medford

Terp, when the career-o-matic stops spinning, perhaps you'll be coming near a grocery store that sells that ice cream Good marketing effort.

thanks malem, that was my thinking. If my wife decides to go, I'll call ahead to the park to make sure for her. Thanks.

My wife was thinking of taking our 2 year old Friday evening. The 2 year old isn't eligible for a pass (or cost of admittance yet), will she be allowed in? We have a friend who purchased their pass for the 1st time last October, since it was a first time pass, and not a renewal, will they be allowed in on Friday?

thanks for all the pointers. I've talked things over a bit with my wife, I think we're leaning towards Minnesota, though I've always wanted to go to the Dells, I think my wife was at Noah's Ark 5 years for her aunt and uncles anniversary. Definitely one of the water parks in the Dells. Perhaps we'll hit up Mount Olympus (we're not hugely into water parks, though I have a feeling at some point our 6 year old son will force us into KI's water park) rather than Valley Fair. I think we want to take in a baseball game, I haven't checked the Brewers schedule, but I know the twins are in town. The LEGO store is definitely a place we'll hit while in Minnesota. There doesn't appear to be must thought behind hitting up Valley Fair. Its not like its on my bucket list, the only reason I'd be going is b/c I was already up in that area. If we skipped it, I doubt anyone would be terrible upset. Is it worth the time/money to spend a day at Valley Fair, or will I leave "wanting more" with kids that are vastly familiar with Kings Island? I don't expect it to offer the variety and entertainment that KI does, but I don't sense a lot of praise for the park in general. Perhaps the silence is deafening, or perhaps its just silence b/c its just "ok" take if you're in the area for something else, leave it if it would require a special trip. So, if I'm on the path of heading up to Minnesota for a twins game and Mall of America, aside from possibly Valley Fair, is there anything else in that area worth checking out? Based upon stuff with her family, I think the side trip to The Field of Dreams isn't going to work out, it would require us to leave a bit earlier on Sunday that we would like, and it doesn't seem like attending on any other day as just a single family would be quite as good. Anyhoo, I'm currently working on Friday - Sunday morning with her family in western Wisconsin, shooting up to Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, spending somewhere b/w 2-3 days there, then heading south and possibly hitting Mount Olympus on the way back to SW Ohio.

thanks.

thanks terpy I thought about the Dells, my wife went there with her cousins when our son was about 2.

I don't have an answer to question 2, but in regards to question 1, It will not guarantee here being 48" all season. She'll have to get measured each trip regardless of your pass. I know where you are coming from, my son would fluctuate between a specific mark from one trip to another just a week apart.

Figured this is as good a place as any. My wife and I are heading up to Wisconsin around the 4th to visit her cousins/aunt and uncle. We were planning on a long weekend west of Madison, then figuring out something else to do with the week following. So one of the things I thought of was heading up to Minnesota, taking in a twins game, going to the Mall of America and perhaps spending a day at Valleyfair. Any recommendations for Valleyfair? We'll have our 6 year old with us, who so far loves The Beast, Racers, etc...should be able to get on Banshee this spring and likely Diamondback, Flight of Fear, etc... later this summer if he's not already at those height requirements. Don't know if he'll enjoy those as much as he does The Beast, he rode Vortex 2 seasons ago when he first hit 48", but never asked to get on last season (don't know if that was just 'cuse) or if he grew a fear of loops over the winter 2 seasons ago. Our Daughter will be 3, has never been on anything that requires more than a 36" height requirement, but should have access to all of that this spring. Looks like they have a decent kids area. Any recs for Mall of America? My wife has been years ago, I've never been. Is it worth the trip? Looks like there is an aquarium and many things to do outside of "shopping" anything in particular we should look for? Additionally, thought about maybe heading over to "the Field of Dreams" site. Doesn't look like that is too far out of the way from where we'll be in Wisconsin. They have some sort of "legends" type game on Sunday afternoons. Has anyone done this before and think its worth the time? Anything else out that way that anyone would recommend that I haven't thought of? TIA.

jcgoble, I wouldn't recommend walking across the Ohio river in a thunderstorm either. Maybe, and only maybe in really, really, extended cold weather

Left field seems the most logical place to build their next big coaster, short of removing an existing coaster already in operation. Well Left field, or perhaps something cheesy drilled right thru the box in center field.

really, only you can make the decision if its a wise choice to purchase a dining plan, and it all depends on how often you visit the park, and how often you plan to eat inside the park, vs what you would spend outside the park on food. If I counted correctly there are roughly 22 weeks of operation (not all full weeks) this year, not including the fall. We typically visit about once a week, in the evening, middle of the week. We'll probably make about 15 visits give or take and probably eat once inside the park on at least 12 occasions. 12 x $10 would be $10, so not a huge savings and once you factor in that w/o the dining plan, we'd probably eat outside the park at Chipotle or Jimmy Johns just up the road a handful of times, its probably a net push overall, but its fairly convenient. If someone were to attend more often, or if their visits covered longer hours that would include more than 1 meal, it would make more sense. then throw in those that like to pack a meal to eat in the car, or right before heading in and you a different level of savings to compare to. There is no right answer for everyone.

Worth considering, absolutely. But my comment was more geared toward if you attitude is that you want to ride everything a couple of times, or do you want to ride as much as you can possible fit in. In a day and a half, assuming decent weather, you should be able to get multiple rides on everything in the park w/o a Fast Lane ticket. For some people, like myself, that would be plenty, but for others that would prefer to get as many rides as humanly possible in, then Fast Lane is your best bet. My body couldn't handle 15 trips on Banshee in a day, let along throwing 10 rides on The Bat, 10 more on The Beast, Vortex, Diamondback, etc... I am not the target audience, they may be, or they may just want to ensure they get on everything at least once, which I think they could easily do w/o Fast Lane in a day and a half.

If your goal is to ride all rides at least once, then you really don't need a Fast Lane ticket. If your goal is to ride as many rides as your body can handle thru the coarse of 2 days, then you'll get a ton of use out of it. Over two days, no matter how crowded, you should be able to get multiple rides on everything, and a several more on the rides you like best. As someone said above, try to hit a few low capacity rides right at rope drop (Flight of Fear & Firehawk on Friday, Invertigo on Saturday would be my recommendations). The lines for The Beast, Diamondback, Vortex & Banshee all move pretty quickly. If your staying all day, I'd recommend a few night rides in addition to day rides. As long as your in line at 10:00, the policy in the past has been to let the line run thru before shutting the park down. On that note, The Beast will shut down during fireworks due to the proximity of part of the track to the launch area, but once the fireworks are over and everything is clear, they'll cycle the ride back thru until the line has been expired. The Beast, Adventure Express and Banshee are all worth a night ride. Depending on when the sun sets during your visit, you may be able to get a couple of rides in as long as you can get back in line by the start of fireworks. Also note that the waterpark will be closed when your there, just in case you had that in mind. I just saw that you weren't expecting to get in to the park on Friday until 4:00, so I guess you can scratch the rope drop item for Friday, so since you'll be getting there when the park is relatively crowded (still don't think it will be that crowded, but who knows for sure) I'd recommend going up the tower first and getting a lay of the land from up high just to take it all in, then head over to whatever attraction you want to ride the most. Oh, and please report back on your experience, hope you have a blast. 2 days is more than enough, if you have the energy, I'd recommend going to over to holiday world on the way home. Shouldn't need a 3rd day at KI as the 2 will give you ample time to take in everything.

well, if you're strictly looking for "blue" ice cream, it can be found in many Kroger stores as a "blue cotton candy" flavor variety, Graters often carries a blue cotton candy, Maggie Moos and I'm sure many other places. now if you're looking for the soft serve kind similar to KI's Blue "Ice Cream" you're more limited, but you can definitely real ice cream that is colored blue in many locations.

Sounds like some think the title is now cheesy Why does it not surprise me that Terp bumped this thread as only Terp could do.

Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

30 min compared to the cost of keeping 2 residences (I'll assume to told otherwise the weekend residence is mom & dad's and thus "free", but the one close to KI is certainly not "free" to someone, and would eat into a large portion of your earnings).

Are you sure that's Fury 325, or someone performing their Jedi Training?

Red & White color scheme....so my dream of having it renamed "The Big Red Machine" still stands a chance, pending approval (read $$$) of little Joe

There is lots they could do with the front gate aside from revamping the aesthetics.. Revamp the restaurant (assuming the Reds HOF grille is performing as expected) to offer that experience during regular park hours, perhaps a premium upgrade to include patio dining/viewing during the fireworks. Bring it up to code for ADA compliance (allegedly an issue I've read on this site?). Perhaps open up on select days prior to the park opening to offer breakfast (or dinner on Fridays during the Haunt). Perhaps make it available for rental during the offseason (or even in season potentially) for holiday parties, large gatherings, weddings, etc... Perhaps even add a food stand on the perimeter of the park to offer guests another option for when they're leaving the park, hopefully freeing up some of the places near the front entrance to start cleaning up a little earlier. offer electronic ticket kiosks, hopefully enabling customers to get into the park a little quicker, add perks to their season pass, purchase future tickets, etc... I usually come mid-week in the evening, so the ticket line is sparsely used at that point, but on the occasions that I've come on a weekend early in the season or during the Haunt, it seems like the line backs up a decent amount. The intent behind the electronic kiosks would be to get people into the park a little quicker, a side benefit would be reducing overhead. Modify the guest services counter. It seemingly meets it needs, but it also feels dated and stale. Overall, I like the experience you get when you pass under the restaurant and all of a sudden are hit with the sound of the fountains, a little breeze and the view of the Tower, so I'd incorporate that experience into any redesign, but as a certain NON expert, I see potential to update the look, make a couple different areas to increase revenue as well as a couple of different areas to reduce costs. With many other CF parks getting new front gates, I think its only a matter of time before KI gets their facelift, to what extent we shall see. As far as the fountains, you could run them on any time clock you wish, I'd agree to keep some version of the show thru the course of the day, but if the intent of the fireworks is to keep patrons in the park until the very end, likely increasing the spending of said visitor inside the park until the end of the day, I'd save the best "water show" until the fireworks, incorporating lighting along with the water effects that would make families want to come back and stay thru the evening every year. How many people watch the fireworks from the parking lot? You can see them just as well from out there, so they hurry back to their car watch them soar into the sky, then get out of the lot before it gets too crowded, perhaps even hitting up McDonalds on the way home for a bite to eat. The changes above could help KI pick up some of that money/time that their patrons are spending outside of the park. Offer a little more seating, particularly in the shade near the front gate for patrons who want to pack their lunch, but prefer not to eat it out by their car.

Just to add to the Intamin fun, no North American park has bought an INTAMIN coaster of any sorts since SKYRUSH (Opened in 2012). Now that Planet Snoopy is getting a little love with what appear to be two solid additions and removing one horrendously laid out water thingy (seriously if they would have just demolished Snoopy Splash Dance, or reconfigured it so that kids entered and exited the attraction in a similar location I would have considered it wondrous), makes me wonder what is on tap for next season. Since the installation of Diamondback, they've kind of moved around the park, Coney Mall got some love with the addition of WindSeeker, the water park got some love, obviously Action Zone. So what part of the park hasn't seen any love lately? International street. Upgrade the fountain so they can incorporate some sort of "water show" along with the fireworks, upgrade the front gate to modernize it a bit like other parks have done, a revamp of Boo Blasters and do something with Tower Gardens. A bunch of "little" projects that added together will cost a fair amount, but in the end I think really revamp the first part of the park many people see (perhaps a small flat addition to Oktoberfest while they're at it). That's my prediction, until proven otherwise.

25% out of state visitors? Considering its location, I would think obtaining 25% of their daily draw just from Indiana residents would be expected, throw in people from Ohio or Illinois that would have a "short drive" and I would think they could make that number pretty easy. I also think that would be an easy thing to forge. Attendant asks for your zip code, doesn't "hear you" and just enters 90210 for your zip, and voila, they've got a good chunk of people visiting from So Cal. anyhoo, things that made me go "hmm..." this morning. Driving into work, caught a commercial on 700WLW for Louisville basketball, no make that Louisville Women's basketball. Something to do with Women in athletics day, honoring past legends of Cardinal Lady Hoops and a tie in with a discount for Kentuckiana (Kentucky-Indiana reference) girl scouts. I'll assume Cardinal Women's basketball is not a major draw, so to pay for advertising at a Cincy based radio company (that obviously feeds into a lot of homes in Kentucky) is stretching their advertising limits. I don't recall a single spot for Kentucky Kingdom last year on the same channel (or network of channels based out of the same station). One would think they'd have more potential customers for a day at KK at any point in the summer than a single Women's college basketball game.

So some say the landscaping is not "really" an attraction, some say it used to be. Yet every spring there is a post lamenting about the apparent loss of the hands on the floral clock, only to be reminded that the floral clock is typically not set up until later in the spring when things warm up. So to that, I say, clearly the landscaping is an attraction, if Don were to grab a chain saw and start randomly cutting down trees to stock his firewood supply, complaints would be loud enough to shake the Eiffel Tower (in Paris no less). The landscaping may not top the list of things to see and do at KI for many on this site, or even for the average patron, but there are people that are there every day of the operating season who are only there to take in the sites, enjoy their family and friends and never once step foot onto a ride anywhere in the park. The trees, the flowers, the sites and the sounds are all part of what makes KI a great destination.

Sorry folks, the moose should have told you out front.

anyone try this out last weekend and care to report? Weather was less than ideal for tubing (or at least non winter like, but if they could create enough snow, it was probably ideal conditions since you could go in lighter clothes and stay warm. anyhoo, looked into this a bit and had a few questions/observations. 1st, above it mentions that Perfect north has unlimited tubing during the week for about the same price, this is true, but on weekends, they are priced about the same with what appears to be a 2 hour time frame. 2nd, the web came appears to be from too far away, perhaps it changes during hours of operation, they were closed yesterday so there was nothing to actually see, may be different when they're actually running. questions: How do the tube lanes compare to Perfect North? Beach Mountain doesn't appear to be anything too special as I zoom past on 71. could be a lot of fun, but seems like its pretty straight down the hill, now big bumps or turns. Perhaps that is the norm, or perhaps I'm missing something as I zoom past on 71 (easy to do as you could imagine), if anyone has been, I'd love to hear what the experience was like. The website leaves a lot to be desired; there appears to be pricing for 42" and above and another price for 3 and over, but under 42", but when you go to purchase ticket, you only see the 42" and above ticket. perhaps I'm missing something. What about a 2 year old that is below 42"? They indicate that there is a smaller hill for those under 42", and perhaps that is the reason for the 3 and over and under 42" price point, can my 2 year old daughter ride? If she was 3, could she ride down on the same tube as her Mother or myself? Is she restricted to a play area? Does she get free admittance? What is the play area look like, will it be enough to keep her happy while her brother and mother/father take turns down the hill? If anyone can provide answers to these questions either now or in the coming weeks, it would be appreciated, I think I'd like to try this out sometime in Jan/Feb but may change my mind depending on what the 2 year old can do.