medford

After informing my wife the other evening, I can confirm, we will be taking significantly less trips to Frisch's as a family moving forward, perhaps as few as zero. First Costco took away their Coke fountain dispensers, now Frisch's; she's one dissapointed Coke Fan heading into the new year. At least McDonald's still serves up the best Diet Coke in the business.

I mostly missed out on PT. Sometime when I was young, it was converted into the Smurf Enchanted voyage, by the time it was PT, I had outgrown Planet Snoopy (though I'm pretty sure I rode it a couple of times, mainly for the airconditioning), now that I have young kids of my own, its Boo Blasters. I can't honestly compare PT to Boo Blasters, so I won't even attempt, but I do know that my 5 year old loves Boo Blasters, has loved it since he was 3 and even though he grew tall enough to ride The Beast, Vortex, Drop Tower, etc... last season, he still rides Boo Blasters as often as he rides The Beast. My original fear was that it would scare him, but that has never been an issue, nor was it an issue when our 1.5 year old daughter rode it for the first (and so far, only) time late last season. I see many young kids in line, I've waited outside the building many times w/ my daughter while my wife and son rode and never I have I seen a kid come off that ride crying because they were scared. Things I would do to fix up the ride: Calibrate each and every gun and make sure they all work. When you enter the ride, seems like the blaster furtherst away from the Que works the best while the one closest to the que doesnt work as well. Are the guns broke, or are they miss aimed? Having some sort of laser pointer that would indicate when on the target you are aiming would be nice, don't know if that is a safey issue w/ people pointing them as people's eyes. I have no proof of this, or if my eyes were just decieving me, but it seems like they spruced things up a bit around halloween last season. Maitanence on the props is probalby minimal, but they do need some sprucing up from time to time. I'd add more props to the game, even if they are not targetable. Perhaps some "inside humor" making fun of Don or other long time KI or CF employees. I can't see anything on the scale of what Disney or Univeral has done, I'd imagine the payoff just doesn't work out for a seasonal park that is mostly filled w/ regional guests that visit the park multiple times a year. I think I read the Wonderland project came in under $10 mil? That's a nice price point for Cedar Fair's parks. Speaking of Wonderland, if that project is a success, and I suspect that it will be, I absolutely expect something like that to move into that building. Don't forget, there is a lot of room in that building that goes mostly "unused" outside of storage and a haunt during the fall, so there is room to make something even longer than Boo Blaster's currently is should they have the desire. Since the indication from Wonderland's project was that their ride would be able to run several different programs, could be altered at minimal costs, etc... I suspect that there is the possibility that they could run something more "kid friendly" during the day and switch it over to more adult oriented or scarier at night during the Haunt (when Planet Snoopy is closed down)

As long as they keep their "crunchy ice" I'm good, my wife on the other hand, is going to be ****ed. Frisch's is one of the few (actually only that I can think of) where I order a Coke over a Diet Coke, namely to get a "cherry Coke". I actually prefer Pepsi over Coke, but much prefer Diet Coke over Diet Pepsi, and ironically like diet Cherry Pepsi over Diet Cherry Coke, so this may be a good thing for me. Still my wife is going to be ****ed, so its likely that we'll be eating there a few less times a year than we currently do (probably about 5 or 6 times a year)

perhaps he's using the dewey decimal system.

True Story, we were heading down to my mother in laws Monday evening to do some cookie decorating when the christmas Peanuts song came on the radio. W/o hesitating, our 5 year old sitting in the back shouts out "Kings Island". We drive past a Mike's car wash when leaving Costco in Mason, and our 5 year old spots the Peanuts characters painted on the windows, he almost always mentions Kings Island. He spots the Snoopy Blimp in the air and he mentions Kings Island. You may not think kids watch peanuts, but their characters are seen around town in various forms of marketing all the time and at least for our 5 year old, and I suspect, but don't know, many other young kids, the Peanut Characters are associated w/ the good times at Kings Island more so than the TV specials a handful of times a year. The Peanuts are classic and timeless, they bring a certain level of familarity b/w grandparents, their adult children and their grandchildren, the kind of familarity and good times the Cedar Fair company is attempting to replicate in their parks around the country. Put in an adventure time themed ride, and grandma and grandpa have no idea what their grandchild is talking about that they brought to KI for a day while he visited during the summer.

to add to what terpy as said, w/ bringing in young kids, we've often had sippy cups full of water (even in plain view with the kid holding them) as well as "snacks" for the kid(s) in the diaper bag. Park policy is clearly no, but in reality we've never been stopped, nor has anyone even looked thru our bag or mentioned a word as one of our kids chomps up some puffs or cheerios when moving from one coaster to the next. they'll even fill up your sippy cup with ice and tap water if free.

We've had our stroller on the dry side of the park practically every vist for the last 3 seasons. We've never had it anything taken from it, let alone moved (unless they slide it over a few inches so they could get enough room for their own stroller). This is on the dry side, as I mentioned on the other thread we don't go to the water park other than passing by on the train (or in the fall for halloween when the water is shut off) so I can't speak to the safety of strollers on the dry side. Generally speaking we take any valuables out of the stroller, but there's always been a diaper bag, or other items, things of minimal value that could be taken easily, but as far as I've noticed, its never been touched.

also, if you do decide to stick with the pass, and they are a "regular pass" and not the gold pass, might as well upgrade to the gold pass today while you can (I think they stop selling gold passes around memorial day) If I'm reading the website correctly, its an extra $11 per season pass to go from regular to gold. If the $15 cost of parking is correct, that will be paid for in just 2 visits. In addition, the gold passes will still be good at halloween. There is a ton to do at the park for even the current 8 month old during halloween, I think the trick and treat with dinosaurs is amongst the best things the park does every season and they turn the water park into one heck of a kids halloween area in addition to the regular kids area being open during the day time (closed at nights when the park gets more adult oriented during the fall event)

If its a gold pass, parking is included, so you'll want to check that. depening on the height of your 2.5 year old, there is a decent amount to do in the "award winning children's area". If they are 36" (Mine hit 40" at 3, but he's pretty tall for his age) you can easily make a morning of it on the dry side, then move over to the wet side. If you child is 8 months old now, they'll be 1 year when the park opens. There are still several things they can do at one, but our current 19 month old was generally pretty happy just people watching from here stroller or people watching while her older brother and either mom or dad went riding. We found out later in the year there were several more options for the under 36" crowd than we realized and she was able to do the whip it with her brother and monster with her mother (as well as the train, merry go round, and boo blasters) I don't know when the water park opens, we're never there. Good luck in getting the refund, if that is the route you go. I've read accounts on here where they will allow you take an unprocessed season pass for the current year and apply it towards a pass the following year if you think its something you might get more out of when you've got a 4 and 2 year old than you'll get this season in case you can't get a refund for this season.

Should someone tell KD that the 12 days of Christmas doesn't actually start for another week +??? Otherwise, I like the theme and what they've revealed so far. I'd love to see KI get a little nostalgia love spread across the park next season. Doubful KI gets anything "major" considering the size, scope and cost of Banshee, but a handful of small projects across the park could go a long way towards kindling "the best day of the summer"

Thanks, I have been waiting for that information. Our oldest hit 40" around his 3rd birthday (yeah Beastie), 44" around his 4th (yeah Flying Ace, Arial Chase) and 48" around his 5th (yeah Beast!). Didn't think he had a shot to get on that next season and have been prepping him for it every time he asks saying he was going to have to wait at least 1 seasons. If trends hold, he may just get on it mid-summer next year.

graveyard for old things at Kings Island that may have a future use down the road. (props, parts, higher salvage value, etc..)

^^^ I was told by one of the employees that it ran around $100,000 to finish off the coney mall exhibit, their most expensive "project" to date. The place is pretty impressive overall.

So I assume some of you guys already know this, especially the ones more in tune w/ the history of Disney, but figured others (like me) that were not aware would be interested. My wife's uncle and aunt were in town this week. He's a pretty interesting guy, in the inventors hall of fame, very smart, knows a lot about a lot, etc... In short, he's one of those guys that has an interesting story about pretty much any subject. Anyhoo, they live in south florida now, but his two kids and grandkids are all meeting them in Orlando around the turn of the year, so the subject of Disney came up. I never knew, but apparently in Walt was deciding where to place Walt Disney World, the decision was b/w St Louis and Florida (remember at the time, Florida wasn't quite the travel destination that it is today). So I did a little digging around the net this morning, and this part of his story may not be 100% accurate, but he told me that St Louis was pretty much the front runner, but at a meeting of the big wigs in St Louis, Auggie Busch, while drunk started stammering and yelling how the park would never work without the sales of beer. With that, Walt made his mind to go with Orlando. Like I said, that part of the story is in debate, but there are many accounts and drawings about the details of the potential Disney World - St Louis around the net. I can only imagine just how different central florida would be today w/o Disney coming to town.

I'm guessing there is roughly 10-14' b/w the concrete at the base and the bottom of the steel where the coaster will load. Plenty of room for a gift shop. The picture is a little decieving, if you look at the base of the blue support on the right, you see that there is a block wall that extends up from the ground. A quick look makes that look like the floor is sitting at the top of that block wall, but if you look closely that wall is probably about 3-4' tall.

Well, if one can die at a fountain, it is quite possible that its water will be red. All of a sudden, I'm reminded of The Outsiders. As good as Hinton's novel was, and it is great, its one of those cases where I believe Coppola actually made the movie a notche better (though I'm sure others would disagree). Hard to believe how many eventual stars he cast in that movie during their youth.

There are a lot of other "winter/holiday" things to do around the area, but there are a lot of halloween type things to do in the area as well, so that's not much of an excuse. However, with the success that the Fest has apparently had, and the tradition that it has become, we're not going to see that stop any time soon. With the Fest ending around the end of october, and any "winter" exhibit needing to be ready by Thanksgiving (at the latest) that doesn't leave a lot of time for maintenant to both set up the event while also starting their regular park maintenance they do every off season. I'd imagine, that in order to properly do a Winter fest again that would be successful, they've have little choice but to scale back part of fall festival. I doubt we see that happen, so I doubt we'll ever see it back until the halloween festival is no longer an option.

Don't know why its wider, but when I look at those loops, at least the ones where you can see the track going into/out of the loop, it appears that the train is coming mostly straight into the element and straight out of the element. On Banshee, the train is making a fairly wide turn out of the dive element into the loop. The base may have been widened to lessen the forces coming out of the dive loop, into the vertical loop around the lift hill. In the end, I'm not sure if it matters, at least not to the average park attendee.

Seymour....work in Columbus. Lol, it's a small world on the interwebz. I live on the other side of Columbus in Brown County. Way small world indeed You call that a small world. I saw one of my friends from school here in cincy, In Walt Disney World. GamesAndRide, No "Its a small world" pun intended. You think that's small? I once ran into a person I went to school with on a "Mike's Bike Tour" in Munich Germany.

Man, I was hoping for a second that this post was going to say it was coming back. I don't recall when it was removed, but I think it would be awesome if they could put this back in (and perhaps a couple more in other places across the park, not sure where they would all fit.

its a fair question, and plans change, but Rob Decker states in that article that they still want to be a company that challenges highest, fastest, longest, etc... My guess, is we won't see the days of the coaster wars where Cedar Pointe was adding a major new installation every year or two. Looks like they'll spread major installations of coasters around so that each of their major parks gets 1 every 5-6 seasons, then inbetween they all get a children's area upgrade, or flats, a dark ride, etc.... smaller installations that appeal to the family as a whole and not just the thrill seekers. Seems like a good formula to me, as you said, we'll see how the next 10-20 seasons play. If this is the starting point, that would mean 4-5 new coasters (including Banshee) at KI by 2034. Certainly some will be lost due to age by then; hopefully I won't be too old to "play"

Nice article, I took one other thing away from the article...The desire to update the front gate at all of their parks. I've never been to CW, so it was interesting to see how they placement of Leviathan was kind of a tester for their idea and I'll presume what became Gatekeeper which completely interacts with the front gate. At a place like KI, I don't think a gate keeper style ride would work as well with the focal point being the tower behind, but I believe the front gate is long overdue for a major overhaul. When they talked about how all gates were now ADA compliant as well as stroller accessable it set a huge buzzer off in my mind. IIRC, there are only two gates into/out of KI that are ADA/stroller accessable. Generally its not a huge issue for us when we're pushing our stroller into or out of the park, but occasionally it becomes a tangled web when leaving the park while others are still entering. KI's front gate, ticket procurment center could be a lot smoother if they had more automated machines. In today's age, there is often no need for human interaction when purchasing a ticket. Granted, they can't get ride of humans completely, but when I renewed my season passes October, I had to wait in about a 20 minute line so I could pay for my season pass. I could have done that with an automated system which hopefully would have speed things up. Some people may not have waited the 20 mintues and then utimately ended up not renewing their passes for the following season.

This reminds me of a question I've had. RCDB lists The Great Pumpkin Coaster as 199 feet. If you only went around the track 1 time, would you travel 199 feet or 99.5 feet? Feels like 199 is the right answer Same question with Invertigo RCDB lists it as 1,013.8 feet. If it were possible to start at the top, go to the other side thru the course, then hop off, would you have travelled 1,103.8 feet, or 551.9 feet? or perhaps they could even count the first lift hill more than once since you go up, come down and thru the course and on the way back you go up again and back down to the station.

Everytime I see the line for Woodstock Whirlybirds, I'm thankful that my son has a very much "take it or leave it" approach to that ride. Its definently popular, despite the slow load times, but its out of the way of everything and offers a unique perspective of Planet Snoopy since your above everything else. I can defiently see why so many kids "must" ride it, I'm just glad my son choose Boo Blasters for his "must ride" when he was three.

Its not always as easy as "hey" or "get back" My 5 year old son is borderline ADHD (some of the tests for it he matches, some of the tests he passes). We've had long had trouble with him "wondering off" at KI. Generally speaking we keep a good eye on him, and if he gets to far away, we make him sit on a bench and "he owes us a minute" which worked pretty well this year. For ADHD kids, sitting still or walking in an ordely manner is not as easy as it is for everyone else, their minds wonder, their body wonders, they find distractions in everything. As I said, he's borderline, may just be maturity issues as he's always been imature for his age (which is made worse as he's generally much bigger than kids his age so he looks like he should be 7 rather than just turning 5) and recognize there are people that have it much, much worse than us. From that perspective I completly understand why a parent might put their kid on a leash. 10 years ago, I probably would have thought it stupid, if not abuse. Today, having lived life as a parent I completely understand. The parents who put their kids on a leash are more than likely putting it on there b/c they love their child, but also recognize the difficulties the kid faces, not because they want to punish the kid. My guess is that for each parent that has a kid on a leash at Kings Island or a much busier place like Disney would gladly give the cost of 100 leashes just so their kid could be "normal". Voicetek, the only people that would look at you in that situation and think "you much be horrible parents" are people who have never had to walk in your shoes and be resposible for someone like your autitistic nephew in a place as crowded as Disney. For every one person who judged you, there were probably 4-5 parents that "got it"