medford

Are you saying by the 4th & 5th grade? or by age 4 or 5? I assume you mean by age 4 or 5, as both of my kids knew by that age that the cartoon characters are not real. However, super heroes, most definitely real, just ask my son (age 7 when this came up) because he met Captain America at Kings Island

Giga is obvious, and seeing how the 2017 project isn't going to be one, I think the next likely coaster to be built at KI. Strata is also obvious, but I doubt we see one any time soon. A modern Woodie, which perhaps the 2017 project covers. A water coaster, which I've never ridden, but seems to be sorely missing from the water park. IIRC, Holliday world's two water coasters were not all that expensive, seems like KI should have 1, if not 1 large and 1 small one. The Dive coasters always look nice; I've read mixed reviews, but they look nice and would be a solid add at some point. Wing Coaster also seems like a likelyhood at some point in time. Floorless coaster, not that KI really needs one, but would make a nice replacement in the space that Vortex occupies when the time comes (hopefully no time soon) My order of preference timeline: A modern GCI (hoping 2017 fits this timeline) A giga (perhaps 2020) Water Coaster (likely wouldn't ride it, but would seem to fill a lower scale addition after a huge capital expenditure for a Giga, say 2023) Wing Coaster (2026) Floorless (2030)

My neighbor pitches for the Golden Eagles.

They were both there in my youth, and both were often needed, particularly Vortex which almost always seemingly spilled beyond the entrance. IIRC, if the line is back to the entrance, its approx. a 15 min wait to board the train as there is little que area in the station. Vortex has always been a people eating machine, and lines move(d) quick. There was a discussion on this somewhere on these forums about a year ago; probably several others as well if you do a forum search.

Yes, yes I have. A few years ago, actually I guess about 6 when my son was far too little to ride such a ride, my wife's family got together at KI. I told one of my nieces (I guess it would be step niece since its my brother in law's step daughter) that Flight of Fear didn't have any loops. She would ride Diamondback but was fearful of anything with a loop. It had been so long since I'd been on the ride, that I honestly forgot about the multiple inversions. I felt bad when we got off the ride and you could tell she was scared.

My son just turned 8; we've had season passes as a family since the summer the turned 3. In those 6 seasons we've never had issues with him being exposed to cursing, overly poor dress or smoking. For the most part, people smoke in the designated areas; sure there are those who light up where they want, but they're few and far b/w from our experience, nothing too different from what you'd experience at many other places, like entering a restaurant, going to a baseball game, etc... I've occasional seen some one's back end hanging out of their pants, but its just as common for that back end to belong to my son, so when it happens to someone else, no big deal. On a whole, KI is not much different than what you see at most of your local malls. I'm more likely to spot something, or hear something prior to my kids. If I'm realistic, I know my son, heading into 2nd grade isn't all that far away from his friends thinking its "cool" to use that same language. Sure I'd like to starve it off as long as possible, but its not realistic to think he's not going to be exposed. Edit: So as to not double post, but add to the 2016 conversation. My wife took our son on his first ride on Flight of Fear the other day. Due to baseball, swim team, martial arts, etc... we've only made it to the park a handful of times this season, and last year when he finally hit the 54" mark and I tried to take him, the line was backed up too far. Anyways, my wife wanted to take him on the first seat of the ride for his first experience. The ride attendant told her that she wasn't allowed to choose her seat and would have to go where she was assigned. She stood her ground, said she was willing to wait, but she was definitely going in that first season for his first ride on that coaster. I think this was a point of discussion at some prior point, can't recall if it was even at KI or not, but it seems like a poor stance for KI to take. Sure, make those who want a specific seat wait longer if there are those ahead of them in line that also want that seat, but why deny someone a specific request, or I guess in my wife's case attempt to deny them a specific request?

It was up and running last week, so either they closed it because they don't like you or because of some (relatively) minor maintenance issue that took a few days to fix. I'll go with the later until I meet you

yes they did. IIRC, they removed the capabilities from the fountain several years (perhaps even a decade) ago. Equipment was too costly to maintain for a feature that doesn't work when it gets too warm.

They wouldn't market the event towards thrill seekers, but that doesn't mean that thrill seekers won't just show up expecting Diamondback to be open in the snow, then get ****ed off and demand a refund. You'd also have the case where it gets up into the 60s as often happens at some point in December and a thrill seeker shows up expecting the coasters to run because its nice and sunny out, nicer than several of the weekends in October even, but the park can't open the ride because they can't properly staff them in advance. I'm no advertising or PR expert, but I imagine the last thing you want to do in your advertising is start telling people what won't be available; similar to the drug ads, it would put a huge damper on the first 30 seconds of the spot where you try to convince them to spend some of their time and money at KI during a typically busy month of December. My main point, in light of the hugely successful boo season, Winterfest seems like it would be one big headache for the park with limited opportunity to bring in positive cash flow. If the park was situated somewhere warmer, with slightly more predictable weather patterns, perhaps that alters the equation. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see it happen, and would likely attend, just seems like there are far too many obstacles when looking from the outside.

One complication that exists today, that also existed back in 2005, but did not exist back in the original winterfest days (at least not that I recall, though I was pretty young) is the presence of the boo fest. Halloween is a very profitable time for the park, and stretches to the of October/early November depending on the Calendar. Any Winterfest event really needs to be up and operational the week of thanksgiving, which would leave the park with roughly 3 weeks to turn the park around from a boo fest atmosphere to a winter atmosphere all while keeping in mind that the time frame for off season repairs and refurbishment will narrow down that much more. Additionally, KI would have to shut down many of its attractions due to the weather or the likelihood that they wouldn't be operational a decent enough chunk of the winterfest season to offset the costs of staffing said attractions in the chance that we have a decent December weather wise. If you do open up an attraction, say Diamondback while understaffed, then you are just begging for problems. A Winterfest could potentially work again financially, on a limited scale, but at a park the size of KI, many of the public would expect something much larger than a "limited scale" and some would get upset that The Beast wasn't open despite a nice 60 degree day in the middle of December. That can quickly become a huge PR disaster. Despite having fond memories of the event as a kid, IMHO its likely in the parks best interest to let the Zoo and other places take on the holiday season while remaining the major player in the area during October. There are just too many obstacles working against them.

splash down was not drained yesterday afternoon as far as I could tell.

Somebody? Yes, of course, but not this guy. While I agree that they need an updated, fresher front entrance, I don't think they need a coaster sweeping across the entrance at KI (Invertigo is nice to look at leaving the park, often at night as it hangs just to the edge and gives you the sense that you are still emerged even as you head for the big Dino). Generally speaking, KI already has that great "impact" at their entrance. Walking under the restaurant and having the sounds of the fountains and full view of the tower hit you square in the face is one of my favorite memories each time I go. I've probably been to the park several hundred times thru the course of my life, and it still gives me an uplifting experience. Sadly that is often quickly ruined by having to tell some random person that "no I don't want a photograph, no really, really please leave me along..... but that is another story. In many ways, Banshee was the perfect coaster at that time. 1st its visually stunning, and the theming was very well done. 2nd, the ride experience itself is very good. As has been pointed out by many, its one of the best, if not the best inverts in the world. 3rd, speaking of inverts, it filled a void as KI's first full circuit "adult" invert, a hole that most major parks had filled long before. 4th, and perhaps most important, it helped erase the bad feelings that SOB left on that part of the park, it breathed new life into that part of the park. Action Zone had become a part of the park that was easily "skippable" if you were not looking to do "everything" on any particular visit. Banshee gives many a reason to head towards that part of the park and enjoy the other attractions, including the one with the best air time in the park (this guy's personal opinion, perhaps not fact) A giga would have been a hint, but when did Leviathan get built as B&M's first giga? CF's relationship w/ B&M is pretty strong, and obviously the relationship w/ Intamin is all but dead, so KI going the B&M Giga route would have meant it would have been B&M's first adventure into that area. While Leviathan got good reviews, B&M's second attempt at a Giga has received superlative reviews. Like any good company, they are going to examine what worked, what didn't, what can be improved, etc... to improve the whole experience. B&M already had experience at the invert, and as mentioned, KI got a top shelf model. B&M is now just figuring out the best features for their Gigas, best construction practices, etc.. and when KI eventually gets their Giga, it will likely rank among one of the best in an attempt to top the experience that Fury provides.

Or thru????? That would be pretty darn cool

^^ I've only seen the key plan for the ride that was posted here prior. Key plans are not always going to be lined up with the north arrow (true or plan) on the regular drawings, the key plan is there as a reference so you know what area of the project the sheet is showing. True north may not even be on the plan at all, may only appear on a set of civil drawings or on a project cover sheet.

I have memories as a young kid (ie they can't be trusted) of going to KI on the 4th of July and the line for The Beast stretching back near the entrance to the park. Now with some perspective, that doesn't seem remotely possible, but that memory remains vivid non the less; would love to hop into a time machine and see what the line was actually like that day vs what the line seemed to look like to a 6 year old who wasn't going to get on the ride even if the wait was 30 seconds.

I think Don's posting on this site, as well as multiple direct references to this site on his social media shows that he does care, at least a bit, if not more than a bit. Remember this is the guy who owns the record for most rides on The Racer; at heart he's a coaster enthusiasts. With that said, if I could fashion a guess, requests, or even demands on a message board for more teasers is likely very, very far down the list of "issues" Don deals with on a daily basis. How often do you think he gets stopped walking around the park with similar questions, how often do you think employees that he interacts with ask him for clues. How often does he deal with PR headaches on a daily basis for the park? Its a testament to the job that he does that he handles it all with grace and humility. He knew the second those fences went up, the speculation would begin, its all part of the cat and mouse game that he plays.

^ I think that was the point.

Well if you exclude minor leagues and lower interest sports, the last title from Ohio was the Reds in 1990, a crisp 26 years ago

Did the water feature near the station still work/operate after the lake removal? I have memories of water flowing thru it during my youth, but I don't think I would have ridden The Beast prior to Vortex's installation, but I would have been 9 in 1986, so its possible I rode The Beast the season or two prior.

I wonder what Scoobie Doo thinks of this plan.

Vortex has always been a huge people mover. Even when the lines extended outside of the que entry and there was an actual need for the painted symbols along the pavement, the line moved quickly. Once you entered the que entrance, IIRC, it was roughly a 15 min wait.

First, it may well be illegal to make a copy of the prints and exchange them for money from somebody else. I can't remember the exact legalize I've seen on various prints from time to time, and while I doubt there would be any repercussions, forewarned, is fair warned. Second, when Banshee was announced, my son had just turned 5, and our daughter was 1. I knew there was going to be very little chance of me (or my wife) riding Banshee the following years other than perhaps a time or two due to the age of our kids and responsibilities we had in the park (as well as neither of us wanting to ride it solo w/o the other), yet despite that we renewed our season pass because we knew there would be ample opportunities to take our son on The Beast, Racers, Vortex, etc... while the other parent entertained our daughter in Planet Snoopy. We did eventually get a ride late summer in Banshee's first season when my mother in law got on The Bat with our son, my father in law entertained our daughter and my wife and I got a spin on Banshee. It was a nice, unexpected treat. So while I was excited about Banshee and thought it looked awesome, I knew my opportunity to ride it was going to have to wait, perhaps even up to a full season when our son would be tall enough to ride it. However, you know what would have knocked our socks off that season? A great wooden coaster that our son could ride and experience with either his mother or father. I doubt I'm the only one that found myself in that situation. Point is, families make decisions to renew season passes for all kinds of different reasons. Yes, some is to ride the latest scream machine, but for many its just a chance to hang out with their family and take things a little slower. KI has a very diverse clientele, and one of their largest set of customers involve in some sort of manor the 48" and under crowd. If they don't occasionally play to that crowd, they run the risk of KI becoming a place for those families to spend their summer evenings.

Renegade was awesome, completely caught my son and I by surprise; we had no idea what was in store. I've mentioned this several times, but I'd take something just like that at KI that I could ride on a regular basis.

I would assume any decisions made about The Racer would come from above Don's pay grade. Don is great at his job, but at the end of the day, he's still the PR director that would report to the park General Manager, who would report to his bosses in Sandusky. I'm sure Don has some influence on the park's development, and hopefully they value his opinion as not only a long time employee, but also as a true fan of the park, but at the end of the day, if the higher ups decide that removal of The Racer is in the best interest of the Park, I doubt there is a whole lot that Don can do about it. With that said, removing The Racer would feel like a huge mistake. First, I'm not sure how much usable land there is behind its structure, lots of valley's down there that would make for tough foot navigation and it feels like if you wanted to use it for a coaster layout (ie Adventure Express) you would want the entrance somewhere in X-Base or Coney. 2nd, as its been noted many times, the ride is famous for ushering in the next era of roller coasters. Finally, just think of the importance of The Racer to that part of the park, its been the backdrop to a core area of the park since its inception. While you could create a ride in its footprint that was better, it would be very hard to duplicate the backdrop and feel that The Racer provides. It screams "classic" American amusement park, surrounded by other rides and games that scream "classic" American amusement park. To remove the ride completely would give Coney an entirely different feel, and likely not in a good way.

Biggest mistake? Somehow I doubt that. It may not be great, but it was pretty cool to look at once. If they were able to recoop their money in the first season when the attraction was an upcharge for everyone, as well as thru merch sales (which I'm sure bring in a decent chunk even today) then its hardly a mistake. It may not have been their best effort, but as long as it was somewhat profitable, its not going to sting much where it counts. I'm sure CF has had much, much bigger mistakes in their long history.