DaveStroem

I have not seen it posted here yet. Fast Lane is now ALL DAY!!!. It is no longer just from Noon to 7PM. From the reports I have heard, this is being lightly used. I am glad about that for 2 reasons. If it is lightly used, then it will not be worth the bother and will go away and while it is around it won't make much of an impact on non-users. On the flip side, I hate what the addition of the Fast Lane has done to The Beast station. There is another tread on that topic, so I won't go into it any further. All these changes have turned me sour to KI and really make me question next years Platinum Pass purchase.

Gary, I would not hold my breath that this will be open Easter Weekend. Titan, good catch, it does look a lot like that.

Looks interesting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufRbnqifrqE&feature=player_embedded http://www.hersheypa..._2012/index.php The trains look like Diamondbacks to me, but this is an Intamin AG, not a B&M Skyrush Fact Sheet DESIGN FEATURES Manufacturer IntaminAG Ride Supplier IntaRide LLC, USA Model Mega/hypercoaster with winged seating SeatDetails Cantilevergeometry Four seats per car (two floored, two floorless) Floorless outer seats are winged Outer seats offer a 270-degree panoramic view Structure Steeltrack Maximum Height 200 feet Elements 50-degreeascent 85-degree descent Fourhigh-speed/high-banked curves Fiveairtime hills Lift Speed 26feet per second Maximum Speed 75mph (+/-) Track Length Nearly3,600 feet ColorScheme Lightblue columns Yellowtrack Deepblue trains with yellow accents Braking System Magneticbraking system CAPACITY AND RIDE TIME Numberof Trains 2 Capacityper Train 32riders ApproximateRide Time 63seconds TheoreticalRide Capacity 1,350riders per hour COST ProjectedCost $25million (estimated)

I agree that KI will not be getting a major attraction for 2012 but will in 2013. I am still hoping for a B&M inverted though.

We just got back from Missouri, I can tell you that the fast food restaurants as far west as Effingham. are giving out Holiday World coupons.

As gad198 suggested this time of year, I would get the Gold Flashpass. I see from their site that Green Lantern is NOT on the Flash Pass even as an upgrade. Since that is the case, I would head there first. Then get your fast pass and consider the upgrade for X2. When I was there, it was nearly walk-on, but that was late January. I can only imagine how packed it will be on a August weekend. Once you have your FP I would put in Tatsu. If the wait is long enough, I would ride Revolution and Viper while Tatsu matures. Have fun and stay hydrated. I would suggest getting the souvenir cups. They are $12.99 for one, and the price goes down the more you get. They come with a wristband that lets you get free refills the rest of the day. While I am not sure about MM, every other SF park I have been to this year now has cup holders for the souvenir cups in the station. Most rides will not allow bags and their lockers are $1 for 120 minutes. I know you tend to not carry a bag, but you might pass that on to the rest of your group. I wish we could join you. Maybe next year. Dave

Well Maverick is pretty small all things considered. It is also a sure winner at CP, so I would think it would be at CW as well.

For those wondering just what this is, it is a Gerstlauer Sky Roller. http://www.gerstlaue...y-roller-en-US/ But I would rather have one of these http://www.zamperla.com/en/product/167/air-race.html?category_id=4

We were at Worlds of Fun on Sunday for the Coasting for Kids where they announced their new trail "London Terror". They talked about it having a turn of the century store fronts and taking their tombstone trail and condensing it into one section of the new trail. They mentioned having all the favorites including Jack the Ripper, Mr Hyde in the city section and Werewolfs in the cemetery. The way he described it sounded like a sure winner to me. While this means nothing for what is happening at KI, it is a glimpse of what else is going on at another Cedar Fair park.

In 2009 I participated in C4K at Cedar Point. Last year was at Kings Island, so since I had been in two different parks already, I decided to head to yet a third for 2011. My wife had not ridden any of the rides at Worlds of Fun, so that made us favor heading west. When they released the ride schedule that cinched it. We headed out Friday night after work and drove to Effingham IL for the night. Saturday we went to SFStL for the most uncomfortably hot park day I have ever experienced. Crowds were not bad with the coasters being 10-15 minute waits at the most. Only real disappointment of the day was that Sky Screamer was closed all day. We left before closing and drove about 3 hours west to Higgensville MO where we spent the night. Sunday morning we headed to Kansas City and to Worlds of Fun. We got to the park earlier then we expected and had to wait for the parking lot to open. Once it did, the parking lot attendant didn't seem to know anything about the event and that people participating should not have to pay for parking. It was a moot point for us with our platinum pass. Once we got parked we headed up to the GR window where no one was waiting for us. A few minutes later several people from the park and Scott from GKTW showed up with the start of "surprises" the first being a GKTW wristband/bracelet. The next was another wristband, but this one was from the park and was good for free soft drinks through out the day. After meeting other riders including Andrea Burch. She and I were going back and forth for the lead at WoF fundraising. She eventually won out with a stronger last minute push. Between the 2 of us we raise over half of the parks total. After everyone was gathered up we walked back to Prowler to begin our marathoning. In the 2 hours that we rode the green train 32 times before heading for lunch. I find that I like the back on the right side. They also brought us up bottled water during the riding so we go stay hydrated without having to miss a lap. About halfway through we were down to less then half the number of riders that we started with. We then headed to Coasters for Lunch and a few more "surprises". While they were handing out the boxed lunches we got our WoF Coasting for Kids certificates featuring a picture of Momba. This was quite nice and will be framed for my office wall. While we were eating Scott Fais from GKTW spoke about what was going on there. He also introduced TJ and her family that had recently returned from GKTW. It was great seeing first hand what our efforts were going to. Next they handed out the t-shirts. WOW these were nice. I was quite impressed with the design. These also started a number of conversations later in the day with other guests wondering about the event. Scott then had another "surprise". A friend of his is one of the VPs at GCII (sorry I don't remember which one) and that they had sent some GCII swag bags. They only had 5 of them so they had TJ draw names. Unfortunately none of us were called. This turned out to be OK because Andrea and her brother were both chosen and she is not a "coaster" person so she gave me her swag bag. After this they handed out the prizes for the top 3 fundraisers. As I stated earlier, Andrea won and I came in second place. She is also a pass holder so neither one of us has a use for the tickets personally. She is a hospice nurse and is giving her tickets to families of patients that could use a day of fun. I asked the park to give my tickets to her for the same purpose. When they found out what I was doing, they gave me a WOF goodie bag with a couple of t-shirts, WOF bag and a cool WOF snow globe. After lunch and the awards, we headed to Mamba for 26 laps. This coaster is such a contrast with the first half being fun and powerful and the second half being tame and boring. At 3:00 pm we headed for the last coaster of the event, Patriot. This is were we ran into a little hick-up. One of the trains was down, so they were only running a one train operation. They had told us that we could grab any seat and then they would let the public fill in around us. This was a nightmare for everyone and the public was getting annoyed. Several of us suggested that the block off 2 rows for us and then let the public have the rest of the train and those of us that were not able to get on one of the 8 seats either filled in other empty seats or sat out. By this time we were all getting pretty tired so it was no big deal. I still got in close to 20 laps. At the end of the event we got the last of our "surprises" in the form of a Snoopy bobble-head. We took some group photos and then took off our own separate ways. We headed out of the park for some air-conditioning and a bit of dinner before heading back so my wife could ride the other coasters and hit some flat rides. After a long tiring day we headed south to Clinton Mo, for the night. The next day was our first visit to Silver Dollar City. We then headed for home on Tuesday morning with a couple hour stop at the St Louis Arch.

Thanks to many of you Coasting for Kids has raised over $55,000 for Give Kids the World. Kings Islands C4K has raised $5452 with 35 fundraisers including 6 that did not meet the $35 minimum fundraising requirement. If they all registered and were not virtual riders, that is an additional $1400 for a total of $6852. I came in 2nd for the Worlds of Fun group with $1281 raised. I would like to thank many on these pages for their support of me and Give Kids the World. Dave Wetterstroem

I never said it was a bad experience. I was the one that passed the same family over and over and over and over again. I am sure this also happened at SFGAM when we were there riding Raging Bull many times in a row. This was with a supposed time limited gold flash pass. With KIs program, you could just run around as fast as you wanted too.

Again, this is assuming that line wait times won't be affected, if they are there won't be anything normal about it. The first couple of days of this new offering can hardly be considered evidence as to how this will be come Saturday or even next month.

OK Folks, I am now $23 from being in First Place for the Coasting for Kids event at Worlds of Fun. I need your help to put me back on top. http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraise...ds-worldsoffun

Well if you "get it" I don't want it GYK, In an earlier post you mentioned about waiting till a Saturday to see just how this will impact the park, yet you keep spouting your opinion that it will make little to no difference. If you want those that think it will cause longer wait times when compared to not using it to hold off with their opinions, why don't you do the same?

This is not the same at all. When you go to the ball game you are both seeing the same game the same number of times and it is not like Boddah is standing in front of you blocking your view on every third pitch. When someone cuts in front of you with the Fast Lane, they have taken something from you. That may be just a few seconds from your day, but it still is gone. Add it all up and it might just be a couple of laps on your favorite coaster during the day. While many say Big Freakin Deal. For most of us, it isn't, but for someone that is pushing the budget to just get to the park for their one and only visit, it could be. There seems to be multiple camps that are against this. The first being the ones that want to use this but can't afford it. The second are the ones that want to use it but think that they should get a break because they have a gold pass. The Third is the ones that feel that it is unfair to those that are not in the Fast Lane. This is the group that I belong in. I understand the park it trying to maximize every opportunity to create income. That is their job and responsibility to the share holders. I would suggest that they change this to a system like what Silver Dollar City, Kennywood or Busch Gardens uses. You can purchase an upgrade that allows you to skip the line once on each of the rides it is offered on. This would satisfy those that are willing to pay to cut, bring in income and yet still keep control of the number of seats that are going to Fast Lane. Under the current unlimited ride model it is anyone's guess at how this will effect ride times. To funny, I was writing this at the same time as StandByMe with much of the same sentiment.

While this is true, the difference IMO is that adding Fast Lane is by it's very nature taking away something from everyone else that is not using. If Fast Lane is lightly used, then that something will be minor and hardly noticeable. If on the other hand it is widely used, that something could create a noticeably different and negative park experience. Again if it is lightly used, then it won't be generating the income to justify the additional expense and the potential operational impact of dealing with 2 lines.

Indyguy, it wasn't much in your case, but my goal is to get everyone to the minimum, or if they are too far away for me to cover it all, to at least get them a little bit closer.

The page on the official site say that there are a limited number of Fast Lane passes available each day. I just sent an email to the park through the "contact" link at the bottom of every page on the site to try to find out what that limit is. I also asked this question to a real person that is in the know, and the reply was they are limited. So my guess is they don't really want to give out this information.

You are now cleared to ride. Last year my family did 105 laps on Red Racer and 1 on Blue Racer I expect a similar ride count.

OK Donations have been made, there is still a little bit in the kitty if your register quickly and let me know. For anyone wanting to share the love, my page is http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/dave-wetterstroem/CoastingForKids-WorldsofFun

Today is the day that I am going to put my donations in. If you want to catch a piece of what I am doing, let me know so I don't miss you. If your in the KIC team, I know about you. If you are also a close friend, I see you there too. But if your not in the KIC team, and you don't already have $35 in your account please post here or PM me.

GYC, I think your naive to think that only 40 people per day will purchase a Fast Lane wristband. There will be that many on a slow rainy day in April when everything is a walk on. On a Summer day this will easily be 10 times that. Just like at McDonalds, they offer you fries with your burger. Now the "large" fry and drink are huge with a huge price tag to it. People like the best/large option and will shell out the $$$ without even thinking about it. As to your assertion that it will not effect wait times, that maybe true for those rainy April days, but I can assure you it will make the wait time for John Q Parkgoer longer. A few weeks ago we were at SFOT on a slow Monday. The line for Titan was about 150 people (3 switchbacks) yet it took 30 minutes to get on the ride. This was not because of slow dispatches, it was because the line was stopped where the FP entrance was. It was also not to let FP people in, it was to allow the one or two that did come down to enter without any delay. The person either by policy or ignorance allowed the station to empty and forcing half empty trains to be dispatched while people were standing in the queue. I know this is a different system and IMO the worst possible way this could be implemented.

To many people $50 is nothing. I see this being a big issue when Summer Saturday's roll around. It will really depend on just how limited this is. If they offer more then a couple of hundred of these each day it will tend to keep me away from the park. I REALLY HATE THIS.

windshawne, I am thinking the same thing, if they keep adding this to parks that I have already gone to, I will save my money to go to other parks that I have not been to. I could see only offering it on Saturdays. That is really the only time I think it would be necessary.