CoasterRench

it's so weird to see folks freaking out. .it was exactly like it was in the comic (no spoilers, but at least the 2nd part of it). I loved the premiere, thought it was fantastic. It was exactly like the comics, word for word almost. The only difference was the first one to get the bat, but if you watched The Talking Dead, Robert Kirkman admitted he hated the way that the first member was killed in the comics, this was a way to fix that for him. I am curious to see how they play Negan on the show, I think he will be a very popular character with the fans and spend a long time on the show.

It's been a couple years since I have been to Universal, will be returning summer of 2017. I enjoyed the ride when it was Dueling Dragons, that being said, last time we went we skipped right over Dragon Challenge. Being a huge Harry Potter fan, I was much more interested in everything around the coaster, then a coaster that they simply stuck a "Harry Potter" name to and tried to make it fit in. Also, last time I went I didn't notice any metal detectors, are these specially for this ride? Do any other coasters in the park have metal detectors? If memory serves me right, they don't have them at the entrance or even check bags when entering the park.

Great pictures, I was hoping to make it up to KI for closing weekend, the weather was perfect all weekend. Unfortunately my oldest had football games all weekend. Looks like I have to wait for opening day, going to follow my ritual of getting there early to ride the new coaster (Have been to the park for Firehawk, Diamondback, and Banshee) not going to miss a new coaster just yet. To all the workers at Kings Island you all did a fantastic job this year, I know from working at the park the hours get long, the heat gets to you, and the guests can be extremely annoying. Thank you for all of your hard work this summer, hopefully the park addresses the food service issue and can get some more workers in there and motivate them a little bit more than this season.

Staffing in the houses, or lack thereof, was very noticeable this year. When I went through Field of Screams, I actually thought to myself that it was just a maze without any actors in it. We didn't come across our first actor until over half way through the maze. I know when I worked at Haunt, as the season goes on staffing get's worse and worse. I have never seen it start off bad though. Yeah as a rides operator i can say this. from August till the park closes the numbers on crews and numbers for the day go down as associates go back to school. I cant speak for food, but us ride operators are still trying to give the guests (and the theme park enthusiasts) the best day ever, even if we are understaffed or pissed off//tired. I have not had any issues with the ride operators at the park this season, every time I have been, they have been very polite and relatively quick...which is all I can ask for.

I don't believe so, atleast not yet.

I agree food operations have been way down this year. I have never seen Kings Island's food lines as long as they have been this year, and the worker's themselves seem ruder than ever. I don't eat in the park often, but when I did decide to this year, it was a horrible experience. Should have stuck with my gut and continue to eat outside the park or just go home and eat. On the flip side, not to make excuses for the park, but I do think they had staffing issues this season. I seen/heard a number of different ads all season long that the park was hiring, and during the first week of Haunt KI's sign noted that they were hiring for food/beverage specifically. Hopefully whatever issues they had this year, we won't see next year.

I think you have to consider Big Ben in there as QB.

Could be an interesting week in the NFL, lots of changes taking place wonder how they will impact the teams, if at all: Steelers - Le'Veon Bell comes back this week, how does he fit in in the backfield with DeAngelo Williams, does Big Ben throw the ball a little less now, or does he change the offense at all? Ravens - Off to a 3-0 start and Elvis Dumervil is expected to make his season debut this week, will be the first time since the 2014 season that the Ravens will have both of their pass rushers back on the field at the same time. Bengals - (my Bengals are off to a slow start) Vontaze Burfict comes back from suspension, dude plays out of control, but no one can deny when he is on the field and not making stupid penalties, he is a game changer. He brings a toughness that the Bengals are lacking right now. What they really need is Tyler Eifert to come back and help out the red zone offense. Texans - JJ Watt moved to IR, Texans already looked horrible against the Patriots and had people starting to bring up doubt about Oswiler's ability to lead the team, now they lose their leader for the rest of the season. Next four games don't get any easier for them either, vs Titans, at Vikings, vs Colts, and at Broncos. They could easily lose 3 of those 4. Cowboys - Dez Bryant has a hairline fracture, said he could miss 3 weeks, which include games at 49ers, home against the Bengals and at Packers. Oh, and apparently Dez didn't show up for his MRI, so who knows. Not shocking at all. Patriots - Who starts at QB week 4, does it even matter who plays QB? Last week before Brady comes back. What if they start the season off 4-0, Brady comes back and they lose to Cleveland in his first game back? QB debate? I wish. Browns - Speaking of Cleveland, Terelle Pryor believes Cleveland can win out the season. They will be lucky to win 3 games this year.

Red Sox have been playing good ball as of late, they are probably the hottest team heading into the postseason. Being a Reds fan and having to endure a rough season, I spent most of it cheering against teams. Pirates aren't going to the post season, we are trying to spoil the Cards post season hopes, a win tonight will give them 3 out of 4 in St. Louis, where shockingly the Cards have been horrible this year. As for the Cubs, they are going to be tough, I thought maybe the Nationals could give them fits, but without Strasburg I'm not sure if they have enough to challenge them for an entire series. The Giants have been so up and down this year, but can be very dangerous in the playoffs with their starting rotation. But in order to be dangerous in the playoffs, you need to make it to the playoffs, and the Giants last 3 games are against the Dodgers, could be a tough way to close out the season.

Get there when the park opens and everything will be walk on for the first couple of hours.

I guess people didn't realize that the only reason Osweiler was even remotely successful in Denver was because of that defense. Props to Belicheck and the Patriots, they had a game plan going into the game and executed it perfectly. The Texans were outplayed and outcoached on every level.

I love going to sporting events. I do think they are overpriced, but people will pay it and for many people that attend sporting events they are building memories with their families. I will never forget seeing my son's face the first time he seen a professional baseball field. With that being said, I refuse to take him to an NFL game. The fans are way to rowdy for a 5 year old, some of the things I have seen/heard I don't think he needs to experience that at the age of 5. I could be over protective of him, but don't feel people know how to act correctly at sporting events. But as to your question, no the owners don't care at all if I go or not, if I don't I'm sure somebody else will be there. But watching it at home makes it much easier to walk away when your team is playing like crap.

For the skeleton key rooms, you have to pay to participate in it. They are separate rooms from the haunt. Only few has them. If you don't get it, you can still do the haunts it just won't have any skeleton key rooms in it. Thanks but I meant do you have to participate if you go in the rooms or can you just watch? Just don't want to waste the money as some of them are a bit extreme and some of my friends would definitely not do them, I'm even on the fence about a few I read lol I'm not sure if it differs from park to park or not, but at KI once you go into the room with the skeleton key you are participating whether you like it or not. There job is to try to scare you, and going in that room means you paid extra money to be scared, they are going to try and give you your money's worth. Both visiting houses and working in the houses, I have never seen anyone older given a "free" pass because they are scared, especially girls. The only way they are letting up is if your a kid or your wearing one of the "don't scare me" necklaces....but please if you wear this, don't go in the haunted house, just stay out and let the others enjoy it.

I will definitely be there Friday night, ready to go at 6. KI Haunt is fantastic, one of my favorite times of the year for amusement parks. Not to mention it looks like the weather will be fantastic all weekend.

June Universal Orlando Islands of Adventure Sea World Busch Gardens Tampa July/August Dollywood Carowinds Kings Dominion October Cedar Point Home Park - All summer long Kings Island

I love the pictures, I worked at EPCOT as part of the Disney College Program a little bit ago. It is by far one of my favorite parks. Right around 4:00p all of world showcase started cooking dinner, the smells were amazing.

Love the pictures, my wife and I have wanted to go to this event for years. Every year it looks better and better, going to have to figure out a way to make this happen next year.

Already had Dollywood in the agenda, along with Carowinds and Kings Dominion. I will definitely be hitting up the pork place, I grew up working at a rib joint, I love trying new places and that pork looks amazing.

Great pictures. The more I see Carowinds the more I am increasingly convincing myself that I will be making my first visit to this park next summer.

^completely agree, I would love to see any of them from the movie, but I'm a comic book nerd. Will you be making it back when the event takes place? Curious to see pictures, since I won't be able to make it and will have to settle for the likes of snoopy and Charlie Brown.

Great report, I love seeing behind the scenes of different Halloween events from places I have never been to. I love the idea of anything Suicide Squad, one of my all time favorite movies already, wish I could get there to get pictures with Harley Quinn, shocked they won't have Deadshot as part of the picture opportunity either, especially over Killer Croc. Nonetheless, great pictures.

I can understand not starting Goff, what I can't understand is not even dressing him. Atleast put him in a uniform, that way if your team looks bad enough (like they did)you can put him in there and get him some snaps. There have been plenty of QB's drafted in the first round that have sat out their first season, but they dressed every game. Hopefully for the Rams, this isn't a sign that they have already lost faith in him and wasted a top pick. I expect to see him dressed this week, and probably starting by week 4 or 5 if they continue to play like they did. To add onto the Rams, Tavon Austin better show up better next week. He got a pretty nice contract in the offseason and only put up 4 catches for 13 yards in the first game of the season. But what would you expect from a guy that hasn't cracked 500 yards receiving in a season yet.

We typically stay at Sandcastle Suites whenever we visit CP. Rooms run around $259.00, 2 queen beds along with a couch bed, room comfortably holds 6 people. Split that up between everybody, each person ends up paying around $43.00 a night for a hotel, which is hard to beat.

One thing that I think separates NE from most of the other NFL teams is how well they are coached. They very rarely make "bonehead" plays, don't typically get called for stupid penalties, which I think can attribute a lot of that to coaching. I enjoy watching NE play, they play the game correctly, when showing my son the game of football, those are one of the teams that I prefer him to watch, and I am by no means a NE fan, I love to see them lose, but as a fan of the game, they do it right. I feel your pain as a Bills fan, I cheered for them when they lost the 4 super bowl's in a row. I remember after the fourth loss telling my dad I am going to be a Dolphins fan now instead of a Bills fan, I was only 9 years old at the time, so I didn't really understand. But, now I'm a Bengals fan....which isn't much better. I am curious to see how Miami's defense looks the rest of the way, are they finally going to live up their expectations that they didn't really live up to last year, or is Seattle's offense going to struggle a lot more than we thought with Marshawn Lynch being retired. As for the games last night, as much as it pains me to say, the Steelers looked pretty good. Antonio Brown is a beast, I don't know if anyone can stop him 1 on 1. And what a disappointing start for LA, shut out against the 49ers. I don't know if I expected them to win, but I expected them to put some points on the board. When is the last time a Chip Kelly defense shut somebody out?

Make sure you get there before the park opens on Friday evening for the wall of monsters, if you like that stuff.