KIfan73

Yeah, I know that now. At the time, I had zero knowledge of the business behind it.

I remember going to Kings Island the first season after Great Wolf Lodge opened. There was no doubt in my mind that there would be a special entrance into the park if you stayed at Great Wolf. I had it pictured near Top Gun (now The Bat). I was completely shocked to find that there wasn't one!

MT wasn't running when I was there last Friday morning. Luckily, as I came out from lunch at MRB, it was testing, so I got in line. They called with the OK, so I got a ride on the 1st train of the day. Great ride, as always, but no effects. Definitely not quite as good. I might be the only one, but I think the shed is genius. I think it's one of the cleverest things ever put in at Kings Island. So many thoughtful details. I love the radio...I think it's the exact one that I still have from when I was a kid!

It was so nice for the first couple seasons when RHoFG first opened to sit down and be waited on (I usually sat at the bar and got great service) during a visit to KI. It just must be terribly difficult to sustain that type of service.

Where else can I go and experience something that hasn't changed since I was a kid? Most of my old schools are torn down, stores I visited are almost all closed, and I can't visit my childhood home. But, I can go ride The Racer. It was there in the 70's when I visited as a toddler. Rode it with friends in college, through times of various jobs, and can go ride it today. I can go ride the first "big" coasters that I got on almost 30 years ago, and that I rode on dates 20 years ago. I can walk by the fountains and look at the Eiffel Tower that my mom and aunt experienced before I was born. Kings Island is literally one of the very few places where you can still go and re-visit the decades of your life.

I'm going to give the park the benefit of the doubt that they knew what they were doing with the Int'l Street renovations. The Royal Fountains are a HUGE part of the park's identity and it was a massive risk to make any substantial change to them.

Check out this awesome 1972 video of Kings Island: https://www.wlwt.com/article/archives-heres-what-kings-island-looked-like-in-1972/26896337

First Mystic Timbers, then Winterfest, followed by return of antique autos, IS being refurbished, and now this?? I really feel like I'm dreaming, just unbelievable. Bravo, bravo!!

Reminds me of an old saying on here: "Things are a lot more like they are now than when I got here". Actually, none of this is new. Kings Island is the hot senior girl, and KIC is the nerdy freshman boy. She calls the shots and tells us when and where and if we can call her. Sure, we could break up, but she's holding all the cards.

If one of the purposes of having a "kids area" at an amusement park is to create lifelong customers, there hasn't been anything in that building that's gotten that job done in a long time.

That would be a good theory for the tree removal. That could add a really cool vibe to IS at night, during any part of the season.

I was talking to a friend about the IS makeover (she's not even really a Kings Island "enthusiast"). She thinks they're probably going to do video projections onto the buildings. Might be kind of cool for both WF and Haunt.

Still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that something so cool is coming to a spot that has been so neglected for over 25 years.

I wonder if a majority of the parts are for older rides whose parts at one time were possibly cutting-edge, but are easily reproduced now. Sort of like all the reproduction parts now available for older cars.

Since I have about a three hour round trip when I visit Kings Island, I always try to keep it "safe" to limit the chances of getting something bad. I usually stick with cheese pizza that's just come from the oven. Maybe not 100%, but it would be hard to mess that up.

Just thought this would be a good place to share a pic of International Street that my uncle took in 1972.

I remember it absolutely crushing my ears when it first opened, very painful. It was really an immersive experience, though, much like Top Gun and Days of Thunder. You really forgot where you were.

So nostalgic nowadays to watch a group of people (especially a group of parents) participating in an event without dozens of iPhones being held up in the air.

I would also like to add that Coney BBQ was another fantastic addition. It is a beautiful structure (inside and out), and the way its design makes it look like it's always been there was a nice touch. Great how they added the rear seating area and tied it into Tower Gardens; it really spruced that area up nicely.

Since they already completely clear the shops out to prepare for Winterfest, and then again before restocking for the next season, I would not be surprised to see some remodeling done inside the shops while they're empty. They could use it, they're pretty dated.

After all of these years of being a Kings Island fan, the last few seasons have been like a dream come true. It's as if Kings Island personally asked me what I'd like done with the park, and they did it. First, it was Mystic Timbers. Winterfest Antique Cars returning Remodel of IS. Not that this was an area that I felt needed a remodel particularly, but after hearing about it, I am really, really excited.

Shocking how different IS looks right now compared to when I was there just 18 days ago! This is extremely exciting news!

Wow! Never saw this coming! Between this and the return of the Antique Cars, this will be quite the memorable season!

Finally made it to Winterfest last night. Turned out to be a great night. They did a really great job with it again this year. Atmosphere is amazing. Ate dinner in the International Restaurant again this year. Single best experience of Winterfest, in my opinion. I realized last night one of the best things about visiting this late in the year, is that it won't be long until the park is open again!

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2017/april/the-legend-of-fess-parker...-in-northern-kentucky https://www.bcpl.org/cbc/doku.php/frontier_worlds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fess_Parker "Parker became interested in opening a Davy Crockett-themed amusement park. In the late 1960s, he optioned land in northern Kentucky at the confluence of Interstates 71 and 75, with the intention of building Frontier World. However, when the Taft Broadcasting Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, began building Kings Island Amusement Park in nearby Mason, Ohio, less than a 2-hour drive from Parker's site, financing for Parker's venture dried up."