Crispy1979

Yes, I vaguely remember Game-On.... and I say vaguely because we would enter Festaus and watch the first few minutes of the show and think maybe it was the preshow before a big show.... then when we figured out that was it, we left. Game on was what they had in the Festaus the year following the removal of the Ice Show. The removal of the Ice Show from the Festaus was one of the biggest mistakes Paramount made, in my opinion. As for bringing back German food to Festaus (or anywhere in Oktoberfest)... it seems that Kings Island used to offer a variety of different kinds of food, as well as different types of eating establishments. Just think of the elimination of the International Restaurant over the entrance to the park. For a while, Paramount has been eliminating their diverse food selections and replacing them with the standard fair. I guess the logic was "Our hamburger and pizza joints sell more food than the other locations in the park. Therefore if we replace all our restaurants with hamburger and pizza joints, then we'll sell more food and make more money." They are starting to offer some more diverse fair now with the Chinese restaurnat and Bubba Gump's so maybe they are seeing that it is good business sense to offer something for everyone rather than just catering to the lowest common denominator. However, I wouldn't count on getting a steak or lobster at a re-opened International Restaurant or getting any of that yummy German potato salad that used to serve anytime soon. Cris

I'm just curious. Could someone give a description of the illusions performed in Spellbound? Cris

>>Festhaus should offer German beer, metts, brats, and cole slaw.<<< They used to sell those items when the ice show was at Festaus. I wish they have never removed that show and the ice rink from Festaus. Cris

I am just curious. What kind of illusions do they perform in Spellbound? Cris

>>>but i have had about 6 people agree with my mom about the small world music and dolls dressed up from around the world being at Kings Island. <<< There was a Gulliver's Travles scene (from the Hanna Barabra movie that was a live action/cartoon combo) in Enchanted Voyage. This may have been what these people rememebr as the Liliputians would have been in peasant type costumes and would have been about Doll sized. But this was only one scene from the Enchanted Voyage.... and they definately weren't singing Disney's Small World scene. lol Cris

It was a gradual process. The first thing that was removed was the narraration. Then the animal figures, and then most of the people figures were gone by the time Water Works opened. There used to be Indian figured that fired guns as the train apssed. I remeber riding past the figures once and a door on the back on of the Indians was hanging open and there were wires hanging out. lol My father and I used to always make fun of the beaver animatronic. There was a beaver figure that cut down a tree and the tree would fall.... but the tree was standing right next to a pole and there was an obvious cable that ran from the tree to the pole. After the tree would fall, the cable would hoist it back up again. Cris

Indiana Jones is well worth the visit to Disneyland. Not another ride like it and is enough to satisfy any thrill ride fanatic. I haven't been to DCA and have a feeling I wouldn't enjoy it that much, but the reviews for their coaster have been very good. Soarin over California and Grizzly River Rapids are also supposed to good. Cris

Yes, in Gulliver's you just rode past scenes. It was intended to be KI's version of Disneyland's Storybookland Canal Boats. It was removed in the early 80's, but I have no memory of the actual ride. I do remember Shunshie Turnpike, as it was only removed to make way for Nickelodeon. Sunshine Turnpike, in fact, was one of the original rides the park opened with and had the same car types as Disneyland's Autopia. (Arrow made a lot of the rides for the park at their opening). The train ride used to be a lot more highly themed than it is now with animated animal figures and a recorded narration. At one time, cowboys used to ride by on horse back and "rob" the train. (They would hold out their hats and collect money) And you're right, there were a lot of rides that have come and gone in the Oktoberfest area... , Spinning Keggers, Bobsled, Rotor, Flying Dutchman, Ferris Wheel, skyway, Bavarian Beetle.....and the Coney Mall area as well. Here's a nother thing I forgot about. Following the Disney tradition, King's Island employees used to wear "costumes" designed to fit in with the appropiate areas and rides. For example, In Oktoberfest, the me used to wear leiderhosen looking outfits aith suspenders and the women wore german looking long skirts. In fact, we used to refer to the men who staffed the Flying Dutchman as "the gingerbread men" In KI's later years (90, 91), the costumes became less elaborate. I think in Oktoberfest the staff just wore khaki's and a button up shirt with a folksy looking pattern embroidered vertically up the sides. When Paramount bought the parks, the costuming disappeared. I seem to remember when I was a little, the female workers (especially in the shops) wearing long skirts. And I believe you are right... the shop in Hanna-Barbara land must be the former Skyride station. It certainly has the appropiate rectangluar shape. There is a yahoo group that has a photo album of old Kings Island photos... including Gulliver, the Enchanted Voyage, and the Sky ride. It takes a while to seach through the phot albums, but I'll post the link on here later when I find it. Cris

I have no idea what PKI's PDA policy is, but I worked at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom as a summer job for many years. I'd imagine it was similar to many other parks policy of PDA. It was basically as follows. 1. No open mouth kissing. 2. Hugging, hand-holding, and closed mouth kissing (quick peck on the cheeck or lips) is okay among guests. 3. A brief friendly hug is permitted between castmembers. All other forms of affections between castmemebrs is prohibited. 4. Overtly sexual behavior is prohibited. (This would include those teenage couples that think its okay to dry hump each other in line or give each other hickies while they wait. As cast members we were also warned to stick to these rules and not envoke personal prejudice. (I.E. As cast members, it is our job to alert guests to park policy, not to tell guests to stop engaging in activities that did not violate park policy) I realived the importance of this principle when I was working Tin Lizzies (antique cars) one day. A woman riding with her daughter complained to me that she had seen two women hug and asked me to go say something her them. I asked the woman if they had kissed or just hugged. She confirmed that she had just hugged. I told her that if they had just hugged that they had not violated park policy and that as a cast member I cannot say anything to them unless they violate park policy. She got very upset and was like "Well, you could at least say something to them." I tried to explain to her that as a cast member we are only allowed to inform guests they are violating park policy. If they are not violating park policy, then we are not allowed to reprimand guest for allowable behavior. She asked to see my manager, and I let her talk to him and he told her the same thing. Byt his time she was making a scene and all the other guests in line were looking at her like "What is her problem." We gave her our names and told her she could go to guest relations and make a complaint. She told me that my "a** was grass" and that she was going to get both me and my manager fired. About 10 minutes later the phone at our ride rings and I pick it up and it is guest services and they are like "Why did you send that woman up here. Didn't you tell her it's okay for people to hug in the park?" There was another day I remember clearly. Kentucky Kingdom has a Huss swinging pirate ship and when i worked there it was rarely open because it was in an isolated corner of the park where no one visited since the Vampire was removed and also because at the time it require two ride operaters and the park was too cheap to pay two people to work a minor ride. Well, one day we got a report from some guests on the wild mouse coaster that they could see two people in the pirate ship. We sent security over and there were two teenagers having sex in one of the seats of the pirate ship! Cris

I never actually remember the lake at The Beast, but i do have old maps that show the very beginning part and station being positioned over water. (It was built on the former location of the canoe ride, after all.) I can imagine this was probably a cleaniness/maintenance issue. Not to mention it attracts snakes. We used to see snakes all the time back when waiting inline for White Water Canyon. They would sit out on logs by the water and soak up the sun. In one case there was even a snake coiled up subathing on a stump that was located in the small strip of grass between the entrance patheay and the exit pathway! I do, however, remember the snack bar that they used to have in The Beast Line. I used to buy licorice or a pretzel while waiting in line. Now I believe they just have soda machines there. As long as we're doing KI history does anyone remember Gulliver's Rub a Dub Tubs? Or the Sky Ride. I was born in 79, so I believe I'm too young to remember them. There are several thing i do remember that are no long there... Der Spinning Keggers, The Ferris Wheel, The Zodiac, Witch's Cauldrons, Card House, The marionette show in HB-land, Smurf's Enchanted voyage. Anyone remember Shunshine Turnpike? It was located where the Nicolodeon area is now. Cris

>>>Does anyone remember the double cage farris wheel that was in the back of the park where flight commander was<<< I believe Zodiac's last season of operation was 89, so don't worry you aren't that old. lol. I never rode it as, for some reason, I've always been afraid of ferris wheels. Anyway, one half of the Zodiac was where Flight Commander is (was) and the other half of the Zodiac is where Cinema 180 is (was). As for Skylab, no one was killed, but several people were injured on it. During a power outage, the ride stopped mid cycle, so you can imagine how banged up those people must've got. Cris

A shop? That's what happened to the site of the former spinning barrells ride. It would be nice if they could get some nice small flat rides in the area of Coney Mall where they've removed rides and haven't replaced them (Sky Lab, Flight Commander, and Cinema 180)

You're in LA and not going to Disneyland or Universal?????? Blasphemy! Cris

>>So, if they were buzz bars, wouldn't that still be a lap bar? Just not the individual bars like today, and from what I understood the question to be, then yes it had some sort of lap bar. <<< No, a buzz bar is just a bar that flips down for you to hold on to.... it is no where near your lap. This was the only type of restarint used on the wooden coasters at KI (and most other parks) until around 1990 or 91. Notice all those sings at the top of the lift hills that say "Remain seated, Do not stand up." That's because with only the buzz bars, it was possible to stand completely upright in the car. Cris

>>In a nutshell, certain people think that there are two types of restraints that go over your shoulder: 1) The overly padded and bulky ones, like the ones you see on our two Vekomas, Face/Off and RRR, which these people refer to as an OTSR, and 2)The essentially unpadded Over-The-Shoulder-Restraint, as found on Vortex, which is referred to as a "horsecollar."<< In that case, I've always found the horsecollars mroe comfortable than the "overly padded" ones. With the horsecollars I can at least hold my head forward to keep my ears from banging on the harness. this was impossible with the old sholder harnesses on FOF, for example. But that's just my opinion and how my body works. hehe Cris

Has anyone seen Spellbound (the magic show) yet? I was wondering how that is. Cris

This is off topic, but I was just remembering how Busch Gardens in Tampa used to give away free beer in the 70's.

>>>I was at kentucky Kigdom the one day vampire valleyed.<<< Vampire did this all the time, not just once. It was a fairly regular occurrance. >>>One would think they would have tried something to get it to move from upside down to right side up, before trying to get everyone out.<<< Yeah, the problem with the vampire is that normally if a coaster is not stuck on a brake section, it will will coast via gravity to the next braking section. But because of the location where the train would get stuck, it was not able to coast via gravity back to the station or a blocking point. I would be curious to know how they got the train back to the station after they exacuated everyone from the ride. >>> Just out of curiosity......is it safe to use terms like valleyed on here for employees??? I would think so... Seeing as how it's not something I learned at the park, it's something I picked up on the internet.<<< Plus it's something that anyone could observe by just looking at the ride and not a result of "Insider information" that could only be known to someone working at the park. Kind of like the difference between saying "Today I saw that such and such ride is closed" or "Today I saw that such and such coaster got stuck on the lift hill" as opposed to someone saying "such and such coaster malfunctions all the time because of such and such technical explination of a mechanical problem." To know the later would require insider knowledge. To know the first two examples would just require that you just look at the ride. >>>I really can't explain to you on here why it does "valley" since I would hate to lose my job but if you want an explaination, I would be more than happy to explain it to you in another setting or you can email me. I apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding. <<< Well, I will offer my guess. I know that with the Vampire there was a set of brakes at the bottom of the loop before the second lift hill. The purposed of these brakes was to slow the train down as it was coming out of the look and going into the second lift hill. However, for some reason, the brakes would also fire when the train was coming down the second lift hill before in went into the loop the second time. This would slow the train down too much so that it dod not have enough speed to make it back to the station. Cris

>>>And no, it is still park policy that you must stay on the patio with your beer/alcohol. You can not wonder the park with it<<< So this is a fully stocked bar? I.E. They sell liquor and not just beer? Also, I do remember a time (pre-paramount) when beer could be purchased throughout the park. For example, you could buy it at the Funnel Cakes eatery on International Street. Cris

Well unfortunately I don't live in the area and have only been able to make a yearly day trip to PKI every summer.... so it's not like I go there more than once during a summer. And Ryan, I agree with you. If Tomb Raider is down for repairs, then all the better. That way if I wait until the ride is up and running to visit the park, then it will be in tip top condition. Hopefully they make the necessary repairs to the ride instead of trying to make some quick fixes. If so, then it is worth the down time. Just out of curiousity, is there a number I could call at park opening to get a list what rides are down? I know sometimes rides open with the park and go down during the day.... but there is also usually a list at the opening of the park of what rides are down. Cris

Fors some reason, whenever I began riding rolller coaster with the over the shoulder restraints, I instictively have held my head forward to avoid the "headbanging" and never experienced the problem that others have with that. That was until I rode Flight of Fear (when it still had the OTSR) because of the desing of the harness youcould not hold your head forward. I never have had any problems with The Vortex. It roughness is nothing compared to the wooden coasters in the park, in my opinion. Cris

Okay, so it was the woman on Flight Commander who was drunk and not the men at the Beer Garden. Those three deaths happened the same day, and i was relying on my memory from 1991, so i guess I assumed the guest in the Beer Garden was drunk. lol. Anyway, thanks for the info. I tried doing a google search and all I got was the below little blurb. The info you provided was much more detailed. >>Sunday, June 9, 1991 - Two men were killed after having been electrocuted in a pond at Kings Island amusement park in Kings Island, Ohio. They were trying to rescue another man who was in the pond. He also suffered electrical shock.<< I do remember, however, that season that the fountains were dark on International Street and throughtout other parts of the park for much of the time as they were ensuring that all their underwater electric equiptment was safe. Cris

>>>I think it's open extremely intermittantly. Extremely.<<< Well that sucks. It's one of their major rides (and only a year old, at that) and it's in the middle of the season. It seems like they'd be doing everything they can to make sure its open. Well, if the "status" of the ride changes someone let me know. If I make the drive up to Cincy, I'd like it to be when the ride is operating. Cris

Ah yes, there were actually a few deaths on that day. One was the woman who fell off Flight Commander. The other was the guest that got drunk and fell into the water at the beer garden. He was electrocuted because the lights for the fountain in the water wasn't grounded properly. I remember that season walking down international street at night and thinking "Wow, it's really dark, I wonder why." After that incident, the park rewired all their underwater lighting, so there was a period where sections of the park were very dark at times. Cris

I remember when I worked at Six Flags they sold (and still do sell) beer. I worked a ride called "Enterprise" which was a smaller verision of what the SKylab was at KI. I remember having lots of puking incidents. Once I even had someone puke on the Antique Cars. Anyway, do remember that Oktoberfest gardens wwas originally called "The Beer Gardens" and Beer has been sold in the park from it's opening in 72 until Paramount bought it. I'm not sure of its history since Paramount bought the park. I believe for a while you could by Beer in the Oktoberfest gardens, but was not allowed to take it out of the area and into the park. Cris