medford

Can you expand upon The Racer work going on? How extensive, does this mean a new paint job for the whole structure, or just the new pieces of wood, etc...? I assume this doesn't include a new paint job for the whole track, if that assumption is correct is there any planning for when that could happen?

Samuel of course.

I'd think they'd be something to say about the demographics of Disney vs KI. I'm assuming Disney mainly serves families and/or adults on vacation for a few days to a week. A decent chunk of King's Island clientel includes kids "dropped off at the front of the park" that make 2 or more visits a year, every year. No matter what you do, when your at a park on a "regular" basis its going to lose some of the charm that Disney can hold. Kids as a group are going to be less respectful of the trash they leave behind than adults. Of course there are acceptions to that generalization, but even if King's Island put the same amount of people to work in the litter getter department, they likely wouldn't keep it as clean as Disney

Perhaps they're clearing out enough room to build a new wooden shuttle coaster they plan to call diversion in 2014, while clearing out room and laying footers for a giga back in SOBs old stomping grounds.

As I drive by each morning/evening, they've put in a ton of work into the place. Mostly cosmetic from the things I can see, but whizzing past on I71, the place looks great.

You'll get no argument from me that the shubbery looks better, but IMHO international street is much more functional today than it was in 1973 for various reasons. Its probably also "cheaper" to maintain after factoring in the cost of inflation.

I like how International Street is actually a street. Why change what works? Both Paramount and Cedar Fair are guilty of taking out or changing parts of that park that didn't need change or de-themeing. Depending on where you live, your street may be black top ashpalt, or it may be concrete, or it may be brick, or it may be gravel, or it may just be dirt; not all streets look the same. while that picture is quite pretty, I imagine if things remained unchanged, people would complain about the lack of shade, how hot the ashphalt gets on a warm July afternoon or perhaps they'd wonder how much money is spent on the upkeep and triming of all those hedges and if it could have been put into a new ride somewhere in the park. I doubt either park modifies any part of their park without the sole intent of improving the experience, functionality, operating costs and/or asthetics of the park experience. Pictures are great, thanks for sharing the glimpse back in time.

Probably b/c he's the only one that we know for sure reads this forum and responds back that has connections to the higherups in the park. I doubt anyone assumes Don does everything, but everyone assumes he knows somebody who handles all the various aspects w/n the park.

I always loved the backwards racer, felt like you were getting 2 sepearte roller coasters, I guess in reality you were, today you get to either turn left or turn right at the outreaches, otherwise the ride experience is the same (from a layout perspective, obviously track/car conditions can and do vary from side to side). the backwards racer lead to an immediate re-ride on the other side every time I went to the park. Now, its a ride once unless the line is really short, even if they have both sides up and running that day. As I understand it, state laws prohibit them from running it backwards now adays, but that is either 1) a stupid rule as they had numerous rules of real life experience that showed the ride to be safe running different from its original form and something that should have been grandfathered in or 2) something you would think would be easy enough to "re-engineer" the layout with a backwards facing design on one side. Of course, I'm not sure if the ride is popular enough bother staffing both sides of the coaster as you'd have to for a combo forward/backwards ride on most days. Perhaps KI could have taken the route of option 2 above, but figured it wasn't worth the time and investment. or perhaps, they're keeping it in their backpocket as something to give the ride new life again down the road. I would love to see The Racers get the TLC is needed for some time with a fresh paint job, retracking, etc...

thanks for the thoughts. I doubt we'll take two days at the children's museum, but as packed as it sounds, that will give us a good reason to come back again next year.

Ok, seems like we're on the same page on what would need to be put in to be "successful", I wonder if a pirates style ride is a posibility in that building. Would you need a bigger building? my idea, fwiw, is to build something in the "new area" that would include many of the dinos from the dino area. I have no idea what happens to these dinos once the Dinosaurs Alive agreement is over. I don't know if they're KIs to keep, if they have an option to purchase them, if they go back to the intalling company to be used elsewhere, etc.., but my idea is to use them in an imersive dark ride based upon 3 different rides at Disney parks. It would be a boat ride, similar to the river excurastion at Animal kingdom, most of it relaxing with a "guide" that informs you about the dinosaurs that you are seeing, I'd include a "dark" splashdown similar to Piates, then I'd include some sort of double fall, with the 2nd drop being a backwards drop like the epcot ride, perhaps coming down the 1st drop and getting face to face with a t-rex, while the boat spins around and all of a sudden you drop down backwards down the 2nd hill. Finally to tie it all in, I figure gate keeper will be 4-5 years old (or more) before all of this is possible, so a wing rider at KI wouldn't take away from the excitement Gatekeeper is going to generate over the next couple of years. Make it a pterodactyl themed wing rider, that could sweep into the building containing this dark ride as part of a key hole element and swoop back out. I imagine the cost of all of that would be rather large and unlikely, but its my long term dream for the new area of KI (assuming the land is expanded and a new area is indeed added)

I guess that is where we dissagree voice, like you'd I'd ride the smurf ride every trip, even as I got older as the AC was a comfort relief, but once you rode it once, I never felt the need to go back again during the day. Pirates of the carribean is a little different, there are 2 "splash downs" during that ride, the one where to go into complete darkness definently inspires the senses (even though the drop ends up being small, the fact that you can only hear it gets you going) The smurf ride had 1 small splash down, and frankly it wasn't anything to talk about. I'd compare the smurf ride more to "its a small world afterall" ride at Disney. I could never envision riding that ride twice during a trip. The Haunted mansion is much more emersive than the smurf ride ever was. Between the elevator drop and the projected ghost sitting on the seat with you when you go past the mirrors, it gives last memories, but again its not something I'd personally do more than once on a trip. If my son wants to ride Boo Blasters 3 or more times on a trip, unless the lines are long it doesn't really bother me much, at least I can always aim for a better score. Another thought to consider, a boat ride like Pirates or the Smurf ride can be hard for some people to get in or out of, its a fairly sized step down into the boat for some older people, Boo Blasters isn't as bad, makes it a little easier for grandma to ride with grandson. All that said, I'd still love another dark ride, I just don't see the need to get rid of Boo Blasters, just the need to improve the experience a bit. Heck, if they just made sure all the guns worked each time, every car, I'd be happy. I wondered the same thing about the skeletons at the end when my son first rode it at 2 or 3, but it never fazed him for whatever reason. It does seem like a sharp step up from the rest of the attraction in terms of scariness.

As a father of a 4.5 year old that has "had" to ride Boo Blasters at least once, if not 2-3 times each trip for the last 2 seasons, I'd be sad to see it go. Sure, I wish the guns worked consistantly (seems like the gun on the right side of the car is always the worst), but I know its a huge hit with not only him, but the lines we often sit thru that are longer than most, in Planet Snoopy. I grew up on the smurf ride, and loved it, but IIRC it was a "ride once" type experience and move on. Boo Blasters is one you can ride multiple times, every trip and still be entertined. I'd love for it to be upgraded a bit, better more reliable blasters, perhaps better scenery w/n the space, but as an attraction it works well.

what LordSkippy said is my guess, something to do w/ Flight of Fear, perhaps something to do w/ the announcement of said ride.

Thinking about doing a "long weekend" b/w the kids museum in Indy and a day trip to HW. We've been wanting to do the Kids museum for a couple of years, I believe they have a hotel in the area where some of the rooms are crafted out of old train cars. My 4 year old loves trains, so this was put on our "bucket list" when we heard about it. As part of the trip, we thought we'd swing over to HW having never been before, and thought I'd come seeking advice on what/where to eat in the park, perhaps where to stay, what to ride, etc... For background, we'll have two kids along w/ us, a girl who will turn 1 in May and the boy who will turn 5 in June. Obviously the girl will be too young to ride much of anything aside from rides where she can sit on our lap (are there any rides there like that?), but the boy is pretty tall for his age. He measured out at 48" the last time he was at the doctor, so he should have a ride or two on The Racers, Beast, Adventure Express, etc... (so far he's yet to meet a height appropriate ride at King's Island that he doesn't like, so hopefully that won't change for coasters beyond Woodstock Express and Flying Ace Ariel Chase) Aside from the 3 wood coasters (all 48" height restrictions, IIRC?) and the pop included in the price of admission, there's not much I know about HW. What other rides should we be sure to hit? Anywhere specific to eat? Any hotel recommendations? We don't need the nicest hotel, but we don't want to stay somewhere dirty, rundown, etc.. My wife is a teacher, and gets out late may, so I believe anytime in June or July would work, any recommendations for when to go? What day of the week to visit (I assume mid week is less crowded than a weekend, how busy are weekends? I'd rather not wait in line all day for things) If anyone has advice on Indy or the children's mesuem, I'd be happy to hear those as well. TIA.

love the look of the gingko trees, but if they ever plant ones, just make sure they are of the male varieties, otherwise nobody is going to want to be down there in the fall (perhaps this is why they were removed, for anyone that's ever stepped on a femal gingko berry)

The Tower Gardens area will remain a designated smoking area during the spring and summer months and be used for a Haunt attraction in the fall in the foreseeable future. I know its not your call, but this dissapoints me. Such a potentally beautiful space (as it was in the past) wasted on a typically empty smoking area. Would love to see this area used as some sort of "history of KI" section, I guess if they ever put me in charge Thanks for taking the time to answer questions.

200+ rides on the Tumblebug??? How many years since your last ride?

Love that picture, I miss that canopy, wish they would bring it back, and then some. I keep hearing rumors of a "new area" coming soon, would be a great way to tie the future with the past. $0.02

Love the pics, especially The Vortex Construction pic, arguabley the best Vortex Pic I've ever seen, or at least the one that captured my eye the most. I find the old pics of rides like the scrambler, monster, shake rattle & roll and their line ques interesting. They were obviously very popular rides back in the day, but are sparsely ridden today in comparission to the large coasters at the park (obviously newer and bigger will usually win out, as it does everywhere else). Considering that I won't even touch a ride that circles that much (I get dizzy/sick pretty easy on any teacup/scrambler style ride) I think its safe to say I enjoy KI much more today than I would have in the late 70s. I never paid much attendtion to the Nick splat city attraction, too old when it was put in, didn't have any young kids to watch them run thru it. I've got a 4 year old today, and have a quick question, was the splact city setup similar to the water run thru they have there today in terms of entrance/exit? I can't tell you how stupid I find it that the entrace to that thing is on one side, while the exit is on the back side. Unless I'm moving quickly from the entrance, around the attraction and to the exit, my son would be out of the thing before I could get to the exit. Doesn't feel very parent monitoring of their children friendly. I don't know if that is a problem once they changed up the concept when Nic left or if that was a poor design from the start.

Considering the laws of physics, the fastest part of a coaster is not likely to change significantly. It is most likely at the bottom of the longest drop (though not always if a coaster continues down hill beyond the longest drop and the forces of gravity are larger than the forces of fiction past that point). A launch coaster or a coaster w/ multiple launches would likely change the spot where speed is at its greatest, however unless the ride has some sort of variable operation, its likely not to change significantly other than the impace of weight, wind, weather, etc..

Driving past it every day, they've been putting in a good amount of work in at least the visable areas along 71. Some sort of rock features along the slides and in the wave pool along 71, plus a good amount of paint. I haven't been to the Beach in a good 15-20 years, so theres probably a lot of improvements I'm missing, but it looks like they are making a serious run of it. Hope if works out for them.

thanks for the updates on the seemingly random platform.

I'm not a huge fan of DA, but its great when they have the hall-o-ween walk thru w/ candy for the kids, and its seemingly makes a nice profit for the park, so its hard to complain. I loved the idea of doing something to spruce up the train ride. anyone know why there is a platform somewhere after you pass Diamondback? Do they shot the fireworks off from there? did it have a prior use? Seems like a dead spot that leaves a lot of questions. With that said, the biggest waste of space is the Tower Gardens. So much potential, so much neglect. Get the fountains working back there, turn it into a "history of Kings Island" w/ minature mock ups of the park at various times (at its opening, when The Beast opened, the monorail, when King cobra was there, when SOB was there, when Diamonback was build and "today") for example. Create a little gift shop that sells "classic KI gear"; I've got to imagine there are a few people that would by a screamin' deamon or King Cobra shirt.

What'll ya have? What'll ya have? What'll ya have? BB1, enjoy the reviews, but me thinks you're way too kind. If outback gets a 10 across the board, what the heck are you going to give to a meal at the Precinct? I enjoy City BBQ, especially the brisket, but I'll agree w/ those complaining about their Mac 'n Cheese. Its not bad, but there is certainly nothing special about it. 5 min of prep time, plus however long it takes to boil the noodles, then bake the whole thing together and you can have Mac 'n Cheese that is 10x better than anything you'll ever get at cityBBQ. They used to have good potatoe salad, then they switched from a mustard base to a mayonaise base and its not as good, in my opinion, other than the corn bread, most of their sides are pretty bland. Montgomery Inn ribs are ok. The sauce is great, but the ribs themselves are just OK. I always go for the broiled chicken over the ribs. Ribs at city BBQ are pretty bad. speaking of Atlanta; don't know if it orginated there, but mellow mushroom is making its way (or perhaps already has) to Ohio. always enjoyed the pizza and pretzels from the one in Buckhead.