XGatorHead 8904

Yes, but then you wouldn't be around much longer to post on here due to the toxic fumes coming from the chemically treated wood...

So true. My two roughest coaster rides: Manhattan Express and Mean Streak. Then of course there was FoF with the OTS restraints...

What's wrong with early N64 games? A friend of mine works for NASA in Houston. When we visited him in '99, he was contracted through Lockheed (now he works for NASA directly in a different job). Anyway, at the time he was in charge of the shuttle landing simulator that the astronauts train on. He booked us some time in the simulator, and I got to land the shuttle 3 times, and I didn't crash at all! Now that was an experience. We saw areas that were not open to the general public, and I felt like a little kid again. I imagine they have tighter restrictions now after 9/11, but it was fun then.

And there were plenty of days when I worked there that I practically DID live there! And I'm not the only one on here that way!

Wow, the resurrection of an old topic... Gas prices don't effect my trips to KI... I live 10 minutes away! Gas-wise it's cheaper for me to go to KI than it is the zoo, Newport on the Levee, Museum Center, etc. Which is fine with me, there's more variety of things to do at KI than any of those other places!

And in the article, I didn't realize that Hollywood is an entertainment "brand"...

From the looks of the article, it's not a park like KI, Disney or Universal, but one with virtual reality rides/simulators. This would be more feasible for the $1M price mentioned. But to have the world's tallest hotel? That seems a little over ambitious to me. I wouldn't predict this to be such a huge draw that this would be a necessity, not to mention the competition from other area hotels.

Still looks the same and personally, I think they should keep it as is... Yeah, because those two posts sticking out the top look so much better than anything else they could possibly put there!

And now those buildings are gone... I pulled into the parking lot when I saw those too. I saw lighting rigs in them and figured it was for a test drive event so didn't post anything on here since those happen all the time in the KI parking lot. And nothing new on the sign yet, my guess is there won't be anything happening for a while on that project.

^Wow...ND football games? Really??? Sorry about your luck this year!

B&M Hyper, after that, a B&M Floorless (just because I haven't ridden one yet!)

Yes, but would Disney & Universal be interested in a seasonal park? Methinks not... And before you mention Disney's parks in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Paris and the climates in those cities, think about the tourism draw of those locations. Nothing against the Greater Cleveland area (wow, I've never uttered those words before! ) but it does not have the same tourist economy as these 3 cities, thus almost certainly requiring, from a financial standpoint, a seasonal operating schedule. But than again, it is Disney, and they do have a supply of pixie dust to make magical things happen...

Wow. Do we need a passport to go to Canada now? I'll need to look into that...

I still have nightmares of when I worked in Rivertown Karts and got sent to Columbia Palace. It was always either dishes or patio...I chose patio whenever possible. I learned that after one shift of washing the neverending supply of dirty trays there! It does have a relatively small seating area not to mention if it was brought into full service it would have to be brought up to ADA code. I don't want to bring up the whole ADA/IR debate again, but there is an elevator available. Sure, you have to go behind the scenes to access it and enter through the kitchen... That's what was nice about Bakery. Not only was it a great stand to buy things from but it also provided the baked goods for the park as well as carmel apples. Antique Treats made all the carmel corn for the park. Bakery rocked! Especially Summer 1989 and Winterfest 1990. Of course I may be a little biased because that's when I worked there... La Patisserie Francaise. I loved working there, especially when the elephant ears broke and we couldn't serve those, so guess where they went? And I also loved working the late shift on Sundays during post season. I always left with so many brownies, elephant ears, cookies, and cotton candy that I would bring to my friends at school the next day.

Exactly, Gordon! There is a little 3 day event there in July called Spirit Song that sells out at least 1 if not 2 of the days every year. Many Christian music fans are drawn to this every year, and it is a good event for the park to hold. As far as the other acts go, I do wish it was like it was in Timberwolf's hayday, back when acts like Jimmy Buffet would play there. But the concert industry has changed, and new venues have been built, namely Riverbend, which is more attractive to artists to play than a 9,863 seater in a theme park. Timberwolf is a good place for up and coming acts to play. In recent years they had Aaron Carter when he was the craze, Aly & AJ, and my favorite, Britney Spears in 1999. She had signed to play Timberwolf when her only song out at the time was Oops...I Did It Again. And by the time the show came around in August, she considered herself too big a star to perform in a place like Timberwolf. Needless to say, the Britney show had sold out months before, and many a young girl was upset when they came to the park that day expecting to buy tickets. Plus, Timberwolf is a good place for events like the yearly Cheerleading/Dance Team competition. But back on topic, I would not remove anything. Removing rides is like erasing memories (or creating them in the sense that the memory is the only place the ride can now be revisited). If I absolutely had to choose, gun to my head, which ride to remove, it would be IJ:ST, just due to the fact that it ruined a nice relaxing section of the park and it's not that great a coaster IMO.

Or as they say in the national parks, "Take only pictures, leave only footprints".

You beat me to it! But it was actually American Heritage Music Hall. Now I stand corrected!

You're close. It was actually The American Heritage Theater. When I called to check jacket availability last Saturday, after I had pressed 0 to speak with an operator, I was on hold for a few minutes. During that time, there was Jeff Seibert's voice, talking about Paramount's Kings Island.

I worked in the park for 16 years, 1989 - 2004. When the park changed ownership to Paramount, there were growing pains then too. The first two years were rough, as Paramount had no experience in the park industry. Things did eventually get better for the associates, but it took some time. Now as for CF's takeover, I have mainly heard negative things from my friends/former coworkers. In fact, one of the reasons we got season passes this year was because the number of tickets associates were given this year was cut down to 4, and we just didn't feel right trying to hit my friends up for half of their annual allotment (but with the # of times we ended up going, it was a good thing we got the passes)! Many of my friends have moved on in the past year, and these were people that had been in the park for many, many years as I was. Hearing about Guy1115's paycut from last year to this, I would have been extremely upset if this had happened to me. I realize that they had to make adjustments to payscales to align with what people in comparable positions in their other parks make, but still I would have been seriously PO'd. This kind of goes along with the job title changes this year also, ie PP Managers are now CF Supervisors and such. I know in 1999, PP did a Comprehensive Position Questionnaire for the full time employees, which was basically a study that compared the payscales of each full time position to comparable positions industry-wide. This resulted in pay increases for quite a few people at PKI, which were gradually increased over the next 2-3 years to meet industry averages. And of course some people were already at the top of their industry-wide range. Of course this didn't apply to the seasonal associates, but I wonder if CF has ever done this for their parks. Looking at the situation now, I'm glad my position was eliminated in 2004 (even though I wasn't at the time of course, having been there so long). It has allowed me to get a Monday through Friday, 8:15 - 5:00 job, with weekends off. Now that I have a daughter, I can't even imagine working there now with the demands that CF has placed on it's KI employees. I enjoy not having to work nights and weekends anymore! Woohoo! 100 posts! I'm on my way to being a SUPERSTAR!!!

The two times I went in the past, back when I had Beach season passes, it was just an ok time, but I didn't have to pay admission then. But now that I would have to pay $64 to do what we would want to do, I don't see it as worth the money compared to Festival of Lights' $11 adult/$7 child admission or $24 adult/$20 child admission that includes the 4D movie and UNLIMITED rides on train, tram and carousel vs just one carriage/pony ride at The Beach.

Lets see, so for my family: Parking = $6 Admission = $39 Pony Ride = $4 Carriage Ride = $15 Total = $64 I'll skip it and go to Festival of Lights at the Cincy Zoo instead. Much more to do there, and cheaper too! http://www.cincinnatizoo.org/VisitorGuide/...l07/FOL_07.html

Yeah, that's not exactly what I would call a steep price for a coaster.

I have to kindly disagree with you on this point. The first year under Paramount, they put in Top Gun (which had already been in the planning stages but rethemed to the movie). We, the associates, were also forced to wear buttons on our uniforms advertising the upcoming movie "The Coneheads" (and that did a lot to spur movie attendance ). The following year, 1994, saw Days of Thunder, 1995 Drop Zone (the original name for Xtreme Skyflyer, name recycled in 1999), 1996 was Outer Limits (which was a show on Paramount-owned Showtime), and then 1999 was DZ, F/O, and the renaming of XS Raceway to Days of Thunder and Amazon Falls to Congo Falls, all Paramount movies. But I'll let you off easy since you do admit you were young at the time!

I second that. Reasons certainly do change as you get older. As a kid/teen, it was mainly the coasters and other rides. Now that I'm a dad, most of my time is spent in Nick U or BB in the kids area. And I'm sure that as she gets older, it will go back to coasters and other rides. Plus, she loves the shows, especially Endless Summer On Ice this year. On most of our visits this year, we would start in BB, drive down to the main gate (she would usually fall asleep on this short drive and we would sit in the parking lot to let her take a nap), go to the last show of Endless Summer, go to Nick U and end it with fireworks. Perfect day. As for the comment on big and unique coasters being the way to go, I've got to agree with Cory Butcher. This was the case a few years ago (just look at MF, SOB, TTD, Kinda Ka) but not so much now. The one thing that Paramount Parks discovered is that big coasters does not equal big crowds. The years they did better were years that they put in more family oriented attractions, ie Nick and Waterworks expansion. This is most likely due to the makeup of KI attendees, a big chunk of which are families with season passes. This may not hold true for the Roller Coast up north, as their season pass numbers are way lower. It will be interesting to see the numbers if the rumored 2009 KI attraction is true, and how the attendance will go that year. We shall see... I am a little disappointed that the poll didn't make my true vote an option: "All of the above EXCEPT the food", based on this past year!

I agree. My uncle was one of the balloon chasers for awhile, the ground crew that would follow the hot air balloon and pick it up from the landing site. He even got to parachute once with the guys from the air show (not as part of the show, but in the crew's off time). I loved the Clown Band. As I posted in another topic, I used to love seeing them perform outside my window when I worked at the bakery my first year. I had just switched to playing tuba for marching band the summer before, and seeing them everyday made me want to audition for them. But a few years later the Clown Band was disbanded...