KIBOB

All I have to say is, instead of walking directly out through the gates onto I-Street, where you would likely be rudely held up by a mob of photographers, sneak to the right into Convenience Corner. Pretend that an item within the shop caught your eye, and walk out onto I-Street towards the bathrooms. It appears as though you were already in the park.

Cedar Fair has a tendancy to allow parks to cheesily keep Haunt trails assembled throughout the entire season. Hence the eyesore plywood walls in Action Theater, SoB's station, Club Blood, and before DA!, Trail of Terror. There are haunts that are taken down for obvious reasons, such as the Slaughter House and Tombstone Terror-tory, but I don't think that they would Utilize the DA! area at the expense of the dinos or the fact that they would have to be very careful in the process of making things "temporary".

Is the small tree lined road near the entrance the old (I believe it's called) Columbia Road? Also, is that I71 further out, or is that Kings Island Drive? It's kind of hard to tell without the parking lot there for comparison. I'm glad KI hasn't released more of these pics because I wouldn't get anything done! Although I'm not sure if the road in the distance is Kings Island Drive, or I-71, I do know that the tree lined road you see is in fact Columbia Rd. Before KI was built, Columbia Rd. did not end at Western Row, but rather stretched all the way down to Kings Mills Rd. Upon construction of Kings Island, the road was essentially "cut off" at Western Row Rd. (with the remnants in the parking lot becoming an employee access/service road.) Actually, if you drive down Kings Mills Rd. north of the park, and turn onto the small road where Kings High School is, you will find that the road seemingly ends at a fence just past Great Wolf Lodge, and behind Flight Deck. That is part of the former Columbia Rd. Another interesting thing is that while riding the KI & MV RR, when passing Boomerang Bay and entering the turn around, look down at the ground, and you will see the crumpled remains of an old blacktop driveway which used to come off of Columbia. Please correct me if I'm wrong (Terpy, or anyone else with great knowledge ) but I think that the old driveway used to lead to what is now the "Mary Rose Inn" building, which was at one point a real residence.

Not to mention that the primary reason why Cedar Fair bought Paramount Parks was for Kings Island (one of Cedar Fair *Kinzel's* biggest "I want that!" items for many years). I can almost be assured that had CBS not wanted to sell all of the parks as a whole, Cedar Fair would have only purchased KI.

Yesterday, when visiting the park, they began testing WindSeeker in the morning by just allowing it to go up and down the tower with no spinning involved. Later on, they tested the ride with a very slow rotation speed. Last night however, the ride was in full operation (testing that is). It was performing it's normal cycle, and rotating at its full speed. All of the lights were also functioning. For anyone else who was at the park last night, that certainly gave me some hope that it might open this weekend.

I'm assuming that had something to do with Lindner's cost cutting tactics.....I wonder how many people you made happy by actually giving them a portion matching the price!

Ok, so I can understand that Cedar Fair probably had to accept any legal obligations like this during the aquisition of PP, but it was not the fault of Cedar Fair at that time. It was the neglegence of CBS, which in my opinion, is what they should have used in the wording of this article. Unless, ofcourse, it was written by someone who had absolutely no idea.

Nice photos! I always enjoy seeing how the park has changed over the years. Those pavers sure make a difference, and give it more of a classic feel in my opinion.

Thanks for that info that has NOTHING to do with Invertigo/Face Off Invertigo/Face Off Doesn't have teeth nor an Anti rollback device on either of its lifts. How else is it going to go up and down on both lifts I wasn't referring to Invertigo (which I know is off topic), but I was referring to CoasterGeek101's post about how rollbacks occur, and the following post by HWBeast1039 which referred to the anti-rollback devices on OTHER coasters, particularly wooden coasters. I just wanted to add to the interesting conversation. My post had nothing to do with a coaster engineered like Invertigo (even though this is an Invertigo topic.)

In addition to that, the anti-rollback mechanism is what makes the click-click noise while the train is ascending the lift. In fact, if you look to the side of the chain on most coasters, you will see little "teeth". As the train passes by these "teeth" little knobs under the train are pushed over and into each tooth creating the click noise. These knobs are only able to move forward over the teeth, but are not able to move backwards as they lock into place, which prevents a rollback. Sorry for the overly-detailed explanation. I remember watching a show on Discovery a long time ago which explained how the anti-rollback mechanism works.

Oh, now I understand. Thanks for the answer, I never really paid much attention to where the wheels were positioned. I always thought that each car of each train had two sets of wheels (one in the front, and one in the rear). I didn't realize they were spaced out in a way that there has to be an additional set of wheels on either the front or back.

Hey guys, if you look at the trains on Vortex, as well as some other coasters, they have a bar/set of wheels that is drug behind each of the trains. My question is; what are these for? I was always curious, but could never quite figure out the purpose.

At the end of Riding History to the Limits, Gary Wachs mentioned that he had recently taken a tour of the park (probably when he was inducted into the KI walk of fame). He said that he couldn't believe how much the park has grown, and what the cost would be to build the park as-is today. He mentioned that he still thinks Kings Island is the greatest seasonal theme park in the county, and his only concern is the current "commercialization" of items within the park.

Also, it seems as though some truth has come forward in regards to CGA. It is pretty interesting to know that Prowler was originally intended for CGA, that is, if Kinzel is being honest.

Kings Island is offering some new merchandise featuring the original old english logo, or as it is called at the KI marketplace store, "vintage".

This is kind of unrelated, but I thought this was kind of ironic...... Maybe they should ask them for some licensing discounts.. KIBOB, jumping through the window.

There is MUCH more to a theme park than just thrill rides you know........

I stand corrected, it appears as though the motion seats are a no-go. From Kings Island's Facebook page: Kings Island - Action FX Theater will have new non-motion seating this year. We're very excited about the new Dinosaurs Alive! 3D film. The dinosaurs will appear very life-like through the use of Dolby 3D glasses on the big screen.

I just have to wonder, why speculate that the motion seats will be removed? Sure the release did not mention the seats, but that doesn't mean that they will not be in use. I can picture a struggle between two dinosaurs, and when one falls to the ground, the seats rumble back and forth. I have to agree that making this an upcharge may be a mistake for the park, I suppose that many will get used to it, just as long as it is helping CF pull out of the realms of debt, and not going into Kinzel's nickel filled pockets. Although, CF isn't really good at balancing consumer spending (cough*high food prices*cough*less spending* cough) .

Was that a Paul Blart sort of moment.

It almost looks like the park is sitting on a Washington beach front.

^^Or the little crash derby RC monster truck areas, if anyone has photos of those as well? ^I think my add-on is a little more "Terpy proof".

If you are reffering to the Starlight lighting it got on the back last year, then no it is not, only the generic lights remain on the front, the back however is still lit up with the Starlight package. Ok, thanks. Correct me if I am mistaken, but wasn't the front of the tower completely DARK last year (aside from the little amounts of color passing through from the back)? I would rather see the generic lights lighting the tower than none at all.

Is the Eiffel Tower also being lit from the front this year (hopefully)?

I don't know if anyone has seen the other two TV commercials yet, as I can't find anything posted about them. Anyways, there are two new "Fun and Only" season pass commercials, which I think are MUCH better than last years, and are actually nicely done. I couldn't find them on YouTube, but if you go to http://www.fox19.com...redirected=true, and look to the right of the WindSeeker cam, you can see the other two commercials. Also, except for one clip in each version, these adverts stay in line with the park's actual attractions.