Is PKI losing its appeal?

I know I used to love how PKI had a ton of trees, and just an overall natural feel to it. When Action Zone was put in, it seemed to me that the area just became a giant concrete slab. Now next year they are taking out the Antique cars and all the scenery it has there. I am guessing that as they put in Italian Job they are going to rip out most, if not all of the trees in that area and it too, in my opinion, will take away from the beauty of the park. Of course there is a little speculation there on my part about taking out those trees, but it seems like a pretty good guess to me. I have always been a huge fan of the park, but I am starting to dislike how the layout is changing. What does everyone else think?

Trees and natural feel are nice but I go to parks for rides not beauty. So I guess it depends on your perspective.

Most of the trees are staying in tact to hide most of the thrills the ride will offer so no need to worry about the trees they will be there covering the helicoppter parts of the ride.

I lost my interest in PKI a long time ago.

Have you actually been on site, MysteryIncs1#Fan? Two weeks ago, the bulk of the trees on the Italian Job site were already gone...

Personally, I thought the park was coming along nicely. They had the best-running wood coasters in my region, they were starting to figure out how to deal with crowds, they turned Outer LIMits: Flight of Fear into a decent coaster, they built Delirium, they took the glass out of the customer service windows, they made sure they have the best customer service department on the planet, they cleaned the place up, they painted the Vortex...things have really been looking up for Kings Island.

Then they cut up the parking lot, they installed a magnetometer checkpoint that they never seem to staff adequately, they let three of the four wood coasters' performance go to hell, they tore out the antique car ride, they are yanking out the Flying Scooter, they lost Adventure Express's third train, operations have gone down hill, and going to Kings Island is again beginning to lose its appeal.

Kings Island has got to be one of the most aggravating parks I visit. I want to love the place. I want it to be the best park around, and every time it looks like they're gonna do it, they start to kick themselves in the nuts again. I don't get it. They start to look like they have this 'great park' thing figured out, then they figure out a way to blow it. Arghs!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Things are happening fast and furious for many larger parks. I would imagine the trade off for all these amazing rides is a loss of trees and some quaint, low capacity attractions. Can't just pop in giant trees as if we were playing Coaster Tycoon. They need time to grow, and most parks don't have the patience to construct another Boulder Dash or Raven. With competition running so hot between parks, it may be some time before PKI or many parks will slow to focus on aesthetics, with the exception of Jurassic Park in IoA and Disney's Animal Kingdom.

I can see it already. With all of PKI's success, they're becoming the new Cedar Point in terms of criticism.

How about all parks everywhere stop building new things so we can all complain about how none of them have anything new instead. Then they'll all shrivel up and die because there's no incentive for anyone to go to them anymore.

I have no problem making the 6 hour drive to PKI. I find this to be a great large corporate park with plenty to do for everyone.

Didn't they pull in 3.3 million people last year? Doesn't seem that they are losing interest to most people.

With SFGAm being 45 mins away, CP being 6 hours and PKI being 6 hours, I find myself lucky to live close to 3 great corporate parks.

Well I had to jump in on Express's third train. The main reason it's not running 3 trains, is that it's capacity barely goes up, and trains get stopped on the second lift. As well they need to have a greeter if they have a third train on, and the park just can't have enough to do that.

As long as:

-They dont touch any of the trees around the Beast

-Continue to add world class rides

-Have one of the best if not the best customer service depts of any coperate park

It will continue to be one of my favorite parks to visit.

Just for everyone who hasen't been to PKI resently, here is a wide angle shot to the Italian Job land from the tower.

http://www.pkicentral.com/Parkinfo/photogallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1298

I'm not to concerned about PKI's longevity. The park has been smart in offering such a ride range of ride experiences. I am more concerned about a park like SFMM. Magic Mountain has no dark rides or flat rides to speak of. Most coasters in the world, that's great as long as people want to ride coasters. Height restictions eliminate the young. High intensity rides eliminate older populations. The current generation of thrill seekers will grow older and loose interest. And when the younger generation get tall enough, the Mountain's 15 coasters will be yesterday's news. Classic dark rides never get old. Disneyland ran on the sucess of 5 darkrides for over 20 years. A combined approach of coasters, dark rides, and a great kids area gauantee's PKI success in the future.

You know what PKI should do with the tiques while they have no place to be? They should allow guest to be chauffered around the park in them, for a fee of course. ;)

[Well after looking at that picture it doesn’t seem too bad. I guess I was worried they would take all the trees out, but it seems like that isn’t going to happen. I am anxious to see how the layout of the ride will fit into the area. Does anybody know how high the highest point on this ride will be?

What the heck Jeff? Since when is it not ok to complain or express frustration about what a park or anything else does? As an enthusiast, I'm not required to automatically love everything every park does.

Is Kings Island losing its appeal? I'll say no because for me, it never had any. :)

Cedar Point on the other hand is losing its appeal. Probably a combination of my own changing tastes in what I want out of an amusement park and decisions that Cedar Point has made that I just don't like. I don't give a crap about whatever market researched business decisions are behind what they do. I'm still allowed to not like it.

Complain all you want! I don't care. What is it with you people? Every time Jeff disagrees with someone it's the end of the world!

The problem is that all anyone does around here is complain about everything. Does anyone have fun anymore? Seriously, I can't imagine spending a day at a park with some of you if this is the way you conduct yourselves.

Like I've heard here a million times: A bad day at the worst theme park in the world is better than my best day at work (and I love my job). God forbid if the day ever comes when I'm walking through a park thinking about how it has "lost its appeal".

Somebody seems a little cranky lately ;)

Disagree all you want. Just allow everybody else to do the same.

Jeff....

Complaining is what people do best, and it is interesting to read about. If no one ever complained, this website wouldn't be as fun. It's the same way with the media. There is way more bad news reported than good news because that's what draws interest for the most part. I'm sure people have fun all the time, but then would you want to keep hearing about the same fun/happy trip report?

"We rode this ride and it was great, the weather was great, the food was tasty, and we had a great time!" Ok, good for you. I'm glad you had a good time.

Boring. But when someone complains about something popular, or something bad happens, it sparks interest and conversation. A website about the latest news in the theme park industry is going to have negativity, because it is simply more interesting.

By the way, I also feel that people jump on you because of the intense sarcasm you sometimes use when responding to a post you don't aggree with. It just comes off as arrogant.

Yeah, anytime it's me that disagrees with someone, it's all about me and my over-bearing personality. Give me a break.

Every other topic this week is about how PKI is letting someone down or why park X doesn't get something new. It grows tiresome and that's my opinion. Don't give me crap about it just because I run the site.