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thejoker8388

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Everything posted by thejoker8388

  1. Hi all, it's been a long time since I have posted here but I was just wondering how crowded you think KI will be this Sunday. I'm thinking about going but was wondering if people think it may be more crowded due to Father's Day. Any input is much appreciated.
  2. I believe alcohol should be allowed to be consumed throughout the park. My only question is why would anyone want to have more than 2-3 beers on any given visit? The hot sun combined with flipping, shaking, and twisting would amount to one miserable time later that day.
  3. Actually, a 45 mph decent on TTD would make the ride much better in my opinion. It would make the ride twice as long and can you imagine how freaky it would be to go down over 400 vertical feet at only 45 mph, sounds like a great idea to me.
  4. ^Floorless coasters are really fun and in my opinion are the best of the "gimmick" coasters. The seats are very comfortable and it provides a ride like a traditional sit down coaster, just without the floor. As for the "foot chop" effect, it works really well in the first row, but not so much in the other rows. Floorless coasters are one of the few where I will actually wait for the front seat because the effect is so much better.
  5. Alibre can be used for any sort of design you want. I don't really think it's worth the time to try and learn it though just for a fun recreation. It has so many in-depth tools and features that you could spend days just becoming acquainted with how to use it. Also, I understand your frustration. When I did the Raptor train and station for a design class two years ago, I though I would be able to do at least 5 or more types of coaster trains. But as I said, I only ended up finishing the Raptor train and station as well as a PTC train. When you get to the curvature of the seats, it becomes painstakingly difficult to do. I think I spent a minimum of 3-4 hours just getting realistic seats due to sketch-up's inability to do curves. Sketch-up is great for straight lines and simple curves, but get into complex curvature and Sketch-Up immediately reveals its weakness.
  6. From my experience, it's nearly impossible to re-create a ride with sketch-up, or at least roller coasters. Something like Delirium is possible, but the track work with sketch-up is just way to tedious to be done because the program isn't advanced enough, but that is to be expected from a free program. I used sketch up two years ago for designing the Raptor train and station, it looked pretty good, but I couldn't manage to find a way to make anything but straight track look anywhere close to accurate. Now a program like Alibre on the other hand is more than capable of designing whatever you want, too bad it's so expensive.
  7. You must not be too far from Mars! Nope, not to far at all. I'm currently attending Pitt so I live in Oakland, but I know a girl from Mars, form what she's told me the place itself is pretty small.
  8. Yep, they came to Pitt last fall and are coming again this Thursday, they seem to be hitting everywhere in the midwest right about now.
  9. Joined August 4th, 2004. I used to post nearly everyday, some older members may still remember me. Now I live 5 hours away instead of 2 so I don't follow KI as closely as I once did. I joined right before the announcement of IJ:ST after hearing rumors of a new coaster going into KI. Although now I only live 15 minutes from Kennywood I still for some odd reason consider KI as my home park. As a result I still visit these forums once a week or so to see the latest news.
  10. The original name was going to be Thunder Road if I remember correctly.
  11. Um...what? The Columbus Zoo is getting a new waterpark and a small traditional dry park with flat rides to entertain a family. If you don't like getting wet just go to the zoo, or stay in the drypark! I personally think that the Zoo needs less animals, cuz I dont know about you guys, but I cant stand animal noises! Are you serious? Are you honestly saying that you hope a zoo, let me clarify that again, a ZOO, needs less animals? The definition of a zoo is a place with animals, how can you say that a zoo needs less animals, that's one of the most insane things I've ever heard. It's like saying a candy store has too much candy or a forest has too many trees. On another note the water park and dry park will be seperated from the actual area where the animals are kept, so if you actually dislike animals you don't have to see them to go to the amusement side.
  12. ^I've had double rides on most of the rides at KI at some point, although all of them were under Paramount times. I think the most I ever stayed on was about 10 times for Adventure Express. I always thought that CF had a policy against double rides though so I'm surprised you were allowed to stay on.
  13. ^It may not be all that bad but it can still **** a customer off. I know when I travel to a park that I usually don't get to or that I've never been before you go expecting to ride all the big rides. I know sometimes that's not a realistic expectation, but it's still extremely disappointing if you arrive and not just one but several of the big rides that you've been looking forward to are shut down.
  14. I'm going to go with Vekoma. Personally I don't think you can ever get enough of them. My dream installation? A standard boomerang and a GIB so we'd be the first park in the world with the complete set of head bangers galore. Yes, I can't possibly think of a better addition...
  15. If this is what I think it is it seems we hear about it once every year. Apparently it usually has something to do with the creek that runs through that area or at least that's what people say. I'm not sure but hopefully it's actually something interesting.
  16. Yeah, I wasn't saying that Wildcat was necessarily uncomfortably rough it just shocked me that as a GCI it was rougher than Comet which is so much older. Interpreter, it's funny you mention Schmeck. I've only ridden two by him, Phoenix being the other and I think I actually enjoyed Comet more. I just find it funny that you say most of his rides are underrated and the one that does actually rank high I didn't necessarily think was as great as people claim. Although, the rankings as I've seen before some times simply reflect enthusiasts' fondness for certain parks and not necessarily based on the actual coaster experience. Oh and I forgot to mention that I didn't even know that Comet had a mid course, so if it was on it was minimal
  17. It's been a while since I last posted here. I've had an extremely busy year so far and haven't had much time to visit this site that I used to be a regular at. With about a month before college I've finally got some free time on my hands and decided I'd get back to posting with a trip report from Hershey on the 22rd. Instead of a full TR I'm just going to give ride thoughts and general thoughts about my first visit to Hershey. Storm Runner- My friend called this "the midget Top Thrill" based on the track and the launch. I was actually surprised he made the connection between the tracks because he is far from an enthusiast and it seems most of the GP never can tell similar tracks. The ride itself is great and starts with a "Get ready cause here we GO!" instead of the light tree like TTD. The launch was surprisingly powerful and was better than I had expected considering it's about 50mph slower than TTD. The first top hat was great and gave a nice "pop" of air and then the immelmann, heartline, and dive that followed were all amazing and perfectly paced. The only thing I didn't care for on the ride was the final inclined s-curve which caused a little head banging. Overall this ride offers much more of the "coaster" experience than TTD, but if I had to choose I'd still take TTD due to the thrill of the launch, if only the two coasters were combined it'd be the best launch coaster bar none and I love FOF. I rode the ride 3 times total and it was my favorite steel in the park by far Overall- 9/10 Comet- The oldest coaster in the park was surprisingly not the roughest and it was the surprise of the trip. It's a great oldie with the traditional hills and high slow turns, what this coaster lacked in intensity it made up for in pure fun. I had a great time and got several great moments of air and finished the ride laughing. The ride is 30 years older than Racer and has aged 10 times better, this is now one of my favorite classic wooden coasters along with the Giant Dipper at SCBB and Big Dipper at GL. Rode it two times, overall 9/10 Great Bear- This is a B&M invert like Raptor. The ride had one of the more interesting layouts for an invert because I tend to find them all fairly repetitive. I usually don't care for inverts too much but I found Great Bear to be well paced and not nearly as nauseating as Raptor or the Batman clones; the travel over the creek was a neat feature as well. Great Bear has become my new favorite invert and it was the first I actually found to be fun. 1 ride, overall 8.5/10 Wildcat-This is a GCI wooden coaster that originally ran PTC trains but this year got new flyers because many people had complained that the coaster was rough. Sadly I still found this coaster to be rough, much rougher than Comet which is 50 years older. The layout itself was still fairly entertaining and although the coaster was some what rough it was still a fun ride with a fun layout. I rode it twice, Overall 7.5/10 Wild Mouse-Your standard wild mouse coaster. I always enjoy these rides and still have the feeling that I'm going to fly off the edge even though I've ridden them countless times; they're the one of the few coasters that I never put my hands up because I'm always gripping on to prevent myself from sliding all over the seat. Overall 7/10 Superdooperlooper- A great old Schwarzkopf with that signature extremely intense loop. After the loop the layout was fun and had a great helix towards the end of the ride; I only wish it was longer. Overall 8.5/10 Sidewinder-Standard Vekoma boomerang. I've never been a fan of the sit down boomerangs although I do like the Invertigos and GIBs. I mainly rode this one for the credit and finished the ride with some definite head banging but nothing worse than what's expected. Overall 5/10 Trail Blazer- An old Arrow mine train coaster. I've always been a fan of Arrow coaters despite the fact that most enthusiasts seem to loathe them and mine trains have always been one of my favorite Arrow coasters. Trail Blazer offered the great fun with mild intensity that a good mine train does and the ending helix was really fun (I love helices). My only complaint is that the ride was far too short. Overall 7.5/10 Lightning Racer- A GCI racing coaster that jumped into the top 5 of my favorite wooden coasters passing two of those vaunted coasters from that "oh so perfect park" in Southern Indiana. Everything about the ride was great, from the twisting drop, to the turn around, tunnel, dueling sections and little pops of air. The ride was one of the smoothest wooden coasters I've ever ridden and had a great mix of some intensity and just amazing fun. I also always love racers for the fact that the pump riders through and create minimal lines. I rode the ride four times (three lightning and one thunder) and the wait was never more than ten minutes, my train also won all four times which made the ride just that much better. Overall 10/10 The final coaster at Hershey is the Roller Soaker but I didn't ride it because I typically don't enjoy getting drenched unless I have a bathing suit on. I also rode the Kissing Tower, monorail, Reese's extreme cup challenge (which was far too short), and their hydroflume which was really fun and I wish an Ohio park still had one. Overall Hershey Impressions: All the rides are well maintained and the employees were quick and efficient although some of the rides were stacking consistently. The employees themselves were helpful but a little lacking on the enthusiasm scale and I didn't once hear a "Welcome back riders, how was your ride?!" but still they all seemed professional enough. I was really impressed with the ride upkeep; all the wooden rides were smooth enough to very smooth and I didn't see a single ride closed all day. I was also impressed with the coasters at Hershey and thought they were all great fun which many coasters these days seem to lack. The park itself appears very land locked and makes CP look like it has all the room in the world. Hershey's rides almost seem packed in as close as I used to make my parks in RCT, with most crossing over and under each other. I hope Hershey finds room to continue expanding because they have a great line up but they could use a couple of large modern flats and a hyper coaster would make the park one of the best in the country if it isn't already. I'm surprised I don't really hear a lot about Hershey because it truely is a great park and I recommend that anyone who has the chance should get there as soon as possible. The one closing complaint is simply about the traffic management which is horrendously designed and is completly inadequete. especially when a concert is being held. I don't know who they had design it but I could do better and I know nothing about traffic management. Getting out took two hours because the John Mayer concert also released at the same time and the traffic literally wasn't moving. A few pics
  18. It's hard to say that Wild West World is outdated considering it just opened two months ago. I know some of the rides were purchased used, but still it's not outed it just has smaller more family oriented rides. I'd assume Disney and Universal aren't interested because it's small and not the breath taking site that their other parks are. They'd have to sink millions and millions into it to get it up to their standards and then it would simply be wasted money because it's in too small of a market. If the price is low enough I could see the park going to some FEC operator.
  19. I'd say there's no excuse for the response email that was sent. I understand that Paula is supposed to defend the park and represent the park in a good light, but her email does the exact opposite. You did state that it showed some bad things but you also stated how it was your favorite park and had two of your favorite coasters. As a PR person even if an email is rude and I can understand how she may have found it to be so, she should have said something like I wish you would have reported the employee, not "you don't like this park and are a bad person for showing this". I used to work fast food and had people say things to me that were 100 times rudder than what Brad's email could be considered and I was still 100 times politer than she was; which is sad to say because she's head of PR and I was a lowly drive through attendant. I would be very, very interested to see the email and trip report posted on coasterbuzz. Despite the parks flaws I'm sure that the posts would be flammed as trolling and other stupid stuff like that because coasterbuzz people worship HW, but I'm still very interested to see what they'd say. There may actually be a few people who speak up and would give similar issues that they've experienced. Problem is the head moderator, Jeff whatever, is a pompus a**hole and would probably delete the entire thing and call it trolling. He does the same thing whenever anyone dares post something against CP, but readily allows complaints against SF or most other parks. That's the great thing about KICentral, the moderators are actually fair.
  20. I'll chime in and say I actually enjoyed Holiday World and don't think people should all of a sudden decide not to go. Now I wouldn't say it was my favorite park but I certainly enjoyed myself although it can all be done in about half a day. I agree with the fact that I don't find why everyone raves about the employees. I didn't have a problem with them, but I also didn't find them to be any better than employees at KI or CP. I'll also say that I find Raven to be one of the more over rated roller coasters that I've ridden; it's a fun ride but really short and I don't really see why it gets all the attention. I found Legend to be a very good ride and would place it as one of the better coasters I've ridden. As I said before, I'll also agree with what was said that there really isn't all that much to do. With that being said Voyage is the most extreme coaster I've ever ridden and it's my favorite wooden coaster by far. I also think that the water park is very good; I found it to be quite a bit better than Boomerang Bay and that was without the cool looking slide that was added this year. In contrast to Combat, whos opinion I respect very much, I thought Zoombabwee was/is the best water slide I've ever been on and found all the other slides to be fun as well. To sum it up for people that haven't been and are now thinking of not going, IMHO, Holiday World is a fun little park with an amazing water park and three coasters; one of which is amazing, one of which is great, and one of which is fun. I don't think HW is as great as many make it out to be and I enjoy KI and CP more, but I feel that Voyage is worth the trip alone and everything else is just a really nice bonus.
  21. It's funny today people were waiting nearly five hours for one ride on Firehawk, when just last summer I rode x-flight 5 times in less than 45 minutes. I'm glad everyone seems to like it though, I think it's a good coaster but the head first through the loop made me feel a little sick.
  22. Thanks for pointing that out Browntggrr. I never even saw him call me out like that but as you just showed I think it's pretty justified to say he has no idea what he's talking about. Everything that I've read suggests that Dorney will be getting Steel Venom next year.
  23. It's hard to tell, I know at Geauga the queue line went around and only the exit went under, but it does look like the queue might possibly go under the track right next to the station. As I said though it's really hard to tell and I'd say your guess is as good as any right now. Chins, it appears as if the final flip from flying to lying into the breaks is missing, as well as the final horseshoe turn and the track that leads from the horseshoe around and into the two in-line twists, and finally a small section connecting the twists to the helix (both of which can be seen in the third picture under the link). For my question, anyone know what those large concrete box-like structures in the forth picture are for? Reclaimer, after looking again I don't think the queue will go under the station. Look at thispicture, I'm assuming that metal platform by the station will be part of the queue.
  24. Not to sound too negative but the replacement to the inversion looks to be a little lacking. I was never fortunate enough to ride the ride before it lost the zero-g roll, but I always thought and heard that it was the best part. Now theRobin side looks almost like a launched Vekoma boomerang.
  25. Most enthusiasts tend to dislike the G-trains. The main problem is with the u-shaped lap bar that's uncomfortable and not very accomadating. The only G-trains I've been on were on the Villian and I found that to be a terrible ride, although I think track maintenance is more of the problem than the trains. The trains I just mentioned are the old ones, but as stated earlier SOB will most likely get the newer version of the trains which doesn't have the u-bar and supposedly tracks better. I don't know anyone who's ridden the new trains because I think the only coaster that uses them is in Europe. With that said, I've read that the new g-trains seem to be decent and I have hope that they'll work well. I figure anything will be better than the premier trains.
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