TombRaiderFTW

I love how the Son of Beast trains are gone in the new view, but you can see little rectangles in the grass where they used to sit.

Sounds like great additions to me! Based on the schedule expansion, it sounds like Happy Halloween Weekends has been relatively successful (which I was hoping for, as that's a fun little event.) Also, it would be wonderful if the park's hours extended into the evenings during the summer for the light show, because I've been dying to try any of the coasters after dark but haven't ever been able to make it to Holiwood Nights. I'm curious to know how further expansion of/beyond Thanksgiving will happen now if Pilgrim's Plunge is being annexed to Splashin' Safari. (They're not physically moving the ride, right?) I've read somewhere before that long-term plans for the park will make Thanksgiving the centerpiece of Holiday World, so I'm just wondering where else they could go with the paths. I always thought they'd extend over the tunnel from Splashin' Safari for Pilgrim's Plunge and continue adding rides, etc. beyond the ride, but that's where Rhino Blaster is going. Maybe they'll extend to the east of PP? Also, here's hoping the Splashin' Safari entrance remodel will expand the nearby path to Thanksgiving (or at least improve the flow.) That thing congests pretty bad around opening when everyone's trying to get to SS.

^^ What, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" doesn't scream beer gardens and lederhosen to you?

Hoo boy. Last time something got announced at 2 in the morning, there was some Pointed roaring on Facebook. Really hope Holiday World isn't getting Dinosaurs Alive...

^ Yeah, I'm with Tanna. I'm very grateful that the park took passholders' suggestions and tried out a rewards system, but I think it would be more beneficial and more inspiring to users if the system wasn't based on "just blindly spend some money and watch what happens." Of course, I still ended up spending more money in the park this year than any other, so I suppose the goal was reached, but a continued lack of explanation kind of screams "we're in it for the profits." I understand that Kings Island is ultimately a business, so obviously increasing revenue is a goal... Just don't be so point-blank about it, I guess. Make the "regulars" feel like their business is appreciated rather than basically playing them as fools by encouraging them to endlessly spend money until the Mystical Percentage Roller Coaster Chart makes it over the first drop three times. And on the note of amount spent vs. percentage increase: I seriously do not understand the correlation at all. Mine was chuffing along at a decent rate when I purchased food, etc., and I blew through 1, 2, and 3 stars fairly easily over the course of the season. I used my pass on a $180 Fast Lane purchase the last weekend in September, and it only bumped me up about 30% on the way to level 4. Obviously, the higher star levels require more purchases/visits to advance, but either 1) Fast Lane doesn't count nearly as much toward rewards, which doesn't make sense to me since passholders would be more likely to leave and return another day instead of purchasing Fast Lane, or 2) the difference between going from 2 to 3 and 3 to 4 must be huge. ...Wow, this post sounds like I'm griping. Not my intent, I swear. I do still like the FUNPerks system, promise! I just don't care for that one aspect of it. If I get a 2013 pass (which is only in question due to unrelated circumstances) I'll still happily make use of the system.

I didn't know Chance and Vekoma even had anything to do with one another to begin with. Learn something new every day. Originally, was Vekoma doing the primary design, and then Chance provided the parts?

http://www.youtube.com/embed/rYDuNq-a5b4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> This seemed oddly appropriate.

Anyone else find the happy, upbeat tempo of the background music unintentionally hilarious? I feel like Greg Scheid and Don Helbig are dancing a celebratory waltz somewhere in the background.

^^ At least the first weekend, the crowds are nearly nonexistent. It's a great time to visit the park. I'm not even a park show watcher, and I enjoyed their Halloween music show. Their "haunted" house is neat, too, and I found the corn maze fairly entertaining. The rides, of course, are wonderful as always.

They're renaming Pilgrim's Plunge and promoting it as a new ride. It's accessible by both parks.

At most, I anticipate a Luminosity equivalent. Realistically, I expect little to nothing. The park's probably spending a good chunk of capital knocking down a pile of wood in Action Zone. If the park were operated by the Kochs, I'd say we'd see an investment like Holiday World's 2011 additions: general parkwide improvements that, compared to a ride, don't cost a ton but help improve the customer experience. When KI does this, it doesn't usually get announced until a month or so before opening day, and it's only announced on Facebook/Twitter, if at all. I'm a little curious to see how WindSeeker fares this off-season, too.

^ Yeah, I don't know what the deal is with that. The only coaster at Holiday World that has anything resembling the wood coaster smell is Raven on its lift hill, and it's not that strong. Each ride there has its own smell for its tunnels, but none of them has that smell that Beast has that really says you're on a wooden coaster. Mean Streak has its own smell (as does Blue Streak), and neither of them are near many trees. Son of Beast when operating had this smell that made me think of the wooden equivalent of hot car brakes. I seem to recall Rolling Thunder (SFGAdv) coming pretty close to The Beast smell, and its lift hill is planted in a relatively empty area between El Toro and Kingda Ka (though the rest of the ride does come closer to some trees.) I don't remember a distinct smell on the Kennywoodies or the Hersheypark woodies, but I also was so sick at the time that I had to fight to keep my nose from running right off my face.

In no particular order: The Beast's (and Son of Beast's, and Firehawk's, and Diamondback's) lift hills The sound of both Racer trains running over the final anti-rollbacks and hitting the final brakes Various games employees spieling over their mics (which seems like it'd be a common theme park sound, but I've never noticed it anywhere else. Then again, I haven't been anywhere else nearly as much as KI, so maybe I've been too excited everywhere else to notice it.) Vortex's lift hill clanky noise The train whistle on Adventure Express, as well as the thunkthunk noise of its wheels running over the transfer track gap The screech of The Crypt's resistors* The preshow ambiance music of Tomb Raider: The Ride** The screams on Viking Fury Invertigo's rrrrrrrrrrrng-CHUNK when the train is released from the first lift Backlot Stunt Coaster's explosion The train whistle on KI&MVRR *I specifically name The Crypt and not Tomb Raider because I never noticed it when TR:TR was around. **The first time I ever rode TR:TR, there was some breakdown that resulted in our group being stuck in the preshow room for an hour and a half with the music constantly running. It was unanimous afterward that it had nonetheless been entirely worth the wait.

^^^ ...Because 9 times out of 10 it's more reliable to get information from the horse's mouth than to get it secondhand? (Ironically, this is the rare exception. The KI website doesn't have Thunder Alley listed as closed, so it might not have had Xtreme Skyflyer listed as closed, either, if it was. Still, TheCrypt's point is valid.)

Maybe Jeff was recently hired by Dippin' Dots!

I love your photos! Very fun, and very interesting. The one of Corkscrew at the beginning of part 4, in particular, is awesome. Can't wait to read more!

^ Outside of the fact that she (was? is?) a nun, I've got nothing.

^ Fair enough. It's just weird for me since I still very much feel like a teenager or kid in many ways. On the other hand, someone sincerely asked me this time last year if I had kids or was married. That one still blows my mind. (I know some people are married and/or have kids at my age, but it's surreal hearing it for the first time. It's probably a fraction of how people feel when they first get asked about senior discounts...)

Happy birthday to me in 3 years! (I'll be in my mid-20's... That baffles me.)

^ That sounds wonderful! I think I'll show up on that exact date and ride it. I'll probably buy a snazzy First Rider t-shirt that will later be frequently confused with some apparent Air Force connotation. Something about being an eagle instead of a chicken...

Cue the impending GoodYellowKoRn182 post in 5, 4, 3, 2... (I'd do it myself, but I don't have enough time right now to type it all out!)

They've said an announcement is coming for a few weeks now on Facebook when people have asked. As far as what it is... I've got nothing. I'm doubtful it will be a coaster, based on the way that planning for it seems to have fallen by the wayside behind Bluegrass Boardwalk and Happy Halloween Weekends. Outside of that... Who knows? On the note of HHW: I've said it elsewhere on here, but that's a nice little event. I encourage everyone here (especially those with kids) to check it out if you get the chance. It's small and doesn't take over the whole park atmosphere the way Halloween Haunt does at KI, but it's charming without feeling cheesy. The touches they add do bring something unique to the park (especially the corn maze and various Halloween decorations around the park, though the 3D "haunted" house is also cool.)

^ Just pointing this out: new roller coaster pieces tend to have some value on places like eBay. A Dare Devil Dive (SFoG) wheel went for something like $150 last winter on there. I'm willing to bet old roller coaster pieces do, too.

This is bad... Your photos have made me miss the regular season already. This doesn't bode well for the o**-s*****! Your photos are wonderful. I don't know why, but this one in particular is my favorite:

^^^ that drive is similar to mine to CP, but it's the two-lane roads that make me crazy, not the actual drive. Same here. 3.5 hours to CP from my house, but the length isn't the issue for me. It's the two-lane roads and navigating through town after town on Route 4 that get to me. FINALLY. Someone understands. I will always and forever passionately loathe Route 4. You're never going fast enough for the other drivers, and you will see absolutely nothing for the entire 3 hours you're on it. (Most exciting thing: passing the Magnetic Springs, OH sign when they're advertising the Spring Water Festival.) It feels two hours longer than the 4 hours it takes to drive to Holiday World just because it sucks so much.