XGatorHead 8904

^There are tables there, but not very many. If you don't get there early, there may not be a spot to leave your stuff. We always leave the cooler in the car, and when we're ready for lunch we get it, head over to the grassy strip in the middle of the parking lot, spread out a blanket and eat! It's good to see ERT on opening day now. I know I'll be there at 9:00!

I still have 3D glasses from Fearfest... yes, that's correct, Fearfest, not Haunt. Back from when The Sewer was an attraction in Festhaus. I got the text from KIC while I was driving GatorGirl home from the store last night. I waited until I was at a stop light to read it. I told her "We know the name for the old Scooby ride," and she asked, "Was I right? Is it Charlie Brown's Funhouse?" (even though I told her awhile ago it wasn't going to be Peanuts themed, she was hoping I was wrong). I told her her the name and she said "Oh, that sounds fun." Hopefully she likes it, and we can use it to get her ready for more "scary" rides. She wasn't a big fan of The Haunted Mansion at MK (one of my favorites), but of course that was two years ago. And we're thinking of maybe going to Universal and IOA next year, and I'd like her to ride Jaws, Jurassic Park and Spider-Man. We've already talked to her about these rides... she's still a little apprehensive about them, but maybe Boo Blasters can help! I never got it either. I guess I must have dropped off the email list somehow. I'll sign up for it again.

The final Peanuts special of the off-season, "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown", airs this Wednesday at 8:00 eastern on ABC. In it, poor Linus awaits another not-so-well-known holiday figure: After this airs, only 17 more days until we all get to see Planet Snoopy!

I've never been stung at KI, although I've had plenty of experience with bees there. I worked for two years in Rivertown Karts, which included Thelma's Frozen Lemonade. Let's just say that the bees were very attracted to that stand. They would fly in through the window, and we were constantly swatting them. GatorGirl got stung at Hersheypark this past summer while in line for a ride. We rushed her to first aid, and they were very helpful there. She also loved the fact that they gave her a little stuffed animal! It made the whole experience a little better for her.

Welcome to KIC! I've worn both contacts and glasses to parks over the years, and haven't had a problem with either one except for once. I had my glasses on Invertigo, and my lens popped out of the frames (which it tended to do from time to time). Needless to say, the lens was lost forever in the gravel pit under the ride.

standbyme, your Peanuts bashing has been fine. I'm completely fine with someone not liking Peanuts. We all have different opinions, that's the way the world is, and that's what makes life interesting. What I do have a problem with, and the point I was trying to make in my former post, is the overgeneralization of the "unpopularity" of Peanuts. Statements like "Nobody knows who Peanuts are" and "Nobody cares about Peanuts". To the best of my recollection, you've never said everyone has the same opinion as you. You stated YOUR opinion, which is the way it should be done. I completely respect someone's opinion if they don't like something. All I ask of everyone is if I disagree with you, don't lump me in the same group as you by saying EVERYONE feels the same way you do. They don't. Personally, I wasn't a fan of Nick replacing HB, but it grew on me, especially after I had a kid. From a business standpoint, I understood the parks' decision to bring in Nick. It made perfect sense: Nick was a Viacom property, the park was a Viacom property. I also understand the park now getting rid of Nick. With the license up, the popular theory is that it probably cost more than CF wanted to spend to renew. With the current financial situation of CF, it makes sense. As I said before (and as you can probably tell from my avatar and signature), I'm gonna miss Scooby. My guess is that part of the Peanuts contract was for them to be the exclusive characters in the park. I can see that, and from a business perspective, it makes sense for the licensor to want this. I'm not sure that is exactly the case since I was in no way involved with the decision (nor would I want to be). alluna, I did have a bad day...heck, make that a bad week. And you touched a nerve. In my 2 1/2 years on these forums, this was only the third majorly negative post that I can remember ever making. Sure, I make an occasional snarky comment (I even made on in post #158 of this thread, in which I addressed another peeve of mine, judging something before you see the final product... isn't that right, Justin_M17? ), but a post of this magnitude is rare for me. If you look at my history of posts, and if you ever meet me, you'll know that I'm usually a fairly easy-going guy, and I like to joke around a lot. I was a little harsh with you, but that's the way I was feeling at the time. Indeed. To me, the Read & Ride with Snoopy deal isn't only aiming to simply familiarize kids with the Peanuts crew, but to also reach out and be more open with guests in a friendly way. I see it this way, and it has been proven that others see it as an advertising campaign and no more than that. Snoopy is coming. The re-theme's gonna happen. There's nothing more we can do about it. I don't think all of us have settled in on that fact. I like the Read & Ride with Snoopy program. Like many have said in the topic on the subject, it's a great opportunity for some positive community relations, much like many other programs already in existence. Of course, with an additional side benefit of some low-cost marketing... again, like many other programs in existence, which Railrider pointed out in his post. As for my take on the popularity of Peanuts, may I present the case of the holiday specials. Yes, many of them have been around for years and years and years. Yet ABC (and CBS before them) airs them every year. Would they air them every year if the ratings and the ad revenue they can get didn't validate airing them? No. The ratings must be there for them to not only air the Christmas special (along with all the other specials that resurface at time of year), but the Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year's, Valentine's and Easter specials as well (and even more on ABC Family). And while not aimed at kids, Met Life has used Snoopy in their advertisements for years. They are recognizable characters, and while they may not enjoy the widespread constant exposure of many of the Nick characters, they are out there. Now I can't and won't speak for all people out there. These are just my opinions, and I'm not saying everyone knows Peanuts. I'm sure there are still many who do not. But I think some people would be surprised at how many people do know them. I'm sure a lot of people at least recognize them, even if they don't know their names. A perfect example of this happened to my family a few months ago. We were in the children's room at Pizza Tower, and the family at the table next to us were trying to name all the Peanuts characters on the wall. They got all of them except one... they couldn't remember the name of the girl who follows Peppermint Patty around. My daughter overheard and asked if she could tell them. I said yes, and she said to them "That's Marcy!" They laughed and said "That's right!" They knew it, but couldn't quite remember. Just like me with Rugrats... to this day, I still can't tell you which Rugrat is Tommy and which is Chuckie... I know one has red hair and one is bald with a diaper. Thanks for the offer, but I'm trying to do my best to avoid sweets. I need to get the winter weight off once again!

I just wanted to thank you for yet another post that overgeneralizes the "unpopularity" of Peanuts. Just because YOU don't care about them doesn't mean that there aren't people that do. I have a 5 year old daughter who is COMPLETELY PSYCHED to finally meet Snoopy and the gang. We watch every Peanuts special every time they're on, and we have for years, for as long as GatorGirl has been watching television (and Mrs. Gator and I watched them every year we've been married before GatorGirl was born). She loves the specials. One of the first stuffed animals I bought for her was a Snoopy doll wearing bunny slippers, which I bought at Cedar Point while my wife was pregnant. She still sleeps with that thing at night. In fact, just last night out of the blue GatorGirl asked, "When is the Charlie Brown St. Patrick's Day show going to be on?" I told her there wasn't one, but told her that the Charlie Brown Easter special is on next Wednesday. She said "Yay!" When I tell her how long it is before KI opens, she says "But that's too long!" She's even still holding out hope that SD&THC will become "Charlie Brown's Funhouse", the name she thought up on her own for the re-theme, even though I told her it's not going to be a Charlie Brown ride. So there IS a girl out there anticipating meeting Lucy. I'm completely FED UP with people saying that NOBODY knows or cares about Peanuts... THERE ARE PLENTY OF PEOPLE WHO DO!!!! We might be in the minority, but there's NO WAY TO KNOW THAT FOR ABSOLUTE CERTAIN without polling EVERY VISITOR TO THE PARK... or everyone who even THINKS about going to the park. Are the Nick characters more popular? Yeah, probably. Will there be people who miss them? Absolutely, yes. I'm very sore about losing Scooby, myself. But don't lump EVERYONE into a group of Peanut haters, or at least Peanut apathists.

Flight Deck and Top Gun are the same coaster. Top Gun was renamed Flight Deck a few years ago. Just didn't want you to be at the park looking for a different coaster named Top Gun!

^He was hit in the face by a goose while riding Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg during the media day for the ride. http://www.rcdb.com/531.htm

We get to have GatorGirl re-tested this year for the peanut allergy. When she was tested 3 years ago, they told us to have her re-tested when she's five because she may grow out of the allergy. Hopefully that's the case. We'll find out in a few months! And then along with my love of coasters, I can share my love of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with her!

Wow... and people think Snoopy is old and outdated... I'm sorry, you've seen the finished Planet Snoopy how, exactly? Let's see the finished product before we judge it... Edit: Just saw your response to the post above... hmmm, okay... the Facebook pictures are not the finished product, so let's wait until April 17th to say PS looks worse than something else, okay?

Thank you, Keith! Great question! As the parent of a child with a peanut allergy, this would be great. We appreciate the fact that Potato Works advertises on the building that they use peanut oil, and we know from outside the park that Chik-Fil-A does too. But having this information available on the website would help others with food allergies avoid any hazards! You don't have to wait for Stricker's Grove to ride one. As CoastersRZ will confirm, there's a great Eli Bridge ferris wheel at Coney! And for an added thrill, there's the Rock-O-Planes.

^Source is here: http://visitkingsisl...ts.cfm?ec_id=27 Emphasis added: So no, there is no ERT until April 30th.

Air conditioning???? The wind in my face while I ride a coaster is good enough to cool me down on a hot day! And I like the lights on AE.

Even with possible improvements, I wouldn't go as far to say that we'd get to ride it the way we were supposed to, unless they add the loop back in... which I see as highly unlikely. It will be interesting to watch the developments with Texas Giant. Hopefully it works out for them. I've always thought of Mean Streak as rougher than SoB, but I could see a Texas Giant-style rehab on either one depending on if CF would want to spend the money to do that (and depending on how it works out for TG). There may be better options out there, I'm certainly not in a position to know.

My favorite sounds (besides the the obvious... the sound of lift chains): GatorGirl's laughter and comments on the rides Invertigo's siren - having worked at the front gate for years, this is the sound that to me means the park is soon to open The sound of the train whistle - for some reason this sound always stood out from the others whenever I would be up in my office The sound of people screaming on the rides Drop Tower's woosh as it drops "3, 2, 1, Fly" Gone but not forgotten: I'm with Shaggy on the Carousel's organ

^Enchanted Voyage did have a hill... granted, it was very tiny one at the end of the ride, but it was a hill... And why am I thinking there might have been two? It's been so long, I can't remember if there were one or two in the last room.

This isn't a KI dream, but a Holiday World one I had a few days ago... I dreamt that I went to HW on opening day with Mrs. Gator. We went to ride Voyage, and I noticed that it didn't have the Timberliners. I asked the ride op why it didn't, and they told me that they were actually going to be installed in the next couple of weeks. We rode anyway and after the second hill, we hit a new patch of trim brakes and almost came to a complete stop. Everyone on the train groaned. After the fun twisty part at the far end where it makes the turnaround to head back towards the station, we came to a complete stop right before the tunnel. They evacuated us and we had to walk all the way back to the station. Here's hoping for a better experience on May 1st!

From South on KI Drive, turn Right on Western Row - go under the freeway and less than a mile down on the right hand side. Opened late last season. Actually, it opened a little over a year ago. See my post below from March of last year: I highly recommend it!

^That extra bunny hop caught my eye too. I then went back and watched that section again looking for OL:FoF, which wasn't there in the video.

People are talking about them, just not in your topic: See here

I think some of us just keep voicing our complaints in hopes that the event could go back to more of what it started out as...and if that happens all of the people who like it NOW can "not go if they don't like it"! Good one, standbyme! I'm one of those that keep my daughter there until the end (not that she minds one bit)... and NU/PS is great at that time of night... no lines! That doesn't make me a bad parent, does it?

^But KI has both! Sure, Howl-O-Fest is no Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, and it doesn't need to be, but it's still a very nice event for the families. And not everyone who craves a more mature Halloween event can afford to go down to Universal (also a good park for families IMO), so why not have Haunt and have the best of both worlds? If you don't like an event, don't go. There's plenty of other times/events you can go to. That reminds me of comedian Auggie Smith on Bob & Tom. He was talking about if you don't like smoke, don't go to a place where smoking is allowed (not a stance I entirely agree with, but that's beside the point). He went on to say "I don't like Bed Bath & Beyond, I don't like what happens at Bed Bath & Beyond, so I don't go to Bed Bath & Beyond." I have no problem with people not liking Haunt, that's totally fine and I can understand. I just happen to enjoy both events, Howl-O-Fest with my daughter and Haunt... first as a guest, now as a scaracter.

My daughter was excited to learn the ride names too. And then of course the next question was "When can we ride them?" I'm hoping for the cars to be painted like pumpkins! That's funny, I do the same thing from time to time!

And insurance! Don't forget the insurance!