Cedar Point Apprecation..

I have never appreciated CP as much as I had on Sunday when I made my first trip to Kings Island. All I can say is, "WOW".

The rides are all painful. I couldn't relax and enjoy the rides because I was concentrating on not getting bruises. The atmosphere there is just.. not good. My boyfriend and I were riding a ride and when we came back he said "Welcome back riders.. how was your ride?" Then it hit me. THEY DIDN'T SAY IT. They had no spiels at all, which I really missed hearing. I told my boyfriend when I was getting on a ride, that "I didn't even know the rules!" The load times were horrid. The ride ops just casually stroll to check restraints, and were just generally very lackadaisical. Maybe I just caught the place on a bad day.

I had taken advantage of Cedar Point and I can't wait to go back in Sept to remind me of how a real amusement park should be. Everything is so much better there. :) Maybe CF will help this place out!

Moral of my story: Enjoy CP, because there are very few places out there like it!

Yes. Amazing how good they are.

Sometimes we forget.

No Spiels???? Damn, that means someone could mabie sue them if they got hurt.

No, I don't think that is true because I believe they have the rules in writing somewhere in the park. Probably on a used napkin floating down the midway. But I think Ohio law states that you must follow all written and verbal rules. Since they don't have verbal rules, then I assume that they have them in writing.

In response to Brittany's post though, there have been many parks, and many rides that made me yearn for CP. But there have been a few, perhaps a handful of the parks that I've been to that have had the opposite effect on me. [insert another one of my Holiday World plugs here]

I totally agree with Brittany. I've been to a lot of parks around the world, and I always look forward to my CP visits. The park is clean, well organized, fun and friendly. Not to mention, their rides are awesome. Six Flags has some good rides here and there, but they're overshadowed by their poor organization and operation. Disney is great too, but that's a different animal all together. The only other CF park I've been to was Dorney Park and I must say I was impressed with that little park too.

I can't wait to get to the Point next week. :)

BirdofPrey you've got it about right on. They've probably got the ride entrance signs (I've never been to KI) that CP has. CP (or any Ohio park) does not NEED to do a verbal spiel, because the ride rules are in writing. It is nice that they do though, because I don't think I've ever seen someone stop to actually read those signs.

If you really want to appreciate CP I suggest going to Six Flags Great Adventure. Our experience there in June more or less assured my wife and I that we will never step foot there again. Ive never missed CP so much either.

^ I know what you mean man. I still go because I like their coasters. Part of the fun of that park is making fun of how poorly its run too. I've never seen so many people get physically removed from a coaster before. The ride ops literally scream at people over the mic too. Its so awful, its quite amusing!! :)

I've never been to a park landscaped as nicely as CP either. They really deserve props for that. No trash laying around either. I remember the first time I went to SF Great America. It looked like the park had been closed down for 10 years and just opened the gates for the first time that morning. There were 4' tall weeds, garbage all over. It was a mess!!

As much as we nitpick about little things that bother us about the Point, it is still leaps and bounds above other parks.

Maybe you caught them on a bad day Brittany. I went recently and had a great time. In general, their coasters are a bit rougher, but a lot of them are older coasters which I believe contributes to this. I have said this many times and I'll say it again. Between Intamin and B&M, it seems that everyone believes that all coasters should be smooth as glass and not the least bit rough.

Which PKI coaster did you think were rough ?

If you guys want to see amother great little park, head up to New England and check out Conbie Lake Park in Salem, NH. The only have two coasters, but the atmosphere is GREAT!

here's the link:

www.canobie.com

There are certainly plenty of parks that make me miss CP, such as Six Flags ________________ (fill in the blank), but like Bird of Prey I have experienced other parks that stood out in their own special way, like Kennywood, Knoebels, Sea Breeze, and so forth.

Kings Island seemed a lot more fun to me when I was a kid. Racer was my second roller coaster (first was Scooby, er Beastie...I mean Fairly Odd Coaster) and it was the one that hooked me on coasters for good. But there were other cool things, like the ivy-grown tunnel from Hanna-Barbara Land to Rivertown. Does anybody remember Enchanted Voyage? Call me sentimental, but I loved that ride. And some of the newer coasters leave me cold. I've already given my opinion about Flight of Fear. And Face/Off? It couldn't hold a candle to Screamin' Demon. I'd even take the Antique Cars, with their gorgeous views of the lake, over the Italian Job. The atmosphere feels (or at least under Paramount, felt) more like Six Flags than the fun park of my youth. Sigh...

Aww Screamin' Demon, I rode that for the first time at King's Island, the last year it operated. And then I find out it was moved to my local park in WV, Camden Park.

And of course then the last year that I worked there, they decided to finally tear it down (about time too, it was a <i>wreck</i> :)) But I actually got a piece of the ride, the main control panel, and am in the process of restoring it.

For anyone interested in some pictures from before the tear down I have some up on a website that I took.
http://homefires.us/coaster/ *** Edited 8/4/2006 4:58:50 PM UTC by Morté615***

Hey hey hey. They do to have some speils!

"Thank you for not smoking. As a reminder smoking is prohibited in any line at Paramounts Kings Island." ;)

Brittany0121 said:
The atmosphere there is just.. not good.

I couldn't disagree more. I love King's Island. The atmosphere is fantastic. International Street is gorgeous. The midway heading back to the fork towards Vortex and Beast/TR:TR is a peaceful stroll. Bubba Gump's is a must every trip there, even if to sit and relax for a bit.

They've got a unique collection of rides. I love The Beast, Flight of Fear is tons of fun (but I liked it better with the lights OFF), Top Gun is what Iron Dragon could be, and TR:TR is by far my favorite flat ride. Sure, some of them are painful *coughSOBcough*, but it's not like we don't have our share of those too... *coughMScough*

Every time I've been there, I've encountered friendly, enthusiastic crews that DID spiel... so maybe you hit a bad day there... that is bound to happen from time to time. Every foods person I've encountered was always friendly and helpful, and had a smile on their face (which I think CP could use some more of).

Now, I usually hit up PKI early and late in the season, when the weather is cooler, and the crowds are less... so maybe that has something to do with my perception of the park. Or maybe it's just a case of different strokes for different folks. ;)

Kings Island has its spectacular areas, namely International Street and much of Rivertown as well. Nickelodeon Universe also looks great.
Other areas, though, not so great. I really liked the Adventure Village area (once the Wild Animal Habitat monorail station area), but then that was turned into Paramount Action Zone. More like a carnival with permanent rides, IMO. Coney Mall doesn't look too bad, but it's looking worn with a lot of dead/unused space that rides and/or shops/eateries/games could be placed.

KI is my home park, and I go almost once a week. However, if I lived closer to the north of Ohio, I'd go to CP a lot more. In fact, I like Geauga Lake better than KI in some ways. The past decade has been an on-and-off attempt to make it more like a movie studio experience - sort of a hodge-podge between the old Kings Island theme park and Paramount's movie-style amusement park - you know, like the big box between the train and the Beast, the stunt coaster where a well-landscaped antique car ride was, and so on.

It wasn't all bad - great people that work at the park level, from management and associates down. But the corporate level (CBS/Viacom) didn't fund their "experiment" appropriately. Cedar Fair I think will invest in KI the right ways. But if I want to "ride the movies," I'd rather go to Florida, and get my straightforward thrills in Ohio.

When I was younger and didn't know better when I went to SFGAv alot during the summer because my family always bought season passes. I finally got to CP. You guys are spoiled. SFGAv just is horrid. It has some good roller coasters but everything else sucks. I never really realized it until I went to CP.

Morte615, great pictures. Some of those shots almost made me cry. I never knew SD wound up at Camden. Now I wish I had gone while it was operating. Speaking of Camden, do you know how it's doing? I'm hoping to make a run down that way next year... maybe as part of a trek to Dollywood or something.

I think Kings Island is a great park and its my home park. Its definatly above six flags standards in cleanliness and rides running smoothly and effiencently. They have some great rides like the Beast, Drop Zone, and Flight of Fear. The also have some great looking areas. International Street in my opinion is one of the nicest looking landscape I seen in any amusement park, with the beautiful fountains, trees, flowers, with shops and food that line the fountains.

It kind of saddens me how Kings Island has dropped of the coaster map. If you remember back in the year 2000, with Cedar Point opening Millienium Force and Kings Island opening Son of Beast, there was quite a bit of competion between the two parks. It was a great year as Ohio became the center of the roller coasting world. I think it would be great if for us roller coaster fans if these parks had that same competion, each trying to outdo the other, resulting in more and better roller coasters for both parks.

The two parks have just gone in different directions since then. Millienium Force became a huge hit and people flocked to Cedar Point. The Son of Beast on the other hand was plagued by problems, roughness, and people just didn't enjoy it. So Cedar Point went on to build more taller, faster roller coasters with a tremendous amount of success. Kings Island went on to just build mediocre flat rides, usually themed after bad movies.

Kings Island is a great park now, with good coasters, good senery, clean, and good staff. But it once was the place to go to ride the best roller coasters. Lets face it, Cedar Point and Kings Island are not on the same level anymore. Hopefully Cedar Fair make this park so much better. I am hoping they add a B&M or Intamin to this parks great collection.
*** Edited 8/6/2006 4:28:49 AM UTC by cjeagle35***