BlondyRidesOn

The yellow and green bulbs below the seats were transferred over from the Scrambler after it's refurbishment in 2016. The current lights look new and appear to be LEDs.

They were. The Eiffel Tower was originally floodlit with bright halogen lamps before switching to the colored LED lighting. The uplighting surrounding the Tower was removed prior to the 2017 season.

It did. Check a little higher... 👀

I noticed something about the Eiffel Tower today. Something... different. You could say something(s) missing... If you have a keen eye you might've seen it too.

I just heard Hoedown by Aaron Copland, an old track that played during the KECO era.

If the rumors are true, this will be the second Eyerly Monster to be retired as a parts donor for Kings Island's/ Old Coney's Monster. The first was Shiva's Fury at Canada's Wonderland, which was retired in 2003.

The fountain is filled with a large valve and outspout near the pump room located underneath the International Street Bandstand. It looks kinda like one of those old top loaded washing machines with a middle agitator where the water fills the compartment before actually running.

He was also Mr. Gaines on Cheers with Woody Harrelson, another Kings Island legend.

UPDATE 3/22/2026 I drove down to Coney Island to get a view of the work going on. From the Ohio River trail that runs along Kellogg Avenue, it is easy to see the progress. The steel superstructure for the new Farmer Music Center stage is in place, now towering over the nearby grove. Lake Como is torn up, as the lakebed was used for land fill to elevate the new amphitheatre to protect it better from the floods by the Ohio River. When the project is complete, Lake Como will be filled back up with water and will be deeper than before. Farmer Music Center is currently being built on the site if the West parking lot where the Christmas Nights of Lights drive thru attraction was set up and the former athletic field behind Moonlite Gardens. To make up for lost parking, construction crews are beginning to prep the area formerly known as Sunlite Pool to be paved over with new spaces. A Surprise Casualty Last June, during Summerfair, I captured some photos around the former park of the work beginning to take form. One of the first things that caught my attention was the former LaRosa's Pizzeria at the East end of the park near PNC Pavillion. During Summerfair 2024, the building was open for refreshments as well as for restrooms. For the 2025 event, the building was closed off and work was being done inside. All signs pointed to an interior renovation. However, upon arriving this afternoon to view the construction, I made an unfortunate discovery; the building had been demolished. The quaint little building had stood at the park since 1967, starting its life as a souvenir shop before becoming the home of a Cincinnati's staple fare during the "modern era." From 1968 to 1971, it neighbored the Eyerly Monster, set to make its return at Kings Island in 2026. The unassuming structure was a testament to the Wachs era of the park, showcasing detail and charming beauty even if it was just to put a roof over guests heads. The coolest thing about the it is how unchanged it was after 52 years of redevelopment on the property following the opening of Kings Island: The above image with Bingo from The Banana Splits could almost be seamlessly recreated. Now it's nothing but a burning memory, reduced unceremoniously to a heap of rubble. The rest of the pre-Kings Island buildings are still standing with no visible signs that they will be next. From a recent drone video on YouTube, the North wing of Moonlite Gardens has received an air conditioning unit, which is a positive sign of long term plans for the historic dance hall. However, the demolition of Coney LaRosa's, the youngest building on the property not counting the amphitheaters, is an unfortunate loss for those who love old pieces of amusement park history.

Losing Sunlite Pool was a major blow because it was something my parents and grandparents (great-grandparents even) got to experience. It was from a time when classic amusement parks had jumbo pools for summertime cooling. It's unlikely that something so impressive like that would be built again- and I'm aware of the push for Sunlite 2.0. With that in mind, it was a simple shape and could, theoretically, be recreated elsewhere (but again, not likely). The same can't be said about the charming buildings on the rides side, which are relics of an era where amusement parks were interested in detail and beauty. Some parks still do pay mind to those things, but it's becoming more and more rare. Here's to a positive future for Moonlite Gardens and the other Mall buildings.

It would be a really nice thing to see a little park again, but unfortunately MEMI isn't in the ride and attractions business. But with a lot of the pre-Kings Island buildings still there, it will be as if Coney Island never closed (minus Sunlite Pool obviously). I think MEMI started calling the site Riverbend Park a while back after the sale. With both entrances still marked with the Coney name, I would love to see them retain the name for the new development. A YouTuber flew over the site a few weeks ago also. On the topic of Moonlite Gardens, the video shows some work had been done on the north wing of the building closer to Lake Como. It looks like two new electrical boxes/ panels were added, which would not make sense if they're set on demolishing the structure. As mundane as it sounds, it is a positive sign and suggests a longterm goal.

Riverbend Music Center and Farmer Music Center shared aerial photos of the construction site of the new amphitheatre on their Facebook page. The Farmer Music Center at Coney Island is currently being built on the site of Coney's west parking lot, formerly the location of Coney's old athletic field. Here are some things to note. -Lake Como was dredged and drained temporarily and the lakebed was dug out to elevate the land for the new amphitheatre. This was done to help protect the new Farmer Music Center from the flood waters of the Ohio River in the event the river rises (as it always has and will). Lake Como will be deeper than before once it is filled with water once again. -Moonlite Gardens is still standing. The Cincinnati Symphony had discussed the restoration of Coney's old dance hall, which was condemned around 2019 due to the deterioration of the flooring inside the building. While attending Summerfair 2025, I had a conversation with a Riverbend/MEMI employee about the plans for the property and she confirmed that Moonlite Gardens is here to stay. -The Picnic Grove, which is where Coney Island got its start in the summer of 1870 when James Parker rented out his apple orchard to a church picnic, still stands. The Symphony plans to keep the grove and picnic shelters in place for yearly events such as Summerfair, which will return to the Coney Island site from May 29 - 31, 2026. -The auto gate on Kellogg Avenue and the river gate and lighthouse, both built in 1924 and 1925 respectively at the beginning of the Schott/Wachs era of Coney, will remain. -Hampton Court, the skill games building built in 1966 along the shore of Lake Como with its French Normandy inspired brick architecture and clock tower, will remain, now housing the offices for MEMI. -Sunlite Pool, built in 1925 as the world's largest recirculating swimming pool, was demolished starting in March of 2024, just shy of 100 years old. The old pool site will more than likely be used for parking to make up for what was lost where the Farmer Music Center is being constructed. The full post can be viewed below: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17guHrqVET/

To me, from Racer all the way to WindSeeker is all Coney Mall. The area between Shake Rattle & Roll all the way to Rivertown, the serpentine walkway, can be looked at as a mini land.

With the structural and track modifications, what is the possibility that the park brings Baynum out to paint/ stain the wood again for the 50th anniversary? I would love to see it get the same cosmetic love The Racer got in 2022. Image from WCPO-9 (1980)

I love this idea so much! I especially love the other extra details outside of the kids area, like the enclosed queue structure for Diamondback for the extra pre ride story telling and the relocated Carousel Pavillion structure to the Salt Water Circus lawn. Although, I had always envisioned Action Zone rethemed to a Medieval/old Britian theme to tie in with Banshee's Irish roots and Celtic tones. As much as I love Peanuts and Looney Tunes, I honestly think having a kids area without IP would be a great change and allow for a blank canvas of creative ideas.

I like the idea of the Monster cars being a different color, so long as the "tentacles" and ride body retain their menacing jet black color. Monster was one of my Aunt's favorite rides at Old Coney and in Kings Island6 early years. She passed away in 2020, but luckily I got to ride it once with her that summer season. With what seems like a major overhaul of the ride, I'm hopeful that the ride will be back next season since the ride holds a special place. When Shake Rattle & Roll was refurbished 2014 - 2015, it was taken off site. Was the refurbishment done in house at the park or was it shipped off to Germany to HUSS? How extensive is the overhaul of Monster? Will all six arms be strong enough to carry the weight, or will they still only load four? My prediction back in April was that Premier Rides may have won a bid to refurbish the ride with their background in this style of work (think Kangaroo at Kennywood) and Six Flags' partnership with them on AlpenFury at Canada's Wonderland. I guess time will tell to see what happens with this beloved flat ride.

I loved this segment and the idea, but I kind of have mixed feelings about this. The Racer without a theme or a story is ironically a theme itself part of Coney Mall; it was meant to pay homage to and sort of be the replacement for the Shooting Star at Coney Island. The whole Coney Mall midway is meant to be an homage to classic traditional amusement parks, specifically Old Coney. The concept is really cool, but when sticking with the theme of Coney Mall, a classic wooden coaster themed to something other than a classic wooden coaster would feel out of place, even if "The Racer" name remains. In my opinion, The Beast and Diamondback would benefit greatly from a story telling standpoint. The Beast had a theme to an old mining company, but Diamondback could be themed to an old farm being terrorized by a large oversized Diamondback rattlesnake that's taking over Rivertown. They could enclose the queue and make it look like a wood barn with tools and other props lining the walls.

Actually... Wilbur the Pig and Templeton the Rat greeting guests in a parade on International Street in 1973: (Not my photo. Found off of Google)

I mean, the official Looney Tunes Facebook page made a reference not too long ago, so it's canon:

From what I have heard, the brats and mettwursts that they introduced in 2013 with Christian Morlein Biergarten (Now the Mercado) did not sell well (They were very delicious in my opinion though). At the very least, I'd be 100% in favor of Gliers Goetta being sold at the park. At several German festivals I've seen vendors serving Goetta Cheese Fries. They could sell something like that or a Goetta burger on a pretzel bun with traditional burger toppings (but with Swiss cheese instead of American cheese). Just an idea I had.

It looks like they took out the manmade island in the middle of the lake which was originally occupied by the circle swing attraction in the early years. Later the occupied by the famous "Coney Countdown" billboard from the 1971 season. If they're sticking to their word and the Lake is being filled with water again, even as a land mass it is tough to lose it.

I think Lake Como has been dredged in the past and deepened. At least according to the Tim Young documentary from 1993/2005 "Greetings From Coney Island." Perhaps it's to perform maintenance of some sort. Lake Como is in the plans to keep from what I understand.

I know I brought it up in a separate thread, but creating a Rivertown centric storyline to the coaster along with this would be pretty amazing. It's a common consensus among Kings Island fans that Diamondback, while a smashing success and great coaster, took a lot of the vibes away from Rivertown as many trees had to be leveled throughout the surrounding area. An indoor themed queue, set up like either a farm house or an old town shop, can help bring back a little of what was lost.

Growing up, I and my siblings were always Gold Pass holders to Kings Island, but a trip to Coney was always special because it was different. My mother loved it because it reminded her of her childhood before Taft moved the park to Kings Island in 1972. I loved it because of its connection to Kings Island. But the thing was for us, we only went to Coney for the rides during the "modern era." Having a local YMCA and Soak City/Boomerang Bay/Water Works a short distance from our house, my parents never saw the need to take us as we grew up. I did not get to step into Sunlite Pool until 2020; I had just barely finished college. My mom had not been in years by that time and my father rarely went when he was a kid because my grandparents had their own pool at their house. So most of our Coney memories were made on the Mall. To us, Coney was Moonlite Gardens, the Python, the Flying Bobs and early rides from my parents generation like the Tumble Bug the Whip and the Shooting Star; Sunlite Pool, at least to us, was just Sunlite Pool. The pool didn't deserve the ending it got, with all that said. It was from an era where nobody had air conditioning, so large pools like that were an attractive investment for parks. I believe it was the last classic amusement park "mega pool" I guess you could say. In the early development of Kings Island, there were apparently discussions about reproducing Sunlite Pool in Mason. It was ultimately shot down because of the expense that would need to be paid. After all, it cost the Royal Fountain, which is a fraction of the size of Sunlite, $500,000 to complete on a $250,000 budget. The pool stayed open down on Kellogg Avenue and helped keep the park afloat when Taft couldn't sell the property. I often wonder how things would have been different if they had been successful in finding a buyer for the property back then? On one hand, Coney would have been lost a lot earlier than it had been. On the other hand, Taft probably could would have found the budget after Kings Island's 1972 inaugural season to move forward with moving the pool north as a "Phase 2" of the Kings Island Resort complex (WaterWorks would have come 16 years earlier than it did in real life). As for the site today, it would be cool to see it transition into a community/city park in conjunction with the new Farmer's Music Center, something similar to Flushing Meadows Park in Queens after the 1964 World's Fair; the old buildings and park pavilions are reutilized and preserved for the next chapter. With the old park buildings getting a new lease on life, it would almost be as if Coney Island never actually closed.

I went down to Coney today to take a look at the work. I took the time to look at the vendors that had set up their displays, but my main focus was getting a look at the site. What was confirmed by Jonathan Martin, the CEO of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO), last spring: The iconic Kellogg Avenue auto gate, built in 1924, will remain. Lake Como, the manmade lake in the front if the property, which was dug out and filled in 1892 (some sources say 1896), will also remain. The picnic grove, shelters and playground will also remain. This was where Coney Island got its start in 1870 when apple farmer James Bell Parker was approached by a Cincinnati church group requesting to set up a picnic on his apple orchard. I have included photos below. Sunlite Pool: This is still a surreal visual. Once the site of the world's largest recirculating swimming pool is nothing more than a field of gravel and dirt. According to Coney Island Central, the pool was designed by W.J. Lynch of New Haven, Connecticut and was 200 feet wide by 401 feet long. The pool could hold 3.5 million gallons of water and could clean and filter 47,000 gallons of water per hour the year it opened. Sunlite Pool would have celebrated its 100th anniversary this season, originally opening in 1925 as simply the Natatorium. The name Sunlite Pool would come later in the 1930s. LaRosas Pizzeria: While it was home to Cincinnati's staple Italian eatery during the park's "modern era" (Post Kings Island), the LaRosas Pizzeria at Coney Island had originally opened in 1967 as a souvenir and gift shop on the Mall. It had replaced the old Penny Arcade. I took a visit to Coney for Summerfair in 2024 to get a look at the site. Last season the building was open for restroom use and concessions. This year it was closed with concessions being located on the patio next to the building. A quick peak in the window revealed that the building is undergoing renovations. For fun, I did a side by side comparison of this building to a photo I found in the book "Cincinnati's Coney Island" by Charles J. Jacques Jr. The photo, taken from the book, shows Bingo the gorilla from Hanna-Barbera's "The Banana Splits" entertaining people on the Mall. To the right is my photo taken at a similar angle (and similar lighting). This was taken in the early 70s following Taft Broadcasting's merger and acquisition of Coney Island in 1969 to begin the development of Kings Island. I had previously made a comparison using a photo I took last year, but the way the sun was shining today influenced my decision to recreate it. Mini Golf: The mini golf course was visibly torn up from construction equipment. MEMI had set up barrier fences to keep people from going into the area (This didn't stop some people though). I think it is safe to say that the Cincy Mini Golf is not long for this world. Moonlite Pavillion & Tivoli Fountain: Moonlite Pavillion, named after the famous Moonlite Gardens just down the Mall, was originally built sometime in the 1960s and served as the rides shelter for the Cuddle Up, Whip and Dodgem. It was renovated in 1976 and renamed Moonlite Pavillion to host special events. This was part if the initiative by Taft Broadcasting to redevelop the site as a non competitive alternative to Kings Island. For Summerfair, this was the congregating place for the vendors and crafters as well as a lost and found station. The building is being put to great use and is most definitely going to stick around. It was most recently used for a Memorial Day party this previous week: The little fountain pool on the Lake Como side of the building once featured bubbling tubes, mimicking the fountains of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark: below is a screenshot from the 1968 film "A Dream of A Park:" This was no doubt influenced by Gary Wachs' 1963 trip to Europe. Today, however, the Tivoli fountain is gone, replaced in later years with simple cascading jets. Now it's empty and void of water, but it does not look like it's going anywhere anytime soon. On a side note, if there's one feature I would love to see revived and replicated at Kings Island from Old Coney, it's the Tivoli fountain. EDIT: A fun fact about Moonlite Pavillion/ Rides shelter is that it was replicated in smaller scale at Kings Island in 1972, housing the Dodgem and Cuddle Up. While the children's Whip ride, now called Linus' Beetle Bugs, made it to Kings Island, the full sized Whip gave its last rides on September 6, 1971 was presumably scrapped. Moonlite Pavilion's little sister building was demolished in 2017 to make way for Coney BarBQue. Rivergate and Lighthouse: Steamboat travel was a common early method to reach Coney Island, dating back to its beginnings as Parker's Grove. Many steamers would land here and deliver passengers. Steamboat captain William F. McIntyre, who bought the property from James Parker in 1886 renaming it to the Coney Island we know it as today, ferried people from Cincinnati's Public Landing to the park on his ship the Guiding Star. Eventually others joined the mix. The Princess, Island Maid and even the Delta Queen. The most beloved and remembered, however, were the two Island Queens. The river gate at Coney Island had seen several changes over the years, but the most iconic version, the one standing today, was built in 1925 using stones and rocks from the riverbank of the Ohio River. With the increased popularity of automobiles, and the disastrous explosion of the second Island Queen in Pittsburgh on September 9, 1947, guests would begin to drive to Coney Island. This would eventually lead to the problem of limited parking, a major factor in the development of Kings Island. **HERE TO STAY** Following the press release in Spring of 2024, I sent a follow up email to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's CEO Jonathan Martin inquiring about the lighthouse and river gate. In a response email, Mr. Martin confirmed the preservation of the iconic river gate. "Current plans are to save the lighthouse and storey pole near the river which marks the many historic floods." On top of this, I had received a double confirmation from an employee sitting near the river gate. She was preventing attendees from going down the ramp to the river as the Ohio River had risen overnight due to the large bouts of rain this past weekend. I had a pleasant conversation with her regarding the future of the site. Which is a perfect transition to the information I'm sure most people are interested in. Moonlite Gardens: Built in 1925 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, Moonlite Gardens was the park's ballroom. In its heyday, Moonlite hosted some of the nations biggest acts. While Moonlite Gardens was built in 1925, the current New Orleans French Quarter style front entrance was built in 1947. The old band shell and dance floor was made from wood and had seen severe damage from years of flooding by the Ohio River. The band shell was demolished shortly after the opening of Kings Island in 1972. In its later life, Moonlite was used for wedding receptions and small concerts. **HERE TO STAY** The employee I had talked to today confirmed that Moonlite Gardens isn't going anywhere. The Symphony had expressed interest in restoring the building, stating in response to my email inquiry: "The venue, its history and its use are aligned with our mission to serve the community through music." With that said, the building is apparently in sorry shape. The floor has deteriorated and is crumbling and the building was denied an occupancy permit by the Cincinnati Fire Department a few years back as a result. But from the news that was shared with me, Moonlite Gardens is slated for restoration and preservation as the new amphitheater is taking shape. Skill Games building/Hampton Court/ Moonlite Square: Neighboring Moonlite Gardens on the shore of Lake Como, this building was designed by UC architect Darrell "Dusty" Daniels and constructed in 1966. This building is a steel frame structure and a brick exterior, designed in the French Normandy style of architecture. Complete with a slanted roof and a cupola with a clock tower, this building is probably one of my favorite buildings on the site. While the building was primarily used for Skill Games for the guests, the building also housed the Group Sales offices for the park. The offices inside the building are now occupied by MEMI, so this iconic beauty is definitely safe from the wrecking ball. Sorry for the long post. I know it was packed with information, but I hope this helps answer some questions. There are a few photos that show land clearing beginning. I plan to share those as well. If need be, to cite my source, I can provide screenshots of the email I had received from the CSO last year.