lifetimecoaster
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Posts posted by lifetimecoaster
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8 hours ago, King Ding Dong said:
“OMG it still works! I can’t beleive it!”
Hey, I've already admitted I'm a little unhinged when it comes to coasters.
I also like watching the process of starting the season.
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Just saw Mystic Timbers run all 3 trains. Also was watching BLSC running earlier. They sent one train out, and it didn't make it all the way up the helix. It was kind of funny to watch it get ALMOST to the top of the helix, and then roll back down it towards the station. It made it on the second launch.
Edit: Mystic Timbers is running right this second.
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16 hours ago, VortexBFForever said:
If any of you see Vortex testing on the cam, let me know!
When it's 13 days until my Training Day! So close and yet so far. I cannot tell you how excited I am to reunite with my crew and my favorite two rides to work!
Vortex is currently running on the Diamonback webcam!!
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KImom, that is the one. One of those goofy things I will always remember about my youth at Kings Island. I was always excited about the fact that it was right under Vortex, my parents were always excited by the fact that it was fairly well shaded back there, and mainly, it's right next to a bathroom!
Also, nerding over here still watching the live cams, there is a fork lift dropping off cars for the Diamonback train by the station. Looks like they are starting to reassemble the trains!!!
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That's great to see!! They are going to try to stick true to the theme of that area. I think for me, other than the roller coasters, that is why I love spending time at theme parks. There's such a feeling of surreal when you walk around there, and see those settings.
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Fair statement for sure, I often forget that they tried that once already. I like to look at all avenues of potential profit (and also like traveling with my camper, so I'm biased), and the thought of camp grounds seems like a potential attendance driver. Is it the right attendance? I can see argument both directions, but as you pointed out, they've been there and done that, and probably have the answers.
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Doing a campground/ resort would be a great idea for them. Doing both would be highly profitable for them in my opinion. I would drag my camper out from Indy to camp there, and I think many others would too. This is a place where Disney shines a bit. They have a camp ground and multiple major resorts. Sure the park entry fees make it a little less likely that you're going to attract all kinds across all economic backgrounds, but the offer is there to camp on the property. Kings Island is the kind of park that the price of entry is not horrible, and is quite affordable for people to make it a 2 or 3 day mini vacation. Give people a less expensive alternative for lodging, throw a tent, pull in your camper, have a place to go for lunch and dinner that doesn't require you to spend money in the park, and you're actually going to draw more people in. Sure it's not AS profitable in the long run because it's less food profits, but when you give those same people the opportunity to return to their campers or tents to cook hotdogs over the fire, they're going to have more cash to dump on pure profit items like games. They'll spend more on upcharge attractions as well. I sound like I'm trying to sell this idea.... LOL
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I too have been watching webcams all day, waiting to see a coaster run. I believe that the guy I work with is beginning to think I'm a bit unhinged, because I opened the webcams yesterday, and exclaimed "THERE'S MOVEMENT IN THE PARK!!" How I find this to be so exciting is beyond me. How I also find myself watching the Diamondback webcam, and having this warm fuzzy feeling seeing the pizza joint under The Vortex back there... Since my childhood that is my favorite place to grab a slice, right there under The Vortex. Last summer when I took my kiddos for the first time, when it came time to grab lunch, I pleaded with my wife that we eat a slice there, since that is a long lasting memory of mine, I want my kids to carry on that memory of sitting there having your pizza, watching The Vortex overhead. VortexBFForever and I may be long lost (with quite a few years between us) siblings. LOL
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On 6/3/2017 at 12:01 AM, jcgoble3 said:
What do you mean, you've seen both fail? I don't know about Slingshot, but Xtreme Skyflyer is a Skycoaster model, and Skycoasters have a 100% perfect safety record. Show me an instance where a Skycoaster has failed. And don't say this incident, because that is not a Skycoaster, but a completely different ride from a different manufacturer.
I'm not going to lie, if I KNEW for absolute FACT that I wasn't going to come out of the harness, I would love to do that... That being said, I'm certain that was terrifying for that person, and I don't want to make jokes and light of that subject, but I watched that video and it made me think that would be an excellent way to do a Skyflyer ride.
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I feel like I remember this bridge for sure. It's a foggy memory.
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Now that was cool. I love this kind of stuff!! Thanks for finding that.
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The most recent visit I had was the Sunday right before the first day of school in the Cincy area. To give you an idea of the park attendance that day, we spent the early part of the day in the kids rides, and walked on most everything there, and then around 1 or 2 pm, I decided I wanted to ditch the wife and kids for a minute to go catch some coasters. I waited 20 minutes to ride Mystic Timbers, walked on Vortex for a front seat ride, got off Vortex, walked right back on for a mid train ride, rode it through 3 times in the middle of the train, got off, walked on WindSeeker, got off, walked right back onto Vortex. After about noon, the place was a ghost town... almost to the point of feeling creepy walking around. I've always wanted to be able to tour the park after hours when no one was there, and this was literally as close as I've ever been to it. Coney Mall was empty!!
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20 hours ago, mayaman2 said:
In my experience, do not do that. I really hurt my back (as a teenager) trying to ride it like that. I've found it's much less painful when you use your arms to brace yourself, but not your spine and core.
Moral of the story: choose whichever riding style will work for you, because you know your body better than anyone can.I'll give it a try next time I ride it. For some reason, it's a natural reaction I have when I'm on coasters to tighten myself up to hold my body steady. Maybe this will make me enjoy them even more! I'm usually completely exhausted after a day of riding.
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The Beast is a ride that requires a little core strength to not feel so rough. I've found on Beast that if I hold my core nice and tight, I don't feel so beaten and battered by it. Hold yourself fairly rigid in your seat so that your spine isn't getting whipped to and fro, and you'll enjoy it more. It's a hell of a workout though!!
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On 10/12/2017 at 11:00 AM, VortexBFForever said:
A couple of months ago I had to deal with one parent on Vortex whose son was crying and didn’t want to ride. I didn’t let him ride because I knew he didn’t want to ride, although the parent said that they were going to go home if he didn’t ride...and they had made a two hour drive to the park. I’m just glad I didn’t traumatize the young boy by putting him through an experience he wasn’t yet ready to face...and I didn’t know what the parent was thinking.
But I wouldn’t cut short an entire trip just because my child isn’t ready to ride a big ride. That’s not how an amusement park trip should work.
This is sad. As well as the other story shared. I'm a coaster fanatic. Always have been. I also like to race cars. I don't require that my 3 and 5 year old will be the same. My daughter (the 5 year old) is becoming a coaster nut. We started at 3 years old when we were at Disney World. We took her on the barn stormer after she stood and watched it for a few minutes and decided she wanted to give it a rip. She giggled the entire time on the first lap through, so I knew it was coming. "I wanna ride again daddy, take me again!!!!!" Indeed it did. So the second time around, I told her if she's going to be a roller coaster fanatic, she's going to have to learn to ride hands up, and boy did she! We found out she was tall enough for seven dwarves mine train, so that was the next coaster for her. Last summer we did Disney again, and she was tall enough for big thunder mountain and test track, so we rode those too. She was blown away by them. When we did KI last summer after Disney, I took her on what I'll affectionately know forever as Beastie. Between my wife and I riding with her, she made roughly 7 laps on that one. Her first lap was front seat, because you have to ride your first wood coaster in the front. Second ride, very back seat, gotta learn about air time on bunny hills. And then we had random rides otherwise. As she gets taller, I'll continue to take her on bigger and bigger coasters, but I'll never force anything on her that she's scared of, what the heck is the fun in that!?!?!
And more so on topic, I'll add a "guests say the darndest things" of my own (as in, I'm horrible about doing this to people) "My favorite part of that ride was when it went upside down!!!!" Usually uttered when getting off of rides that, in fact, do NOT go upside down.
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Man, I was a young feller the first time I rode KC. I was one of those kids that was always big for my age, so at the ripe age of 7 I got to ride coasters like KC and Vortex. I felt like a real bada** when I rode it for the first time. Such a sad story for that coaster!!
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That could possibly be the difference between talking to an official with the company, and a group of guys on the lot moving around and setting up for shipping. The guys responsible for getting the stuff ready to ship don't care, but the guys responsible for all of the contracts, legalities etc care.
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Being a regular Disney visitor, I can say that the Magic Band program is really nice there. It's your room key, it's your park tickets, it's your meal plan, and when you have pics taken in the park, they scan them into your wristband, which then puts them on your personal web page part of your trip. It's hard to say if it would be beneficial for KI or Cedarfairs as a whole the way it was for Disney because no resort, but I can say from a user stand point, it's awesome. When we head out to the parks, there's no need for keys, wallets, phones etc, and when you're in a theme park, the less you can lose, the better.
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Oh wow. Yeah they need new PR people for sure.
In that article they do post some statistics, and sure, the statistics look good on paper. Generally speaking, you are safer strapping into a thrill ride than you are walking down the street in your neighborhood. (so long as you're not on an Intamin coaster) I don't think that there will be any point in my life that I write off riding thrill rides, but I do not condone a major ride manufacturer saying accidents will happen, we just don't know how many of them are ok.
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On 8/8/2017 at 7:10 PM, silver2005 said:
One big reason why Intamin is frowned upon is a statement they made after an accident on one of their rides (I believe it was a statement in response to the ejection on Man of Steel at Darien Lake) saying that deaths are an acceptable part of the overall safety experience (I can't find the article since I think its well expired), and while a good PR crew on a coaster designing firm would say zero, Intamin didn't, which is a big no-no in the amusement park industry where safety is paramount.
This is on Intamin more than CF. I have heard that for each new ride CF has built from B&M, Intamin did indeed send proposals but were turned down. That's not on CF. That's on Intamin for slacking off on their standards and not matching up to the impeccable safety standards of your B&M's and Macks. Even SIX is steering clear of Intamin. Just look at CF's track record with Intamin-
KBF- cable snap on Xcellerator and death due to bad restraints on Perilous Plunge
CP- cable snap on MF, TTD's downtime issues, Maverick's original roll having to be re-designed (not a cheap process), a support re-design on Wicked Twister, and a under-designed log flume which detached from the anti-roll backs and capsized (how do you screw up a log flume?!)
KD- an extensive redesign of I-305's first turn, had to have trims down the entire first drop during a large portion of it's first season, also massive opening delays for Volcano
CGA- boy falling to death on Drop Zone
KI and KD- under designed restraints on Flight Commander (KD had a similar ride)
And this is just within CF. Problems with Intamin extend outside CF as well, and I now ask- what would incentivize parks to go with Intamin with that kind of record and detriment to the ROI? B&M's have none of that, even with prototypes. Recently, Intamin has just been building the same flawed rides overseas with zero effort to show they've changed away from technology that has shown to be prone to problems. They may push the envelope, but at what cost to the park? You gotta draw the line somewhere and most parks have now with Intamin (at least here in the States at least).
I hadn't heard about that little Intamin verbal slip up, but wow. "Yeah, some people are going to have to die so that we can find the limits of what we can do with a roller coaster, it's just part of the program" is effectively what they're saying here. That's just insane to me. How do you even consider remaining in business after publicity like that?
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99% of the time those prize drawing give aways are data mining operations. With the no call lists becoming so popular, they get you to freely give your info. It's a loophole in the clause of no call, if you've freely given your info, you've asked to be contacted in the future for "possible other giveaways". It's the old time share sales pitch routine. We'll give you this free cruise if you submit to a 1 hour seminar about how owning (insert good or service here) can change your life forever!! Can't blame them for trying, everybody is just trying to make a living. But it's annoying.
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5 hours ago, TheRickster said:
Just not a lot to fit there... and unfortunately typical flat rides aren't going to bring crowds in or support the capacity a park this size needs. The flight commander pad is pretty small and likely wouldn't support a ride of the size we would need. Then they also filled in the stairways going from the queue to the ride so it might not even be able to act as a stable foundation for much of a bigger ride. Most rides require a foundation to be built for the purpose of the ride itsself.
That's not to say they couldn't level it and go from there. But if we do get a smaller flat, it will need to be part of a few flats being added and an area renovation/expansion which would cost a lot more there than what we see them normally do with HBL/NU/PS. I do also think the park is in the decade where they need to make the call to expand on the otherside of The Racer more or not. There really isn't much space left in the current park without losing some attractions.
I for the longest time thought they used that area for Wind Seeker, but quickly realized that wasn't it at all.
As far as expanding that area of the park, there "is room" back by xbase to do something, but it would end up requiring them moving their barns that are back there, which would kind of end up a win win since it would change the landscaping of the area behind The Racer if they moved those back into the trees out of sight of the rides. I think though that I follow the popular opinion of the idea of Coney Mall being made back into an early carnival feel, with flats along both sides, and the games down the center again. No they aren't exciting rides per se, but they are for sure an attraction, and a piece of nostalgia that I think a lot of people look for at theme parks. With the small parks that still had this nostalgic feel closing left and right, I think there would be a large draw in including that kind of area into the park. I'm in Indianapolis, and I often feel concern for the life span of Indiana Beach. Holliday World has established itself well enough that I think they may have a run yet, so they aren't on my radar of older smaller parks that may die.
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Will there be taller? I think the answer to that is no doubt. Think of how far roller coasters have come in your lifetime. I'm 36, and can say that when Vortex was built, it was breathtaking. Over 30 years, it's become one of those coasters that people love still because it is what it is, but I can tell you that anyone born after 1997 would laugh at that coaster. Ten more years go by, and you have Diamondback. All the while, CP has been going taller and taller and taller. When they built top thrill I remember saying "No way that's going to last, the stresses of supporting itself alone are insane"
In another 10 years, these whacky engineers may be able to figure out to build something that makes current standards Giga's look like child's play. And by that time, us old folks will still covet our Vortex, and still be impressed by our Diamondback, and look at this 525 foot 87 degree drop, 145 mph coaster, and just shake our heads going "how did we get here?"
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On 7/14/2017 at 11:26 AM, SonODiamondback said:
I like to see some old ride locations reused like the former flight commander location and the Tomb raider site. And maybe something of at the old SOB site. Like a RMC reusing the old SOB station. You could fit a nice size coaster in that spot even with Banshee and The Bat over there.
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
It seems just wild to me that Flight Commander has been gone for so long, and nothing has been changed about it's area. The pad is still there, the station is still there. I know at one point they used it for an upcharge attraction with trampolines and bungee cords, but other than that, nothing. I've seen some pics from people that have managed to sneak around to the old turn style area and it's all still there. Maybe the park doesn't feel that the real estate is valuable and doesn't care? Maybe there are plans?
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Kings Island Announces 2018 Changes
in Kings Island Central Newsroom
Posted
There are some of us that have stopped cigarettes and moved on to vaping that every once in a while will complain about how smoky smoking sections are. For me, it's mainly because I still want cigarettes, but dropped them to try a "healthier alternative", and now, here we are, lumped right back into the same group, still huffing away on the smoke. Can't win, so we whine. I do understand the reasoning, I get it, but it sucks.