XGatorHead 8904

I would have been concerned too if I was in that position. I never would have thought that something that goes over my shoulders wasn't part of the restraint. Either way, I can't wait to go there next week! It'll be my first time, and I'll be getting coaster credit #150 while there. Now just to figure out which ride will get that honor... probably Griffon since I've never ridden a dive coaster. I'm just as excited about the shows as I am the rides too.

I know a certain butcher in Slaughter House that works with pigs, and this drives him nuts. Why must Mama torture Sam so? I always thought Sam was her favorite, at least that's what she's told him, but now I think she says that to all the boys.

^Thanks! That was at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. It wasn't until later that I realized I was sitting on the wrong end of the couch. I wanted to sit in Homer's spot, but must have gotten it unconsciously mixed up with Sheldon's couch.

This past March I was in Big the Musical in Hamilton, which was directed by Kevin Brunck, who is the manager of the Entertainment Dept at KI. In between our two Saturday performances, I heard music coming from the theater. I went in and several members of our pit orchestra were playing pop songs, and they sounded terrific. A crowd of us gathered to just listen to them, while several kids from the show danced along to the music. I found out then by talking to another cast member that the pit orchestra members that were playing are the band from Off the Charts (and Playlist Live last year)! They were practicing for a set of performances they had in Las Vegas; after our Sunday show they were flying straight there. I have yet to sit and watch Off the Charts this year, but I heard several performances while we were at the Banshee Brew Festival, right next to International Showplace. They are a very talented group of musicians... I need to make time to go out and watch them soon! KI Five are back this year? I haven't heard or read any mention of them yet. Another talented group I need to go see again!

I fit comfortably on Backlot but don't fit FoF. Even though they're the same restraints, FoF has a seatbelt that connects from the side of the car to the restraint, while Backlot does not. I curse that seatbelt every time I try to ride FoF! I've heard that rumor too. I know several people who swear by it but it doesn't work for me, but then I have a larger waist than you so you may be fine.

The countdown is great and all, but in my opinion ride ops shouldn't be joking about rides breaking. Mary! I remember her from the tourism booth at McDonald's! She was great... always very friendly and nice to talk to. When McDonald's got rid of her booth a few of us were wondering what happened to her. Good to know she's stilll around!

Wow... 7 years until the park turns 50. Hey, wait a minute! I was born the same year the park opened.... that means I'll be 50 in 7 years too! Thanks, upstop! (I'm just teasing you, upstop... I'm fine with that. I definitely don't feel 42 now and have a much younger mindset than many people my age.) Or even closer than other parks that people have mentioned, there's Stricker's Grove. They let adults ride the kiddie Whip there. I've ridden it several times over the past few years!

^Typical news mentality. Something bad happens at a park, you have to bring up the other bad things that have happened before even though there's no reason to.

The then future Mrs. Gator and visited this attraction back in 1995, and I remember looking down on the animators from that big window, and being told that the next feature was going to be The Hunchback of Notre Dame (and I thought "Really?!? How are they making that kid friendly?" I still don't care too much for that movie). Mrs. Gator & I took GatorGirl to the Animation Academy there in 2013. OK, I was kind of dragged there by the other two because I went in thinking it was going to be a waste of time drawing a character... boy, did my opinion change! It was actually fun to learn how to draw the way they taught us. I'm not artist, but my Buzz Lightyear turned out pretty good. This instantly became a "must do" and I looked forward to doing it again in future visits. Hopefully they relocate that part of the attraction. If not, I'm sure the new attractions will mre than keep us busy though.

When I went to Emporium early in the season, they didn't have my size. I stopped back in on Coasting for Kids day and they finally had them in 2XL, so I had to get Bat and King Cobra shirts. I learned the hard way a few years ago when I saw a shirt in my size early in the season that I liked (light blue with the "classic Kings Island typeface" aka Olde English, and a list of the opening year rides), only to wait and not be able to find it in 2XL ever again. I posted on Facebook about finding these shirts in my size and quickly got two requests from friends, one asking me to pick up a Bat shirt and the other asking me to pick up a King Cobra shirt!

That is, if I had several million dollars... But then, the maintenance costs would probably be horrible with all that weight being constantly redistributed.

Thank you for that. Now I have "Karn Evil 9" going through my head. It's been too long since I've heard that song!

I heard KI's this year (the ride op turned it on for us after we begged) and I agree, it was out of tune, but you haven't truly heard an out of tune carousel organ until you've heard Conneaut Lake Park's. I couldn't believe the dissonance emanating from that thing last year, and it's the same this year according to the video that chugh43 posted on Facebook earlier this month. KI's is nowhere near as bad.

Those things should be banned everywhere. The first time I saw one was this past December when we visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (featured in the Dolphin Tale movies, which my daughter is a big fan of so we just had to see Winter & Hope while we were down there). We were at the stingray pool and we saw a man take this stick with a camera on the end of it and dunk it into the pool so he could apparently get underwater shots of the stingrays! Seriously?!? We saw a few more of these a few days later at Magic Kingdom; none on the rides but a few during Wishes. It wasn't until we got home that we learned these things had a name and were becoming a thing.

I would still love to see a water coaster on the scale of Wildebeest or Mammoth (and before I get Terpy'd, I did see those two yesterday... I meant seeing one at Soak City!).

Oops, you're right. I guess it's been a while since I've watched it!

^I guess they never saw the original Jurassic Park, in which Sam Neill sticks his hand in that big pile...

I'm a big guy, and I've never had a problem with Firehawk's vest restraint. In fact, it's probably the most comfortable restraint for me. Banshee, on the other hand, I have the same problem as the OP. It's a tight fit and I have to take shallow breaths while riding. I love the ride but can't marathon it too long because I can't breathe very well.

Banshee Brew Fest was a lot of fun. Got to try some breweries I've never had before, as well as some old favorites. At beer fests, I normally try to avoid breweries that I really don't consider to be craft breweries, such as Blue Moon, Leinenkugel and Shock Top at this one. The exception to this is if they have something unique, or one that I really like. So I had to go to Leinenkugel because they had Crispin Pear (which was on the list as being at the Blue Moon booth) and Shock Top had one of my all time favorites that I've had before, their Shocklate Wheat (yes, that's chocolate beer... I went back a couple times for this one). Thirsty Dog had a good Raspberry Ale (I was hoping they would have their chocolate one, Old Choco, but no such luck), and Jackie O's Razz Wheat was also very good. The biggest surprise though came from Kentucky Bourbon; I like their regular Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, but their Old Fashioned Barrel Ale was excellent. I can't stand IPA's; I like wheats, hefeweisens, bocks & dunkels (which are hard to find). One of my friends who hates everything I like and loves IPA's liked the Old Fashioned as much as I did, and commented that it was strange that two people who have opposite tastes in beer would agree that this one was now one of our favorites. The food was good, but the portion sizes were not equal. I used my first food ticket for the pierogies: I got 3 pierogies with bacon and sour cream on a small plate. I got to our table and my friend had a large plate full of pulled pork, corn pudding and cole slaw. The pierogies tasted very good, but it was nowhere near the serving size that my friend had. So yeah, with my second food ticket I went to the pulled pork station! As I predicted, there were no problems that I saw with the attendees. There was enough of a security & police presence that if anything had come up it would have been taken care of quickly. Last pour was at 9:00, so after that is when we used our 2nd food tickets. I hadn't planned on riding anything that night, but once we were done we did ride one thing: Dodgems. We may have crashed into other cars there, but we were all responsible in regards to driving away from the park: Mrs. Gator picked me up, a friend's dad took 5 others in my group home and the 7th person in our group's girlfriend had been riding rides by herself that evening so that she could take him home. Hopefully they have this event again next year, because I will definitely go again if they do. I don't get out to bars or breweries very often, so I like trying new beers from different places in a setting like this to see what new things I'll like.

I do, as long as it has Jack Daniels or Captain Morgan in it too.

Heck yeah! That was my 1st vote and then Manta, haha GatorGirl agrees with you on Manta! It's up there for me as well, my #4 steel. From the looks of other posts on here, other non-KI coasters have split this site's KI fanbase !

I voted for my favorite woodie, Thunderhead!

Did you correct her? As soon as my mom said that, Mrs. Gator quickly turned her head and asked me, "Racer was at Coney?" I shook my head no, and my mom just gave me that look that says "You don't know what you're talking about," so I quickly stopped. Some battles are just not worth the effort!

While taking a short break during Coasting for Kids to visit with my family who was waiting for me in front of The Racer, I heard this gem: "I rode that when it was at Coney Island," referring to The Racer. The person who said this: none other than my very own mother! Same here. I saw this response to one of the park's Facebook posts about the Banshee Brew Fesitval: "So it's included in price of admission but pass holders have to pay? Not much of a perk to having a pass..." I typed up a response: "It's not included with park admission. Yes, passholders have to pay $29.99, but non passholders have to pay $59.99. If someone were to show up with a regular park admission ticket, they would not be permitted into the event." But before I pressed Enter, I erased it. I figured she would counter with a comment, and I wasn't going to get into that battle. When I rode Kennywood's Racer in 2012, I only rode one side because the Gatorettes didn't want to wait in line again, and I counted it as a half credit. Jack Rabbit was credit #123, Racer (right side) was 123.5, Thunderbolt was 124.5 and so on. It wasn't until I visited again last year that my count evened out again: Banshee 128.5, Sky Rocket 129.5, Racer (left side) 130!

dtk1378 hit it right on the nose. Gradually work them up, just like other rides/coasters. Don't put any pressure on the child, but reassure them that it's fun. At 10 years old, GatorGirl is still unsure about enclosed waterslides. She's fine with them if she's in a tube with us like on Mondo Monsoon or ZOOMbabwe at Holiday World. She did Pineapple Plunge a few years ago and liked it, but now won't do it again. Come to think of it, she's fine with solo tubes in enclosed slides because she's done them at Great Wolf... who can follow the logic of children? Every time we're at Soak City I ask her to do Rendezvous Run with me because she absolutely loved Jungle Racer at HW (their mat racer), but she won't because it's enclosed at the top. I don't pressure her, I just ask once each time, remind her how much she liked Jungle Racer and tell her it's basically the same thing, hoping she'll change her mind. I have yet to try this year; maybe this will be the year!