XGatorHead 8904

Here's my take on the last three sets of photos: Wednesday - Hanna Barbera vs. Planet Snoopy: 1974 wins by a slight margin. Surf Dog is an advantage for 2011, but Enchanted Voyage > Boo Blasters and Winsome Witch's Cauldrons > Charlie Brown's Wind Up. Enchanted Voyage may be dated as some of you have said, but that was a boat ride that was on par with "it's a small world"... I'm sure KI's designers drew inspiration from that ride. From the friendly snail out front ("Have a Happy Day!") to the giant Gulliver holding the Lilliputians in his hand, to the "dark" section of the ride that used to scare me as a kid, to exiting through the giant clown's mouth, and all the wonderful characters that "live in my TV", the animatronics in Enchanted Voyage are much better that the 2-dimensional cutouts of Boo Blasters. And Winnie Witch's Cauldrons... I loved that ride! (as well as Der Spinnin' Keggers). My sister and I used to spin it as fast as we could to see how dizzy we could make ourselves, all the while watching Winsome Witch fly around above us and waiting for that cat to pop out of that tree as we spun by. Today, GatorGirl marvels at how fast I can spin us on teacup type rides, and once she asked me why I'm so good at it. The reason is I had so much practice on Cauldrons! It was a great ride that families could ride together. Thursday - Sky Ride vs. Outer Hanks Patio: 1974 wins I never got to ride the Sky Ride at KI. My mom never trusted it so she never took us on it. That's probably why to this day, whenever I'm on a sky ride, I'm holding on for dear life. Just ask DaveStroem's wife and daughter when they rode the sky ride at SFGAdv with me, or anyone who's ridden with me on CP's: I'm white knuckling it. Something about hanging from a seemingly thin wire just gets my adrenaline going... yes, sky rides to me are thrill rides! Friday - Flying Carpet vs. Zephyr: 1974 wins, again by a slight margin I loved the giant slide, even when it got chopped in length and moved to HB Land, and to this day when I see one I am more than happy to ride it. With Flying Carpet there were soooo many lanes, and it was fun to see if I could beat everyone else down (kind of like a few of us from here did on Jungle Racer at HW this year during Holiwood Nights, which, for the record, I did win! ). The little three lane ones like at Coney are not quite the same as Flying Carpet, but still fun. I love Zephyr, it's a nice relaxing ride. But, as I jokingly said several times this year, after riding WindSeeker, Zephyr is dead to me now! OK, not really, but now I would ride WS before Zephyr... the thing is though GatorGirl will be tall enough for Zephyr next year and not WS... hmmm...

^I cannot like that statement enough!

Yes! Official rules have finally been posted, answering our question about multiple entries: http://www.visitkingsisland.com/public/news/form/Giant%20Gift%20Box%20Giveaway.cfm

That is a nice post. I learned something today! ... because for some reason the Native American tribes that inhabited the region for hundreds of years before avoided the 1600 acre parcel of land.

Wake Forest University's Announcement: http://parents.wfu.e...nt-morgan-judd/

^Wow... closed for refurbishment in February when you went, and again in July when I went, only to be taken out shortly thereafter.

It's so sad to hear this. I didn't see Hot Summer Nights as much as other shows in the park this summer, now I wish I had stopped to watch it more. Thoughts and prayers to her family.

Sorry, it wasn't clear in your post, to me at least, that you were referring to every park getting a B&M invert. In that case, you can add Canada's Wonderland to your list of parks that didn't get one since their invert is a Vekoma.

For some reason Mysteria comes immediately to mind. That's one great thing about the staff we had in Slaughter House. Very few minors, so very few people required to be gone throughout the night. Most of us 18+ Haunt workers don't rely on Haunt as our sole income, and TombraiderTy is correct that it does actually pay more than minimum wage. That is so true. I do it because I love it, and the majority of people I know from Haunt feel the same way. It's the most fun I've ever had at a job, and I would do it for free (just don't tell my KI bosses, or Mrs. Gator for that matter, who definitely doesn't mind me being gone those October weekends as long as I'm getting paid for my time).

Oh, how easy it is to overlook and forget about Flying Ace Aeriel Chase... and if you're not just counting full circuit inverts, then Invertigo too.

^Good one! I wore the shirt to Ride Warriors weekend and made a few people jealous then, but yes the shirt is still in my possession and I'll be keeping that one! I also have the shirts from TR:TR's, SD&THC's and Boomerang Bay's media days. I also have a shirt that I believe is from SoB's media day, but I didn't get one for Face Off/Drop Zone's even though I worked it (IIRC they had run out before I got the chance to get one).

^I was wondering that myself. The Busch parks have a sweepstakes in conjunction with a few other companies right now where one can enter once a day, and I was wondering about this one for KI. If multiple submissions are allowed, I'd happily enter once a day, but it's not clear and I don't want to disqualify myself if they aren't, so I've only entered the one time.

The force is strong with this one... Yes, you do.

I like the '74 picture better. I've always liked the red, white & blue paint job better than the all white. Plus, I like how you could get so close back then. Oh well, people are idiots and changes had to be made. Nothing we can do about that I suppose... I haven't said it in a while, but I'll say it again... Thanks for all the pics! Last week I was catching up on a lot of stuff at work so I was barely on here, but I appreciated all the updates!

I couldn't make out half of the dialogue in the audio when I rode it, a lot of it was just a bunch of annoying noise in my ear.

I'm not saying that I wouldn't mind a DreamWorks land, but I'd have to disagree with you there. When we were there in July that "huge waste of space" drew a nearly packed house during the show we attended. Granted, that's just one show and I'm drawing conclusions that attendance is similar for all the shows, but it offers nice family friendly entertainment. My daughter's most anticipated ride was E.T.; she's been a fan of the movie for years. Of course, we're the type of parents that expose her to the classics, the stuff Mrs. Gator & I grew up with. She was a little disappointed when E.T. didn't pronounce her name correctly at the end of the ride, pronouncing it Leia instead of Leah. We joked and told her it was because E.T. is friends with Princess Leia from Star Wars (since E.T.'s species is in Phantom Menace). But she quickly forgave him and bought a plush E.T. doll after our second ride on it.

A Kings Island shirt you probably don't have? Wanna bet? I also have the matching hat somewhere, which is similar to this one... ...only with the same Beast logo that's on the shirt. I was one of the media liasons for that day, when Montel Williams was there for the announcement of SoB.

NNNNNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Earlier this year I spent a great amount of time preparing GatorGirl for what she would experience at Universal & IoA this past summer, specifically focusing on Jurassic Park & Jaws. I drilled it into her that if she got scared on these rides, just remember that all of it was pretend and nothing would hurt her. When we got to the park, as GatorGirl was playing in the Curious George area, I pulled out my map only to find that Jaws was closed that day and the next for refurbishment. It had been open the day before (we had been at MK that day), and if I had known that ahead of time I would have switched our day at MK. Disney refurbishments are fairly easy to find online, and I looked for any for Universal before our trip and couldn't find any. When I saw that onthe map I thought to myself, we'll get her on it next time. Now there will be no next time. Jaws was always my favorite ride at Studios (before I finally rode Mummy, that is), and now I'll never be able to experience it with GatorGirl. I HATE it when parks remove rides, especially when it's one of my favorites and with this short notice. There's no way we can make it down before Jan. 2 (unless someone wants to pay for 3 airline tickets for us). I have a few choice phrases in my head right now that I'd like to direct at Universal, but I won't put them down because they'd be censored by the filter on this site.

And Action Zone is better with the mass quantity of trees it has?

Are you sure your dad wasn't there to present plans to KI for a new area of the park? A counter-proposal to Mr. Brady's, perhaps? I'm sure KI would have consulted a few different firms, not just one. Was your dad carrying any long, cylindrical tubes around the park?

I'm eagerly awaiting KI's schedule. Dollywood's is up, which is understandable since they open in March, & Holiday World's is up (although only 4 of the 11 US SF parks have their's up at this point). I'd like it to be earlier than it was this year, because if it's the last Saturday of April again, I'll have to miss it for the first time in years because we'll be attending a certain KIC member's wedding that day (why did you have to schedule it for that day Stalkerchick?). And if I can't go the following day instead because of the park sellout, that then causes me a dilemma in my tradition of going to HW's opening day, which is always the first Saturday in May... do I go to HW or KI that day? Please, please, please go back to opening earlier this year!

Very true. I remember being a little skinny kid (yes, at one point I was VERY thin ) and practically standing up on Racer, holding on to the buzz bar for dear life and loving every second of it. That coaster is really neutered from what it used to be in the 70's and 80's. Diamondback may come close in it's airtime, but the restraint is so tight compared to Racer's buzz bars that it doesn't give you anywhere near the same sensation. At least CP's still has some fun scenes along the way (I especially love the one with the fire in the window). At KI we just have a few old store fronts (with a tire shop? ), and of course the bear which has miraculously survived the massive de-themeing of the KI&MVRR.

I never thought any dark ride could be better than Spider-Man at IoA, and then I rode Harry Potter. It was well worth the 90 minute wait in 90+ degree heat and yelling at the Brazilian tour group behind us in line.

^Don't you mean someone who can "interpret" them better than you?

Nice pictures. I-Street looked a little bare from the tower without those trees. I'm with you on the preference for 2011, it's nice to sit under the trees next to the fountain, especially if there's a little breeze blowing the mist towards you on a hot day.