XGatorHead 8904

Thanks for posting this. Watching him work makes you think about just how much time and effort goes into making a carousel horse, something that a lot of park guests just take for granted. Thankfully, GatorGirl takes the time to look at each one she rides in order to determine an appropriate name for it, and asks us to look at the ones we're on to think of names for ours. I hope she never loses that!

Not really. It was basically a bicycle seat right there. You had to really watch for the bunny hops at the end! If you were situated the wrong way... OUCH!!! I always stood on my toes for that part of the ride!

I've seen the vinly pop up on ebay every so often, but I never knew there were cd's of it. That's better for me since I don't have a turntable at home. For that I'd have to go over to my mom's house! I knew as soon as I saw the title of the topic that I'd be heartbroken. I miss it! The pre-recorded music they play now is nowhere near as good as the real thing.

Thanks for the link! A few of those shirts are VERY tempting. Demon... my first inversion. The Bat... my first suspended. King Cobra... my first stand up. Too hard to choose! If my grandma wore t-shirts, I'd get her the "Ready for a Dip at Chester Park" one for Christmas, since that's the local amusement park she went to as a girl. (And I had forgotten all about Showbiz Pizza Place until I saw the shirt on that site).

Looks like a fun little coaster. I can see some possible little pops of airtime, and head choppers are always a good thing.

I miss hanging out there with friends and family, and it's only been a little over two weeks since the last time. We'll get together every once in a while over the off-season and we'll still have fun, but it's not the same as going to KI (or other parks) with them.

That makes too much sense; I called and they only use the existing pass renewal up until 10-31; We can renew our existing passes, but are asked to show it when we go to pass processing next season, and still have to pay an E-download fee... a bogus way to get more money out of guest. Wow... that doesn't make any sense. The technology's there to renew passes, why not use it all the time and not only in the fall? What happened to making things convenient and easier for the guest? When I was in Admissions in the Paramount era we were discussing automatic renewals way back then. Our main intent in pushing for it was to make things easier for the guests and reduce the time guests had to wait in line for processing. If the information you were given is correct, this is a step backwards and flies in the face of what we were striving for years ago. EDIT: And it appears the information is correct. I went to the park's website, clicked as if I was buying a renewal gold pass, entered a name and clicked Continue, and at no point did it give me a place to put in a season pass number. Wow... I'm old, Gator , but I try to give good info on here. Sorry, I wasn't questioning your honesty. I was questioning the validity of the info that the park gave you, which turned out to be true, sadly. Sorry if I offended you in any way!

Wow... now they're taking on video games! How does PETA know that Mario's Tanooki suit is made from a real raccoon and isn't a faux raccoon suit? What next? Are they going to raise a fuss over including Dry Bones in Mario games? Dry Bones is a turtle skeleton, which means a turtle died! And then there's all those poor live turtles that Mario jumps on then throws their shells... Mario is one evil plumber! Of course, it's all Donkey Kong's fault for starting this whole mess. Mario didn't ask for Donkey Kong to steal the girl and start throwing barrels at him! If Donkey Kong hadn't of done that, Mario & Luigi would most likely lived there lives as normal plumbers, oblivious to the existence of all those other worlds and galaxies. So forget person-on-animal cruelty, it all started with animal-on-person cruelty! And don't even get me started on that evil giant turtle Bowser and his atrocities against humanity!

Would that be this brochure? http://www.KICentral.com/history/ki1972/ You're not insane. There was a monkey island at KI. The Liberty Bell disappeared this year (unless it moved to another spot and I missed it). In it's place was a floral carousel horse. While the carousel horse was nice, the Liberty Bell was bigger and better in my opinion. You would certainly know better than I...I just always thought it looked like the kind of a thing that would have been planned when they were laying out the park. Thanks for enlightening me. The clock wasn't even there in 1974, as you can see in your '74 picture of Antiques. I'm a big fan of the floral features around the park, and this includes the calendar. I thought it looked good this year, but wow how much better it looked in '74! Thanks for the pictures and this topic!

It looks like Cirque du Soleil may have learned a lesson about big tops, Coney Island parking lots and Ohio River spring floods, as they are returning to Bank of Kentucky Center for their next production, Dralion. http://www.bankofkentuckycenter.com/dralion.asp

I can't wait to see these pictures that you've posted (and the ones to come). See, I'm usually on here while at work, and my work computer blocks pictures that are posted on this site. It all has to do with "Personal Network and Storage" sites being blocked, so anything linked from those types of sites are invisible to me. So, it looks like I'll have to fire up the home computer this weekend. Now from the descriptions of the pictures, I think I'd have to agree with you on where I'd rather be... 1974 for the first one and 2011 for the second. I loved walking through the ivy tunnel as a kid. Too bad they got rid of it... was it really that hard to maintain?

That makes too much sense; I called and they only use the existing pass renewal up until 10-31; We can renew our existing passes, but are asked to show it when we go to pass processing next season, and still have to pay an E-download fee... a bogus way to get more money out of guest. Wow... that doesn't make any sense. The technology's there to renew passes, why not use it all the time and not only in the fall? What happened to making things convenient and easier for the guest? When I was in Admissions in the Paramount era we were discussing automatic renewals way back then. Our main intent in pushing for it was to make things easier for the guests and reduce the time guests had to wait in line for processing. If the information you were given is correct, this is a step backwards and flies in the face of what we were striving for years ago. EDIT: And it appears the information is correct. I went to the park's website, clicked as if I was buying a renewal gold pass, entered a name and clicked Continue, and at no point did it give me a place to put in a season pass number. Wow...

How can they use it for Breakfast With The Characters if it's not ADA accessible? There is an elevator located behind Guest Relations that takes people up to IR. To access it you have to go through the backstage area, and when I worked at the park years ago it was quite common for guests to be taken up there in the elevator. I don't work in the park regularly any more, but I imagine that they would still use that for guests needing it during Breakfast With the Characters. They would have to. I'm definitely no expert in ADA compliance, but I would think that this would meet the regulations (and because I'm no expert I could be wrong, especially with the stricter regulations coming which I had not heard about until now). Even though you need an associate with you to access it, it's still there and available for use. I've wondered about water parks myself. A good friend of mine is in a wheelchair, and he loves going to parks but he doesn't really get to do much at waterparks. That's why when I first heard about Wildebeest, I emailed him the information. When I finally got to ride it this year, I immediately thought about him and how he could finally enjoy a waterslide with his family. Kudos to HW for adding that and Mammoth!

POV animation is up for Wild Eagle. See the 11/2 update here: http://dw-2012.com/updates/ Looks like a lot of fun, can't wait to ride it!

^I wish that they would have the smaller portion size of the fries again. One upon a time there were two sizes but they did away with the smaller one. With GatorGirl's peanut allergy and KI using peanut oil to fry them in, we can't share them as a family. The large is just too much for me to eat, so that's why I only get them once every year or two. I'd definitely get them more often if there was a more reasonable size available again.

More detailed info: http://www.ksdk.com/...-noose-incident

There's always the old stand by (or would that be the old standing but not operating?) SOB, but that's getting old. I'm sure we'll find something soon enough. Just give us all some time for our coaster buzz to wear off and cabin fever to set in.

^He stays away for months at a time, then just when you least expect it he'll post some ridiculousness again.

^Do people really stand in line for KI's haunts for 2-3 hours each, or is the 2-3 hours cumulative time? This is a serious question because I really have no idea. I've been working in the haunts for the past 4 years and there's no way for me to gauge the wait times. I do know that people have told me and others in Slaughter House that our line moved the fastest, but I have no clue how long they waited. The last time I went to Haunt as a guest was in 2007, and in my TR from that visit I put my wait times. The longest we waited for one was 42 minutes. We went on a Friday in mid-October (I was smart enough not to visit on a Saturday), and our total wait times for all the haunts we did was 2 hours 22 minutes.

Well somebody left their bear near the train tracks near Soak City. I saw it a couple weeks ago standing on it's hind legs holding a pumpkin.

^^Not to mention the drilling that would be required to put in the footings.

http://abcnews.go.co...-haunted-house/

In line for Beast yesterday there was a teenage couple in front of me. The girl in the couple had never ridden The Beast before, so her boyfriend was telling her about it. He was pretty accurate until he said, "This was like the first coaster that they had here at Kings Island." File this under Ride Ops Say the "Darnest" Things... My first time going up on Eiffel Tower yesterday (I went up twice), the ride op said "Enjoy your time here today because this is the last day of the season. The park will reopen on April 30th of next year." First of all, the 2012 operating calendar hasn't been released yet. Secondly, April 30th is a Monday next year, and it's highly unlikely that opening day would be on a Monday. I was oh so close to telling him this but I didn't.

^Yup, $20 fees for parking will do that. That was the only sore spot about my first visit to a SF park since the '80s, but split 3 ways it didn't hurt as badly. We had a wonderful day at SFGAdv, and I even spent money on a Kingda Ka shirt and a Ka on-ride photo! (although we did eat lunch in the parking lot)...

As CoastersRZ answered for me, yes. Smoky Mountain Christmas is a wonderful event. We went to it for the first time two years ago, and we vowed to make it an annual trip. The shows are top-notch, and we get plenty of rides in too... Thunderhead and Mystery Mine are on my Top 10 lists, and Tennessee Tornado and Blazing Fury are very good too. I've always been one to say "no Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving", but Dollywood is my one exception to the rule because we go in November so that there's a better chance it will be warm enough that the rides will be running!