BlondyRidesOn

If the housing development doesn't take shape, I would like to see a little shopping district with restaurants, something similar to what is being built in Liberty Township, but smaller.

The park does wel for the Mason economy, so I would hate to see it go downhill because of this. Like most have said, it's already bad enough that they have complaining neighbors to worry about.

The only time I think the park would ever do a major upgrade to the fountain is if they have to completely replace the whole pool because of a leak. If I remember correctly, didn't they do that to the fountain back in 2003?

True, the pool at Canada's Wonderland continues to the base of Wonder Mountain, however the buildings on their International Street do not continue. The reason why building a bridge dead center in Kings Island's Royal Fountain isn't feasable is because of how close it would be to the pedistals, which spray water pretty far, soaking anyone crossing it. Building it near the back of the pool, however, would be a different story.

The bridge over the Wonderland fountain, however, is at the back of the pool, and far enough away from the water. Since it is at the back of the pool, crossing the Wonderland bridge is the equivalent of walking all the way around the Kings Island fountain to get to the other side.

There are also many sanitary reasons why not to build a bridge. It would make it easier to throw garbage into the pool, causing a clean up nightmare for the park.

I have been checking the weather camera on top of the entrance facing International Street, and it doesn't look like much has changed. The new Starbucks in the Swiss building still has its ThrillSeeker storefront color scheme, and from the look of it, the Spanish building where Sweet Spot will be located still looks the same. However, I am able to tell that something is happening inside the buildings. I'm sure the exterior work will soon follow, but it might not be major changes, maybe just some new paint. It is very nice and exciting to see the new Starbucks get its old Alpine lodge look to it. There is no doubt it will be different while walking down the walkway, but I believe that it will be very similar.

Sorry for the double post, but I absolutely love these videos. I especially enjoy seeing the Tumble Bug running. I wasn't born in 1980, it gives a great idea of what the park looked like compared to now.

They should, at least, change the background music on International Street to something instrumental. Kings Dominion's International Street still plays nice fitting background music: (Not my video. I found it on Youtube)

I like the olive green a lot, like Terp said. I never knew our Eiffel Tower was painted a darker green than it is now (The nickname for the teal color on the Tower is "Eiffel Green"), but while watching "Rollercoaster" from 1977, Kings Dominion's Eiffel Tower seemed to have a darker hue to it. Anything else would make it seem less like the Eiffel Tower.

Despite not being born during the Taft Broadcasting years, I have to say they did really well on giving the park slogans. I decided to pick "Do it All" from the KECO years, but I was torn between this and "Where the magic of movies meet the thrills of a lifetime."

I absolutely loved seeing the Tumble Bug in action. That was my mothers favorite ride when she went to Coney with her family, and later Kings Island with her friends. Out of all the old videos of the park, these are the ones that truely reflect how much the place has changed.

As others have said, nothing should be done to both ACE classics. The Beast is a unique wooden coaster because of its not an airtime machine like most woodies, and there probably wouldn't be a Rocky Mountain Construction Iron Horse coaster if it weren't for The Racer.

Being the great great grandson of a German immigrant, I for one would love to see some love given to the Festhaus. I was very dissapointed at the begining of the season to see that the clock was removed. Oktoberfest as a whole has been behind, but with the addition of the Christian Moerlein Biergarten, the park does somewhat seem to be bringing that are into the right direction. I have eaten at the new biergarten a few times and I have to say, it was rather good. When I first ate there, it served German Potato Salad on the side of the bratwurst and saurkraut sandwich I had purchased, however that was not the case this past season. So with that addition, it would be great to see the Festhaus restored again, to compliment that area a little more.

I have been to that store many times. I would go there with my family after we browsed around at my schools craft show. It is a nice old building. They sell a book about the history of the nearby Peter's Cartridge plant across the Little Miami River.

Eli Bridge Aristocrat Wheel across from the Festhaus along the Oktoberfest lake. That area needs some attention.

Drop Zone was still being prepared when Media Day came around.One word: Intamin.

I had a feeling they would probably never do that, I was just sharing how I felt if they ever considered it, and I was just refering to a few posts back. The new paint not only compliments the Swiss architecture as mentioned, but also it is almost a compliment to the old colors when it was the Mod shop.

Pizza was introduced by Italian immigrants in the 19th century according to Google(Then again, Wikipedia is not a good source of information), so although it was first introduced in the United States, pizza, especially La Rosa's, has Italian roots. The location of La Rosa's on International Street was always a Pizza stand, according to the 1974 Kings Island brochure: http://KICentral.com/history/photos/displayimage.php?album=8&pid=238#top_display_media

With the facades of the buildings being repainted last off season, I do not believe all of the buildings on International Street will be de-themed from Europe. As I have said before, a few of the food stands on I-Street are placed in buildings from which the food being sold has origins from, LaRosa's, Auntie Ann's, etc. And with the Eiffel Tower being the landmark and iconic centerpiece of the park as well as the main attraction holding up the European theming of International Street, I feel it would be very tragic and unwise to completely remove all of the remaining European architecture of the buildings. It would be a real tragedy for the whole area if the Eiffel Tower were change from the parks "regal landmark" to "La Tour de Anachronism." EDIT: Just a note- My laptop wouldn't let me quote any other posts.

It should be cool seeing the theater get razed as well.

There are still some aspects of International Street that are still international, so to speak. LaRosa' s Pizza, for example, an Italian style restaurant, is located in a building with an Italian facade, Auntie Ann's Pretzels is located in a building with a German facade. Despite Auntie Ann's being an American restaurant, pretzels are a Bavarian food. Let us not forget the European facades are still there, with the Eiffel Tower being the star attraction. It may not be 100%, but it still has some life left in it. I like to think of todays International Street not as a detheming of a cultural celebration, but rather a reflection of what Europe is like today. The new Starbucks, for example, looks like a Swiss coffee house, and I am sure there are plenty of Starbucks stores around the world, including Switzerland, and the new Yogurt Plus will look like it's disguised as a French ice cream parlor, judging by its architectural facade. The background music should not depend on the theme as much as it should reflect the mood and majesty of the sight of the fountains and the Eiffel Tower. It should also reflect peoples excitement for their awesome day that they are going to have. So, despite it losing a large amount of the international theming, anything symphonic and orchestral will still blend in with the Eiffel Tower and the beautiful Royal Fountain. Sorry about the speech, I do tend to get preachy about these things sometimes. I am really excited about what next season will await!

International Street gets symphonic music back, same as what Thrill_Biscuit suggested. Something similar to what Kings Dominion plays would be great.

With the exterior upgrade of the fudge shop, does this mean that the buildings might also get new marquee lighting?

Let us not forget the new color scheme of the Starbucks building being part of the nostalgia. The paint job looks similar to the original one on the Swiss building when it was known as the Kahn's Sausage Haus when the park first opened.