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gad198

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Everything posted by gad198

  1. ^ By all accounts Memorial Days at Cedar Point have been good days to go to the park, particularly later on in the day as crowds start to head home. There are plenty of trip reports that indicated that ride wait times were more than reasonable last year. I can say that the Sunday before Memorial Day last year was NOT the best time to be at the park. MF, Maverick, and TTD were all 1.5 to 2 hour waits, just before closing time! I also went the Tuesday after Memorial Day and the longest wait we had all day was for Maverick at 20 minutes. Regarding the perks, I'm glad they brought back the Skyscraper deal as I'd like to give that a go this year. I'm curious though as to what the rationale is behind the "tickets" you need to pick up at the Season Pass Center for some of the deals. Showing your pass is infinitely more simple, and quite frankly, I'm not so sure that anyone wishing to take advantage of anything requiring the discount tickets will be willing to walk all the way to the front gate to do that, thereby leaving some business on the table. I'm willing to bet they change that at some point. Rumor also has it that CP is also instituting a drink wristband deal similar to KI. Anyone know more about that?
  2. ^ That photo really needs no caption! I wonder what his face would look like on TTD? Zach, it was cool seeing you in the ERT line Saturday. How many rides did you end up getting in? It was nice towards the end when you only had to wait a train or two if you weren't waiting for the very front or back!
  3. ^ Agreed. I think the ride might suffer from being a "bit" too short, but the ride itself looks enjoyable, like a mini Thunderhead as a previous poster mentioned. I'll be at Magic Mountain that opening weekend so we'll report back after the trip.
  4. You loves you some aggressive rides eh? There is NO way that I could marathon Georgia Cyclone or SOB, so I have to salute anyone who not only can do so successfully but enjoy the experience!
  5. I know that over the past couple of Fridays I've seen the same people over and over again as I've been satisfying my DB power-ride fix. DB is definitely one of the best coasters I've been on for marathoning purposes as it's smooth enough to work out that way, and other B&M hypers are definitely fun to marathon as well. Others, like the Voyage, despite it being my #1 coaster, I can't do because the intensity is way too much to ride more than 2 or 3 times in succession. What coasters have do you like to (or would you like to) marathon?
  6. ^ I think Sunday morning should be an excellent time to be at the park regardless as to what ERT you're partaking in. My only real hope in regards to the RWW vs. DB ERT is that this gets fully explained when people are signing in early on Saturday or Sunday. I could see some people making a real fuss about this, particularly if they are Gold or PP holders.
  7. I'm fairly certain it was mentioned by a mod in another thread that you can either do RWW ERT or DB ERT, but not both. Having said that, I'd be curious to see what measures they take to thwart those who try and venture into the DB ERT line. Are they closing off sections of the park to stop anyone from crossing over, etc.? Also, on Saturday RWW ERT for The Beast will be ongoing until 9. What's to stop someone from venturing to DB from The Beast at that time? Color me curious...
  8. ^ This is where the decision to only allow either RWW ERT or DB ERT hurts. How great would it be to simply rotate between the RWW ERT rides until 9:30 Sunday and then power-ride DB starting at 9:30. I'm fairly sure this was designed to keep waits for DB ERT relatively manageable, but still, it would have been nice to have had the best of both worlds.
  9. ^ Personally, I'm ecstatic that DB even has a single riders queue! There are very few rides these days that utilize this consistently and those that do sometimes make it not worth it (yeah, I'm looking at you Behemoth and Maverick). The SRL is also not even necessary many times if the line is 10 minutes or less. There have been many people reporting getting in this line and having people in the main line passing them. I've gotten out of the SRL queue and into the main queue on more than one occasion because of this. I'd be curious to hear others suggestions on how to improve the SRL. The only thing about the SRL that's a little odd is that you can't see how many people would be in front of you until you walk around the corner and look up the stairs. Then again, at least you know there won't be 250 people in the SRL waiting ahead of you, and there's the benefit. It can take quite a while to make it through even a 20 person SRL line, much less one that's longer as it's a real crapshoot by its very nature.
  10. ^ I'd love for that to happen, but I'm pretty sure early weather forecasts are calling for sun and temps around 70 both days, whereas there was a chance of rain pretty much all this past weekend. DB ERT should be awesome, particularly at night! Smurf, great TR as always! Sunday was a very pleasant surprise as DB was a walk-on right before the ROTB at 10. Like you we left early, but we did everything we wanted to do in an hour and a half. This time of year Sunday mornings are definitely a great time to go! Edit: about the vibration on DB...Behemoth's yellow train had the same thing going on early last year. Tigellinus would probably be more educated about this, but at the end of the season they managed to work that out. I'm sure that by the end of the season they'll have that fixed.
  11. I went down to Carowinds last month and was pleasantly surprised by how much nicer it was, IMO, than in the Paramount days. Having said that, I'd recommend the following: If possible I'd get to the park at opening for one reason. Nighthawk, the park's flying coaster, is the first coaster you (and the general public) see when you enter the park, and as such everyone heads there first. Just as a frame of reference, I was able to get on every other coaster with a station wait or less (except Carolina Cobra) while the line for Nighthawk was around an hour long. Make sure that if you're there at park opening that you hit this first and then head to Carolina Cobra. If for some reason you don't make it there at opening save these coasters for later in the day as the lines should subside later on. Carolina Cobra, the park's boomerang, is actually not bad. Again, make sure you try and hit this early due to capacity issues. Afterburn is a great inverted coaster. It's just a shade below Raptor and Montu on the intensity scale. The line also moves quickly even though it only runs two trains. The rest of the park's coasters are just OK IMO. Vortex is a decent standup, but outside of the four aforementioned coasters there's really no other standout rides. Also, since you have a PP make sure that if you check out the attached link to view PP benefits at the park. Make sure and note the "First in Line Access" and "10% Discount on In-Park Dollars" benefits, as you should find those useful: http://www.carowinds.com/special/passinfo/sp_benefits_09.cfm Hope you have a great time!
  12. Last minute KI trips are always fun! Sorry to hear that FOF got the best of you but I'm glad you got your DB fix in. Sundays have really been interesting this year. It seems as though the crowds have been non-existant up until around 12:30, and then the park, and particularly the DB line, explodes with people. The line then shortens in the evening as crowds depart, so you employed the best DB line strategy for your arrival time.
  13. Right at 25. This has been discussed before but night rides are much better, not only for the visuals but because the ride is faster. We sat in the very back row and we were still catching air on the "up" part of the second and third hills. We even got some fantastic floater air over every hill in the middle of the train!
  14. ^ I agree with most of that assessment. I'm sure part of the reason they went with this was to alleviate some of the crowds that Splashin' Safari gets in the summer. I read that if they push boats out at max capacity they can move 1200 pph, which is a big help. Even if they "only" move, let's say, 800 pph that's a heckuva lot more than their waterslides are pushing through! Having said that, I completely agree that there may have been more prudent options in terms of ride installations. This ride, IMO, appeals to a very limited demographic. Most of the reviews I've seen of this thus far are complimentary, but those are from the enthusiast community. I can't see how someone who's afraid of heights is going to summon the courage to ride this, and with a 48" height requirement I wouldn't exactly call this a family ride. I'm curious to see how this ride affects/moves gate attendance. Manta, Diamondback, Prowler (this ride looks to be a hidden gem), and Terminator Salvation have and will move needles about where people may spend time at parks, but I can't envision a typical family looking at this ride and thinking "wow, we've gotta get down there to ride this" if they were undecided on where to spend a vacation or weekend.
  15. It looks like one of the trains on Diamondback is stuck on the mid-course right now. Not good! I only hope this is a minor issue.
  16. ^^ I'm willing to bet that trim will be like that all season. I simply can't imagine a scenario where they turn it down as the weather continues to warm. Have you also found the night rides to be more intense? I will say that I've been pleasantly surprised by how little it affects the air, but on rides where it hasn't grabbed the air on that hill has been INSANE. Being ejected from your seat doesn't happen often on a B&M, but it happens on that hill with no trim!
  17. ^ 40? 50? Either way it makes for really good times! I'd be curious to see how the KI meet-up group is faring today.
  18. ^^ It's not the swine flu is it? I'm hoping the rain holds off long enough to get some rides in later tonight. I'm sure 50 rides would be doable in six hours with the crowd size right now. Hopefully we'll see some of you all at the park!
  19. ^^^ Tigellinus, make no mistake about it, I am not (nor will I be) complaining about how fast the Diamondback line moves. It is, by far, the quickest moving line of any coaster at either KI or CP short of Magnum (or maybe Raptor) running with 3 trains and a good crew. B&M hyper capacities are awesome, and destroy the capacities of the Intamins at CP. I simply stated that on RWW that the line for Diamondback during ERT may be a little longer than what "usual" ERT may be due to the fact that DB is slated to be the only coaster open during that time. I certainly hope that's not the case, and I'll be in line as long as the wait times aren't outrageous, but I'm preparing myself for the fact that they may not be the <10 minutes we saw this past Friday.
  20. I'm very curious about this as well. My only concern is that Diamondback will be the only ride open at this time, and given the fact that it's a new ride I'm optimistic about wait times but won't go so far as to say that waits will be like they were this past Friday. Speaking of this past Friday, I managed to snag 15 rides. I wouldn't be surprised for those people who really wanted to marathon got in > 40. Those of us who were in the line for rerides I think all knew the same thing, that we probably weren't going to see lines that short again for a while, so grab those rides while you can!
  21. That African American guy in the front seat, i was in line with him on my first ride, he was really nice. Ha, I knew I'd fool someone into thinking I was nice eventually! I'm glad to see you came out of hibernation to post, and that front seat ride was really enjoyable. Waiting only 10 minutes definitely helps! Zach, I didn't realize you were a firefighter in training! I'm sure that someone decided to get cute and throw a cigarette butt down there to get that fire started, which is truly and utterly dumb in every way imaginable. I did catch your photo update on TPR as well (I'm not registered there). We'll see you at the park! Gary
  22. Awesome photos. You have some of the best Diamondback photos I've seen on any site, so keep up the great work. I will also say that you probably caught me with two of the cheesiest smiles ever on my face! Friday was an incredible evening, and seeing the same people in line over and over again really speaks to the rerideability of this coaster. I'm actually surprised you only ended up with 9 total DB rides, but I guess you didn't want to spoil yourself with any more than that. Having DB as your "baseline" coaster makes for some really dull other rides!
  23. I must say that design is very well done. Very wearable too even when you're not at the park. I love the more understated look and this definitely delivers. Nice job!
  24. Nice report! It was nice meeting you too, and I'm sure that won't be the last time we'll see you at the park. I truly am amazed at the type of community this site fosters and it's nice to see that many here have embraced that. Glad you enjoyed your (absolutely beautiful) day at the park!
  25. ^ I completely agree with the above assessment, particularly with the hammerhead element. It's definitely another element on Behemoth, whereas on Diamondback it's simply a turnaround. The sensation you get on Behemoth's hammerhead, particularly in the back row, right hand seat is outstanding. I'd also contend that Behemoth feels like it offers a slightly longer ride. I couldn't put my finger on why I felt Behemoth felt was better than Diamondback until the hammerhead element was mentioned. The "big" hills on both offer similar airtime (outstanding air, I might add), but Behemoth gives it to you in more quick hitting fashion and the hammerhead really sets it over the top. Being able to see the city of Toronto out in the distance on the first hill doesn't hurt either!
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