Voicetek

I wasn't talking about the ponytail stuff, there was an actual scene between the two characters. Obviously it wasn't graphic, but enough was implied.

^Even if the next 3 Avatar movies are similar to the first, the first was no where near a family film to begin with. There was lots of language and the "sex" scene between the main character and the Na'vi princess. That's why it just seemed like an odd choice for a Disney park. And you are right, if Disney has no control over the production of these films, they could easily go in a worse direction as far as content goes. It's just a weird situation.

Animal Kingdom, as it is now, is probably my least favorite of the parks. When I do visit Disney World, I usually tend to gravitate towards The Magic Kingdom, or Epcot, so I don't really see myself being impacted too much by this. I read the article above about the 7 other lands Disney could have built, and to tell you the truth, I would have been more excited to visit any of those lands and might have made a special trip to Animal Kingdom to do so. It's just sad really.

I completely despise the idea of any type of Avatar Land anywhere in any of the Disney parks. I've always thought it was a ridiculous choice and really has nothing to do with Disney at all. Also, Avatar really isn't a family movie, yet, they're determined to put in one of their family parks. To me it's just kind of a weird combination. Avatar (the first one) came about 5 years ago and people all of the world jumped on the Avatar bandwagon exactly the same way they jumped on the Titanic bandwagon back in 1997 and the same way people jumped on the Frozen bandwagon last year. Tell me this though, does anyone still care about Avatar in the year 2014? I think Disney is banking on the fact that there are going to be 3 more movies and people will care about those movies as much as they cared about the first one back in 2009. What if they don't though? Well, then we're stuck with a pretty useless themed land that no one cares about. To me it makes much more sense for Disney to base a land on an original idea or to base a land on one of their own properties that have stood the test of time. It's not wise (or at least I don't think it is) to build whole, permanent land on something that was a cultural "fad" 5 years ago and with no real proof that it will continue to be a fad next year, the year after that or ten years from now. It just doesn't make sense. I think Disney is trying to cash in on something that they knew was popular, regardless if it made sense or not. To me, it makes a whole lot more sense to base a land on Star Wars than Avatar. That franchise has been tested and has stood the test of time and would work well within a family park. Avatar just feels out of place. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that this deal, and the whole Avatar Land itself falls through.

Perhaps they could leave the building empty so that it can be used for a Halloween attraction?

I don't necessarily consider this "public funding." It's not like the tax payers' dollars are being spent to build this theme park. If they are building a tourist attraction and meet the criteria for tax incentives, then they should get them. Regardless of if the theme park is religious or not, if it's drawing tourism to the area and they're eligible, then good for them.

^ I think the reason people are so upset about it (me being one of them) is because it's sitting right up on The Beast, right next to it. It's like you have wood structure theming and then BAM, big aluminum/metal building. It's even more distracting because of that. Yes, they have already wrecked the theming to an extent in that area, but by adding more aluminum/metal structures it doesn't help the problem at all, it only makes it worse.

I don't recall that our guns EVER had red dots emitted from them. I rode Scooby Doo the first season it was installed and don't remember being able to see where my laser was hitting. A serious upgrade needs to be done, or perhaps just a removal all together.

There are targets in Boo Blasters (same ones that were in Scooby Doo also) that I've never been able to hit. They are just too far away and year after year I try, but am never successful. That's very frustrating and I feel like you should be able to hit any target on that ride. Something really needs to be done about the targeting system because it just plain sucks.

I'm not one for interactive dark rides (I agree completely with the opinions of The Interpreter and RailRider in the above posts), but this particular dark ride has a unique aspect to it that seems pretty interesting. The fact that you will be discharged from the ride if you don't accumulate enough points is an interesting angle. It's almost like being inside a real life video game where you have to be good enough to make it to the final boss and would definitely create a reason for you to come back and ride it again and again. Would I like to see something like this at KI? That depends. If we get a new dark ride and keep Boo Blasters, then I would vote for a classic style dark ride where you just ride through and enjoy the surroundings. If it's going to replace Boo Blasters as an upgrade, then this might be a new, unique experience for the park. After seeing this video, I'm kind of torn.

This past Saturday my wife and I decided to have my 11-year old niece over for the day to spend some time with her. We weren't sure exactly what we were going to do yet, but we thought we'd play it by ear, and also, see what the weather was going to do (it is Ohio after all). After dinner we ended up at the Disney Store out at Kenwood Towne Center. When they closed at 9, I thought it would be fun to head up 71-N and spend some time at KI for a while since they were open til Midnight. Since the weather was holding out, we decided it would be a nice evening at the park. We arrived about 9:30 and went straight to Banshee for our very first night ride of the season (yeah I know it's a little late into the season, but we've been busy). There were about 3 sections of the main queue filled, but the line was moving at a pretty good pace. We did enjoy the theming in the queue, as in the special lighting and such, but gosh was it blinding when you happened to look up to get blinding by one of those lights. This happened to my wife and me a few times. So after about a half hour, we were taking our seats on Banshee and getting strapped in. I was pretty excited! It was an amazing experience. I love night rides and this one is definitely worth experiencing. One thing I did notice was that I didn't get as dizzy at night as I do during the day. I think this is because it's pretty dark and you can't see much of anything spinning around in front of you. So that made it even better! After Banshee is was on to one of our "Must Do" rides at the park - Adventure Express. This is another fun coaster to do in the dark! We love this ride and I always look forward to at least one ride on this classic coaster. The ride was fun, as always, and the night rides are always great. This time though, I was looking especially careful at the theming in the final tunnel. I couldn't help but notice what poor shape everything is in and it really is a shame. It would be nice to see this ride get a makeover during an off season because it is a great family coaster with so much potential. Next it was on to The Racer! We got in line and noticed that it was longer than usual. After a few minutes of waiting, we noticed that they were only running the red train. We didn't know why, but we figured that was more than likely the cause of the longer line that night. After a few more minutes we noticed that they were running empty blue trains and then eventually they started loading people. This helped the line move quicker. After about 10 minutes we decided to take a seat on the blue train in the very back. Another awesome night ride, but sadly we were defeated by the red train. Yep, it seemed the blue train just wasn't feeling up to it Saturday night. After leaving The Racer, we decided that we would try to catch a night ride on The Beast. We walked over there and noticed that it was quite a long wait. We didn't want to stay past Midnight, so we opted for something with a shorter line. I asked my niece what she'd like to ride out of anything in the park and she chose the Bumper Cars. I was surprised by this answer, but kind of glad she chose this because I hadn't been on Bumper Cars in probably 15-20 years. For whatever reason, I just tend to pass them up for much bigger rides. So we headed back to Coney Mall and took a ride on the Bumper Cars and it was great fun to experience these again. Definitely a classic ride! Once we were done with those, we decided to head towards the exit and head home. It was a fun night in the park and we got to ride several rides and finally got to experience Banshee in the dark. Definitely worth the trip!

After the fiasco I encountered at the one Dive-in Movie I attended last summer, I have yet to participate in an event hosted at Soak City. I wasted one Friday night and I decided not to do it again.

I always considered the Cedar Fair parks (KI and Cedar Point) to be amusement parks and not theme parks. Don't you need theming to be theme parks? I always thought that there was a difference between "Theme Parks" and "Amusement Parks" and would consider Disney and Universal to be theme parks considering the level of theming they have. I don't know, perhaps I'm understanding it wrong.

Sorry, it just popped up on my Facebook and couldn't find a thread in here about it when I searched. Feel free to remove this tread.

http://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-theme-park/ Was unaware that Kings Island was considered a "Theme Park."

I think it's ridiculous that we pay insurance premiums every month just to sit back and be afraid to use it when we need to. That's why we buy insurance right? I've heard all my life, "don't call in that claim, you're premiums will only go up!" And I think to myself, "then why the heck am I paying for insurance?" I'm not the type of person that calls in with insignificant claims, but if it's something that's going to cost me several hundred dollars out of pocket and my policy will cover it, then you better believe I use my insurance. That's why it's there, that's what I've been paying for for the past 17 years. I've filed multiple claims over the years and my premiums have only gone down, not up. So I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about. My wife had home owners insurance put on her brand new house last year and a month after she moved it in flooded. It ended up being $15,000 in damages. She filed a claim and the insurance company paid for everything no questions asked, no dropped policies, and no raised premiums. That's how it should be. We've had great experience with our insurance company, but I've heard horror stories from other people and their insurance companies. I'll tell you one thing though, if I were those people, I'd be switching. It's nice to have insurance that you can actually use without the fear of being punished for it.

Yes, it was a statue of a centurion. It's this guy here: Source: http://www.dafe.org/articles/darkrides/phantomTheater.html

What in the world? When did they do this? I was just there last November and rode that. I must have missed it. I was also on my honeymoon, so I'm sure I missed a lot of things lol.

^^Actually, mermaids would be an interesting addition to that ride. It would be kind of eerie to hear mermaids singing that "Jolly Sailor Bold" song and hearing it echo in the distance. Just a thought cause I actually quite enjoyed the "On Stranger Tides" addition to the Pirates series. (edit) Maybe the part that repeats "Dead men tell no tales" could be replaced, partially, with the Mermaids theme from On Stranger Tides. It's an amazing theme and it has a haunting melody. Then you could hear the mermaids singing in the distance briefly.

It looks like the new Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride at Walt Disney World uses projected faces on the dwarfs animatronic figures. It looks so real that when I was watching the video, I was wondering how they got those animatronic faces to move so well.

I don't know, as much as I do love new technologies, there's just something about animatronic figures that just bring a certain type of feel to a dark ride. Can you imagine Pirates of the Caribbean at Disney if you floated through while looking at screens projecting 3D pirates and ships? Although it looks neat, it's just not the same. There's just something about having the real, physical figures there that adds a certain element. It might be nice to mix the two though. I think we do need some animatronics, but some scenes could benefit from the 3D screens and such. I think a hybrid ride would be an interesting concept.

A sequel is a fantastic idea! It would be a fun idea to return to the Phantom Theater to see what the cast has been up to lately. It would be even more fun if they referenced the "demolition" of their former theater. The premise could be that their beloved theater was torn down so they set up shop in this new space and now they're really out to get us! This could also give it the opportunity for the ride to be slightly more edgy and to work in some sweet special effects. What an amazing experience that could be! Oh, and if KI is looking for someone to train to maintain a ride like this, I'm totally free so I volunteer myself lol.

Well there it is. Looks like we're getting another building that gets to sit empty and unused from April-September. I know you "Haunt" fans will be thrilled, but for those of us who don't do Haunt, this is just more clutter to sit around the park and take up space during the months we do go. The only good thing that could come from this is that hopefully they'll use the old Crypt building for something useful. No use in having 2 buildings sitting unused that close to each other.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's something that will be open all season and not just for Haunt. We don't need another permanent structure that sits there closed for 90% of the operating season. It might make sense to us because most of us go all season long, but for people vacationing, it just looks like one more attraction that's not operational. How does that look for our park? I don't know, I'm just sort of against building permanent structures that are visible and that take up useful space, but then only having them open for one month. I might be wrong, but it's just how I feel.

I'm surprised that they'd exchange them at all, especially if it's not the fault of the park. I could see if there was a defect in the product itself, then that would make sense, but someone leaving it in the hot car or putting it in a dishwasher, why should the park be responsible?