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You really had to be there. It WAS a great day. And ohiocolts has done a fantastic job chronicling it. Yep. I said that. He was so soaked, and so flabbergasted!

As promised here is the video. Sorry for the end our mics battery ran out. I hope you all enjoy!

Courtesy of Kings Dominion's Facebook page: "On the 10th day of Christmas, ‪#‎KD40‬ gave to me: Improvements to Volcano - The Blast Coaster. In 2014, guests will experience improved and enhanced entrance and exit lines resulting in more riders per hour who will be able to experience this signature park attraction. We will also begin a multi-year project to restore the look of Kings Dominion’s iconic mountain, which will include concrete replacement and fresh paint." (Photo Courtesy of Kings Dominion)

I was there, it was indeed, a great day. Still happy I passed on the flume ride

Ok this is where I have a problem. I've never watched anything cetacean related on my Netflix but the first thing that pops up is BLACKFISH: "They're hunted, herded, and forced to dance. Meet a 15,000 pound slave -- on the edge of psychotic break." Just about every word in that statement is wrong. That right there is where I have a problem with Blackfish. The message Blackfish really leaves with people is unclear, people just walk away thinking "SeaWorld is bad" and/or "FREE THE WHALES!!!!111" And I don't think that's the kind of takeaway people should have if they really care about making things better for SW's killer whales. I hate the way Blackfish presented its argument, but I would have less of a problem with Blackfish if it had a clear message of "SeaWorld needs to make improvements" which I do agree that they do.

At least it wasn't twisty. Terp, who finds Bob Avery extremely annoying.

Great report Lucas! Can't wait for Opening day 2014, I am sure it will be just as memorable as this closing day!

I remember seeing the group picture just after riding the flume. Someone identified who was who, and I laughed seeing ohiocolts completely soaked. Bet you have regrets about going on it, now!

Money to fix my car and pay off my credit card.

Does this mean he could potentially return for Haunt? Or is Haunt technically regular season?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Possibly. And I believe that Haunt is part of the regular season. But I could be wrong.Haunt is not part of the regular season. When saying regular season, I'm talking about daily operations.I am not trying to twist words, but that gives me a slight amount of hope Ed will possibly return during Haunt. I can say that I enjoyed his Haunt shows because he seemed to be in his element more than his 8th grade, potty humor shows (which I think are great, too.)Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I mean, you can interpret my words any way you want. I know for a fact that the park is going a different direction during the regular season (June - August). I'm not implying that he will or will not be there for Haunt. I'm saying I don't know, which is an honest comment. I really really hope he does come back. He's one of my favorites. I saw his show several dozen times both seasons.

I am hoping it is April 19. It would be an awesome way to celebrate my birthday. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I want a camera. I am almost certain it is not under the tree considering I know all gifts under the tree but one. The one I do not know is not the correct shape or weight. Beyond saying that, I am thankful for the many gifts I possess that cannot be wrapped or put under the tree. My children and I have good health. We have food to eat. I have had relationships restored over the past year. I inherited a beautiful niece this year. I have so much in my life that cannot be wrapped or put under the tree (at least not without great protest from a number of people at least.) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If it were my amusement park, I would do a variety of Fast Lane passes. I would even consider a pay per ride option for one ride instead of a day pass. $10 for one ride on Banshee could be a sweet option for those with tighter budgets. I find it funny how many people complain in line about Fast Lane passes. If I did not go as frequently as I do, I would fork out the money to get the most out of my day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Theres alot wrong with Volcano...It's a great ride but honestly it has been a capacity nightmare for awhile. At least they're loading full trains, opening year they didn't. I hope the small pond next to the station isn't removed with this Last time I was there they hold people outside of the first bit of queue until the station is clear...That's about the only thing I see changing The capacity will increase a bit, but you can't outrun the rides operations, and I don't think I see that changing

Have you rode Volcano? I've only been on it once a few years ago and from what I remember, the queue is very dodgey, often backed up, how people deal with loose articles, the gates (entrance and exit) are not easily dealt with. I want to say I remember where you got on, wasn't where you got off (that was about 20 feet back) thus making the train have to move forward before anyone could board. I'm not real sure. Hah.

Well said

I've been fairly quiet. This comes at a very dangerous time for SeaWorld and thus the orcas. For many years, AnheuserBusch had owned SeaWorld. When August Busch IV took over, it was clear he hadn't much interest in the parks. Turns out the same could be said of the beer company. All was sold. IN BEV, the buyer, wasn't interested in the parks. Blackstone, an investment group (private equity) picked them up. As such companies do, massive cuts were made. They just finished selling out their controlling interest and now have only a minority interest. A public company, SeaWorld will now face public scrutiny to a level it hasn't in the past. Activist investors may well raise Cain. The table is set. What will be served and to whose liking remains to be seen. I suspect several there regret naming the new company what they did already. It cannot be assumed that what was done in the past will carry on to the future.

Ok, now you're just torturing us. All these pictures...the trip report...4 more months...aaagh.

^ Where did the 13th day come from?

On the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th day of Christmas Kings Island gave to me... a second wave pool for it's 40th.

I despise LTO (limited time only) offerings. It's not the toppings that need improvement at Tower Pizza. It's the pizza. Tiny little slices of dry, dried out dough with very little sauce. It's almost as bad as the crap that Six Flags called pizza last year, and that's saying something. Cedar Point (when it's hot and fresh) and Dorney Park have excellent pizza. Cedar Fair CAN do it. Will it?

From KDS Facebook: On the 9th day of Christmas, ‪#‎KD40‬ gave to me: The Return of the original Coca-Cola Pizza Parlor. Tower Pizza will be renovated and return to its original "Coca-Cola Pizza Parlor" - circa 1976. The restaurant interior will feature a whole new look and feel with more room inside to cool off during the dog days of summer and new limited time only pizza toppings. (Photo From KDs Facebook)

Every year I want something under my tree. Whether it be a camera, or a Gold Pass, I always have one thing I want. What do you want for Christmas? (Please Note, the donation/giving/or insertion of any teeth of any region of the mouth, or any kind of semi aquatic animals such as a "Hippo" cannot be a liable, valid answer. Proofed to be "Terpy rhetoric free".)

So, this is a bit delayed… It’s already snowed probably 10 inches and everything, but now is better than never, I guess. The day started out when I, my mom, dad, sister, cousin, other cousin, aunt, and uncle, went to meet up with members of KICentral at Big Boy. Some of the members at the meet up included NoChickens/Rick and Mrs.NoChickens/Dee, malem/Matthew, jcgoble3/Jonathan, IndyGuy4KI/Brad, Fire-Beast-of-FEAR/Duncan, Beastie1980/Melissa, and probably a few others I am forgetting. We filled ourselves up with some good food (even though they had no waffle sticks) to get ready for the last day of the year! We soon arrived at the park and I realized I had forgotten my coat at Big Boy. Yay. I didn’t think it was worth it to go back and get it now, and luckily, until riding RFYLCB, I didn’t need it, as my light jacket was enough. We met up with thedevariouseffect, BeastForever, fan-of-Firehawk, and some others. Then, my family and I headed to the season pass processing center. I honestly wasn’t sure yet what we were getting, but I was really hoping for Platinum for the last few years. And, we finally got one. So 2014 should be a Cedar Point and Banshee and Kings Dominion year! Everyone clapped when I held up the shiny new piece of plastic. It was cool. It made me feel special. So, we chatted and waited for the park to open for one last day. Soon, the gates opened, we grabbed our bobbleheads, and headed to Diamondback. Just waited a cycle to get our ride on the tallest, fastest, and meanest roller coaster at Kings Island. Next was The Beast. A station wait. Good ride. I believe around now, I somehow lost the group. I figured they would be in X-Base, so I headed to Firehawk. I walked through the queue and didn’t see them, and they weren’t in the station, either. But while I’m here, I might as well ride the thing, right? Walked right on, and it was another fun ride. I believe after that ride, I found the group exiting Flight of Fear, and they wanted to do Firehawk. I rode it again, another walk on, and another fun ride! After this, they decided to head back to Flight of Fear. Just a station wait to see the aliens that day. Got on, zoomed off, and made it safely back to earth. The coasters never get old! Now we headed down the Coney Mall Midway to The Racer. It was a walk on for the red side. Up down, up down, fun ride. Now we went to Flight Bat Deck Gun Thing. A walk on for this ride. The ride ops kept saying “We could be different next year”. After the fun ride, when we got on the brake run, an ride op said on the speakers “Thank you for riding Top Gun, sponsored by Gillette Mach 3”. That got some laughs from the train. And the non KICers were pretty confused. We rode again, with another walk on, and another fun ride. That would end up being my last ride of the Flight Deck era. It was now time to head over to Tower Drinks for the group picture. We got our picture in front of the Blood Drums stage. After this, it was pretty split on Reds Grille, or Festhaus. In the end, we all went to the Festhaus. I got pizza and ate it. We watched Graveyard Shift. Nice lunch. After this, I headed to Adventure Express with some people. Fun ride, and I said hi to Banshee a few times. Now it was just kind of Fire-Beast-Of-FEAR and BeastForever and I. Everyone was doing there GOCC tour. We rode Delirium, cycle wait, and had a fun ride, almost hitting a certain dive loop. Then we headed to Drop Tower. It was a cycle wait. I forgot if Duncan liked this ride or not. I did. After that ride, we peeked under a fence. Like, we all laid down on concrete. A few people definitely noticed. It looked like Don tried not to. She looks good from down below too. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. We found malem and MDMC01 and went to Invertigo. It was a cycle wait. Matthew and Matt ended up a couple of cycles behind us, so I took a few pictures . Now we headed to one last Ed Alonzo show. The show was magical and funny. The kid volunteer was so tiny. Now it was Vortex time. On our way, malem let me know I was walking right behind The Interpreter. I had no clue. That was cool. I sat in 7-1 after a station wait. Awesome ride. Bye for 2013, Vortex. Next was a 15 minute wait for The Beast. I sorta got a group photo while in line. And another, more odd one. Fun ride on the longest wooden roller coaster in the world. Next was one last ride on Diamondback. About a 10 minute wait for a fun ride. There was a Diamondstack. Now it was time for… Flying Ace: Aerial Chase. Due to the limited seating on Flying Ace, we couldn’t fit everyone on one train. We sort of got most people on one, though, after a 15 minute wait. It was my first and only ride on Flying Ace that year, and it was great preparation for Banshee. Next we did something even more stupid than that. We went on this thing. I wasn’t going to ride it, but I don’t know, for some reason, I got in line. I rode in front of The Interpreter. I kept getting wet. Too wet. While on the ride, Terp asked me “Are you doing ok up there”? My response: ”No”. Then he said, “Good!” I got drenched by the splash and especially that awful Snoopy. After the rides, the “Stupid 12” got a picture. I was probably the most soaked. Next, I, Jonathan, and Melissa went to Xtreme Skyflyer. We waited about 10 minutes. It was Melissa’s first time on. I ended up having to pull the rip cord. It was another incredible, freaky ride on Xtreme Skyflyer. Next was Drop Tower, with its spinless cycle. We got on and had another fun ride. But… Time was running out. The FUN was about to end. We decided to spend the end of it on The Beast. I got one of the last cycles on The Beast. Well… It was fun. Very fun. We waited for Don, and then headed to the entrance. And that was it. It was over. That’s all she wrote for 2013 at Kings Island. We met up at Taco Bell for some dinner. It was good. I liked it. We said our goodbyes, and then headed home. A couple of notes: *Rides seemed to be running. Good for that. *Banshee is just stunning. In 4 months… *Once again, Closing Day managed to be such a fun day. Well, that’s all for 2013. But, the good news is, writing this trip report so late, means we have already waited 2 months, and are about 1/3 the way to next season. Between the guessing, footers, and green Intamin track, this was such a fun season. And thanks for reading! Oh and Happy Holidays!

^ Couldn't agree more

A new practice pad would be nice, but I don't really "want" anything fancy for Christmas.

I like Don rocking the Bengals gloves! And did he say "mid-April" for opening day at the end there? Buuuuuuuuuttttt... 0:08: "King's Island"

Great video thanks for sharing, had some good info, and was nice to see the shots again Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome Had to tease ya haha

KD already got their 2nd wave pool, and they got to keep WaterWorks. Kings Island, please for the love of my themed heart, take after KD in the 45th or at least the season after this, I want to see my old style returning with a ride I call Eagles and a taxi cab attraction. Oh and can I see a Phantom's Revenge come our way? BB1, who may go to KD for these themed premises.

Wow Kings Dominion getting so many things for a milestone Awesome:

Lol only details you forgot was the angry family who was all upset we had our own line at the front of the entrance.. Ah that made that morning exciting lol

It was FUN, truly a sight if you were there, and FUN to finally get with the group at the end of the day. (Long story, too little time to post) Thanks for posting, and great photos, just stop peaking at Banshee under the fence, she needs her privacy (Ironically I saw the small bunch doing that, I laughed all the way into Top Gun/Flight Deck/Top Gun Thingy/Bat.)

I'm not sure if this is the most expensive project to date or not. I had never heard that before. I do know that they had been planning it for a very long time. The first visit I made to EJ, which was a few months after they opened, Don Oeters (owner) told me that they planned on doing it. He even knew exactly where it was going. I'm sure that it was expensive, but you have to remember that many people who actually build the models are volunteers, so that helps with the cost. I'm not sure what scale the Coney Island section is, but I can tell you that the attractions are not placed in a true and exact replica of park. Everything is to a specific scale and the rides and attractions are in generally the right place, but they took a lot of artistic license in order to make it display-worthy from that particular angle and to fit it in the area in which it's placed.

Take time off. INSIST on it. Not end up with leave at Christmas. Ugh I got to the Ohio parks a great deal. GAd once. SFA once. KD once. BGW once. Camden Park, once. 2014 I hope will be better.

My game plan? Have fun without worrying about numbers.

Oh, the things I would do for mass transit that could get me from Dayton to Mason in a reasonable amount of time...

just be glad we live in a country where we are given freedom of speech and the right to question - in many countries, a lot of posts throughout this forum (not just this topic) would be under continuous censorship and would never see the light of day; public flogging of those with posts deemed questionable; and perhaps death in other parts of the world. Personally, I try not to worry about things outside of my control (but even that is tough to do). For every show-whale SeaWorld has, how many other whales and animals have been rescued and given proper care to then reenter nature - maybe show-whales is a small price to pay for the overall good being provided to countless other wild animals that were injured and brought back to health and then returned to the wild. Same with zoos. Being an animal trainer is dangerous. So is being a firefighter, police officer, or astronaut - should we eliminate those jobs as well because people have been killed in those jobs? Do we really need to risks peoples lives to go into space? The fact of the matter is that things learned in space has made our lives better. The things being learned about animals at SeaWorld and zoos can ultimately save an animal from extinction. Some will find that acceptable, while others will say if they were meant to die off, then we shouldn't interfere. Taking that logic one step further, then we shouldn't be trying to find cures for cancer, AIDS, etc. and we shouldn't allow people to undergo experimental treatment that furthers the science so that perhaps in the future a cure can be found. I will end with if you make the argument that animals shouldn't be displaced from their natural habitat, period, then I think you have some serious soul-searching to do. The native americans probably say the same thing about you and I, so unless you are 100% native American, you should go back to England, Europe, Japan, Africa, Korea, China or whatever country your ancestors came from and return this land back to those that were first here. We will not see many people do that. Not everything humans do is perfect, and unfortunately there have been stumbles along the way, but as long as we grow and learn and make the world a better place and try to learn from mistakes and rectify when possible, that is all we can ask for in a modern society. The alternative is to go back to living off the land with no phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury.

In my last job, I interviewed over 10,000 people (I was a staffing recruiter/senior manager) and have only received 4 hand written thank you notes. I have received 7 thank you emails. That thank you note really goes a long way in my opinion. It makes you stand out a little more than others. In fact, there was a young man (maybe 22) that really had minimal skills and I placed him in a position because he wrote a thank you note to me. He has been with that company now 7-8 years and is now making good money.

That same rule applies to the "outside". I've fired people for not meeting that requirement. Again.....this same rule applies to the "outside". Pro Tip - Require skilled trade training prior to entering the workforce.

Finally...a question I know the answer to! I've been lurking for a long time, so I guess it's time to contribute... The gap between the support and the foundation will be filled with a high strength, low shrink cement...kind of like a grout. Remember the pics of the foundations with the oblong cavity? The bottom of the support has a piece of steel welded to it that will stick down into that cavity. The grout is pumped into the cavity and formed up all the way to the base of the support, locking the steel on the bottom of the support firmly in place, and forming a platform for the support to sit on. It serves to transfer the loads from the coaster to the foundations through the strength of the steel and support weldment rather than asking the anchor bolts to do the job of resisting these forces. Take a look at the foundation piles on any finished steel coaster, and you'll see that there isn't a gap there, there's a little step that rises up out of the main foundation to meet the support...this is the grout. I suspect a convenient side effect (for lack of a better term) is that the steel workers also are able to adjust the height and level of the supports slightly to help fit up of the structure...there are a lot of tolerances building up on a job like this!

Here it is in color, which makes the lights around the ride kinda look like fire:

I know...enough webcam pictures, but this one was a must-post.... Banshee...Sticking her way up through the fog!....

Nope right there with ya on mantis..The only time the roar on mantis is annoying is when you're trying to take a nap on break in the jungle below it lol

Guess I'll add my pics for the day (10-6-13) ... ^The assembled catwalk piece is near the brake run.

I went to ki today, the ride looks amazing and it is able to be seen from intersate, sky line of ki is so different. With the clouds and rain to day the tracks actually looked purple, and saw a guy get arrestted at the front gate, he was running for the gate and i looked up in time to see him get tackled, then he was begging not to get arrested and was crying

Photos from yesterday.

Or be a dummie. Terp, not always helpful.

I just want to say thank you again for making these awesome pictures; it's been really cool to see Banshee grow both on the rendering (through the addition of color) and in real life!

I spent a little time last night going back through my webcam captures and created the images since the beginning of vertical construction. Here is the gallery that i'll keep updated when i create new ones too: http://www.davidwaderich.com/hotlink/KI/TrackComplete

that's cool how you where able to do that He is doing something similar to what I did during DB's construction Magicians never revile their secrets. The station on Diamondback in that rendering looks exactly like RCT3 walls...