Magenta Lizard

I don't think the ride ops should be forcing pairings, there are many various reasons one may not want to be that close and personal with a stranger. A few empty seats slow down the line a lot less than half empty trains that often occur when a ride op gets too micromanaging of the line and doesn't appropriately let the traffic flow into the station (I've seen this more than once, although not specifically about pairing singles). If anyone chooses to pair up with me, it is my personal policy to always allow it (if they ask) and I don't mind so much riding with someone gregarious enough to choose to ride with someone they don't know. I almost always am a single rider in the last two seasons I've had KI passes, and through dozens of park visits in that time I've really only had two relatively minor negative incidents related to being a single*. One was when a young ride op at AE was micromanaging placement of a non-existent line to a half-empty train. He told me to go to a row in the middle of the train that would have sat me with the third of a group of three women. The women seemed nice enough, but it was late in the day, I was hot and sweaty, AE trains smoosh you right up on each other and I didn't want to inflict my long day at the park on a stranger, I knew the women would think /I/ was a real weirdo jumping on with them even though there were several empty rows, because they /never/ force-pair singles at AE, and I prefer to sit in the back, which was empty and was going to continue to be considering the next train was about to load and I was the only one in "line". I asked the ride op "really?" and he confirmed. I was about to just say forget it, I'm not shoving my sweaty body at a stranger, I just won't ride, but I asked him again if I could ride in the back instead, and he /finally/ realized most of the train was empty and by this point starting to load, and let me go where I wanted. The other time I had a problem was when someone chose to "hop on" with me on Beast near the end of a hot summer day. As I said, I don't mind when someone asks to ride with me and will always say yes, but other than even rows of DB or on Banshee, it seems impolite if they don't say anything first and just follow you on. In this case, inexplicably, the guy was there with another guy, but his friend rode alone in the next row, and this guy hopped in next to me. He was friendly, so I didn't mind as much (that fun silence up a lift hill where the person intimately close to you tries to pretend you don't exist) after the initial annoyance at the "hop on." But then we hit the top of the hill, he threw his arms in the air, and I was bombarded with the results of a long hot day at KI with either no deodorant or a failing one. I had to spend the whole five minutes attempting not to breathe. *my more serious "single rider problem" wasn't actually about riding. The day I split the back of my shorts wide open, I didn't realize it until I was using the restroom, and could only narrow it down to having happened sometime in the prior hour and a half (fortunately two thirds of that time I was wearing a hoodie tied at my waist). I didn't have anyone who had been with me to tell me about it or help ease my mind that I hadn't been flashing my butt for the last half hour while I wore my hoodie on my upper half.

I'm concerned about the smaller of the trapeze twins, Shannon. LoraX told me the trapeze act didn't perform at the third show Monday, although she saw them in makeup around the theater. Tuesday is their day off, then yesterday there was no trapeze for the first two shows. At the final show of the night, Evelyn, the taller of the two performers, came out and did a solo act. It was good, but appeared to be a little hastily choreographed and lacked the smoothness that would come from practice (unsurprisingly considering she's only had two days to work on it). When they just weren't performing, I had hoped it was just a minor injury or exhaustion, but if they went to the trouble to create a solo act, I'm worried Shannon is hurt enough that she'll be out awhile. I really hope that isn't true.

The clock was working early in the season. Then one visit someone pointed out it wasn't keeping correct time. My next visit and all the ones since, the hands/mechanism have been gone.

I'm getting a little sick of FoF being closed until after the park gets busy, the last few times I've been here (including today).

Not wait times, but pertinent for people considering visiting the park this morning: Daylight Donuts is offering a dozen donuts for $0.99 from 5AM till noon, today only. They're located very close to the park. https://www.facebook.com/daylightdonuts77 Update: got my dozen and they are delicious!

I found this interesting: "Several attractions are poised to reach notable milestones in 2015: Woodstock Express 45 millionth ride Viking Fury 30 millionth ride Flight of Fear 15 millionth ride Character Carousel 12 millionth ride Invertigo 10 millionth ride Firehawk 5 millionth ride Skyflyer 1 millionth ride" From https://www.visitkingsisland.com/media-center/ride-record-book I wonder if we'll see any prize celebrations at any of those milestones. I really enjoyed trying to be the winner during the ones last summer, and even managed to be on the same train as the 50-millionth Beast rider.

I believe KI does count Surf Dog as a coaster, yes. I am having trouble finding something online to back that up at the moment tho.

I'm betting they would accept a print out of the page as well. The first Twitter tour, they didn't even check our phones, although they did the second time. I believe there were at least a couple "he's with me" type situations where not everyone had a phone on them.

I must respectfully disagree. The tweet-ups are something that sound fun in theory, but in actual practice at best are a complete waste of the social media platform because all prizes go to whoever literally follows Don, and at worst encourages people to run in the park and endanger their own and others' safety. The behind the-scenes tours have been fantastic, because they use the PR Director as a font of information rather than some sort of treat-dispensing machine. It can bring people to the park on a day they might otherwise not have come, and a larger number of people get a positive experience. With the tweet-ups, you generally just have to accidentally be in the park already, and nearly everyone who participates is going to be disappointed. I've been on four Beast tours now (two of those the Twitter-announced ones this season), and every time I have learned something new, seen something different. It's much more valuable to me than a free Banshee poster or other trinket. For people who just want free stuff, they've added that as a thing in the app. It makes more sense to use that as a random prize dispenser than a living human being. I enjoy seeing Don around the park and when I get the opportunity to talk to him about the park. I don't want him to start feeling like he can't go out and walk among park patrons and share his knowledge and experience because a certain subset of people are treating him like a slot-machine.

As far as I know there haven't been any tweet-ups since last season (replaced by Twitter-announced Beast behind-the-scenes tours which are in my opinion way better). I have heard Don didn't like the tweet-ups because people started following him around the park rather than waiting for a tweet. I think he likes more natural interactions.

The Backwards Racer being "so great" isn't just a nostalgia thing. Riding backwards gives an entirely different feeling to the ride, and it was fun going up the lift hill with riders on either side facing each other (making it much easier to yell back and forth about which side would win). When I rode The Racer back then, it was almost always on the backward side (and it was frequently the much longer line) because nothing else in the park (or anywhere else I visited) gave that different experience of riding backward. If the park made the change to make it easier to close one side without upsetting people, they'd have been better off making both go backwards, because that was more popular than forwards.

The KI Five are indeed back this year. I saw them earlier today in fact. Unfortunately they were hurriedly escaping the rain, so I didn't get to hear them today, but I did enjoy when I've heard them other times this season. I also saw the KI Paint Department drummer again today. He was letting some kids join him on the bucket drums, teaching them how to follow a rhythm. It was pretty cool.

Way to go WKRC for following up the lighthearted romp through Kings Island with a very ominous commercial for your upcoming fear-feast "Ride at Your Own Risk" warning of hidden dangers (traumatic brain injury!!!) in front of footage of rides at KI and fairs/festivals. Nice cross-promotion. As a PR director, it must be difficult sometimes restraining oneself from telling news media to ever so gently go blank itself.

That was very entertaining! Not an error, but you may want to add some paragraph breaks. Right now it is a big wall-o-text that makes it a little difficult to read I only mention it because you asked.

I have no idea if/how it would work, but Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for Haunt would be awesome!

I'll be sure to watch it while I'm getting ready to go to the park!

If you think Planet Snoopy has the same music as the rest of the park, I don't think you've spent any time there (other than during ERT, when it is the same). I much prefer the pop from the rest of the park to the Kidz Bop crap they play in PS.

That's really cool! I was there Monday, bought a funnel cake and was looking for a good spot to sit and eat it, and ended up settling next to the Carousel. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the organ working (and sounding much better than last season). Now I know why I hadn't heard anyone mention it was working again prior to hearing it.

The kitty petting thing at AE could apparently go pretty sinister, come Haunt time.

A few weeks ago, I rode coasters and other rides in the rain for about four hours straight. Fairly significant downpour the whole time. So, yeah, unless there is a chance of lightning, they tend to run them. Unfortunately, if they do close for storm activity, it does seem to take a little long to get started back up again after the systems appear to have passed.

The Adventure Express crew have come up with an interesting way of entertaining themselves: miming holding and petting a cat. I first noticed one young man doing it last week, and he was telling someone he did it for an hour the day before without anyone mentioning it. Then when I rode again yesterday, that ride op was working too, but it was one of his coworkers "petting the kitty." There is a strangeness among the AE crew, but I enjoy them

They were getting rid of the old Boo Blasters glasses as prizes in the Coney Arcade at the end of last season. I got several pairs to save, but have never remembered to take any to use on the actual ride.

There is a ring of colored (changing colors) lighting at the top of the inside of the UFO of FoF that I don't recall ever being lit last season or prior to today. They go between red green and blue. There is also lighting at the top outside of the UFO I don't remember seeing lit before.

To look at the pre-opening lines waiting at the gates, I think all the people who avoided coming over the "busy" weekend came today.

Thanks, I'm gonna be heading there after my trip to Silver Dollar City, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Well, I looked yesterday, and the ones I remembered seeing were generic ones, not KI specific. I was unable to find any others. Sorry