Scott Evans

I believe they were there at the GE private event day last year...but I could be wrong.

I have a platinum pass this year, am thinking of downgrading to just gold next year. How would this promo effect me if decided to renew as a gold pass holder now rather than wait until after the season? Hate to miss out on that good of price though with Reds making the playoffs my budget looks as if my money for Sept will goto the Reds. Also if I do renew the Platinum will they issue a new card/pass or just extend the date on the current card since there is no date physically on the card?

Its pretty good as it has most of the options at other places in the park in a buffet and all you can eat setting. Last year they had Eddy's Ice cream, this year they have soft serve but no cones. Food items include pasta, fried chicken, some type of sliced meat (I think its roast beef but could be turkey), mashed potatoes, pasta, tacos/nachos, shrimp, Chinese, mac n cheese, hot dogs, hamburgers, and much more plus deserts. Also drink is included in that price. Also in the evening/late afternoon there is the Backyard BBQ for 9.95 with your gold/plat card that is also all you can eat but with fewer options. Depending on my budget for the month I usually chose Rivertown Junction if eating in the park.

The Rivertown Junction is approx 15 bucks ea. including tax with the gold pass discount.

The CPI over the past 30 years has stayed RELATIVELY low or non-existent with an average CPI of about 3-4% per year. In recent years its been less than that with periods of year over year deflation through much of 2009. Compare this to the mid to late 70s that saw CPI average increases of 8-15%

Not really true as inflation has remained relatively low over the past 30 years and wages have gone up, at least until this recession. Gas was not 50 cents in the 80s either, the cheapest in my 35 years was in 97-98 where it dropped as low as 67 cents per gallon. In the 80s it hung around a dollar if I remember correctly. My copay is 5 bucks for generic and was free until last year and if you have no insurance some drugs at WalMart, Meijer, Kroger etc are anywhere from free to 4 bucks for generic. Currently me and my wife only spend about 50 bucks per week on avg for food at the grocery store, though our electric bill is much higher than 15/mo. The key is budgeting regardless of what you make and not spending more than you earn. If you don't make enough to cover basic needs such as food, utilities, shelter, transportation and medicine then you need to find a way to generate more income. I work two jobs, if that doesn't generate more income, nothing will. I am also single, so its just me worrying how to pay the bills. My copay on one drug is 34 bucks-sounds like your insurance is better than mine. I drive a 12 year old car with 251K on it, and I am in the cheapest housing I can find. If you have two full time incomes coming in, life is a lot easier than one. Don't judge someone else's situation if you're not living it. As a side note, I don't have cable and I have the cheapest phone plan I can get. The only luxury I have is internet. Not judging, just stating the facts and offering helpful information. Check out 48days.net which is a great career resource and has given me some great ideas on earning extra cash and helped guide my wife's path to a better career. I've been in your situation before and worked my way out of it. Key is to stay out of debt, which unfortunately I didn't do back when I was 21 earning 5.50/hour in 97.

Not really true as inflation has remained relatively low over the past 30 years and wages have gone up, at least until this recession. Gas was not 50 cents in the 80s either, the cheapest in my 35 years was in 97-98 where it dropped as low as 67 cents per gallon. In the 80s it hung around a dollar if I remember correctly. My copay is 5 bucks for generic and was free until last year and if you have no insurance some drugs at WalMart, Meijer, Kroger etc are anywhere from free to 4 bucks for generic. Currently me and my wife only spend about 50 bucks per week on avg for food at the grocery store, though our electric bill is much higher than 15/mo. The key is budgeting regardless of what you make and not spending more than you earn. If you don't make enough to cover basic needs such as food, utilities, shelter, transportation and medicine then you need to find a way to generate more income.

Yes and yes. We always get a Dining Plan when we go to Disney, and I know that the drinks and food are averaging out to be pretty cheap... and the sit-down spots are gourmet food~!! Since pass holders at KI are the ones that have figured out how to save money on daily visits, they should definitely be given some sort of perk that prevents them from eating at Taco Bell. ...a better discount than cheap funnel cakes before 5 pm. But here we are comparing KI to WDW again... The discount in the Rivertown Buffet is decent that brings the price down to a reasonable level for an all you can eat buffet, as well as the back yard brbq discount. But I agree an across the board discount would be nice, or maybe unlimited soft drinks at a minimum.

Good thing those complainers don't live downtown or in N Ky on Firework Fridays with the Reds. Especially this Friday night with a post game MC Hammer Concert, and on field presentation of the 1990 World Championship team members prior to the fireworks show. If its a long game could be 11-11:30 before the first one is fired off. LOL.

Every family is on a budget, some just admit it earlier than others. Bottom line is that Kings Island's food prices are out of line for the marketplace and greatly over priced.

That is awesome, did they set off the fireworks ot 10 or 12? You are now allowed on the tower while they shoot off fireworks but only a limited number of people. Shot them off at 10p. I was in line for Diamondback at the time, about a 50-55 minute total wait for that ride.

The worse line was the line to get down from the Eiffel Tower. It was wrapped all the way around the tower about 11:15-11:30.

Extremely crowded, got there about 5:30, and waits were tolerable on Adventure Express (about 10 minutes) and Racer (about 5-10 minutes if you take out the time I wasted in the front of the line before moving to a different car). Outside of that everything was insane and got worse as the night moved on. Diamondback was lined up outside the queue, The Beast was about 80 minutes as every lane was open and the line started near the vending machines. Flight Deck was backed up to the Vending machines. There was even a line to some of the restrooms, not to mention the food lines. Still had fun and the night ride on Diamondback was amazing. The bigger question was some people had unlimited drink wrist bands, is this an option for anyone to buy or was it through some group activity such as one of the two major companies that came there that day?

http://news.cincinna...t-Kings-Island- So, after a journey of perhaps several hours, some had a far less than perfect day, but no refunds were given. Why am I reminded something about a pickle? And Coney Island? Nickel wise and future attendance foolish? Or does only the current quarter matter in circumstances like these? Terp, just askin' Qs. This is why the Reds are the best organization in town. The Joey Votto figurine was held up and didn't arrive on time, they not only gave everyone a voucher for the figure but also a voucher for a half price ticket for any seat in the park other than the 5 dollar seats and the 235 dollar seats.

Sad to hear, I actually rode the Raven for the first time with him in 1997 as part of my duties working for WSTO radio. Great guy and that is a great park.

Depends on which type of bankruptcy they would go under. Chapter 7 means Cedar Fair ceases to exist and assets are sold with the creditors getting the proceeds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11,_Title_11,_United_States_Code#Chapter_11_in_general has basic info regarding a Chapter 11 proceeding. In this case a new management team would probably be put in place by the trustee of the company under reorganization, also all the unit holders would receive nothing which is why the deal with the equity company would have probably been a good deal for most of the unit holders, especially if CF has negative equity.

Today I officially line jumped (not on purpose and there was no one in line at the time) on Back Lot Stunt Coaster after ERT was over. The reason, I'm basically blind when I'm not wearing glasses(and leave them in the car when I'm going to ride coasters) and the trash can that was blocking the old gold pass speed pass was moved. When we got up there the ride op told us we had to go all the way around next time. I was confused at first until I realized my mistake and apologized, but if KI is not going to use that lane as either a SRO line or any other purpose they should invest the 20 bucks for a chain to permanently block off that line. Anyone else do this or am I the only one that had a Homer Simpson "Doh" moment....

Here is everything you wanted to know about torando warnings and more. First in this area all weather warnings are issued by the National Weather Service out of Wilmington. Watches are issued out of Oklahoma and the storms prediction center. A Tornado Warning is issued when a trained spotter has confirmed a tornado on the ground or when doppler radar indicates a possible tornado. The sirens in some cases are sounded when there is a Severe Thunderstorm Warning when a Tornado Watch is issued. This depends on the county. Also with the Emergency Alert System these sirens also can be programmed to sound automatically when a warning is issued. Under the old Emergency Broadcast System warnings were issued for complete counties, under the Emergency Alert System which was implemented in 1997/98 the ability to issue warnings for "sub divisions" of counties became possible as it is a digital system that works on a web of communication rather than a chain. The storm in question on May 21, was issued for South Eastern Warren County around the Butlerville area which is 10 miles to the east of Kings Island. The storm was moving away from KI towards Wilmington. To the poster who gets panic attacks during the storms I completely understand as I survived an F3 tornado that touched down extremely close to my house at the time (light polls across the street were bent at the bottom like a pretzel) in Jan of 2000 in Owensboro, Ky. The power of those storms are nothing to mess with and should be taken serious. Also a couple of years ago I was on The Beast when a Severe T-storm popped up. That was not a fun ride as hail, lightning, and high winds provided a painful ride on my bald head. One thing Kings Island should do is when storm warnings are issued is use the PA system to inform and direct guests what to do and where to go. Anything else is irresponsible. As far as workers having umbrellas, during a thunderstorm that would basically be walking around with a lightning rod. Hooded jackets would be much much better option for keeping employees dry. Also you can not operate rides safely when lightning is in the area as it can travel as far as 30-40 miles away from the center of the storm. The park closing for safety reasons makes the most sense, especially when the storms train the way they did that night. Scott Evans Weathercaster - Radio Forecast Network, heard locally on 1160AM mid-6a Very interesting!! As a survivor of the Xenia tornado of '74, I am fascinated by all of this. I agree, the park needs to come up with a plan. Selective, I can't believe that sup said they had no plan since the park had never been hit by one. That just floors me. I would like to take that person into Xenia to live for a year-I guarantee their views would change. I suggest management look at contacting Xenia's risk management dept since they have trained other communities in emergency preparedness-lord knows, they are experts on the subject. I have no problem with the park closing early that night, they did the right thing. Staying in an open area with the storms going on, is just plain stupid. Honestly, I can't understand the complaining on here about KI's decision to close early. I can believe they have no plan, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI27jlwNk2E Until one lives through tragedy most seem to not worry about the problem until its too late, which is why we have an ocean of oil right now, no plan in case of tragedy.

Here is everything you wanted to know about torando warnings and more. First in this area all weather warnings are issued by the National Weather Service out of Wilmington. Watches are issued out of Oklahoma and the storms prediction center. A Tornado Warning is issued when a trained spotter has confirmed a tornado on the ground or when doppler radar indicates a possible tornado. The sirens in some cases are sounded when there is a Severe Thunderstorm Warning when a Tornado Watch is issued. This depends on the county. Also with the Emergency Alert System these sirens also can be programmed to sound automatically when a warning is issued. Under the old Emergency Broadcast System warnings were issued for complete counties, under the Emergency Alert System which was implemented in 1997/98 the ability to issue warnings for "sub divisions" of counties became possible as it is a digital system that works on a web of communication rather than a chain. The storm in question on May 21, was issued for South Eastern Warren County around the Butlerville area which is 10 miles to the east of Kings Island. The storm was moving away from KI towards Wilmington. To the poster who gets panic attacks during the storms I completely understand as I survived an F3 tornado that touched down extremely close to my house at the time (light polls across the street were bent at the bottom like a pretzel) in Jan of 2000 in Owensboro, Ky. The power of those storms are nothing to mess with and should be taken serious. Also a couple of years ago I was on The Beast when a Severe T-storm popped up. That was not a fun ride as hail, lightning, and high winds provided a painful ride on my bald head. One thing Kings Island should do is when storm warnings are issued is use the PA system to inform and direct guests what to do and where to go. Anything else is irresponsible. As far as workers having umbrellas, during a thunderstorm that would basically be walking around with a lightning rod. Hooded jackets would be much much better option for keeping employees dry. Also you can not operate rides safely when lightning is in the area as it can travel as far as 30-40 miles away from the center of the storm. The park closing for safety reasons makes the most sense, especially when the storms train the way they did that night. Scott Evans Weathercaster - Radio Forecast Network, heard locally on 1160AM mid-6a

To be 100% safe no you shouldn't be on a computer during a storm. However, it is highly unlikely that you would be struck by lightning, just if it does happen you will probably lose most of your electronics and could be struck while connected. This happened at my oral surgeon's office back in March, they lost all computers, phone system, and oxygen basically shutting them down for anything more than consultations. Also either a phone or cable tech was in the building at the time the lightning hit and was injured by the strike. Unfortunately even if your car was hit at 88 mph you will not be able to travel through time...

While they are in the middle of no where, the Evansville In Owensboro, KY market does reach a large number of potential advertisers and there are powerful radio stations that reach the majority of the region around Holiday World. The radio station I used to work for, WSTO, is a 100,000 watt station and can be heard as far south as Tenn, East to Louisville, West to Cape Girardeau and North to Vincennes (actually a bit further north.) It is probably HW's #1 advertiser and for the TSA reaches a majority of radio listeners. Add in WBKR, WIKY, WKDQ, and even WQXQ there is a lot of area and population covered by the local media there. Not to mention the new market opened up with the closing of Ky Kingdom and Holiday World does have at least some billboards up in Louisville.

Since I took vacation this week and didn't want to pull up more carpet today, I decided to take advantage of the light crowds and head to the park. The crowd was extremely light and I got there in time for early ride times, which I rode Diamondback once and The Beast 3 times consecutively without getting off. In three hours I rode every adult coaster except for Firehawk and other than Invertigo most were pretty much a walk on. Ride Count: Diamondback: 2 Beast: 3 Backlot Stunt Coaster: 1 Vortex: 1 Flight of Fear: 1 Racer: 1 Adventure Express: 1 Delirium: 1 Drop Tower: 1 Flight Deck: 1 Congo Falls: 1 Invertigo: 1

The wives were ready to leave at 3pm so we left at that time. I may try to make it up there again before end of the year.

I took a trip to Cedar Point this past weekend with my wife and met friends of ours up there who joined us. It was an interesting trip with really four levels of "thrill seekers". My wife likes smaller rides and coasters, my wife's friend doesn't like anything over a "1" rating, and my friend likes some coasters but nothing inverted and none of the spinning rides. Also my wife can usually only last about 6 hours at a park before getting tired and ready to go. With all that said plus multiple rides being broke down the ride count was small so in this trip report I will compare the ride at CP with those at Kings Island that are similar. Ride 1: Sky Ride - KI - nothing similar Sky Ride was a decent way to get the day started as it gave me an overhead view of the front part of the park. No real reason to implement this at KI as the park layout makes it easy to get to one part to the other. Also I was amazed at the lines of people waiting to ride the Sky Ride rather than walking the midway. Ride 2: Corkscrew KI - Vortex Corkscrew was surprising to me at how short it was especially compared to Vortex. My wife surprised me and wanted to ride this, our friends, sat this one out. The wait for this ride was 0 wait, as we literally walked on to it. I would say this was a fun ride and very surprisingly smooth. My wife also enjoyed this ride even though she issued her trademark screams which left me deaf on my right ear. I'd give the ride a B+. Vortex though wins the battle of these two however, though barely as Vortex is a much rougher ride, however the thrills and speed make up the difference. Ride 3: Iron Dragon KI - Top Gun/Flight Deck My wife and I also rode Iron Dragon as our friends sat out. This was an excellent ride, extremely smooth, and the theming was perfect with the first half gliding through the trees and the second half through the lagoon. The added fog effects added a very nice touch. Grade of A for this ride and it beats out the faster but theme lacking Flight Deck at KI Ride 4: Cedar Point Train vs Kings Island Train After that we made our way to the train at Cedar Point to head back to the area where Maverick was. We also rode the full train and it beats Kings Islands by a mile. The bonetown animations were great and entertaining. Ride 5: Antique Cars This was a ride that all 4 of us decided to ride, especially since the mine car was down. Was a bit of a wait for these as one of the cars broke down on the covered bridge. Ok for what it was. Nothing at KI to compare Ride 6: Paddleboat Excursion Wait for Maverick was an hour so we moved on to see if Gemini was running as the Mine car was still down. Gemini was also broke down so we took the paddle boat excursion which was a decent tour of the park and the new water ride there looks like lots of fun. Ride 7: Witches Wheel Me and my wife were going to ride Monster but the CP operator was really inefficient at loading the ride so we moved on and took a ride on the Witches Wheel. It was a decent ride that made us dizzy. Fun for what it was. Ride 8: Magnum XL KI Diamondback Me and my wife's friend husband decided to ride this ride next, when we got up there the sign said 1 hour wait though I saw someone mess with it right before. Wait was maybe 15 minutes. Ride was pretty decent though alot rougher than I expected for a steel coaster. Also someone evidently had a bowel movement halfway through the ride which provided an interesting smell. Ride itself was an A- Diamondback though is a clear winner though really not the exact type of coaster to compare it to. Ride 9: Mine Car Ride KI Adventure Express Gemini was still broke down and they had a mechanic looking at what looked to be an electrical box half way through the track. My wife took this one off her will ride list after seeing this..so we walked back over to see if the Mine Car was running and it was. Once again it was a walk on and me and my wife took the front seat. I found it interesting that the restraints required all three seats of people to cooperate before they would latch down. As for the ride itself it was a decently fun ride but still trails Adventure Express in both theming and speed. Winner: Kings Island, Ride Grade B- though going over the water was pretty cool. Also to note that someone had changed the wait time sign to 2 hours which caused some people to look at the wait and then walk away. Ride 10: Millennium Force KI Diamondback After eating lunch and having the most expensive and worse cheeseburger I've ever had, we walked over to see what the wait was like for Maverick again, this time it was 1.25 hours so we decided to take the train back to the front of the park as Mean Streak was also still down. While riding the train back to the station I noticed that the line for MF looked to be pretty light. So me and the other guy on the trip headed over there while our wives went I believe out to the boardwalk. Anyway we get there and the ride wait time said 1 hour, in reality it was about 30 minutes. The line was long however it really never quit moving. The ride ops on this ride did an excellent job of loading and unloading the trains and ensured that the entire train was full. This was an awesome ride and unbelievable first hill climb and drop. Extremely smooth ride as well. Grade for the ride, A+. Though I still like Diamondback better for its unique seating and smooth ride. Was definitely worth the wait. Ride 11: Iron Dragon Me and my wife were going to ride Wildcat but decided it wasn't worth the wait, so we moved over to Iron Dragon again, this time was a much longer wait and evidently the ride broke down while we were in line as they had to do a few test runs, which created a much longer wait. Second time was not as fun as the first but still an enjoyable suspended coaster. Ride 12: Corkscrew Again the line looked incredibly short for this, my wife was going to join me a second time however decided against it as she had reached her level for being out all day around the 6 hour mark. So I rode it by myself, it would have been a walk on however the Ride Ops closed some of the cars for unknown reasons that created a longer line and wait. Incredibly stupid in my opinion. Still a fun ride. Ride 13: Gemini KI Racer The ladies were tired so me and the other dude left them at the Dragster viewing stands (which by the way we did see a rollback) and went to see if the Gemini was finally running, which it was. It was a short line that was moving fast until..the blue side broke down. This of course slowed things down as they lost 50% of their capacity. The ride itself was fun however I have to give Kings Island's racer the edge here as it seems to be as fast with more air time in my opinion. Gemini Grade: B+ Edge Racer Ride 14: Mean Streak KI Beast My friend didnt really want to ride this as he knew that it was way to rough from previous rides (he's from Sandusky). However since Maverick was broke down (again) we went ahead and got in line for it which was much longer than I initially though. The ride itself was horrible, and is third on my least favorite coasters behind SOB & Firehawk. It was incredibly rough and was really not fun. Grade: F Beast wins by a mile and even SOB was less painful than Mean Streak, and I rode Son of Beast about 1 or two trains before the major incident a few years ago. Anyway we would have been better off waiting outside for Maverick to reopen as it was running again by the time we got off the Mean Streak and the line had already rebuilt to the 40 minute mark and our wives were calling us ready to go. Overall impression: Cedar Point was a nice park, very clean, but seemed to have lots of breakdowns for some reason. Food was not good but wasn't expecting too much. Also I would recommend for eating outside the park Manny's Sports Bar which has a Kobe Cheeseburger for about 10 bucks and the Brown Derby Roadhouse. Both are on 250 near the hotels (Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn etc.) Next time I go though I will leave the wives at home. :-)

I received an email from Cedar Point and they stated that they have fixed the problem and that I should have no problems using my pass this weekend at Cedar Point. Hopefully all goes well.