will be insanely busy, but it will be the first, and possibly only chance for the forseeable future, that we'll get to be there as a family around Christmas time. (I was there in December once as a kid, and with the new department I work in requiring everyone to work every day in December and not take vacation days, who know when/if we'll get another chance. I already had the vacation days scheduled before we were transferred so they were grandfathered in for this year!)

^Or at least have GR hold it for them to pick up on their way out. Too bad it won't be me... I'll be otherwise occupied right next door.

Ill trayd u a piggy 4 a donkee! -Sam

"The Cincinnati Kids" episode of The Brady Bunch will be airing on MeTV at 1:30pm this Sunday, October 19th.