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It seems like it's a new thing this year and may be the result of more of us going mobile but we do not need up to the minute threads about different rides going down for whatever short term reason throughout the day. This does not apply towards talking about rides that have been closed for a period of time (more than a couple days). Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

Funny story, Kings Island is the reason my dad lost so much weight. When I was about 7 we went to ride Backlot Stunt Coaster for the first time (then called Italian Job Stunt Track) and he was too big to ride so I had to go by myself which was the first ever time I had gone alone. That inspired him to lose weight and now we ride every ride in the park.

I would want the Festhaus to get a complete redo. Get ride of eveything that's currently inside there. I know there is some good food in there, but those can all be spread out to new locations across the park. Add traditional German food to really make that area great. I hope that the next area in the park to get some TLC is Oktoberfest, since right now there is really nothing to it. Hopefully revamping the Festhaus would be a high priority if this ever happens.

Diabetes.. The cake is Diabetes

Haha no fat jokes being thrown your way Magenta, awesome job losing that much weight, it's always easier to put it on than lose it My mom isn't skinny, but probably not fat enough to say it takes her 24 hours to spin around lol

Kings Island has been thrilling guests for over a month with the debut of Banshee in April, but the fun is just getting started for the 2014 season. This Memorial Day Weekend we will see the debut of a unique new show, the opening of the Midwest's premier water park, and a special discount for military personnel. One of the most anticipated events this weekend will be the debut of the "Cirque Imagine" show in the Kings Island Theatre. This Cirque du Soleil-style spectacle will have you amazed by the incredible display of strength, balance, and athleticism. "Cirque Imagine" debuts on Saturday, May 24th, and is included with park admission. Get your bathing suits and sunscreen ready because Soak City is ready to help you have some summer fun! With over 50 water activities, including 30 water slides, tropical lagoons, a 650,000 gallon wave pool, and much more, there;s something for everyone in the family. The wet and wild summer fun starts on Saturday, May 24th, and is included with park admission. Kings Island is once again honoring the brave men and women of the military this Memorial Day Weekend. On Friday, May 23rd, through Sunday, May 25th, all members of the military - active or retired - receive free admission to Kings Island. Additionally, they can purchase up to six tickets for their immediate family for the low price of $29.99 on the day of their visit. For more information on Kings Island, Soak City, Cirque Imagine, Military Days, and general park information, please visit Kings Island's official web site www.visitkingsisland.com.

Only 10 pounds? This is the Cake I made for my Sisters Wedding. Used 26 pounds of sugar in it. It also contained: 136,000 calories 20 pounds of Butter 8 pounds of Flour 48 Eggs Half a gallon of Cream 2 pounds of Chocolate 4 jars of Raspberry preserves Plus all the little ingredients. Fudge is also not expensive to make especially now that it is primarily composed of Corn Syrup. It is labor intensive though. And Fudge, while warm, is very workable and depending on the recipe, can be pourable as well.

How the heck do they plan on ensuring that?!?

I'd love to see them get together with Schmidt's in Columbus and incorporate that into the festhaus. For those that haven't been, Schmidt's offers a wonderful German buffett, and the cream puffs are only slighly smaller than one's head (ok, more than slightly, but they are huge none the less). Or considering the success of Christian Morlein's lager house near the ball park, perhaps relocate the Christian Morlein Beer Garden over to the festhause in a redesign, perhaps split the building into two, one half expose to the perimeter with lots of seating in a sit down style service, and the other half can serve the chinese, burgers and pizza (but what to do with the shows?) What I expect them to do in the next 2-3 years is a front entrance redesign/upgrade that will offer ADA approved access to the restaurant up there, perhaps make it available year round for weddings/business meetings, make a room w/n the building rentable near the end of the evening for prime firework viewing, etc... The front entrance is in great need of an upgrade, more eletronic kiosks, etc.... and I believe somewhere CF management indicated that the success of Gate Keeper has propelled them towards more front gate updates. With the Tower being the main focal point, I can't envision a ride swooping across the front gate the way Gate Keeper does (nor would I want it, I'd like that to be unique to CP as a goal towards more uniqueness at all of their parks, not 3 similar coasters all being installed at the same time at 3 parks in the chain). Making the restaurant a dependable moneymaker could help them recapture their investment beyond improved effieciences in ticketing/processing. I suppose some of that may depend on the viability of the Reds Hall of Fame Grill. I loved the place when I ate there, just don't know if they're getting their expected (or better) return on investment or not. I certainly hope so, I'd love to some a few more things spread across the park like that.

No. We don't need to discuss it at all. Rides go down for a myriad of reasons all the time. Just because ride X went down for reason Y and stayed down for Z minutes does not mean that it needs to be mentioned at all on here. The only time that it is worth discussing a ride being down is when it's down for a unusually long period of time, such as is currently the case with Drop Tower.

They really need to rename Ralph's Ice Cream (next to Juke Box Diner in the Coney Mall). I don't want to even see the word "Ralph" at an amusement park, much less associated with food.

We finally visited Kings Island for the first time ever this past weekend! I couldn't believe all the buses! We ended up buying Fast Lane Plus and it was pretty much a few minute wait to walk ons all day! The Beast at night = best night ride on any coaster EVER! Couldn't believe how fast, smooth and out of control it felt! Banshee was incredible! Diamondback stole the show for me! What an amazing coaster! Speed, airtime, smooth, re-rideable! Im sure i upset some people with my mini marathon of walk ons with Fast Lane around 8pm. The line was around 45min+ at that point!

Actually, it sounds like I'm being called fat. I'm not, tho. Used to be, but not at all anymore. I lost 80 lbs several years ago.

I think I've said this before on here, but #yolo. Throw out Oktoberfest as a themed area (let's face it, it's seen better days and basically exists only on the map) and make what currently is Oktoberfest part of International Street, or call it International Festival like Canada's Wonderland has. Panda Express and LaRosa's stay in Festhaus, but the stage doesn't. Sorry, I don't like trying to shout over One Direction while ordering food or trying to eat. Add two new "international" food options to Festhaus. Burn the current tables and benches in a bonfire and replace them with small tables like the other restaurants in the park. Redecorate and repaint the inside to look bright and cheery, not dark like it does currently. Edit: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/28619-oktoberfest-through-the-years/?p=577324

Because information like that gets out of date VERY fast. A ride might only be down for half an hour, or less. Posting that it's down may cause someone to not come, when had they come, the ride may have been back up by the time they got there. That is why we do not need real-time updates on short-term closures.

Magenta Lizard, I am in Planet Snoopy a lot with my kids. There is no need for embarrassment when older people ride Surf Dog or Flying Ace. I see adults riding those alone all the time. Surf Dog is a lot of fun but not too intense while Flying Ace kind of hurts the head so stick with one ride unless you have Advil but definitely try it. Woodstock Express is fun but I admit it feels weird if I didn't ride with my kids but worth it once. Now bribing a kid to ride with you on Great Pumpkin Coaster you have issues.

A few thoughts, you used to be able to purchase a share of disney that could come with a stock certificate that you could frame to mount on a child's wall in their bedroom. My sister and I did this for our twin nephew/niece for their 1st birthday, they are now 12, so don't know if that program is still available. I think the certificate actually came framed, but its been a while. That could be one thing to look into. I don't know specificially about Disney, but many large companies offer a DRIP (dividend re-investment plan) which requires you to send them money to purchase your initial share(s) of stock then automatically reinvest all dividends back into the company's stock. DRIP plans differ from one company to another, but I'd be shocked if Disney didn't offer one, you can likely find that info on their investor relation page. As for the cost of Disney stock, pay less attention to the price of the stock, and more to their P/E (price to earnings ratio) compared to historical records. While the stock may be trading near its 52 week high, that doesn't neccessarilly mean its trading near its all time high, or at the higher end of of P/E ratio (ie the companies earnings could have outpaced their share price over the last couple of years, I don't know specifically about Disney, I'd venture that their current 52 week high is also close or at their all time high, but that is just a guess based upon the companies history). Also keep in mind, when you are buying Disney, you are also buying into ESPN/ABC (amongst other things), which is another thing your son may relate to well as he grows up. It wouldn't surprise me if ESPN was eventually spun off into its on seperate company. The glossy reports are not dead, at least not year. Warren Buffet sent me one about a month ago which I need to get around to reading (although Berkshire's annual report has never been particularly glossy), I've also recieved them from LVLT and TAXI w/n the last month, so they are still floating around. KI-org-employee touches on investing in your 401(k) to the max first, but I'd caution that to definently invest up the maximum that your company will match (if at all) then anything beyond that look into the benefits of a Roth vs the 401(k). In theory (ie unless congress changes the rules) you pay taxes upfront in a Roth, you pay the taxes on your 401(k) when you take the money out later in life. Depending on where you are financially and where you expect to be during retirement, it may be better to pay the taxes today (when you know what the tax rates are) than in the future when you can only speculate on what the tax rates (as well as your income during retiremtent) may be. Hydra, its in your best interest to see what your money is going towards. I know one of the fears is being made "to look stupid" in front of your HR person, but I'd put the shame aside and investigate. It depends on where you work and your plan, but one note of caution are the people who had their life savings tied up in the company they worked for, in this case ENRON, only to see the company collapse under corrupt management and see their savings dissapear. I don't know where you work, but I'll use P&G as an example of a company where many employees buy P&G stock thru their retirement plan. P&G is likely going to continue to be a well run company for a long time, but there is no garuntee, so make sure you've got more in your retirement than just the company you work for. As mentioned above, you need to diversify yourself no matter how good that 1 company may be. You don't have to know the inside/out of your retirement plan, but having a general feeling for what you are invested in will serve you over the long term. I read a book by Peter Lynch many years ago. One of the things he talked about was investing in what you know, the consumer is often going to spot the smaller company poised to grow before wall street catches on based upon their own personal experiences. When McDonald's spun off Chipotle, I considered purchasing stock, my wife mentioned it a couple of times, but at the time, that $43 stock price looked a little high, if it fell into the low to mid $30s I would have picked up 20 or so shares. At the time, Chipotle was still fairly small and not overly saturated with plenty of room to grow. Had I thrown the $1000 at it then and just planned to purchase more if/when it fell to the price I liked, I'd be sitting on over $11,000 today as it approaches $500 a share. There are many Chipotle type companies sitting around, if you can find them, make a small investment, pay attention and buy some more down the road as the "story improves". I've thought of buying Cedar Fair for a while, mainly as a dividend stock. Kept waiting for it to fall back a bit, it has yet to fall back "a bit" under Oimet's leadership. I really like what he brings to the table and the 6% dividend would have been nice (not 5.6%).

Are you doing this all in one trip? It'll take a while to get all the way back up here from Florida and your University of Miami visit. (Miami University, on the other hand, is much closer to UC & KI!) - Gator, who spent a few years at a certain school in Oxford... and they even gave him a piece of paper to prove it!

And now, Day 3 of my trip report. We headed out of our hotel and got breakfast and my dad got out our passports. Looking at mine, I saw that he had mistakenly grabbed my old, expired one. We had made rather expensive, non-refundable hotel reservations, so our only option was to get that passport! But we were in Buffalo, NY and my passport was in Fairfield, OH. Fortunately, my mom was able to meet us halfway near Cleveland (Thanks, Mom!), and we retrieved my passport after 4 hours of driving. Another 4 hours later, we were back where we started. We proceeded to the USA/Canada border and sat for 45 minutes in line to get through. Then, we got on the Queen Elizabeth Way en route to Toronto. It was here that I saw the glorious sight of a speed limit sign indicating a speed limit of 100. Then I realized, we're in the Metric system now, and I was really only going 60 MPH. There was heavy traffic on the QEW (presumably Victoria Day traffic) and it took us over 2 hours to get to our hotel in Vaughan. All in all, I'm glad I set aside a whole day for travel from Darien Lake to Canada's Wonderland, but we made it despite our snag. No trip can ever go perfectly without a hitch. I'll be at Canada's Wonderland tomorrow, but unfortunately, it is looking like Wonder Mountain's Guardian will not yet be open. I am disappointed, since I really wanted to experience that ride, but the park offers many other unique attractions, so I can't complain. I will report on day 1 at the park tomorrow. Oh, and Devan, The Beast's long, flat straightway drives me completely bonkers, and as much as I love the ride, I think it is a massive blemish on an otherwise spectacular coaster. As a side note, navigating a foreign country with no GPS and a map that doesn't show great detail is not fun or recommended.

Irvine Ondrey Engineering on Facebook: "Two train operation testing has been completed. With that, the control system commissioning is 100% complete for Lightning Run. -Brian"

We had discussed going to the park this day a few days in advance, but no solid decisions were made. So Sunday morning I slept in until around 11, saw how nice and sunny it was outside, and asked my mom if we could go to Cedar Point. She said she'd love to and that it would be a great day so we got ready and were on the road a around 12:30. We got to the park at 2 and were surprised how many people were getting there around the same time. Usually by that time during the day, not very many people are just arriving at the park, but many were. There was a cool breeze but the sun felt great. The parking lot was a little busier than last Sunday but still wasn't bad. First stop: Millennium. Waited just about 45 minutes, maybe a tiny bit less, including the wait for the front row. Had a great ride as always, and I love the view when riding in the front. I definitely think you can feel the rattle more in the back of the train versus the front, since I had one of the smoothest rides ever on this coaster. It was so great. Next we decided to go to Dragster, but as soon as we were walking past the launch area, it went down. Not wanting to wait around for it to open back up, we went to the front of the park. Raptor only had a 15 minute wait and we rode in the front. This was my first Raptor ride of the year, and it really made me excited for Banshee. I love Raptor, but I've heard that Banshee's way better. Then we went to Gatekeeper which had about a 10 minute wait. We rode in the back row on the left side, my favorite spot. I didn't really feel like marathoning this ride (I'm not really sure why, I was just ready to move on) but I had a great, smooth ride on it. So we walked right over to Wicked Twister and got in in 5 minutes. This really is an underrated coaster. It packs a punch and is more intense than it looks, and I love it so much. We saw Dragster running so decided to go there, and waited for about a half hour. I'll never get tired of this ride (or really any ride) no matter how many times I go on it. That adrenaline rush during the launch is just incredible. Both my mom and I were getting hungry so we each got an order of fries from Happy Friar and sat along the Gemini midway while eating our vinegar-drenched snack. Pipe Scream was down again, just like it was when we were in that area of the park last week. I'm not sure if this is a reoccurring issue with this ride, but so far whenever I have gone by, it has been closed. Hopefully it's just my bad luck. After our little break, we wanted to go on Mine Ride. I really do love this little coaster and got on after about 10 minutes. It would have been sooner, but the main ride op had to answer 2 phone calls that each lasted several minutes. During these short, minor delays we were talking to the employee giving the spiels. He was a really nice guy and I caught his nametag. His name's Jacob and is pretty nice. I heard him say that he will mainly be on Mine Ride this season but might be with the CP and LE Railroad at some point due to under-staffing. He also had everyone waiting in the station play a little trivia game and I was the only person to get "what is the park's oldest ride" question right: the Main Midway Carousel. Not before long we were on the front row and enjoyed our ride. I love how out of control Mine Ride feels. I know many people would disagree with me, but I still think it's a lot better than Adventure Express at KI. I had heard that Mean Streak was running better this year so we wanted to go there next. Only waited 5/10 minutes and I still thought it felt like riding a jack hammer. I didn't need any Advil afterwords (thankfully) but it was nowhere close to smooth. I would LOVE for it to get work done by RMC. Since it around 7, we chose to go to Millennium to end out half day at the park. We were amazing to see that the line ended on the ramp just before the station, and rode twice. Then before leaving the park we tried out the new Starbucks. My only complaint from the entire day is that this Starbucks was having issues with their systems and could not accept any type of credit card including Starbucks Rewards Cards which we had planned on using. But my Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucino was still delicious. Once we got out to our car we ate the food that we had packed before leaving our house. It had been a fun, relaxing day and I was happy it worked out that we could go. Sometimes these spur of the moment trips are the best. Throughout the day we came across several...unique guests who told some interesting stories and "facts" about some of the park's coasters. All you can do is just smile and nod. I'm not the type to constantly try and correct everything the GP says, so it was pretty amusing just to listen to them. Later in the day we had to explain to a woman that Dragster didn't go underground, too. I sure do love the things some people believe is true about amusement parks and rides.

I think the big tables make it feel similar to a German style restaurant. I love the idea of Schmidts, Morelein, or even Hoffbrauhouse. Something German would fit perfect in the German building. As for the front gate, what about a family steak house open to the public and the park guests? Revenue all year round? Work with a local steak guy, such as Jimmy G or Jeff Ruby? Imagine going to eat at KI, the price of parking could be used as a "coupon" towards the meal for guests. If I am not mistaken, there is not a great steak house out near mason, it could be done very well and attract a great number of guests. Imagine eating and over looking the park in the middle of December? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just remember, the queue rails aren't to be used in a workout routine...

^ That's a wonderful idea! However, you lose a point for using a hashtag and lose two more points for the content of said hashtag.

Ah...you are spoiled. Not meant to be taken as me being a butt. I will take those times ...

When I was there opening day the woman who greeted us who seemed to be an affiliate of C&P said they will be expanding across the park chain. I would hope so, the bar service and food is enough to make me want to return there for a cheesesteak & Fat Tire.

There is a decent sit down in Rivertown Service is iffy at busy times & whatnot but the food and prices are worth it. Drink refills are worth it alone.

^ If I'm not mistaken, The Enchanted Voyage and the Smurfs Enchanted Voyage utilized all the space in that entire building. From what I understand, when Phantom Theater was installed, that building was partitioned and part of it was for Phantom Theater and the other part was for something called The Enchanted Theater. So yes, it would seem that Smurfs Enchanted Voyage would've been longer since it occupied more space at the time. Right now, again if I'm not mistaken, the other part of that building not being used for Boo Blasters, is being used for either storage or a Haunt attraction, or maybe both? Correct me if I'm wrong. Hope this info helped!

Here is a great article about Kentucky Kingdom and its future plans... http://www.courier-journal.com/story/life/family/2014/05/19/kentucky-kingdom-ready-reopening-officials-say/9301559/

I was present at the park on Saturday and rode Lightning Run - twice. First the park pros: It's definitely been freshened and has a "cleaner" look and feel to it. The waterpark expansion is terrific, looks great and is huge! There were TONS of people there, and they were very excited. The park cons: There's still an IMMENSE amount of work left to be done. They met there deadline to open on time... I suppose... but many obvious things remain. Trash cans were few and far between. If it were me... I get that addressed pronto! More queue systems need installed for the newer attractions to deter lines from stretching into the midways. Lightning Run I was pleasantly surprised at the ride's overall riding experience. Someone's earlier claim in this thread that it was "better than Banshee" is silly. That's comparing apples to oranges... or grapes to grapefruit. LR is a small, compact coaster and isn't on the same playing field as a coaster of Banshee's size and scope. This is Chance Rides first full-circuit coaster, and really is a stand-alone new experience. Because of it being "tightly wound" I was leery of possible jarring transitions with neck snaps. Much to my surprise, the overall coaster glides smoothly and the transitions are really impressive. The first drop is fun and Maverick-like. My favorite part was the ground level series of "s curves" just before the final bunny hops. There's pops of air on those bunny hills, but it's not floater air. It's more of the Magnum XL200 jolting pops on the final bunny hills. Some riders enjoyed the more jerky air pops, some riders did not. Obviously the rear of the train experiences them more abruptly than the front. It has great speed for a smaller coaster and it hits the final brakes hard with lots of inertia behind it. Now for the really bad news.... The restraints are uncomfortably confining, to say the very least. I can probably understand why they are designed to be as tight fitting as they are. However the restraints will, mark my words, be the largest complaint inducer of the ride. Walk of shames were happening left and right. More problematic however, was the fact that the train was dispatching an average of every 10 minutes. Even if the 2nd train had been running, it would have faced a lengthy stack time due to the excruciating waits resulting from restraint issues. Let me explain the scenario: There were 3 ride ops... two checking, one operating panel. Exiting guests had to completely exit the station before gates were opened. When guests boarded the car, they were instructed they must first buckle the belts and not touch the restraint. This was so the two ride ops (only a single on each side) could check belts unobstructed. Guests invariably pulled down the lap bar, prompting the ride op to have to signal and request a release for each individual lap bar that had been pulled. Then, they finished checking belts for the train. From there, the ride panel op would then announce lap bars were lowering and people began to lower themselves. Much to the chagrin of many, the bars would not go down far enough, and the ride panel op would then make announcements on the PA system as to which seats were not fitting. "2, 7, 10 Right and 3, 8, 9 Left." Ouch! That prompted a re-release of those restraints, retries, pushes, tugs, standing on them (not kidding) etc. The op panel obviously has a sensor system than measures if a restraint has met it's required level. Well, more often than not, it wouldn't after numerous tries resulting in a final "sorry you will not be able to ride." This to the guest that had just waited through the long line that didn't have a test seat at the entrance. Not only that, tall folks were having issues with the shin restraints impeding the ability to lower the lap bar all the way. I'm 6' 3" not overweight. I fit, but I must admit the shin restraints were not comfortable and I got nervous the first time that they would impede my lap bar meeting the requirement. (I rode in the front seat and then 3/4 of the way back.) In addition to all of this confusion, the unload side op had to collect all the loose articles as people boarded into a bin (one for each car) that was placed on the unload side of the station. (How this will work with two trains remains to be seen.) Now all that having been said... it was the coaster's first day with the "public." I am sure adjustments will be made, and that tweaking of the restraints will become a part of the ride's installation. The ENTIRE Chance Team was observing the ENTIRE day. I have concerns however, given the obvious challenges the face with a "large" (...in the waistline - Louisville has one of the highest obesity rates in the country) clientele, that vast modifications will need to be made to the restraint system. Judging by the struggles I witnessed, changes are necessary. Operationally, I give the park a break... again it was Day 1. However a 3-person crew on the parks new signature coaster just will not float. If the above procedure is what they will be following all season, then they must staff at least 6 on the crew. (Line sorter, Panel Op, 2 checkers each side.) Until they get a more fluid load system in place, then there's really no need to run a second train. Not running a second train will back the line up into the midway (see above) and thus LR needs a queue house or pad to hold waiting guests (which it doesn't have!?!) Now, let me conclude by once again prefacing that this was all DAY 1. Any park, run by any owner, with any new ride faces struggles. My words come from a place of observation, not judgement, and with no ill will (seriously.) But they also come from a place of concern, and surprisingly enough, encouragement to those I witnessed wanting so badly for the park to be a success. Time will tell. I'll re-visit sometime later... much later... before I pass judgement and throw stones. ;-)

Thundernation at Silver Dollar City also drops out of the station and has a lift at the end.

To start, Red Devil at Ghost Town In The Sky. You go down first. The lift hill is at the end.

*resists making a fat joke about your mom* jcgoble3, being good

Great report, and glad you had fun! Sometimes being spontaneous is best. I'll spare you my opinion on selfies.

And as something fun to do, my mom and I decided that whenever the two of us go to the park (at least for the rest of this year) we'll try to take a selfie by a different ride or location in the park. Last time it was at the front gate, this time in line for Millennium.

We made it to the park today around 10:15. It's been a bit more crowded than the past few years during the week. I was wrong, it's my sons first visit since 2007. He loved Banshee, but not a huge fan of Diamondback. More later. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think it would benefit the park a lot to have a Chickie's & Pete's restaurant. It might even work well inside the Festhaus.

^^ You should have asked about the log flume in advance. Several on here can testify as to just how wet it gets you. Especially ohiocolts.

I wish I had realized before I rode "Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown" yesterday just how wet it gets you. Not enough people were riding for me to see someone coming off, and I just assumed it would be like other log rides I've ridden in my life (including Splash Mountain at Disney). I thought I'd maybe get splashed a little, more than the back outside seats of Diamondback, but less than say, the observation deck of Amazon Falls (does it still have the deck now it is Congo Falls?) When I came to the bottom of that apparently dinky little hill, it was almost exactly as though someone threw a bucket of water in my face. Took 20 minutes sitting on a bench in the sun and two waits/rides on Diamondback till I was mostly dry (around an hour total). It just wasn't warm enough for me to want that yesterday. I'm filing the information away for later in the summer, though. It will come in handy. Yesterday was my first time ever to ride Delirium as well. It was my first ride of the day, and I went back for another go after riding Banshee, and went back a couple more times as the day went on. I really like the ride, it reminds me a bit of riding the Scrambler as a kid, only very high in the air. It can be a very different ride depending upon which part of the circle you end up in, because it seems like you end up in more or less the same position at the top of the arm's swing each swing for the duration of the ride. So, it's either with you on your back or facing the ground (or somewhere in between). I really liked the facing down ride I experienced, it was more thrilling, but all of them were excellent. I'm looking forward to when Drop Tower opens, because it will be my first time for that too. I guess it will have some similarities to other rides I've been on, like the Demon Drop. I'm also intrigued by Flying Ace and Surf Dog, but I'm a little embarrassed to ride them alone at my age. RFYLCB was bad enough.

Well I'm not sure how it rode before but I can tell you I really enjoyed the ride and my wife is not a bog fan of woodies and she loved the ride. In the front seat at least. The back was a little too crazy for her

CW is always worth the trip, the B&M's there are fantastic

Uh oh... I'm kind of wishing I hadn't opened this topic. I didn't realize that Darien Lake was so close to our route that we're taking in August on our Kennywood/Conneaut/Waldemeer/Niagara Falls/Canada's Wonderland trip. Now I'm wondering if we would have time to squeeze in Darien. I don't think so though... ugh! What to do, what to do... I'm looking forward to your impressions of Canada's Wonderland. I've been there twice (1996 & 1997) and loved it, I can't wait to get back there again this year!

I miss Chaos! I was so upset when Cedar Point took it out. I don't remember any ticking clocks though... Wait, what? That's a different Chaos? Oops, my bad, carry on! And I really enjoyed that Chaos as well... Hmm more rides should be named Chaos. Diamondchaos, Chaoshee, Chaos The Ride, the possibilities are limitless.

I was at SpringCon too. The bacon for the funnel cakes was a nice touch. Lol. I heard the same thing as well.

Not sure if its already been mentioned here, but the Arrow Development blog recently posted The (Original) Bat's full opening day press kit: http://arrowdevelopment.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-bat-full-opening-day-press-kit.html

The article cites a price 13 times the 5k you cite. And I'd advise "Caveat Emptor" for numerous reasons. As Gabe here can attest (and a couple of others), dealing with the "owner's" agent is not exactly pleasurable. And I seriously question whether at this point he has any interest to sell.

That waterpark was almost entirely demolished to dirt. The family playhouse, the only attraction originally left intact, was entirely replaced this year. The old park's lazy river now serves as an adults-only swim-up bar area. The Sea Dragon roller coaster still operates, though it's now considered part of the zoo. The original (and fully restored) carousel also operates, though it has been relocated to a different part of the zoo.

The following is my Day 2 Trip Report (Darien Lake). No pics because I'm lazy and can't be bothered to use my slow old iPhone 4 any more than I need to. We left our hotel around 9:30 to get breakfast and be at the park for their 10:30 opening. I headed to Ride of Steel first since I figured it would have the longest waits later. This technically did happen, as it was generally a 15 minute wait while everything else was a walk-on all day . Crowds were so light that every coaster was on one-train operation, and with the exception of Ride of Steel, rows were usually empty. I was very surprised to see this on a weekend, particularly a weekend that for people just a few miles away in Canada, is a holiday weekend. Before we got on Ride of Steel, we went to The Predator since it was on the way and nobody was in line. It's a fun little Dinn Woodie, but for everyone who thinks Mean Streak is rough, I laugh at you. You don't even KNOW rough until you ride Predator. It was still enjoyable as I don't mind rough coasters and it had some surprising pops of airtime throughout. Solid coaster overall. We ended up going to Ride of Steel next. As an aside, I will note that from what I heard people calling rides today, Darien Lake also suffers from what I call "Kings Island Syndrome" a disease in which peoples' minds are stuck in time and they continue calling coasters by names they haven't had for many years. I heard many people refer to this ride as "Superman" which would have been incomplete in 2006, and is outright incorrect in 2014. But I digress. Ride of Steel is an Intamin hypercoaster with some killer airtime (ba dum tss) and surprisingly forceful lateral g's in its two ginormous helices. Unfortunately, I have to dock points because it commits the one unforgivable sin of coaster design in my book: It contains a long, flat, straight stretch of track that is neither a launch strip nor a brake run. I don't see why. There was plenty of room for a bunny hill or series of S-bends a la Backlot, or ANYTHING but a long, straight, flat stretch. Despite this point deduction, I enjoyed the ride and it looks like Diamondback gets to retain its title as my LEAST favorite hypercoaster. Heading in a circle around the park, out next stop was Boomerang. Being that it is a typical Vekoma Boomerang, I don't feel a need to go into great detail. It wasn't "rough" as people often describe Boomerangs, but certainly forceful, and not always in a good way. Sitting in my seat while the train climbed the lift hill was a bit uncomfortable, moreso even than the same experience on Invertigo. Being a Cedar Fair regular, it is very odd riding an inverting coaster with no seat belts. The only other Boomerang I had ridden previously was the Carolina Cobra, and I preferred that one. The new style Vekoma trains are much more comfortable than the old ones and are among my favorite train designs ever. I find them even more comfortable than the OTSRs seen on Banshee and Gatekeeper (post collarbone fix). This Boomerang uses the old ones, however, and I'd really rather see Arrow trains a la The Bat at Canada's Wonderland or new Vekoma trains a la the Carolina Cobra. After this coaster, we continued our loop toward MotoCoaster. MotoCoaster was another one that I had to wait a bit for, but it wasn't too bad. I honestly wasn't a huge fan. I could not handle that seat design on a long coaster. The restraints were not very comfortable, and it is generally not a fun position to be in while riding a coaster. Plus, the ride has one awkward bump that seems to throw you to the left just before a relatively sharp right turn, leading to a bit of unpleasantness. Not an unenjoyable coaster, but I could certainly take it or leave it. I'd much rather have a Wild Mouse since the footprint is similar and the ride is much more fun. Fortunately, when that was done, it was time for Viper Viper is a classic Arrow Looper with a queuing area that seems to be longer than the one on The Bat. It was worth the walk though, as it is my new favorite Arrow Looper (besides my beloved Vortex, that is ). It has a single loop, a batwing, and then a double corkscrew, bringing its total to five inversions. It was the first coaster with this many, and I've now ridden the first coasters with 3, 4, 5, and 6 inversions. I really like Viper. Its solid black color scheme looks surprisingly nice. The decals on the trains cover the entire thing in a green, scaly, reptilian pattern that really pops against the black track. Plus, if you sit in 1-1, you are treated to a fully open foot area. Imagine if the entire "wedge" on the first car of Vortex was open. That is the kind of leg room you get, and it is AWESOME. The ride's finale has a surprisingly smooth helix for an early 80s Arrow Looper and they even throw in a tunnel for some extra fun. I really can't recommend this coaster enough. And then it was the moment I'd been dreading... Mind Eraser. My first Vekoma SLC. I boarded the train with dread after hearing the descriptions of the pain and headbanging that comes with these rides. After riding it, all I can say is that y'all are a bunch of babies. It really wasn't THAT bad. Would I rather be on a B&M Invert? Oh, without a doubt. But the ride was fun, and for a small park, I think they are certainly worth the comparatively small price tag. I rode it another two times and would do so again (and will do so, kinda, when I go to Canada's Wonderland on Tuesday). it was definitely not a coaster to write home about, but it was not bad by any stretch of the imagination. After Mind Eraser, we got lunch at the Beaver Brothers Lakeside Cafe, a full-service sit-down restaurant in the park. I had a macaroni and cheese burger, which is exactly as it sounds: a hamburger topped with Macaroni and Cheese. It was decent. I happily finished it, but wouldn't likely order it again for the price. The restaurant was also eerily empty, and as much as you'd THINK complete silence in a restaurant would be a good thing, it is really very strange. After lunch, we made another loop around the park and hit the coasters. I also got some flat rides in, and for the record, I still REALLY don't like Enterprises. Though I got to ride my first non-giant Top Spin and I liked it a lot. I continued getting re-rides until we decided to leave the park to have dinner at Denny's. And then we discovered the holy grail. Across the street from the park, maybe a quarter mile down the road is their storage area. We pulled off the road and took a peek and I caught a glimpse of the remains of Batman The Escape. It was moved to Darien Lake in 2005 and put into storage there. The ride never got installed at the park. I do not know if it was supposed to be or what its fate will be, but the track pieces are not looking too hot after laying in a field for nearly a decade. After returning to the park, we got in a quick ride on Ride of Steel and Predator and then waited for their nightly laser light show "Ignite the Night". The show was very well done and technologically impressive. I enjoyed it even more than KI's nightly fireworks. Very well done for a small park. At the conclusion of the show we left the park and retired to our hotel room. Overall, Darien Lake is a wonderful park with a good variety of rides, but I'm not sure they're quite ready to be a destination park. If it is on your way to somewhere you are already going (as it was for me) then I highly recommend it. But it probably isn't really worth a special dedicated trip.

A new sign next to The Beast's entrance.