jcgoble3

Please, not another "-hawk" name. We have enough of those already.

Information on public days: http://strickersgrove.com/#services (I notice that they have greatly overhauled their website since the last time I looked.) Parking is $5 on July 4, and free on all other public days.

Don't forget that Kaman's did more than photos. They also handled the various artists (caricatures, portraits, face painting, etc.) that you saw around the park.

Exactly. In this age of nearly everyone having a camera in their pocket, having teenagers pester you for low-quality pictures is obsolete. There's a case to be made for something like Disney PhotoPass, with actual professional photographers scattered through the park to take unique shots (like in front of Vortex's batwing), so that Dad can be in the photo as well. But why should I pay for a single low-quality shot when I can take dozens of low-quality shots myself?

If they could implement it on the wheel games, that would be nice. Help me save money by preventing me from making an impulse decision to blow $10 on them.

...really? I'd prefer to be able to enter the park without being immediately pestered to stop for a photo that I'll never buy, especially when I already have a destination in mind (e.g. ERT) that I want to get to quickly.

How interesting. I literally JUST complained about these people in the KI 2016 discussion thread, not realizing that this thread had been bumped. What a coincidence.

I'd prefer fewer of those. They're very annoying. Who wants a picture with the dark entryway in the background anyway? Most of them don't even have the sense to turn the group around to put the fountains in the background.

Nice report! I had no idea that a guest shaking the gates could cause a ride to shut down. Interesting!

From this earlier tweet, they appear to be the magnetic strip cards, as those machines look to have a slot for swiping the card.

Thanks! I didn't know whether it was an official photo from the park or not, and a quick check of the main Kings Island Facebook and Twitter pages didn't show it. I forgot about the KI Games account.

Photo just posted by a friend on Facebook (not sure of his source) (EDIT: malem found the source, which is the Kings Island Games Twitter account): Looks like games workers will no longer be handling cash. Of course, for the cynical, this is also a way to encourage people to load a bunch of money at once, thereby trapping them into having to spend that money on games and being unable to spend it on anything else.

bkroz: 1. What happened with the contest? Did you win or not? 2. I dug this up to show to a friend who was posting Google Earth images of the resort on Facebook, and noticed that many of the photo links appear to no longer be working. Specifically, it appears to be the Imageshack and Facebook photos that no longer work (Facebook photo embeds always cease to work after a year or two). In the interest of keeping this incredible report around in its full glory, would you mind fixing these photos when you have a chance (assuming it's possible)?

*sigh* How many more threads are you going to create? Seriously, everything regarding your trip can and should be done in one thread. But since we're here, here's my advice: aside from a plan on where to start (more on that in a minute), I advise against scheduling your entire day in advance. (This is the reason why I despise Walt Disney World's FastPass+, but I digress.) Any number of things can and will interfere with such a schedule: rides can break down, or be shut down for weather, for starters. Wait times can vary throughout the day, so sometimes it makes more sense to choose your next ride on the fly based on current wait times (e.g. go to a different ride in hopes that the line for the ride you wanted will be shorter later in the day). Don't feel like you have to stick to a fixed schedule to get everything in; unless you're going on a Saturday (which I advise against), you will have plenty of time to get everything in even without Fast Lane. Be spontaneous, and you'll have more fun. As for where to start, Flight of Fear and Firehawk are indeed the best place to start, but go directly there from rope drop. (On that note, you can and should enter the park before 10:00 and wait on International Street for the official park opening; that way, you don't have to deal with the long lines at the parking tolls or front gate that develop right at 10:00.) Your Skyflyer and Slingshot tickets can be picked up after you finish in X-Base; their prices are unlikely to go up in the first half hour or so that the park is open, and getting the tickets before heading to X-Base will probably double your wait times on Flight of Fear and Firehawk. Money is up to you; assuming you're going to eat meals in the park, plan about $15 for each meal, so there's $30 for starters. (If you have a car and can go elsewhere, there are a wide variety of fast food and table-service restaurants in the immediate area where you're likely to find cheaper prices and/or better service. If you go that route, be sure to get your hand stamped upon exiting through the main gate, and save your parking receipt in the morning so you can use it for re-entry into the parking lot.) Allow $10 for Skyflyer and $15 for Slingshot; you'll probably get the tickets for $5 and $10 respectively, but I prefer to budget more than I need. Also $15 for parking (if you haven't bought it online in advance). So we're at a total of $70 now. Everything else is optional; do you want souvenirs? On-ride photos? Snacks? Figure out what you're likely to buy and add money for those. Generally, if you're planning to eat in the park, ride both upcharge rides, and pay for parking, I'd suggest bringing $100 to allow for possible extra purchases. Final note: please, please make this your last thread about this trip. Again, you do NOT need a separate thread for every question. All questions about the same trip can and SHOULD be asked in a single thread. This thread can serve that role. Also, it's spelled "itinerary". Please learn that.

^ I would hope that a man would remember what his wife said, no matter what it was. jcgoble3, happy being single

Your first link somehow got a non-breaking space character appended, thereby ironically breaking it. Correct link: http://www.wdwthemeparks.com/rumors/2015/04/27/guardians-of-the-galaxy-overhaul-coming-to-tower-of-terror With that out of the way... stupid. Just stupid. This is completely not necessary, and downright ridiculous. Slowly but surely, I keep getting pushed to Universal for my next Florida trip, whenever that ends up being. Things like this are the reason why.

Supposedly, they have several sets so they can rotate, getting cleaned, then returned to an early point in the queue, where guests can pick them up, get them fitted as they make their way through the line, and then ride with them, while other sets are at different points in that rotation.

Or, by the "future of KI games", are they just referring to the ability to accept credit cards at the games? That was my first thought when I saw that picture. I know the water guns are missing, but stuff like that would have to be winterized (because of the water pipes), and it's probably easier to just dismantle it and store it in a heated building, so I'm just assuming for now that the water guns haven't been reinstalled yet. First week of August? Yes, they are typically busy, as families get in one last outing before the kids go back to school. Crowd sizes typically take a sharp downward turn about the same time that the park starts closing at 8pm instead of 10pm.

If you mean the on-ride photos, it's all automated. The train trips sensors on the track, which trigger the camera, which then delivers the photos electronically to the photo booth at the exit. The only human element is reviewing each photo for anything that might require censoring, such as an idiot flipping off the camera.

I knew what he was talking about.

Because they have been raised in captivity, they have never developed the skills and instincts necessary to survive in the wild, therefore release to the wild would be a death sentence. This is true of virtually any animal born and raised in captivity. So they are keeping the orcas; they just aren't breeding them any more, meaning that when the generation they currently own dies, then that will be it for SeaWorld having orcas in captivity. Until then, they will continue to have orcas out of necessity.

Security, IIRC. However, that is a four-way crossing, with park guests crossing both ways on foot on a public path while park vehicles cross on backstage roads. This creates a slightly more complicated procedure where, after the trains have passed, park guests will continue to be held while waiting vehicles are waved through, and only then are the gates for the guests lifted. The crossing on the WWC entrance won't involve roadways, just a mostly one-way foot crossing (mostly because you will occasionally have guests chicken out, or a breakdown/weather shutdown causing people to leave the line), so it will be much easier to manage, and so I would guess that it will be handled by rides associates, most likely part of the KI&MVRR crew given the proximity to the Rivertown station (and the likelihood of incorporating the gate closure into normal dispatch procedures). As for StormReady, this is the first I've heard of KI getting that certification, so I do believe it is the first year for it. It would not surprise me if some of the materials (signage, gates, etc.) from STR's crossing were sent down here and reused on WWC.

Whose logic? You posted at about the same times as chugh43, so I don't know who you're replying to.

I should clarify. In my opinion, there is no such thing as half a credit (unless you were evacuated from the MCBR on your first and only ride). I would therefore count Kennywood's Racer as two credits, because it requires two trips through the line to experience both "sides". Basically, it counts as two credits if two trips through the line are necessary to experience the whole thing.

Nice that they plan on doing that, but do they really have to wait 90 years?!