TombRaiderFTW

Hurler. It's been a few years since I rode either of the Hurlers (as Hurler, anyway--Twisted Timbers is great, though), but when they're running well, they're very fun coasters. In my limited experience, though, Carowinds's was usually the one running better. Kings Dominion's was just kind of mean, and I remember liking Grizzly better.

Arrow: Adventure Express B&M: Fury 325 Intamin: Intimidator 305 Wood: GhostRider Vekoma: Nighthawk

I agree with this. The original Diamondback camera did not provide live video. It took individual pictures and would move from point to point around the ride. I don't remember when the change was, but this isn't the original Diamondback camera.

I couldn't agree more that Kings Island in 2010 is drastically different from Kings Island in 2020. As nostalgic as I am for the Paramount's Kings Island of my childhood, I love the direction the park has taken this decade, especially since 2014. Cirque, theming and attention to details in theming, Haunt's houses becoming higher quality, Carnivale, Banshee, Mystic Timbers, Orion... It's been a good decade for the park. I don't feel like it's living in the shadow of the de-Paramounting like it did 10 years ago. It's also been such an interesting decade in the amusement industry, period. Ten years ago, enthusiasts mostly didn't know who RMC was--they were just very curious to see this new red steel track design being installed on Texas Giant. Wooden coasters didn't do inversions. Six Flags went from bankruptcy recovery to new rides at every park every year. The Kinzel era of Cedar Fair mercifully ended and the Ouimet/Zimmerman eras began. China and the UAE exploded with parks. We had *zero* operating Harry Potter areas at Universal parks and *two* operating giga coasters in the world this time ten years ago. I'm excited to see where the next decade goes.

Someone pointed out here that almost all of the lift hills in the park point roughly in the same direction. When they pointed it out, I was curious if sound ordinances had something to do with that. Now that this has come up, I'm even more curious.

^ I think its original intent was to keep the skid brakes dry. Wet skid brakes do not function as well as dry ones. Why they keep it now, though, is beyond me. Carowinds and Kings Dominion had or have clones with much more pleasant-to-sit-on brake runs.

^^ So you want it to stay where it is, but in pieces and with concrete and zero trees for as far as the eye can see? You know... I hadn't really thought of Backlot being themed to a mine train, but I actually really like that idea. It'd be like our own little version of Hong Kong Disneyland's Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. It could even be, like, a haunted mine train with lots of effects in the tunnel from the MCBR to the former splashdown. Aaaaand now I'm gonna be daydreaming about this all afternoon.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Disneyland, and Animal Kingdom, for sure. All of those offer immersive experiences just being in the park that no other park quite does for me. Visiting each of those for the first time changed how I thought about the amusement industry. They're incredible (although I think I'll always be a little salty that BGW doesn't have Curse of DarKastle anymore.)

I feel like that is more for noise reasons than a style choice. People live closer to the north side of the park than the south, and people scream on first drops.

Because whoever is in charge of choosing which rides KD has for WF is a Grinch?

Yeah, I'm with Joshua. I don't find the park's pizza appalling, but it's got so little in common with the restaurant version, which I like a lot more. I find it kind of interesting, actually, that LaRosa's puts their name on something that's so different from (and, in my humble opinion, so worse than) their actual project.

I've been lurking on this thread since I do also find the timing of this webcam blackout curious, even if there's nothing to it. (Which, for the record: the loss of a webcam is not some grave injustice. Disappointing? Sure. But some perspective might go a long way for some folks.) This is the first thing that has made a light go off in my head. *If* the park had any control over the timing of the webcam blackout, the Yukon Striker incident would make a lot of sense for why they chose when they did. I'm still leaning towards the "something big went wrong and they're fixing it" explanation, though. If they wanted to control 100% of what the public sees of the lift hill construction, they would have blacked out the Weatherbug camera, too. You could argue that maybe the Weatherbug camera is too far away to see anything of importance or doesn't refresh often enough to capture anything if there is an accident, and I wouldn't disagree. But I'm arbitrarily choosing to believe that this wasn't 100% under their control, and they're doing their best to fix it. Side note: didn't Chad say something somewhere about the old webcams reaching the end of their service lives? Am I mixing multiple things together and confusing myself? Is it possible that cameras of the quality the park uses aren't something you can have delivered quickly, so it's taking time to get their replacements?

A friend of mine's favorite coaster was Son of Beast. After its demolition, it was Firehawk. I told them in no uncertain terms that they're not allowed to like Adventure Express. @VortexBFForever, that was a wonderful trip report, as usual. I so enjoy reading your reflections on your day, so this was an extra treat, even if the occasion wasn't the happiest.

I recognize that what I'm suggesting goes against the ToS, but I'd almost argue that Shaggy IS a source. He knows people. I can't think of a time where he spoke with certainty about something where it ended up being blatantly untrue. He's even the author of several posts on Kings Island's blog.

They're gonna do WHAT to @selective?