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Don't mind me, just here getting over a heart attack from the prospect of Bat leaving. A Bat removal would be more painful to me than Vortex. Bat was the coaster that started my journey into being an enthusiast in the first place.

The Wildcat is long overdue for a rehab. It was already rough by its 2nd or 3rd season - and that was over 25 years ago. They did replace the trains sometime in the past 10-15 years or so with millennium flyers, I think that helped a bit. (I havent ridden since that change was made) But man oh man was that thing rough with the original PTC's. If this is a hybrid conversion, it will be a wonderful change. The underrated wooden gem in that park, however, is Lightning Racer. I love that ride, and boy is it beautiful to look at and fun to ride.

Just a quick note to say that the Orion team is really 110% on it this evening. Watching the webcam, it seriously looks like watching a Coaster Dynamix set running, there is always a train active on the tracks, and train 3 never stops moving until it enters the station. I know it looks to be a walk on right now, but it REALLY shows how much the riders themselves affect RPH.

Yes please! Compared to the amazing Lightning Racer, Wildcat was just ok. Fix the restraints on Skyrush and you have a great coaster lineup!* *I mean, IMO they totally do (LR, Great Bear, Storm Runner, Comet, Sooperdooperlooper, Wild Mouse + a good supporting cast with Fahrenheit, Laff Track, and whatever Sidewinder is called now ), , but IMO these changes would make the rides better. Also, a trimless (or at least less brakes on ) Laff Track would be great, but that might make it less of a family coaster and more of a thrill coaster! Also, yes, I understand the history behind Wildcat, but I'm also very much a fan of RMC'ing it. EDIT: As a note, I have not yet ridden Candimonium as my only trip was in 2015.

I'm actually really sad about this. I like Wildcat in its current form and I thought the Millennium Flyers were really making it run well. I'm annoyed I can't get back in time for a last ride as a woodie. Also, this is THE original GCI, another knock from me against RMCing it.

SDL is highly HIGHLY underrated IMO. A Schwarzkopf gem. I haven't been to Hershey for nearly 20 years (I was supposed to go to the ACE Con there last year - but concerns over Covid deterred that), so I hope they are maintaining it well. I'm a sucker for those original Schwarzkopf full-circuit loopers - my top 10 steel also includes Mindbender at SFOG and Shockwave at SFOT.

There was once a long-standing rumor that the park was considering "flipping" the main entrance to the back-side. It never came to be, of course, but the idea was you'd enter in the Midway America area and the current entrance area would become the back end of the park. Obviously things worked out for the best - they eventually got a much improved/expanded entrance area and were able to acquire the old golf course area - hence Candymonium. But back in the day, the park grew to a point that the original entrance area was a terrible bottleneck. Fun fact - Hersheypark originally had an Intamin Double-arm ferris wheel right inside the original main entrance. It was just like Kings Island's Zodiac but Hershey's Giant wheel predated the KI one by a few years. When KI expanded Coney Mall, they used pictures of Hershey's Giant Wheel for promotional purposes. (you can tell because the Hershey wheel had the unique pinwheel logo in the center of each wheel.) I first went to Hersheypark in 1984. The park was only about 1/3 the size that it is now. The Comet still used its original trains and had hand-brakes. I also seem to recall that it might have had a 2-point unload/load process where you exited the train in the curved part of the station - then a ride op sent the train forward where it loaded. The Superdooperlooper was the "big" coaster in the park (there were only 3 then.) I was obsessed with the SuperDooperLooper - and must have ridden it a dozen times that first visit. I still love that coaster and it holds a special place for me.

I will say that the back end of the park REALLY needs something new as it does get pretty dead, even with Laff Trak being new-ish, plus there isn't a lot of room back there to add anything that big (Lightning Racer takes up a TON of space). I'd also argue that a 2nd entrance should be back there, too.

I was there last Saturday, and expected Hershey to be packed. There were lots of guests in the front half of the park, but that back section with Wildcat and Lightning Racer seemed very desolate all day. I rode both of those coasters in the late morning and early evening, and it was always a zero-one train wait.

Last time I went to Hershey, it rained so much that they had to shut down a lot of the rides. Does the park of the park where Wildcat is get a lot of foot traffic? It would bring a lot of people to the back of the park if it’s not as packed back there.

I rode it when I visited Hershey in 2018. I thought it was fun, but unfortunately haven't been back to Hershey since then and won't have time to make it back out there before it closes.

Due to the unfortunate removal of webcam screenshots, I have developed a secondary replacement of sorts. Though, nothing can really replace the real-time screenshots that were provided hourly. :salute: See full update tweet thread here:

Discussed here (not a channel I normally follow but it popped up in my feed): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA-Cph7bdMU Interesting that they would get a woodie considering they have Prowler and Timber Wolf.

If you're a fan of Hersheypark's classic Wildcat wooden coaster, you've got until the end of the month to ride it... https://www.facebook.com/Hersheypark/photos/a.165822924356/10160195150919357

Hayo, I'm moving this to it's own thread as I feel it's more suited in it's own thing than taking up replies in another thread. So, I am simply copy-pasting what I put over there onto this thread. (excluding some now unnecessary information) While my intention is not to directly advertise a twitter account, I developed a twitter bot that automatically posts a few interesting things relating to Kings Island (hence some KIC members might be interested) 1. Every morning, the bot will post the operating hours of the day and when the park will open. If the park is not open, it tells you when the next operating day is and when the park will open. 2. Whenever the park opens or closes, it tells you either how long the park is open for and when the next opening date will be. 3. During operating hours, the bot will post wait time updates once every hour, at the half past mark. (10:30AM, 11:30AM, 12:30PM, etc) until close. 4. Alongside these operating hours, the bot will post snips of the official Kings Island webcams (found here: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/live-video) The wait times run off of the same data other wait-time sites use - like queue-times, thrill-data, or isitpacked. The images are still-images fetched from the video feeds directly and sent as media. The reason I developed this bot is solely so myself and others can see current wait-times in a quick way, how busy the park is, and other info right from twitter whenever I'm scrolling through it. Hope you'll find it kind of neat like I do, as you may even be able to see yourself if you time it right. If you are interested in seeing these automatic updates on your timeline, feel free to give the bot a follow on the handle KIWaitTimeBot. My long-term goal is to have it also post end-day statistics in a visualized format to get an idea of how busy the park was for any given day, similar to how thrill-data and queue-times do it. The web-cam snip part is brand new as of yesterday and for an unknown error, the 6:30PM webcam snip did not function properly. Am debugging!

^Glad to see a fellow SDL lover in these forums. I also love Comet. Superb ride everytime I've been on it, and its a gorgeous older wooden coaster (with a giant yellow eyesore above it, I think Skyrush is very overrated).

Goodbye and good riddance. Even an empty plot of land would be an improvement.

I think it will be a smaller more family friendly woody. Worlds of Fun already has a modern GCI and an older Dinn wooden. Thinking about what a younger park guest has for choices you would start with a Wacky Worm. The next step up is a Gerstlauer Spinning coaster. Then it’s the adult coasters like Prowler. Basically the park could really use a Woodstock Express style of ride. A family Gravity Group like Oscar’s Wacky Taxi would be a fantastic fit for the park. Plus they are cheap and from what I have heard easy to maintain, and likely even easier now with the new track design. I am not sure how many people have ridden Oscar’s Wacky Taxi or Roar-O-Saurus, but they are amazing for a childrens ride. Don’t just ignore them because they are kiddy rides I honestly prefer them to a lot of bigger coasters.

It did in fact say "wood coaster foundations" The record has been modified but if you look at the attached PDF, it still says "wood coaster" under "location"

That is cool. With some of the more extreme coasters they have at Hershey, I'm sure they're going to let RMC go wild!

RMC replied to the tweet, “We have a few ideas.” Be on the lookout I think something is coming.

RMC conversation?

...Gold Striker? Having a second GCI would be interesting but it's completely different layout wise, Prowler is like Mystic while Gold Striker is a "larger" GCI in a smaller footprint.

It doesn't help that a few of the teeny bopper YouTube "stars" have gained permission to do onride filming. Yes, park permission is granted, but hey, if (insert "star" here) can do it, I should be able to as well.

All I have to say is...

The entitlement "rules don't apply to me" philosophy. How many times do you see a security guard nicely inform someone vaping or smoking that this is not allowed in the park and the guest jumps the security guards case? Or heaven forbid a guest kindly inform the smoking/vaping guest about the policy or point to the PA system as that announcement is being said and the f bomb flies. How many times have you told a guest in front of you or next to you with a phone out that it is illegal and they keep right on doing it...

Seeing some reports on Facebook that The Bat has begun to test. Can anyone confirm? EDIT: Found this video as well, but still would love to hear if anyone from KIC was at the park today and saw it themselves.

Potato works fries are pretty legit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have an idea: relocate Shake, Rattle, & Roll to another location within the park and have a station at both ends of the Coney Mall midway

Last time I saw the show it was Brady Bunch. Maybe a copyright issue? Either one would be fine with me. Us who remember the Brady Bunch seem to be dying off and is not quite part of the popular lexicon as the word Groovy (it does kind of give an Austin Powers vibe with the flowers on the buildings. ) Lower to the left and behind the tower may save on battery or that the d in the name might be getting to the edge range of the radio for the drones? Not sure if they are controlled by radio to keep in time with the music or if they are internally programmed individually. Does anyone have any ideas? Best place to see the show is the front gate. The lights on the buildings, laser and lights on the tower and the lights and water in the fountain along with the fire really make it a perfect viewing spot. I always stand to see the fountain lights better rather than sitting, just make sure you're not standing too close to the fountain to give people a chance to sit if they want.