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JCJTheHurricane

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Everything posted by JCJTheHurricane

  1. I enjoyed reading your review and I'm happy you were able to get in a ride! But the weather likely had some to do with that loss of momentum. That final day, the ride was moving a little slower, so it might not have done it justice.
  2. Hopefully I can shed some light on how wait times are figured out. I'm not 100% sure if this is what the app uses but oftentimes throughout the day we will get a call from the rides office asking what our wait time is, then we give them a guesstimate. Also, how many Fast Lane each ride lets in is just based on the person at separator. There's no hard and fast rule for that sort of thing. However the park does limit how many Fast Lane tickets they give out each day.
  3. This brings up some good points and now that I think about it, FOF probably does just run the two because of the maintenance reasons and it probably can handle three trains. One thing I would like to mention is that FOF at KI doesn't have to re lock the restraints at unload before sending it into the load station, at least not anymore, but OP's do have to wait for everyone to be beyond the exit gate to dispatch it out of unload.
  4. Based on what I've heard, the third train isn't used because the LIM's wouldn't have enough time to cool down.
  5. This was a wonderful read! I cant imagine how exciting that must've been! Thank you for sharing it!
  6. Hey Carolyn! (It's Clem! ) And I second this ^ It stops hardddd, and that turn is so sharp and taken fast, sometimes I question what Arrow was thinking, but boy did they leave a mark. (on the industry I mean... but also maybe a bruise or two... ) All in good fun of course!
  7. So we do! I can't speak for too many rides, but generally its not too complicated for any of the rides I've gotten to do LO for. The only potential difficulty would maybe be with FOF due to there being two control panels, Unload and Load. In the morning, both positions have to page each other and countdown to when they turn the key to power up the ride. Same for when they close. For most of the rides though its as simple as receiving permission from sups, communicating effectively that you're locking out, marking it down in the LO binder, then flip the lockout switch, grab a hasp, put your lock through it and then take the key for the lockout gates with you. And don't forget the lock key itself All of the locks for LO have a stretchy coil bracelet attached to the key and they're all marked.
  8. To also add to what RedRacer said: In the Rides Department the normal shifts during the Summer are as follows: Opens: (9.15am-3:45pm); Closes: (3:45pm-10:30pm); and my least favorite: Swings (11:40am-8:00pm). And then there are AD (all day's). The hours can sometimes be long, but the schedules are made by the sups and so there's a decent amount of flexibility. There is almost no limit for time off (IN RIDES) and if you cant ever work an AD, Open, or Close etc, they can usually work around that. These times are what i'm used to because my ride doesn't (...didn't ) have early entry. I think the day for those rides begin at 8:45am. During Haunt the shifts change a little bit. For Fridays we have just one shift: Yes (4:15pm-1am) The shift is called a yes because it's either yes you work or no you don't. For Saturdays, it's the same as the shifts during the summer, only everything is pushed back an hour. So an open arrives at 10:15am, and leaves at 4:45pm etc. And of course the latest shift ends at 1am, Although after some quick cleaning we usually get out around 1:30. And The shifts for Sundays during haunt are just opens and closes (swings aren't needed because of how short the close shift is.) Overall, if you're a close, you'll be leaving the ride about 30min after the park has closed. This varies ride to ride of course, and depending on if you need to do lockout for lost keys, phones, etc and how long the sup makes the pow-wow.
  9. So I thought I would be able to shed some light on this topic. So this will be my fourth year at the park, I have the pleasure (and the slight stress) of working the brand new ride, Orion. My previous three years have been spent at the beloved Vortex and that one other ride that really doesn't ever like seeking wind despite its name. (Please don't ask why its called WindSeeker ) I have been trained at all positions in Coney Mall, and have worked a couple rides outside the area, such as White Water, Banshee, Mystic, and Diamondback. Out of all the rides I've worked, I would say that the most physically demanding ride is honestly either FOF or Racer. White Water is actually a wonderful ride to work and it's pretty relaxed. Of course the physical demands of each ride depends on how busy the park is. I would say that during Haunt is when it's the most demanding, considering that the park is usually a little understaffed, and attendance is probably near its highest. This does make the days go by quicker though! I would say the coolest thing about working there is how much you get to learn about the rides that you would otherwise never know. And my favorite thing is waking up for an open shift and walking into a completely empty park - it is so peaceful!
  10. IIRC, while talking to someone in maintenance last season, they mentioned how there were some things that they wanted to adjust with mystic, but they had to wait until after something like a contract was up in order to make modifications to the ride. I believe it was along the lines of two or three years. Of course this could all be incorrect, but just thought I would weigh in. Also, if this was a thing, who's to say it has anything to do with the "warranty" that a park might have on a ride or parts. If anyone else has a more definitive answer, I'd be eager to hear!
  11. If only I had a quarter for every time I heard "Am I tall enough?", as somebody squats next to the height stick...
  12. Well, lime green aside ya know. A tad bit of blue and green on the trains too.
  13. So I would just like to point out a few things about this memorial. First off, the white wreath to the left has four flowers on it, colored red, yellow, black, and silver. The exact same colors that you see on Firehawk. Secondly, when its dark, they project red and yellow lights onto the scene. The only other large coaster in the park with a red and yellow paint scheme is Diamondback, and I can tell you that's definitely not a ride that's leaving anytime soon. And third, "The air is eerily calm" can be a reference to The Bat, but honestly, with all clues taken into account, I'm pretty sure this means that the Hawk isn't going to be flying for much longer. And as others have pointed out, Vortex had gotten 970,000 riders last year, which to me indicates that ridership is not a problem.
  14. I really thought it was kind of hard to believe that people think Adventure Express is somehow the Son of Beast, until I was walking to Vortex today. A woman was talking to her group and said that they used to have Son of Beast but then it became Adventure Express.
  15. I've heard that the Monster that we have now isn't actually the original one that opened at the park. Unless I misheard and what actually happened was that we got another monster from a park which is used for spare parts. I believe the Monster I'm talking about was actually painted white. Please correct me if I'm wrong though!
  16. Similar to @VortexBFForever's situation, I was working WindSeeker one day and I looked up and just saw a puff of vape smoke go out to the side from one of the seats... Thought it was a little amusing then told the driver to spiel about not smoking or vaping on rides. Also if I had a quarter for every time I've heard a guest say or ask something about Vortex sinking, I would probably have enough money to dig the thing out of the ground.
  17. It is still done the same way as you described @teenageninja. In terms of capacity, hitting 1000 riders is quite the feet and happens rarely. You would have to have a good separator and dispatch almost every train in under about 60 seconds. We would have to also get around 40 cycles that hour to obtain that. 40/41 cycles are also basically the limit with frequent guests. Also, sidenote, if you dispatch right after the train ahead leaves the MCBR you're going to stack. A really good dispatch can be seen if the train on the lift and the train at the MCBR pass each other. Our average for cycles is probably around 32-36 (we try to shoot for 36 or above) cycles an hour and probably approaching 950 guests on a busier day. Correct me if I'm wrong @VortexBFForever. One more side note, it is possible to be running three trains and not have a train in the station for just a moment. You just have to have basically two perfect dispatches in a row (dispatching about 5 or so seconds after the bell rings, which indicates the train ahead has cleared the lift) On days when we go two trains, and the crowd picks up later in the day, there is almost always a line. After they add the third train though, you can definitely see a difference in the line in terms of it getting shorter.
  18. As a ride operator myself, I can assure you that we would rather somebody come through the exit or use a test seat out front rather than have to do the walk after having to wait in line. Most rides would be able to do this for you so don't hesitate to come up through the exit and ask. There are a few rides that I know of that are definitely more accommodating such as The Bat back near Banshee as well as Shake Rattle and Roll. For Banshee there are two rows designed to be more accommodating. Rows 4 and 5, both of which have seats with a red seatbelt. Also on some rides that have a bar that comes down near your belly such as WindSeeker, if you can pull your stomach up it should definitely help. Everybody is different and a lot of things can play a role in whether or not somebody will be able to ride. As some others said Flight of Fear and Drop Tower definitely do not have a lot of room after the restraint is pulled down. If you want, I have seen people test the seats at Flight of Fear at their exit before, so this is an option as well. Anyways though, I hope that some of this advice can help!
  19. I did manage to find a list of the former shows throughout the entire park on Wikipedia, Here's the link for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_Kings_Island_attractions#Former_shows
  20. Yeah, don't get me wrong, I love our ride but I don't necessarily think the new things we got this year indicate much. If something needs to be done out of necessity, they're going to do it. For example, needing a new compressor or replacing a few footers... Hopefully it does stay around for a while though! Certainly one of my favorites at the park. Now if they could just give it a new paint job, that would be perfect.
  21. What gets me are the valley's of the track, they kill your back. Middle of the last car is definitely a lot smoother than almost all of the other rows though.
  22. They definitely should consider re-tracking the entire thing but working at WindSeeker/Vortex so i'm pretty close to Racer's turnaround, I can confirm that they re-tracked some sections of the blue side, during the season, but considering it wasn't a whole lot I could see it being a while until the whole thing is given some TLC.
  23. A little off-topic here, but does anyone else find it interesting that they don't turn off the Fun-Tv's like the ones in the Diamondback queue? Or that they aren't at least on their own circuit, one that gets turned off at the end of the night.
  24. I think you've made a typo in the thread title possibly, I think you meant Butler County, nevertheless, still a really cool thing to see happening!
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