malem

Welcome! Hope you enjoy your time here. I don't think we want to burden Guest Services; they have a lot to deal with even on a normal day. They couldn't do it for all the groups that visit KI, so it wouldn't be fair to do it for us. Perhaps end hand-outs at 9:20am, to give you time to stash them in a car prior to ERT? Or I'd be happy to dash proceed quickly yet carefully through the parking lot instead, since you're doing everything else. This seems better than wasting ERT minutes in the locker kiosk line. Quite a few people are already interested in a lunchtime meet-up, per the opening day Google Doc. We need to figure out a time/place for that, and hopefully do t-shirts at the same time. (You're the one with the goods, so do you have a preferred time/location?)

^^ Have you seen the line for Boo Blasters on a rainy day? I don't think you'd be marathoning it without Fast Lane. Certainty in forecasts more than 7 days out is usually very low. Companies like AccuWeather aren't doing anyone (except their advertisers) a favor by "predicting" day-by-day highs and times of precipitation weeks in advance.

^ That artwork is more amusing when you consider that Dorney doesn't even have gold passes. (along with Cedar Point and Michigan's Adventure)

According to the new season pass page, gold and platinum passholders get a flat 10% discount on food & merchandise this year, in addition to other "money-saving offers". https://www.visitkingsisland.com/2013-season-passes/3-great-pass-options Via Twitter (https://twitter.com/KingsIslandPR), it looks like we have at least one more surprise yet this off-season: And hopefully tweeted at that time too, for those who don't look at facebook.com every 28 seconds. Hoping for yet more food options!

Thanks for the breakdown, and thanks IndyGuy4KI for offering to take them!

Is that bulk shipping to you, or shipping one-at-a-time to each person? Are these white, or light gray with the extra printing layer. $26/each is somewhat expensive for T-shirts in quantity. Perhaps we could save money by bulk shipping to one location, then arranging a couple times for pick-ups? Quite a few of us will already be in the same place at the same time, on Opening Day.

What style of Hanes shirts are these, or are there any measurements? Looking through my collection, different Hanes shirts are quite different. They do seem to run a bit large, so I'm not sure whether to get a medium or a small. EDIT: I selected medium. Better to risk it running large than to risk it being too small.

Depends on how large a "medium" is. One company's "small" is another company's "large". Does the medium on which you are going to print have a sizing guide you can share? For example, I wear a large from here: http://www.americanapparel.net/sizing/default.asp?chart=mu.shirts A medium from here: http://shop.fruit.com/info/sizeGuide Or a small when sizing guides lie. (eg. house brands at stores like Macy's)

For those of us who rarely or never use FaceBook, things shared there are annoyingly difficult to keep track of. There's no RSS, every page features annoyingly big reminders to sign up or sign in, and the "timeline" view is atrocious. Perhaps you could post pictures & updates to other places as well? If Facebook Inc is your preferred social networking company, it's relatively easy to use apps on that platform to post elsewhere (eg. Twitter) at the same time. Fwiw, I haven't signed into facebook.com for about two years.

How did your "shirt abuse" go? Did you decide on materials and printing? Orders will need to happen very soon if they'll be available on Opening Day. (21 days!)

^^ Of the two, I like the first one best. The map makes it look somewhat busy. I don't really have an opinion over "clean" vs. "stylized" - it could look good either way. By the way, perhaps the tagline font could be changed? From a distance, that could look like "Hings Islano".

Also, make sure they give you the renewal price for platinum when you upgrade. It's possible that this could be overlooked if you don't remind them.

What? No. That's not true. US Patent #6173209. http://www.google.com/patents/US6173209 I do not think that means what you think it means. There are tons of patents out there for virtual queuing systems. Disney is constantly obtaining patents for tech they may never use. But that doesn't prevent other companies from developing their own patents. They don't have to pay Disney royalties. It's true that patents usually start with claims so broad that they're unenforceable on their own. The claim of having some customers enter through a second queue would be a good example. As far as I know, Disney is the only company with a virtual queuing system featuring assigned return times, one of the key claims in the patent I mentioned. This would seem to indicate that other players in the industry view that claim as valid. The only true test of a patent's enforceability is in court, but few companies want to be on the receiving end of patent litigation.

What? No. That's not true. US Patent #6173209. http://www.google.com/patents/US6173209

No park can implement a Disney-like virtual queuing system (assigned return times) without paying hefty royalties to Disney, as they were granted a patent on the concept.

Both papers are owned by Gannett, so articles (and portions of them) may be shared. The Indy Star article includes details that the Courier-Journal article didn't.

The Indy Star published an expanded version of this article: http://www.indystar.com/article/20130323/BUSINESS/303230063/Holiday-World-family-feud-leaves-control-amusement-park-uncertain Some highlights:

Great footage - thanks again, ohiocolts! ^^ IPB automatically converts YouTube links and URLs into embedded videos, which happen to break when this site is used in a mobile browser. (This is a limitation of the IPB YouTube plugin, not of YouTube's embedding code. IPB assumes falsely that all devices have Flash.) Here's a non-linkified URL: youtube.com/watch?v=_X9WW4YAHao

It's interesting to read some in-depth, outside examination of this story. Previous reports essentially rehashed Lori's (successful) trial court brief, leaving many questions unanswered. It's still not clear how exactly the share price dispute lead to the nullification of the sale agreement. Indeed, the question of inheritance is arguably the most significant aspect of the entire dispute. And not just who inherits the park, but how the park is inherited. (See Knott's Berry Farm.) At their current ages, I don't think it's possible to say which of them will be capable of running the park. I do think it's odd that Dan would make a quip about the age of Will's children. It's definitely tragic that a dispute over share prices caused such a deep schism in the family. Carrying on the dispute in public court is definitely harming the reputation of both the family and the park. I'm still not sure how I feel about this case, but $27M (2010) seems very low for 60% of a park with 1.1M (2010) annual attendance and low debt obligations. Regardless of what formula was included in an agreement. (Under the law, contracts are supposed to be equitable.) Previous discussion of the topic: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26939-hw-matt-eckert-named-new-president-and-ceo

Wow, amazing photos! Thanks a lot for sharing!

All 11 FUN amusement parks had Fast Lane last year, including Knott's. (They're selling it right now, in fact. The park is open year-round.)

Some news on Voyage Timberliners via Twitter: Also via Twitter, a nice picture of Rhinoblaster Hyena Falls: Full size link

^ As much as you liked the ride, wouldn't you have preferred something that would have operated past 2011?

In my "revised history", Phantom Theater would have been restored and refreshed - not gutted, the antiques cars area wouldn't have been destroyed, and any non-defective rides would have been installed instead of Son of Beast and The Crypt. ^^ I'm usually comfortable in either temperature extreme, but 102°F with high humidity (from your storms) is way too hot. I'd gladly take the weather we got on Closing Day or at Haunt over that, but I'd remember a jacket for any downpours in the lower 40s F.

I would guess that most Fast Lane guests don't marathon rides, instead using the perk to avoid spending the day in queues. The park would prefer that guests be in shops, restaurants, and games. For these guests, the change means that they might have to wait in a maximum of two queues all day. The park might not mind losing those of us who use much more Fast Lane capacity than average. In fact, losing these type of customers might let them sell more passes without affecting anyone's experience. In short, I think a "plus" Fast Lane is a good idea, as anyone marathoning The Beast on a busy day should pay a lot. I don't really like the strategy of completely excluding the two rides from the regular Fast Lane pass. No matter how well they communicate the changes, there will be angry guests. Many people simply don't pay attention.