malem

Securing financing becomes much easier once a business has a record of profitability. If this venture is a success, and Hart doesn't find a buyer, perhaps amendments to KKRC's investment plan will reflect a larger line of credit. Keeping the agreed-upon figures low could be a bargaining chip for the park operator to seek further concessions from the state in exchange for bigger investments. (Why the state would accept laughably low numbers is the big question here.)

^ Action Zone's concrete is, for the most part, in a lot better shape than the asphalt/concrete that was replaced with pavers.

^ See also the blurb about Drop Tower safety in the park's FAQ. I would think that a top priority of the NEW Kentucky Kingdom would be to avoid any association with that tragedy at SIX's Kentucky Kingdom.

If he didn't get anything by email after purchasing the passes, he will want to call Accesso technical support at 407-261-4291, according to their FAQ. The confirmation would include whether the passes were regular or gold. Kids under 3 don't need any admission ticket.

^ One word? I count nine in that animated gif. EDIT: what goble said

At 65°F, it's warm enough for a regular, non-polar-bear plunge.

It's good to see that they're keeping the mobile site updated, but maintaining two different sites is much less than ideal in 2013. Most noticeably, links to content malfunction when viewed on the "wrong" type of device, undercutting a key benefit of the web. A properly built website should be able to function on any standards-compliant browser, whether it's running on a desktop computer, a mobile phone, a tablet, or a smart TV. I understand FUN's reason for maintaining two sites; using Accesso's turnkey solution saves having to contract with another vendor and/or obtain talent outside of their core business. Building a mobile-ready website requires more specialized skills than creating a desktop-only website, as techniques for the former are a much more recent evolution. Of course, customers aren't interested in these types of excuses when they encounter a broken link.

It's finally fixed now, after about 24 hours of downtime. The new certificate expires 12/15/14. Hopefully someone at Cedar Fair sets up nagios, which (when properly configured) would have warned them in advance of the expiration and complained very loudly as soon as it did expire.

^ This particular certificate wasn't issued until 12/12/2012, so blaming him might be farfetched. (But then again, Bart's still there at the end of 2013.) One would hope that an error like this would have started sending alerts to the mobile phones of Cedar Fair's IT staff around 7:01pm last night.

The SSL certificate used for visitkingsisland.com expired on 12/14/2013 at 18:59:59 EST, meaning that the website is now producing an error message for most visitors. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/

Terp: how long does this url take to open on your phone? It's taking anywhere between 100ms and 300ms here. (Slow, but not excruciatingly slow.) http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?s=afbeb1deed66f75b555073f1b21e2f9e&&app=members&module=ajax&secure_key=bc4f8e462c5599bc39d50dc72dcd320f&section=card&mid=6611

Our wristbands stopped opening exterior doors after check-out on Saturday, as I realized when I briefly got locked outside door #2. Had we ventured out into the snow, it could have been a very long walk to the lobby entrance doors in swimsuits.

I avoid them when I can, mainly because I hate carrying extra things around. Luckily, I don't get cold (or hot, for that matter) easily. I'm pretty sure that I scared some people at the GWL conference wing when I walked outside late Saturday night with a dripping wet swimsuit and a t-shirt. (Don't worry - I'm careful to avoid dangers like frostbite and hypothermia.)

That last post is really difficult to understand, BB1. We'll look forward to that trip report, then. People have found the comments annoying, but not offensive. Making off-topic posts that don't advance the ongoing conversation can be considered noise. Randomly talking about donkeys in a thread about Winterfest adds nothing to that discussion. There's nothing wrong with dropping a hint about what you're going to post next. However, if you want people to enjoy your next post, it's best not to annoy them beforehand.

After almost two months of planning, the holiday party at Great Wolf Lodge finally happened! Seeing everyone have such a great time was amazing. The freak early-December winter storm made travel difficult for many, and a few had to cancel at the last minute. Devan kept a near-constant watch on road conditions prior to the event, communicating with everyone to help people arrive safely. (Thanks again for all you did, Devan!) I was organizing hotel arrivals and check-ins, so I stayed rather busy running between rooms and around the hotel to get everyone situated. This was more work than I thought it would be, but at least I got lots of exercise! Thanks to everyone who helped me with this. The room party Friday evening was a lot of fun, though I missed parts of it helping late arrivals. I evidently need to study KI/CP ride statistics and the names/manufacturers of CP's flats, but I did win one of Devan's challenge coins by correctly answering that Paramount Communications purchased KI in 1992. After the festivities, LoraX, Katie.Greg, Mrs. No Chickens, and NoChickens gave everyone an awesome gift. (Thanks again! Both of those are very special.) Of course, the highlight of the event was the huge waterpark, which has a great mix of activities. Only registered guests are allowed in, so wait times aren't too bad even when the hotel is fully booked. My favorite rides were the ProSlide hydromagnetic water coaster (Hydro Plunge) and the ProSlide Tantrum with the LED lighting package (Triple Twist). The latter ejected at least two of us from the inner-tube - it's important to hold on tightly! Other must-dos include the family tube slide (River Canyon Run) and the tube slide that circles a bowl (Coyote Canyon, but even the lifeguards called it "the toilet bowl"). Those two are best ridden with as much weight as possible in the tube, staying under the posted weight limit of course. Rounding out the selection are two additional tube slides and two body slides attached to the 4-story treehouse structure. Besides the water slides, there were plenty of other welcome diversions: sitting in one of the hot tubs, floating on the lazy river, swimming in the wave pool, manipulating water effects in the "Fort Mackenzie" treehouse, and watching jcgoble3 scale a giant snake in the kiddie pool. I will say that it is impressive how clean and well-maintained they keep this place. The floors apparently get sanitized nightly, the 84° indoor air is kept fresh, and the water lacks any "chlorine smell" from excessive disinfection byproducts. I'm usually bothered by the water in swimming pools and waterparks, but I stayed comfortable the entire time here. The dinner and white elephant exchange Saturday afternoon was a great change of pace after many hours of waterpark fun, with lots of food and plenty of laughs. Sadly, however, I left my (rather funny) white elephant gift at home. As you can see, ohiocolts loved opening a box filled with Justin Bieber posters: As we left the restaurant, the meetup devolved into a snowball fight as many prepared to head back home. Devan and Korbin thought it was funny to gang up on me since I wasn't wearing a coat, so I ended up covered in snow. Luckily, I managed to (mostly) block photographic evidence of this. I suppose this is a lesson to dress for the inevitable when attending a KICentral meetup after fresh snowfall. (What's a KIC event without a little off-the-wall silliness?) A few of us returned to the waterpark for the last ~5 hours of operation that evening. Surprisingly, lines were shorter than they were Friday evening, so we got to do a lot. With the meetup nearly over, I could finally relax without worrying about who might be calling me. By the time the waterpark closed, only exscream team, Goki32, and I were left. Overall the event was a huge success. GWL can be pricey, but the quality makes it a good value - especially at the price we paid. There's not much that's better than riding a water coaster on a cold December day, then waking up to a great overhead view of Kings Island.

We were talking about how you should have come while standing in line for it. Does that count? No, but there was plenty of cookie eating. People baked some at home to share, and plenty of free cookies were given out by GWL in the hotel lobby.

I don't mind having my picture taken; I was (trying to) prevent documentation of the snowball onslaught. For some reason, both Devan and Korbin thought it was hilarious to throw snow specifically at me.

We're now down to mere hours! Looking very forward to this! Weather will be an issue for many. Drive slowly and check traffic/weather conditions. We're discussing the weather in the main meetup thread. Feel free to arrive anytime. Some of us are already there, and we'll be up late Friday night with people arriving after the weather clears up. Devan is already there, so he's the best person to call tonight and Friday morning with any issues/questions. His number was e-mailed in a PDF to everyone who has signed up. Remember to text before you arrive so that we can be there to meet you. We do have some additional space due to a couple weather-related cancellations. If you want to come and didn't sign up, contact us tomorrow to hold your spot and confirm that we still have space. (If you can't get money right away, let us know and I'm sure we can work something out.)

^^ Those links go to the same place as your original picture links. ^^^ & ^ Photobucket does link directly to the raw video, which allows shared videos to be downloaded or played on any device. Many video sharing sites (try to) restrict this. Here are direct links that should work on any device: http://i26.photobucket.com/download-albums/c124/jandyb79/IMG_2867.mp4 http://i26.photobucket.com/download-albums/c124/jandyb79/IMG_2868.mp4 http://i26.photobucket.com/download-albums/c124/jandyb79/IMG_2878.mp4 http://i26.photobucket.com/download-albums/c124/jandyb79/IMG_2860.mp4

According to the National Weather Service, the air temperature is currently forecast to stay above freezing Thursday night into Friday morning. Hopefully this holds, and anything that falls will melt quickly. I sent an e-mail with important check-in details to everyone who has signed up. Make sure to print the attached PDF and bring it with you to the Lodge. (Contact me if you didn't receive it.) We still have 2 overnight slots and 2 wristband-only slots remaining if anyone else wants to be a part of this. Contact me soon if you're interested!

^ You don't need an Instagram account to view images shared via that service. The only problem is that images are stored in low resolution. If you want to see the images in a clean gallery, rather than the annoying Instagram interface, try a third party viewer such as http://findgram.com .

^ I think Don is implying that the number of available spots will be determined by the number of people who have raised $100 by the deadline. That will be a limited number, even though that limit is not yet determined.

Firefox does have a built-in spell checker. It must be disabled. Right click inside a text box and check the option to enable it. If there is no such option, it means that Firefox doesn't have a dictionary installed for some reason.

^ So try Firefox.

But it is the west, right? Rivertown at Kings Island isn't themed around the Old West. (Although Frontiertown at Cedar Point is.)