malem

When it feels like you've spent about as much at car washes as on gasoline this month.

^ Has the date for Coasting For Kids been announced? (It's typically that weekend, but dates can change from year to year.) It was an experience. I had fun watching everyone trying to eat them. I got a plate full and managed to find one bite of chewable meat.

Kings Island's events page on visitkingsisland.com was recently updated. The description of Opening Day includes the name of a new show set to premiere that day - Hollywood Nights. (With a y and in Mason, not Santa Claus.)

Accesso should get with the times and support MasterCard & Visa automatic card updates for recurring bills. There's no reason to require the cardholder to take action when a card expires.

The estimated time to be seated that afternoon was 4 hours.

Specifically, the online store payment portal is located at https://www.visitkingsisland.com/payments . Once you log in with your order number & e-mail address, you'll be able to update your credit card information. Alternatively, you can link there from the online store by going to ≡Menu->Payment Portal.

Chicken Shack's chicken became much saltier in 2015, which I was not a fan of. Consistency (serving temperature & taste) varied widely throughout the season.

If I recall correctly, there's more modified food starch than (mechanically separated) meat in that. Not to mention excessive amounts of sugar, salt, and MSG (albeit via ingredients that allow them to claim "no added MSG"). Then, to add insult to injury, the mixture goes into a deep fryer. At least Chick-Fil-A starts out with actual pieces of chicken and doesn't hide the fact that they use MSG.

For those uncomfortable with Chick-Fil-A's ingredients: I don't suggest reading the ingredient list of, say, Panda Express Orange "Chicken".

And the teasers begin; it looks like Kings Island could be getting more than a new game. From Greg Scheid via Twitter: Photo: Greg Scheid / Kings Island via Twitter: https://twitter.com/KIGMGREG/status/689104785421787137

If I recall correctly, current-season Fast Lane (Plus) information hasn't made it to the website until a few weeks before Opening Day. Some 2016 Fast Lane Plus passes were already sold, in the form of a ticket combo package offered on or around Black Friday. (Which incidentally, were cheaper than Fast Lane Plus alone on certain days.)

^ As far as I can tell, everything Accesso on Cedar Fair sites has been migrated to HTML by now. Even group sales, which was the holdout last year. Flash has been deprecated by Adobe, so companies best be moving on.

Accesso threw out Flash last year.

^ The same would apply for the pass itself, which many buy early for the best prices. $0.99.

Looking at the site, both options are already on sale in the online store. Passes & pass add-ons typically increase in price throughout the year, so interested parties might want to buy early.

Be careful what you wish for: trains with more legroom would almost certainly have less capacity.

^ They received Triple Twist in 2010, after opening in 2006. Unfortunately, the lighting package there hasn't worked for the past two years. I'm hoping that one of the tube slides gets a Slideboarding retrofit, as happened in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

When clicking on a picture of a cookie qualifies as fun around here. When I finally give into the weather & get my winter coat out of the closet.

I was recently there in December when the resort was nearly sold out. Wait times for slides varied substantially throughout the day, ranging from walk-on to as long as 45 minutes. The longest were late Friday evening and from around 11am to mid-afternoon on Saturday. The water coaster (Hydro Plunge) and family slide (River Canyon Run) usually have the longest lines, so seize the opportunity if you see a short wait on either of those. If lines for all of the slides are long, that might be a good time to try some of the other waterpark attractions or to take a break. The must-do slides are the water coaster & family slide that I mentioned, Triple Twist (which uses the green intertubes), and Coyote Canyon (called the "toilet bowl" by most guests & lifeguards). Triple Twist is most fun (read: thrilling) with a single intertube, but hang on tightly to avoid falling out!

^ If a collision (with an animal, another train, a tree, a swarm of insects...) was eminent, riders wearing a VR headset wouldn't be able to tell.

A few rides stick out: White Water Canyon just before fireworks in the late 90s as a kid. My first night ride on anything in the park. The tower operators did their job well. My first-ever Banshee ride on Media Day, right at the first hint of twilight. The Beast on October 10, 2014. Drenching rain, cold, dense fog, park practically empty. I'm told it happened on the Saturday night before closing day in 2014. I left the park that day around mid-afternoon and did not return. Too cold for coaster riding for me. There may have been a few specs of frozen precipitation that night, but nothing that I'd qualify as "snow". Riding The Beast into the 1am hour with the temperature in the mid 20s was something, though.

^ Don't forget locker rentals for storing the drink bottles.

You're correct; Huntington has provided ATMs at KI in recent seasons. No word on whether this is continuing in 2016; you might want to contact Huntington if this is a factor in where you open an account. The KI ATMs currently aren't listed on the Huntington website. Since it's the off-season, I wouldn't draw any conclusions from that.

In 2014. In 2015, I believe $15 was posted for weekdays as well. (And $12 pre-paid parking passes were advertised in 2015 as a $3 savings.)

I'd guess that prices at the tolls will remain at $15 daily, at least until Haunt. No need to kill the goodwill associated with the investment by tying it to an(other) incremental price increase. Offering upgrades at the "same" price is a good customer service move.