disneygurlz2s

Just a few comments with regard to the posts on the past couple of pages.... The family of the girl released a statement (yesterday, I believe) and confirmed that she is Kaitlyn Lasitter of the Louisville area. There is a complete article and photo of her (school yearbook) here: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007706271324&GID=NOWuH0IwQ2NuJ5f33ueCZ03Y/6wYSXeBLk5ArCIiZo0%3D I think the thing I find most shocking is the family's claim that Six Flags has had no contact with them, despite the media's reporting to the contrary. Bottom line, if this is true, this makes Six Flags, both KK and the corporation, really look BAD!! I cannot imagine this would be the case, but??? As for the arguement being made about ride ops, employees, etc. I would like to to weigh in if I might. I agree completely with Wes and those whose position it is to say that it SHOULDN'T matter whether the park is Magic Kingdom or Magic Mountain, or Cedar Point or Holiday World, employees should be expected to conduct themselves professionally, politely and with respect for their job and the customers they serve. However, I feel this attitude only comes through at parks where this is expected and demanded of the employee (regardless of age) by the EMPLOYER. Walt Disney and the Disney Company set a standard that is so high, they now offer customer service classes to corporations outside of the theme park industry. (The director of training at my medical practice here in Cincy recently got to go to DL and take the course). Pat and Will Koch are also famous for the rules, regulations and expectations set forth to the Holiday World employees. I think that one of the problems that has existed in certain parts of the industry in recent years has been a lack of this kind of approach. I definitely felt it when Paramount owned KI, and I have seen an improvement in the conduct and attitude of the staff since CF came on board (so far, it's the only improvement, but I digress....). Funny thing is though, a lot of the long time employees are pissed at many of the new rules and regulations because they had it so easy for years when Paramount didn't care! All this aside though, if this accident was a result of a faulty cable or some mechanical malfunction that could not have been detected by maintainence, it would not be the fault of the KK employees regardless of how crappy the park and it's staff might be. Just my two (or maybe three) cents worth.... Shari

Sorry... I am quickly becoming the queen of duplicate topics. Maybe I will get Elissa to change my title to that!! LOL!! I think I need an advanced "How to search TPR" class. Shari

Wasn't it almost EXACTLY a year ago that this EXACT thing happened at MGM? Ugh. I am actually kind of surprised this hasn't gotten more media here in the states as it has. I actually heard about it on a local radio station this morning on my way to work. Surprised that I had to go looking for it on CNN. Shari

Hey, at least I would be getting the perfect "KID" and Cincinnati has a very rich German heritage. We have the largest Oktoberfest celebration in the United States!! You'd fit right in! Shari

More awesome pictures!! I agree with you Soren, Boardwalk is a lovely spot for just people watching and hanging out, and it doesn't really matter if you are kid or an older person. My mom and I enjoyed a nice evening there back in 1997 and it was just really relaxing and fun. Another resort I would LOVE to stay in someday. Shari

Actually, the newer branches of PNC Bank here in Cincinnati have those. The first time I pulled up to one I was all like WTF? But, now, I am basically used to it. The funny thing is that the tellers get thisclose to the camera. It cracks me up. Shari

I fall in the category of people who stalked you, but didn't speak to you...LOL! Seriously, I still feel bad that I didn't get the chance to introduce myself and Sammi that evening, but your shop was swamped and Samantha was so tired that night she wasn't feeling too cooperative. I am sorry you miss Orlando and the states, and wish I knew of something that could help bring you back! Shari

^Given the fact that you stayed there with your very lovely girlfriend, this comment just made me crack up!! I have alway wanted to stay at PO. We were supposed to stay at PO Riverside in September 2001, but our trip was changed due to 9/11. Seeing the beautiful layout and themeing, I may have to seriously consider it for a future visit. Shari

I think Lou's comment TOTALLY sums up the media aspect of this discussion. This morning, I went online to the Louisville, KY local media (newspaper and local tv affiliates) to see what the latest developments were, assuming that the local media would have more detailed and updated information than the national media. There, right with the story about yesterday's incident, was the CoasterBuzz link. It completely appeared to be a related (as in happened the same day) news story, and I was so stunned that something like this could happen twice in the same day (drop ride injuries) that I did not look at all at the dates on the posts. Why? Well, because why would the news media find it necessary to post a link to something that happened a YEAR ago! I agree that while many of us have our political reasons to be "for" or "against" a particular news outlet, in this situation, it's really about how the media wants to portray incidents like this. No one cares that across the US millions of people had safe, fun visits to theme parks, amusement parks and carnivals yesterday. The news is in the tragedy.

I was just talking to a coworker about this 15 minutes ago... to me, the reasoning behind it is just good business sense. By closing the ride and ordering an inspection, it boosts the public's confidence that these rides are safe. Ride enthusiasts such as yourself knows the difference between a 1st generation and a 2nd generation and a gyro etc, but a lot of the general public does not. Hell, half of them can't even speak English correctly, as evidence by the eyewitness reports! Kudos to you, Robb..... All the major news outlets are playing up the safety factor. CNN had a lady on who is pushing for the Federal Government to oversee the parks, which I am sure we will hear a lot of over the next couple of days. I have said the same thing over and over again- we don't stop driving our cars because of car accidents!!! Shari

^^ I have to agree.... Why, oh why, out of hundreds of park guests did they have to interview these grammar-challenged people? It reminds me of the classic "I seen the tornado"-types. Louisville is actually a very classy city and I am quite sure that not every guest there yesterday was a redneck, although you know who are always the first to volunteer to be interviewed!

Here's the link to the Louisville news channel 11: http://www.whas11.com/ After yesterday, Lou, I was gun-shy to try making a new thread Shari

One of the Louisville news outlets has a link posted to Coasterbuzz (?) and is reporting that ANOTHER incident occurred on a drop tower ride at a New York fair last night, resulting in seven injuries. Anyone else heard about this one? Shari

Local Cincy news tonight is also reporting the girl was 13 and that she was struck somehow by a broken cable. Beyond that, details are still sketchy, but it definitely DID NOT sound as if they were in any way able to save/reattach the severed limbs. Shari

Jeez... sorry to hear about what happened, and I hope your folks aren't still upset. You know, a child or an adult having an accident as a result of someone's irresponsibility can happen in a lot of environments outside of an amusement park, and I know deep down Mom and Dad White and everyone else realizes that. But, still, when you are in that moment....... When we were at WDW last year, Sammi and I and our friends were riding in the cockpit of the monorail and the driver was telling us how many hours of training a new monorail driver has to have before they are permitted to take on passengers, if for no other reason that the fact that opening the wrong set of doors at the wrong station could have tragic consequences. And have you ever noticed? At WDW the monorail drivers are not kids, they are grown men and women, some of whom have been doing that job for a decade. SFMM should consider themselves lucky nothing serious happened. The bad PR of this incident happening to you guys should get you all some sort of response, I would think. Keep us posted. Shari

Sorry for the duplicate Lou! Guess I wasn't the only one! The Louisville affiliates all have slightly different stories, but from what I gather, there was a cable that snapped and that is what caused the accident. The extent of the injuries, age of the girl, etc, varies from one version of the story to the next. What an awful accident, and definitely something where (for once) there could be evidence of negligence, I would think. Shari

Oh, sister...don't even get me started on banks, checks, etc.... (Sorry, I know this is YOUR random thread, E, but you just struck a nerve, so here I go.....) Ok, so, financially this hasn't been the best year for my family. In fact, it pretty much has sucked. So, needless to say, we have fallen behind on a few bills (or ten, or fifteen). We happen to have our home mortgage, as well as our equity line of credit tied to the same bank as our primary joint checking account. Well, apparently, it's in the fine print somewhere that, should we fall behind on either of these accounts, and we have a positive balance in our checking, the bank reserves the right to withdrawl funds to apply to our loans, or just freeze our account to "get our attention". WTF?? So, let me get this straight... we are already having a hard time making ends meet, and you (the bank) are going to withdrawl funds from my checking account without my knowledge OR consent, thus causing me to bounce any number of checks which you will then charge me $36 each for. Then, a week later you will call me and ask me why we are having a hard time getting caught up on our loan account!?!?! Oh, and here's another good one... Since when does the bank need to hold a United States Government issued check (tax refund) against your account. Jesus, do we not trust the freaking US of A to write it's taxpayers a good check?? We literally got our tax refund check in the nick of time a few weeks back. I had some bills I had already written checks for and they were going to go through. Thank God the refund check came that day, or so I thought. Four bounced checks later I was told that the bank held the refund check against our account for 24 hours until it cleared. Seriously. I hate banks. Shari

I agree with your random thought (about the pool water). It has been in the 80's plus here for two weeks and our pool is like ice. At this rate, it will be July before I get in. We'll probably hit Boomerang Bay over at PKI sometime this week/weekend, and their water usually isn't too bad. Does KT have a swimsuit already? Shari

Congratulations Ted and Catrina! It looked like a really nice wedding. I didn't realize that the cookies were an "Ohio Valley" thing (although a few do that here in Cincy); I always thought it was an Italian thing. In any case, it looked YUMMY! I loved the picture of the lady in brown...what a hoot! Shari

Saw it yesterday and agree with most...it's long, messed up, but very entertaining. However, for anyone who desired a happier ending, and weren't smart enough to stick around until the credits rolled, they surely left unfufilled as the ending with Elizabeth and the little boy (William the third, no doubt) was definitely a vindication for Will and Elizabeth's being separated. I thought this movie was much darker and more bizzare that the other two, but agreed that in a sense that "darkness" lended itself to the comparision of being more "like" the ride. One thing no one has mentioned: Right before the first time we see Jack in the movie, the screen goes pure white and you hear the music and voices (Thurl Ravenscroft, for one) from the actual PoTC ride. Very cool! Shari

Are you kidding??? I get paired everytime I ride IJ alone. EVERY time.

For those of you who don't know the proper way to use sarcasm, please see Wes' above post! In fairness however, I do think it sucks that after touting the ride would be open this morning, I am sure people were ticked!! Shari

I thought I posted here last night, but I must not have submitted it. I guess I was still in shock over Mr. White's art collection. Proves that not all the retired folks in Sarasota are just sitting around watching Fox News and worrying about their cholesterol. I think "Sychronized Sleeping" has got to be one of the best picture captions ever, as it was exactly what I was thinking when I saw it!! Glad you guys had a great trip! Shari

Wow!!! I miss a few days (or weeks) around here and KidTums has grown so much!! I was so excited to see her at WDW!! I will warn you R&E... give it a few years and you will find that KT will not think that the Nexus of Suck sucks, in fact, she will likely LOVE Stitch, as Samantha did. She thought it was the greatest (of course, Lilo and Stitch was one of the first Disney movies she ever went to see, so not surprising) attraction in Tomorrowland. Looks like you had a great time and I am looking forward to helping KidTums get a few more ride credits in August! Shari

Awesome TR!! I, too, loved the "all" of Dollywood-rides, food and shows. Great entertainment park. To me, best all-around park outside of Disney as far as "showmanship". Shari