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gigacoaster2k

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Everything posted by gigacoaster2k

  1. I hadn't noticed that until you said something. I'm back from a long hiatus by the way. I miss the conversations here.
  2. I was there Friday as well when the storms hit. Regarding the strike that hit Drop Tower: we were hiding in Boo Blasters' exit when the hair on my arms stood straight up, super bright lightning shone through every crack in the building and I heard the loudest BANG I've ever heard in my life. It scared me so badly that my heartbeat actually slowed down. It was terrifying.
  3. I have had trouble riding Beast for the last few years because it had gotten so shaky and seemed to have lost its punch. On Friday I reluctantly decided to ride Beast because my friends were riding. It screams through all the turns and flies over all the hills like a bat out of Hades. The helix.. OH MY GOD. I returned to the station out of breath with a grin on my face, ready to ride again. It is definitely back to its former glory.
  4. Terp, one of the reasons I started posting here again is because of your refreshing posts. I'm not even joking.
  5. We've been asking for months, even years, how long it will be until someone decides to clean up the park and do something about Crypt, the food selection, among other things including Fast Lane issues and the surliness of most of the employees. Ouimet is put in the driver's seat and suddenly all of this stuff is being taken care of. He's obviously listening to us. I don't see this as any sort of coincidence or sudden epiphany from anyone who's been there for a long time while these issues have sat on the shelf and collected dust. Oh by the way: I've literally scrubbed my hand with soap and a loofah, and my hand stamp from Saturday afternoon has not come off. The good ink is back. My Kings Dominion platinum pass also scanned with no problem.
  6. I realize there has been a lot of controversy lately as to what Matt Ouimet was/is going to do for KI and the other CF parks. Well, I was at KI yesterday for the first time this year and I would like to share my positive experience with you. We were waiting at the front gates right before ERT, and all of the employees came out of the Guest Relations office and cheerfully greeted the crowd. Asked us if we're ready to have fun in the park, waved to us, and many of them were passing out park maps. Never in the years I've been going to KI have I seen the employees interact with the guests the way they did. It was amazing. As we walked to Diamondback, employees and even security guards said hello with a smile on their face. I also saw neatly painted white gates with the KI logo in place of the tattered ropes used to hold back the non-ERT guests. A little later, we went to Beast and I absolutely can not believe how the massive amount of retracking has brought that coaster to its former glory. For the first time in a few years I had my hands up and a smile on my face instead of gritting my teeth and clenching the black bar to stop myself from getting jerked around. Beast has needed some love for a long time and it finally got it. When we got something to eat, we headed to the new burrito place (the name of the restaurant escapes me right now but it is where Outer Hanks used to be). I walked in and there it was. FRESH FRUIT. Yes, you read that right. Fresh fruit, and salads. And lots of it. How long have we been asking for this? It was so nice to bite into roast beef, rice, and lettuce yesterday instead of a greasy hot dog and cold fries. The friendliness of the employees was constant yesterday and all the ride crews were having fun. I also noticed a large shelf of cold cut sandwiches with veggies on them at LaRosa's. I'm not sure if they were there before or not, but not everyone does well with greasy food at an amusement park and it is nice to have healthy food options. (I did get pizza, but that's neither here nor there ) Yesterday was also math and science day. There were a few groups that got Fast Lane passes and the way the employees executed it had zero effect on the usual speed of the lines moving. This will be my 17th year visiting Kings Island. In all the years I've been visiting, I have never seen such a genuine and obvious effort to make the guests happy. I know I've said that I won't visit much this year, but seeing my home park turned around like this has me wishing I could go back today. So I would like to give a shoutout to our new CEO. He was at KI yesterday, and I'm disappointed that I didn't get a chance to tell him that he's doing a terrific job.
  7. Millennium Force and Power Tower are to get similar light programs as well. All 3 rides will be part of Luminosity.
  8. I still do that. Inside the park: I like eating in the Festhaus and going for either LaRosa's or Panda Express while I watch a show. Outside the park: If I'm by myself I hit McDonalds or Wendy's, but usually I end up at Steak N Shake until the wee hours of the morning with the crew.
  9. I used to have an old LG VX8700 phone that was almost completely made of stainless steel.. it would make the detectors go berserk.
  10. If you guys thought WindSeeker's light program was cool, check out Giant Wheel.
  11. Thank you. I decided to give Gemini another chance because I was sick of sitting out while my friends rode it. I ended up mentally kicking myself because I had missed out on such a fun ride so many times and now it's a must-ride whenever I visit. So yes, my opinion has changed. Can we let it go now? Thanks.
  12. What about reserving a table at a restaurant? What about paying extra for tickets to a Reds game where you're so close to the field that you can feel the wind when they swing The Bat? What about VIP backstage passes you got to see your favorite band? What about paying extra for sprinkles on your kid's ice cream cone if the mother behind you can't afford it? What about the person in your class who gets a full ride scholarship to the college that you're saving money to go to? Isn't that all "unfair" too? Isn't that all pretty much "line jumping"? So many of us do so many things in life that someone else cannot afford, or we are given opportunities to do something extraordinary. We take those opportunities and run with them, and are willing to spend money on these opportunities, because we're human.. we don't say "it's not fair to someone else" and pass up those Reds game seats or reject that scholarship.
  13. I actually enjoy the ride. It's one of my guilty pleasures, but it's nothing I can't live without (if that makes any sense ). If it will improve the look of the park, then I'm all for it, but on the negative side it would knock out a good family/intermediate coaster. I rode it with a girl who was flat out terrified of coasters, and she was fine on it because it was a bobsled and she couldn't see what was going on.
  14. I know it's only PointBuzz but I thought I'd share. http://pointbuzz.com...point-2013.aspx I clicked on the forum link and it reads "He (Ouimet) also spoke at least three times about removing DT jokingly, but at the same time seriously. There was also mention of opening up the view of the beach and that CP will get $25 million in cap ex next year." Spending $25 million in 2013? Opening up the view of the beach? Hmm.. Millennium Force and Dragster both cost $25 million to build, and the only thing standing in the way of the beach is Disaster Transport. Plus the last time Cedar Point gave us a new coaster was in 2007. I'd like to see what you guys think.
  15. Definitely Congo Falls.. it's always been a favorite ride of mine to cool off on since I started visiting KI many years ago. As far as my favorite waterpark ride, I'm going with Coolangatta Racer. I LOVE mat racer slides
  16. I am the type to visit a park on a cool cloudy day when there's a chance of rain, it's like having a fast pass to the whole park. I know that if I ever God forbid end up at a CF park on a busy Saturday or holiday weekend, and I'm not really riding with anyone, my butt is heading to the Fast Lane booth. I don't do well in large crowds anyway; I'm claustrophobic. Given all of that, I doubt I'm going to need a reason to buy a Fast Lane pass. However I do think it's great in the way that a lot of summer travelers come to CF parks. They may only have limited time on the last day of their vacation before they have to pack up and be back at the airport; maybe they want to squeeze in as many rides as possible before they fly back home from their only visit to the park this season. Tom and I went to Six Flags Great America a couple years ago on a Labor Day Weekend Sunday and Monday. We were told it wasn't going to be busy.. boy were we ever misinformed. The place was a madhouse and it took us 2 days to get our credits. We hadn't brought extra money for Flash Passes but we would have bought them in a heartbeat had we known how packed it was going to be. A lot of other parks such as Dollywood, Busch Gardens, Six Flags, and Disney have quick queues. I really don't see it as line cutting. It's a special perk that I will most certainly take advantage of if I arrive at a new park and see lines out the wazoo. There may be some kinks in the system but we have to be patient and have faith that it will get worked out as long as we politely communicate with the parks on how it may or may not be working. If you have a reasonable complaint on why it is not working, such as ride lines becoming longer or not having a separate lane for Fast Lane guests, politely email the park with your concerns. Nobody responds well to cussing and name calling.. I am seeing a LOT of that on the CF park Facebook pages. It's unnecessary. We need to help them out as guests and provide feedback so that they can assess what needs to be done.
  17. I didn't know that.. thank you! I already started my season off at Kings Dominion not only did we start off with an insane ride on I305, but we got stuck in the launch tunnel in FOF.. the train had to be manually pushed back to the loading station and we received exit passes for our group as a result.. Volcano had a huge line like whoa so we used our passes for that. after the park closed we had a campfire with Coaster Crew and made s'mores then on the way back home I got to drive through over 200 miles of the Appalachian mountains on I64 west.. it was an amazing weekend with perfect weather and amazing friends (sorry for the mini-TR but I had to share that with you guys!) anyway: As usual I'm planning to make many trips to Cedar Point. I can never get enough of that place. I have got to get back to Kings Dominion. It's a beautiful park with a lot of great rides and friendly employees. I'm hoping to get to Hershey and Six Flags Great Adventure this year, and hoping to go to Smoky Mountain Coasterfest at Dollywood.. it's a terrific event. I'm on the lookout for a better job right now (I'm a part time waitress at Cracker Barrel and a full time corrections student at Sinclair Community College) so my life doesn't leave much room for long park visits.
  18. oh wow.. that's amazing. The oldest map I have is a 2008 Cedar Point map. I love it when people share things like this.. there's something about park history that fascinates me.
  19. there is a giga at a park every time I'm there bwa har har. anyway. rides wise: any twisted woodies by GCI and Gravity Group, any hypers or gigas or inverts by B&M, and any gigas by Intamin will surely tickle my fancy. plus a Schwarzkopf drop weight shuttle loop for sure. I definitely agree with the park museum idea. Town Hall at CP is a wonderful place to go and see the history of the park.
  20. IMO, if the Koch family sees potential, it still has a chance. I don't care what they call it as long as Greezed Lightnin and Thunder Run reopen, lol. I LOVED Kentucky Kingdom. A lot of people wrote it off as a junk park (look at Indiana Beach and Stricker's Grove.. they're a dump too, but we still enjoy them as long as we are with friends, don't we?). I saw KK differently. It was a corporate-run park with a small park feeling.. never once did I ever run into a rude employee or one that wasn't willing to help. I had some people telling me not to go to KK, but I went and had a wonderful time, and went back several times with Tom.. we got zen rides on Greezed Lightnin and the second to last ride ever on Chang. He loved the park too. Now that the park is closed, I miss it terribly, but I'm so glad I was able to experience the park while it was still open. I was informed the other day that Will spoke on the phone with Dan every day until his passing. It occurred to me that perhaps this was along the lines of something Will wanted. I fear for the condition of the rides, but at the same time I have faith in the Koch family. I am glad they are branching out.. this is just a thought but there are quite a number of rides at Holiday World and maybe the family wants new territory to work with. I highly doubt that their family park atmosphere will disappear with the addition of another park. If their plans for KK/BB even remotely mirror the success that Holiday World is, then I'm excited to see what unfolds.
  21. My stomach just tied itself in a knot thinking about what poor Greezed Lightnin looks like, and any fate it might suffer.. please someone take it away from there and make it better so we can ride it again </3
  22. Agreed. I always, ALWAYS get heckled for saying this, but I think the park needs to do something, anything with both SOB and Crypt before they start adding any more new attractions. Making improvements to existing areas of a park makes it look a lot cleaner than adding new attractions; it seems to me like WindSeeker and Dinosaurs Alive are distractions from existing rides that exhausted their last breath a long time ago (although I do love WindSeeker!). Tom(76257) made the point to me that perhaps some of the money made from Dinosaurs Alive will go toward finding a permanent solution for those two rides. I certainly hope that is the case, but we will just have to wait and see. I agree with others who would like more healthy food selections. I also would like to see more fresh fruits and vegetables added as sides at any place to eat. Buffalo Wild Wings offers a carrot and celery boat with fat free ranch dressing as a substitute side with any meal. That would taste amazing on a hot day not to mention veggies and fruits provide much needed hydration. Many of us don't do well with greasy or spicy food combined with coasters on a hot day. I'd love to walk up somewhere at KI and get a banana or a cup of sliced oranges.
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