Flat Freak

Tips for Backlot: 1) Have your head back against the headrest for the launch on your first ride. The launch isn't too intense, but it's a good idea for the first time on a launched coaster. 2) Some dizziness after the helix is normal. 3) It might be helpful to tell her some of the theme (car chase, running from the bad guys) to explain the fire, gunshots, etc. 4) The tunnel after the second launch is TOTALLY dark. The dark part is not rough at all, in fact it's quite fun, just dark. 5) Exiting the tunnel towards the queue line overpass can be frightening the first time. Make sure to watch the faces while in line so she knows what to expect there. This ride is one of the smoothest in the park. It has some great dips and transitions. I agree with your daughter that AE is rough and FD turns my stomach. For me, the pain/thrill ratio is too high on these rides and I don't bother with them. It's fun to watch kids' progression through the rides. Last summer, my daughter started the year never having ridden anything bigger than The Beastie, and was a Diamondback junkie by the end of the season. Once she realizes that fear is part of the fun, and embraces the fear, there will be no stopping her.

WindSeeker at 5am today, captured by Skycam and posted on KI's Facebook page by somebody. Uploaded with ImageShack.us

KI has a 1970 construction pic on their Facebook page. I'm not at my normal computer so I can't post it. I'm sure someone reading this can. Nice to see the 1972 map posted. To this, the Rotor remains the only ride that has EVER made my lose my lunch. That ride was the epitome of spin-n-puke.

Don't forget the ghost. See my avatar.

I have a tight fit on any ride with an OTSR. I'm not exceptionally large (5'11" 200#) and I don't have (much of) a gut nor am I extraordinarily muscular but the combination of my torso length/shoulder size/chest size means that that OTSRs are always cozy for me. For some reason, Invertigo has a really bad fit for me for some reason with it very tight on my shoulders but lots of space in front of my stomach. Lap bars or Diamondback restraints are no problem.

I imagine the dinosaurs are quite similar in construction to the Jesus statue that burned so spectacularly last summer.

Life gets in the way of things that are important sometimes. Today it was an afternoon commitment interfering with our hopes to get some rides in. No matter, we had to leave the park at 2pm, but arrived at 840am and were third in line at the metal detectors. A quick jog back to Diamondback got us on the second train (red train) of the day. Six people total. The station was too full for a re-ride, but we looped around and got back in time to be on the red train again. Loop around, red train again. Loop around, line was down the stairs but little wait. Four rides in by 0925. Looking good for 8-10 before the lines got long. On the final brake run of our fourth lap (my 10-year-old's 73rd Diamondback ride), the ride op started walking out to talk to us. Uh oh. We waited about 6-7 minutes before they rolled us in to the station. Trains went out empty a few times, and they weren't letting people into the queue. Bailout, head to Beast. Two train wait the first lap. Second lap would have been a walk on, but we elected to wait three trains for the front row. Our train was half empty. Head to BLSC. Twenty minute wait. (Side note: I like this ride. I would really like it if it had a better throughput.) Launch, nice ride. Get to the helicopter scene, no launch. Hear the mechanism make noise a few times, but no launch. Sunny, getting hot. After a few minutes, a ride op comes to the fence to tell us there's a delay. No kidding. Unfortunately, some jerks on our train mouth off to her. She was probably a rookie and didn't handle things the best, though. She says she'll be back in a few minutes. We wait, finally a supervisor comes out and tells us they'll try to launch shortly. Eventually it works and we roll in uneventfully after an approximately 10-15 minute delay. We wanted to try Panda Express, so we headed to Festhaus. The selection at the time was horrible (it was still early), and Festhaus Larosa's was packed, so we went to I Street for pizza. Yummy as ever. Back towards Rivertown, Diamondback line all through the queue. Vortex? Sorry, closed. Peek at WindSeeker, no obvious work being done, but the carriage moved down the tower a few times throughout our day (it was at the top, stopped, when we arrived this morning) so they were doing something. Since we only had a short time left, we decided to do some small flats. WindSeeker Jr. (Zephyr) was pretty fun, one ride wait. Dodgems were fun, walk on. We went to the Red Racer and had a four train wait. Exiting, we noticed that the line was now through four! rows of speed rails on both sides!!! It was just a four train wait ten minutes ago! I guess we were lucky. Back on the midway, it seemed like the park was trying for an attendance record by giving free admission to anyone wearing a music related t-shirt. People were EVERYWHERE. Carousel was fun. By then it was 1240 and we had to leave at 2pm. We walked into Action Zone and the Drop Zone Tower and Delirium lines were both at least 40 minutes. Never mind, we'll be back later in the season. A pretty productive four hours (for a Saturday). Exiting the park, there were people pouring in and the bus lot was packed. I made some lady's day when I left the first spot in the row in the Gold Pass lot. She was pulling into one of the last few spots in the row, when I flagged her down and told her she could get the first spot if she was lucky. I hope it was still open when she got there. I'll say this - the park atmosphere is a lot better when it's full like that, but we as weekday regulars sure do get spoiled by short waits. Nice weather today. About 80, sunny, clear, no hint of the predicted t-storms. No signs of the end of the world, yet. My daughter and I got near home about 90 minutes before the party we were supposed to attend, so we stopped at a local Mexican restaurant, ate delicious fajitas on the patio and had some good laughs. That was the highlight of the day, in a good way. Kings Island really needs a Mexican food offering.

In previous years, they've always honored older KI cups for refills. I wonder if that remains true? I have no information about using a non-KI cup from another CF park.

I fear that it is the lawyers and insurance actuaries that will be making the decision regarding the future of Son of Beast, and I don't see how that decision can be favorable for the enthusiasts.

Welcome to KIC and the Cincinnati area! I hope you enjoy your time here, from someone that is relatively new to the forum too (but not Dayton/Cincinnati or KI itself). It makes sense that they don't strictly enforce entrance into the Gold Pass lot that late in the day, as I can't imagine too many people enter that late. We have attended thrice this year, and had our Gold Pass checked each time upon entering the special lot. All three times were early in the day. We aren't big on Boomerang Bay, so I can't answer that question. Enjoy the park!

Sadly, only KI and CP are on the agenda for this year. My work is project-based, meaning I take a project and work it until it's done. I had planned to not accept many projects in May and June to limit my work to about 25 hours a week on average this summer, so I could take several trips to maximize our first-time Platinum Passes (we haven't upgraded from Gold yet, but will before hitting CP later this year). KD, Carowinds, and a couple CP trips were hoped for. Instead, I recently got the proverbial "offer I can't refuse," meaning I will be working about 70 hours per week through the middle of August. This will limit parks to one KI visit per week most weeks, and we will only get to CP the third week in August. School starts for my daughter at the end of August, so that will effectively end our park season except some Haunt weekends at KI. The good news is that I will make a load of cash this summer. So...fifteen or so KI visits (three down), and one 3.5 day CP visit.

According to his twitter feed, his hosting provider was scheduled to go out of business at the end of the month. It looks like it happened early.

We arrived at the park about 1010 am today. In line for our first Diamondback ride of the day it started to mist. By the time we got to the station it was a steady rain and they suspended operations due to weather (assuming there was a threat of lightning because it really wasn't a hard rain, just steady). We got under cover and waited about ten minutes for the all clear; by that time one of the three trains had been removed. We rode Diamondback twice in a steady drizzle. Raindrops HURT at 80 mph and it was cold. We escaped to Beast which was down to one train. With a five-minute ride time, that makes for a long wait. One ride there, one more Diamondback, and we cried uncle. That's one of the hidden benefits of a season pass - a shortened day at the park doesn't hurt too badly. We can't wait until school's out for summer so we can quit attending on weekends. It's hard to adapt to hour waits when 15 minutes is the norm on weekdays. The two train operation on Diamondback produced a noticeable delay. When we got in line the third time, the line was through all the speed rails except the last one - normally about a 45 minute wait. This one took about 1:05. Normally when train 1 leaves the station, train 2 is waiting to roll in while the third just finished their circuit. With two trains, the extra 30 seconds to roll into the station is really noticeable.

Does that mean I'll have to ride by myself? :rimshot

On the original topic of the thread: We were there opening day and again this Saturday (May 7). Things were quite smooth compared to opening day. Delirium was down a couple of times for a few minutes (once when we were next in line, naturally). Firehawk ditto. Crowds were much smaller, which made a better experience. The wait for Drop Zone Tower was out onto the midway all day last week and didn't even fill three rows of speed rails this week (later in the day). On the music: The music in The Beast queue is much louder, spookier than last year. Two of our group were first-time Beast riders and commented on the music. Very well done. I don't remember the lift hill music or lack thereof. The queue music for Backlot Stunt Coaster included several selections from the Ocean's Eleven soundtrack. I've heard Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band every single time in line for Diamondback (six rides so far this year). Good song, but they might add a couple more to the rotation. Song 2 is a great choice for Delirium and Right Now ditto for Drop Tower.

When I walk down I Street, Colonel Bogey still plays in my head, even though it's likely been years since it was played there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZhWQqinZmk

Here's my opening day TR: We arrived in the parking lot about 8:40 and approached the metal detectors. Each of the lines was about 30 deep at the time. At 9:00 we went through the metal detectors and had our passes scanned with no delays. By 9:15 we were at Diamondback with only a one train wait. After riding, the speed rails were already starting to fill, so we headed back to Beast. The line wasn't too long, we rode, and as we rolled into the final brake run, an employee came out to inform us that there would be a slight delay for mechanical reasons. One train sat at the bottom of the lift hill, and I assume the third was out on the MCBR (I know it went out because we saw it on our way in). It did have passengers. We sat in the train for about ten minutes before they rolled us back into the station. The release for the lap bars didn't work, so they were manually releasing each one individually with a tool. My daughter's lap bar wouldn't release for about ten tries. I tried to tell her don't worry, I'd come back to pick her up! It finally released and we got out about 10:15. I don't know how long the others had to wait out on the tracks. We walked towards Coney to see the WindSeeker site and worked our way towards Racer. Only the blue side was running, with three rows of speed rails at the time. That ride was uneventful. We intended to do AE on the way towards Action Zone, but that line was out to the midway already, and that ride is not worth that much wait (to me, I know some others love it). We decided on Delirium next, as the line was just barely out to the midway at the time, and that line moves quickly. Right when we entered the line one rider's restraint wouldn't release! The poor girl sat there strapped into her seat while her friends stood waiting for her outside the exit. After a few minutes of watching the Benny Hill show version of trying to get her out, we decided it was a good time for lunch, so we headed out to the car. While eating, we noticed Delirium was running again, so we went back. The line was about eight rides long. (I wanted to do Drop Tower, but that line was almost to the Congo Falls entrance and never let up all day.) We were next up, still in the speed rails, when they announced it was going down again. I understand that someone else's restraint got stuck! Twenty minutes of waiting in line and they reopened it, so we rode shortly after with no problems. We futzed around for a bit and found ourselves near Diamondback. The line was not quite to Rivertown Buffet, which I estimated as a 1:15 wait. We had decided that the combination of Opening Day, Saturday, perfect weather, Music in the Park, and enormous crowds left us with a choice between leaving early or dealing with waits. We elected to stick it out, as six months without rides needed a fix. So 1:15 wait it is. While in line, we noticed that Vortex was running and had passengers on it. My daughter had never ridden it and wanted to, so we decided to do it later that day. The Diamondback wait turned out to be 1:04, not bad at all, considering. Another trip to the car for some snacks, then in towards Beast. Whoops, that line was almost to the fence by Diamondback's splashdown, so we went for Vortex. I explained to my daughter the intricacies of the ride, and suggested seat 5-1 was Terpy approved. That was good enough for her. She liked her first time, but we both left with a headache. I blame this on the sun, the waiting, and the day, more than the ride. We got to check out WindSeeker up close at The Vortex exit. It's neat to see up close, but you can't see much that you can't already see on the webcam. One interesting story though. We're watching the activity for a minute, and the crew is using the JLG lift truck to pull a cable down through the tower (guided by a couple of pulleys). One of the workers is standing next to the lift saying "take it back, take it back," guiding the lift truck operator as he is pulling the cable (attached to the truck) by backing up. There is a crash, and the guide says "OK, hold it right there" completely deadpan. Really, buddy, thanks. I hope nothing (or nobody) was damaged! By then, dusk was starting to set in, so it was time to plan the end of the day. We decided on blue ice "cream," followed by a Diamondback ride, followed by a nighttime Beast ride. The blue ice cream line was ten deep, and I swear it took us 25 minutes to get ice cream. I don't put this down as opening day jitters, as this happened last year too. I think KI needs to check the speed of their service at the various food stands. The Diamondback line was about an hour again, so we queued up. A pleasant ride as always, and it was ALMOST dark, which is always fun. We walked out at 8:55 and walked back to Beast for our last ride of the day (detour to Rivertown Potato Works en route). The Beast line was about 50 minutes by my guess. (Side note: isn't The Beast more fun when the station is packed with people?) (Side note 2: funny things ride ops say - "Step one - buckle the seatbelt. Step two - pull down the lap bar. If you do step two first, we WILL make fun of you. Then we will buckle your seat belt.") We were four spots away from riding when the fireworks shutdown time hit, as expected. A short wait, then a fun (as usual) night Beast ride to wrap up the day. We were in the car by 10:45, and only had a moderate delay getting out of the lot. Notes on WindSeeker: on Diamondback and Beast, we saw a lot of WindSeeker lit up. I can say that it is beautiful at night. The ride carriage is covered with lights, but the best part might be the ultra-bright LEDs at the top of the tower that illuminate the tower itself. They cycle through all the colors of the rainbow every 15 seconds or so. This will be a great visual addition to the park (as well as a heckuva thrill too). One of the supervisors told us that the lighting package alone exceeded $500K. (It wasn't the Dippin Dots guy, so take it with a grain of salt.) Ride count: Beast 2, Diamondback 3, Racer 1, Delirium 1, Vortex 1. Total 8 in 13.5 hours. Usually we can get eight in during ERT alone when we go on weekdays! No serious complaints, though. We expected it to be busy, but not that busy. We'll rarely attend the park on a Saturday during the season, but this was Opening Day and we missed the rides, so it is what it is. There are some kinks to be ironed out operationally, but I really didn't hear anybody griping, and several out-of-towners in for the Music Days were pretty complimentary. On the way out to the car, we overhead a supervisor giving a pep talk to a cleaning crew, and he said something about this being the best opening day ever. I believe it. EDIT: I forgot two rides on BLSC mixed in throughout the day. So ten rides in almost 14 hours. Woot.

Disappointing, but hardly surprising. The weather this month has been ridiculous.

A 300' metal pole sticking up in the sky got struck by lightning? Shocking*! Film at 11! Seriously, I assume there's a very large grounding system in place for towers like WindSeeker, Eiffel Tower, Drop Tower, Diamondback, Sling Shot, etc. Would someone in the know share some specs? *Sorry, bad pun intended

WindSeeker is...is...is... HAUNTED!!!

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing. I even like the hiss of the brakes on the MCBR.

The city of Mason issues permits for rides?

I know nothing of rides except how to ride them, but to my inexpert eye, the 50 or so seats that are attached look pretty mych ready to go. I see no reason it couldn't be done by Tuesday barring major storms. That leaves three full days for testing and certification. What testing does the state require? So many hours or so many ride cycles? I am curious because I intend to be on it with my daughter at 9:01 am six days from now.

I want the ride reopened badly, but I just can't imagine it ever happening, because the only people that want the ride open more than the enthusiasts are the trial lawyers. And they can cost your park significantly more than $10 million worth of demolition in defense, settlements, and increased insurance premiums. I hope I'm wrong.

I don't like spinning rides either, but I don't consider 8 revolutions per minute "spinning." More like "rotating." For example, Delirium's rotation looks intimidating from the ground, but the sensation you get on the ride is not of spinning, but of swinging. On WindSeeker, rotating eight times per minute over such a large diameter circle, I don't think it will feel like spinning in place at all, rather a constant high-speed turn like some sort of bizarro world Nascar 301 feet in the air.