medford

The average high on April 27th in this neck of the woods is roughly 70 degrees. After the mild winter we had last year, I was expecting a poor one this time around, and sure enough we've seen one. I'm not sure there has been more than 3-5 days w/n the month of March that have been above the historically average daily high.

The photo: I'd say that it's more likely that it has something to do with the fact that half of the queue is no longer used due to Fast Lane and the station divider being partially removed, so they're freeing up space that otherwise would be wasted. And I'm pretty certain that Adventure Express is solidly between The Racer and the former SOB area. Obviously Don has spoken, and its not happening this offseason (or perhaps ever) and it is true that Adventure Express is directly b/w The Racer and where SOB used to be, however, only que of Adventure Express and an access road lies b/w The Racer que and what used to be thunder alley. I think it would require a decent amount of site work due to the terrain in this area, but if they cut out half of The Racer cue, shortened up the walk back to Adventure Express and found a way to use the path or build a boardwalk or something from The Racer que back to Thunder alley, you'd pick up a decent sized chunk of land for multiple flats/oktoberfest expansion. it would appear to be a sizeable investement in sitework to get that done, but you could transform Oktoberfest by taking such a route. It could also allow another connection point w/ X-Base and allow the use of the land on the other side of Flight of Fear.

Wouldn't greenies be considered a performance enhancing drug. I have no proof that Pete ever touched a "greenie" but I've read enough to know how prevelant they were in MLB clubhouses in the 60s & 70s. Knowing how competitive Pete was in his playing days, and knowing the type of people that he ran with, I couldn't say with any certainty that he never took any steriods, let along greenies or any other type of upper.

Not all Reds fans love Rose. I have meet him two times and he was not very nice. I had the pleasure of walking around with Pete Rose and George Foster when I worked in security a few years back. Pete and George were there to give a Q&A at KI. It was a great experience and I got to talk to both of them candidly throughout the day. My favorite piece of the conversation was when Pete asked me if he should trade his 3 year old Bentley in on a brand new Bentley. My response was "You don't have to trade it in you can just give it to me". Pete and George got a good laugh out of that one. I would describe Pete as more cocky than anything, esp with his gator skin boots on and his matching ball cap! There is probably nothing Pete likes talking about more than the subject of Pete Rose. Even if most of his stories only contain a shed of truth, his memory is phenominal and he's always entertaining. However, perfect human being he is not.

Doubtful, they'd have to stay open awfully late for those mid-week Reds games on the West coast that don't end until 2:00 am east coast time.

I have no idea if this is an actual record or not, but a few superbowls ago there was a commericial with dan patrick in it. I belive the next commercial (or perhaps later) there was a doritos commercial with Dan's brother in it. Made me wonder if this was the 1st time 2 brothers appeared in seperate commercial campaigns during the same superbowl. And with Jon Gruden either in a commercial or perhaps doing analysis (or heck it may have even been the one he coached in, I don't remember exactly) it made 3 Dayton grads on TV during the course of singular super Bowl. Just needed to add Chuck Knoll.

For the earlier question, Pete is very much embraced by the city. Faults and all, he embraces the cincy sporting ideal as much as any athlete that has come thru the town. He grew up on the west side, was a no name, suppose to do nothing prospect who was mockingly called Charlie Hustle for outworking so many players, and turned into the greatest singles hitter in the game. I think many forgive him his ills because Pete bleeds Cincinnati Red more so than any player current or past (despite spending time in philly & montreal)

sounds great, but you'd think they'd offer a hot dog as part of their menu (not listed amongst the food items on the press release). Full service restaurant, something many have been asking for, I hope it works.

a 2nd kids area, Unless they make some sizeable changes to the maintenance shed area in front of woodstock express, or get rid of the picnic area, there's not a ton of room left for expansion. I don't envision that area being as big as Planet Snoopy, more like 4-5 attractions designed for the 36" - 42" and above range that the family can ride together, intermingled w/ larger attractions for the 48" and above crowd. Something similar to how coney/xbase is laid out. You've got the dinos, scrambler, monster, shake rattle & roll, and carousel (along w/ the bumper cars, and swings for the 48" and above crowd, plus all the games) intermixed with Vortex, The Racer, Flight of Fear, and Firehawk. With the exception of rides intended for the typical 2-4 year old, that part of the park offers a little bit of everything for everyone in the family. That is what I'd invision in the expanded part of the park/Action Zone reboot. A mix of rides the family can ride together from ages 5-80 as well as your thrill rides intended for the 10-40+ age group.

The difference b/w the pass holder that comes on a regular basis thru the season and the single day ticket holder who comes once a year, is the feeling that you don't have to squeeze everything in. we're probably typical to a lot of family season pass holders, we live close, we come once a week, pretty much every week of the summer, almost always in the late evening after work. We get there about 5:30, and stay until we decide to leave. We can just as easily spend $20-$25 on a less than desirable larosa's pizza inside the park, vs the $20-$25 we'd spend at chipotle just up the street. Fun perks is aimed to give us an incentive to eat the larosa's, perhaps sticking around for the fireworks (which means grabing an ice cream cone) vs cutting out at 8:30 and getting a late dinner elsewhere. 1 more ride on boo blasters or woodstock express (or hopefully The Beast or Racer for the rapidly growing 4 year old this summer) isn't going to make or break our experience that day. I don't think it matters if your a season pass holder or a single day ticket holder. If you're eating out in your car, you likely doing so to save money (or perhaps you don't like the food offerings in the park) The park probably can't give away enough incentives to the person eating a packed lunch/dinner in their car to make them eat inside the park on a regular basis. As a group, they have a pretty good idea of what season pass holders spend in the park each visit. They know what percentage of their visitors are there on a season pass, and they know how much money is spent in the park. Over enough time, the trends should be pretty clear about spending habits based upon the makeup of the park patrons. If they have a good program, they should know that last year we regularly pruchased a couple of pretzels when we arrived at the park, and a "free pretzel" instant reward should show up more often than a free cotton candy reward (of which I'm not sure that we ever used). Even better, they should know that we typically bought 2 pretzels and 1 diet Coke to share. A "buy 3 pretzels, get a free dietCoke" instant reward would likely net them more money as we'd buy the 3rd pretzel (fountain pop is very inexpensive). Those are the type of things they could use the fun perks to track per individual/family and tweak to give each customer something that they'd value and lead them to spending more money inside the park.

I'd love to see that come back, and I'd bet my soon to be 5 year old would love it as well. I remember the giant slide fondly as a kid myself. one problem, I'm not sure there is a good spot in the current Planet Snoopy for such a structure. At least not without taking something out currently there or removing a good amount of vegitation. Planet Snoopy is kind of landlocked at the moment. You've got the mainenance area (or whatever all those buildings are used for) to the west of Woodstock express, you've got the theater/picnic grove/and a lot of trees to the sout-west (snoopy junciont is kind of useless in my opinion, not a ton of ridership, but I'd hate to see them lose all those trees for a slide), Flying Ace arial chase and race for your life to the southeast, all of the food stations to the east side, and international street/great pumpkin coaster/boo blasters to the north. With the allegedly Action Zone reboot in the next couple of seasons, I'm expecting a 2nd kids area as part of the future expansion. A giant slide would make for a relatively low cost, alternative attraction for the park if a 2nd kids zone ever opened up. A witch's cauldron, "giant" kids swing, an additional rollercoaster for kids 40" and above, bumper boats, bounce house would all be good additions, plus lots of other things.

There was an article on a Kings Dominion website about the hope/possibility of getting a similar perks program there. The interview was with Don, Don couldn't or wouldn't commit that they were definently going to expand it to all parks, said as they continued to analyze the program and tweak it there was a possibility that it would be expanded elsewhere (Obviously Don doesn't get the call on this so can't say for sure one way or another, but I couldn't imagine them not expanding the program chain wide in the next season or two). Don seemed to indicate that it would be back at Kings Island this season.

never mind, I must have entered the wrong number for my pass, I eventually remembered what username I used, and i can log in. the redeem rewards has been "deactivated until next season" but it still shows me as 7.14% away from level 4. Should be interesting to see what tweaks they make for this season.

I apologize if this has been covered prior, but I'm not seeing anything directly related to funperks 2013. Is this program coming back (I assume so)? I went to funperks.com today, just to see if there was anything new, anything worth looking at, etc... It popped into my head, so I figure a quick venture over might turn up something new, perhaps something new or added for 2013, etc... When I went to log in, either my username or my password wasn't working. It has been a while, so I figured I messed something up or was mis-remembering the password. It gives you the option to type in your card number so they can send you the password/username. however, when I did that, it said there was no account associated w/ that card number. I knew the 2012 rewards were not supposed to carry over, but its kind of a pain if I have re-up my card every year if I'm renewing and keeping my old card. So anyways, I guess the question is, is anyone's old usename/accounts appear to have been wiped out or are they working fine? Any word on what they plan for 2013 that I've missed? for the meantime, I'm assuming this will be spread out to all parks as Q mentioned the benefits of the program in one of his conference calls

They had Moerlein draft beers available there for the past two seasons... Thanks, guess I wasn't paying enough attention. Of course the past 2 seasons when my wife was taking the son on scrambler and monster (two rides I won't/cant ride due to motion sickness when spinning excessively) I'd always jump on Adventure Express and/or The Racers. Not so much an option this year w/ a new one, somebody's got to hang out and watch her.

Well if they're offering up Christian Morlein beers as well (and I'll assume that they are, which is a great call to get a regional beer operator involved like they do w/ Skyline, larosas), I think I just volunteered myself to sit there w/ my 1 year old (by the time summer hits) daughter while my wife takes our 5 year old on The Racer, scrambler and monster. happy days are here. If this counts for funperks, we may be level 4 by the end of july. I haven't been to their restaurant by Great American yet, I wonder if they plan to offer up some of the same food. I wouldn't mind seeing Hank's (or the food anyways) served elsewhere in the park, perhaps a new location in Action Zone as part of the Action Zone revamp moving forward?

I'm not a fan of the money they're spending on the street car, and I fail to see how they make any money (or even break even) however, the issue was NOT voted down. The issue was confusing, and a yes on the issue meant you didn't want a street car, but as the language read and as the vote tally added up, installing the street car was approved by the voters of Cincy last novemember (or april or whenever that particular vote occured).

Amen to that. I'd like to see lower taxes AND less government spending.

The flaw with that theory is as follows. Business people are business people to do one thing... and one thing only.... make money. IF said sales tax is lowered on said park merchandise and food, dont think for a Brooklyn second that CF, the Cincinnati Reds, Joe's Bowling Alley, etc etc WON'T add that lower price right back onto the unit price on the back end to put that extra few cents in their pockets. In doing this, they can say "Look at how GREAT we are!! We didnt pass the higher taxes onto you, the consumer, because our prices didnt go up". Well, yes they did, you as a business owner simply added a bit more to your personal pocketbook. One thing to consider, corporations don't "pay" taxes, their customers do. Coke pays taxes every year based upon their revenue, land holdings, etc... Those taxes are factored into what they charge us the consumers for a bottle of Coke. Procter & Gamble pay taxes every year based upon all the 1,000s of things they sell. Those taxes are factored into what they charge for Tide and everything else. GM pays taxes on cars, those taxes are factored into what they charge the dealer to purchase their car (the dealer then in turn factors into his price what he charges us for his taxes) Its obviously not quite that simple, but keep in mind that the Reds, Cedar Fair, Joe's Bowling alley, etc... are already paying taxes to the state of ohio each year. Those taxes are factored into what they charge for admission, a game of bowling, shoe rentals,etc.... You may not see a "tax" line item on your bill every time you buy a Reds ticket, but make no mistake, there are taxes figured into what you're paying for a pair of moon deck seats on a saturday afternoon. In a smilar vain, many like to say that you get "free pop" everytime you go to holiday world. You may not be charged for soda during the day, but that cost of all the soda has been factored into your admission ticket and you are indeed paying for that privledge no matter if you decide to take advantage of it or not.

Only if you paid money beyond the park admission each time you rode Diamondback. Probably means the park would have to pay a portion of the revenue generated on extreme flyer each time a "ride" is purchased. I'll assume the admission and rides is there for state fairs and whatnot where you pay for each ride rather than a straight admission.

You'd pay the Tax up front, based upon the value (ie cost) of the season pass, most likely. I haven't read enough into this yet to say if I'm for this or against this, but keep in mind part of the increase in areas of taxation is a lowering in income taxes. Does it all come out even in the wash? I don't know, like I said I haven't read into it enough yet, but I'm assuming this is a focus to push the tax base away from wage earners and coporations and into the arms of consumers, similar to the flat tax of KI-Org-Employee mentioned above. If the overall tax base is held constant, but the areas where taxes are collected are shifted, it could be an overall positive for somebody that is tight with their money, somebody who doesn't spend much and saves a lot, on the flip side, it might be a negative for somebody who consumes (though whatever purchases) all or more than they earn. As an added bonus (or perhaps negative depending on how you earn your money) it increases the ability of the state to gather taxes from people earning money "off the books" when those people spend the money they've earned. That money could come from highly illegal activities like cooking meth, selling weed, etc.. or from people not reporting all of their tips from a serving job or doing "side work" for cash in plumbing, electrical, home repair, etc.... Cedair Fair may or may not be against it, if it lowers their coroporate tax rate beyond whatever loss in ticket revenue from the increase in park admission tax, it would be a plus for the chain.

I didnt read anybody complain about the walk,Im pretty sure many of us believe something could be added on or off the path to bring more people that direction.I for one,only walk back to ride FD when the park is busy because I know many dont know it even exists or they dont want to walk any further around the big ass amusement park than they already have! I understood exactly what jcgoble is talking about,and if you work for the park then maybe you should listen to us 'fanboys' instead of being a know it all,im pretty sure you wouldnt act like that out from behind your computer at the park,but I wish you would,Jr for Birdy will be there all summer! I agree w/ the first part of this completely. The biggest problems Flight Deck faces are that its generally hidden within the park so you have few opportunities for a visual "hey lets go ride that thing" experience, and there is little to attract to you into the area of the que. You've got (had) the shutdown SOB, the upcharge skyflyer, the unpopular and now removed go-karts, plus the regularly down for maintenance Invertigo & Delirium (which really are not all that close but we'll throw them in there) There is drop zone and Amazon falls, but neither of those ques takes you directly in the path for Flight Deck. If SOB was operational (and popular) I suspect that ridership on flightdeck would be very high. Its a fun coaster, family friendly and a unique experience in the park. Unfortunatly, its not a coaster that draws you in. As I said you can't see it, and most people in the park have ridden it in the past, so it no longer holds "must ride" status for the casual KI visitor. The Action Zone revamp, could eventually lead to a surge in flight deck popularity. My 4 year old will be 48" tall this summer, so personally I hope the que remains short so we can get on/off quickly many times this summer.

interesting idea, but can't imagine you'd get much support from KI both in information and in the willingness to sell the book w/n the park. W/o support on both of those fronts, its going to be hard to make money. Son of Beast is essentially a failed coaster. Some loved it, some hated it, but which ever side outweighs the other, it was modified quickly into its lifecycle, and eventually shut down, then demolished not much longer. 20 years down the line, as certain parties w/n the park/chain and its management change, you might be able to get more help, I'd imagine a book on The Bat would be of interest and get less resistance from the park. Enough interest to make money, I don't know. At any rate, a book on the history of Kings Island would likely be a popular sellar, and something you'd like get more help from on PR. I'd be surprised if they didn't allow you to include pieces on SOB, The Bat and any other shut down ride as they're part of the park's history.

water features are generally a pain in the butt to maintain, which is a shame b/c it was a beautiful part of the park back in its day, would love to see it come back to its original glory, or short of that, be converted to something other than a "smoking" area.

I looked back as well when Terpy brought this back up and this was the post that jumped out to me...tear out some cars to put in a "small" coaster that everyone seems like at first blush but leaves many wishing for that big B & M giga only to have it appear behind the new ride occupying the space formerly reserved for cars a few years later. Time will tell if I'm on to anything, or perhaps Terpy...or perhaps Don some day in the next 2-6 years.