kikid74

Wow! Thanks for the great history lesson! I remember most of those things...at least those that were still there in the late 70's. I really loved walking through the plant tunnel at night!

I had never been to the circus as a kid. However, I did go to B&BC once two years ago with my wife and two kids, ages 6 and 9 at the time. I didn't have anything to compare it to from its previous years, but I agree with your disappointing description. The crowd was small, the crowd wasn't into it at all, and everything was extremely overpriced. You think the $4 cotton candy at sporting events are bad? I saw a mother almost choke on her tongue when the concession stand worker told her it was $14. They already had an attendance problem that they couldn't resolve....perhaps there was no solution. But the ticket/concession price spiral (not drawing enough customer, raise prices. Higher prices keep people away, need more money, raise prices again) also had to contribute to their demise.

It sounds like fun! We were just there last month and could see the volcano under construction. I'm very interested to see how this ride reservation thing works out. They had one ride in the IOA park that was using a ticketing system...it was the glider ride back in Jurassic Park area. The first and last hour of the day was standby, but outside of that, you HAD to have a ticket to get into line. One of the workers back there told me that more rides would be going to that next year, including this water park, Despicable Me, and the new USF rides: Fast and Furious and Jimmy Fallon thru New York.

My experience has been a little different than yours in that I would have said that Sunday weekends as you get closer to Halloween have been more crowded than Sundays in late September/early October or any Sundays after Halloween. For example, we went on the Sunday, November 1 last year and dealt with very little waits on rides. Sunday, September 25th this year also wasn't too bad (though we renewed and used our FastLane.) My past speculation for this was the Halloween activities for kids draw more families to the park, especially closer to Halloween, as kids have their costumes and want a fun, safe Halloween activity. As always, cannot make broad statements about specific weekend dates without also accounting for (1) the weather, (2) the Bengals schedule and (3) school schedules. A nice October Sunday Bengals off-day with school closed on Monday is a bad combination for wait times, while a home game versus the Steelers on a cold/rainy non Columbus day weekend will have little-to-no wait. What is Fall Break schedule like for kids in Ohio? A larger number of Indianapolis area schools have gone from a 3-4 day weekend (used to be just Thursday and Friday off for my kids) to a full week off. Some schools here even start in late July and then take two weeks off in October. I read recently how bad the October crowds have been at Disney World the past week or two relative to prior years. (There are multiple compounding issues there, too, including a change in annual passes with summer blackout dates and Hurricane Matthew, which could have altered vacation plans and pushed two weeks worth of visitors into one week.)

Many Orlando area theme parks are closing this evening and all day tomorrow due to Hurricane Matthew. This includes Universal, Disney, Sea World, and Legoland. WDW is also moving guests from their campgrounds and certain other accomodations (like Saratoga Springs Treehouse) are being moved to safer resort rooms. Current projections have wind estimates for Orlando in the 85-130 MPH range! The storm is also projected to go back out to sea and could potentially double back for another landfall in Florida next week.

Has this happened to anyone else? We had 2 of the orange (free refill every visit) souvenir cups all season. This past Sunday was our final visit of the year. Two hours before close, we come back to our stroller from a ride, and one of the cups were missing. It was just sitting a cupholder, just recently filled with Powerade. This is our 4th year as KI passholders and have never had anything stolen. Just curious how bad it is for anyone else, and particularly with respect to souvenir cups. Seems like a weird (unsanitary?) thing to steal.

What time did they open? 6pm?

1. With respect to the OP, I know I've been on that ride once, but I had to think about where it was located in which park. Now that I can picture it, I did like the ride, but it's not something that we've been on more than once. (We've taken mult-day trips to DW in 2009, 2012, 2015.) 2. The Jungle Book was always one of my favorite animated Disney movies. I also enjoyed the latest live action Disney version. I know there are not a string of sequels planned, but I always thought a Jungle Book themed section of Animal Kingdom would be a good fit. The whole park is almost like the Jungle Book BUT the only reference I can recall seeing to that specific movie is an autograph station with Baloo and King Louie back by the Lion King show. 3. Star Wars doesn't have the same iconic merchandise possibilities that HP does? To quote Yogurt: merchandising is where the real money on the movie is made. 4. Disney attendance. With the announcement of all these new themed worlds, and Hollywood Studios basically being a skipable park at the moment (unless you have a park hopper pass, IMO), I'd imagine people in general are waiting for the expansion before making their next trip there. We've gone once every 3 years...which could have us back there around 2018. But if Star Wars land doesn't open until 2019, we would make plans to go 2019 or later. It is tempting to consider an earlier visit if lower attendance has a noticable impact on crowds...

When we went earlier this summer, they didn't reopen the water park after a thunderstorm rolled through. I believe it was 5pm when they announced their waterpark would close...it's normal closing time that day was 6pm. The dry side opened back up, though, and ran until closing time...7pm, if I recall.

I bought 2016 season passes at the park with "one visit free in 2015", and they deducted the parking fee (keep the receipt) from the season pass $total.

About what time and was the hat wearer sitting in the front row? We saw someone in front row holding onto his hat on down the first hill. Just curious if it was him.

The Red Racer was down for the day at that point due to a maintenance issue. The Blue Racer was the only one going. The ride op said "fireworks", so just going by what she said. Thanks!

Thanks, I appreciate the tips. We did this two years ago, and unexpectedly found that the Blue Racer closed, too. We had already ridden The Beast at night and were hitting the line-less rides on our stroll towards the entrance. But, that was two years ago and didn't know what else in the area closes early. Thanks!

Which rides are closed for fireworks at about what time on a night when the park closes at 10pm? Thanks!

Weekday crowds will start to lighten...some Indiana schools have started this week for the 2016-17 year. Another group of schools will start next week. Then, almost all remaining Indiana schools will be in session the week of August 8th. Do Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area schools follow a similar schedule?

Coasters are opening. Never rained here, but we could hear the thunder and briefly saw lightning to north and west. It just missed KI.

Very short waits all day :-) so far. Thunder has closed many rides. Flat rides (at least in Coney Mall) still open. A lot of people stopped to eat...others headed to concert.

Today: "feels like 100" according to weather.com app.

Metal detector / bag inspections today. Worst part of it is have to get through this line to get to the bathroom :-( Already though, seems to be going much smoother/faster than our May visit.

Metal detector / bag inspections today. Worst part of it is have to get through this line to get to the bathroom :-( Already though, seems to be going much smoother/faster than our May visit.

And things were open during the rain from 10-noon yesterday?

So, Thursday will be more like a Saturday? Just setting expectations since that's our backup plan at the moment.

We ended up canceling trip today. We have 2-2.5 hr drive and it's looking like too much rain/lightning today. Perhaps a dray spell in the afternoon, but too much risk of too many rides being closed. For those that live close, I'll bet it would be a great day to cherry pick the possible dry hours between noon and 3pm. What is the most recent rain policy with respect to ride closure? Some years, they don't close in rain, only lightning. However, we've had some visits where there was no lightning, but they wouldn't open certain rides until "the track dries". So, one day like this a couple of years ago, Surf Dog (for example) never opened.

Hoping the rain isn't too bad tomorrow. Some of our best visits have been rainy days/threat of rainy days.

Mother's Day I saw a number of mothers smoking outside designated areas. Including one woman in a wheelchair smoking while watching the bumper cars. That's how we noticed, as everyone riding could smell the smoke. Perhaps mom had a free pass on Sunday? :-)