Cincinnati Coney Island and King's Island (amusement parks, co-op, movies) - Ohio (OH) - City-Data Forum

mike1003 · 02-08-2014, 09:00 PM

kjbrill · 02-09-2014, 03:56 AM

Some comments worth delivering. When Walt Disney was contemplating Disneyland in California, he sent a team of people to Cincinnati to study Coney Island. He said I want a family oriented park, and from what I hear Coney Island in Cincinnati is among the most successful in that regard. So I want to learn what they do and why they do it.

woxyroxme · 02-09-2014, 11:22 AM

The eight summers I worked running rides at Kings Island were the happiest years of my life, best job I ever had.

kjbrill · 02-09-2014, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by woxyroxme

The eight summers I worked running rides at Kings Island were the happiest years of my life, best job I ever had.

We live within two miles of KI. Our two youngest had summer jobs there for several years, mostly in concession stands. Since they kept going back I assume they liked it too. This was before KI had their own water park. We bought the kids season passes to The Beach, and on the days they were not working at KI they lived at The Beach.

woxyroxme · 02-09-2014, 07:50 PM

I was there from 1981-1988, can remember the beach being built, just not exactly when.

goyguy · 02-09-2014, 08:33 PM

^ If you've not seen the movies "Adventureland" and "The Way Way Back" you're in for a treat. They really evoke the feel of old-school amusement parks, arguably more on the scale of LeSourdsville/Americana but fun nonetheless.

kjbrill · 02-10-2014, 07:31 AM

The exerpt on Kings Island History is epecially interestig, though lengthy. Watch it through, you will glad you did. As commented, the main front parking lot at Kings Island is 2/3 the total size of Coney Island.

A HS friend of mine, actually far more than HS we went from 1st to 12th grade together, got the asphalt paving contract for KI. His father and uncle were basically a residential driveway paving operation, owned one small dump truck and a trailer carried roller. He bid on the KI contract and somehow was awarded it. He took the contract and on the basis of it financed a major expansion. It vaulted him from the minor to the big leagues.

kjbrill · 02-12-2014, 06:32 AM

I commented our younger kids lived on their The Beach season passes. It is close enough they rode their bicycles there and back. But I still saw to it we visited Old Coney at least a couple of times a year so they could recognize what a real swimming pool was.

The wife and I visited Coney Island during our college days. Some Saturdays we would be in line waiting for the park to open. After paying the parking fee and the entrance to Sunlite Pool, we basically spent the day in the pool. Late in the day we would shower and dress for an evening at Moonlight Gardens. We would drive the car from the lot near the pool down to the picnic pavilion area. There we would break out our picnic basket and what we had brought to grill for dinner. We often found grills with still plenty of coals to fix our dinner.

Often there were companies who had reserved portions of the picnic areas for their employees, as did the company I worked for. They would set up draft beer dispensers as that was the beverage of the day. By late afternoon those with young children would be leaving and things were thinning out. I would approach them and give the appeal I was a poor college student here with his GF and just looking for a cup of beer. Surprisingly it worked quite often, they were sympathetic souls.

After having our meal, we would go to Moonlight Gardens and spend the evening there.

Again, it was one of the Greatest Date Places, not only in Cincy but the Entire US. I state this based on the fact I was a college student, on a Co-op program, who could not only pay his tuition on his Co-op wages, but take his date to Coney Island for beautiful date weekends. That was the value of Coney Island.