najellin

I am sorry I was poking fun at her age. Honestly, I think she seems like a great person and reminds me of people I've lost in my life (my grandma being one). Oh, and did I even mention anything about video games on those posts (I didn't so you didn't have to bring that up). I was just saying, as an observer, that Voyage did have peices of wood flying around when it first opened (which is probably normal, but still a little dangerous, what if someone got hit with a piece). And Pilgrim's Plunge was great, except for that lift. It didn't seem that it was saving a lot of time by having one boat go down it while the other was going up it. It was the first ride of its kind, so it makes since it's not going to have a proven track record for having all its kinks worked out. As for Kentucky Kingdom, I'm suprised that park hasn't closed down do to all the competition it has to deal with (Holiday World and Kings Island aren't that far away). It says something when you have a park that opens as the midway for the State Fair. As far as I'm concerned, it really is a phenomenon that Holiday World isn't in major debt. How do they make up for all their costs? The park price is pretty low, the food prices are the most affordable I've ever seen at a theme park, they have free parking, and free drinks. Where's the money coming from? Do they own the rights to the nearby campgrounds? Even if they do, it probably still wouldn't make enough money to cover all the costs. I think that the nearby community (and even Jasper) might donate money to keep the park growing.

Whoever was saying I was stupid about adding on to SOB doesn't realize I was just dreaming. Obviously, they aren't going to add anything onto the ride. The reason I said it was going to probably open up in the middle of the summer next year is because that's what happened in `07. Honestly, if I were the park owner, I'd just keep it open to the public, but let them know it's going on the chopping block soon.

Here's Five Things: 1. Update Son of Beast to make it just as fast, long, and tall, but less beat your head in and give you chest problems for the rest of the day (which will be hard, considering it's a wooden coaster). 2. Add a Vertical-Drop coaster (w/ possibly a floorless train) somewhere in the space in-between The Beast, F/X Theatre, & Vortex, W/ drops going under-ground, a station-fly by, and possibly interacting with one of the three coasters near there (like going through Racer, or sharing a tunnel with The Beast, or racing over top of The Vortex. I wish Kings Island's design people were reading this 3. Take all the up-charge attractions and move them into a separate gated park. Maybe, put a parking lot w/ it and a monorail (ALA: Disney World style) that would connect the waterpark, theme park, x-park (w/ the upcharge rides), the park's resort lodge, and possibly add another station where buses could drop off passengers. This would turn Kings Island into a mini Resort Complex, but I don't know if it would benefit the park in the short term (it def would in the long term for sure). 4. Buy back some of the movie themeing rights (namely, Face/Off, Top Gun, & Tomb Raider). Put back the great themeing on two of those rides and add some kind of themeing (or not) to Face/Off (I mean, it goes so well with the type of ride it is). Top Gun is boring without the cool themeing and the music. Tomb Raider was so much better when it had a storyline and an actual theme that doesn't induce memories of 1930's B-movies! 5. Since the Nickolodeon contract isn't being renewed, change the themeing. Get rid of some of the stupid rides (the train and the gack walk-through). Then, make the front part of Nick Universe into a space theme (with a few new space-themed rides like a motion simulator and move the kiddie launch tower over to this area). Name the wooden coaster Comet, Little Bill's blah blah blah to Rocket Launcher (or even Rocketeers or something) and get a rocket-themed train for it. Then, change Scooby's blast ride into a space battle ride w/ spinning cars (like the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disney World). As for the other half of the kiddie zone, change it to become a jungle theme (Take out the "Thornberry" moniker for that log flume, and voila). Then, change Reptar to be about a Raptor or a Pteradactol. Then, put up a jungle gym that's themed to a observation area and put in a safari trail or ride in the space left over after tearing down everything east of Avatar. Then, make Nick Theatre into an animal show as well as an African party show. Lastly, put in a ferris wheel west of the kiddie park.

It's been done...Many, Many of times... What makes no sense to me is that Kentucky Kingdom has a Proslide and they're just 1/2 an hour away. I thought parks prided themselves on being unique to their regional area (like Kings Island having the only surfing attraction in the Midwest, etc. etc.)

They don't have the surfing ride (that's found at Kings Island's waterpark). They don't have the "V-Shaped" water-ride that's found at a few parks around the US. They don't have an "Atlantis" type water ride (@ Sea World). Need I mention more things they don't have? Splashin' Safari has 2 wave pools (three if you count the new one as two connected ones) and 2 lazy rivers (which is just stupid). They also have two of almost the exact same kiddie attractions (one's themed and the other isn't, big difference, NOT). Splashin' Safari is 1/2 innovative fun rides, 1/2 recycled rides and water slides that look like they would fit perfectly at a local public swimming pool (mainly the two at the waterpark's entrance).

Man, I was hoping Holiday World was finally going to move into the 21st century and get a steel coaster! Proslide is def 21st century, but Splashin' Safari is already the #2 waterpark in North America Pat Cook! If you're going to expand your visiting records, then build a freakin' steel coaster already, old bag (J/K, I saw her greeting guests at the front gate this year and she seemed really down-to-earth). My family has this running joke that everytime we go to Holiday World we might see a "celebrity" and we'd scream "OMG!!! It's Pat Cook!" Wow, I can't believe how off topic that just got (LOL). Anyways.... they should advertise it as a "watercoaster" to the public (b/c it would make more sense to them that way), or say it's a water slide with "LIM-like" launches throughout (AKA: Mr. Freeze meets ZOOMbabwe, but on a much smaller scale). Honestly, before they build a new ride, they need to fix the elevator lift on their new slide, because not a lot of people got on it when I went there in June (I didn't see anyone turn back around and ride it again either). I mean, when a ride's tipping over and creeking and it's brand new, then that's not a good sign. A friend of a friend (who just happens to be an engineer), said it was closed when they went not too long ago (but that he wouldn't have gone on it anyway, because it didn't have very good safety measures). I don't blame him for not wanting to ride it. I rode 2x's (the first time was OK I guess), and the 2nd time scared me more than any other ride I've ever been on (I seriously thought there was a slight possibility that I was going to die on that ride up the elevator). Drop Zone: scared a little bit. Mr. Freeze: no way scared. Voyage: only when pieces of wood are flying by my face (which happened to me the first year it opened) or when it's raining. Pilgrim's Plunge: scared me more than when I watched the Exorcist people!!!!!

This makes me laugh... I remember going to Kings Island when it first became Paramount's Kings Island and Top Gun had just been built (oh, this could be a sad story about that ride, but I'm not going to go there, OK, I am). When that ride first opened, it was such a big deal. I remember it being red and blue, waiting in line for well over an hour and a half and then it being maybe a minute long. Funny, even at 4.5 years old, I though the ride was just OK. I also remember King Cobra looked so scary to me, because I'd never seen a ride where people where standing on it (my bro went on it and I was screaming for him not to go on because I was scared he'd get hurt LOL). Finishing up this rabbit trail, I also remember Adventure Express being stupid until the ending (with the drummers, I thought the ride was only 1/2 over at that point, it was dissapointing). Vortex looked liked a tangled mess to me (still does). I also remember thinking Beastie was OK, but the kiddie coaster (Scooby Zoom it was called back then, I think) was so boring to me. I mean, I thought the Flintstone's bumper cars was more fun!

I've been to Kings Island every year since 2002. Yes, Son of Beast was more popular when it had a loop. No, I don't think the new trains helped make the ride more comfortable. That's not the point here. The point is that the ride was made to be a sequel to The Beast, a ride that was built to be scary, rough, and bring you to a near-death experience (just kidding on that last part). Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that any person who has any common sense should know that a wooden coaster that soars over 200 feet in the air is not going to feel good, OK. Besides, they already have signs at all their rides at Kings Island warning people. Here's what I think Kings Island will do. They'll keep it closed for half of next year and then open it back up to see if people will still ride it. If they don't, then it will be SBNO for a year or more, so Cedar Fair can figure out how to get rid of the ride AND replace it with something else (or at least promise that it will be replaced like Delirium was for King Cobra). This is what I would do (since I'm a rollercoaster tycoon fanatic). I would re-track part of the ride. Basically, make it so that the 2nd hill goes straight (instead of going into the giant helix). Then add on a turn around, then a hill (maybe not), and then connect that back up with the giant helix. That way, the ride isn't going 78 MPH through the helix (the speed would have decreased to a manageable 70 MPH max). Then, if Cedar Fair wants to bring back fans, bring in another loop and design a new kind of train that can deal with a steel loop. Finally, if they really wanted to be nostalgic, then they should add a few tunnels to the ride (it's supposed to be the sequel to Beast isn't it?!)