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Racer radio playing through out Coney Mall would be an excellent addition. The Racer is afterall the centerpiece of Coney Mall, is it not?

One could only hope the Red White and Blue paint scheme makes a come back!

Could even theme this out and have a Peppermint Paddy Wagon to throw the perps in while being tossed out.

^Chalk dust is easily spotted. I joke but about 10 undercover plain clothed security personnel roaming the park and ride lines would go a long way. Perhaps there already are and we don't know it, which is a very good thing.

Another thing on Racer I'd like to see is new LED chaser lights that go all the way down the track.

^ With Snoopy wagging his finger and shaking his head in disapproval.

Don’t forget that while we are at it, we need the Ride Marshals to check for sidewalk chalk too...

We have Air Marshals on commercial flights, how about Ride Marshals in the parks that do nothing but ride coasters and flats then cuff the perps at unload? I imagine there are a number of people that would take that job, probably for minimal pay.

^If Cedar Fair wants to truly do something about this, then report these videos to YouTube as being illegal videos so that they are removed. Next ban Wesley Redding for his POV on Steel Vengeance and Millennium Force. Revoke season pass if he has one and whoever else was with him. Ban him from the park. Run a promo video that says this is what happens if you do this. Next ban Mike Boilard for his POV of his little princess on Iron Dragon and Pipe Scream. Revoke the whole family's season passes. Ban them from park and ...(see above).. Next do a simple search of YouTube and find these other videos and do the same as above... Until the park does something to get these removed from social media, they will continue to be posted. It really isn't that hard to figure out who most of the people are that post this stuff and then cross-reference the season pass holder names to find said person... Until they set an example like Kentucky Kingdom of what will happen if you have a cell phone out on the ride, it will continue to happen. Make some of these people poster boys for breaking the law and a lot of people will stop (there will always be some that still do) but let's get real with enforcement!!! With an injury from a flying cell phone, the lawyer will have a field day finding these videos and using as evidence that CF doesn't care...

We noticed the chair about a week ago. Today. we noticed decent size tree limbs along with this lantern in Tower Garden. Could these be clues to what is new in 2019?

I'll do this per the style I use in my trip reports. In alphabetical order of course. Adventure Express- This is the most exciting mine train coaster I've been on. Its a bit more fast paced and has more comfortable Arrow-style jerking in the turns. It also uses the terrain quite well, especially that plunge down the 3rd tunnel. Its ending might be a bit anti-climatic, but its something that gives it its own character. Backlot Stunt Coaster- For a family launch coaster, it's alright. It feels too segmented, and if it weren't for the helicopter scene still in use, it'd would be off even worse. The first half is fun though. The helix gets a grey out from me every time, the s-curve section is pretty exciting, and I'm always surprised by that forceful pop of air before the 'stair' section. Not worth more than a 20-30 minute wait though. Banshee- This is my favorite B&M inverted coaster. B&M really smoothed out from their old snappy transitions and with the way it paces, it still doesn't slack in the slightest. Also some incredible positive G's with all the loops and helices. The 0g roll and inline roll add some much needed weightlessness to it. Even better that its designed with 3 train ops and no MCBR. The crews are also always on caffeine pills and Red Bull as its chews through lines without any milk. The station, queue theming, and light package round out a superb ride. Bat- I've only been on 2 suspended coasters, the other being Iron Dragon, and this is the better of them (hopefully, I get to Ninja before it bites the dust). The lift gives me a lot of nostalgia for the old campground where you could see and smell the camp fires. The layout is pretty good as well. The low high speed s-curves really play to the swinging cars well and the seclusion in the woods makes it a really good night ride as well. The 2nd hill over the station is probably my favorite moment. Also one of the coasters that got me over my fear at an early age and one of the ones that got me hooked. Beast- The myth, the legend. Now, the ride does lack in some things that most woodies have, like adequate air time and sharper curves, but this animal makes up for it in its truly unique layout. It feels as if you've left the park entirely and are out for a venture through the Ohio woods. The view from the first drop is priceless. There are some bits of good laterals though, especially in the section between the first brake shed and the 2nd lift. The set of drops after the 2nd tunnel with the way it gradually increases in drop angle and banking with that awesome vicious curve up to the 2nd lift is my favorite part of the ride. It feels like you're fighting from dropping down the hill into the river valley below. It finishes with one of, if not, the best finale of any coaster, a 18 degree drop into a double helix. That tunnel really helps set it apart from most other helices and the laterals, the shuffle and the noise just blend together into one incredible element. Also the best night ride on any coaster ever. Diamondback- One of my favorite steel coasters. The V-trains don't pace as well as the typical 4 across, but its only a slight complaint. Has the air time and other forces you'd expect from a B&M hyper, and I would say the slightly worse pacing makes it a bit more re-ridable as well. The front does have a bit more ejector air and the back has more sustained floater air. The way it sets up for the splash by soaring over Rivertown is a really good moment from the ride. Firehawk- I like this more than the B&M variant, at least Superman: Ride of Steel. There isn't really a way you can do a flying coaster with completely comfortable seating arrangements, but at least Firehawk spends a decent amount of time in flight mode. I really like the vertical loop on your back, the overbank turn really plays to the flying nature of the ride, and I really like the 2 barrel rolls. I'm not too keen on the helix in that seating position, and it comes to a furiously hard stop on the final brakes. A fun coaster, but quite forceful. Flight of Fear- This combines a bunch of elements very well. The launch is powerful and it just flies from one element to the other. With the indoor nature, its easy to get disoriented and that means its working well. The MCBR is a bit annoying though, especially now that it brings the train to a complete stop. Thankfully, the 2nd half is still just as good with that added stop, the way it slowly gets lower and lower, keeps picking up speed, increases in the banking, throws some snappy s-curves to keep you guessing, and then throws a corkscrew at the end to finish nicely. Invertigo- This is probably the most intense coaster in the park. The 2 hills have some weightlessness, but the loops are all positive G's. The thing pulls 5 G's, and it sustains that through the inversions. I always grey out and even get black outs at times. It does bang your head a lot though, but there are some circumstances where its smoother. If you want your face peeled off, this is the ride to do it. Mystic Timbers- Its not my favorite GCI, but its still a really fun wooden coaster. The Millennium Flyers tear through the entire layout. Every bit has some sort of strong lateral, airtime, and it never lets up. It'll be even better once the trees around it start to grow back in. The shed is kind of the same situation as Adventure Express' ending, gives the ride its own character. Pretty decent theming as well. Racer- The ride has potential, and if KI took a bit better care of it, they'd have a winner. However, as is, while it is still fun, its pretty rough on more times I've ridden it than not. It has a fair amount of air, but with its layout, it just has missed potential with how its in dire need of re-tracking. It is running the best this season that it has in years though. Vortex- For all the rides faults, I still like this a lot. I think most of that has to do with the first drop. Its an insane first drop, especially in the back. The 2nd hill also has a nice pop of air. I will give you that you need to be able to brace yourself a lot to enjoy it. As long as I can do so comfortably, I will keep riding it. It is my favorite Arrow looper though. The inversions are pretty comfortable, especially since it, thankfully, takes the corkscrews and batwing at a slower pace. The way it gets up to the MCBR could have been better, as in a curved hill up instead of the straight hill and then the level banked turn that we got from Mr Toomer. The ride looks fantastic though, and as our friend @VortexBFForever shows in the random photo thread, a very picturesque ride as well. If they stack trains though, that brake run is a super hard stop. Woodstock Express- Its good for what it is. Just a fun little woodie to ease up from the more intense rides. Still in really good shape.

They have completely retracked sections of the ride over the last two off seasons--taken off all the layers and even replaced ledgers. I don't know who did the work, though. The new train, in my opinion subtracts from the ride experience. It's much too tight. I can understand why though, because even with the smaller seat size, there are points on the ride where I am in a half way standing position. It's still smooth. On the lift hill, though, it shuffles quite a bit. It feels like the train is lifting off the track a few inches. All that to say...I hope The Racer gets some much needed attention. It's a painful ride for me. It looks terrible. And I want the Coney Mall sign back.

So, my brother's fiance works for an insurance company, gave me tickets to go to KI. Their company's outreach I believe. My son and I went while my wife decided to sit this one out. We arrived at 9:40am, I purchased the preferred parking and was literally 8 cars over in the front row. Excellent place to be. We started our day having him measured. Seeing how we were at Cedar Point last month, I assumed he would miss the 54" mark. However, the bar literally skimmed his hair and I was surprised that he was even closer than just a month ago. He was excited at the prospect of being able to ride Banshee, considering the height requirement is 54" for Raptor. Not really sure why it's different, but it is. I am figuring it may have something to do with the forces on each coaster. It was actually my first time on Banshee as well and we were both really impressed. This one by far is the best between the two. Trey loved it so much that we got right back in line. We probably waited 10 minutes each time. I am not sure I can pick a favorite element, but that slow inline twist at the end is really freaky. Next, we headed over to Delirium. He wanted to ride it even though maXair is a clone, but with a longer ride cycle. He enjoyed that as well and was surprised it was so close to that rooftop. We went to Adventure Express after that, which is a favorite of ours. After riding Cedar Cree Mine Ride last year, clearly AE is the superior mine train coaster. CCMR is slow and boring, comparatively. Next, we went to The Racer, followed by The Vortex and The Beast. We were meeting with my brother and his fiance Michelle at 12 at the Eiffel Tower, so we did not have enough time to get to Mystic Timbers before then. I felt like getting in 7 rides was pretty good to be noon. After meeting with them, we headed off to Mystic Timbers. Couldn't afford Fast Lane, so we waited about 30-45 minutes. We both felt that it was a reasonable wait. I had been on MT last season, so not new, but boy, that coaster does not let up for a single second. However, my brother had not been on MT and he said he liked it even better than Thunderhead. Next, we went back around to catch another lap on The Vortex, Delirium and Banshee. At that point, it was time to meet up for lunch with our group. Trey had wanted to try to win us some Fast Lane passes, so we stopped there before heading over. This kid of mine not only hit Mystic Timbers once, but hit it a second time, which I thought was fairly lucky. I can't recall exactly what we did in what order (old age catching up with me), but we did manage to get a lap on The Bat. We wanted to save one of our FL for a night ride, so we found other things to get into. The only thing we found disappointing was that Shake, Rattle, & Roll was closed the entire day. We love that ride, but nothing was going to ruin our day. We eventually made our way around to Mystic Timbers so we could use one of the two passes. We showed our ticket to the attendant at the entrance and were sent through. We got to the station where I showed that attendant our pass. He looked at me and said, "shhhh, don't tell anyone, but put that back in your pocket, come back later and use it again." I thanked him and told Trey when we boarded about what had taken place. Very nice of him to do that for us. Around 8:00pm, we bought a drink and headed to the car for some much needed rest and A/C. Came back in at 8:30 and ate dinner at LaRosa's on International Street. I actually think the pizza was better this year than previously. Not that it was bad last year, but it had too much sauce. As we were in line, we were held up by an angry younger lady who wanted to purchase and all day drink cup, but picked up an all season cup. He informed her of the price and she asked why it was so high. The cashier told her that it was because it was an all season cup. She was very belligerent and couldn't understand why he couldn't just adjust the price of the cup. I knew it was because of the color of the cup and subsequent bar coding of said cup. Finally, a manager came out with more all day cups and problem solved. When I proceeded to pay for our meal, I commended him on holding it together while being screamed at. He said that he had just started working in there after being pulled from working as a sweep. What a way to begin that shift. We decided to finish our night with rides on Banshee, Mystic Timbers, and The Beast. As we waited on Banshee, the queues emptied out with four people in front of us. They headed towards the back. The ride attended asked how many in our party. I replied two and then asked if we could go to row 1. She said, "sure". What luck! Yet another great ride and we purchased an on-ride photo to commemorate the event. Afterwards, we rented a locker near MT and went through the FL with our final ride. We previously had a night-ish ride, but it was not quite as dark as this time. MT is a fantastic ride in the dark and at one point, I couldn't see anything and was quite thrilled with the sudden changes in the pitch black. Afterwards, we traveled over to The Beast, watched the fireworks since it was not running, and then waited for the announcement that it was all clear to ride. As per usual, it delivered the best ride of the night. We promptly went back to our locker to pick up our on-ride photo, bought some cotton candy at a nearby cart and headed out. My son says that I am a cotton-holic Lol. We headed for the front gate and went to the Super 8 Mason where we shared a room with my brother and Michelle. All in all, a great day where we managed to get in 17 rides. Considering my brother bought a FL and only managed 20, I'd say we did pretty well for ourselves.

Chiming in here, but started out on iPhone and ended up at Android. I guess it matters only to the person's habits but for me, I use MacBook Air for work/home and Android on Google Project Fi for mobile operations. Google's Cloud server just rocks. Funny tho....I never use Safari on MB and rely only on Chrome. Again, Google just works and is seamless.

I've never been on Thunder Run, but I know RMC retracked it. If it's really good, then that may be the only "RMC treatment" I'd be alright with on The Racer.

Today is the one year anniversary of the day I officially became a certified Vortex driver! July 29, 2017 was that day!

The Racer was recently featured on National Geographic's Instagram page

We have a few questions answered!! They started with @VortexBFForever questions about Vortex. Thanks to Chad and @DonHelbig! How much does a single Vortex train weigh? 10,880 lbs. How much is its yearly upkeep? Ride maintenance varies from year to year depending on what work needs to be done on the ride, what parts are needed, etc. How many rides did it give in 2017? 863,494 When will get it a new coat of blue and orange paint? You’ll recall that Mike Koontz addressed repainting rides during Coasterstock. Ride needs are all considered and prioritized. Vortex was re-painted this decade What is the record for most rides on Vortex? 1,038 – Don Helbig One day high – 66.

I would love to hear some late 60s early 70s songs on Coney Mall. Harry Nilsson, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd all tie in with the theme of Cincinnati's Coney Island in its final seasons. Maybe re-landscape the area to look much like it once did. Japanese Yew shrubs and Ginkgo trees adorning the midway like at Coney Island.

^Death before disco. The classic rock on Racer radio is better suited for Coney Mall, in my opinion.

They usually have a haunt maze in the tower gardens so it's probably something for a maze I would guess.

^Cedar Point is playing disco music on the midway near Gemini for its 40th anniversary, and that little addition really brightened up that part of the park. Perhaps KI could do the same with Coney Mall. Another idea I'd like to throw out there is have Racer's queue and station completely rebuilt.

2004: its gonna be fun 2007: *closes for good*

Even his truths are “soft of” facts. Just less wrong than the other stuff.

Good, you make me feel better.....yeah I'm 30 years old currently. So you can ride that rickety old Beast as it shakes violently through the ending double helix without a problem? I only rode the ride once but man was it rough. Honestly, I thought the Son of Beast was quite smooth when I rode it.

I was 13 when Paramount bought out KECO. At the time I was a bit disappointed. I felt I was going to lose the uniqueness of my home park and now it was just be like a midwest Disney/Universal type. That never happened thankfully. I was also a huge movie geek growing up so things like "The Paramount Story" walkthrough, the movie posters and themeing in gift shops, those first few years really were cool to me. And Top Gun operating with all its effects and full queue was pretty darn cool too.

I agree, but great to see for the park. We left about 6:30 to head back to Indy. The kids had school this morning.

Oh lovely. Before you know it, we wont be able to take phones (or hot sauce) through the WindSeeker queue. In all seriousness, like you said @VortexBFForever, it's not like they are waiting 2 hours without their precious phone.

I haven’t been there in two years, so not sure how it’s doing now. when it first reopened, it was every bit as smooth as Mystic imo.

^ You do a great job and I was on Vortex tonight when you were driving. As far as the cell phone issue one of the things I have wondered is if you are allowed to ask the guest to show you the pictures or videos on their phone (I figure the answer is no.). It is easy for them to deny it without having to show proof. If they are not guilty then they shouldn't get defensive when you ask.

This makes me sooo happy! I thought it looked so bad at the front.

The Ultimate Stunt Show will be on the Eiffel Tower side of the fountains this year. It is starting this week!

I just wish they kept the trains that faced the other direction...

Samsung for me. No contest.

http://amateur-journalist.blogspot.com/2010/10/adventure-express-1991.html

The gps coordinates on the envelops point directly to kings dominion and California great America Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If they replace the track with topper track it won't have the classic feel. I've ridden a coaster that is made of topper track, Lightning Rod at Dollywood. It is a fantastic coaster and the second best coaster I've been on, but it definitely does not have a classic wooden coaster feel. Topper track feels like a steel coaster because it is essentially steel coaster track bolted to a wooden frame.

I think The Racer has been, for lack of a better word, "neglected" considering its rich history, not only in the park but in the industry as a hole. It's still maintained well in comparison to other wooden coasters from other chains but I think we can all agree that it would benefit from an overhaul.

I'm sure the mechanics went and tunned it up after the day ended.

Both times @whengodsaysgo and I rode Mystic Timbers today it was on the back row of the orange train. Definitely didn't notice any unusual roughness.

^I start school in a few weeks. I also don't feel like doing any long car trips anywhere between now and then. I'm also exactly where I want to be in terms of budget as well (as in, I create a budget for the entire year and I'm perfectly where I wanted to be this time of year). I gotta be a bit frugal from now until January. Like, the stuff I did this summer came at the expense of going to way fewer UC football games and even UC Homecoming. I've been saving so I can finish my undergrad at UCBA without having to take any break from school since I'm already behind on that thanks to my medical issues from back then. I just happened to have a lot more extra in terms of not paying as much for tuition last semester in order to finance the PA/NJ trip (the CP trip was pretty cheap all things considered, I had the money saved for Flash Pass at SFGAdv which I didn't use so I used it on FLP at CP). Things have also gotten hectic at work due to some staffing issues, and for a few reasons between work and school, I am just gonna stick with KI for the rest of this season, and I'm totally content with that. I mean, I'm happy enough that I got through that trip as well as I did with all the medical stuff I go through and I've never done 7 different parks in one season before (this summer was designed to get me over the 100 credit mark). Neither of the 2 trips I have planned for next summer come even close to this past summer's.

The park has been posting quite a lot about The Racer on social media, celebrating its history for starting the coaster building boom. Taking looking at its ridership counts, it's a very popular ride and it would make sense to restore it rather than a hybrid treatment. Would Topper Track hurt the coaster's Landmark status?

That is great! It is interesting that teaser posters have been showing up at parks for other possible attractions. I wonder if all of Cedar Fair will announce their 2019 products (rides) on the same day like they did last year.

I noticed that as well. I thought maybe the 3rd train went into early winter mode since Mystic is open nearly all year round now.

Perhaps we are getting the missing flat from the Europe trip. It would certainly be great with the Keggers name. It would also be great if we also got our set of Flyers back from Carowinds. The great thing about most of the flats is that they could also stay open for Winterfest.

There is a chance that is actually a hint towards a 2019 attraction. Teaser posters have started to appear at Cedar Point. What is interesting is that they are for other parks in the chain. Several are obvious like Canada’s Wonderland. There is a teaser which references Mason so it should be for Kings Island. It says Bonifield Barrell Co., Oak Strong and Iron Bound, Since ‘93, Mason - Sandusky. Barrels for all occasions. I wish I had a photo to share but I cannot find one, the YouTube video I saw it in says it came from the CPFoodBlog. But I cannot find that specific poster on their website/Facebook/Twitter etc. Here is the video, if you skip to about 9:30 in the video you can see the poster in question.

Not sure if it's been stated, but unfortunately, the 15 minute rule isn't intended to be a "gotcha". The rule is in place to discourage people from sharing/abusing a single unlimited drink plan.

Almost... it's "You have disturbed the forbidden temple; now you will pay" ;)

Anybody in the park and able to tell me if their Build a Bear is open?