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Kings Island

Park News - (11/18/09) Kings Island has sent out a news letter to their staff and passholders protesting the proposed new tax (3%) on park admission and on parking fees (5%). They claim that councilman Tony Bradburn is trying to rush approval for this through before anyone knows the difference, with a final council vote expected to take place now on November 23rd, which would put the new taxes in place for the 2010 season. Voice your opinions on the matter and attend the meeting if your local to the area at the Mason City Building located at 6000 Mason-Montgomery Road. The meeting is open to the public and will begin at 7pm. You can also e-mail your opinions to the council here.
    Kings Island is quick to point out that this new tax is not a tax on the park itself, as they wont be paying anything extra, and that this is a tax on all guests of Kings Island. For a typical family of four visiting the park for the day, you will pay an extra $13.40 in taxes on your passes and parking fee. Taxes will also be placed on Season Passes as well, hitting up a family of four for an extra $19.20. On top of this being terrible timing with the way things are today, it also goes against a promise made to Kings Island by the city of Mason not to ever add an admissions tax when they agreed to be annexed into the city in 1997.
    (11/12/09) Local politicians are attempting to add tax fees to the cost of admission (3%) and parking (5%) at Kings Island, something the park has long been opposed to.
    (11/10/09) An interesting report and comments about Son Of Beast has been published by the local news, going back to how Paramount attempted to “fix” the ride’s swaying structure before it even opened. Meanwhile some pictures shot on the last day of the season at Kings Island have been posted to Coaster101.
    (11/3/09) Kings Island reports that over the course of the 2009 season the new Diamondback coaster gave over 1.85 million rides, the most of any new park attration since Vortex opened 22 years ago and managed to give 2.18 million rides. Of course what is even more crazy is that they tell us that a 67 year old by the name of Gary Coleman managed to get the most rides in of all this season on Diamondback with a reported 1,579 rides taken during 90 visits to the park this season, averaging 17.5 rides per day.
    (10/20/09) After the jury had voted 7 to 1 to award the plaintiff just over $75,000 from the Son of Beast trial, Kings Island successfully made a settlement offer to avoid the punitive damage portion of the trial. The exact amount is not known, but it would be more than what the jury had already agreed to award her.
    (10/19/09) According to this news update, Kings Island was also to produce a video showing off the woman attempting to sue them moving about seeming to be in no pain, and doing things that she shouldn’t be able to do when in such pain. On her side of the argument however, is a medical expert who claimed that she could need up to 3 hip replacement surgeries in her lifetime, though given her age (40), he doesn’t recommend her to have the first one for another 10 years!
    (10/16/09) According to reports from the trial, Kings Island did not deny responsibility for the structural problem that resulted in the incident on Son Of Beast in 2006. However they believe that the woman in question at the trial is exaggerating her hip injury in order to squeeze more money out of the park. While they admit she did suffer minor injuries from the incident, Kings Island’s attorney claimed to have video footage, shot by a private investigator, showing her moving around quite freely and seemingly pain-free. “"I ask you to award her reasonable damages, which she is entitled to, but nothing more and nothing less."
    (10/14/09) A trial will begin this week involving a woman claiming injuries received during a ride on Son Of Beast during the incident in 2006 which sent 27 riders to see medical attention. A second case involving another guest who rode at the same time as her will also begin in early November.

Son Of Beast Status - Closed Until Further Notice - (11/16/09) Now even the local news is starting to report that Son of Beast may never reopen. Still... the bottom line is nothing seems to have been decided for sure in the halls of Cedar Fair, so we’re still watching and waiting.
    (8/24/09) While nothing has been decided, I’ve heard that there are three likely solutions to the whole Son of Beast problem. One… they could just close the ride and demolish it. Given the number of problems they’ve had with this ride over the years, no one would be surprised at this outcome. The other two ideas are costly, and still may not fix the problem entirely. One idea is to look at replacing the ride’s structure with a steel support system, in addition to complete retracking as well as a new third train design. The other would keep it as a wooden ride, but would involve a complete design of the track, eliminating the two giant helixes as this seems to be the focus point of all the problems and complaints they’ve had with the ride over the years.
    Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing the second option used… going with a layout that has more ups and down and less radical turns. While I doubt it’s still possible, I wouldn’t mind seeing the loop and old trains return as well, but that’s just me.
    (8/11/09) Kings Island has announced that Son Of Beast will remain closed for the rest of the 2009 season. As for the future of the ride, they claim that it’s fate wont be decided until sometime during the off-season. I have to imagine that at this point, all options are on the table right now, so anything can happen.  According to a reader report from the park yesterday, they already had spotted that the SOB trains had been shrink wrapped and placed away in the maintenance bays.
    (7/31/09) The news reports that the stage investigation into Son Of Beast is now over and that they found “no irregularities.” Son of Beast is still currently closed however and park spokesperson Don Helbig said that he couldn’t speculate as to when it might reopen.
    (7/28/09) While the exact findings of the investigation of Son of Beast have not been released, the local news reports that inspectors have been called out to check out problems with Son of Beast more than any other coaster in Ohio. In most of the previous injury cases, it was determined that a pre-existing condition caused the rider’s injury  There is still no timeline set to reopen the ride this season.

2010 - Planet Snoopy - Confirmed - (9/4/09) Kings Island has once again confirmed the new Planet Snoopy project for 2010 on their website. This will apparently include some kind of renovation to Scooby Doo’s Haunted Castle that will see Scooby & The Gang evicted.

2010 - Starlight Experience - Rumor - (9/21/09) Sources tell us that Kings Island may be planning to install their own special nighttime illuminated pathway attraction for 2010, similar to the Starlight Experience added to Cedar Point this past season.