silver2005

Candy- sour candy- Warheads, Sour Patch Kids, sour hard candy, also any combination of chocolate and caramel and/or peanut butter, chocolate/white chocolate covered pretzels Dessert- Cheesecake with fruit on top, ice cream of most varieties (not really picky with who makes it to be honest), cherry pie, lemon meringue pie, chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven

Yeah, even from our seats across the field, the sound coming from the students in the south end zone felt like a wall of sound. I can't imagine what the players were hearing on the field when the fans started to get into it. EDIT: I promise to have pictures from a few events posted soon. I'm kind of waiting until sometime in the next 2 weeks when I have some free time on my hands to upload the photos to Photobucket.

^I'm going to be headed up that way in a couple of weeks when I go for the Haunt, might try and get a picture.

Noticed something on our way up to Columbus on Friday. The Cliff water slide, the big red one you see from I-71, really needs a repaint as it almost looks pink or magenta now.

http://www.coaster-net.com/news/2502-kentucky-kingdom-touts-very-successful-first-year/ This has to be the one of the most biased things I've seen come from a coaster website, particularly something they tout as 'news'. I for one would not call this first season successful in any stretch of the imagination. This also kind of reaffirms my point of KIC being the only website seeing through the fog to the ineptness of what's really going on. And I'm sure the site I linked isn't the only one. Sigh.

Trip Report- 9/26 and 9/27- Cincinnati Bearcats vs Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus This is a trip we've been preparing for all year, since we knew about this trip in February/March. For veteran band members, it was an exciting thing to see come closer and closer on the calender. For rookies, most of which come from out lying towns, it was a bit of a culture shock, much like I had during my first year when we made a trip to Columbus in similar fashion. We left at 2:30 Friday. Most of that day was much easier than what would happen Saturday. All we had to do is drive up, play at our host's football game, and stay the night with them. We home-stayed with parents of the Olentangy Liberty High School Band's parents, which is about 30 minutes north of Columbus. It was a smaller band, couldn't have been more than 80 members. A couple of our members stayed with relatives in the area, but the rest stayed with the band parents, sometimes as much as 6 or 8 to a room. I got lucky and only had to share with 4 other people, but we also got a big house which helped. Had a GREAT breakfast Saturday morning. Saturday morning started kind of rough. I think the pressure of playing at such a large, high profile venue got to a couple people and rehearsal that morning started in a rather unpleasant way. We settled down by the time we set out for Ohio State though. We also got pizza before we left as well, since we didn't have to be there until 3:15 to set up for the Skull Session.. For those who don't know what that is, the Ohio State Marching Band has a concert session before their games, which they invite their football team to come and help rile up fans for the game. And they pack St John's Arena as well for that, which is about as big as Cincinnati's Shoemaker Center. The pride and support for their band is just phenomenal, which I'll get into more in the marching band thread. Overall, it was just great hearing them live and sharing a stage with them. The Olentangy Orange High School band was also there, so we got to see 2 out of the 3 Olentangy High School bands (the Olentangy district has 3 high schools). They were much bigger than the one we stayed with, and they got a nice standing ovation from the crowd. They were having fun there, that's for sure. We were treated very well there and throughout the day as well. OSU, both the fans and the school in general, really get marching bands. I wish every school would take notes from them. After Skull Session, we just went right to Ohio Stadium and set up for our pregame. Again, the fans along the route treated us very well, we got some cheers and lots of welcomes. This was one of those trips where the rest of the trip surpassed the reason we were actually there, much like the Spokane trip. OSU game days are an incredible experience. Walking into that stadium was neat. You can see it from anywhere on campus, and it just loomed over us as we steadily got closer to having to go in. Now, I have experience in other big stadiums, the closest one probably being the New Orleans' Superdome, but I felt OSU's stadium felt bigger with the entire stadium packed. In fact, OSU had an attendance record from our game, which really surprised me as I thought that honor would have gone to an OSU/Michigan game. Pre-game was intense to say the least. Being on the field, the crowd noise is just this big wall of sound, especially in the student section at the open end of the horseshoe. We had to focus on the percussion and the drum majors for any semblance of pulse and tempo. From what I glanced at on the video board, we held together pretty well. Then OSU's band took the field. Unfortunately, we were placed in end zone seats so we didn't have the best view of the field. But even from the side, the band sounded great. I know they have a small repertoire, but the sound quality is just perfect. I do wish I could have seen Script Ohio from a better angle though. That just gave me goosebumps. Oh right, there was a game... I'll save this speech for the NCAA football thread, but to put it in a nutshell, I really thought we could have pulled this one out in the first half. Then I was aware of the overwhelming time of possession OSU had for various reasons, so our defense was gassed all game. I didn't feel all too bad though. Sitting through the Sugar Bowl loss was much tougher in retrospect. The Bearcats have a lot of work to do. We performed post-game as well, which was only for about 15-20 thousand or so. It was nice to be able to perform for a quieter stadium. We got a lot of cheers and compliments from OSU fans after that. It was a lot better than I thought it could have been. I will have to say I have a great deal more respect for OSU after that game. The arrogant fans are really a minority of the fan-base as most of them were very courteous and good spirited. Sure, they've had their problems, but a lot of other universities do as well. I did take pictures which I'll post soon.

The announcement may be on a Thursday, but its also a school/work day in Fall, when most people don't really think about amusement parks, at least compared to the attention of doing this in August. 1:30 pm? Really?

From the Paramount era- Theme to The Saint (a Paramount movie that bombed) by Orbital, Love Theme to St Elmo's Fire, Fratelli Chase from The Goonies, Danger Zone in the Top Gun queue, Raider's March in the AE queue, the entire soundtrack to Phantom Theater, Flight of Fear, and Tomb Raider: The Ride Cedar Fair era- music from the Ocean's movies in the Backlot queue, Fitz and the Tantrums- The Walker, pretty much any song on the WindSeeker playlist, any song played at the show Playlist Live!

For my credit count, I put Son of Beast as 2 separate credits, one as it was with the loop and one for after the 2007 'refurb' as I found out the ride was drastically different before and after. Thus, I myself will be counting Rougarou as a separate credit from Mantis. To me, floorless and stand up coasters are drastically different even if you'd have them go through the same layout. However, I won't get on anyone else to do so as I think each enthusiast should enjoy the hobby as he/she wants to.

KIFan1- I know you like to state we should 'use our imagination'. But its simply that- imaginative. A lot of people on this site have at least some basic knowledge of how the amusement park industry works, things like finances, how people respond to certain additions, and even further than that. And if you don't, you're here via the internet, which has a plethora of sources to get such knowledge. I mean, of course we want Kings Island to have the best rides and attractions around, but they have to be within reason. Also realize Kings Island operates in a park chain with 10 other parks that also deserve some TLC, so Kings Island isn't going to be first in line to get the big new ride every year.

I will say I'm excited for the transformation overall. I feel floorless coasters shine when they have a lot of lateral movement in the course. The layout here has plenty of those moments, especially in the 2nd half. I also wonder if they'll bring back 3 train operations.

There goes that awesome paint scheme...

If Kings Island is going to get anything like Maverick, I suspect it would come from Mack rather than B&M.

Methinks this is more out of good taste considering the videos coming out from the Middle East...

I think we should christen the noodle at PBS as #johnathan2 or #johnathanjr.

If they're doing a Mantis rehab, most of all, I hope they keep the paint it already has. It just looks great, really pops out on the midway.

You know what? I'm in the mood for a little dissecting of this post, because this is making my head hurt. 1. First, let's just throw out the notion of a stand up coaster being built at Kings Island since they're pretty much done with. A new one has been built since the late 90's and the current ones are just waiting to serve out their service life. 2. Intamin? Really? Have you not seen their track record lately? Cedar Fair especially is fed up with them after the numerous modifications they've had to make after rides have already opened (Wicked Twister, Maverick, Shoot the Rapids, I305 to name a few). 3. How much are you willing to sacrifice of Kings Island's atmosphere towards families? I for one don't want Kings Island to become some utopia for die hard coaster enthusiasts. I feel Kings Island should focus on the intermediate group, rides not as intense as the bigger coasters, but more so than Planet Snoopy's rides. Sure, B&M's are nice. I certainly won't complain about Diamondback or Banshee, but you also gotta attend to the park's biggest spenders- families. I can list numerous other better improvements the park could use. 4. Why do you want wing and giga coasters from both Initamin and B&M? Redundant much? Let's not fool ourselves that being from different designers mean's they're different rides, a B&M wing coaster (like Gatekeeper) and an Intamin wing rider (like PortAventura's Furius Baco) accomplish pretty similar things, and the Intamin 'wing' coaster that is Skyrush at Hershey wouldn't be that much different than Diamondback, assuming Intamin has fixed the lap bar issues. I for one like variety. This also goes back to my #2 point. 5. You want all of them to have length, height and speed records? I know Kings Island has a lot of room, but most of that is steep hills, and a river at the bottom they can't build too close to. Where are you going to place them and give guests easy access? What do you plan on removing to accomplish all this? 6. I really, really hope you don't mean all of these back to back to back each year. FUN will go bankrupt if that's the case, plus you do know there are 10 other parks in the chain, right? Just see what got SIX into financial trouble in the 2000's when they tried to build coasters at the rate you're describing. Kings Island is much more than roller coasters and thrill rides my friend.

The alleged forgery has me scratching my head, too. I mean, didn't Kings Island's staff fill it out in the first place? I'm sure it has some sort of proof that its a Kings Island document with certain people having to sign off on it and such. Unless the family is privy about who works at Kings Island (not just Greg and Don), how would they know which names to allegedly forge? Also, wasn't this sort of policy already in place last year, and probably even before that? The Darien Lake incident happened in 2011, and I'm pretty sure I remember parks across the country were putting those regulations in place and/or enforcing them better. Did someone at Kings Island just drop the ball and sign off on a form they weren't supposed to?

Or maybe they could take PR and marketing classes at UL....

Well, knowing the state of WCPO lately... http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/29861-larry-handley-calls-cincinnatis-channel-9-a-very-dark-place-in-an-email-sent-to-his-coworkers-during-his-departure/?hl=wcpo I've actually stopped going to them for news because they've been a bit outlandish in their choice of stories to cover. They're the only station to use a helicopter for crying out loud (those stories are boarder-line asinine).

Plus, you guys all know how much Six Flags loves fire effects on their coasters.

We're currently playing this in the UC Band, also relevant to this.

There were several other rides sponsored over the years. The ones that come to mind are Gillette sponsoring Top Gun/Flight Deck, Huntington Bank with White Water Canyon, and I think Kodak sponsored the Eiffel Tower for a while.

^1. I'm saying more trees between the pools. There are giant slabs of concrete with no shade, and you could do it away from the water attractions. The Beach pulls it off well and the pools there are mostly clean of leaves, at least not to the extent where I'd call it messy. 2. I had an incident upon my most recent visit where I went to a few stands, they said they didn't sell them at the stands anymore, then went to guest relations who told me they didn't exist for 2014, then only to hear someone else who went the day I went say they got one. I don't know what to believe about them at Kings Island.

There are a few things I would like to see in coming years- 1. Trees planted in Soak City in that sea of concrete (or some sort of shading or ways to make it cooler to walk on) 2. A restroom in X-base (been burned by this many a time this season) 3. Repave the parking lot 4. More consistent ride crews, don't just have the new/popular rides have the 'good' crews, all the rides should have service on par with the new/popular rides 5. Consistency with promotions, the drink wrist bands were a mess of a promotion this year, at least from my experience