medford

I've read (don't know if its accurate, it come from someone on here) that KI got a significant discount on Vortex from Arrow as a way of making up for the failures of The Bat. So its while its likely that KI would have built an Arrow Looper at some point, there have to be doubts that it would have set the records that Vortex did (or been as awesome). If The Bat had worked, then certainly Top Gun never would have been built back in the woods. I found it interesting that the park had sold just prior to The Bat's opening, which is a similar story with Top Gun (what was its original name?); guess if Cedar Fair ever wants to divest itself of KI, they need to build another arrow suspended coaster.

If I counted correctly, there are currently 41 weeks in the school calendar (out of 52), take out two weeks for Christmas break and another week for Spring break (in my district anyways) and its 38 weeks of school over 52 weeks. Doesn't really matter how you slice it up, I believe that is state mandated (at least in Ohio). If you break the school year up into quarters, that would 9.5 weeks of school per quarter. Out of the 41 weeks, I didn't account for holidays like Labor Day, MLK day, President's day, nor did I account for Teacher in service days which the students don't show up. Throw in (2) "holiday" days into that 9.5 weeks and that accounts for 9 weeks a quarter, 45 days of school. I'd then look at it like this, give the kids off 2 weeks around Christmas/New years. Then go 9 weeks prior for 2nd quarter, and 9 weeks later for 3rd quarter, with a full week off prior to 2nd (after 1st quarter, ie a fall break) and after the 3rd (prior to 4th, ie a traditional spring break) That would mean kids would get off approx. the week of Oct 10 (its highlighted on my small wall calender, not sure why, but I assume its Columbus day). 9 weeks prior to that, would commence the 1st quarter, approx. Aug 8th (which is only a week or so prior to when my kids start school anyways). The 3rd Quarter would end near the end of the 1st week of March, leaving spring break for approx around the week of March 7th. 1 full week off, then 9 more weeks to go, puts school ending somewhere around early may. Add in the additional 0.5 weeks of that 9.5 week and it pushes school to around Memorial day. I guess if you extended fall and spring break 2 weeks, that puts them on a schedule similar to the one at the top. Anyhoo, that seems ideal to me, many of the fall sports/activities start up around the end of July anyways, so Summer travel is no longer an option for many families.

or perhaps just an old visitor from Firelight Park

limbs tend to be very reliable, until they no longer are....

Not shaggy, and I'm not even sure if my answer is correct, but I've heard "somewhere" that as part of the original agreement they would keep the house standing. I don't think they do anything to keep it from falling apart, but they don't do much of anything to keep it together either, eventually mother nature will win, if KI deems it so. As enough time has passed, I doubt the original owner's family would care all the much, perhaps if there were legalize involved it could be changed at this point, but they've never really had a reason to tear it down since they stopped the old show on the train (I assume it was used for staging/breaks back in my youth as I remember "cowboys" storming out of the fort as part of the show.)

I wonder if they have ever thought about staffing LaRosa's & Skyline with regular employees "subbed" out from are stores. Much of the commentary I'm seeing is that the food is traditionally staffed by young, unmotivated workers. I'm sure that is a problem in the food industry in general, few people look to make a career out of serving Skyline, its usually just a path to something else and while you are young, you are often still living under the nest of your mother and/or father, so you have not been struck by the highly motivating fact of "if I don't work, I don't have money, won't get food, can't afford a car, etc...." Obviously that is not all young kids, and some are just naturally more motivated than others, but anyhoo back to the point. If they worked with area LaRosa and Skyline stores, to help them staff, say they get a few regular employees a day from the local in addition to their regular wages, KI would give them a couple of free vouchers to spend the day at KI sometime later in the season. I imagine one of the challenges is that the jobs become stale quickly. Its fun to work in an amusement park, but I imagine that quickly dies down when you find yourself sitting inside a back room dishing out pizza's all day. Chick-fila's employees seem to remain upbeat and positive just like the employees you see at their regular stores, since that is run outside of KI's management, do those employees have a job waiting for them at another restaurant in the area once the season is done? The Reds HOF Grille seems constantly understaffed. While there are no other restaurants in the area to pull from, certainly you could work out a deal with a local chain to find servers. Sure there is a bit of a learning curve and they wouldn't know the menu like they would at the store they typically work at, but it would be a similar job, in a fun atmosphere.

As i was thinking about this, Terp's points really hit home. This isn't a brand new ride where the employees, patrons and management have to figure out the quirks of how the ride loads, how the patrons react to getting on and getting off the ride, how busy it gets at certain points in the day, etc.... This is food. Menu's change, tastes change, prices change, but the basic premise has remained the same for thousands of years, a patron walks in, place an order, gets their food and (hopefully) enjoys the product. Societal nature has conditioned us to eat early in the morning, around mid-day and again around 6:00 There is no excuse restaurants to remain closed at noon on a Sunday as I've seen in the past. There is no excuse for not anticipating larger crowds around 6:00pm on a beautiful opening weekend. The basic premise has been the same for the entire existence of King's Island, there is 0 excuse for failing to properly serve its patrons this far into the game. Sure there will be hiccups along the way, multiple employees turn get sick or don't show, have to be let go, a bizarre rush at 8:00 pm when lighter crowds are more traditional, etc... but to consistently perform this poorly is a reflection upon the management chain within both Kings Island and Cedar Fair. People are all ready taking their money elsewhere, others will follow. We used to leave the park a shade early and grab dinner at Jimmy Johns or Chipotle up the road, often catching the sounds of the fireworks, if not a few glimpses as we were enjoying some Dairy Queen situated b/w the two. Then the meal plan arrived and we started eating more in the park. Now, w/ the reports that I'm hearing, I'm glad I held off on buying the meal plan up front last season with my pass, may hold off entirely if the reports remain this poor.

If you want to look at it that way (and I think its a good way at looking at things, though certainly no guarantee) its also worth looking at what parks are showing signs of potential large scale B&M construction? We know KI has at least some clearing, for something. What other parks show signs of future enhancements? I'd also add, I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but that seems like a potentially really good space for a B&M Dive Machine. I'm not sure that the Chain would want to install 2 similar coasters at KI & CF in back to back years given that their market overlaps to a degree, but I could see that area as a big, swooping turnaround similar to how Banshee interacts with the pathway off its lift hill. Let it run back to interact with the WWC reservoir a bit in the later half of the ride. Even a name like falling timber w/ an interactive sound of a tree starting to crack, then crash to the forest floor just as the brake is released on the first hill (similar to Banshee's wail) could be incorporated. Not my first choice (though I've never been on a dive machine) as I'm rooting for a GCI (with no clue to what is actually going in, may not even be a coaster for all I know), but seems like a good spot for such a ride, and potential themeing that would fit both the area and the signage.

Is it going to be a bumpy road?

I've briefly read (on here) that there were headaches for folks coming from the north, trying to turn left into KI's new parking entrance last weekend. My son and I are going camping this weekend, so my wife is having her sister watch our newborn Saturday morning and she plans to hit the park for a few hours with our almost 4 year old daughter. I'm not sure if she'll be able to hit ERT or not (w/ young kids its often slow going, plus she's not sure if she could convince here sister to come over that early). If she does do ERT, how much of Planet Snoopy is open? Our daughter just hit 40" near the end of last season, don't know if she's grown up to 42" yet or not (though I think that only opens up SR&R IIRC from when our son made that journey). If she does make it in early, is it worth the effort? Mom didn't get to ride any rides last year (note the newborn mentioned above) so she's looking forward to some rides on Woodstock Express, Viking Fury, Scrambler and everything else she can ride on with our daughter. If she doesn't hit ERT, but say aims to get to the park around 10 - 10:30 just as traffic is at its peak, she should find an alternate route to approach the park from the south? Is there an easy way to do that coming to the park via I-71 S if that is the best plan? It may have just been 1 or 2 complaints, perhaps not a big issue at all, typically we are mid-week people in the evening when traffic into the park is minimal, but I'm coming from the south at that point, so I'd like to find the best approach for her. She's a teach and off in the summer, so we arrive separately in the summertime.

kind of interesting to watch things go thru the paces. Diamondback had a train stopped at the top of the lift, another stopped at the MCBR and the 3rd stopped in the brake run. A bunch of other rides going thru warmups. Enjoy the evening.

Do they still use skid brakes, or a different kind of brake? If the side walls were removed, from an operations standpoint, would it have any effect? I've always appreciated the openness of The Beast's brake run, main due to the closed off feel you get waiting to pull into the station on The Racer. Actually, come to think of it, other than Flight of Fear, I can't think of another brake run at KI that is enclosed similar to The Racer.

Arms and hands should be kept inside of the car at all times. Don...rule breaker Was there a reason they enclosed the break run for The Racer, or well, I guess there was a reason, but would it be possible to open it up again. I don't know if that would lead to more issues like painting it, but I think it would make for a better ending if it was open. The Racer in its original form was an attractive ride, on par with the modern steel coasters of today. I still love the ride, just wish it could get its original paint job back (and the final hill would be a bonus, but beggars can't be choosers; can they?)

The entire ride is getting scrapped according to Tony and Jason Makes sense, with as little work at Intamine seemingly does in North America at this point (at least that I'm aware of), who's going to take a chance on installing that ride, with its history and in conjunction with Intamin?

Nobody is getting the shoot the rapids ride from CP, at least nobody within the Cedar Fair group. They may get another woodie, but I doubt its anything like Son of Beast other than the material that the rails sit upon; a woodie like Rampage, sign me up yesterday.

I would be shocked if they put a Giga into that spot. Sure it could loop around and interact w/ other rides, but it doesn't feel like a good spot, being so close to both Diamondback and The Beast. A Giga makes much more sense starting out of Son of Beast's old station or out of X-Base. There appears to be enough room to put a solid GCI woodie in that spot, and Wild mouse type ride could be used in that area incorporated w/ the big Box if they so desired. I haven't looked at the footprint, but I would think you could get launched wing coaster, similar to the one at Holiday World back in that area as well. You could also put a nice flat ride or (three) back in that area as well. Lots of possibilities at this stage.

They must have taken the Constanza approach then, tore down the bridge to build up a wall.

Have they repaved the parking lot at all? Last time I drove by, it didn't appear so, and I know it can't be done in the winter, so it would have to be fairly recently, but now would have been a great time to take care of that. I don't know how long a project like that would take, and how easily it could be done in sections later in the summer when things warm up and work like that is easier to perform, but the parking lot is in sore need of some repaving. Seems to be poor form to build a brand new entry way, then offer guest the bumpiest ride of the day as they maneuver to their parking space.

I've said multiple times, I'd take a Renegade clone in a second and never look back. I've never been on Prowler, but the POVs look solid. That and a flat or two would be an incredible offseason.

I believe so; I also believe I've read on here that they have since performed work on the fountains that would no longer make that possible, or at least wouldn't make it possible with out retro-fitting it back out again. But that still wouldn't solve the problem that its occasionally in the 60s in SW Ohio leading up to Christmas, leaving any rink useless to begin with. If the Zoo can do it, and be profitable, then KI could as well, however one big issue that the zoo doesn't have is a large scale Halloween fest that often runs up to the very beginning of November. Any "winterfest" of sorts, that is going to be based around getting people to come out and see lights, needs to be open thanksgiving day weekend. That may only leave 3.5 weeks of prep time to do it properly, which doesn't feel like a ton of time. Plus anytime devoted to a winterfest would be potential time taken away from regular offseason maintenance work. One possible answer would be to "tune down" the kids area near the end of Halloween start building up the light display over there and getting ready for a scaled down version of "Winterfest". Bring in Santa, perhaps some carnival type attractions that are no longer in the park like a jumbo mat slide, keep open the rides in Planet Snoopy that can operated in cold weather (I assume, but could be wrong, that things like the Flying Scooters, bouncing buggies, helicopter ride, perhaps even the pumpkin coaster could operate down into the 20s.) Really gear it around small kids and their families. Keep international street open for shopping/dining, light up the Eiffel Tower, etc.. I don't think they could go "all in" but a scaled down, moderate version may work enough to generate a small bit of income. Limit crowds, offer season pass holders first dibs, etc...

If at first, you don't succeed, troll, troll again?

Obviously you must be single, otherwise you would know that all men forget from time to time what their wife says, sometimes it even happens accidentally medford, happy being married.

I thought it was the man Mr Decker reports to that said he didn't want to disrupt KI's front gate w/ a coaster. however, with that said, and despite screamscape being what screamscape is and likely changing their "rumors" to match facts as they come about, a new front gate is needed at KI (at least in my opinion). More electronic ticketing, make the up stairs restaurant more usable, a fresh look to the gate, etc... are all overdue, again, at least in my opinion. They don't need a new coaster soaring over head, KI already kind of has one just to the left as you enter and the pass thru under the restaurant where the sounds of the fountain and the full sight of the tower all hit you at once makes for a grand entrance to what they hope will be the "best day of your summer"

Scrambler makes me a little nauseous just to watch it in action, but my wife and kids love it, so I've spent a lot of time observing it in action. After seeing what they did to SR&R last season, I was hoping this was in the works (for Monster as well) and think the paint job looks great, if the lighting package matches SR&R, that will bring some much needed "pop" to that end of Coney.

That ride looks fun, it has since the video came out at the announcement, however that ride and its cars look really, really ugly to me. Perhaps the 1st hand visual would alter that opinion of mine, just how actually riding a ride can alter one's opinion from what they thought having watched a POV. Then there is the station, I can't fathom any scenario where I would appreciate that amount of red pain. I once read a factoid that Barns and "little old school houses" were always painted red (hence the terms Red Barn and Little Old Red School house) because Red paint was the cheapest paint available. I would think the painting industry has changed significantly in the last 100 years and that there would no longer be a vast difference b/w Red paint, and oh I don't know about 50+ different possible accent colors. Blue, White, Black or Grey would have all worked well to alter that monotone paint job.