medford

I'm interested in what this means for the future of KI. It seems (though too early to tell for sure) that Cedar Fair is done (or at least pausing) on major roller coaster installations by Intamin at the moment; B & M is the supplier of choice right now, for better or worse (and I'm not looking for another argument). Installing a B & M giga in Canada, while a B & M Hyper was already in the park had to be a bit of a risk taker for the park (as well as B & M who had never done a 300+ foot coaster prior). How would the ride work? Would it be popular? Would it detract from the hyper they already have? Would customers just say, mmeeehhh just a taller version of that, I'm not going up to Toronto this year for that, I'll wait until they install something "different"? By several of the accounts I've read, Leviathon was a big hit, and it did little to detract from the lines of their hyper that any other major coaster installation wouldn't have done anyways. Anytime I've seen someone talk about the park in a trip report, they talk about how the ride experience is fun and both are worth riding on their trips multiple times. I know I haven't read them all, I'm sure there are detractors, but if both Cedar Fair and B & M are happy with the results and are willing to do so again at Carowinds (and though the news media reports it will be 300+ feet tall, no one is reporting a manufacturer), perhaps they'll be willing to do it a third time at Kings Island in another 4-5 years. Could a Kings Island Giga been tabled a few years to see how the B & M Giga would work in Canada while a record breaking invert was installed to satisfy KI's quench for a new thrill ride? If the Pointe, Canda's wonderland, Kings Dominion and Carowinds all have Giga's, KI would be the only of their 5 biggest parks to not have one, and would be ripe for such a ride in 5-6 years.

Both the Cincy zoo and the Indy zoo, have glass displays at certain points in their tiger/lion display where you can basically stand face to face w/ the animals (if they're in the mood). Probably not fare to call it glass though, it is (I assume/hope) something significantly stronger and as the polar bear video showed, is designed so that if it does break, it doesn't shatter, but holds together like a windshield does in a car wreck.

I feel the exact same way. My daughter loves it but she is only allowed if my wife and I are both there to watch her easier. Same here, if I was at the park w/ just my son and no one else, I'd never let him do that thing.

Flight of Fear: Contact the Cincy Conservatory school for the arts and get some of their stage people to take on an unpaid "internship" w/ a 10,000 budget to revamp the que area. They have computers in there w/ 5.25" floppy disk drives. There has to be some old computers sitting around that they could use to make the area feel a little more up to date. I've been impressed with some of the work I've seen a student I know at another school do in theater design, I'm sure they could do wonders in that area on a very small budget. Get a lighting package installed in the launch tunnel. Railroad: get the same interns to revamp the old western scene on the railroad. That desperatly needs some TLC. Again, they could likely do wonders on a very small budget. I'd love to see live actors the way it used to be, but that would require hiring several full time employees for a ride that many consider little more than transportation b/w the water park and the main park. Woodstock Express: Put the tunnel back in, rename it The Beastie, never change the name again, how many names does a rollercoaster need in its life? Plus there is a woodstock express at seemingly every Cedar Fair park, make KI's unique. The Beast, nothing needs to be done other than regularly scheduled maintance and retracking. The ride is great, don't mess with it. Same could be said of Diamondback, fix the wheels and move forward. Back Lot Stunt Coaster: Fix up the helicopter scene, its looking worn down. Pay for said fix up by advertising on the billboards on that ride. Coke, La Rosa's, Skyline, whatever else is already in the park. I'd also switch out one of the billboards so it had the look/feel of the road condition signs you see every where, the ones that tell you how long it is from that point to another road/landmakr, both in milage and estimated travel time. However, rather than report on the traffic out on 71, tell us the wait time for The Beast, Diamondback, Flight of Fear, Banshee, etc... Make it part of the ride, but make it visable to the general patrons strolling along Coney Mall. I don't now if the KI app has that feature, but it really should, link the billboard into that and you've enhanced the theming and offered up something to someone in the park. Oh and get the water features working again The Racer, needs repainting. I'd love for it to go back to the original paint job, but realize that isn't very cost effective, so just a nice coat of paint would be a blessing; hope that doesn't lead to any costly problems, evaluate impact prior to commensing. Tower Gardens: boot out the smokers, get the water feature working, contact the people at Entertainment junction to install a mock up of the park the year it opened with plans to add feature for key rides/addtions like The Beast, Diamondback, etc... down the road. Make sure the rides in the model are working replica of said rides, similar to what entertainment junction has done for Coney Island. Move the KI hall of fame back to that area, put up TVs w/ a documentary on the history of Kings Island, put in a shop just outside of it that would see vintage KI gear, thsirts for The Bat, screamin' demon, etc.. old shot glasses, old The Beast logos that are not used today, etc...

I believe its roughly in place, though it was only a few moments ago that they were raising it up, so its probably not bolted down yet.

I hate, absolutely hate that layout. Lets see, kid goes in one side, comes out the opposite side, and gets thru quicker than most parents can walk around the attraction to meet them at the other side. Oh and if you walk around to the left, and your kid exits to the left, how long do you circle around looking for your kid? What could possibly go wrong?

I feel sorry for the parents, but what's the saying? "Can't fix stupid" I don't care that there were wild animals down there, if you're going to lift your child up high enough to ensure they can see an exhibit that is well below the level you're standing on, you don't get close enough to the edge where an accident would allow them to fall over the barrier. Never, ever, ever do you do that. I'm sure the parents feel terrible, how could you not, but the lawsuit and any potential money that comes out of it will not fix the loss to their family. We attended both the Indy zoo and the Cincy zoo this year. There are several exhibits at each zoo that would fit a similar description to what is being described at the Pittsburgh zoo. Several times I lifted my 5 year old son onto my shoulders or up in my arms so that he could see better. Never was he close enough to the edge in a position where he could fall over the edge. If we were up close, he was in my arms, off to the side w/ my body at an angle, so that if he was to squarm he'd fall straight down onto the ground, not onto and potentially over the barrier. If we were a bit further away, he'd go up on my shoulders and a several steps back so that if he were to squarm, I could make sure he wasn't falling onto and potentially over the barrier. The parents put their own child at risk, there were tragic results to their poor decision, now they are looking to blame somebody else. I don't think I'd make it on the jury for a case like this.

to alter the direction of this discussion a bit, I see and understand why using a typical grille (gas or charcol) would be prohibited, but what about the newer electric models? I neither own, plan to own, or even if I did own plan to set up an electric grill in KI's parking lot, but I don't see any additional risks present from running an electric grill.

somewhere in this thread, or perhaps another, somebody asked if you would be able to see the ride from the highway. Driving home on friday, the 2nd set of supports on the lift hill, the ones they put up friday were visable from the highway (though w/o track you had to be looking for them, they don't quite jump out at you from 71 the way Diamondback does). I don't know how many sets of lift hill supports there will be, but as this thing grows, it clearly is going to be visable from 71 as you pass by the park.

I can answer this one for you. KI is a business and businesses are in business to make money. They are not in business to appease to a very very small fraction of their customer base and leave an absurd amount of money on the table just so said customer base can get on Diamondback five minutes faster. You mean 3 hours faster? Did people even have to wait three hours on opening day of the ride? Do you have any idea how long that line would stretch? You are not waiting three hours for the ride, don't be silly

Props to Intamin?I'm not an amusement park operator, but if I were, I'd find this much unscheduled downtime unacceptable... Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2 Did you expect any other response from our resident Intamin minister of propaganda?

Start to finish? Well the started at the finish, then moved to the start, then moved back to the finish, now they're back at the start. Seems very circular so far to me, really taking us for a loop on this construction.

If PTC once did, what prompted the change?

Here is what I don't get, and the stupidity in laws sometimes. Kings Island has roughly 2 decades of data about the effects of running the Race backwards. I don't recall any serious injuries, nor any specifically harmful effects on the track, but before the web, that kind of information wasn't as readily available as it is today (imagine if black friday were to happen today, rather than a time before everyone was "logged on") I loved the backwards racer, I loved the front/back seat, seeing where I've been, not where I was going, not being able to as acurately gauge when the next air time was coming, when we were about to bank left and turn back around. I understand the intent of the law, and its certainly there for good reason, but 20 years of solid data trumps any manufacturers recommendations in my book. If Cedar Fair/Kings Island wanted to run The Racer backwards again (and pehaps there are good reasons beyond the legal/insurability aspect of this issue that they don't), I think that 20 years should be good enough to have a waiver granted.

FWIW, not only does KI secruity monitor the lot, but I've often seen mason PD driving thru the lot.

The crane was "down" this morning, both when I drove by and noticed on my way to work and when I went and checked on the web cam when I got into the office. I just checked again, and the crane is now "up" though I didn't see any clear signs of construction either time (its hard to tell anything other than the installation of supports/track that far away) the web cam was definently not stuck. Yesterday, the appeared to be setting up a lot of suppors by where the dive loop will be, I'll assume stagging it for construction in the near future.

I agree that they're too far removed to go completely back to its german heritage roots. As I mentioned earlier, I'd keep the Chinese, I'd keep the LaRosas', but I'd find a way to enhance the food selection in there. I think the Chinese is good, however the pizza is edible at best (its not bad, but its nothing special). The burgers in there look terrible as well as anything else I've seen served in there outside of the chinese & Pizza (and salad). I'll admit, I've never tried it, so it may taste fine, but I'm not willing to try. I'd use the other side of the pizza line (which is often closed mid week, I'm guessing its open on busy weekends) and put in the german style buffet. Doesn't have to be anything terribly fancy, brats, metts, hot dogs, cream puffs, Sauerkraut, etc... Simple things that would be goobled up as an alternative. Heck, I'll take it one step further and push the german/bavarian boundries and put up a spit or two and start serving up some Doner Kebab (similar to a gyro). Nothing too terribly complicated about any of those items, any of them should be fairly scalable to deal with heavy and low attendance days, all would have great potential at KI. I think KI has taken a huge step forward in the quality of their food the last couple of seasons; I'm sure they are striving to improve the quality of the food even more, I think that can be done w/n the festhaus. Hopefully the addition of Banshee, and perhaps some future improvements/additions to Action Zone will lead to more foot traffic in that area and more regular use out of the stunt crew grill. If that happens, use that place for some quality burgers, chicken fingers, fries, etc...

Thanks for that. I've heard his name come up time and again, often by terpy, just didn't know much about the man. Sounds like a guy that would be a blast to kick back, sip a beer and hear him tell stories of the various things he's encountered.

thanks Ohio Colts, I thought it kind of looked like him, and it would totally make sense if it was, there was just so much hair on his head that its hard to know for sure.

Mr O once talked about this subject directly (what families are looking for, and what he is attempting to give them at a day at their parks) or perhaps indirectly. IIRC, he mentioned how his intention was to create a day at the park that each family would enjoy so much, that they'd want to make both repeatable trips in a season or course of seasons, but also pass along the tradition from one generation to the next. If your family has always gone to Holiday World for a summer trip or two, and the product remains satisfying (which may come into question) you're probably going to maintain that regular trip no matter what happens at Kentucky Kingdom. KK will eat into HW and KIs attendance numbers next season as people spend a day there that they would have otherwise spent at KI or HW (or a number of other parks), that is obvious, however, the average park attendee is your family that makes one or two trips a year. A School group, or church group, summer camps, etc.... While the cost of gas and the time spent getting there is a factor, its a relatively small factor once you consider that its a one or two times a year event for a family.

~2 oz once you consider how much of the cup they fill with ice. Ice is just water, only colder. So it is still between 6 and 7 ounces. I was referring to the immediately drinkable liquid content. Most people probably don't want to wait for the ice to melt. Incidentally, I spotted an unopened bag of "Kinzel cups" on a counter this evening. The plastic bag was clearly marked "7 oz. cups". They don't look like 7 ounces to me. Transmitted from Wild Space via my datapad's DROID brain I may be one of those "strange people" but I prefer the ice over the water. My ice never has a chance to melt all the way. Don't know about the peak of the Kinzel days, but for the last 3 seasons, Kings Island has never once refused to fill my children's sippie cups, my souviner cup or any other cup I've handed them with ice water any time I've asked for it. They've also never failed to give me anything less than the amount of ice waters I've asked for (even when I've asked for 8 cups when by myself and had to make two trips to drop them off to the table my group was at), they've also given me water w/o ice any time I've asked for it specifically that way.

So I actually took the time to look at the HOF location at KI a few weeks back. My wife had to use the restroom when we got to the park, so I took my son over to get measured, then while killing a few minutes, took the two kids over there so I could see what was in the hall of fame area. 1) I know the KI HOF won't be appreciated by many guests, probably less than 1%, but if they're going to do it, why have it tucked away in a part of the park where it goes almost completely unnoticed. 2) Can somebody give me some more detail on Bill Mefford? I know he's tied in or perhaps owns Entertainment Junction, I know he used to do PR for Kings Island, helped get Universal Studios started and some other stuff I've found surfing around the net. Sounds like an interesting guy, would love to hear more, sounds like some people on here know him and could provide that, would be appreciated. 3) There is a picture of a couple of people riding The Racer in the first row of the HOF. It makes no mention of who those people are, but was wondering if that was perhaps Don in that picture, perhaps from back in the day when he used to ride it a ton. Just courious.

Gee, you'd think the park would have employees clean up after the dog. No one should have to step in Snoopy crap. guy, that so called snoopy "crap" has won 12 golden tickets 12 years in a row and hopefully this weekend #13! I assume he's talking about the star light spectacular, not Planet Snoopy and all of the kids rides.

that would be awesome as well.

There may be contractual reasons they turn on the lights, even in far less than perfect condition. As far as the festhaus, I agree, I'd love to see the clock get fixed, but I've also moved past the notion that it should be german food only. Retheme to the International house or something, keep the pizza and chinese, drop the burgers, fries, chicken fingers, use the lines on the far left, call up Schmidt's in Columbus, who runs an excellant German Buffett and add that to that side along w/ the cream puffs and I think you'll please most everyone.