Mikewhy

Wow... RD Reynolds, thank you for that post. It reflects my own thoughts completely. I too, have been going to Kings Island since it opened in 1972. I have photos of myself as a 5 year old at the park the year it opened, and we went yearly through the late 80's... Then I got busy with my life and did not go again until 2003. I have gone several times a year since, but I agree with you completely. Things have changed and while the park is excellent in many ways, the old time charm and magic are gone. The lack of any properly themed or atmospheric music on International Street I think is what hurts the most... While some folks here think more "family" attractions are coming to KI from Cedar Fair, I have little such hope. If you look at what they have added to their parks over the last 10 years, you see little evidence that they will add such attractions. They do add kid areas for small children, and great coasters, but you never see anything like a serious flat ride package (for the most part), dark rides or log flumes. Cedar Fair just does not deal with such attractions, or does so very seldomly. I love Kings Island and I am thrilled about Diamondback. But I definitely agree that I would like to see some of the family focus and magic to return. Sadly, there seems to be little ROI in such things for Cedar Fair...

Kings Island has much more atmosphere than HW and more steel coasters and thrill rides. And nothing beats International Street for a park entrance. The non-smoking policy at Kings Island is not enforced (or rarely so) and on certain crowded days, it is very smoky on the midways. I am always disappointed by that. Holiday World enforces its non-smoking policy very well and rarely does anyone smoke outside the designated areas. I find that more people cut me in line at Kings Island than Holiday World. The food is priced better at HW, and the wood coasters are much better. I do love both parks though...

I have ridden most of the B&M hypers in North America, including Goliath, Nitro, Raging Bull and Apollo's Chariot. I love them all and they are simply my favorite kinds of coasters! They have fantastic seats and restraints, and most of them have great airtime. I do agree that a few unfortunate trims on Raging Bull reduces the airtime on that coaster, but overall these are fantastic. Nitro and Goliath at SFOG are my favorites so far. I am really looking forward to riding Behemoth this year and sincerely hope that is what Ki is getting in 2009!

I will be attending along with my girlfriend! I am looking forward to it.

I remember when Kings Island would offer two shows in the International Showplace, two shows in their indoor theatre, a show in the Festhaus, a show in the restaurant in River Town, as well as a show in the kids area, along with the dolphin show and other forms of street entertainment. I would love to see them reach that level again. That being said, I am glad to see that entertainment is better now than it has been in many many years. I hope that continues to get better!

I think it is really sad and inexcusable that they do not fix the carousel organ at Kings Island. Knoebels has several working organs, and the one at Kennywood and Idlewild work as well. If those parks, which I know have less money than Cedar Fair (at least before the sale of Kennywood!) can keep their organs working, then it seems Cedar Fair could see to it that their organs work. I know they are obsessed with return on investment and such, but antique organs are amazing and increasingly rare attractions, and I think the public does respond well to a well maintained carousel...

I also found a scan of the KI 1979 map, and you can see on that map that the building in question has the words Dodgem and Fascination written on it. It is looking to me like the Cuddle Up was gone by 1977...

I have noticed that many online timelines and people here give the last year of the Cuddle Up as 1985, assuming it was removed when Coney was remodeled and the Dodgems moved/expanded. Does anyone know for a fact that this was the case? Do we have actual proof that the Cuddle Up was there in the 80's? The reason I ask is that I have a 1977 Kings Island map, and it shows that the building that once housed the Dodgems and CuddleUp became a building that instead housed the Dodgems and a Fascination game. So according to that map, the Cuddle Up was gone by 1977 and replaced with a Fascination game. This was BEFORE the Dodgems got expanded and moved in 1986. Does anyone have any other maps from 1977 - 1985 that clearly show that the Cuddle Up was there? My 1983 map does not mention the Cuddle Up, and I can find no photos or maps from 77-85 that show it was there. While the 1977 map I have could be wrong, it is also odd that the Cuddle Up is not mentioned as a ride on the 1983 map as well.

What the heck are charthers?

I am certainly never bored at Kings Island, and I usually find more than enough to do to fill an entire day. I do wish they would add more flats back to the Coney Mall bring back some kind of flying scooters, and I hope with a passion that the rumors of a hyper coaster in 2009 are true because I sincerely believe that Ki NEEDS that. And just thinking about now nice the ferris wheel from Geauga Lake would look in Octoberfest on the lake makes me wishful... But I still find plenty to do and I am never bored. And one more thing. In my opinion, Adventure Express is not just for kids. I have a blast on it, and I am 41!

I assume they just scrapped the Tumble Bug they had in the 80's. That is such a shame as they are really rare rides, and fun too! That was another classic transported from Coney....

Browntggrr says, "Did he really expect CF to continue to float a failing park?" You know, I simply do not buy that Cedar Fair did all they could to save Geauga Lake. There are still many things they could have done to try to save the park. I completely renounce the opinion that the park was failing and that no amount of work would have changed that. That is the story that Cedar Fair wants you to believe, but I strongly feel that the property could have become profitable under a different management strategy. What did Cedar Fair do to the place? They replaced the animal side with a water park, and they removed a few coasters. They never tried a real strategy of downsizing the park to make it better fit its footprint. They never tried to make it a unique smaller park with something unique to offer in comparison to Cedar Point. They gave up too soon because of all the Paramount debt they are suffering under. Sorry, I know the narrative says this was a failing park doomed to be closed, but I am not buying it. And you don't have to be an unrealistic enthusiast to believe that either. By the way, I enjoyed the fool.com article and agreed with it.

This opinion is not based on any fact that I know of. I have ridden other similar ride to this, like Nitro, Goliath and Apollo's Chariot, and the airtime over the hills is great. The only one with issues is Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, where the airtime on one hill is ruined by a trim brake. Otherwise, these rides have great airtime.

I talked with Jay (GM at SFKK) about a year ago, and he revealed to me that it was looking like there would be some kind of change or addition made in the Northwest Territory area of the park in 2008. However, that was over a year ago, and plans often change. It seems like SFKK may not get anything in 2008, which is a shame. We did get Deluge last year at least. The park has improved so much lately and I am sorry that Jay is leaving. I hope the new person is HALF as good...

You would think that the Toledo Blade web site could get a photo of the actual wave pool at Wildwater Kingdom, and not the old Wave Pool that was on the rides side...

I strongly feel that Cedar Fair did not do all they could to make the ride side of this park work. Other than add a water park and lower admission, they did nothing really to downsize the park again and make it a small family amusement park. That old park did okay against CP and KI in the past and could have once again, had they truly down sized the property, added family rides, lowered parking and food prices, and promoted itself better. I do blame CF for this. It is too late to still blame Six Flags. I do not accept that Cedar Fair did all they could to save this park. I also do not accept the belief that had Six Flags kept the park, it would be completely gone and thank goodness at least CF at least saved the water park. With the vast improvement I have seen in most Six Flags parks this year, I feel that had they kept the park, it might actually be thriving.

You get Gold benefits with the Gold pass and Platinum benefits with the Platinum pass. So if I get the Platinum pass, will the Gold benefits be part of that, or will the Platinum benefits differ from the Gold Pass benefits? I see the special parking is for both Gold and Platinum according to the info above. What about the rest of the Gold benefits? Are they included with the Platinum pass or are the Platinum benefits exactly the same as the Gold? I realize these questions may not have answers yet, or perhaps they are obvious and I am just sleepy... Thanks!

Well, the way they completely dismiss The Beast in their 2003 photo trip report to KI does not lead me to trust what some people on there say about coasters. But that is just me...

Well, Kings Island really need a modern coaster from someone like B&M (my preference) or Intamin. In a way, I am a little sad that we were given Firehawk, because that will make us wait even longer in all likelihood for a new coaster. When I saw what Canada's Wonderland was getting in 2008, I was a little depressed thinking about how great it would be for something like that to be built at KI...

Yes, thanks for posting these amazing photos. I first went to Kings Island in 1973 when I was only 6 years old. Seeing these photos and that video clip really brought back the happiest memories of my childhood. It is so weird that most people on this board are so young that they do not recall the time shown in these photos. I remember it all so much. The old rides, the wonderful atmosphere, and so on. I miss the old Kings Island in some ways, and these photos helped me more vividly relive my memories of it. Thank you!

I have always found the Koch family to be amazing and friendly at Holiday World, and some of the employees in the gift shops and such to be really friendly. The rest of the employees seem average at best most of the time. So I see what you mean concerning living up to the Golden Ticket award. I DO think theyt deliver in terms of cleanliness however!

Just to add to the discussion. I love both KI and HW and go to both parks 2-3 times at least every year. I must say that I have never had a bad trip to HW. I have always enjoyed my time there. They are very tough on safety and following the rules, and I do think that can lead to mistakes. But you know, I am GLAD that a park is actually trying to follow the rules and actually does care about guest safety. Holiday World is the only park I have been to where I always see the staff enforcing the rules. And it is refreshing to me. I am very sorry that some guests here have had a bad experience there and I do not doubt their reports. But I have always had a stellar guest experience, including the many times I went there in 2006. I find it hard to believe that the staff at HW is looking around anxious to falsely accuse folks. I will agree that some of Holiday World's staff have been more apathetic then friendly, but I find that to be the norm at KI and most other parks as well. I personally have always found Dollywood to be the friendliest park I have ever been to. Now I love KI and I love it more than Holiday World as a whole. But I will tell you I have had many many visits to KI in the last 3 years where I have met less than friendly employees. I have been in the gift shops and have had to interrupt employees talking to each other in order to check out my items, and that was after waiting over 10 minutes quietly. And then they looked irritated. I have reported people smoking in the lines and the employees would either shrug or look irritated. True, I have not had any employees at KI yell at me or erroneously accuse me of bad behavior. But then again, I rarely ever see any workers at KI reprimanding anybody. It seems rules are rarely enforced when I am there. So of course there are no reports of people being chastised. I am not sure if that is a good thing however. We have already seen a major fight at The Beast that perhaps would have been less likely to happen if someone would patrol the queue lines to enforce rules. I guess what I am trying to say is that some guests will always have some negative experiences at almost any park if you go there enough. Holiday World is a little overly militant about enforcing the rules, while KI, IMHO, is WAY too lax in enforcing anything. Both are problems that should be addressed. But I personally would prefer too much enforcement to too little. Again, I prefer KI to Holiday World for many reasons and I love the park tremendously. But I do see more guest problems at KI caused by lack of rule enforcement that I see problems at Holiday World caused by too much enforcement or falsely accusing people of violating rules. I still happily visit both parks and will continue to do so.

Just want to comment on SFKK. I agree with the other comments that the park is better than ever, has an awesome GM, and that 2007 has been the best year this park has had for nearly 10 years. They do desperately need new rides in the ride park, but otherwise the park is more promising now than ever. It is in no way the arm pit of the Six Flags any more...

Some Intamins may be more intense, but I think the overall ride experience is better on many B&M coasters. I find the thrills of some B&Ms to ultimately be more satisfying because there are many elements that are both subtle and well designed. Intamins seem like they are hitting you over the head while some B&Ms seem to sneak up behind you and get you in more subtle ways. The older I get, the more l like that. It is a matter of personal preference of course....

Do you care to elaborate on this? I have never heard that CF had issues with B&M coasters and a male only injury with Mantis. Can you provide more details? I am curious! I read the Interpreter's previous post wondering why Cedar Fair always goes to Intamin for new rides for Cedar Point despite the many problems they always seem to have with them. I always wondered the same thing and have always wanted a new B&M at both Cedar Point and a first B&M at KI. Perhaps this "issue" you mention is part of the reason. I for one would LOVE to KI to have a B&M coaster. It is in my mind the one thing this park really needs, and it would not really compete with Cedar Point since they are Intamin central...