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City council rejects Kings Island admission tax

The Mason, Ohio city council last night finally voted on that proposed ticket and parking tax for Kings Island, rejecting the proposal.

The tax would have raised about $2.4 million (a number I figured out here) by adding 3 percent to the cost of tickets and passes and 5 percent to the parking fee.

That's not much per ticket - it would have worked out to about a buck extra per ticket I bought last year, plus an extra 50 cents or so on the parking. And the councilman who proposed the tax increase said it would have gone toward improving roads the highway interchange and access road to the park. But Kings Island launched a PR blitz against the tax, e-mailing passholders to turn out in opposition.

Looks like it worked.

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What's new on the discussion board: A new coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa?

We've got some interesting observations and potentially fun conversations waiting for you over on the Theme Park Insider Discussion Board:

Andrew Holden has noticed survey stakes in the ground around Busch Gardens Tampa, perhaps the first sign of a rumored new launch roller coaster at the Florida park for 2011.

In the meantime, Is Busch Gardens Tampa worth visiting? another reader asks.

And on the subject of new roller coasters, another reader wonders if Cedar Point will be adding a new roller coaster anytime soon, in an effort to break the "coaster king" tie it will soon share with Six Flags Magic Mountain, when the California park debuts its 17th coaster in May.

Amanda Jenkins offers a trip report on a visit to Walt Disney World without the kids: Part one and part two

Anthony Murphy is participating in Six Flags' pediatric cancer fund-raiser, Walk in the Parks. You can learn more about the event, and click to contribute to Anthony's team by visiting his thread.

Finally, Steve Ward asks how best to go about complimenting a theme park employee, in a way that will give that employee some credit.

I'm planning to do a better job this year of posting regular round-ups of new discussion threads, to keep blog readers up on what's happening over on the board, and, I hope, encourage more readers to head over there with their questions and observations on topics we don't cover here on the blog.

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2010 Best Theme Park Attraction nominee: Busch Gardens Tampa's Katonga

We kick off another week here on Theme Park Insider by welcoming Busch Gardens Tampa's Katonga to the daily attraction spotlight. Katonga joins the 2010 Best Theme Park Attraction Tournament as the seventh seed in the Best Live Show bracket.

Set in the 1,200-seat Moroccan Palace Theater, this 35-minute musical show debuted in 2004 and follows a day in the lives of aspiring storytellers, called Griots, as they strive to become masters of their craft. To accomplish this rite of passage, the performers evoke traditional African stories to entertain the audience.

I have to fess up that Katonga is one of the few nominees in this year's tournament that I have not experienced in person. So I'll turn it over to TPI reader Russell Meyer, who wrote: "I wasn't sure what to expect from Katonga, but I came out realizing that I had just watched the best theme park show I've ever seen. Many people will probably want to draw comparisons to Animal Kingdom's Festival of the Lion King, but I think Katonga's imaginative story and original score elevate it even higher than any of Disney's show offerings."

And here's Joe Lane: "As our story begins, we meet Karume, a master storyteller, who calls together the best storytellers of Africa, called griots, and challenges them to tell the best stories they possibly can. One tells the story of Whirly, a young monkey who learns about being confident (to the tune of Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy"). Next, we have the song of Kipopo, a caterpillar struggling to find her place in the world of insects, follows with a story about Rok Rok, a bullfrog who's taught a lesson in living with others in harmony (accompanied by the Leslie Bricusse song "Talk With The Animals"). The finale is a story from about an African crowned crane named Kilinda and a great flood that threatens to wash away two lovers. The song "Celebrate the Light" is perhaps the true highlight of the production, uplifting and inspiring--and it's original, written by Tampa native Desmond Boone who has been writing music for BGT for 25 years."

Busch Gardens visitors, what do you think about Katonga? If you haven't seen the show, here's a clip of "Celebrate the Light":

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Theme park cast member stories: Finding what you didn't know you were looking for

As I was wrapping up my senior year at Northwestern, some of the folks I knew there were planning to head off to Europe for a while before settling down to their post-graduation jobs. I would have loved to go to Europe and see the world, too. But I went to school on a Pell Grant and more than once had to hunt coins on the floor to pay for a fast-food Sunday dinner (when the cafeterias were closed). No way could a lower-middle-class kid like me afford a European tour.

Well, if I couldn't afford to go out and see the world, I knew where to get a job where the world would come see me. So as soon as my classes were over, I crammed my belongings into two pieces of luggage and couple cardboard boxes (those were the days before airlines charged you for luggage, thank goodness) and I hopped a flight for Orlando.

I'd been working as a CT (seasonal) employee at Walt Disney World for the past two summers. And I'd worked the previous Christmas holidays, too. But now I'd be joining the Disney World cast full-time. My long-term plan was to go to graduate school in journalism, but I'd take a year away from school first to see the world.

As the world came to see Disney, that is.

So while my classmates were sitting in Northwestern's basketball arena a week later, collecting their diplomas, I was sitting in the theater at the Country Bear Vacation Hoedown, trying to elicit a rowdy "Howdy" from several platoons of Brazilian teen-agers. I'd, uh, enjoy several awkward moments with young Brazilians ladies over the next few months, as well as with some elderly British ones.

Disney World introduced me to the first head of state I'd meet. When Michael Jackson died last year, and his funeral snarled traffic throughout LA, my kids were talking about whether they knew anyone who'd met Jackson. To their shock, I told them that I had. Jackson and his crew had boarded my boat at Pirates of the Caribbean.

But the "regular" guests stand out as much as the celebrities. One day, while walking Tom Sawyer Island, I heard a whoop from two middle-aged British ladies. When I walked over to see what was the matter, they begged me to take their picture next to the "Cardiff Hill" sign on the island.

They told me that they'd been trying to find a shortcut from Thunder Mountain to the Haunted Mansion. But they'd gotten themselves royally lost on what they still hadn't realized was an island. Yet their growing frustration had melted away and now they were thrilled. Why? They were from the city of Cardiff, in Wales, and were delighted to find a sign referencing their hometown in the Magic Kingdom.

So I took their picture with the sign, shared a laugh and walked them back to the dock for a return trip to the mainland. (I told them how to get over to the Mansion, too.)

Funny how things work out. They'd been looking for one thing, gotten themselves good and lost, and only then could they find that thing they hadn't known about, but that ended up making their trip. They traveled across an ocean to find a delightful reminder of home.

And so it was to be with me, in a way. I thought that my year working at Disney World was a year off, a diversion from my future career in journalism. Little did I know at the time that within a generation, the newspaper industry would self-destruct. And that as hundreds of former colleagues have lost their jobs (and the paper I worked at in Denver closed), I would remain employed in journalism as... the editor of a website covering theme parks.

So I didn't take a year off, after all. I was starting a career that I didn't yet know I'd have.

Funny how things work out.

Read more stories about working in Walt Disney World, at www.themeparkinsider.com/stories.

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2010 Best Theme Park Attraction nominee: It's Tough to be a Bug! at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Theme Park Insider readers have voted It's Tough to Be a Bug! in Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World as the seventh seed in the Best Movie or Animated Show bracket of the 2010 Best Theme Park Attraction Tournament.

It's Tough to be a Bug is somewhat unique among movie-themed attractions in that it debuted before the film upon which it was based. It's Tough to be a Bug debuted with the rest of the Animal Kingdom park on April 22, 1998. But Pixar's "A Bug's Life," which supplied the characters for It's Tough to be a Bug, didn't appear in theaters until November of that year.

It's Tough to be a Bug was Disney's second "4-D," movie, following Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. Playing inside (okay, underneath) the park's iconic Tree of Life, the movie stars the ant Flik, who just wants to show everyone that insects should be people's friends. This being a 4-D flick, of course, that lesson is delivered along with a slew of bugs, gunk and other assorted items being chucked at the screen, along with other in-theater effects.

The show can frighten small kids, but ends sweetly. Fans credit the show for its gags, though others complain that the gags don't hold up after several viewings. It's Tough to be a Bug also now plays at Disney's California Adventure, where it anchors the A Bug's Land section of the park.

How do you think It's Tough to be a Big ranks among other theme park 3-D movies? Let's hear your thoughts, in the comments.

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