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The wife and I decided to head to Cedar Point to end our 2013 amusement park adventures. Since I didn't create a TR for our Coastermania trip I'll do a "quick" brief on what I think of CP's coasters (This was our second trip up to CP). We originally were headed to CP on Columbus Day weekend but due to seeing a couple of stories online at PointBuzz about how busy the crowds were expected to be that weekend we decided to go to KI instead. After hearing of the horror stories about the past Saturday we were glad we made this decision to switch trips. The trip took about 4 hours and 20 minutes to get from our house to the hotel. We entered the park during ERT and since we were going to be at the park for 3 days we decided to stick with one ride for our ERT sessions. Friday was for Maverick, Saturday was for Millennium Force, and Sunday was for Gatekeeper. We headed straight for the Soak City Lot and through the back gate headed straight for Maverick. But our ERT session was not to be as we closed in on Maverick we noticed they were not letting anyone in line. The ride was down (surprise, surprise). We then headed to MF for the remaining time and were greeted with a 25 minute wait during ERT. After riding MF I can see why it holds the #1 ranking as best steel coaster. Our ride was in the front row of the last car. Quickly making our way up we are pulled down what I consider the best first drop on a roller coaster that I have ridden. We floated out of our seats into the first banked turn. Then through the first tunnel and along the course I was surprised by the speed that was carried throughout the ride. The overbanked turns and the few airtime hills that were placed throughout the ride really made it a great ride. 9.5/10 After MF we headed to TTD as the park had opened to the public. Once again we were greeted with a sorry this ride is down message (surprise again! not really haha) so we headed to Power tower and rode the drop side, it was a 2 cycle wait. I was shocked at the timing for the ride's drop and it was a nice surprised fall back to the ground. 7/10 After Power Tower we went back to the car to grab money for food and when we headed back in TTD was throwing cars through a cycle. We ended up getting right in line and getting a ride after about 5 cycles (This is the positive side about rides being down. People leave the line and once it opens if you are close enough the ride is basically a walk on.) This ride is pretty unique. The layout is simple but how it is executed is pretty awesome. The ride's speed and height is very intimidating but still enjoyable. The launch is powerful as you get thrown back into your seat and you shoot straight up into the air. After you twist and slow down to creast over the hill you can get a good view of the lake, MF, and CP. Its a beautiful sight. Then you hit the speed again and through the "finish line" you go. The wind in your face is pretty awesome and its so intense that it seems like you can't even yell when you are on it. Its an adrenaline filled ride that is fun and will always attract people due to the records it once held. 9/10 After that we decided to eat. I got mini corn dog bites and fries while my wife got chicken tenders and fries. I would say the food was mediocre but at least filling. The fries that I had from the fresh cut store were good while the corn dog bites were at least edible. While waiting for our stomachs to settle we went for a ride on Cedar Downs. I heard good things from the ride so we gave it a shot. It was actually pretty fun. The horse going back and forth and "racing" added a little bit more excitement to the carousel. We even got into it with the stranger that we were riding "against." It was a nice ride and relaxing. 7/10 It finally got dark after the Cedar Downs ride so we headed to ride WindSeeker. We waited one cycle for our WS ride. I have learned that if there is a full queue you will get on the ride within 2 cycles. Away we went with the Harry Potter track playing for our flight. The view this ride gives you is awesome. The water with the full moon gleaming off of it looked amazing while the rides (GK, TTD, PT, MF) look stunning as well. The wind was brisk up at the top of the ride and as soon as we were up we came back down. I think I like CP's WindSeeker better than KI's. I think it trumps KI's because you have stunning rides to look at and I like looking at water more than look at woods. After WS we headed to Wicked Twister. We waited 3 cycles for this ride and rode 3 rows from the back. The launch of this ride reminds me of FOF. Its quick and you really feels so forces when you go into the twists. The 5 swings are fun especially with the increasing speed on each one of them. After we were done we rode it again with a 3 cycle wait but 3 rows from the front. The front feels more twisty but both rides were good. 7.5/10 We then headed to GK next and were shocked to find it to only have a 15 minute wait. We decided to ride the last row on the left. Whoever said the ride is forceless needs to ride this thing in the back. It felt like we were being pulled into ever inversion and drop. The drop is very unique and the inversions are fun. I have chimed in on what I think about the addition to the park. I really don't think this was created to be a thrill seeker's ride. I really think this is a next level ride that can be enjoyed by the entire family and that has a huge visual effect as you enter the park. For enthusiasts it may not be a must ride but for most of the general public it will be. after the ride we ended up going again but in the last row on the right side. I think the left side is more forceful but the right side has more effects with the keyholes and foot and head choppers. Side note: My wife and I are not big fans of the restraint change on GK. the Shoulder harness' are too loose now. I could easily pull the restraints forward while going up the lift hill. I am all about changing it because some people complained but I never had an issue with the restraints and it just felt too loose while going through some of the inversions. Also a big shout out to the GK crew this night they were very quick and friendly. 8/10 We headed over to Raptor next and it was a 4 cycle wait. Again the crew was on it with this ride as well very quick and friendly. This ride is very fun and forceful. The zero g roll is my favorite element on this ride. It feels like you get pulled down when you are riding through it. The cobra roll is quick and the final helix is great as well. The speed really isn't there but the forces are. I like this ride a lot and it makes me even more excited for Banshee next year. 8.5/10 After Raptor we headed to GK again for 2 more night rides both were good (wait times were around 5 minutes, the lines started at where you chose to ride left or right side.) After that we headed to MF for a night ride and got one in after waiting about 40 minutes to ride. The sign out front said it was an hour wait but it was wrong as the line moved quickly even though the first two switch back sections were filled. We capped our night off with a night ride on TTD. The wind was brisk and cold but the 17 second ride was thrilling as usual. Tired and a little bit chilly we headed to our hotel for the night. The crowds were absolutely perfect for riding. Minimal waits (5-15 minutes were normal for most ride except MF and TTD. I didn't see what Maverick's line was like) I thank my wife for sticking around with me during the night because it was busy. We could've ridden a lot more but my wife was tired and needed some breaks between rides. Fridays seem to be good days to head to CP during HW. Tomorrow will be a little bit more cold as the high is projected for 49 degrees. Further updates to the TR will be added here as the day finishes up. Sorry if this is hard to follow or if there are errors in it. I am typing it on my Ipad and it's 2:20 am. I'll try to catch the errors when I reread these later. Fri 10/18 ride count: MF: 2 GK: 4 Raptor: 1 WS: 1 WT: 2 TTD: 2 Cedar Downs: 1

I'll make you a deal: you try to have fun today in the 49 degree rain at Cedar Point, and I'll try to have fun today in the 54 degree rain at Holiday World. Deal? Transmitted from Wild Space via my datapad's DROID brain

I left Haunt about an hour ago and had a great time. Rode a bunch of rides (including Vortex, Xtreme Skyflier and Adventure Express- all at night) and got to see our own Sam the Butcher (Gator) at Slaughter House.

todays progress. Link to gallery

Construction of Banshee's dive loop..... (Photo Courtesy of Kings Island)

And Kings Island is in Mason. To most people, Jungle Jim's is a Cinci thing...

what to expect? A few tears, melancholy, a feeling of finality, and Summertime Sadness.

Kat... Look at the last post on page 67.

Is there anything in the TOS that addresses excessive punctuation? Not as far as I know, but also, to my knowledge, it does not prohibit such grammatical atrocities such as, for instance, excessive use of clauses, which, of course, should be divided, individually of course, by commas, but preferably, these would be separated by, say, semicolons, or even separate sentences, instead of commas.

Psh...walk around with that phermone proudly...Especially recommended in small gift shops

Gordon, that was the mural I absolutely loved. I used to take the ride just to appreciate the paintings along the way.

I only remember Spongebob vividly. I remember vaguely, the james bond one. It's a shame the moving seats are gone. Those things could really pack a punch and they were really cool!

I've seen a skunk around Diamondback and Rivertown La Rosa's a few times this season. One time I was sitting at a table eating pumpkin pie and some people warned me that he was coming up behind me.

Haha sounds like a deal to me. Its going to be a rough one today. Oh what we put ourselves through for the love of riding coasters! Good luck to you! :-)

Yeah, everyone stay far away from Soak City where the kiddies are. Jr... who likes no lines for my 2 dollar grilled onion and peppered Italian sausage dog along with my 3 dollar funnel cake. I also enjoy petting zoos, even after when my kids grow up. Thank God I look younger than I am, many would think I was g-pa!

If also depends on the reliability and durability of the ride itself. See the Cedar Point Wildcat. Oh wait, you can't.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg cited a "25 year shelf life" for its Arrow Suspended Coaster, Big Bad Wolf, and used that as a reason for removing it in 2009. Take that for what it's worth. For reference, Flight Deck's 25th season would be 2018. EDIT: Cedar Point's Iron Dragon is in its 26th season and still operating. Perhaps in part because it's not on a parcel of land that can easily accommodate another ride, whereas Big Bad Wolf was... and in fact, that land is now occupied by Verbolten. Bingo! Flight Deck's usefulness will end when the land is worth more for park expansion than it is now as a ride. With the elevation changes in that area of the park, it may be a lil bit before we see park expansion hard core that would make FD a casualty. Then again, only a few know what the plans are, and plans can and often change

That was an awesome day at work and ended up being the only day I left early. After spray painting all morning, my finger got really sore and I couldn't move it. I was allowed to leave work, made a doctor's appoiintment for that evening and then came home and fell asleep. Never ended up going to the doctor and that finger never hurt again. We also did a lot of work fixing up the FOF queue that season. Ha. Sorry for the random side story. Also, here's that concept art I was talking about. This isn't the image I had, but a newspaper article featuring the same art. Shout out to TG93 for this one:

Thank you for posting that! The feels, man, the feels. I went to Kings Island for the first time in 1995, two years after the ride had opened. I didn't ride it, but most of the group I was with did. I have a very distinct memory of watching it from the overlook and seeing the fog pour out and the lights under the station. It looked amazing in the mind of a six year old who was absolutely in love with that movie. When I finally did ride it, sadly, a lot of that theming was gone/deteriorated. I still get nostalgic thinking about it though. The select songs form the movie soundtrack that would play in the line, the fighter squadron flags hanging up etc. SOME HISTORY: When you think about it, Paramount actually did a pretty good job theming that ride to the movie. Keep in mind, the ride had been ordered from Arrow under former management, was supposed to follow the area's "Adventure Village" theme ("Swoop" and "Thunder Road" are the intended names often mentioned). According to RCDB, Paramount had brought in John DeCuir, a famed Hollywood set designer who had worked on a lot of the sets for the film. However, I'm not sure if this is true since DeCuir died in 1991 and (I'm assuming) Paramount didn't begin plans to alter the ride's intended them until 1992 after DeCuir was passed. Nevertheless, they made the ride's queue and station feel like an aircraft carrier. I'm curious to know if/how had the ride been labeled as "Swoop" or "Thunder Road" would've utilized the under station queue if at all. From my understanding the ride's station design was completely altered by Paramount. Exline Design performed the design of the station for Paramount Parks and actually designed the queues for all three Top Gun attractions. Original concept art for Kings Island's "Top Gun" station: - Notice how much more it looks like an aircraft carrier than what was actually built? Exline actually spent three days aboard the USS America researching the carrier (The movie actually filmed aboard the USS Enterprise and USS Rangers, different classes of aircraft carriers). Exline also did a large format photo shoot during those three days which produced the photographs seen on the massive "billboards" in the ride's queue. A mural under construction: That above particular mural, I'm not sure which park that went to. I think it was the one that you saw when waiting at the loading gates looking across the station. You can see more of Exline's concept work here: http://exlinedesign.com/entertainment/portfolio/ride/topgun.htm At some point, when the ride became sponsored by "Gillette Mach 3," the murals were changed to this: - Photo from Don Flint's KIExtreme.com (another great Kings Island site that's worth a look!) The other mural not seen in that photograph depicted an F-4 Phantom fighter jet waiting on a carrier deck. The F-4 was no longer in service when Top Gun was filmed and is not the jet featured in the movie. Another mistake is that on the image above it shows to F-15 Eagles photoshopped in to a scene where they're flying over an aircraft carrier (again, it's the USS America, not the "Enterprise" from the film). The carrier shows F-14 Tomcats sitting on the deck. The F-15 Eagle was never used by the navy and never used in carrier service. Anyone remember the old spiel from the early 2000's of Jeff Seibert's voice saying: "Gillette Mach 3 Hopes You Enjoy you Ride on Top Gun!" That debuted the same year that the backs of the ride's cars had the Gillette logo painted on them. Somewhere around here I have old concept art from the ride that depicted a full scale F-14 jet that was to be placed atop the ride station. Clearly, that never made it to the actual ride, but it would've been visible from the tower and looked pretty cool. The F-14 was an amazing fighter jet, the backbone of the U.S. Navy for years. It's no longer in service. Back in 2011, when I worked for the park, my boss was really into sprucing up the theming along the ride. We used industrial tape to create the "fake" runway on the ride's brake run early one morning before the park opened. When trying to decide what number to put on the ground (aircraft carriers are marked with a two digit number on their flight decks), I suggested "93" for when the ride opened, we ended up going with "41," the last two digit's of the ride's phone number. SOME SPECULATION: I always loved the Top Gun theme and loved the movie. I miss hearing that awesome 80's soundtrack in the line. However, IF they are re-theming or changing anything I think "The Bat" would be a nice nod to KI history and to the fake website pulled earlier this year. They could turn the under queue into a "bat cave," but personally I think that they're just going to keep the line as is. There's an extra set of stairs that attaches the ride's exit down to the lower queue. In the past, this featured a handicap electric ramp where guests in a wheel chair could experience the queue then ride up to the accessible part of the station. I bet you that becomes a "Fast Lane" entrance. I.E. Fast Lane riders enter through the exit, then go down those stairs and join up with the regular queue.

One haunt night I was dumping rivertown trash into the Diamondback dumpster. As it was dumping I felt something on my shoe. I looked down and a skunk was on my foot. That was fun. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk now Free

Photos Taken: 153 Part 1 We arrived at about 10:45-50. Once we had gone through the turnstiles and to the ERT entrance, we noticed some tents scattered around the park; I wonder if they had anything to do with the Blazin 5K that had just happened earlier. They even had a Bobblehead Days sign ready to go! (can’t wait for the 20th!) Once we passed through the ERT entrance, I headed straight to Coney Mall since it was already 10:52. We arrived at the rope drop with 4 minutes to spare. At 11:00, the rest of the park opened, and we were off. I decided to start the day at Vortex. I was on the first train of the day. Since I had let some people go ahead of me in the queue, the front-most rows were already taken, so I headed back to 7-1. As I boarded, one of the attendants closed bins 1 and 3 on both sets – which meant I was standing on Train #2! Turns out, this first ride of the day was also the first of 7 consecutive cycles I stayed on for. The order of the 7-ride marathon: 7-1, 7-1, 7-1, 5-1, 7-1, 2-2, 2-2. Between cycles, I grabbed a few more pics. After the 7th ride the line was too long to continue the marathon, so I crossed the midway and went to WindSeeker. I was assigned to Seat 31 for the first of 3 WindSeeker flights I would take. I don’t know the name of the soundtrack that played, but I later learned that it was the one that played on the cycle before the Superman Theme. I had a great (and chilly!) flight, 301 feet in the air. After arriving safely back on solid ground, I rode Vortex again. The line had grown, but not too much. The wait was only about 5-7 minutes at most. Part 2 in next post

When you had to lock out Diamondback and travel out to the MCBR/hammerhead turn there's always the risk of running into a skunk. I'm not surprised.

I operated Bond in 2000, and 7th Portal and Smash Factory in 2001. I had those things memorized lol!

Kat...Look at the last post on page 67. Thanks. For some reason my phone decided not to load that last night!

Me and the girlfreind took a similar trip of Friday/ Saturday two weeks ago with about the same results as you. Friday is definitely the day to go during Halloweekends. You can marathon just about everything but Millenium Force and Maverick in a two or three cycle wait time. Its almost unbelievable. But Saturday you might as well just punch yourself in the junk as its more enjoyable than the park. We had torrential rains on Saturday and the place was still a cluster. Just walk around and enjoy the park today. The haunts should only be an hour wait or so and Gemini and the Mine Ride should only be a 20 minute wait... Everything else...bring your tent. I think in coming years we will make a weekend of it, but just go out to the islands or something on Saturday. One plus note if you are stranded at the Breakers because of rain, there is a liquor store pretty close by in Sandusky. The hotel will be unbearable and smells like wet dog during the storms.

Yes, yes i do

Odd. I thought the third sentence of the Terms of Service...

There may still be some, but it's my understanding that most were sent off as spare parts to the park's that still had them at the time. The ride's controls are gone and the Technifex projector was replaced with a new digital projector for the Dinosaur attraction.

Very true, and the opposite of that is what is happening in today's society..... Times have changed.....And sometimes (most of the time) not for the better.....

And ANY adult could and did supervise ANY child.

It's just you. The project is being constructed in the most efficient manner practicable. Construction companies and project owners share a desire for timely, high quality work. And the construction company has an eye toward profit while the project owner desires a low cost...of course. And both want a safe project with no surprises.

I think if all weather permits the dive loop will be done by the end of monday

In the words on Darth Vader... Nooooooooooooooooooo!

Smash Factory was a VERY violent experience. And so bad that like a campy movie, it was hysterical. I laughed myself silly at that thing, time and again.

Oh... my.

Well the way its's looking, the last day is going to be cold, This weekend we are in for a chance of flurries. Yes the horrible 4 letter word that start with "S"! So unless we get a warm-up next week, I would suggest bundling up and enjoy the lite crowds. Nothing like riding DB when it 50-55 degrees out. I've done that. lol

Build a giant B&M wing rider stratacoaster that has multiple lifts, goes 100 mph, has 20 train operation, 2 stations, one at Cedar Point and one here at Kings Island and is like a fun light rail system!

I saw an animal during haunt, in backwoods bayou. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

As of 2011 they did hire a pest control expert to come in the park at night and try and trap raccoons, squirrels, etc. I think you underestimate the number of these creatures that live out in the woods behind the park. There are almost 200 acres of unused land that they probably live in.

What was going through my mind can't be posted but I just remained still until the creature left.luckily it headed towards what is now known as the Reds hall of fame and grill Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk now Free

How about "Diversions with Don" ?

700WLW 55KRC "And this one belongs to the Reds!"

The male I handled loved to cuddle. Soooo dang sweet X) He lives with two cats they get on ok.

I thought Backwoods Bayous was fantastic but man they need to do something to increase the capacity on Tombstone Territory it was horrible. I waited for everything else no more than 30 to maybe 40 minutes saturday but TT was darn near 2 hours. They took forever to load the trains!

Call it 5 @ 5. Kidding. Thank you Don for doing this. Excited to get some answers!

"You've Got Questions, We Might Have Answers!"

^Q&A.

We'll be doing a Twitter Q&A once a month starting in November. Looking for a name for the Q&A. Any suggestions?

They better have something really nice for bluestreak's anniversary, It needs more traffic in the area it's located at.

I will switch from Apple when Lori Koch buys Great Adventure. And not before.