KIC Tour and Winter SOAR

What a day it was at Kings Island today!

I'm probably the only person who isn't on their payroll that spends 11 hours in the park during the offseason, but it's certainly a chosen lifestyle and something that I haven't regretted for a second.

I was absolutely devastated that the Diamondback tour at the Offseason Blues Party on the 31st was snowed out. Of course, the KICentral Universe (who never ceases to amaze me) pulled through and had a wonderful time... with or without the tour. The makeup tour was today and even that had the ironic possibility of being snowed out again. Fortunately the Lord, Mother Nature and the theme park gods smiled upon us and gave us a light enough drizzle that a tour was possible.

Seeing the faces of KICentral is one of the things that I look forward to the most, doing what I do. I'm always flattered that people are so accepting of our ideas. Sometimes we go out on a limb - trying to be innovative and we feel comfortable taking the risks with such an upstanding group that we call the KICentral Universe. So much fun has been had over the past 6 years, yet so much more fun is awaiting us in this coming year alone!

A very very heartfelt THANK YOU goes out to everyone who made the 2nd trip to Kings Island for the Diamondback tour! I know that people came from hours away to see this and words can not express how rewarding it is to see people use their hard earned money to spend an evening with us.

Following the KIC tour, I attended ACE's Winter SOAR. Members of the staff of KICentral stuck around to help with the setup and tear down of the evening event. I'm sure glad I decided to attend this one.

Their speaker lineup was nothing short of incredible, including three people that I have always enjoyed hearing from: Tony Clark, Bill Mefford and Don Helbig.

I know many people are Kings Island-heads and don't look too much into other Cedar Fair parks, but Tony Clark is certainly an icon at Cedar Point. Formerly part of the PR team, he is now in charge of their web site, CedarPoint.com. Cedar Point is getting nothing this year... well, "nothing" kind of like how Kings Island got "nothing" last year... obviously we need to redefine the word "nothing" in this industry because Kings Island was certainly the place to be. He didn't have a whole lot to talk about except for small park capital expenditures but he had the crowd on their feet the who time he spoke. I've had an ongoing "rivalry" with Tony Clark since I met him several years back and he's always been good for a lot of laughs as we throw friendly jabs at eachother.

If you think you know a lot about this industry and don't know the name Bill Mefford than you don't know as much as you'd like to think you do. Talk about a theme park industry god. His short resume' includes (Paramount's) Kings Island, Paramount Parks Corporate, Universal Studios, Hard Rock Park, EnterTRAINment Junction and much much much much more. I rarely throw around the word 'respect' but Bill Mefford certainly has mine. You couldn't fine a more knowledgeable, experienced or nice guy in the industry. Did I mention he wrote a mystery novel too?

I think having Don around so much makes people forget just how accomplished he is as well. Being the spokesperson for a park like Kings Island can't be easy but he makes it seem that way. This is a guy that I hear from every day be it an e-mail, call, or random text message (usually some sort of KI teaser) at any time of the day (or night in some cases). He of course spoke about what we all wanted to hear about -- Diamondback.

I helped clean up after the event, which is what attributed to such a long night. Spending the evening with the ACErs was a fun experience. There are a lot of great in that club.

When it all sums up it was a LOOOOONG day, but a very rewarding day as well.

Can't wait for April!

Until next time,
Ryan "BoddaH1994" Suhr
From Under the Black Hat