MDMC01

I thought about thread earlier tonight after drying my hands after seeing Part 1 of Mockingjay. After washing my hands, there was an Xcelerator dryer that I started to use and I thought "ohhhh..." (the bad kind of "oh") and then looked for some paper towels, for which there was none.

It was between Son of Beast and Top Gun, but I ultimately picked Top Gun. It was one of my go-to rides when I was little and is still a fantastic ride! Although Son of Beast is my second-place choice, other contenders include Drop Zone: Stunt Tower and Tomb Raider: The Ride. Xtreme Skyflyer gets an honorable mention because for a while, it was the one ride at the park that truly scared me.

Spectrum91: First off, this list looks amazing and thanks for taking the time to put it together. Also, with the exception of Adventure City, all of the parks and their respective new editions are bullet-ed at the same level, which makes it hard to distinguish a theme park location from its new-for-2015 additions. I think you were trying to put the theme park name un-bulleted and have bullets under the location (which I think is how you originally had it), but just recently everything except Adventure City ended up being in bullets. -MDMC, just trying to help.

That is really good! I think it's cool that you all drew some of the rides around the map as well as placed them on the map.

Great Trip Report Malem; I know I had a great time!

I'm going to go through my answers individually... Firehawk: 8. When it first came out, I was thought it was cool because I'd never been on a flying coaster before. After that, there was a time its popularity started to wane with me because it had a super long line a lot of times and I hardly ever rode it for a few seasons. However, my interest in the ride was been deeply renewed this year (I believe it was one of my first rides of the year) and now I think it's pretty awesome! WindSeeker: 4. It doesn't do much for me, but it was a pretty nice addition to the park. Improvement: Other, because I really can't think of anything right now... Next Expansion area: Soak City. I definetely think Soak City needs some more slides and I think it would be cool it there was a slide complex with a capsule drop slide and a mini-funnel tube slide (like at Kentucky Kingdom) that occupied the green space near Tidal Wave Bay. EDIT: Changed numbers to reflect my change in vote.

Yeah, but do they have the best job ever? And did they make an awesome video about it? -MDMC, who was a part of that video shoot...

I also found a Son of Beast shirt and a shirt with the original Bat logo on that same site.

Thank you so much; same to you!

Good stuff so far. I would love to go to IAAPPA someday! I'd like to share a quick story that might mirror your experiences, but relating to a different industry. I recently attended the CSOHIMMS Conference (a conference for Healthcare IT professionals; I attended as I am a soon to be graduating Health Information Technology major) near Downtown Cincinnati on October 24th and had a blast. I think the best part was talking with the different vendors/recruiters and learning about what each company does. I share this story because I can definitely understand your excitement for meeting professionals from an industry that you hope to work in someday as I also feel this way.

I've never been to Holiday World, but from the blog pictures, I'm guessing they are moving Eagle's Flight to be near Thunderbird's launch. It makes sense sense both rides are (or were) bird themed.

This is nothing but greatness for Kings Island (more visitors, money and publicity ("within walking distance from Kings Island!")), but at the same time, will be a nightmare for getting to and from the park and there will be longer lines (which could mean more sales for Fast Lane, so yeah...). On the flip side, who wouldn't want to live across the street from Kings Island? *raises hand and yells "oooh, pick me!"* I'm thinking these homes (or whatever they turn out to be) will sell like hotcakes!

Don't forget Tommy Boy! The whole model car scene about the "other guy's" brake pads (there are quotes for a reason as Chris Farley's character used air quotes in the movie) used to crack me up when I was little. "You're driving along, you're driving along..." Good times!

Well, I've actually never been on a Boomerang or an SLC, so that might be part of the appeal, but also I love Firehawk. Part of this has to do with me loving the time period of the 90's and early 2000's and everything related to that. So, because Firehawk was a product of the early 2000's (2001 to be exact), I pretty much think it's one of the greatest things since sliced bread (not really, but I think you get the point...). Specifically, I think it's cool that Vekoma Flyers (along with Floorless and Impulse coasters) were the pinnacle of roller coaster technology back in the day (not to mention the hot new rides of its time, much as Wing Coasters, Rocky Mountain Hybrids and B&M Gigas are the next big things today). Finding a ride like that today is like finding a living artifact from that time period that allows you to experience life as it was. So, long story short, I like Firehawk because of my rose-colored nostalgic view of the 90's and early 2000's (and it's a pretty good ride, too!).

I'd say Geagua Lake, Six Flags Worlds of Adventure era. Yes, I know we wouldn't have the amazingness that is Firehawk, but before the park closed down, it had (in my opinion) one of the most unique and diverse coaster collections ever. It had all the thrill rides of the new millennium such as a Vekoma Flying Coaster, a Floorless and an Impulse mixed with the old-school Double Loop and Big Dipper, plus a Vekoma Boomerang and an SLC. I've never personally been there, but it sounded really cool.

Was this store called the Emporium? The Emporium is a store on International Street near the front of the park.

Actually, you'd be surprised how many bees are in those trashcans in October! I don't remember if they had much of a presence at night, but I do recall seeing trash cans with bees in them when working during the Haunt season. However, I don't know if they're hornets or just regular bees.

Banshee, and then Firehawk for second place EDIT: Sorry, I sort-of change my answer: Banshee, Soak City re-do, and then Firehawk! I just remembered how blown away I was the first time I saw those re-painted slides!

Looking at that last picture of Fury, that is a really steep drop. Kind of excited to try this out next year along with riding Nighthawk and Carolina Cobra!

Good stuff; but I just found it interesting that the ride's layout involves going forward up a lift as I was thinking the ride would have a layout like Boomerang coasters like Invertigo and go backwards up the first lift. Either way, it looks really cool.

As for thrills during the Off-Season, I do like to skateboard when its warm out (like in March or April). I'm no Tony Hawk, but I do like to cruise around my neighborhood. As for other things to do during the off-season (or really any time), exploring new places or trying new restaurants can be fun. Last off-season, during my Spring Break, I took a half-day to go visit some sites in my hometown such as a park and a mall which was pretty fun.

I don't know, it just looked like a very different type of roller coaster than I've ever seen before. I guess I saw it as like a giant tower/coaster combo (one ride and therefore, not a "true" roller coaster in my eyes) rather than a roller coaster that happened to be wrapped around a tower. The video made it seem like the roller coaster was both connected to and independent of the structure as it didn't just tightly wrap around the tower. It sounds confusing, but the bottom line is, the first rendering didn't look like any roller coaster that I had seen before, and not in a good way. On the other hand, the video makes the ride see like an awesome roller coaster than just happens to be located in/near and climb a functional observation tower.

I saw the video on Facebook and this looks pretty cool. When I saw the first rendering, I was like "really? I'm not riding that!" 'cause it looked unappealing to me as the track was too close to the tower. Now, I'm thinking this ride looks awesome.

It's also important to factor Invertigo's location into why ridership was down. Bat's entrance is right next to Banshee while Invertigo is on the other side of Action Zone, therefore it makes sense that Bat's ridership would increase while Invertigo's ridership decreased.