I`d be all for the Flying Eagles migrating back to Kings Island. Some tidbits about that photo. The path that leads off to the middle of the picture on the left is headed towards the Skyride station (this picture was taken from the Skyride). Also visible at the right side of the image is the track for the Tumble Bug, which was relocated from Coney Island.

Photo #21 - Front Gate Parking Trams

I must be getting old, I can't remember when the days when the girls didn't wear pants at KI.

Photo #24 - Phantom Theater

^My favorite childhood ride.

Photo #23 - Flying Dutchman

I wonder if it would be a "good" marketing strategy to "bring back the classics" in lets say bringing Flying Dutchman back from Kentucky Kingdom and Flying Eagles back from Carowinds.

Oh how I miss this ride. Simple but fun.

Photo #24 - Phantom Theater

I want those posters, heck, i want the whole thing as a poster. How I miss that theater so, with maestros beautiful song, alas it is gone.

Photo #25 - The Bat

Great picture of The Bat! I don't think I've ever seen that angle before.

Also, loved the Phantom Theater picture. One of my most missed rides at the park, makes you sad to see those and compare it to what's in there now - at least we still have a decent dark ride though.

Thanks again for doing this, I love seeing all the interesting and unique photos of the park you have!

Love pictures of The Bat.

Seeing all of the posts about Phantom Theater makes me wish I'd actually gotten a chance to ride it before it was "Scooby-fied". I was a kid when that was put in, and my parents don't like haunted houses and the like, so we didn't ride it. We were just disappointed that our beloved smurf boat ride had been replaced with a haunted house.

Photo #26 - Action FX Theater - 2006

Photo #27 - America's Longest Coaster - The Beast
Notice the 4 row cars thus the capacity would be 40 riders per train. vs the now 3 row cars with 36 riders per train

^ when did they get rid of that little pond?

I believe the pond was removed when Vortex was installed.

Weekend Beast Bonus Photos*** - Beast Lake

One of my favorite photos^

All of this really makes me sad. Sad that I never got to experience it, that is. I went to Kings Island during the Hanna-Barbera days and when everything was themed to a Paramount movie, but I don't remember it at all. :'(

Love the photos Paul! Especially that last one that is your favorite!

I would LOVE to see the return of The Beasts lake! Although I heard it smelled fairly bad.

Aww, good ol' Rivertown! This is how I remember it. Not the concrete city jungle it is now.

Well, if you are going to call Rivertown a concrete jungle, there is not much actual concrete in it. It is more of an asphalt jungle than concrete. Just saying.

Foiled again

^ ...Cried the binomial multiplication.

(I'm sorry. I have a thing with math jokes. I'll stop.)

As always, I love the photos, TOPGUN. I wonder if the park's ever considered restoring the flume/trough/gutter/whatever system with a small water system that would be contained just to that area. No ponds or anything; just have the water at the bottom run into a pump that would push the water back to the top. The pump could be disguised with a bucket, etc. to blend in.

Visitors even back then were tossing stuff in to the water. I can just imagine....

Great photos of The Beast, I love to see those old Beast photos because they bring back some memories of my favorite ride in its younger days.

Visitors even back then were tossing stuff in to the water. I can just imagine....

You know how when you clean your house, you tend to keep it that way for as long as you can because it is easy to keep it that way? When you have guests over they also tend to be more cautious about keeping their mess to a minimum and cleaning up after themselves. I believe the same goes for Amusement Parks. Parks that are organized, and continuously keep their establishment clean I have found to have less litter from guests. Disney always has a very polished look and is extremely clean and I found myself holding on to my trash until I found a bin to toss it. Kings Island (unfortunately) even with its trillions of trash cans cant get that same result. I don't think the amount of trash cans one park helps it become cleaner, if anything it makes the park look worse and dirtier. It comes down to if the guests feel uncomfortable littering because of the parks current state. It takes extra money to keep a park as big as KI clean, but its results can have a huge impact on yearly attendance.

Visitors even back then were tossing stuff in to the water. I can just imagine....

You know how when you clean your house, you tend to keep it that way for as long as you can because it is easy to keep it that way? When you have guests over they also tend to be more cautious about keeping their mess to a minimum and cleaning up after themselves. I believe the same goes for Amusement Parks. Parks that are organized, and continuously keep their establishment clean I have found to have less litter from guests. Disney always has a very polished look and is extremely clean and I found myself holding on to my trash until I found a bin to toss it. Kings Island (unfortunately) even with its trillions of trash cans cant get that same result. I don't think the amount of trash cans one park helps it become cleaner, if anything it makes the park look worse and dirtier. It comes down to if the guests feel uncomfortable littering because of the parks current state. It takes extra money to keep a park as big as KI clean, but its results can have a huge impact on yearly attendance.

^^ I'm not so sure anymore. Some will adhere to this, but others figure 'that's somebody else's job' and feel no remorse about tossing a butt or trash - in fact they get defensive if it's mentioned (not that *I* would say something like, "you're not planning to leave that there, are you?")

Love the photos Paul. The last one really gives you a good idea of how the ride looked with the lake. It is really eye opening when you think of how it looks now compared to that photo.

I'd think they'd be something to say about the demographics of Disney vs KI. I'm assuming Disney mainly serves families and/or adults on vacation for a few days to a week. A decent chunk of King's Island clientel includes kids "dropped off at the front of the park" that make 2 or more visits a year, every year. No matter what you do, when your at a park on a "regular" basis its going to lose some of the charm that Disney can hold. Kids as a group are going to be less respectful of the trash they leave behind than adults. Of course there are acceptions to that generalization, but even if King's Island put the same amount of people to work in the litter getter department, they likely wouldn't keep it as clean as Disney

Thanks for the photos they are awesome!

Photo #28 - Action Zone Debut 1999